life lately

I haven't shared bits and pieces of our life for awhile as captured on Instagram. It's always so much fun to go back through the images and remember all those random memories I captured spur-of-the-moment!  Here some snapshots of the ordinary and the lovely in our home:

Enjoying her beautiful alphabet magnets from her grandparents.

I love the ferns and cyclamen in the window boxes in this beautiful house

& post-bath tickles

Everyone in this house loves our new blocks (thank you, Anthony and Laura!)

& goofy girl

Modeling a sweater knit by her Aunt Eden and a bonnet knit by me

& lovely afternoon light over our town

Hours of fun with this reusable sticker pad

& admiring our finished Advent calendar: a tree full of birds

at a restaurant in town, the chef working the stone pizza oven always lets kids make their own pizza

& tired wreath on a worn door in our town

our neighborhood (Vecchia Matrice) wishes you happy holidays

& putting baby Jesus in his manger from our nativity set

I'm trying to use this purse as much as possible before I need to go back to a diaper bag in a few weeks...

& got a little growing to do into the apron her Aunt Jess gave her

my big girl on a playground on base one morning after we took Daddy to work

stories and baby bumps in bed before naptime

& not sure what she thinks of Siena helping her color

first pair of big girl undies! 

& her new favorite breakfast: Greek yogurt and Charlottesville Farmer's Market granola from Aunt Jess

sleepy kitty

& isn't she pretty when she smiles!

IKEA thru Instagram

Around here it seems like people make their IKEA shopping lists over the course of a month or two before braving the store to stock up. My friend Becca and I were in that boat, needing storage bins, holiday wrapping paper, potted ivy plants, plastic kids' dishes, etc.  Earlier this week we joined forces and took off for the endless, winding halls of IKEA, kids in tow.

You know you love IKEA when your kids start playing with amazing toys 

as soon as they walk through the door.

On the right: Lucas prepares a meal for Lena as she patiently waits.

(Of course in reality this scene lasted for about 0.4 seconds, or however long it takes my phone to snap a picture.)

Ah, the toy section, where both parents and kids can spend ever so long.

The ice cream machine in the cafeteria is a huge highlight of the trip.

Anticipation... and joy!

(And the perfect t-shirt.)

Beautiful Christmas decorations, IKEA.  You win.

There's a happy face!  

(I actually don't think she's ever had her own ice cone before... and she would not share with her mama.)

And there's a tired one.  

Time to roll out.

N.B. My husband thought I should inform you that this is not a sponsored post by IKEA or Instagram.
#inmydreams 

life lately

 washing, sorting, and storing clothes for our little man!

& someone "helps" me with her baby brother's socks and onesies

 the new puzzle from Grammie is a huge hit 

& part of a photoshoot for my sister-in-law Jess to thank her for a great birthday present: maternity duds!  

33 weeks now :-)

 Lena discovered this photo album of me in my college days and loves to page through it

& knitting, reading, a Maine Coon kitten, and a baby bump

best buds

& opening the Advent calendar from Auntie Eden

 rockin' out in a pharmacy in town (where they provide toys for children?!  I love Italy!)

& more baby boy clothes... I couldn't resist

 mop bucket madness

& photo from a classical piano concert we attended with friends 

(and stayed out till 2am... I had forgotten I could do that!)

what happens when you ask your hubby to "just let me finish knitting this hat"

& Daddy's warm weather gear on a blue-eyed babe

***

Linking up with Lindsay of Hello Hue today!

life lately

From around our home this week, here are a few of the little things that have made my heart glad.

 

"Forget going for a walk; let's take this old Fiat for a spin."

& crazy cactus in the neighborhood

How I've been spending my evenings lately: in bed next to Elliott with my knitting and this book.

(the heavy metal book clip on the corner keeps the pages open so I can knit and read at the same time)

 Pink clouds wreathing Mt. Etna at sunset; our town is perched on the cliff in the foreground

& whole wheat pancakes enough to last Lena for a few snacks.

Knitting and snuggling with Siena.

Her favorite toy (hours of entertainment each day, I kid you not)

& the young artist at work.

Lena's berry and Greek yogurt homemade popsicles are a daily treat (that she likes to share, too!)

& after this we learned how to put things back where we found them...

A big order of fingerless gloves finished and ready to mail!

Crouch... and pounce!

Amazingly, Siena never seems to mind.

Linking up with Lindsay today for it's the little things.

it's the little things

In theory I like to stop and savor the little things of life that make it sweet, such as Lena's glee when I pick her up out of her crib, Siena's faithful shadow, having just one baby for a little while longer, or waking up beside Elliott each day (something a military wife learns to never take for granted).

