Day trip to Milan!

Towards the middle of our vacation, Mommy and Daddy went on a special day trip to Milan with Sophia. We left William with Nonno and Nonna and made a special day of the outing. Sophia loved riding the subway and chasing the pigeons in Piazza del Duomo was her favorite thing of the day!

Just out of the subway in Piazza San Babila. We walked around and looked in all kinds of nice shops. That's the Duomo in the distance.

Shortly after getting into Milan we stopped for lunch. We went to a favorite place of ours called Charleston. It's where we always go when in Milan for lunch. Delicious!

Sophia and Mommy had pizza. Good stuff!  Daddy had pasta and then seafood. Yum!

During the whole lunch Sophia kept asking to go to the race car store that was next door to the restaurant.

After the Ferrari store we kept walking until we reached the Duomo. So beautiful!

Sophia was more interested in chasing pigeons. She did this for a good 10 minutes. This poor guy just kept waddling away and she kept chasing this particular one down.

We bought some corn and had Sophia hold it out. She enjoyed this but was kind of scared of the pigeons as soon as they landed on her. She didn't understand to keep her hand flat for them to peck from.

 
Feeding the birds

Of course after the pigeons we had to go spin on the Bull's Balls! They say it brings good luck. This has been done by so many visitors that the mosaic has been redone repeatedly as a hole is worn straight into the concrete from all the people spinning.

No visit to Milan is complete wihtout a gelato from Grom. So good.

After the gelato we took the subway back to meet Nonno who picked us up in the car and we drove back up to Gignese. Within 3 minutes of being in the car Sophia passed out, she was so tired! She's not used to all the walking we did since in Atlanta everyone drives everywhere.

Troublemaker

In the past month or so, William has become quite the troublemaker.  He gets into everything!  Here's a small sample of his troublemaking ways...

Playing with the gate to the stairs (as well as opening and closing all doors, drawers, and cabinets)

Pulling up rugs

Climbing through the exersaucer

Climbing under the coffee table

Eating his friends

Putting his whole hand in our mouth

Kicking the trampoline up and letting it slam back down

Climbing onto the fireplace to play with the gravel inside















Licking air vents

Off to Italy to see Nonna and Nonno!

Last month we all took a nice vacation to Italy to visit Nonno and Nonna, relax, and hang out. We spent almost the whole time there in Gignese, a small mountain village where Nonna and Nonno have a beautiful house. It was much cooler than Milan and we have a fantastic time, thanks so much for hosting all of us!

This year Aunt Ronni and Zio Gioel went at about the same time we did with Cousin Luca and Cousin Max, which was great for Sophia and William to have kids to play with. Add to that Zia Micol visiting from London for a weekend and the house sure was full!

Our days were pretty much non stop! Every morning we'd get up bright and early (neither Sophia nor William slept late any day!) and have breakfast with Nonno, Aunt Ronni, Counsin Max, and Nonna. Cousin Luca would wake up soon after and join us.

After breakfast number one, we'd walk the 100' to the cafe' for breakfast number 2, and have a nice cappuccino. The kids would all have either steamed milk with cocoa on top, or a juice, and a brioche. Yum!

The 2 cappuccini and brioche made Daddy extra strong!

After that we'd either do stuff around the little town of Gignese or go to the club to swim. Everyone would nap in the afternoon and then we'd usually go to the park after naps.

This was Williams first international flight, he even got to sleep in an airplane bassinet! This lasted all of about 1 hour until he tried to roll over and he woke up.

Sophia was an old pro, having gone a couple years ago.

William was really excited to see Nonna and Nonno again!

Obviously Sophia was excited to, jumping on Nonno right away!















William quickly assaulted Cousin Luca. Not shown here is the picture where he's ripping Luca's nose off.

Sophia and Max got in on the action of abusing Cousin/Brother Luca!

Many mornings were spent at the club in Stresa Nonna and Nonno belong to, swimming and eating. Sophia and Luca competed to see who could best jump off the side of the pool.

William spent time eating grass and dirt, or sleeping. Not a bad place to take a nap all things considered!

If she wasn't playing in the pool, Sophia and Max spent time on the "beach" area playing in the sand.

William loved getting in the water with his floatie, and Luca loved tugging him around at full speed

Sophia read Zia Micol her books.

Cousin Luca gave some tennis lesson to Sophia and Max

Sophia will soon be a tennis pro!

Many afternoons were spent a great park which was about a 10 minute walk away. The kids had tons of fun, and were never ready to leave.

The springy sea horses were a favorite.

Breaks for snacking and resting were always welcome

Followed by more fun!!

William went on his first slide, which was followed after a few attempts by a face plant onto the floor. That's the scratch visible in some of the future pictures:)

There was often arguing about who would get to ride the stroller. So we compromised.

Sophia laughing hysterically with Cousin Max. These two were pretty much inseparable the whole trip

William is so squirmy Nonno gave him the nickname "anguilla" which means eel in Italian. He's trying to slither away here while Nonna and Nonno grapple him!

I think that's enough photos for one post! We have lots more to share about our day trip to Milan and our day trip to the top of the local mountain, Mottarone.  Thanks again to Nonno and Nonna for having us all invade their house! We had a GREAT time, and can't wait to visit again!

10 months

When we were in Italy, William turned 10 months old.  This past month he has become a very busy little boy!  He is very active and likes to get around the room and check everything out.  He is still army crawling, but has gotten very fast!  He tried a lot of new foods this month....eggs, soy, lemongrass, tomatoes, and started eating all table foods.  We tried cheese this month and he screamed for an hour and a half straight, so we are holading off on that for a little longer.  He gets a sippy cup with meals, and can tilt it up and drink it by himself.  We also switched him to the convertible car seat because he outgrew his infant one.  William has so much hair, he got his second and third hair cuts this month!

The second half of the month, William took his first trip to Italy!  (Pictures coming soon!)  While we were there, he started pulling himself up to standing.  He also started to sit up from a laying down position.  He's getting up on his knees, but still not crawling on them.  He cut his third tooth after a few days of major crankiness (top tooth, second one over on the left).  He loves to give high fives and waves when you say hi or bye.  One of his favorite activities is taking every toy out of his toy basket.

Likes to feed himself with his spoon

Standing at his activity table

Happy boy!

Fire trucks

Before we left on our trip, our neighborhood had a few firetrucks come as a fun activity for the kids.  When we got there, we were surprised to see the firemen were spraying water up in the air with their hose.  Sophia was excited to see a bunch of her friends and the kids had fun running through the water together.  Sophia was soaking wet! 

Sophia with her friends Alyssa and Caroline

Starting to get wet

Running with Joshua

Cooling off in the water

Love