2 months and truffles!

Vincent was a pumpkin for Halloween
6 weeks old

It's been a while since I've posted an update on the little man, my apologies! I'm sure you have all been waiting oh so impatiently for a new post ;)

The past few weeks have been really fun and busy. Of course things are busy with a little one, but we also took a little trip to the Piedmont last weekend and stayed in Moncalvo again for the truffle festival. Between that and wrapping up things after my dad and Deb left, it's been a busy couple of weeks.

His Halloween face- "Am I scaring you yet?"

The truffle festival was great! We went to Alba to the truffle market during a rainy day, and enjoyed the atmosphere of wine, yummy snacks (salame and cheese) and trufffles. The entire tent just smelled of truffle- it's so potent! We bought some white and black truffles and had fun in the process. To buy, you look at the shape (it should be round), and also the smell is a big part of it. They all smell a little different- some earthy, some woody, some like nuts... I never imagined it would be so interesting. We made some pasta last week with the white truffle and it was delicious!!

First smile captured with a camera, about 6 weeks old

 

 

 

We have a few firsts though! We picked up Vincent's first passport from the US consolate here last week. He can now come home to MN when we are ready! He was only about 1.5 weeks old in his passport photo and still had the massive bump on his head, so already he looks a lot different. His head takes up the whole area for the picture so it makes him look like a big potato head. Vincent also visited our friends at Boston Scientific and did very well. The offices were a little warm for him so we couldn't stay too long, but he got to meet a lot of the people Josh and I have worked with. They were calling him big potato (patatino) :) Italians use food to give little nick names- "big potato", "little onion" (cipollino), etc.

Walking in Barolo last weekend

Vincent has also started to sleep through the entire night! For the past three nights he has slept 8.5+ hours. It takes us a couple of hours to finally put him to sleep, but I'll take that if he sleeps for 8-9 hours! It's such a nice change from the every 4 hour feedings, and even the 6.5 hour nights he had :) We are slowly getting him to bed at an earlier time each night. It used to be anywhere between 12-1AM (some nights at 2AM). We are now able to get him to sleep around 11-11:30PM for the night.

We attempted a family photo in Piedmont, V wasn't too excited about it...
He was too cold!

We have also been working through some food allergy issues. It's amazing how much your life revolves around your childs bowl movements when you are nursing. My diet no longer has peanut butter, cheese or milk as a result. It's very sad, these are some of my favorite things!!

My two guys!! So cute!

Last week Vincent had his two month check up and he is very healthy. He does have some cradle cap though, so we are debating what to do about that. We can keep up with the recommended method of just washing his hair and using a soft brush or comb to get up the pieces, or we can go to the pharmacy and pick something up for it. It seems to be getting worse, so I think I'll be opting for the pharmacy. The doctor also recommended some massage therapy for him to start using the left side of his body more- the bump from the birth had him always turning to the right. He can hold up his head though! Still a bit of a bobble head... but he can do it. Here are some new stats for you:

2 month photo shoot!

Weight: 6.350 kg, 90-97% (13.99 lbs!)
Height: 62 cm, 97% (24.5 inches)
Head circumference: 41 cm, 75-90% (16 inches)

(they measure the head circumference- not sure if they do that back home??)

At two months he is only a pound away from doubling his birth weight, and my shoulders are starting to feel it! Man, bouncing him to sleep at night is not as easy as it use to be. Now I sit on a big exercise ball to put him to sleep. It saves the shoulders!!



I just love his sweet face!

 

That's all for now. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We'll have some fun stuff for you after that since it's Vincent's first Thanksgiving and our second annual Italian Thanksgiving. Turkey has been ordered, and we are preparing- I'm so excited!!

Ferragosto

Many of you have realized that traveling to Europe in August may not be the best idea. Many people take a holiday during the month of August, and a lot of businesses shut down for the month. Here in Italy, it is no different. There is a holiday on August 15th called "Ferragosto" which celebrates the assumption of Mary. It is a national holiday in Italy and everything closes on that day. Really, most businesses shut down completely for at least that week, if not the entire month of August. Thankfully, the grocery stores are still open! But all of the small businesses near our house were shut down at the end of July, and re-open around August 27th.

Cinque Terre (just one of the many places that will be packed
full of people)

Most people take this opportunity to flee the stiflingly hot cities and head to the sea or mountains. Resorts are completely packed, and the sea is full of Italians sun bathing and enjoying their vacation. Ferragosto is celebrated typically with a feast or bbq and spending time with friends and family on the sea. For Josh and me it will be no different. We have found an amazing hotel north of Venice that we will visit for the week. Thankfully, there is a pool!! Lots of swimming in store for this preggo lady, I can't wait! We are now officially in the hottest time of the year. Thankfully, it will be over in a couple of weeks (at least I'm hoping!).

