Today has been a day of early morning sewing, with coffee before anyone else was up.

A day of rushing off to the post office on the bicycle before noon.

A day of afternoon thunderstorms mixed with computer work in an empty apartment, beans hissing in the pressure cooker, and a compost bucket full of fruit flies waiting by the door for a break in the rain so I can sneak off to the garden. . .

She has exploded into language!
She is beginning to run.
She is using the potty and only wears underwear.
She is very, very busy and rarely still.
She likes to cuddle her dolls and carry them about.
She likes to walk and walk and walk.
She likes to climb and carry and slide and push.
She likes to visit with friends, big or small.
She likes cars and motorcycles and trucks.
She loves bicycles and tractors.
She loves to look at books, the only moment she is still.
She loves babies.
She loves to WORK: digging, watering, mixing and more.
Shel is a BIG person and a little list gives just a taste of who she is!

She is so so so FUN!

Amalia Amalia Amalia

Outside again, a different park, still Terno.

Can I just say that we are going through some hard times as a family at night? It’s so bad I feel like we all morph into ugly beasties around 11pm and I am ashamed of myself when I finally get up in the morning after a total of maybe three hours of sleep. I am not at my best when tired in the wee hours.

I’m not sure what exactly sparked this nasty change in our otherwise very tolerable and, dare I say, usually pleasant sleeping-life. . . some ideas but nothing sure or clear.

As I reminded myself this morning, I am an adult. I can handle being tired. Even being very, very tired. It’s hard, but I can do it.

So we will try again tonight. . .

Thursday

Originally uploaded by nonsonoitaliana

We have discovered a “new place” in Terno- just a short walk from our vegetable garden there is a lovely wood with paths and then a dirt road with other vegetable gardens and a creek. We were there yesterday just the two of us, and this morning with friends. Perfect.

I am trying to do this April challenge but I don’t think I will be able to post everyday. . .

Pasquetta

Originally uploaded by nonsonoitaliana

Outside! Every day! Rain or shine!
Outside!
Outside!
Outside!

We all need to spend April outside. Well, and every other month, too!

A weekend of sun and she walked ALL DAY, EVERY DAY.
We were stunned.

And now I’m trying to figure out how the heck one can color brown eggs because there aren’t any white in Terno d’Isola, I swear…

Life is moving back outside. . .
We, especially Molly, are spending lots of time on our skinny little stretch of balcony. The garden is planted with peas, spinach, lettuce, chard, dahlias, bleeding hearts, borage, anise and purple cone flower, and even some zucchini seeds in the greenhouse. The park, as noted, is getting more use by folks other than us. Life is good.

park

Originally uploaded by nonsonoitaliana

A frontier of sorts

where we all come together

and yet still stay separate.

Wilder than than the school

where we are carefully mixed together,

here instead we clump,

like with like,

and each group circles the others,

careful not to touch.

So I am so grateful

to my daughter and all the other little ones

too tiny yet to mind,

expressing joy at a familiar, friendly face

and clutching hands despite the differences

and the awkwardness of us mothers.

While this lovely thing and her father were away this dreary, dreary Sunday afternoon Mama:

wrote a paper for my doula workshop
made (and burned) granola
made paneer (Indian cheese)
baked a batch of crackers
took a walk
read
surfed (the web, that is)

Now I’m ready for them to come home…

P.S. I think this photo looks like it was taken at a professional photo shoot- doesn’t Molly’s hair look so perfectly tousled? And doesn’t she have a model smile? Hilarious. The out takes are even better on Flickr…

Amalia is SO
funny
fun
fantastic
fabulous.

Some time ago I was stealing time on the computer and realized that I had been working without interuption for a long time… I turned around and THIS was happening. Molly was working, too.