The adventure of the Advent Wreath

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. Last year for some reason we didn't make an advent wreath, but we decided to make one this year.

When we lived in Australia I remember having a really difficult time finding purple candles... and this year was no different. Other than the fact that we never did find any purple candles at all.

So here is our advent wreath... it's purdy :)

And here's a picture of Finn being silly. Before he did this he had gotten stuck in the blue thing and was very upset, then he grabbed it and threw it. Then he picked up his blanky and proceeded to lie down inside.

Tomorrow is the day we are renting a car and going to Assisi - I'm so excited!!

Liz is here!

Conor's cousin Liz got here yesterday afternoon, and we're really happy that she is here - Finn especially!

Liz is playing with him right now and he won't even let me come near them, because he likes Liz better than me :( But actually, that's okay... a little space from your child is never a bad thing!

Lately Finn doesn't like strangers. In the past he would smile at anyone who smiled at him, and he would clap, and "perform" and be his cute self... but now if anyone even looks at him he just grunts angrily at them! Anyways, he must remember Liz because as soon as she got here he was smiling and laughing with her and playing with toys with her - very cute!

We plan on renting a car one day this week and going to Assisi for a day... otherwise we'll just visit and enjoy having her :)

Good day

I'm having a really good day! Other than Conor's computer being really schizophrenic (one minute working fine, the next minute telling me there's no hard drive, the next minute working fine again), things have gone really well today :)

Finn and I went to Civitavecchia this morning - on my shopping list were: sunglasses, thick leggings, and another thicker sweater dress.

And I got all three, plus a very useful plain black long sleeve shirt, and all for a really decent price.

The whole ensemble.

There are a TON of asian clothing stores around, and I had seen a few in Civitavecchia before, but they're kind of awkward to get Finn and the stroller into, and I've never actually had the intention of buying anything at any before, so I never went in, but today I did, and I found a GOLD mine. I tried on three things and I loved them all... maybe for Christmas! haha

They even came with arm warmers - but I just don't think I can pull it off!

We went to the little kid park and there were a couple of kids a bit older than Finn. They had sidewalk chalk and the little girl ran over and gave one to Finn and he went and joined them in coloring, it was pretty cute. The two other kids both seemed VERY advanced in different ways - even though they look younger than Finn (because he's taller than most kids up to age 3). The little boy was 2 years and 3 months (4 months older than Finn) and he could drop kick a soccer ball! The little girl was 2.5 years old and was drawing very good pictures with her chalk, I can't be 100% sure, but it looked like a fish, and the dad kept saying "pesca", which is fish I think... she was also playing tic-tac-toe.

Will Finn be doing those things in a few months time?? They grow leaps and bounds from 0-1 year that sometimes I forget that there is still A LOT of growth to happen, and I look forward to seeing it!

This was the other top I bought on my birthday, but I think it makes more sense for winter to wear it with the black shirt underneath for added warmth.

Oh, and did I mention that it was sunny and gorgeous outside today? A little chilly, but as long as the sun is out I'm happy!

The purchases

My birthday cupcakes

Finnian "helped" me blow out my candles... but he didn't do a very good job, I don't think he'll be proficient enough in less than a month for his 2 year celebration - but maybe I'll get him practicing :)

Outfit number one.

I need proper, thicker leggings for this one.

Shorter and looser means more chance of lifting up :)

Outfit number two.

Exactly what I was looking for!

(Finn's looking at trains)

A little video for your viewing pleasure :)

Let the learning begin

Every year before school started I would get sooo excited for the back to school shopping. But not for clothes and shoes and jackets... for pens, pencils, binders, backpacks, pencil bags... sigh! I don't know why, but I love going into stores like staples and into the stationary section of other stores.

So to help me in my learning I went to the dollar store and got a little notebook with pretty flowers on it. Conor made fun of me - but I know how I learn. 1. The cute notebook will motivate me to "study" because otherwise what's the point of the cute notebook? 2. Writing really and truly helps me learn. Typing too, but since the books I'll be reading are already on the computer it will be better if I can be looking at the book while writing.

So there you have it... and here's my set up.

1, 2, 3....GO!