Liguria (west of Genoa), another beach that will be packed!!

So, word to the wise! If you plan on traveling to Europe in August, expect many places to be shut down in the big cities, resorts to be more expensive than normal, and TONS of Europeans to be crowding the seas and lakes. We are now officially in the peak tourist season of Italy (mainly European tourists). People here really enjoy their holidays and they make a big deal out of taking at least two weeks off every year to relax. This is a new mentality for me that was difficult to get used to. Americans typically don't take more than a few days off from work at a time, let alone taking 2-4 weeks off in the summer. I could definitely get on board with the European mentality though :)

Barga Blues Festival and The Devil's Bridge

The pool- there was an amazing view of Barga and the
surrounding mountains.

This past weekend we took a little road trip down to a small town called Barga. It's in Tuscany, in the province of Lucca. It's about 40 km from the sea, so we thought we might spend some time at the beach. When we saw how nice the hotel was, we scrapped that idea and sat by the pool all weekend. It was great!!

Barga in the evening

The great thing about Tuscany is that there seems to be a festival going on every weekend in the summer. This weekend was no exception. There was a bbq and blues festival going on in Barga, and it was really fun! They had bands set up in all of the little squares, tables selling things, the stores were open and the entire city showed up to celebrate the occasion. Surprisingly, there are a lot of young families in Barga- we couldn't walk down a street without getting held up because there were a bunch of strollers blocking traffic. It was a little unusual for me. When we go to these small towns in Italy, the population always seems to be older and we don't see as many young adults. Maybe they are all hiding when we go to the small towns? It was fun to see some people our age!

Some interesting art we found in the city- painted umbrellas

This was the car for Trattoria di Riccardo
LOL

This was a sign we followed to find one of the bands playing
in the city, they also had a pork roast and other yummy foods 

One of the popular places that night- we counted between 5 or 6
strollers that were just hanging out by the this bar. There was a
serious traffic jam!

Another fun part of this weekend was seeing the "Devil's Bridge" (really it's called Maddalena's Bridge) on Saturday. The morning was overcast, so we took advantage and went to see the bridge before lying by the pool in the sunny afternoon. It was only about 15 km away from our hotel near a town called Borgo a Mozzano, so it was a quick and easy car ride. This thing is crazy! You see pictures and think it looks interesting, but when you actually climb the bridge, it's unbelievable how steep it really is. It took me a while to climb it with the preggo belly. I think Ragnar would be interested in seeing this bridge- he's a bridge engineer in Drammen.

The Devil's Bridge

Here is the local legend (found on The Florentine, but most versions I've found have the same story):

"Popular legend that tells the story of a clever and respected master builder who lived in a village on the banks of the River Serchio. The villagers asked him to build a bridge to connect their village with the one across the river. He set to work immediately, but he soon realised that the construction was not progressing as quickly as he had promised. Being a man of honour and wanting to keep his word, he became very unhappy and quite desperate. He continued working very hard, day and night, to finish the task within the time agreed upon in the contract, but the work proceeded very slowly. The days flew by.

The arch on the far left was added on to allow traffic through

One evening, while the master builder was sitting alone on the banks of the Serchio, looking at the work that was still to be done and thinking of the shame he would suffer for not having completed it on time, the devil appeared to him in the form of a respectable businessman. He approached the master builder and said he could finish the bridge in a single night-if the builder would promise him the soul of the first one who crossed the bridge when it was completed. The builder accepted the proposal.

The steep climb up to the top

The following day, the village had its beautiful bridge that can still be seen today near Borgo a Mozzano. The townspeople were astonished and delighted. When they went to congratulate the builder, he ordered them not to cross the bridge before sunset. Then, worried about his deal with the devil, he set off on his horse for Lucca to ask the bishop (who became Saint Frediano), for advice. This saintly man told him not to worry: he should let a pig cross the bridge first. That is just what the builder did. The devil, furious at having been tricked, threw himself into the waters of the Serchio." After the devil returned to the water, it was said that if you stand on the bridge gazing into the water for too long, the devil would rise up and take you, still looking for that one soul that he was promised.

We spent a lot of time admiring the bridge; after all it was completed before or around 1100! Since then, it has had one or two restorations due to damage from flooding, and they added an archway along one side of the bridge for traffic to drive under, but otherwise it's construction is the original. It was a part of the Roman Road from France and people would use this bridge on their pilgrimage. It was fun to think of all of the people from history that could have crossed it. For example, I recently read a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine. She passed through this area a few times, once on the second crusade. She could have crossed this bridge with an army of crusaders.

