Hendrik's first birthday

pancakes for breakfast!

presents a'ready to be opened...

he LOVED the balloons, and it made us wonder why there aren't balloons around - for all of us - more often

Hendrik's first birthday was fabuloso! We woke up and had pancakes, and then it was time for presents - he was downright spoiled with gifts: finger paints from Shanti, a boat from mom and dad, a monster stuffy from Auntie Sarah, a book, clothes and a puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa Brinkman, books from Grandma and Grandpa Osberg, Who's There Spot? and a broom from mom and dad. PLUS a talking farm book from Steve's teammate Rapha and his wife, and a walker from Antonella, Luciano, Daniela and Elena... (plus a new toothbrush and a wind spinner flower thing from us... the list goes on...)

He did some serious work on the cake, and seeing how it was the first time he's consumed so much sugar we were surprised that he wasn't sick. AND if we hadn't taken the cake away from him I'm pretty sure he would have finished the entire piece - oink. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree! Or, er, the cake doesn't fall far from the... what? Yeah, we were two peas in a pod with the cake thing. Antonella, Luciano and Elena and Rapha and his wife Ana Paula and their son Arthur (4 months) came for torta and ice cream and Hendrik ripped around with his new walker and decided against taking a nap. Dad, on the other hand, fell fast asleep on the couch - after everyone had left, of course - so Hendrik and I left him in peace and visited Fabio and Giovanna down the street. We arrived, Hendrik got scared by their dancing singing footlong plush Christmas tree, and then fell fast asleep on me, on the couch. I had a nice visit with them and then ? we ordered pizza for dinner and Hendrik stayed up a bit late - you know, because he's 1.

palpable anticipation for this new toy!

with Dad, on my first birthday :)

with Mom, on my firrrrrst birthday

getting ready, for 1

A year ago today, at this very moment, we were getting ready to welcome you, our boy into the world. We were so excited and so full of emotion for all of the unknown - the labour and delivery, your arrival, bringing you home! and for how much love we'd have for you, and how much space that love would fill. Summing it all up is a difficult thing - the love, the experiences, the memories, the life-thus-far... and sitting here with his first birthday cake in the oven and a full glass of pinot grigio, I'm not so sure where to start - or how. So, I started looking back - one of the most fabulous things about having a blog - and remembered.

Even though you weren't a tiny newborn by any means, you were so small! And hungry. And we called you Mr Lumpy because you feel asleep on us all compact and curled up, and it was amazing. We cried when you were born and we understand more about our own parents, and how they feel about us. You are such a good baby - so good-natured and calm, and I'm pretty sure there are still some out there that refuse to believe that you cry. You did cry though at the beginning, and with mucho gusto. You were hungry! And as soon as we figured that one out life got a whole lot easier for us all. You love books and being on your feet and are wide-eyed and observant. You sleep well and we love it. You slept on your own in your room in Gatineau and now, here in Trento, we all sleep together in the room downstairs. At first, we thought that it wouldn't do, having you there at the foot of our bed. But after two months of hearing you breathing and waking up to you right there, we like it, and, realizing that this won't last forever, we'll enjoy it and soak it up while you, our babe, are still a little one.

our first visitor!

Wowsers mcgee, our visit with Shanti was great. Her significant other had to follow his team from Yaroslavl, Russia to an unknown (to me) city in Poland, and since she wasn't so into hanging out by her lonesome in good old Yaro for two weeks, she came to visit us and we had a grand old time. I'd say our main activities were walking, talking, eating and eating, and how can you go wrong with those things? We had some good laughs too, hit up some markets, got some exercise in here and there made her way to Paris yesterday morning where she'll get some more quality time in with fellow Canadians. It makes me all the more excited to host our next visitors - or visitor, I should say; Sarah arrives in three weeks plus a few days - yay! And then Steve's parents come and his aunt too and it will be great. Yay.

Hendrik trying his best to rock a Movember look. Milk has been on the menu in small doses!

Bedtime stories with Shanti... After a few days he could point at her when we asked him, "Where's Shanti?" and - and this is funny - when we asked him "Who's that?" He would say, "dat!" .... hilarious! It made for some good laughs...

getting right down to business

yummy beverages in Trento's Christmas Market

a sunny afternoon in the back 40

Christmas is coming... it's but one month away, eek! I haven't given much thought to anything besides Christmas baking - we have nanaimo bars locked away in the freezer and (I have) a list of other goodies to make. Is it too early to put up a tree? When do we do that? How do we do that with a babe who gets into anything-everything? I suppose it might be a bit of a trial and error thing... no ornaments with small parts. Hm, well, seeing as how we don't have any ornaments at all, that shouldn't be a problem. There's no shortage of Christmas goods at the market in town though, and I'm sure we'll figure something out. For the next few days these Christmas thoughts will be on hold.... we have a birthday to celebrate on Monday!

