First Sleep Over.

Sophia's BFF Valentina spent the night tonight. It was the first time an Italian friend slept over. Altho at first there was not much sleep getting done.

Makin Gnocchi

We are on a bit of a gnocchi kick. We have bought various brands at Unes to see whats better. I dont know whats gotten into me - i thought we should just make some ourselves. It's not hard, just repetitive.

Sophia sees the Baby

We took Sophia with us this time to see the ultrasound and so she would be more involved with the baby in mommy's tummy/being a big sister. Outside the hospital, there is a sort of animal oasis-i dont know if its a rescue center or because of the research they do there or what, but Sophia always likes to go look at the animals if they are out. I dont know if this is her Magnum Pose or what, but everytime we snap a picture she does something goofy like this. They be fun to relook at when she is older and doesnt remember what the heck she was thinking at the time.
Max bet me I couldnt find 2 4 leaf clovers, I told him he doesnt ever find them because he doesnt look.

First Day of School

Of course she couldnt wait to see her friends. Her Italian isnt totally lost this year (almost, but not totally), so we'll see how it goes.

Roddi and Barolo

There are gazillions of castles on the road to/from the Nonni's house. When we leave early enough, I like to stop and discover one of them. Sometimes Max knows where we're going, sometimes we just pull off when we see one. This is the town Roddi. It was a bit late on a Sunday, so I dont know if you could go inside this castle or not. It looked abandoned and ghost inhabited, so I was a bit disappointed to not be able to enter.
This is the statue of some random person we dont know who founded the town and some random pregnant tourist posing for a picture.

Every view looks like a postcard.
Our visit to Roddi was so short, it afforded us time to visit another little town called Barolo, famous for the wine the region produces by the same name. There are lots of little trattorias and restaurants hidden in the hills and towns, we stopped at a random one and it was awesome (too bad that I have nausea constantly and in particular an aversion to meat and the specialty in the area is meat, meat and more meat! the wonderful smell in the air was grossing me out, wahh!)
Risotto with a Barolo reduction and a parmesan nest.
Max stalking us while we were eating dinner.

No dinner is complete without gelato!

You know I love me some Bonfante

Breakfast at Tiffany's, I think not...I prefer breakfast at Bonfantes. Yeah i know how many pictures of us eating at Bonfantes can one put up? Apparently there is no limit!

Visit to Nonni

After being out of the presence of Miss Sophia for such a long time, a visit to the Nonni was in order. We went to this park where there are a bunch of old school metal toys. They were actually in amazing shape considering that they must be at least 50 years or older.

Nonno pushes Sophia on the swings. Poor Sophia, when all the other kids saw there was an adult to push, they kept hopping off and on and so the Nonno had to keep starting and stopping the swings. She soon got fed up and went on something else.Max huffs and puffs on the merry go round.

Uncle Bruno

Somebody came to ring at the gate, I thought it was somebody selling something or the postal people. It was our old friend Bruno, we havent seen him in quite a while, so it was a fantastic suprise!

The Princess Hat

Living outside on the balcony, due to the heat and humidity, recommences.
For some reason Sophia remembered that back in January we used a princess hat we made on a snowoman and we immediately had to make a new one today.

Back to Life, Back to Reality....

and we're back. the house is still up (and cleaned-with the bold smell of fear from my potential wrath hanging in the air), plant roll call has been taken (only a couple of dead soldiers, but they were unimportant ones) and the masked polenta maker is already at work.

And back again

I dont think Sophia realized fully that we were going home until we reached the security area where Grandma couldnt pass. And of course that place is always a disaster, grumpy people yelling at you to put your tickets in the passports, having to take off your shoes, belts and blah blah blah...so of course it was right there that Sophia started to cry and wail 'I miss Grandmaaaaaa.' Stoic as I am (maybe its the preggy hormones) it actually got me all choked up. And she cried into the bathroom for my last pee before boarding, down the escalator, down the hallway onto the plane, waiting on the tarmac and basically until the tv got turned on. Even after that all the way to Italy a whimper could be heard now and again. I think that was the toughest time leaving the States we've ever had.