Happy Birthday to me!

Today I am 28.

First things first, I'm pretty sure that my hometown of Abbotsford has not had snow since my birthday in grade 8 (and we were actually snowed in, there was so much snow!)... and now it's snowing there... so even though I'm not there, I guess I can say that I got snow on my birthday!

Finnian helped me ring in my birthday was a bang...er, scream! The poor kid did NOT have a good night. He woke up at 10 screaming and sad, and then farted loudly a few times and eventually settled back to sleep (in our bed). Then he woke up at 12:30 and every after that until 4:30.. but on top of the gas he also had a fever. Each time he woke up, the thing that got him back to sleep the previous time would not help him sleep this time. The first time it was Tylenol for the fever (as well as sleeping on me, NOT comfy), the next time he finally fell asleep after having some milk, the next time was juice. It was a long night. He's still a bit warm, but hopefully he'll have a better night.

In the morning we just had a lazy time, ate breakfast, Conor was home so we all went to the grocery store and to the cafe afterwards, ate lunch and then Finn went down for his name.

Then I went shopping!

Eleonora took me to Fiumicino (where the airport is) and there are two malls. One nicknamed the "american mall" because it's just a bit outdoor stripmall... and the other one is more a typical mall, but we didn't end up going there. We went to H&M because they have good prices and I got a couple pairs of black leggings and a sweater dress and a long shirt type thing to wear with tights! (plus a couple of long sleeve shirts for finn). i'll post pics later

We did some other browsing of other stores, and were just about to leave when Eleonora saw a "Lindt" store... so we had to go in! And she bought me a Lindt italian Hot Chocolate - sooo rich and yummy!

Anyways, now I'm home, Conor is making pizza for dinner, and has made cupcakes or cake or something for dessert... Finn is watching shows :)

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Birthday Shopping Trip

Tomorrow is my birthday.

I don't buy very many clothes, but for awhile now there's a certain "outfit" that I've been wanting. I mentioned it to Conor and he said what he always says... "just buy it". But he doesn't really mean it, because we don't have the kind of money to "just buy it" with everything.

But then he said that I really could go buy something, and that would be my birthday present (because let's face it, he has no CLUE what to buy me).

But the BEST part of this present is that he's going to watch Finn for the afternoon, and Eleonora's going to bring me to some stores that I wouldn't be able to get to my public transport! Yay for a day out shopping!

This is what I'm looking for... some sort of sweater dress, and black tights to go with it. All I ever wear out is jeans. In Melbourne I really got into wearing black tights and dresses or skirts in the winter because it's something a bit different. But I think that a sweater dress would be so warm and comfy for the winter!

So something like the pictures below. Probably brown, dark grey or a navy blue.

Wish me luck.

Big Walker

This afternoon we walked down to the beach without Finn's stroller. It was a series of ups and downs as he won't hold our hands and sometimes wanted to go in the opposite direction, but otherwise it was the cutest thing! He doesn't say many words but he babbles alot!

He pretty much had a running commentary to himself the entire way there and back.

Oh, and a new development - he can go up and down stairs all by himself, without railings even!

He gets so proud of himself and starts giggling, it's very cute!

Sigh, almost 2 years old!

For dummies like me

So you know how I said I am completely ignorant in all world issues (history, politics, etc)?? It's true - and so I've decided I might as well just say it like it is, and learn the basics from some "for dummies" books.

I recently installed Amazon Kindle on my Mac and iPod. I can't get english books here (without spending a pretty penny) and I wanted to start reading more, so I decided I would read some free books on there, and once a month buy a book (as per our budget). Then when I started writing about that hobby and wanting to learn more, I went onto Kindle to see what kind of books they had to offer. But it's overwhelming because I just don't know where to start, I have no basic knowledge to go on - which is when I though of the dummies books.

I looked it up, and there's a few interesting ones that I've found that I will be purchasing. I'll start with "World History for Dummies", and then move onto "US History for Dummies" (I know I'm not American, but I did take a Canadian pre-confederation History class and a Canadian post-confederation politics class in my last semester of University, and surprisingly understood and retained a lot of that information).

