Barnard's going away.

On Saturday we had the pleasure of hosting a big farewell party for the Barnard's.

It started off as a pretty miserable day - I was so sad! Luckily our friend across the hall said we could use his apartment if we needed some more room, and because of the rain it looked like we definitely would have to use it. With the use of our terrazza, our place is very spacious - without the terrazza, not so much!

Anyways, we got everything ready, the party was planned for 3pm, and just as a couple guests arrived it really started raining outside! We opened up the terrazza doors so that people could park their strollers, but then Finn kept wanting to go out in the rain - so we blocked off the uncovered part so that he could still be outside at least. Within 15 minutes or so the train completely stopped and the sun came out! The terrazza was dry very quickly and we were able to open it all up just as most of the guests were arriving! Perfect timing.

I think we ended up with 35 people, about 14 of those were kids. I knew most of the people - but there was one Italian family that came whose child was taught English by Serena, and then there was another American mom with her daughter who are living in Rome. I had heard about her (her husband plays organ at the North American College) but had never been introduced - so it was nice to meet her, and she's coming out on Monday for a playdate!

We had organized the day as a potluck and it turned out perfect - so much good food!

The Barnard's have left now, they should hopefully be in the states right now and getting over jet-lag!! We were very sad to see them go, but Finnian is happy because he got some of the boys toys - haha.

Power Bursts

Just recently Finnian has been experiencing, what Conor has termed, "power bursts".

Something gets him excited and his whole body freezes and you can see this burst of energy surge through his whole body... I've caught it on tape, for your viewing pleasure!

Oh, and meet Finnian's new girlfriend, Eleanora!

Hello Neighbor

A lady met up with some of my friends yesterday at the cafe. One of my friends had told me previously that the lady owned a house here, and that her husband is Canadian, but they aren't living in Italy right now. Anyways, the lady is just here for a visit right now, so when I met her and she asked me where I was from, I said Canada, near Vancouver. And she said "oh, my in-laws are there. Well they are from the Saskatchewan area, but are living in Mission. I was in Mission for Christmas."

Small world!!!

On another note, I booked our tickets home today!!! We will arrive in Vancouver on the evening of June 3rd, and will be home until Sept 29th!!! Can you tell I'm a little excited?!?!

Let the countdown begin - 40 more sleeps!

Boys Beer Night

Right now there are about a dozen guys out on the terrazza for a boys beer night. Kind of as a goodbye to two of the guys who are leaving soon - and mainly just an excuse to drink some beer!

On Monday night we'll have the girl version, but we'll be going out somewhere.

On Saturday we're having a potluck here as an official goodbye party - it should be fun!

Oh.

Today Finn and I went over to a friends to play, it was a great sunny day and they have a lot of great outside toys for the kids to play with. Regardless of all of this, Finnian was soooo whinny! After an hour of him just fussing and whining and being generally disagreeable, we left and came home. I made lunch for him, something that he could eat on his own in silence so I could just rest.

I was sitting next to him on the computer and Conor came down and said "look at that".

I looked over to see this...

He has NEVER done this before - and I was actually just looking at two different peoples pictures on facebook showing one of their children falling asleep while eating in their high chair.

I guess that's why he was whining so much - next time maybe he shouldn't wake up at 6:30am.

Research

First: Finnian was amazing today! I was just complaining to Conor yesterday that I wanted my little boy back, the one who could sit with a book and "read" to himself for more than a minute, who could play with his toys by himself, who was just generally happy - and today I got that little boy! Other than a bit where he was cranky from getting too hot in the sun (seriously, of the 4 kids out playing today, he was a red hot pepper). I came home and while I hung laundry and made lunch he sat and read for a bit, wandered over to his toys, ran around outside, and played with his best friend, his reflection*. It was a good day!

*Finn's reflection - he's not quite at the age where he realizes that what he sees in the mirror is actually him and not another person, I know that should happen soon, but I love watching him being entertained by his reflection. He will walk up to the doors to the terrazza and play peek-a-boo, today I saw him showing his friend where his tummy way, and his head, teaching his friend how to clap, and just laughing and having a fun time.

