First Day of Italian Preschool

Noah started school on April 19^th at the Istituto Sant’Eufemia and has loved every second of it. Everyone who works at the school appears to have taken some sort of happy pill. We’ve never seen anything like it. I think the happiest people on Earth all congregated together at Sant’Eufemia. It’s a total trip.

Anyway, Noah really enjoys school and has not shed even a single tear. As per their request, with which we wholeheartedly agreed, Jeff and I took turns going with him the first week to help him adjust to being there. It was so great to participate because we also got to see what it was like and we were able to meet the other kids. There are 20 students in his asilo (preschool) with 3 teachers, Federica (Chicca), Elena, and Daniela. Noah immediately took to all three of them, but formed a special bond with Chicca. He talks about Chicca all the time and is excited to go back to school to see Chicca.

We bought Noah a little book about a little girl going to an asilo and Noah immediately related to it. Suddenly Chicca and Elena were both in the book along with Isabella, a girl from his school. There’s also a little boy in the book that looks a lot like Noah so of course he talks about himself in the book. When he comes home from school he likes to use the book to show us what he did at school. The first day that he took a nap there, he was totally prepared because that was what happened in the book. It was so cute. He even asked to take his book to school that day to show Chicca and Elena.

Last week he fell in love with Giulia and low and behold she was also in his book! He tells us things like, “Ecco la Giulia! Si lava le mani. E ecco Noah che asciuga le mani” (Here’s Giulia! She’s washing her hands. And here’s Noah drying his hands). It’s super cute. We’ve never seen Noah react like this with another child. He’s never been the sort to play a lot with the other kids, but he actually plays with Giulia and then tells us all about how they played together and that he wants to go back to school to play with Giulia. When he sees her or talks about her he gets so excited that sometimes he jumps up and down. It’s hilarious!

Pasqua/Easter with the Fava Family

We spent the day with Fede's family out at their country house in Rivergaro (about 20 minutes from here). We followed both the American and Italian traditions for Easter starting with the egg hunt. Noah really enjoyed finding his 12 eggs that we colored together. It was quite the novelty since they don't dye or hide eggs in Italy. Instead they get huge chocolate eggs that you break open to find a surprise. Noah's choco-egg was larger than his head and he loved breaking it open.

We ate like kings for the entire day. The lunch/pranzo lasted 3 hours and had a starter, then a second starter, then the first dish, then the second dish, then the third dish, then the fruit, and then the dessert and coffee. I'm not sure how I managed to eat so much, but just when I thought I might actually be able to move again, I heard the table being set once more! After all that we also ate dinner. It was like a double dose of Thanksgiving.

B.C. ate an egg and next thing you know Noah had to eat one.

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.