Our view from the room on Sunday morning, the mountains
reminded us of the Dolomites. They were a lot bigger than
I thought they would be!

After three days of relaxing by the pool and enjoying Barga, we headed home. It was a fun weekend!! I'm looking forward to going back to Barga next year. If we are still living in Italy at that time, we plan to come back for the Blues festival next summer.

30 years and 30 weeks

So, the past week has brought two big miles stones- turning 30 and hitting the 30 week mark with Bambino! I can't believe how time has flown by so fast... and I can't believe I'm no longer in my 20's! It's a little strange, but at the same time I feel like my 30's have some pretty amazing things in store for me. A few months ago my friend Laura turned 30 (if you remember our celebration in Amsterdam), and she talked about all of the things that she has accomplished in the past decade. That got me thinking about all of the life changing events that have happened over the past ten years...

1. Turning 21 (and partying a lot!)
2. Graduating from Undergrad and entering the "Real World"
3. Starting a full time job (and trying to keep a full time job between layoffs and jobs that weren't a good fit for me)
4. Moving out of my parent’s house and into a small apartment with my friend Holly (oh the memories!)
5. Meeting and marrying the love of my life!!
6. Becoming a home owner
7. Starting, and finishing, my MBA
8. Uprooting my life to move to Italy
9. Being able to travel all around Europe and to Northern Africa
10. Learning a new language
11. Finally... Becoming pregnant!!

I always thought that I wanted to start having children before I turned 30, but now I think this will be the perfect kick off to start my 30's! This will be a new decade focused on new priorities, where my 20's were focused mainly on my education and starting a career. Now, I think the next decade will focus on family and further development of my career.

The past few weeks have been really fun with Bambino. Bambino is supposed to be almost 16 inches long by now, and I can definitely feel it! I feel the feet up by my ribs, and the head close to my hip. It's easy to tell that Bambino is growing! I've felt really great lately, but fatigue is becoming more prevalent. It seems that the growth Bambino is experiencing is draining my energy.

After reviewing the results of that awful glucose tolerance test, the results were normal. So, I don't have gestational diabetes- yay! I was a little worried about that after the test.

My mom and Holly threw a baby shower/bbq for Josh and I when we were in MN a couple of weeks ago, and it was so great seeing all of our friends!! It was fun to catch up with people that we hadn't seen in almost a year (or more). When I get the pictures I'll post them for you all to see. I've been busy trying to put all of those things away and organizing our guest room so I've been a little distracted...

Cravings? Hmm... I'm always craving sweets, but I've cut back quite a bit which has actually helped to curb the cravings. Now I just want yogurt, peanut butter toast, and healthy stuff.

Exercise? I've started doing yoga again after a few weeks off, and it's great. I also try to walk everyday. It's becoming a little difficult because my feet now swell almost every night because of the summer heat and extra weight. I just need to keep exercising to keep the blood flowing.

We've also started putting together the nursery for Bambino, and it's taken over a corner of our guest room. It's starting to come together though! We now have the furniture, but still need a few minor things and it would be nice to put up some cute pictures on the wall to make it complete. It's hard though with concrete walls that you can't paint! We'll figure something out though.

Ok, that's all for now! Hopefully I can post something about my brothers wedding and the baby shower in MN soon. Stay tuned...

Cantine Aperte part 2

Good morning! This was outside of our B&B that Sunday
morning.

On the Sunday of our weekend in Tuscany we toured the open cellars on the south side of Tuscany. We were near the border of Umbria and visited Montalcino (a very hilly medieval town), Uccelliera winery, Felsinà, Poggio Antico and a place where we didn’t buy the wine. Each place gives a tour and explains the fermentation process, samples their wine and usually has snacks. Since I wanted to go to Siena and Josh did that for me on Saturday, it was my turn to let him try some wine and be his driver. I have to admit, it wasn’t as fun just watching someone drinking wine L

Josh was up to see the sunrise

We also visited Montalcino and spent some time walking around the city. This was definitely a tough day for me! After all of the walking on Saturday in Siena and Pienza, I was pretty tired. When we arrived in Montalcino we parked at the wrong spot and had to walk all the way up the hill to the town. We later found a parking lot at the top of the hill near the city center… Next time. Unfortunately, after we got up to the town (after much huffing, puffing and taking breaks to let my heart rate return to normal on the long staircase), we realized that the entire town was made of really steep hills. It was rough! My poor body didn’t like that at all and started to reject the idea of movement. We had to stop for lunch so I didn’t pass out (literally). It’s so frustrating that the things I had no problem with before are suddenly the most difficult tasks! Honestly, I can’t wait until Bambino comes so I can get back into the shape I was in before!