Now, onto the real purpose of this post.

I'm regretting not having sat down and done some in depth research into airlines, air miles, frequent flyer plans, etc, before moving to Australia in 2006. I think I've missed out on some real benefits, and now I don't know if I should just start from scratch, or stick to "what I know".

When we were moving to Australia, only expecting to have one flight there and one flight back and then probably spending the rest of our lives in Canada, I didn't really look much into air miles. Actually, I didn't look into it at all, until I actually got to Australia. I did research flights by emailing many many travel agents for quotes, and got a really good deal from a travel agent in Vancouver who specializes in "down under" travel. Our flight was with Air New Zealand. We were both happy with the flight, and connections, and staff, so when it came time to book our flights back to Canada in 2008, we didn't really investigate other air lines, but went back to Air New Zealand. I had some advice from my SIL who is a frequent flyer (having lived in Madagascar for several years) to look into some air miles at least, even if we never went back to Australia, if the plan doesn't cost anything you might as well. Well it WOULD have cost something. For a membership with Air New Zealand there is a fee of 50 NZD(new zealand dollars), unless you have flown business class in the previous 6 months, in which the fee is waved. Well I stopped my investigation at that point.

Then we got home and had an inkling we would be moving to Rome and eventually back to Melbourne. I looked a very little into potential airlines that went from Canada to Italy, as well as Canada to Australia, and I didn't see any. But I didn't really think about the fact that a lot of airlines have "partnerships" with other airlines, in that you can get air miles from one airline and air miles from another airline to go onto the same account. I had heard good things about KLM, and they were by far the cheapest option for when we moved here in Oct, so I DID apply to be a frequent flyer (even though I couldn't see any of their "partners" being Australia carriers) and hope that we might get something out of it, again it was free so why not?

Some American friends here are flying home soon, and since I've been looking into flights, I wanted to compare what their tickets cost, to what I've been seeing for ours (through KLM) and there's are a lot cheaper. For one thing, the husband is flying as a student and getting a student rate (so they applied for his separately), and they also go through a few stops (at least 2 layovers). Neither of these things appeal to me: if we book separately we may not get seats together, I don't want more than one layover, and I don't want to book through more than one website... it just seems like a lot of work, and potentially a lot of problems (if you don't read all the fine print properly) to save a bit of money (well, a lot of money, I guess).

So to try again at getting some sort of order to our many future flights, I decided to look into air miles options yet again. And then I found out this: lufthansa (who seem to have generally comparable prices to KLM) are a member of Star Alliance. Who else are members?? Air New Zealand and Air Canada, to name two. Why didn't I look into this before. Yes, if I sign on as a member with Air New Zealand I have to pay a membership fee. But what about if I sign on with Air Canada, or Lufthansa? Nope, no fee. Granted the MILES are earned and redeemable through all three airlines, but the extra "perks" are not. So while we will eventually fly Air New Zealand more often, we would miss out on their specific perks, but still earn miles.

So now what? Do I give up on KLM (even though I wrote them a nasty complaint letter and hope to get muchos grandes air miles as compensation from them) and switch to lufthansa?

Anyone want to do more research for me? Like if I pay a bit more NOW for Lufthansa tickets, will the benefits of the miles outweigh the initial costs?

I hate feeling like I'm missing out on some great rewards. Ugh! I guess I have from now until we actually know our departure date to figure it out.

Our Weekend

On Saturday morning, us and an entourage of English speaking Santa Marinellians headed into Rome bright and early to attend the baptism of Sophia Marie at St. Peter's Basilica. We got to go into a "little" side chapel in the Basilica, which was curtained off so that no one could see in. It was pretty special - the baptism was in the old rite, so I couldn't understand a thing! But it was still great - there was one part where the bishop was "talking" to little Sophia at the beginning and she had the biggest grin! Unfortunately my pictures didn't turn out, but there were some other, better, photographers, so maybe I'll try to snag one off of them later.