So we'll start there, and then start delving deeper.

As some of you may know, it's my birthday on Friday! So if anyone has an interest in giving me a b-day present, or helping me become not-stupid, you can get me a gift card for Amazon so that I can start purchasing!

All you need is to go to Amazon.com, to the gift cards section, and email me one to jaclynrosesweeney@hotmail.com or click here

Here are some amusing dummies books (in no particular order):

1. hacking for dummies - um, illegal?
2. raising chickens for dummies
3. iPad for seniors for dummies - there's actually a few of these seniors ones.
4. sewing for dummies - not actually that funny, I'll probably be buying that in a couple of years!
5. facebook for dummies - honestly, if you need this book than you shouldn't be on facebook
6. the book of revelation for dummies - uh oh
7. building your own home for dummies - okay this one is scary, I hope it just says "hire a contractor"
8. hairloss and replacement for dummies - :)

I need a hobby...

Conor's been getting mad at me because all I do (when I'm not playing with Finn, cleaning or shopping) is read blogs and watch TV... not the most worthwhile way to spend my time.

I guess I need a hobby... but I just keep thinking, what's the point? The things that I really want to learn I can't really see myself doing with our transient lifestyle. I'd love to learn how to sew... to make curtains and pillowcases, and to mend and alter clothes... but I can't buy a sewing machine right now because we don't have the money and I can't lug it home. That means this hobby will have to wait until Australia.

(Courtesy of Google Images)

Knitting - a former "hobby"

It didn't actually go to badly, but I couldn't figure out how to pearl,

and I didn't think I would actual do anything productive with it

So what can I do right now? I'm not crafty, and I'm sorry, but I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon of other moms who make hair clips and binky clips and burp blankets and all that very "unique" (said with sarcasam, because honestly EVERY blogger I read these days either makes baby paraphernalia or is an aspiring photographer - more about that another day) stuff.

Now onto a more serious topic - my complete ignorance in anything and everything historical and political. And I'm not joking here. I know NOTHING about World War I and II... I have no idea who fought, who won, what it was about, where it took place - NOTHING.

(Courtesy of Google Images)

Scrap-booking - I don't think I can actually say that I really put much effort into this.

I enjoy taking pictures of things we are doing, but I'm not crafty.

The first (and last) time I scrap-booked I spilled the glue EVERYWHERE.

Enough said.

I cannot not hold a conversation with anyone about any current affairs. Conor keeps telling me to just start reading the news a bit more, and I will try - but honestly I'm just so ignorant that I can't make heads or tails of anything.

So I think I've decided that my hobby will be to learn something - ANYTHING. Unfortunately because of my lack of resources (ie. English bookstores, and even better, english libraries) the internet it going to be my main source... yes, reading the news, and wikipedia, and anything else I can find. I'll start off with general World History, and then break it down from there.

(Courtesy of Google Images)

Exercise - haha - this is just a joke, who would seriously do this as a HOBBY?

I would say that I'll post little articles about what I find, but since I'm learning at such a basic level, it will probably bore you because it's things you all have known about since you were 8! haha

Wish me luck!

TMI

So this might be too much information, but we all have gone through this, whether we remember it or not.

Finn is starting to recognize and tell me when he has gone poo! haha.

Just like with crawling, walking, sleeping on his own, talking (someday) I need to keep telling myself "he'll be ready when he's ready"... and he's getting ready!

A few months ago he started realizing what peeing was. He woud stand in the tub and start peeing and then look around to figure out where the noise was coming from, then he starting figuring it out, and when he was about to pee he would look down before he started, and then watch it.

Lately I've pointing out the toilet a lot to him, and telling him that one day he will be in there instead of wearing a diaper. (I tried once to put him on the toilet and he did NOT like it)

I've also been talking to him more about pooing, and when I change him I keep saying "you pooed - pee-eww" and I plug my nose. Then when I was changing his diaper one day I hadn't even said that he had pooed and he went to grab my nose!

From there he's progressed even further that now when he poo's (and I can tell anyways when he's doing it), he runs up to me and points to his bum, or grabs my nose! Although even though he now knows when he has pooed. and tells me, he still HATES having his diaper changed. Maybe that will be a good way to get him to go on a toilet, so that he doesn't have to have diaper changes.

