Christmas 2012

This year we had friends from Amsterdam join us for the festivities, Dave and his 3-year-old daughter Annika. Phoebe loved having a “big” friend to play with (most of the time!) and often they ended up with matching outfits. Guess who lives in Europe and shops at H&M…?

On Christmas Eve, we went to the candlelight service at Rome Baptist Church, where we (try to) regularly attend during the rest of the year. Goldfish crackers, raisins and even chocolates couldn’t sustain the under-four crew though. Paul ended up in the foyer with all three of them while Dave and I enjoyed the second half of the service.

Christmas Day was smoother–just breakfast, presents and eventually…

 

A trip to Villa Borghese.

THANK YOU GRANDMA & GRANDPA MATHEWS, GRANDMA & GRANDPA OLSEN AND MARY JANE FOR YOUR LOVELY GIFTS!

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Phoebe & Estelle’s Updates

They’re getting bigger all the time! Here’s what’s new with the smallest members of the household.

• Phoebe now weighs 13 kilos, which is about 28 1/2 pounds. She’s just under one meter in height (81 centimeters) and at the 50% percentile for her age in both categories.
• Estelle weighs in at 8 kilos, about 17 1/2 pounds, putting her in the 18th percentile for her age. Don’t let those rosy round cheeks fool you. She’s a petite little lady so far.
• Unfortunately they’ve both been fighting The World’s Worst Cold for several weeks now, off an on but mostly on. There are antibiotics involved, plus homeopathic remedies, eye drops, cough syrup…you name it. We’ll head back to the pediatrician this week to see about some new, hopefully healthier steps to take.
• In happier news, Estelle is crawling like a professional now. On all fours, which is something that Phoebe never really did. (Here’s was more of a monkey crawl.) She’s also pulling herself up on everything and even started using the walker this weekend. Won’t be long now…
• Phoebe has started picking up a few Italian words at school. She started with “mio” which is mine. Thankfully, she’s expanding her repertoire these days. She doesn’t quite know what each word means yet but enjoys rolling them around. Wandering around the house, you can hear her saying: cosi (like this), capito (I understand), braccia (hug).
• Estelle is getting very agile with her hands. I’ll post a video soon but in the meantime, take my word for it that she claps, waves ciao ciao, uses the “phone” which is her hand, and my favorite, Itsy Bitsy Spider. Now she’s working on blowing kisses.
• Before every nap and bedtime, we read books together. For a while we were on a (terrible) jag where we were somehow talked into reading 4, 5, 8 books. We’ve been able to limit the reads to 2 or 3 and I have to say, it’s an improvement. Currently the favorites (aka those that Paul & I have memorized and Phoebe can also recite) are: Madeline and the Cats of Rome, Green Eggs in Ham (in Italian), I’m Going to Be a Big Sister, Olivia, Olivia and the Babies, Dinner with Olivia. We ordered new books for Christmas. Thank you in advance Amazon.UK!
• Phoebe’s biggest news happened ages ago, actually in August. She’s no longer wearing diapers and doing a great job. Initially she had a treat for each trip to the loo (one M&M) plus a sticker chart for those tricky number twos. After earning enough stickers, she got a “good prize”. These days I like to think that changing one less set of diapers per day is reward enough, at least for Paul and me.

And, done!

 

Still coming…

Christmas is coming…

With our Thanksgiving plans canceled due to illness, or the threats thereof, we decided to skip ahead. Besides, that Sunday was the first day of advent. This year, Paul had helpers with the tree.

What I couldn’t be more thankful for.

You too PM. My love to all of you today.

 

New Italian ID cards

Even though we’re not citizens, not even the girls who were born here, we all have to get new Italian ID cards. Like a passport, this requires a photo and not just any photo. Eyes have to be open, no hands, feet, arms or other body parts can make an appearance, neutral expressions are mandatory, no shadows; the background must be white and strangely, the photo must be in digital format so it’s not possible to just go to one of the millions of photo booths scattered around town and hand over the automatically sized prints. This year, as usual, it took a couple of sessions to capture everyone’s essence. Or at least their mug. Here’s what I’m talking about…

And (new) baby makes three!

Yes, we’re doing it one more time! With hope and prayers we’ll welcome our third baby into the family Mathews in June. At week 12, all looks great for New Baby so far and big sister Phoebe is thrilled. She hands me diapers every day, carefully explaining that “these are for the new baby, Mommy”. She also keeps trying to show the baby (aka my stomach) to people, which is cute but not ideal for obvious reasons. Estelle has been tight lipped about her feelings though, for obvious reasons.

But best of all, we’ve had a great time asking Phoebe to predict the sex. Okay, I have, but here’s how it goes:

Charity: Do you think the new baby will be a girl or a boy?

Phoebe: Boy

Charity: Will the new baby be your sister or your brother?

Phoebe: Sister

Charity: Are you a girl or a boy?

Phoebe: Boy

So, Chinese Gender Chart, don’t worry. You’ve still got a job to do.

Wish us luck!

Phoebe’s first hair cut

Well, it’s been two and a half years, almost, and the time had come. Phoebe wears a barrette in her hair every day. But she objects to having her hair combed, every day. She shrieks and cries and usually leaves the room as though it’s a bizarre and new request. Every day. So I thought a trim would help. Her hair would be shorter and easier to handle. But did I dread getting her in that chair.

To my knowledge (which is hardly extensive) they don’t have those special kids’ hair salons with seats shaped like race cars or horses in Rome. It seemed like that would have helped, plus stylists who are used to/immune to the objections of the under four feet crowd. So I took her to my salon, which Phoebe actually knows because it’s near our house and we often stop by to pet the owner’s Pomeranian named Lucy. Still, this lady was bound to want to comb Phoebe’s hair and it wouldn’t be pretty. Or maybe it would. With Estelle in the Bjorn, I turned my phone toward her and recorded this easy breezy experience. Who would’ve known?

Okay, so there isn’t any “cutting” in this video but she let the stylist put her in a chair, throw on a robe, comb out her hair then yes, cut it. And we have a keepsake.