After the baptism, most of us found a little cafe and had some lunch and just chatted. Since I had woken up Finn at 6:30 am in order to eat and get ready to go, he was pretty tired, and still sick, so he conked out in his stroller after he was done eating. This is not a common thing for him, he WILL fall asleep in his stroller if we are walking around, but we were very stationary and he just fell right asleep. Although then when we did get home, I wanted a nap and I thought he might fall asleep too, but he wasn't quite in the mood. So my loving thoughtful husband took him for a walk so I could have a nap! Finn had a little nap again on the walk, which was good.

Today we had a couple of Aussie guys over: Collin, who is in the same position as Conor, studying at the JPII Institute and then heading back to Melbourne to teach there (although he started a year before Conor, so he heads back this June), and Michael, a seminarian from Melbourne studying at the Gregorian. It was great, very relaxing (especially because they came at 1, just as Finn went down for his nap, so we got to eat in peace for the most part). It was perfect weather to sit out on the terrazza, after Finn woke up and we were done eating and Finn was getting cranky, we all went down to the beach, and then came back for some dessert.

After the guys left we took Finn to the park. He is quite the monster lately - he and I are both still suffering from our colds, you can hear it in his voice when he laughs or cries, it's in his throat now, as is mine - and he's still teething on top of that.

I can't wait to have my "good little boy" back... the one that would play with his toys on his own for more then 45 seconds, who would grab a book and sit down and read to himself, who would give us kisses (but we still are getting snuggles, the kind sick kids like)

One very cute thing though, through all of this, is his blankie! He has two really soft blankets that he sleeps with (well it's getting warmer, so he just sleeps with one now at a time) but he likes to bring one downstairs with him and carry it around and cuddle with it. He'll put it on the ground and then bury his head it in. Very cute. I don't really want to encourage an attachment to it otherwise, but since he's sick, I'll allow it (just like how he was only having his soothers had sleepy times, but all week he's had it attached to his clothes 24/7)

Tomorrow's back to normal. Then next weekend we are throwing some friends a going away party here, and then the weekend after that two of Conor's sisters come for two weeks!

Booking tickets??

We've been waiting to find out when Conor will defend his licentiate thesis before booking our tickets home.

We had heard that most defenses happen in the middle on June, but our current rental contract is until May 24th (though we talked to the landlords and they don't move in until July, so we could stay all of June if we needed to, but at a higher rate) and Conor's last class is May 27. So obviously we want to leave for Canada as soon after the 27th if possible.

Anyways, Conor officially had his thesis printed and bound and handed in today, and we will wait until hopefully next week to find out when he defends. Pray that it is before June 1st, because the best flights I've been able to find leave on June 1st.

Oh joy

Not joyful: sick mommy, sick and teething baby. I can't believe how clingy Finn is right now. I don't remember him every being clingy like this before. Actually, maybe he has been, but before he could crawl - therefore I could just put him somewhere and he would just have to cry and I would get a break - but now that he is even walking, he just follows me around the house ALL day, clinging onto my pant legs, and crying!

Joyful?: Finnian has discovered the joys of flatulating. He doesn't always laugh, but it seems the ones that he really had to push out a bit, he looks up at Conor and I and laughs or giggles afterwards. What a kid!

Only two gifts

If I could only receive two more gifts for the rest of my life, these would be them (now technically, they could be considered 4 gifts, but we'll say 2!)

1. Photography. I would LOVE to get a proper camera and ALSO lessons on how to use it properly and how to do post-editing. I don't think I would ever try to make money off of it, but I just think it's something I would really enjoy doing.

