Please meet Diego and Nemo and 6 of their friends

So how exactly does something like this happen? Well, it started a couple of Saturdays ago. I hear Kyle yell from the front of the house, "ZORO'S BACK!" It took me a minute and then I remembered Zoro is the name of the dog that "lives" at the house across the street. The family only uses the house in the summer so it's been a while since we've seen them. Kyle wants to go say hi to Zoro and in the course of conversation - about the frogs singing, we are taken to the pool and shown hundreds of tadpoles! Kyle, of course, being 4 and a boy, wants some. We fill a jar with 6 tadpoles and now are proud new parents! (And just exactly how does one rear tadpoles? I think I knew more about this at age 6 than I do now!) We (I) read up on it on the internet (mostly because I want to avoid any tragedies and making tadpole funeral arrangements) and Kyle is now the proud owner of a small plastic aquarium with six tadpoles who feast at least once a day on frozen spinach.
Jump to two Tuesdays ago. Kyle was so excited to show Eva his new pets. Although he struggled to find the Italian words he needed to relay his excitement Eva definitely understood. So much so, that when she came this Tuesday she had, in a jar, two goldfish, whom were quickly named, by Kyle, Diego and Nemo. I thought the jar was a little small and wasn't sure if tadpoles and goldfish can co-exist. Kyle now has two small plastic aquariums.

Now just who is it that brings new pets to a family only six weeks before they move! OK, the tadpoles - with a little luck they'll hop away before the six weeks are up. But Nemo and Diego? With our move approaching Kyle has been working on a list as to what of his possessions will be sold, what will go home with us and what will he give away and to whom. His venus flytrap (which he feeds fairly regularly with still moving insects) he'd like to give to his mate Elspeth but since they're moving it looks like Finn may be the lucky winner. And I, like a good parent, will start conferring with Dorianne, Alessia's mom next door to see if she will take on Kyle's Diego and Nemo.

I'm thinking babysitters, at least our very loving Polish-Italian one, must fall into the category of "aunt". The people in that category can get away with things with my children that no one else can! (Right, Lisa?)

Now if Kyle would only admit that the tadpoles tails are getting shorter and not growing longer as he claims! If they are growing longer then I may really have a challenge!

Hmmm, I think I hear a cricket singing outside the front door...perhaps I should go and warn him to move on.


I actually wrote this blog entry well over a week ago and never got it posted. So here is the update: Poor Nemo did not stay with us very long. Kyle was not particularly bothered as he simply renamed Diego - "Diego-Nemo". And all is fine. Since this posting we have actually had an encounter with a cricket that found it's way into our house, as well as a baby bird that fell out of one of our trees (put it in a shoebox and hung that from the tree and the next day it was gone), and a litter of three kittens (maybe 5 days old) at our friends house. Oh and our tadpoles have legs.

Rescue Hero

Thursday evening presented a very memorable event. One that I doubt Kyle will forget for a very long time.

On our way home (late) from a birthday party we noticed a fire burning in an abandoned building in our village. It was obviously just started because the smoke had not gone very high in the air but a whole room was already lit up. Kyle and I agreed we needed to "call it in" but we did't speak enough Italian to give the details. We tried calling a friend but couldn't reach her, we drove past the police station but there was no one around, so we turned to our next door neighbours. We went over and gave them the details and they called it in while Brian put Vika to bed. After the call was made we were assured that everything would be taken care of. I don't know what I was thinking when I thought that would be end of it. We came through our front gate and just as fast as any firefighter, Kyle had his gear on and was ready to go! I politely bowed out and told him that it's not really a good thing to go watch a fire but he could go talk to daddy. Of course he did and of course they went, with a head light attached to his helmut - and they beat the fire trucks there!

Kyle learned the importance of making sure all equipment is in working order. The firefighters' chainsaw wasn't working and then they had to resort to bolt cutters to cut through the locks to get onto the property. (Why didn't they use the bolt cutters first?) Once they had access to the building it took all of 30 seconds to extinguish the fire. Then, as Kyle says, "They just noticed me!"

Here's how Kyle tells it: They just noticed me. They just talked to me. One spoke English!!! Do you believe me! They asked me about everything actually, like who called in the fire. They wanted to know where I go to school and I really surprised them that I showed them I speak Italian. They really liked my uniform and theirs is the same even with a light! Then they just took me over to their truck and I got to sit in it. And they turned on the siren for me!! Then they got me out of the truck and I got to get my picture taken with them all! They actually were all nice!

The part Kyle doesn't tell is coming home when the Carabieneri (sp)(police) decided to stop Brian and Kyle and check Brian's documents (not unusual here). All Brian could think about was - yeah, the one who sets it comes back to the scene - oh -oh , here I go! It was shortly after that thought that Brian realized his Sojourners permit (permit to be in the country working and living) had expired 4 days earlier. Lovely. Thankfully Kyle had charmed the firefighters to the point that they considered him one of them and stood up to the police and asked them to let Brian and Kyle go!