Venice +

 Here are some long overdue photos of our day trip to Venice. There was a damp chill that pervaded most layers, so we alternated the walking and sightseeing with warm cafe stops and mediocre restaurant meals. And that made the day all the better (the warm stops) - for our small but tall gang of Canadian imports. Ashley, Adam and Dan came up from Ljubljana (where Dan and Adam are volleyballing) and the four of us (Brinkmans + Shanti) drove from Gretchen and John's place in Vicenza. It was the first Venice trip for everyone (I think) but me, and it was just as captivating (or what is the word?) as the first time. Yes, a lot colder and ooooh I was a bit heavier but thank goodness we decided to leave the stroller in the car and even more of a thank goodness for the Ergo Carrier and its on-the-hip carry position. Hendrik was such a good little dude and only fussed a few times; and, like most guys and their fussy times, it was quickly solved with food.

St Mark's is beautiful, but so overwrought with pigeons that it doesn't grab the honours of favourite stop of the day. Okay, the church itself - inside and out - is stunning, but it, just like every other street and alley and canal of Venezia, gave way to questions questions questions questions: when was it built? Who suffered and who triumphed for the ornate, costly displays? Are there gymnasiums in Venice? How was the city built? Really, I should just look to Wikipedia for answers, and stop asking you. My favourite part of the day was... hmm. Okay, it was this: close to 5:00 we were wandering looking for dinner and, finding everything closed, decided on drinks at a fancy hotel. So there we sat in the lounge of what must have been a four star spot and drank gin and tonics (just one) and ate warm pistachios. Hendrik was googlie and cute and even - for the first time caught on tape! - walked, just a little bit. That was my favourite part. We hit the road after dinner and made it home in time to call my sister Karin and wish her a happy birthday, and then I fell asleep in one one-zillionth of a second... I was tired.

Our visit with John and Gretchen was great too, but I feel a little sheepish about the fact that we didn't take any pictures with them; instead, we took pictures of the food we ate with them. They took us to  one of their favourite dinner spots (Nogarazza) and I am telling you it did NOT disappoint. The food in Venice the next day probably seemed all the more mediocre after the incredible meal we had here, and Gretchen was right when she said that someone would probably have to roll us out to the car. We had a proscuitto plus meaty bruschetta type thing to start, and then there was home-made gnocchi - the best I've ever had hands down - for Steve (with shrimp and cherry tomatoes) and the Bettens (pumpkin melt-in-your-mouth gnocchi; Shanti and I were happy to take care of the leftovers), and then for the main course some of us had steak and others had duck. And okay, I'm not a big steak person and I rarely order it so really, this comment shouldn't carry any weight at all, but I'm pretty sure it was the best steak I've ever had. Covered in peppercorn sauce and (again) melt-in-your-mouth delicious, I think this is a meal I will drive two hours to eat. We've done it before for ice-cream (when we lived in Calabria we drove from Corigliano Calabro to Pizzo to eat their world famous tartuffo) and I'll do it again for steak. And gnocchi. And whatever that appetizer was. OH so good! And I know that I should have mentioned this before all of the food talk business, but it was the first night that we left Hendrik with a babysitter which is kind of a big deal! Gretchen - bless her heart - organized the babysitter, picked her up, drove her home - all so that we could have a nice night out and eat an insanely fabulous meal. It was perfection. We arrived home some time after 11:00 and the babysitter informed us that there had not been one single peep out of little Hendrik. Like I said, it was perfection.

Shanti left this morning :( but really, that deserves a blog unto itself, so for now that's it - more coming soon...

walking...

There is a good long blog coming one of these days, but I just haven't found the time to get much done on the computer in these last few days. However, I did go outside armed with the Flip this morning, and this was my reward... walking and cuteness from our little boy.



And I'm pretty sure that the first two videos show a gold medal performance - don't you think? Oooooh I love him!

blink blink kiss bye-bye!

stepping with dad!

haircut! food! love it!