2. Sewing. EVERY year in high school, I signed up for sewing class. I would also sign up for cooking as a backup, in case there weren't enough people to take sewing that year. Any of you who know me, especially a few years ago, know that I'm very picky, so I was always so sad to see my timetable filled with COOKING instead of SEWING. Every year I would walk into the cooking class, and the teacher (who by then knew how picky I was) would just shake her head! haha. Anyways, I would love a sewing machine and, again, some basic lessons on how to use it. I don't think I would ever make clothes (maybe pjs or something, I can never find pajama pants long enough for me!) but would love to be able to mend, and alter clothes, and to make things like table clothes, curtains, baby blankets, etc. Again, I probably wouldn't try to make money off of it, but I could try (there's alot of competition out there though!) but I would love to do that for myself, and my household, and for gifts.

So there you go, anyone out there who wants to give me a gift and never have to give me another one, there's some suggestions! haha.

Teeth Clarification

click to enlarge

I just take other peoples words for it (as to what each tooth is called) so NO he is not getting his i-teeth (incisors), he already has those - he's currently getting his cuspids.

Those approximate ages that the teeth should come in are fairly accurate with Finn. Although the order was a little off with him.

I think it went like this - starting at 7.5 months

Central Incisors: bottom (both came in together)

Lateral Incisors: top (both came in together)

Central Incisors: top (both came in together)

Lateral Incisors: bottom (one came in first, and the other awhile later)

First Molars: top and bottom came in roughly the same time

Cuspids: one top one through, the other almost through

Cuspids: bottom (puffy gums, no teeth yet)

click to enlarge

Now onto adult teeth, just for interest sake. So this chart makes it sound like you should have 32 teeth altogether, if you haven't had your wisdom teeth removed. I only have 28! And my dentist ALWAYS seems confused - I mean, they have it written in their chart, don't they? Anyways, I used to NEVER brush my teeth when I was little, so I guess when I got braces I had 4 permanent teeth removed - although I thought there was only a couple removed. Oh well.

How many teeth do you have?

* I stand corrected. Apparently all those people ARE right, "i-teeth" may be incisors to me, but "eye" teeth means the canines, or cuspids, to everyone else. So yes, he is getting his eye-teeth!

Not so blue

Last night was a very rough one with Finnian - tried to get him to bed by 830, turned into 10pm! We've had him off his routine too often lately, and now we suffer the consequences. Then at about 4am he was really restless and upset - and today I see another tooth cutting through at the top, it should be through in a day or two, but the bottom ones are just puffy bubbles right now so we have some more rough nights ahead of us.

Those are his big molars at the back - hopefully those gaps will be filled in VERY soon!

Sunbathing on the deck. I asked Finn where his tummy was - too bad I had it on picture instead of video because it's so cute when he pats his belly!

Thankfully we slept in until 9:30 to make up for it, and opened the doors to a beautiful Saturday! We had a lazy morning, had homemade pizza for lunch out on the terrace, then went for a long walk into the hills. Since we slept in, I didn't want Finn to have his regular nap because I really wanted to get him to bed at a better time, so we went for the walk and let him sleep a bit in the stroller. Then he woke up and we decided to go to the park - we found a new one recently that is MUCH better for Finnians stage in life. It's all grassy, and not to many trees so nice and bright, and it's surrounded by fence or trees so I can just let him go wherever he wants to go. There are a few slides, so eventually he'll enjoy those. The other park, which is only a little bit closer to our place, is really shady (as in lots of trees) and the grass isn't very nice, and there's little walking paths through it, which are on different levels than the grass, so if Finn wants to wander, I have to be right there because he will fall alot. Anyways, I took Finn to this park yesterday and it worked out very well, so we went again today with Conor.

On our walk, had to stop for a photo-op

I should know better than to complain about anything, when I live in such a beautiful town

Then we came home, and had a nice dinner. Unfortunately I'm not feeling the greatest now - maybe allergies, maybe too much sun for one day, or (hopefully not!) a cold coming on. Plus, Finnian cried and cried for his whole bath, which Conor did because I wasn't feeling well, and that didn't make Conor very happy! After Finn's bath, he and I snuggled on the couch, read some books, watched some baby einstien, and then I put him to bed, hardly any fuss!