(Did I mention how proud I am that Brian actually thought to grab a camera as he ran out the door!)

A quick update

I am pathetically behind in keeping up this blog! I guess that's life - when you're busy living it it's hard to find time to write about it! We've been keeping well, obviously busy. We had a fantastic visit with Lisa and Zach followed by a wonderful visit with Brian's parents. Of course the kids were thrilled to see Ami and Papa and were sad to see them leave. We did take the advantage with Brian's parents to see a little bit more of Italy. We spent some time in Orvieto and also made a trip to Sicily, fulfilling a dream of mine to see Mt Etna, glowing lava and all. Now we start the countdown to my mom's visit in May.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures to keep the grandparents happy! Some were taken around the house and some at a birthday party we attended last weekend. Enjoy.

Our visit to Rome

Kyle and I had such a great visit to Rome for two days with Lisa and Zach! We left Vika with Brian (and she got to spend one day with her "auntie" Nancy) and we took the two hour train ride to Rome. It took a little longer to get settled into our B&B than we expected. That had something to do with us buying our Roma Passes, stopping for snacks, eating at McD's then finding our way on the metro to our stop and walking the rest of the way to the B&B. As you can already tell food became a big part of trip. Kyle ate more than I've ever seen him eat! We took a whole grocery bag of snacks and in 24 hours they were gone - plus we ate three meals a day and had gelato twice a day!

Or course, we saw the main highlights of Rome - the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, The Pantheon, Vatican City, and a few smaller sites; the Cat Ruins/Sanctuary, and The Crypt at Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception church which is full decorated from floor to ceiling with the bones of 400 monks. That was Zach's big request - to see the church with the bones. Both the boys were amazing as they walked and walked and walked. We only had to stop and give them foot massages (peeuww! smelly!) once.

We walked to the top of St. Peter's Dome - 320 stairs up (after the elevator). That was a challenge for Lisa and I as the boys decided to race and ran pretty much the whole way. We gave it our best shot but we didn't quite keep up. As soon as we got to the top the boys wanted to have a drink and snacks (nevermind that we'd just finished breakfast). Lisa and I wanted a full body massage and a bed! (and a shower!). I believe while we were at the top we actually have two snack breaks!

We walked A LOT, rode the metro and the bus - and we still didn't get to see everything that we wanted to see. Hopefully that means that our wish we made when we threw our coins into the Trevi Fountain (to return) will come true!

Zach and Lisa's visit

We had such a fabulous visit with Zach and Lisa! We wore ourselves out - and the boys always seemed to find more energy, especially if gelato was involved. I think Zach tried more than 20 flavours! We saw lots of the sights both locally and in Rome and we also did some shopping. Lucky for the boys Brian would watch them so more often than not when shopping was involved. But then again, gelato can go a long way when kids are waiting for their moms to finish shopping. (It's "rewarding", not "bribing", right?) I believe after 3 malls ( tow of them shopped twice each), two markets and the shops in Rome, Sorento and Naples Lisa left with 5 pairs of shoes, 3 purses (all counterfeit designer bags of course), one hat, one sweater dress, at least 4 tops/sweaters, one skirt, multiple tights, three belts and more I'm sure!

We spent about 5 hours one day at Pompei. I think Zach really enjoyed it, for at least two reasons. One, that it is close to Mt, Vesuvius. The other, that it gave him endless opportunities to persue his quest to defy gravity! He seems to be born to have his feet off the ground! He would jump off of or leap frog over just about everything. This was a really lesson to Kyle! Kyle realized on more than one occasion just how much shorter than Zach he is! However, that didn't slow him down when it came to keeping up with Zach! Check out the slideshow of our day at Pompei!

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My favourtie Kyle-ism yet!

I have so many things to post about but they'll all have to wait. (I seriously need to get some slideshows together of Zach and Lisa's visit! What a great time!) But right now I need to post about one of the biggest smiles Kyle has given me in a long time!

Kyle and Zach were out digging in the yard and Kyle runs to the door calling me, "MOM! Come and see what I found! A treasure! Come and look!" I run to meet him at the door and he presents to me a broken shard of terracotta pottery that he has unburied. "Look mom! Harry Pottery!" He exclaims.

I wasn't sure I heard him right, but I did! He was so proud about finding Harry Pottery in the dirt!

Just to confirm it we went through it all again the next day as we were exploring Pompei with Lisa and Zach when Kyle found another shard of broken pottery.

Now Kyle doesn't really know who Harry Potter is as we've never exposed him to the books or movies. However, I'm sure he's heard the name as Brian and I will make reference to the books and maybe to a Quiditch broom or such. Nevertheless I absolutely love what his imagination does and I hope I remember "Harry Pottery" for a very long time - and smile every time!

For my scrappy friends

Here's a new scrap blog:

http://lovebugscrapbooking.wordpress.com/

Feel free to check it out and if you do, let them know you found it through me!