Four days at home

Our four days at my parents house were a whirlwind.  We are so lucky to live in Italy, but it’s really hard having young kids and not being on the same continent as the rest of your family.  Our Italian landlords live right next door to their parents.  And they just moved into another house on the other side of their parents.  We walked back by their house and they’d made a new path, with steps and a railing, going right up to their parents house.  I can only imagine all the fun Abbie would have if she could just walking up a short path to my parents house.  I know that our landlord’s mom watches her youngest child all day, and more than once I’ve seen her carrying baskets of laundry, all clean and folded, and bringing wheelbarrows of cut firewood over for them.  Must be nice…  =)

My 96 year old grandma got to meet Ben for the first time, along with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

My sister has three boys now, but the older two, Cameron and Miles, have lots of fun with Abbie.  She LOVES playing with them.  She loved it last summer and she loved it even more this summer.  The oldest one, Cameron, is SUCH a good little kid.  He really watches out for his younger brothers and Abbie and he’s a nice little boy.  I wish we could spend more time with them all.  I wanted to get a picture of just Ben and my sister’s youngest, Treyson, but Trey was sick and I really didn’t want Ben getting sick before we had a long trip back to the States, so we didn’t get them close to each other.

Abbie had a great time with all of her grandparents.  She really thrives when she’s with them and I’m pretty sure they enjoy their time with her too.

Here’s the first four generation shot we took when Abbie was 6 weeks old, back in 2009.

And here’s the one we took on May 20, 2012, almost three years later.

We got a good picture of my parents with all of their grandkids.

Abbie absolutely loves it at my parent’s house.  She loves to be outside, and they have a lot of land, away from busy roads, so she is able to truck around outside by herself and do her own thing.  My parents Golden Retriever, Maddy, is never far behind her either.  Abbie constantly asks when we get to go back to grammy and grampy’s. 

I love this picture of my dad and Ben.

It was harder to leave home this time.  Partly because Abbie is much more aware when her grandparents aren’t around anymore, and partly because my parents are moving so I probably won’t be back to that house ever again.  But we’ll be able to make memories wherever they live.

Abbie’s Birthday

While we were at my parent’s house, we celebrated Abbie’s 3rd birthday.  I can’t believe my baby girl is three!!  She’s getting so tall and she’s losing all of those “baby” features and is now 100% a little girl.  Since we were only home for a very short time, we combined Abbie’s birthday and Ben’s baptism parties.  It worked out well since Ben got baptized on Abbie’s birthday anyway.

I always tell Mark that we should stay at our families houses proportionate to the amount of people we want to see at each house.  But if that were the case we’d spend 8 days at my parent’s house for every 1 at his, since I still have quite a few friends in the area and I never seem to have enough time to spend with them all.  (Although that’ll be changing very soon since my parents just sold their house…  Now Mark’s families house will be closest to all my friends at home.)  I was so happy to see so many of my friends and have them all meet Ben for the first time.  Some of them were meeting Abbie for the first time too!

Abbie had a great time playing with her cousins and my friend Billie’s kids.  My sister made a pinata for the kids to bat at and I think they all enjoyed that.

We ordered a cake from Hy-Vee.  They have amazing cakes!!  I love the frosting they put on them.  It’s light and fluffy and not super thick like some frostings are.  I remember when we gave Abbie a cupcake on her first birthday and she had no clue what to do with it.  Two years later and that’s not the case anymore.  She dug right in!!

It was fun seeing my friend’s meet Ben for the first time too.  Makes me wish I lived much closer to home so I could see them more often.  And Ben held up great during all the festivities.  He napped for part of it, but then was fine with being passed around to everyone.  Thanks to Sarah and Donna for helping out with our little guy!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to celebrate with us!  I wish I could have spend much longer talking to every one of you!  We really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy lives to help us celebrate these events in our kids lives and hopefully it won’t be too long before we get to spend time together again!

