Hanging out in Piacenza

Noah decided to take Dodo-Baby for a walk.

A succo di mirtillo/blueberry juice mustache.

Maggie and B.C. have made a million friends here. We can't go 10 feet without meeting another dog.

Maggie's favorite spot in the apartment.

Via Romagnosi 65, Piacenza

Here's our place! Our apartment is in the yellow building on the corner. Our place has the two windows on the right on the 2nd floor (which in the U.S. would be the 3rd floor). Our shutters are open and we have a window box outside our living room window. The other one is our bedroom window. This is the view of our apartment from Piazza Duomo. The entry door is on Via Romagnosi which you can see there at the corner. Our kitchen window looks out onto that street. That's Jeff and Noah on the other side of the grass.

Noah watching a concert from our bedroom window. You can see the clock up above on the palazzo (that functions as our house clock!).

The kitchen...

Our living room. That's a kumquat tree that I bought in the market in Piazza Duomo.

The bedroom. You'll notice the love seat now functions as Noah's bed. The closet acts as a railing so he doesn't roll off. Hey, this is much better than the famous drawer that he slept in at 5 months. :)

Hanging out in Piazza Duomo.

There's always something going on outside our window. Usually it's the outdoor market or the organic farmer's market, but this time we woke up to a morning concert and a huge flower market. Dancers took the stage later in the afternoon and then at 4pm the Statue of the Madonna came out of the Duomo with a million people behind it and they paraded around town to celebrate the Festa della Madonna del Popolo.

Outdoor market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Yesterday we bought umbrellas there when it suddenly started pouring. Last Wed I bought some socks and a wine opener. :)

Noah's Prized Possessions

Noah’s current obsession is his “ombrellino” which he calls his “ombreyeeeno.” He carries it around everywhere regardless of rain. He’s like the boy with the red balloon, you can spot him from a mile away as he’s the only one with an umbrella over his head. In the apartment he has to open it and put it above his head in order to go from room to room. He closes it when he arrives in each room though. At night, he sleeps with it.

This is nothing new for us and perhaps it is quite typical, but we have found that since Noah was really little he has been fairly object-centered. He likes to focus on one thing and then his world revolves around that for a day, 2 days, a week, or however long. His last prized object was his “Sul Pullman” book. He not only read this book 400 times a day, but he also carried it with him everywhere he went and slept with it. Before that it was two little pocket books called “Gigi, Il Maialino” and “Pino, il Leoncino.” Before that it was his mini-water bottle. Before that it was his bug spray bottle. Before that the “Little Pim” dvd box. The list goes on and on. We find it extremely endearing and can’t help but laugh even when Noah is yelling because he latest fad also needs to go on the walk with us.

Making Rent

After a month of job searching (which went nowhere with the local businesses) and stressing about making some sort of income, we are finally on our way. Last week we started receiving calls out of the blue for English lessons and all of them were from non-related sources. So I started last week and with the clients that I currently have, we can now pay our rent! My youngest client is 2 (little Chiara) and I’m doing English immersion with her with a lot of structured play. Then I have lessons with an 11 yr old boy, a 13 yr old boy, two 15 yr old girls, and a college student.

I’ve been posting flyers since we got here and have more to post this week so hopefully I’ll get even more students so that we can pay for food too. Don’t get me wrong, we’re definitely eating (and we’re eating well), but we’re using loan money until the income takes over. Soon though, soon!

We’re feeling so much better now. And when I say “we” I guess I mean “me” and it’s not so much even a thing of money. It was the actual need to do something. I had thought for a while that I would enjoy being a stay-at-home mom, but apparently that’s not for me. ☺ I almost lost my mind. I went stir-crazy and if I hadn’t at least bought a pair of shoes and started running again I think Jeff would have had to commit me.

Jeff is in the midst of writing some articles and just did a translation for the university here. Hopefully more translations will come in because they pay fairly well.

So that's the latest on the money front. One step at a time!

It's Seven.

We taught Noah about time and clocks and most importantly that he is not allowed to wake us up until the clock says 7. It took him a couple days of waking up crying and talking about it not being 7 yet and that he still wanted us to get up. But now he’s got it down pat. This morning he woke up at 6:51 and sat up. I woke up too but pretended to still be asleep. He sat there and looked at the clock and then out the window and then at the clock and then whatever it took to keep him occupied. I started to drift off again when all of a sudden he said “Oh! it’s 7.” Then he came and bent over me and said “Mommy, the clock says 7, it’s time to wake up. Mommy, it’s already 7, get out of bed please. Look, here’s the clock.” THEN he went over to Jeff’s side and did the same thing, but this time making sure to add “Babbo, it’s time to make coffee.” Nice touch Noah!

We are now using this method throughout the day as well…not just in the morning and he seems to do much better with it than with us simply saying, it’s time to go, or no, it’s not time to do this, etc. For example, yesterday at the park I told him we could only stay until my watch said 6:30. He would play and then run over to check my watch and then would run off to play some more. When he saw my watch turn to 6:30 he got off the toy and walked over to our stroller and said it was time to go eat dinner. Before discovering this “time awareness method,” I would have told him that it was time to leave even after giving him warnings and he would have thrown a fit. It’s nice to find new ways to make life easier.

March 27 2010

La Vita Piacentina is much more traditional than that of Florence. Everything follows the Italian clock here without exception. The world closes for pranzo e pausa from 12:30 until 3:30 and then after noon on Saturdays and then all day Sunday. It’s a big change from the tourist center of Florence where you can still find stuff open during the Pausa. The other day Noah was napping during the Pausa and I had absolutely nothing to do; Jeff was on the computer, nothing was open, and I didn’t even have a book to read let alone a pamphlet or brochure. I realized I needed to go with the Italian flow and simply take a nap. What a strange occurance.

We’ve signed up at the library which happens to be right around the corner from us. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to have a library card. For some reason it never dawned on me to borrow books from the library here in Italy before. I was planning to go buy a book when my senses kicked in and I stopped by the library and signed up. Easy as pie! I came home with a pile of books and some dvds AND I discovered that the children’s library is super cool. Noah really enjoys going and there are often a number of other kids there to play and read. Noah chose 2 books to check out yesterday and he has carried them with him everywhere since. He made sure to take them to Fede’s parents house to show Nonno and Manu (her nickname for him from Emmanuela). One is “Gigi, il maialino” and the other is “Pino, il leoncino.” I think we’ve read them about 100 times already and he likes to open them to certain pages to show us what Pino or Gigi is doing.

75%/25%

In the States we were using English for 75% of the time and now we’ve switched it. We speak in Italian with him and between us for 75% of the day and then do about 25% in English. Noah’s language transition is happening slowly but surely. It’s just like when he first started speaking in English. New words every day and then 2 word sentences, etc. etc. Right now he’s speaking in English but throwing in Italian words. “Noah wants to go to il parco giochi (playground).” “Noah needs to take l’ascensore (elevator).” He also translates what we say. For example, this morning I whispered in his ear to tell Daddy that I wanted another Latte. I said this all in Italian and then he got up and ran to Jeff and said that I wanted more milk. This really made me laugh because I actually had made the mistake and Noah caught me on it. I should have said Caffelatte and not just the Americanized version “latte.”

New words:

strada
perchè
acqua naturale
Piazza Cavalli
biblioteca
succo
dov’è
mangiamo
pera
pane
ascensore
casa