Pisa and Preschool!

Well, this past week has been rather exciting!  Fall is in full swing here, and the crisp cool weather is wonderful, though a little bit inhibiting.  When having to walk places with Ava in her stroller, the brisk temperature is lovely for about 5 minutes, and then our fingers and noses begin to freeze.  So, we've been trying to have fun indoors when possible, and keeping bundled when we go out.  I think Saturday was the last day of "sweater warmth" (when it's just warm enough to wear a sweater and feel lovely without being too chilly).  We went to our usual family lunch and afterwards the Aunties insisted I go walk in the center of the city while they played with Ava.  So I went shopping and Ava had a blast with her friends.  Sunday was sunny but with lots and lots of strong winds.  We went to an antique fair in the Fortezza park where there were many overly-priced old items.  I found a cute fedora for only 5€ but besides that, there wasn't too much that caught my eye.  While looking around, we got very hungry and Ava began whining for some food.  We found a near-by food stand and we ate a hotdog that was prepared in the most interesting way....with nothing on it, but mayonnaise!  I figured ordering a hot dog was a safe bet for Ava, and then here it came with a nice crispy bun, and tons of mayo!  Surprisingly, it was super tasty.  Ava loved it and made a mess.  The rest of the afternoon we spent at home, trying to keep warm from any drafts blowing in the house. 

Monday was a busy, wonderful day.  In the morning we went to the near-by preschool (called an Asilo, here) to see if Ava could enter for the remaining 2 months we will be here.  We had planned on taking her to an english-speaking school on Saturdays for 4 hours, but it turned out to be too much trouble, too far away, and too much money.  So, in a 15 minute walk, Ava can go to a school run by Italian Nuns with lots of Italian children who speak Italian!  They had no problem with her staying only 2 months, and she is able to go to school every Monday to Friday from 9am to 12pm!  We met the teachers, one of whom speaks English, and saw that all the kids looked happy and were having fun.  So, we decided to let her try the school on Tuesday morning and see how she liked it! 

Later on Monday afternoon we finally ventured to Pisa!  We planned this trip several weeks ago, but had to delay it several times for various reasons.  But Monday we drove about an hour to the city.  We parked outside of the center and took the bus to the main piazza where that famous tower is leaning.  Ava was mostly excited to run around in the grass with her cousin, Martina!  We went into the cemetary and the church and saw many beautiful pieces of art.  Ava attempted to push the tower back up.  She kept on saying "But mom!  We have to make it better!  The tower is going to fall on all the people!"  Then, exhausted by this attempt, we certainly needed some gelato and hot chocolate.  We left as the sun was setting over the piazza and arrived home chilly, hungry, and ready for bed since Ava was going to start school in the morning!

We woke up at 8am...very early for us since our normal wake-up times are between 9 and 10am in this house.  But when I went to wake up Ava, and I told her "Today you can go to school!" she jumped right up and got dressed!  She insisted on wearing her black pants with pink hearts, and her pink shirt with hearts because she thought the Nuns would like to see all the "happy hearts"!  Haha!  It was strange to realize this was Ava's first day of "school".  I hadn't planned on trying to place her in a school here, but she honestly kept on insisting that she wanted to go, and to play with other kids, and to see her teachers.  Funny enough, the minute we arrived at school she said "No, mom, I don't want to go to school now!"  But once we arranged the paperwork, and we met her teachers and other children, she felt a little better.  I was certain she would cry when I left her.  She was acting clingy and uncertain.  But she did not shed a tear.  After some encouragement from the teachers, she slowly walked over to the table where other kids were playing after I gave her a hug and kiss, and I slipped out quickly.

It was strange to be going out and about without her with me.  No little feet bopping my chair as we drove in the car.  We went to a huge grocery store and strolled the aisles without Ava in the cart.  I went to an amazing little wine store and leisurely waited for other customers to finish without a little person bopping around by my ankles.  It was such a strange feeling to not have my sidekick with me!  But soon enough, it was noon, and we went to pick her up.  I was so curious to see what she thought, and if she liked going to school.  It was evident when I told her it was time to go home: she started crying because she didn't want to go!  She wanted to stay with the other kids and eat lunch!  I promised we could come back again in the morning.

She told me all about her day, and I kept on telling her how proud I was that she was such a brave little girl.  Imagine going to a strange place, without your parents, with adults and children who all speak a foreign language!  All at 3 years old!  But she loved it, and was certain she wanted to return.  So this morning I woke up early again, got her ready for school, we walked the 15 minutes in the cold weather, and she went into her classroom again without any tears!  I really hope she will continue to like this arrangement...it gives us both some time apart to enjoy ourselves, and learn some new things.  There is nothing like a new adventure to experience, both in Pisa and in Preschool!   