As per usual, I have lots to write about and not so much time - that is, unless Hendrik decides to nap for three hours. Man, that would be amazing for me, for now... I could blog and nap and read and clean up the kitchen but hm... would that mean that he wouldn't go to bed until all hours? Possibly. Okay, so let's hope he naps for a solid hour, and let's hope I can find enough clarity to properly address all topics at hand.

First: We gave him his first haircut this afternoon! EEK! It's been weeks and weeks now that we've been eyeballing the straggly tufts behind his ears and reconsidering the whole baby mullet look that he sort of had going on, and we finally got around to doing something about it. After a fabulous fresh pasta lunch for all (and that includes the babe), we pulled out the scissors and Steve went to work. Hendrik was happily distracted by The Eye Book and his hairbrush, and thankfully there were no scissor pokes or uncomfortable snips. He was happy and we were happy with the results; he somehow looks older! And different. Okay, so not so so different, but a little bit. He just had to look top top for his birthday that is just around the corner. (YIKES!)

We're having an awesome time with the Shants visiting and I'm in the process of possibly providing some extra special entertainment for her while she's here. Since the Italian Men's league is on a break and the opportunity to see Steve play is not going to arise, I just though Well hey, maybe she can see me play. Say what? Yeah, exactly. It goes like this: the day we arrived I had to ask in the car on our way from Verona to Trento whether or not there were any women's teams in the city. Yes there are two - one in Serie D and one in National 1, divisions that respectively fall fifth and sixth in line from the top spot (I think). And since then I've emailed back and forth with different people about going to a practice, but nothing has ever worked out: their practice schedules conflict with Steve's and with no one to really watch Hendrik and put him to bed etc, it just hasn't happened. Until now! I finally went to a practice on Wednesday night from 8:00 - 10:00, with Super Shanti at home babysitting. I felt a bit awkward (hitting especially) but it all went well - hurray! And the team has a game on Monday and they asked me if I want to/can play in it - !! I said um yeah sure! let's see about getting everything done in time and if it works it works and hurray for that. SO... we'll see. I need a letter from the Canadian federation and a few other things and whether or not that will happen before Monday is unclear, but the bottom line is this: I had a ton of fun playing and being back in the gym, and it was amazing having something of my own for two hours. And too, that that something went down in Italian was grande. We shall see... fingers crossed that it can be something that can happen on a regular basis.

fresh pasta goodness

CLUB SANDWICH FACES:

Okay, so what else! Ak... Shanti is here and it's amazing having a friend around, but without the let's be tourists and go out and about and see this see that busy busy vibe. We're getting out and doing stuff, sure, but there's no pressure from anyone to hit all the tourist spots and/or fill all hours of the day with an agenda. So far we've had leisurely mornings, a few walks, downtown visits, some MAJORLY delicious meals and hmm... that's about it. I have to blog about the food because really, it's been top top notch in the most outstanding of ways. We've had two fresh pasta meals of a combination five or six different goodies; stuffed gnocchi rolls (pizza, cheese, spinach and ricotta), and four different kinds of ravioli: speck (prosciutto) and walnut, spinach and ricotta (again), pumpkin, and ham and parmesan, all from our favourite fresh pasta place. So so so so good. And last night we had homemade tomato soup and club sandwiches for dinner, and chocolate and pear cake for dessert - !!! The sandwiches took first place and the soup came a close second; the cake took the bronze medal because even though it was good, it didn't live up to my expectations (or critical comparisons to the insanely delicious pear cake we ate at the restaurant around the corner a few weeks ago). The recipe is here, but the next time I want a pear and chocolate infused cake, I'll either go to Maso Finisterre or add pear chunks to white cake batter. Anyways! The sandwiches were so good that we almost couldn't talk while we were eating them... the ridiculously sumptuous tastes of bacon, chicken, cheese, tomato, lettuce and mayo required such attention that any distractions were just, well, distractions - and that sure can't be tolerated! Ohhhhh too funny. Pizza is on the menu tonight and I'll just finish this food section by saying that of course we're putting on the ritz in the kitchen (not really) just for Shanti, seeing as how Italian food (and club sammies) is about a bazillion trizillion times better than Russian food; while she's here we've got to do it up.

9 minutes of egg beating, NINE!

oooooh yum, looking good!

the finished product!

I'm sure there's more but I've got to get some photos up and if I can squeeze in a few pages of my book before Hendrik wakes up that sure would make me happy. More coming soon - including notes on a day and half - Saturday afternoon and Sunday - in Vicenza and Venice, woop!

on the balcony this afternoon - warm November sun, yum!