At the park - there's also a cafe there.

The other park has a cafe too, very convenient for the mommies!

Hope you all had a good Saturday, here's hoping to a good night and a nice Sunday (with maybe an afternoon picnic at the beach?!?!)

Blue

I've been blue. I don't know what exactly it is, but I think it's a few things.

1. Finn has been having rough (not TOO bad though) nights again - just being restless and in our bed, which means I'm not getting the sleep I was used to.
2. Our form of "cry-it-out" has turned Finn into a little man who FREAKS out if we leave the room. Like as soon as I stop patting his bum he starts full on crying - it used to be a whimper, leading to crying, but now it's just scream crying.
3. I'm getting sad that some of my friends here are leaving. I know there will be new people next year, but the two families leaving now I'm going to miss. The moms and I are about the same age, and they both have a boy a bit older than Finn - so pray that the new people who come next year are my age and have a boy Finn's age!!
4. As much as I love these families around me, I do miss having single friends (and female ones at that). It's hard to arrange evening get togethers between people who all have kids, and even though I love watching Finn play with other kids, it can be tiring because you always have to watch them to make sure they are getting along with each other!

That being said - today has been a MUCH better day than yesterday. Last night we went over to a families house for dinner - it was a late night, but a lot of fun. They have two kids with one on the way, and the mom is an amazing cook! So amazing that I even ate FISH for the FIRST TIME EVER! (by ate, I mean I had like, 10 little bites, but that is HUGE for me!) We got home around 10:15, read to Finn and I put him to bed and he did his SCREAM CRY thing as soon as I walked away, it made me really upset. But then I tried just standing beside his crib and I realized that it's not as bad as I had thought.

I don't even need to be patting his bum, I just need to be there for him. He would close his eyes for a minute and then quickly look over to see if I was still there, and then he would go back to closing his eyes. He did this about 5 times, and then when he hadn't looked over for a minute or two (which can feel like 10 minutes when you're just standing in the dark!) I walked to the steps and waited, and he didn't seem to wake up, so that was that. I went to bed myself shortly afterwards.

This morning I woke up feeling happier in general *although I have been sneezing a bit and am afraid that allergy season might be upon me!* One of the moms who's leaving came by and we had my homemade Iced Caps (blog post to come on that) and just chatted. She is the one that came over for Easter, and Finn and her son just play so nicely together. It's sad they are leaving (in less than 3 weeks) but I'm just going to enjoy the time we have with them until then. Oh, and two of Conor's sisters are coming in May for two weeks, so I'll get some single-girl-friend time! haha

When I put Finn down for his nap today, I just put him down and stood at his crib, didn't pat his bum at all, and he feel asleep pretty quickly (after checking a couple of times that I was still there). So I'm feeling good about this now. It's really not bad, just having to stand there for a few minutes, and the mom who was over today was telling me that is what they did with their son, and it took about a month before he would just go to bed on his own, but that's better than going on with the cry-it-out, and much better than having to rock him, so right now I'm happy with it.

The nights might still be rough though since I can see his gums getting white and puffy where his i-teeth are coming in, but there's nothing I can do about that, I'll just make sure I get my naps if I need them!

Busy busy!

So we went to the Pallatine Hills and the Roman Forum last Tuesday, and then went back on Wednesday to go to the Colosseum. There was pretty much no line for us, because we already had tickets from the previous day, so that was good. We had brought some sandwiches and just ate them there, Finnian didn't fall asleep at all. Afterwards, Dan and Conor went to check out St. Peter's Basillica, because Dan hadn't gone in yet, but I knew that you can't take strollers in, and since Finnian hadn't had a nap, I didn't think he would really enjoy being held the whole time, so he and I took a train home. He didn't even sleep on the train! I was so surprised - but he was really good. He had some milk, he would look out the window, he would crawl into my lap and cuddle for a bit, and then go back to the window. So I'm glad he wasn't freaking out.