However, in the hustle and bustle of life lately, I've taken fewer photos and often forget that we live in Italy, for crying out loud. (One reader pointed that out recently... to my conviction!)  This week I tried to capture some things that have made our lives sweet recently.  Here are a few glimpses into life in our home:

 in the phone booth in town, I love that she's talking with her hands!

& morning light in the neighborhood

main square

& view of our town and Mt Etna, the largest volcano in Europe

running down the hill into the main piazza

& a visit to the little general store where I picked up some of my favorite tortellini for lunch

a pit stop for a drink on a walk

& stairs from the valley leading up to our house on the edge of the cliff... a long walk with a baby on your hip!

Daddy's cowboy hat

& a mailbox in our neighborhood

 dazzling morning light

& looking out over our town

 our first trip to Centro Sicilia mall... which is all of 10 minutes from our house

 making the switch to greener kitchen products

 my little girl

 where did those neighborhood kittens go?
& well, there's one of them

 bella principessa before church on Sunday
& bike on a balcony


Today I'm linking up with Hello Hue and InstaFriday.

to fix a leaky chimney

what is actually happening in my life vs. what I wish was happening in my life

Well, I was thinking of sharing some fun photos from our time back in the States.  (See above right photo.)  However, at 7:40 this morning (5 minutes after I woke up) the door bell rang and there was a work crew on the front step.  What?!  So early. 

It's okay, though.  Early can be good.  I knew they were coming to do an assessment today because we have an issue with our faulty chimney leaking smoke into our house.  After the assessment we planned to decide on huge chimney repairs vs. getting a wood stove installed in the fireplace instead.  Suddenly, a few minutes after they arrived, I heard a hammer hitting the wall and chunks of plaster hitting the floor.  "Stop!  What are you doing?!"  Well, so much for an assessment.  The chimney will be fixed this week! 

Well, maybe not this week.  But in "a few days."

My house is a total disaster, with dust everywhere, a man pounding on the chimney, and huge chunks of plaster falling to the floor.  (See above left photo.) My baby, meanwhile, is trying to sleep in the other room. I think she actually is sleeping, but that's only because I have the White Noise Lite app on my iPhone turned up so loud that at first she couldn't sleep at all.

Oh living in Italy!  I really love it, but it's definitely hard with the language/communication barrier sometimes.  I only wish I spoke fluent Italian and could be trusted to do all the communicating on my own.  But instead every conversation has to go through an interpreter, often over the phone... and when you're cell phone doesn't get good reception in your house, that adds to the complications!

Anyway.  Here's a fun video of Siena and Lena to end today's post.  (I keep calling Siena "Luna" because that's my sister's cat's name.)  You can see one of Lena's greatest interests every time I take a video of her... oh vanity, you start so young!

of toddlers and kittens

she stretched out her paws to rest them on my leg and then fell asleep like that

I wish I had captured today on film, but the photo above is the first photo I took all day.  After a weekend where my camera barely left my hands, I was DSLR'd out.  So the camera never took a picture, and even my phone mostly sat by itself.

That's fine.  It's just that today was so peaceful and homey and full of love.  I wish I had a few more photos capturing the little moments.

Lena slept so much today.  Two 2.5-hour naps... what?!  My poor darlin'.  I guess she's still recovering from jet lag and travel exhaustion and she also had a super busy weekend with friends and festivals and hikes and late bedtimes.  She was a happy camper today, though, with a sweet attitude that just made me so glad to be at home with her, savoring every day of her being 18 months old.  I watched her as she busied herself with her toys.  She is very into stacking and sorting things.  Later I found all her wooden puzzle pieces in two neat little stacks, one for each puzzle.

(I wonder if I will have another daughter?  I have been sorting and storing all her outgrown clothes from this summer.  Will another girl of mine ever wear them?  Or is she my only one?)

Lena can't really say "cat" yet ("ca... ca?"  or "dee-tee" for kitty) but she can say "meow," and so that is Siena's name in Lena's mind right now.  Watching her squat down beside Siena and gently rub a hand in her fur, then stand up and look at me and giggle gleefully... oh, my heart just melted into a big puddle of love juice.

As for Siena and me, well... I'm smitten.  OK, I wasn't so smitten when I saw her on my kitchen counter licking butter out of my butter dish, but she is just five months old and part of me thinks of her as a toddler in need of guidance.

The other part of me looks at her as this beautiful, foreign thing--a cat!  in my house!  my cat!--and marvels at her, the mystery of her, the delicacy of her grooming, the lightness of her leap, the austerity of her gaze.

But I think she loves me.  She followed me all over the house today.  She really is like a dog, just like they say Maine Coons are.  At one point she lost me--I had gone into the laundry room and partly closed the door--and I heard her yowling at the top of the stairs.  I stuck my head out and called, "Here I am, Siena!" and she took one look at me and came bounding across the room to join me.

Big puddle of love juice.

In other news, this is how we blog now, apparently.