It's really quite gross, but I love seeing his mind starting to understand these things that he never had any clue about before.

I used to like adding a picture to every post, just for something more visual... aren't you glad I didn't add any to this one??

Something's missing

...oh right, it's my sanity!

*WARNING: this is a long and fairly negative post... bad day!

We are in the throes of the "terrible twos" - and as much as I adore seeing Finnian's "little" personality shining through, I'm seriously losing my mind! He screams in anger, and screams and screams and screams. I know I shouldn't just give him what he wants, but how else do I keep what little sanity I have left?

Today Finn and I made the trek into Rome to see Helen & Kevin and I almost called off the whole thing. It seems like Finnian wakes up on the wrong side of the bed almost every other morning.

Here's what it looks like when he wakes up on the RIGHT side of the bed:

• He wakes up, I don't even hear him, but I sense him - I open my eyes to see a big cheesy grin RIGHT in my face.
• He giggles and turns on my lamp. Makes another cheesy grin.
• Climbs into bed, I turn out the light, and we cuddle and I tickle him for awhile.
• He goes and finds toys to play with, or books for us to read.
• Conor or I (whoevers turn it is on breakfast) eventually gets up and brings Finn downstairs if he's ready to go down, or the other person stays upstairs with him until breakfast.
• We eat breakfast. Conor goes on his way to Rome, or heads upstairs to study.
• I do dishes, play with Finn, get us both ready, and head out the door for shopping or playdate around 10-1030.

Then we have a WRONG side of the bed day:

• (If it's like last night, he's already in our bed by 5am - this is NOT a regular occurnace)
• Otherwise, Finn wakes up, gives me cheesy grin, then starts asserting himself!
• (we have big shutters on our doors/windows) Finn starts pointing at them and making noises that means he wants us to open the shutters. I refuse, and tell him to go play with some toys.
• He hopefully eventually leaves the shutters be
• Grabs a book and wants it read, grabs another book and another book and another book.
• There are 2 or 3 books that if you get stuck reading them once, you get stuck reading them 100 times in a row. Eventually one of these books comes out and he will not take no for an answer.
• I say no, no, no... and the screaming begins.
• Eventually we give in and drag him downstairs, probably earlier than usual because we can't stand what is happening upstairs.
• During breakfast NOTHING is right for him. He wants to put jam on his own toast - thus making a big mess and taking forever. He wants to pour the milk. He wants to eat YOUR mush. He wants to throw the mush around. He doesn't want to eat. More screaming ensues.
• Conor goes upstairs. I start the dishes and Finn doesn't like that. More screaming.
• I finally get them done and am ready to spend some time with him, but he's screaming, nothing is satisfying him.
• I might eventually get him to color... but he quickly makes a page full with his coloring and wants another. Then he needs me to draw something (I can't draw, I don't have that talent). I get bored of that and try to convince him to color on his own. He doesn't like that.

Anyways, it goes on and on until I somehow get us clothed and out the door amidst tantrum after tantrum.

Today was really bad, because we weren't getting on the train until almost noon. Conor was home and thus not getting ANYTHING done with all the screaming happening. He assures me he was already distracted and not getting anything done anyways, but I just feel like a mother failure when he has to come in and take over because I feel like curling up in the fetal postion and crying.

I finally got us ready and we had time so Finn and I went to the grocery store to get stuff for supper. It was only 10 am and I was already DONE. I left in such a fury that I forgot Finn's jacket, so I got a lot of nasty stares from old Italian women. And I had planned on going to a little park to just pass some time, but didn't want Finn to get too cold so we came home and had a snack (AMAZING cinnamon buns that Conor made last night... I'll write about it later, because it was made my morning sooo much better after that).

We got on the train and Finnian was relatively good. He didn't want to sit, and the train wasn't crowded so we wandered around. He finally decided he didn't want to be on the train anymore. When the doors would open he would try to pull me out. And usually the diaper bag is clipped onto the stroller, but since we were walking around I had it on my shoulder... he kept trying to take it off and put it on the stroller, telling me it was time to get off.

