Author: Jen

Usually I carry my babies, but due to a pulled shoulder muscle I’ve been taking my awesome new stroller for a spin (thanks grandma!). I try to walk to drop Jonah off or pick him up from school each day. There is this beautiful little trail that follows the river and goes pretty much from my house to Jonah’s school plus just a few blocks. It takes me about an hour round trip, it’s good exercise and oh so beautiful (I can see the Romeo and Juliet castles on the next hill over with the sun setting behind them in the evenings, sigh). Jonah loves to see the fish, ponies and geese on the way. And Declan gets to dress up like a snuggly teddy bear and get a good nap in.

At his 2 month appointment last week Declan weighed in at a whopping 12.86 lbs. 24.4 inches long and 16 inch head circumference. Last night he slept for 6 hours!!!!!!!! That is the first time he has ever slept more than 4 hours. Yay for sleep for me! (Maybe this drowzy haze I am in will lift soon….)

Jonah has had lot’s of doctors appointments while being sick and is weighing in at about 40 lbs. Jonah is finally feeling better and back at school after two weeks of sickness and 8 days of a high fever. His Maestra at school told me today that he is starting to speak Italian…just a little.

Italy is freezing cold right now. We get snow now and then but nothing really sticks. I am reminiscing about last year when we spent January in Hawaii. I gotta be honest, this January was crap and I am glad that it is over. Bring on February!

I know, I know. I told some of you that Christmas cards would be in the mail. And guess what? You haven’t gotten one have you?? That’s because I’m a slacker. It’s true. I was going to do super cute cards, didn’t happen. So then I was just going to quickly get some photos out with a note, didn’t happen. I’ll tell you what did happen. I sent Nick to print the photos for me. And the sizes were in cm and he guessed. When he went to pick them up a few days later…they were a bit big for a regular envelope. So honestly, I kinda gave up. But I have ten 5×7 prints of this photo (below) so if you want one, let me know.

First family photo. Declan is less than a week old here.

As much as I love that Declan is now smiling and responding to us more, it feels like the end of an era. He can no longer be considered a newborn. He has started to hold his head a little better, he is watching us more closely and his cry has changed to more of a baby cry than a “new” baby cry.
As for Jonah…he is now going on his sixth day of having a high fever. We have been to the doctor twice and they just keep telling us to keep waiting it out. I love snuggly sick Jonah but I am starting to miss happy, silly Jonah.

While the aquarium was great, the town was not our favorite. Driving proved to be super difficult (when I asked an Italian if Southern Italy was anything like driving in Genova, she laughed and said it’s much worse in S. Italy…which is pretty much insane). We lost our notebook with the address to our hotel written on it (it got left on the top of the car, oops). And our GPS was telling us all the wrong turns. We finally got parked and went to the aquarium, then had to repark after the aquarium when we finally found our hotel.

Walking around the pedestrian area (downtown) as it was getting dark was a little scarey. We checked into our hotel and Jonah was all energy and had a hard time going to sleep. Then he woke up with a fever! It hit so fast! Our plan was to hang out and explore a little but we decided to do a quick walk through and get Jonah home. So much for paying for a hotel so we could have an extra day. Ah the joys of parenthood.

Piazza de Ferarri (above)

One of the palaces, it’s not actually 3D, it’s painted. Really pretty. Very french looking as Genoa is over there close to France.

A famous church…very pretty

The city gate (above)

The house where Christopher Columbus was born. Which is notable because he was born to a lowly weaver, see how small the house is?

And the highlight of our trip…first real smiles from Declan! And they haven’t stopped since! Although I am having a hard time getting some good ones on camera that little stinker…

MLK day meant a few extra days this weekend so we decided to head for the port town of Genova to check out their aquarium. It is supposedly one of the best in Europe. They are the only aquarium in Europe able to sustain antarctic tanks. There was also a biosphere, a children’s museum and all kinds of other stuff but we just did the aquarium.

There were TONS of little “nemos” in this tank, hanging out with the anemones. They were born at the aquarium, which I guess is special.

The antarctic brittle star, super pretty! They had some neat antarctic fish that I have never seen before.

And my favorite…Manatees!!! SO cute.

A dinosaur outside the aquarium made of tires and trash. His eyeballs were bowling balls.

Asiago is less than an hour away, so while Vicenza doesn’t really get snow, sledding is just a short trip away. And as a special holiday thing for kiddos, they had reindeer!

LOVE this house. The Italian colors with the German wood decks…my new favorite. It’s a perfect example of how Northern Italian architecture slowly blends into German architecture the further north you go. I’ve realized since living in Europe that the borders of each country are actually a bit blurry. The people who live close to the border often speak both country’s languages and blend both cultures in many aspects.