A church we found after we got up the hill into Montalcino

a steep hill we had to go down after we got
into Montalcino...

Had to get this one for Josh's Mom- she loves Charlie Brown!

In the city center of Montalcino

Inside the fortress at Montalcino

Uccelliera gave us the best tour of the weekend. She took us into the cellars and showed us the special barriques they have, and even let Josh taste the wine straight from the barrel. He was able to taste how the wine is at different stages of the aging process, and then even tried a mixture of two barrels. By far it was the best tour we’ve ever been on. Unfortunately, I had to watch- but it was fun to hear the explanations of everything. They also sell olive oil, so we were able to taste that.

Uccelliera means "bird house" in Italian. This used to be the birdhouse.

The special barriques

A huge monastery we found on the way to Uccelliera

Felsinà is another fun winery to go to. We took a tour of their cellar last year when Josh’s mom and Mike came to visit us, so this year we only did the tasting (again, I watched). Although, I was able to try the olive oil (which is amazing!). They have a huge key to get into the cellar and this time we got a picture of it so you can see how HUGE it is!!



The HUGE key! It's about the size of Bambino

the first pour

After a long day of wine tasting, it was time for me to drive back to Milan. I was so happy to be home! We didn’t get home until after midnight that night and I completely crashed. This was a rough weekend for a pregnant woman with all of the walking; thankfully Cantine Aperte only happens once a year! If you’re not pregnant, it’s great though. And I should add that even though I couldn't partake in the fun, we met some really fun people and got to see some beautiful sights. Not to mention Josh really enjoyed himself- so it was a good day :)

the grapes were just starting to bud

Cantine Aperte

Every year there is a weekend in Italy called Cantine Aperte (Open Cellars), and it’s usually on the Sunday over Memorial weekend in Tuscany. We found ourselves back in Florence on Memorial weekend for the third time since 2006 as a result of the timing. Instead of staying in Florence the whole weekend, we decided to tour around Tuscany and see some new cities including Pienza, Montalcino, and we went back to see Siena for the second time.

My favorite- the mezzaluna pasta (half moon pasta stuffed with
ricotta and topped with pears and truffle)

The amazing Limoncino

After driving down on Friday afternoon, we went back to Cinque di Vino for dinner. We visited this restaurant with Josh’s mom and Mike when they visited last fall and it’s in a small town called San Casciano. It was worth going back! The food is so good and everything they use is local, fresh food. And of course, Josh couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have more of their amazing limoncino!! That same night there was a small food festival in the park outside of our restaurant. They had a lot of wine, meats, and even Sicilian Canolo! Of course we had to try them and it was pretty good. It doesn’t live up to the Canolo we’ve found at our pasticceria here in Milan, but it was still good J

Siena

an interesting fountain we saw on the walk into the center
of Siena from the parking lot

The old wooden doors on the Town Hall- it even had a doorbell...
I thought that was strange.

Outside the town hall- they have these hooks (to me they look like
places that were used to tie up horses)

The Town Hall

On Saturday, we drove straight to Siena in the morning. Siena is an amazing city! It’s small, but a lot of walking for a pregnant woman! It was good exercise. Every building seems to be 700 years old, and it’s similar to Venice in the fact that the buildings are a little run down. But this just adds to the charm of the city. We found a parking lot closer to the city center than on our previous trip- that was nice for me! And we toured the Town Hall Museum which was an amazing example of the Tuscan Gothic style, and medieval life. After that we grabbed some pizza and explored the city a little bit. After a little rain passed, it turned out to be a beautiful day! So, we did what the locals do- we sat in Piazza del Campo and enjoyed the sun for a while before heading to our B&B for the night.



View from the back side of the Town Hall

An interesting window display...



I love lamp!

Enjoying the sun

Our B&B was right outside of Pienza- another beautiful city! The B&B was great and I really want to go back. Our room was huge- it had a bedroom, bathroom, living room/dining room and a kitchen. They even had a really nice pool outside. I hope to go back this summer when it’s a little warmer so we can swim. After checking in, we headed into Pienza just in time to see all of the little shops closing. Unfortunately, in small towns in Italy everything closes before 7PM on a Saturday. On the bright side, we were able to catch an amazing sunset overlooking the Tuscan hills! Josh was able to get some nice pictures.

Pienza

Watching the sunset in Pienza

Since our room had a kitchen, we decided to hit up the local grocery store and cook dinner that night. It was a nice romantic dinner at the B&B with my hubby. After a long and tiring day that was a great idea.

 

The next day we toured some wineries for Cantine Aperte in addition to Montalcino. I’ll post more about that in a bit since this one is getting long and we have a lot of pictures… Stay tuned.

the view from our B&B