We had to catch bus 46 after the train. We walked and were across the street when not one but TWO bus 46s were leaving the stop. Darn! This likely meant either another one was just around the corner (because why have a schedule that keeps buses moving a good distance from one another??) or the next bus was 20+ minutes away. I was afraid I would be late for lunch, but I wasn't about to walk up the really big hill with a tiny sidewalk. So we crossed the street and waited. Read back to this blog post and watch the youtube clip to get a better understanding of the buses here, and other Italian ways.

About 5 minutes later a 46 came. It was really full so I had to take Finn out of the stroller, hold him and the diaper bag, fold up the stroller and lug it all on the bus... blah! Then we got to where the bus should turn and it didn't. FAIL! It was bus 46/ not 46. Why in the world is there a bus 46 SLASH! That makes no sense. So I got off at the next stop and walked to where the second stop for the actual 46 bus was, and it was just coming. Thank goodness. We made it to lunch on time.

But then Finn was GRUMPY. He would scream at anyone who looked at him, and he didn't want me going anywhere but out the door we came in. Eventually I coaxed him to the table with yogurt and things started looking up.

As I talked to Helen, Kevin kept pouring him water to keep him occupied, and grabbed a soccer ball for when he was done eating. When Kevin was done eating he took him to another room to play with the ball, and then Finn started allowing some other people to start looking at him, so they were allowed to play to. (These other people are students at the Emmanuel School of Mission, where Kevin and Helen are the directors). Finnian took a liking to this one female student (after screaming at her a few times), so Helen offered to buy her coffee downstairs if she would play with him while we visited.

She did a great job, and we got to have a nice chat. I was pretty mentally exhausted, but it was still a nice visit and I'm very glad I didn't call it off.

The train home was uneventful... Finn didn't sleep like I had hoped, but he stayed in his stroller (FULL train) and ate snacks the whole time.

Conor let me have a rest when I got home, and now Finn is asleep in bed!

Tomorrow we'll start it all over again, hope for a right-side-of-the-bed day, and hopefully gain back some of the sanity I lost today.

Frustrations solved?

After trying every suggestion that people made, I was at my wits end. I pretty much knew that I had to reformat Conor's computer, but my big question was: do I need any discs? None came with the computer (for windows 7) so I didn't know if I started the reformat process and didn't have the discs if I would be able to complete it or end up with a computer that did absolutely nothing.

I heard there was a guy in town who fixed computers, and most importantly spoke English.

I took it there today and he confirmed that I had to reformat. The virus was making it so that I couldn't get online in safe mode - which I wanted to do to get an anti-virus program on. And I think the guy was trying to tell me that it had attached itself to the AVG I had tried putting on AFTER the problems started. He was able to somehow block AVG (because we couldn't even un-install it) and from there it stopped freezing the computer and I could get on long enough to start reformatting.

One downside is that I didn't bring any Microsoft Word disc with me, so by reformatting I will no longer have word, and the guy only had it in Italian... but he said to come back in a few days and he will try to get it in English.

So cross your fingers! The computer is up and running and I'm downloading AVG before I do anything else!

This and that

I meant to put these first pics up with the "sleep" post, but here they are. He's doing so great with his bed and sleep in general!

He loves cuddling on the ground with blankets.

This is the set up of our room now. I'm standing on the stairs, behind me there are shelves, to my right is Finn's crib (which Conor uses as a dresser) and at the end there his Finn's big boy bed with him sleeping in it.

He's so cute - numerous times a night (before I got to bed and if he wakes up at all) I have to put his blankets back on him. What do I do in winter when he won't leave them on?

He stands on his bed and puts his teddies on the ledge.

He likes it when one of the Winnie the Pooh's sleep beside him.

Here are just two pictures from the haircut fiasco! Now that it's not right in front of me, that long hair does kind of look cute, but it HAD to be cut, and it will grow back, and I'm probably not going to cut it for a long time because I was so traumatized! haha

Before: (I had previously snipped the mullet off)

Long bangs and no ears!

After: not a very good shot, but this was before I fixed the front (it's a lot straighter now!).