Thursday we didn't do much. Dan wanted to rest his weary legs, so I just went and hung out with some moms at the cafe, and then we went to Holy Thursday Mass in the afternoon. Friday morning we went into Civitavecchia with Dan. There's a big market there on Fridays and Saturdays, so we went to get a roast for Easter dinner, and to just look at the beach and such. Unfortunately, Conor went in to get the roast and came out looking very upset - they had cut it into steaks! Now what were we going to do??? We also went to the Good Friday Service that evening.

We decided to just eat the steaks that night, and then on Saturday he woke up early, went to the grocery store, and just bought a roast there. Then him and Dan went into Rome again, to go check out some Catacombs.

Then on Sunday we went to Mass in the morning, it was a miserable day out - I couldn't believe it! The two days prior had been sooo nice! I had planned that after Mass on Sunday we would come home, get changed, make some sandwiches and then go down to the beach for a picnic - that absolutely didn't happen. We were all pretty blah, sitting around the house all afternoon. Then in the evening, one of the families came over for our roast dinner. It was very yummy - and they brought dessert, Chocolate Pie. Oh man, it was fabulous! Oh, and Finnian and their little boy were soo cute together! Finn would walk around the corner, and then come out and see Damian and just start laughing! It was alot of fun, I wish I had got it on video - another time.

On Monday we just hung out with Dan, went for a walk in the morning, he went back into Civitavecchia in the afternoon to buy some souvenirs (Opps, the shops were closed for Easter Monday!), and then we went to a local Canadian guys house for a lamb dinner, Pasquette (little Easter).

Then Dan left early Tuesday morning, and life goes back to normal! Conor went into Rome to go to the library, but sure enough, they were closed! Today, one of the moms and I went down to the beach with our kids, it had it's ups and downs! But we'll try again tomorrow. I love this weather, and I love that the beach is sooo close!

This is just for fun - they just don't know how to do things around here.

This is what this "flowerbed" looked like right after it was done, a month ago.

And now??

The life of Finnian

*Note: most of this I wrote on the 31st and didn't get around to posting it (because I wanted to put up pics and videos as well) so I'm just going to post it now, and do pics and videos later.

He is walking (Finally!) He had been walking more around the house, and even at the cafe one day. But when we went into Rome yesterday and Finn and I waited while Dan and Conor went to get cash, he really walked, ALOT. Then today, he's been walking evening more. We went to the Colosseum (more on that later), and Finn and I came home early, while we were waiting for the grocery store to open after the siesta, he was just walking and walking and having a great time. He hasn't shown signs of being able to stand on his own (without something to pull up on), but I'm assuming that is normal to come later.

At breakfast a few days ago, Finnian pointed at Conor and clearly said (da da). Conor was VERY happy about it. Then Dan came back the other day, and Finn would point and say dada to Dan, which made Conor very unhappy. At breakfast this morning, when he called Dan dada, I pointed to Conor and said Dada and then at Dan and said Uncle Dan, and did that about 5 times. Then Finnian pointed at Conor and said dada and then he pointed at Dan and said something like das. So we applauded and hope he understands that there's a difference now!

I don't know if I ever mentioned it before, but he could never figure out his sippy cup. I either had to hold it up, or else lay him on his back, for him to be able to drink from it. I know this is completely normal, but maybe a bit slower than some kids. But I only "blame" that on the fact that I never gave him a bottle, and then he didn't even have a sippy cup at all until a year - where most kids take a bottle at least sometimes from around 6 months (so they get used to holding it) and then usually start juices or water earlier (which I never saw the need for, since breastmilk is everything he needed as far as liquids went, until a year). ANYWAYS, he can drink from his sippy cups now! And I'm happy that (so far) he isn't fussy about what cup he's drinking from. He has a playtex one with handles, and then some take and toss ones that are just regular plastic cups with a sippy lid.

Oh, and I just found another tooth. His first I-tooth, which brings the count to 13!