Abbie’s Birthday letter from Mark

To My Abbie Rose,                                                 20 May 2012

This past year has been a whirlwind to say the least.  You have grown in so many ways; it’s not possible to cover them all here.  Last year I wasn’t around for your birthday and I missed over half of the year.  Fortunately, you’re mom kept me posted with emails, Skype calls, pictures, and blog posts.  So I still witnessed how much you changed during that time, and it certainly helped me get through those times that I missed you badly.  Fortunately, the biggest changes have occurred since I returned.  I vividly remember seeing you after those 6 months, patiently standing beside mom waiting to say hi to me face-to-face.  You didn’t look like my little baby girl anymore; you were taller and you had lost most of your baby fat.  Mom had you in that cute green dress I like with white leggings and your little brown shoes.  I was worried you would be too shy or nervous to give me a hug, but to my surprise you marched right up to me and gave your stinky, hairy dad a big hug and kiss without hesitation.  That’s your personality.  You’re outgoing, social, and rarely are you scared.  But even when you are scared you’re not embarrassed to say it; I suppose your candidness comes with your age.  I hope that never changes. 

You have more energy than any two people combined.  It’s amazing to watch you just go go go.  That is until you crash.  You’re not one to give in to being tired.  You will endure for as long as your little body will let you; then it shuts you down…and you crash.  I think that hints to your inner drive and ambition.  There are people out there, myself included, who could use that kind of natural motivation every once-in-awhile.  Your mom and I think you’re going to be a little dancer, or volleyball player, or track star, or the first woman president; suffice it to say we think you’re special and you have unlimited potential.  You proved that to us early on.  It was amazing to watch you learn to speak.  You’re vocabulary increases exponentially, it’s like you have a steel trap in that melon of yours.  You’re so analytical already too.  You shouldn’t be asking me the types of questions you are asking already…I’m not prepared for them yet.  You definitely challenge your mom and me. 

I’m looking forward to this year and what surprises you have up your sleeve.  We’re putting you into the Asilo here in Sarone so you can pick up some Italian and enjoy socializing with other little ones your age.  I have a feeling you’ll be spouting Italian at us after day one and be ordering for us at restaurants after day two.  There is never a dull moment with you.  You’re my special little girl who lights up my day when I get home from work.  Never fail you’re right there at the door yelling “Daddddeeee!!!” every day when I get home.  I love you very much Abbie Rose and I’m excited to see how much you grow and change this year.  Happy Birthday! 

Love,

Your Daddy

Ben’s baptism

We got Ben baptized in my home church on Abbie’s birthday, May 20th.  I was a little worried about him being crabby since it was basically right in the middle of his naptime, but he did great!

Abbie went up for the children’s sermon with her cousins, Cameron and Miles.  She was pretty interested in it, until she noticed Mark taking her picture.  =)

All of our immediate families were there, with the exception of one of Mark’s brother’s, who is still in Rome.  But it was nice to have everyone’s support during   And I’m glad we got everyone in a picture.  I love pictures!!  (Thanks Martha!!)

To my daughter

Dear Abbie,

This has been quite a year for us.  Daddy was gone for 6 weeks, followed by 7 months.  We moved back to the US while he was deployed and lived with grammy and grampy.  I left you overnight for the first time.  We moved you in to a big girl bed.  You gained a little brother.  And you potty trained!  You were a real trooper through it all, and you were my little side kick and partner in crime.  If there is such thing as a “good time” for Daddy to deploy, I think the time he went was probably the best.  You were aware that he was gone, and you were a bear for the first week or so, but then you were okay.  And you had a fantastic time with your grandparents.  If he left for that long now, I think you’d have a much worse time with it because you’re that much more aware of your surroundings now, and you’re really starting to value relationships with other people.

You, my little pooks, are quite the handful at times.  You are the sweetest little thing when you want to be, but you are incredibly determined, so it can be very hard to convince you to do things our way or to redirect your attention.  Dealing with you can be exhausting and infuriating and it is by FAR the hardest job I’ve ever had to do.  I really had no clue that parenting would be this hard and that I would be at a completely loss, at times, as to how to control you, but that happens more that I care to admit.  You want to please and you long for praise, but sometimes your curiosity gets the best of you and you like to test your limits quite frequently.

You are such a fun little thing to be around.  You’re an absolute sponge at this point, and you pick up on things that we’re not even aware of, at times.  Having a three year old around is a better self-portrayal than any mirror could ever be.  You make me want to be a better person and a better mother on a daily basis, so that you have something more positive to mimic.

You have changed our lives and our outlook on more ways than we could have ever imagined.  You keep our days busy and our hearts full and I love you with every ounce of my being.

Love,

Your momma