Week's worth of Activites

Another week has passed, all too quickly for my taste!  I can't believe we've been here a month.  On one hand it has seemed like a long time, full of ups and downs, full of adjustments.  And on the other hand I think, I'm only here for 2 more months!  I gotta get rolling and do everything I want to do!  I think our pace has been going well, considering the many complications that have arisen.  But now I should have no excuses for getting out in the city and doing what I want to do with Ava.  Well, there is one new factor: the cold weather has finally arrived!  When I posted my last blog, about a week ago, it was just starting to cool down...the weather was in the mid-to-upper 70's all week.  And then bam, it's plain old chilly outside.  This happened in the course of 1 day, in my opinion.  I started feeling sick last Saturday at our weekly family dinner.  The runny nose, sore throat, fatigued feeling kind of sick.  Sunday it was worse, with a yucky cough.  Yet, that didn't stop us from having a party at our house with about 45 people.  Well, Francesco said he would have canceled since I was sick, but he had invited so many people, he couldn't call them all back!  So the doctor ordered I stay in bed all day until the party.

Poor Ava sat in front of the tv all day, periodically bringing me up little cups of "medicine" and "snacks" to help me feel better.  Well, I think she loved watching TV all day, since I only let her watch a little in the mornings most days.  So she was in bliss, watching Diego, Dora, Backyardigans, Wonder Pets, Kai-lan, etc.  Sometimes we can get the shows in English, and other times they are dubbed in Italian.  But she loves it regardless of the language!  The other day I had to laugh because I realized Ava was watching a show that teaches Chinese, but it was in Italian.  So here is my 3 year old, repeating Chinese words, and talking in her "imaginary Italian" (Ava's new form of thinking she is speaking Italian, when she's really just saying gibberish with an Italian accent!) to herself.  And the same thing happens with Dora and Diego who are teaching Spanish, to my English-speaking daughter, while it is dubbed in Italian.  So strange!  Anyways, she loved having an excuse to watch TV all day while I was in bed, and I hope her brain gleaned some sort of helpful information from all the exposure!  haha!

So from Sunday to Monday my sickness worsened, and that's when I'm sure the weather changed too.  I spent another whole day in bed on Monday, but thankfully one of Ava's Aunties came to play with her for a couple hours, and they switched off the TV and went running outside in the garden!  We were supposed to head to Pisa that Monday with the Aunties, but it was downpouring all day long besides the fact I couldn't sit up more than 15 minutes without be exhausted.  But as the rainclouds parted, so did the worst part of my sickness and by Tuesday morning I was feeling much better.  So what did we do?  Go to another party of course!

Ava was allowed to come with us to the birthday party of one of our friends.  There were a couple other little kids there, and Ava tried to say "Ciao" and play with them.  But mostly Ava just likes hanging out with the adults who all swoon over her and give her all the attention (and sweets!) they could possibly possess.  Before coming to Italy with Ava, I always had the impression that kids were usually excluded from many "adult" activities.  If there was a party, or get-together, kids were not usually included.  The parents found a babysitter, and stayed out as late as they wanted.  I was afraid that I would constantly be needing a babysitter if I ever wanted to get out of the house!  But I am pleasantly surprised to see how much our friends dote on Ava and insist she is not a problem to have around.  In fact, she is almost like the entertainment of the party now.  Everyone sits around and instead of watching TV, we all watch the "Ava channel".  And she totally loves it.  Well, there are still times we need a babysitter, particularly if it will be a late night, and I'm so thankful to have a young lady who Ava considers to be her best friend!  Ava will actually prefer to have her babysitter come over, rather than go out with me to hear music, go to dinner, etc!  It's wonderful.

Well, now that I'm over my sickness, Ava now has my cold.  Yesterday we unwisely walked to the park and froze off our little booties.  No other kids were at the park, and Ava's nose was running like a faucet.  But we still had a good time, running around and playing soccer to stay warm.  Thankfully we went to the outside market and found some cute little gloves for Ava and I got 2 sweaters for 10€.  Love that market that has the most random vendors, and each day there is something new to see.  I am hoping that Ava will not stay sick very long because we were hoping to start her in a new preschool on Monday.  But I will write more about that later, if it comes to pass.  I'll also write more later in my attempts to find a pumpkin in this city!  Now that it feels like Autumn, I'm hoping to have a Halloween party for Ava!  More later...so Ciao for now!

