Arid Extra Dry

so you're asking yourself 'what does this picture of feet have to do with the title?'. honestly there is some sort of connection. (altho sophia does have sweaty feet thats not it) we have been telling sophia (for what seems like the last 4 years) we are not buying anymore diapers! no more shi-shi at night when you sleep. wake us up. a couple of times she had a 'dry spell' several nights in a row. and prematurely we tried to take off the diapers right away, but she peed and slept till morning anyways. and after several of nights of having to wash EVERYTHING (plus remember we have no dryer and for the last few months they've been doing construction on the house so we cant dry on the balconey) i got fed up and put the diaper back on again. and we went back to square one. well, she's had another 'dry spell' for the last few nights, just in time too because we have no more diapers. guess who slept through the whole night, in just pjs and panties? (come on, you're smart, i know you know the answer!). congratulations to sophia for a dry night without the security of the diaper! let's see how long this lasts (you know tomorrow i will be writing a cursing blog entry, in between doing loads of laundry-but at least its a start!)

oh yeah, so what do feet have to do with anything? her prize for the dry night was a mani and pedi. i couldnt very well take a picture of the dry bed, so you get a picture of feet!

third tEYEme's the charm right?

first she rocky balboa'd herself. then she shot the silly string in her eye. and now this:

no she was not caught drinking and driving, nor was there any domestic violence...look carefully at the shape of the redness around her eyes, now scroll down and look at the picture from yesterday. notice any similarities? apparently she had an allergic reaction to the face paints, (it was hard to fotograph, but you can actually see the antennae on her forhead, she looks likes some beatup klingon). she also got a little in her eye/tear duct, so the bridge of her nose is all swollen too. this being the third time, let's hope that the bad luck streak is broken!

Painted Face

Today the kids painted their faces in celebration of carnivale.

Carnevale

Last year we went to celebrate at an oratory with maria amali and emanuele. this year we went to a parade in brugherio with pietrowilhelm. (poor franci is sick with the flu, so she stayed home with alessandro). To celebrate, the kids...

bomb each other with confetti...

and even more confetti (they throw it at kids they don't even know)...blow these streamer rings at each other...
...shoot silly string at each other...
(i didnt get a picture, but... i turned my head for a second and sophia shot herself in the eye with the stuff and we had to hunt down a waterfountain to wash it out! it even got in her nose!)

...and chase each other around.

the kids had a great time! it took me forever to make the stupid dress and of course i havent taken a picture of her in it yet. i hope i get to snap one before the dress rips.

nice park in brugherio

i used to think brugherio was a hole, but actually it was kind of suburban cute. we may have to expand our search for a new house to cologno and brugherio. remember when i mentioned that sophia shot that silly string in her eyes, well we had to walk a kilometer to find a fountain to wash her eyes out (being sunday all the stores/restaurants/bars were closed). the fountain was in a cute little park and max and sophia discovered a place to play when the parade was over. usually the parks are extra crowded and full of kids pushing and shoving and they are usually not enclosed, this one was so it was great. hanging around

the giant swing

pietro watches as max slays the dragon

spiderman scales a tall building

playdate with the wihelms (what? again!?)

the wilhelms invited us over to play and have dinner (max had to work tho).

we made masks

pre-carnivale dress-up
and finally i have a picture of alessandro (i try not to use the flash with him so usually the pics come out blurry...this time the flash accidentally went of, so i actually got a pic, hooray! doesnt he look like a mini francesca!?)

Happy Birthday Karol!

Valentina's last day of school for a while was today. she is going to go to peru for a month next week. today is also her mom's bday. she invited us over for an authenitic peruvian dinner and fixed max's favorite canchitas, huacaina and oven chicken and rice. it was dang good!!

The-other-Pietro-from-school

date today and they got dressed up in costumes.
is how sophia calls her friend Pietro that goes to the same preschool as her (they were actually friends from the other preschool where they were in the same class). He came over for a play

playdate

the wilhelms came over for a playdate, we went to look for a new park to play in and found this one near lago degli cigni (lake of swans...which is just a fancy name for old gravel pits that have never been fixed up and you cant walk around...too bady).

The Princess and Uncle Leo

Leo and Francesco came over for an unexpected visit today. sophia had a blast dancing with leo.

Black Eye + Bathrobe =

Rocky. tadah, carnivale costume!

ps sorry for the bad pick, but it's dark outside due to the rain and she wont stay still long enough for me to get a clear shot.

Happy Birthday Holber

i know im mega late on this one, it's post dated...but happy belated bday to holber. we had a little get together to celebrate holber's 27 years here on earth.

Black Eye-Pi(a)

It's a little darker, but not too bad...We'll as Francesca says, at least we can save some money for Carnevale and dress her has Rocky.

Amazing Grace,

how sweet it is. Too, bad Sophia doesn't have any:
She tripped and fell against the corner of the opened dishwasher-of course this happened right before going to bed. Rocky, as we call her now, fought gravity and gravity one. The pictures arent that great, hopefully tomorrow i can get a better one.
She looks so sad and dejected...but don't let that future academy award winner fool you, she was stoked when she found out she would get to put ice on and stay up an extra 1/2 and watch TV.

Snow Blows

Okay I'm a bit over this snowing thing. Max worked at 6AM this morning and he works a bit far away, so of course he gets car rights. That leaves us with either the bike or foot to get to school. The snow eliminated the bike options, so foot it was. It's the kind of mushy snow that will be gone by tomorrow, but in the meantime it blows. we got to school extra late.

The Blanket

I've been working on this blanket for Sophia for a while (it's not complicated, im just slow). It's finally finished, and of course it's a bit too short. I'll make it longer one of these days: