Easter Bunny

When Giulio woke up Easter morning, the Easter Bunny had hopped by our house. He had hidden some eggs full of yummy cereal puffs and left a basket of goodies on the table.

Giulio found 2 or 3 eggs before he got bored with that game and took a look in his basket. The books were his favorite part.

Then we went to Ruffia for Easter lunch with Giulio's aunts & uncles and cousin Lucrezia.

After lunch, the sun came out and it was so warm that we had dessert outside and Giulio walked around the garden with Nonno & Nonna.

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The Big ONE!

Our little boy is one year old! I can't believe it. He's changed so much in this year. I was looking at some videos when he was just a couple weeks old and I can't believe he was ever that small.  He's still at about 27.5 lbs and is a little over 31 inches tall (2 feet, 7 inches). We have a new pediatrician who we like a lot and the little boy makes friends wherever we go!

Blowing out the birthday candle with his 2 Grandpas!

Then after the big birthday, we took Giulio to Nice for his first time! I can't believe we hadn't been for over a year! It was nice to get away from home, but we learned that you cannot have a relaxing weekend get away with a one year old and the walk from Old Nice to our apartment is too far. Also, Giulio's cuteness translates easily into French and people adored him. The best part of the trip was on our way home when we stopped at a snowy Troll Brewery for a couple pints and a snack. Giulio loved walking around the restaurant holding hands.

Speaking of walking while holding hands, Giulio took his first steps on Sunday night! He took a couple of steps towards Fabri while they were playing before bed. He's repeated it every evening this week, but he still needs a lot of coaxing and hasn't "taken off' yet. I'm sure that will happen way before we're ready for it!

Silly Baby Boy

Giulio's First Birthday Party!

I have so many photos and stories I need to get on here! Giulio's birthday party, his actual birthday, a visit from Grandpa and Giulio's first trip to Nice! We have been busy celebrating.

We threw the party at Baladin Cafe, a microbrew pub in Cuneo. There's a round room with all windows decorated like a circus tent which was just perfect. We had a yummy afternoon snack of all sorts of gourmet bar food and drank good beer and their own microbrewed cola.

There was cake (made by yours truly)!

There were presents!

And there was lots of fun cousin play time!

There are a ton more photos in my picasa web albums (link to the right), but here's a collage of some of the best ones!

Birthday Party Day!!

Today is Giulio's first birthday party! I made my own decorations and a cake AND cupcakes and this afternoon will be off the hook! ;-)

Giulio's new chair from Nonna & Nonno

I need some practice decorating cakes, but I think the secret is to cover any mistakes with sprinkles!

To Be Italian

I applied back in October 2010 for my Italian citizenship. It's easier to get jobs if I have EU citizenship and renewing my "permission to stay" every couple years is a real pain in the butt. It wasn't an easy process as Italian bureaucracy has a well-deserved reputation for being difficult. I had to collect all the necessary documents from the US and have them translated and certified at the Italian embassy in DC, then I had to collect all the necessary documents from here in Italy and bring everything to Cuneo for my application. We were immediately met with a dismissal and told that I can't possibly get Italian citizenship because my US passport says I was born in Maryland and my birth certificate says I was born in Montgomery County, Maryland. Full stop. Thankfully I brought Fabri because you have to have an Italian with you to navigate the sea of red tape and they eventually accepted the application.

I have such nice finger nails! :)

Two years & two months later and I'm Italian!! This is me at my swearing in with the mayor of Saluzzo. I promised to abide by the Constitution of Italy.

And today I voted in Italy for the first time. Pretty exciting stuff. I liked how they do it here. No worry of computer hackers, no hanging chads, you just write an X with a pencil over the box you want and then hand back the ballot where the election worker puts it into a big cardboard box. Then she stamps your voter card and says "Mr. So&So has voted." Only for me she said "Mrs. I Cannot Pronounce Her Name has voted." Italians....

11 Months Old!

I cannot believe the little guy is almost a year old! He lost a little weight because he was sick and is at 27.3 pounds, but he's still growing up & up & up and is 30.5 inches tall! He's started climbing up onto the coffee table, which doesn't thrill me. Last night Fabri installed a new round of cabinet locks to keep the kid safe. He's getting into everything!

We're planning his first birthday party. It's amazing to think he's going to be a year old! It will be at a brew pub in Cuneo. The theme is mountainy/outdoorsy. Hopefully the weather will be nice because the pub is located in a park with a nice playground right outside. Don't worry, we'll take LOTS of pictures.

Here's a video of Giulio dancing as Fabri plays the guitar. He just loves music and I hope he inherited his Daddy's sense of rhythm, because mine is no good!

P1020257 from Jessica Goldstein on Vimeo.

Superbowl!

The plan was to put Giulio to bed around 9 then relax/nap until 11:30 or so and crack open some beers and pull out the snacks for an all night Superbowl viewing session. Well, Giulio had a fever the night before and didn't sleep well, requiring me to get out of bed 5 or 6 times, so this plan was doomed from the start. I put Giulio to bed, had a little dinner and was in bed myself by 10:30 with NO plans to get back out of that bed unless absolutely necessary. Fabri stayed up to watch the game very quietly on the couch all alone. He made it through the first half and say Beyonce perform, but then the power outage hit. Imagine hanging out by yourself at 3:30 am with nothing to watch but a power outage! When Giulio woke up at 5:30, I found Fabri fast asleep on the couch and the Superbowl over, but we didn't know who had won!! We turned off our phones and went to sleep until the baby woke up for good at 9. We got him dressed in his Ravens gear and then went back to the couch as a family to watch the second half. If I had to pick a half of the Superbowl to watch, I think I'd have picked the first, but that safety and then the win at the end, were very exciting!

In honor of the Ravens Superbowl victory, here are some cute photos of Giulio sporting his Ravens gear!

Also, Giulio has been sick all week (the poor dear). He's better now, but he had Sixth Disease, apparently a common childhood illness that I had never heard of. Anyhow, he's back to his ol' self today, which is good, because if Mommy has to stay inside all day again she's going to go CRAZY!!

Look Mom, I'm all better!