Autobus Success

It has been quite another long, interesting, and even-filled week that I have not blogged.  Mainly, we've all been a little under the weather around here.  I had the great joy of experiencing my first migraine, Ava had tummy troubles for a day, and our host was in the hospital all last Saturday!  But we've still been trying to have fun, do new things and go new places.  Since my last post, we have gone to the park 3 more times.  One day we made the mistake of bringing Ava's Buzz Lightyear toy...even with broken arms and legs, Ava was surrounded very quickly by 4 little Italian boys to snatched it out of her hands and proceeded to run Buzz around the park for 15 minutes.  I was a little affronted by such action, as if any toys at the park meant they belonged to anyone!  But the parents just watched, and would occassionally ask if it was Ava's toy.  I would say Si and attempted to take back the toy with the little Italian I could speak with the kids.  Finally I just had to grab it back from a snotty nosed boy when Ava was practically crying "Mom, just take it back from them!!"  I guess we won't do that again till I know how exactly to yell at the little boys to leave my daughter and her cool, broken toy alone! 

Anyways, that was one adventure on Sunday.  The day before we had our big family lunch per usual, and as Francesco went to the hospital, I was left as the hostess of the house with the rest of his family.  Thankfully I'm used to the routine of the lunch by now, so I knew when to clear the table, bring out the coffee, and wash the dishes.  The family loves so much to play with Ava, and she has a blast being the center of attention!   This pic is of Ava with her two favorite playmates, Zia Anna and her 'cousin' Martina.  The three of them play together for hours it seems and they are always happy to give me a break from Ava.  On Tuesday Anna picked us up and we attempted to install Ava's carseat into Anna's car for the first time.  It's an older kind of carseat, with an installation diagram that is half rubbed off.  I think it took us about 5 tries before we were confident Ava wouldn't tip over in the backseat!  But we must really try to make it more secure next time.  Anyways, we all got in the car and Ava played with Anna at her house for 3 hours so I could go around in the city and have some 'me' time.  Ahhh that was nice!  I did a little shopping and walked around the city I love.  There is just such a big difference between being in the city alone, and being in the city with Ava.  Not that one way is better than the other, but it's just different.

So today was a big step for me.  I finally worked up the nerve to try taking the bus into the city with Ava...alone...with only a faint idea of what I was doing.  Thankfully the bus stop near our house is the end of the line, so there was only one way to go!  I don't know what I was so afraid of, since I knew the stop we needed to get off of, and which bus to take back home.  But I guess I was terrified we would get on a bus that would take us far, far away from anyplace familiar, and we would be stranded in who knows where without knowing enough Italian to find our way back!  Nothing like that happened, though.  Ava loved riding the bumpy bus (as you can see from the blurry pic) and we proceeded to have a lovely 3 hours in the center of Firenze!

First we walked near the Duomo and Ava was more interested in the pigeons and horses everywhere, rather than the wonderfully constructed church, or the fascinating structure of the cuppola by Brunelleschi, or the bronze doors by Ghibertti.  So I admired those things for the both of us, and Ava stayed strapped in her stroller, afraid of all the masses of tourists all around. 

We then proceeded to Piazza Republica where she instantly spotted the old fashioned merry-go-round.  Of course we had to ride that!  Tears were shed when the ride was over, but I'm thinking this will be a good way to start initiating chorse and an allowance at home.  When she helps with chores around the house, she can use her little euros for rides on this merry-go-round, or at the 99cent store, or for her own little gelato treats!  Well, it's an idea.  So, after we walked around and saw Piazza Signorina and the replica of Michelangelo's 'David' we were both hungry.  We went to one of my favorite little restaurants near San Lorenzo market called Il Porcospino (the porcupine).  The same guys work there from when I was here 4 years ago, and they all loved to see Ava acting like a little lady as we sat on the sidewalk, watched the tourists walk by, and had our pizza! 

 

With tummies full, I figured this would be a good time to get back on the bus and try to find our way back home.  At least if we got lost, we wouldn't we hungry for a while!  At the crazy Piazza San Marco we waited a total of 2 minutes before our bus showed up and before you knew it, we were back at our bus stop and then back in our house!  Yay!  I feel much better now that I at least know how to get to the center of the city so we can walk around and find interesting things to do.  I have heard there is a free place for kids to play near the center, so maybe that will be our next adventure!