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!!

Babymoon in the Veneto!

Two weeks ago Josh and I took a little vacation to the Veneto region of Italy and it was fabulous! The Veneto region is on the north eastern part of Italy and includes Venice, Verona, Belluno, and the Dolomites. This region is famous for a few reasons:

• It is one of the most important wine producing regions and produces the most DOC (original location certified) wine in Italy.
• The most important wines produced are Prosecco, Valpolicella, Valdobiadene, and Amarone di Valpolicella.
• It is one of the most visited regions in Italy (thanks to Venice), and is one of the richest regions in the country.
• Bennetton, Sisley and Diesel are all from the Veneto- originally from the town of Treviso

An apartment building in Treviso

On our way to find a place to eat- many places were closed
for Ferragosto



One of the best pizza places we've ever been to! Treviso



Mmm... the pizza!

Even though the region includes Venice, we did not go into the city. We stayed for a few nights just outside of Treviso, then spent a couple nights in Conegliano. We had a great time touring the cities, seeing the Dolomites again (we kept saying that we had to go back this year!), eating the AMAZING food, and of course Josh enjoyed trying all of the prosecco and white wines of the area. I was really jealous of this because I LOVE prosecco and couldn't partake in the fun :( Next time!! We did buy some bottles to open in celebration after Bambino arrives though. We were even able to spend some time with our friends since Josh and Francesco had tickets to see the Foo Fighters. It was a really great trip that I hope to do again some time. The area is beautiful and I happen to like it better than Tuscany for a few reasons:

1. It's cheaper!!
2. There aren't many tourists
3. There is really good white wine & prosecco, as well as some of the most famous Italian reds
4. The regional food is incredible!
5. You are less than an hour from the Dolomites- my favorite part of Italy!



From our day driving in the Dolomites- we visited Belluno,
and Pieve di Cadore

A place where we had coffee in Belluno- the cappucino was almost
twice as expensive as in Milan!

A garden in the main square of Belluno. Can you see the little
duck hiding in the bush?

The main church in Belluno



Across from the church, there was this beautiful building- I think
it was the city hall



We stopped near this river to take a little break. You can see
one of the towns we visited on the hill. We ate lunch not
far from there at a place called the Ski Bar. It was amazing!



Time for another break! And an amazing view of the Dolomites



It looked like the clouds were a waterfall over the mountain.
It was pretty amazing.

Some random gnomes from a house on the side of the road.

  

We have tons of pictures to share, so I'll follow up this post with more pictures. Enjoy!

After our drive through the Dolomites, we stopped in Cornegliano



The main square in Cornegliano

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.

Norway: The final installment

After our long day on the road in Norway, we decided to sleep in on Sunday morning and enjoy a lazy day at the cabin. The view was incredible! Mountains all around, and we were up in the permafrost area so it was chilly! Luckily the cabin had lots of heat to keep us warm. The cabin is amazing- where it's located they don't have electricity or running water yet, so they bring in all of their water, and use a generator for the TV (when they use it). But they do have the option to take a shower due to the system they have, and they do have running water in the sinks in the summer time.

We went for a walk around the area and it started raining/sleeting! It wasn't raining hard, and the sleet was more like snow- it was June 3rd! We couldn't believe how cold it was, but we still had fun! Josh even played with Mia a bit and raced her back to the cabin. After a fun day relaxing, we went back to Drammen for the night and had some delicious pizza :)

Trollbu is the name of the cabin- there were trolls pictured
inside in some interesting places- the napkin holder, on the wall...
This is how they bought the cabin.

Josh and Mia

On Monday Josh and I headed into Drammen to see the city. It is a cute little town with a small square in the center, a shopping mall and a nice walking path along the river. Ragnar picked us up after lunch and brought us up the "Spiralen" which is an engineering marvel- they carved a tunnel out of the mountain in a spiral shape. Instead of going straight through the mountain, you go up to the top!! It's like the spiral entrance/exit in a car ramp, only you're in what looks like a TNT blasted tunnel. At the top was an amazing view of Drammen and we even took a little walk on the paths up there. It was like being in northern MN, only on top of a mountain.

Looking at the Drammen River

Ragnar pointing out their house on the other side of the valley

Bambino in Norway!

This bridge is famous and has won awards- the Y bridge
It is for foot traffic only and is pretty amazing!

We also met up with Sissel when she was finished with work, had dinner in Drammen (at the restaurant where they met), then Sissel took us on a tour of the Lier Valley. This was really fun for me because my namesake (Maren Granheim, my great grandmother) was from the Lier valley before moving to the north shore with her husband. Sissel even drove us by the farm where her family lived!  The valley was lit up beautifully with the evening sun, and we enjoyed a nice drive through the area. It was so much fun to see where my Norwegian relatives come from!! Being in Norway really felt like home to me and I could easily live there. The country is so beautiful!! But as they say, all good things come to an end. The next morning we had to leave very early for the airport to catch our flight.

Looking across the valley at Maren's farm

Looking towards Drammen from the Lier Valley

Thanks again to Ragnar and Sissel for being such wonderful hosts!! We had an amazing time and can't wait to come back again soon! Also, thanks to "Auntie Sissel" for Bambino's first stuffed animal!

Elgar the moose- I love his Norwegian sweater with matching
socks! He's too cute! Thanks Sissel!!