december 1-5

Has it already been a week since Hendrik's first birthday? And a year since this, on December 4th 2010: 6 days old! umbilical stump thing fell off!! - to mall... - looking @ zebra patterns and papers, 1st booger! I'm not great at writing in my Mom's One Line a Day journal (gifted by Dan and Milka) but now and then I get some entries in there, such as the one just underneath the aforementioned booger comment: + 2 more teeth! walking more and more, but still resorting to crawling to get around (December 4th 2011). The dude has two more teeth! He's been a bit off lately - waking up early early on and off (spouting "mamma, mamma mamma" - adorable and un-ignorable) and completely uninterested in breakfast - and this must be the reason, no? Last night was the first time that he slept for more than nine hours AND past 7:00 in days and days, and that coupled with the fact that I was in bed by 10:00 made for a solid night's sleep for me, hur-ray. I was about to say that it was the most fabulous thing that's happened all week but that would be a brazen lie, because there are several notables from the week past. The first being Hendrik in these fabulous rust-red braids, momentarily borrowed from Isa, his new Swedish friend. Pergine, a town just up the hill from Trento, is home to a second division hockey team that is home to two Swedish players and one Canadian guy, and Steve has crossed paths with Per (a Swede) a few times in the therapy room at the gym. He invited us up to join them for lunch on Saturday, and that we did. Their daughter is a few months older than Hendrik, and all three of us had a great time with all three of them - I'm sure we'll see more of each other soon... I hope!

reading his birthday card from Tante Sis

Another notable note is that we went to school on Friday - ! Okay, not really school, but we finally found - thanks to Steve's teammate Rapha - a playgroup at a centre that has groups and get-togethers and class type things several times a week. We went to check things out on Thursday, and then for our first trial class on Friday afternoon from 3:30 to 6:30 and it was faaaaabulous! The facility is wonderful - there are tons of toys and play structures and books and a little house and a little kitchen and dress up clothes... ooooh yay. The staff (play facilitators?) were lovely too, and explained that it was a place for kids to come and play with other kids, and that the parents could meet other parents and talk about issues, challenges etc, while the little ones did their thing; did that sound like something I'd be interested in? Yes yes yes yes yes. Hendrik hasn't had a ton of time with other kids in the past month and a half and it is exactly what I've been looking for. Maybe I can meet some other moms (who don't mind dealing with my (very) rough-around-the-edges Italian), and Hendrik can play with other little people. For now, we'll go once a week (€10/visit is the only down side) and in the new year we might sign up for another class. Anyways! Parents and kiddies filed out at 6:30, and I hoofed it to the gym where we watched Dad in action on the court. Five sets was a good, solid amount of time to feed Hendrik and then feed him again, and watch him rip around the gym, up and down stairs, up and down bleachers and in and out of the blue fence. Fun... By the the the last punto rolled around Hendrik was still full of beans but oouf, I was tired (as was Steve) and ready to go home.

And Christmas is fast approaching! I don't have much to say about that except this: I am so excited that my sister Sarah is coming (2 weeks!), I still have mucho baking to do and I love panettone and pandoro. Love. These delicious Italian goodies are a cross between brioche and cake and they come out in full force at Christmas time. And I will in turn come out in full force to eat them. (I haven't told Steve this yet and I'm wondering if he'll read it here first or realize that there's a dug-into panettone on top of the fridge that I bought on my way home from town today... yum.) 'Tis the season to eat. And be merry. The Christmas playlist has been pressed into action and we have plans for a tree, but not until Steve is back from his 5-day trip to Vibo Valentia and Rome. League starts again this week (Thursday), so the guys are back on the road... boo. Anyways, it's getting late and though there's much more I could write about, I'll cut myself off. Until next time!

yummmmm, clementines!

sweeping the driveway this afternoon

and swinging!

looking at family pics

yeah you did. bath time!