He has ears again!

Birthday party

Yesterday our Australian friends invited us over for their daughters 4th birthday. We had a few stormy, cold, wet days last week (especially the evenings, you should have heard the thunder and downpour!), but we were blessed with a very nice break from that weather with (so far) 3 days of close to 20 degree weather. It's been gorgeous!!

Anna, the birthday girl

They had the birthday party in the "garden" (the ground floor of most apartments here have a "garden", which sometimes has a bit of grass, but otherwise it's tiled outside area with trees and plants). As usual we had a great time with them... Finn started getting fussy near the end, but otherwise he had a lot of fun with their kids, and we ate some great food and deserts, as well as "fairy bread" which is apparently a birthday staple for Aussies.

I didn't get a picture, but got this from google.

After lunch we went home and had naps, and then went down to the beach with those guys again. Finn is really up and down when it comes to the beach. One time he will LOVE it and not want to leave, and the next time he will hate it and not want to touch the sand. Yesterday was a hate it day - we put him down on someones towel and he just stayed there and didn't move for over an hour. (Conor took him down today and kept his shoes on and Finn apparently had a lot of fun)

Frustrated

Conor's computer isn't working, and I don't know what to do, and I don't know where to go. If this happened it Canada I would be just as mad that after only 2 months of owning the darn thing it's already broken, but at least I could take it back to the store. Oh well, whatever happens I guess we'll still be back in Canada for we've had it for a year, I'm assuming there's some sort of warranty.

If any of you are computer nerds and want to assess and tell me what to do, here's the info.

The other day it just froze on Conor. He restarted manually, and it seemed to be fine. Then the next day it froze and everytime he tried to restart it would freeze in a matter of 5 minutes. That's about the longest it will be fully started for, and most of the time we can't even get it fully restarted - it just freezes in the process. We had the Norton anti-virus free trial thing, and didn't renew, so it's very likely a virus. I've tried numerous times to instal AVG free but it freezes half way through... I don't know where to manually look for a virus.

So what do I do??? Sometimes when I start it up it will give me no options and just start up "normally". Sometimes it will ask if I want to start normally or in safe mode, or safe mode with components (or something like that). I've tried safe mode, and it hasn't frozen while in safe mode, but what can I actually do from there? Othertimes it brings me to this thing to see if I want to launch startup repair, but there's never been anything to repair... and then it just all starts and freezes again. Sometimes it brings me to these options of doing a system recovery, but I've tried and there are no recovery points to go back to. So do I have to just reformat my computer from scratch? And how do I even do that because it's windows 7 and I didn't get any discs with the computer (and didn't make any, was I supposed to??)

Let's just say that I really really hate PC's right now, and I need HELP!

One month

We have been back in Italy for one month now, and all I can think about was us this time last year.

It was pretty horrible, to be honest. Leaving our family was so much more difficult than it had been when we moved to Australia. I guess adding kids to the equation make things like that difficult. We had only just learned a few weeks before that my dad was teminally ill; I knew in all likelihood that I would never see him again. We were moving to a country that was so foreign to us: in language and in culture. We both got very sick our first few days here and were staying in a small bedroom of a hostel.

Our only saving grace was finding out about Santa Marinella. I can't imagine how we would have lasted the year in Rome. We very likely would have had an apartment that wasn't nearly as nice and it would have cost a lot more, not to mention we would have missed out on this view and had to live in a lot busier place. But mostly we would have missed out on all of the great English speaking families - I know that I would have gone crazy not having people around to get together with!!

This month has been much easier, but still hard. We had great friends that took us in for our first couple nights before we could move into our apartment, we had other friends that had us over for lunch and dinner until we got settled, and we didn't have the task of figuring out all the new cultural things (although it does take time to re-adjust to it!!).

But it's also been hard. There aren't as many families as last year, so it's difficult going from living in a busy active household where things are going on every weekend as well as some weeknights to a place where I can go 4 days without speaking English to anyone but Conor. But we are surviving! We were lucky to have friends visit already and I'm looking forward to conor's cousin coming later this month.

Just 7 more months to go!! Haha.