Puddles.

It's been pretty cold here the last few weeks. Definitely not as cold as up north, but cold for us. We had a little bit of snow on the ground Saturday morning which JJ enjoyed. Brian took JJ outside in the morning and made him a snowball. JJ really enjoyed it until it melted and he accused Brian of throwing it away and threw a huge tantrum! Trying to explain melting snow to a 2-year-old is a little difficult.

I think JJ's favorite part of the snow though was that it turned into puddles in the afternoon. JJ, like most little boys, never gets tired of jumping in them and getting soaking wet. He didn't stay outside too long though because it was freezing.

So JJ has a new phrase these days, "I can't want. . ." We thought it was kind of funny and cute at first, but now it's kind of annoying! Tonight, Brian and I have each already had to go into his room a few times because he's yelling "help" but then when we go in his room he says, "I can't want that pillow" or "I can't want that blanket" or other nonsense that then you have to "change" for him so that he stops yelling and goes to sleep! When he told me tonight "I can't want dinner" I asked him why and he said "ummm, ummm, cause 5 more minutes." Oh the things kids say : )

Hanging Out.

We have done absolutely nothing glamorous since Rome, but it's been nice to just hang out. It was raining for awhile, then JJ was sick last weekend, and this weekend it's raining again. JJ's been having fun just playing cars and trains, reading, coloring, and painting. He also likes to play hide-and-seek all the time and likes to pretend to put Brian to bed : )

As JJ gets older and talks even more, we start to realize the sayings that we say all the time. JJ was pretending to put Brian to bed the other night and Brian asked him to read another book and JJ said, "ok, one more book, but that's it." Apparently he knows the bedtime routine very well.

We're still in temporary housing and are very, very ready to move into our house. The military housing office operates incredibly slowly here, so it's been very frustrating. We're hoping to be moved in the next few weeks, but you never know what could happen. JJ will sometimes ask for his toys and we'll say they'll be here soon but then he says, "when I go home I can play with them." For some reason when he asks for his toys he'll also say sometimes that Tristan is playing with them, which makes me laugh and cry at the same time. I don't think that he understands that this is where we really live since we don't have our stuff. Hopefully once we're moved we can all get settled in and get a more "normal" life back.

Rome, Day Three.

JJ realizing that the ceilings were painted.

Before we headed home on Monday, we went to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel (since they were closed on Sunday). Once again, JJ enjoyed about the first 15 minutes before asking to go home. At one point he got so excited about a painting on the wall that he went under the rope to touch it and I instinctually grabbed him by the hood of his jacket and pulled him away from the wall, which then made him lay down on the ground and start crying and screaming! Other than that one incident he did really well and was very quiet in the chapel.

The only bad part about Monday was that for Italians it wasn't a holiday, which we didn't really think about. We went to get on the metro about 9 am and there were tons of people in a huge rush! When we finally got on the train, it was extremely crowded. JJ was so cute though, he kept saying to me, "Mommy, be careful, be careful Mommy!" Next time we go to Rome, we will be better about visiting places when they're open and will remember to not ride the metro during rush hour in the morning.

Rome, Day Two.

Yep, that's crying due to the cold : (

So we started out on our second day in Rome and it was freezing outside. Truly, it was about 0 degrees Celsius! Brian's mom had bought JJ a cute hat and gloves, but of course I forgot them back at our house, so we were all freezing together! We figured out really fast that JJ was super spoiled by the San Diego weather since he kept complaining about being cold and actually ended up in tears multiple times : (

We went back to the Colosseum in the morning when it was open and got to walk around, which was really neat, well at least Brian and I though it was. JJ started to beg to go home after about 5 minutes. Once we left, it had warmed up to about 4 degrees, so we decided to go on a walk around the city. Luckily we stumbled upon a huge toy store that we were able to go in to get warm and get JJ a small treat. While we were in the toy store, we heard a funny music problem. The toy store was playing American rap which was using lots of profanity! We think that they didn't know what the words were, but we unfortunately had to leave pretty quickly since we could understand what they were saying!

After our nap, we went to the Vatican and walked around in the square and went in to St Peter's Basilica, after buying a hat and gloves for JJ. Since it was Sunday, there was mass going on all day and we just happened to go in right when one service was starting. The cathedral was blocked off into the "tourist" section and the "Catholic mass goers" section. We were able to hear the boys choir, which sounded amazing. I really have never wanted to be more Catholic than I did when we were in there!

JJ did a great job in the cathedral and whispered the whole time. When we left he said, "sshhh, Jesus is coming, we have to be quiet." I think the Vatican was actually his favorite part of the whole trip. The only sad part was when we told him before we went that we were going to a church and he got all excited and started yelling, "going to my church!" When we told him we weren't going to "our" church, but "a" church he started crying. Apparently we need to find a church here to attend sooner than later.

Rome, Day One.

We tried to go to the Colosseum, but we got there too late, so it was closed.

So instead we got gelato : )

And took a long walk.

We went to Rome this last weekend and had a very successful visit! Brian found a hotel that was about four blocks from the main Metro station, so it was a great location. He had booked a double room, but they only ended up giving us one king size bed, so we shared the bed all night with JJ! It definitely did not make us want to convert to the "family bed"! JJ had a hard time falling asleep each night because all he wanted to do was play.

After our failed attempt to go to the Colosseum, we walked to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, which are both really amazing, especially at night! We ended up eating dinner near the fountain outside on the street. It almost seemed surreal to be eating pizza and pasta outside on the street in Rome as a family. I wish JJ knew how lucky he is. I'm sure we'll tell him a lot as he's growing up : )

One cultural difference about being here is that they don't have kids menus at restaurants. We actually figured out that we're saving quite a bit of money and wasting less food by not ordering JJ his own meal! The only funny thing though is that most restaurants don't have juice for kids, so we've been ordering him milk, which they keep bringing to him warm and frothy with sugar since it's from the cappuccino machine! JJ has decided warm milk is gross, but really enjoys that they bring him sugar with his milk. We really need to learn how to order "cold" milk in Italian.

The Royal Palace of Caserta.

This little box/chair was built for Pope Pius the IX to ride in (i.e. a Popemobile!) . . . apparently he was a pretty small man!

About the time JJ was begging to go home

On Sunday we drove out to a small town that has the Royal Palace of Caserta which was only about a 20 minute drive. It really does surprise me how much stuff we're close to! The palace was built in the 1700's, so it's not really old, but was still fun to see. JJ really enjoyed about the first 5 rooms and when we would walk into a new room he would yell, "wow, Mommy, look at that!" Then I think he caught on that every ceiling was painted and everything had pretty stuff, so he got pretty tired of it. He eventually started begging to go home. I'm beginning to think he's not really going to enjoy all the museums that we'll be going to over the next three years.

Sorrento.

Goodbye Starbucks, Hello Italian cappuccino!!! It's soooo good!

Mmmmm, super rich chocolate gelato.

Last Sunday we took another road trip down to the cute coastal town of Sorrento. There are lots of little shops and restaurants there so it's a great place to walk around for a leisurely afternoon, which was the plan. Unfortunately, we were there on a Sunday and a holiday, so almost nothing was open! We were able to find one alley with a few open shops and a coffee shop though, so we were fine. Looking back, I think Brian may have planned to go on this day on purpose so that I couldn't spend too much time and money shopping in the cute little stores : )