Pool time

Around noon today, we decided to take Claire to the pool. At first we went into the adult pool (5-6ft deep) and Claire wanted nothing to do with it. Granted the water was a little cool. Then we took her over to the kiddie pool and she was a little hesitant at first, but soon ventured up to 5 feet away on her own. She didn't go in past her knees. I think with time she will get use to the water. Fortunately our neighbors Jeremy and Beth were there with their daughter Alexis (3 weeks older than Claire) and they brought toys. We need to gets some pool toys for Claire. Here are some more photos of our time at the pool.

Welcome Maria Jesus Marin Ibanez

I just wanted to share some wonderful news with you. Our good friends in Chile, Jorge and Angeles (we flew down (10 hrs each way) for the weekend to attend their wedding) had a beautiful baby girl on May 20. Jorge and I met 4 years ago in Chile and have worked on research projects together. I asked him if he's enjoying changing diapers and he said, if I can't feed her, I guess I'll clean her.

Calm weekend

We celebrated our tenth anniversary (May 22) this weekend with the arrival of Claire's 7th tooth. Only 13 more to go. She has been drooling like crazy. She has started to do this jig dance thing, which I am trying to capture on video, but she pretends she is a member of riverdance. I guess she is 1/8 Irish after all.

In preparation for Paul and Taya's wedding, we had Claire outside today in a wifebeater t-shirt to try to get rid of her farmer's tan. It's pretty evident, but hopefully a couple of days in the sun and she will darken right up. She is 1/4 Filipino after all.

Closing thoughts on Italy

• Claire's eyes are turning light green from blue. Must be from all the veggies she eats.
• One of the workers at the hotel we stayed at thought Claire was adopted since she "looks Asian". The worker was Filipino.
• One of the guests at the hotel said, "there is no doubt she is your (my) daughter, she looks just like you." She was drinking wine at the time (not Claire, but the guest).
• We arranged daycare for Claire in the fall 8:30am to 4:30pm Monday through Thursday.
• She is back to being an absolute angel. We are reconsidering our self-imposed ban on foreign travel with her.
• I love this child so much.

We're home!

After a 10 hour flight from Rome, we made it through customs/immigration and Atlanta traffic to arrive home. It was a long day. It was a long trip. I think the whole ignorance is bliss bubble that Claire has allowed us to live in, popped on this trip. First, let me say that she is the best baby in the world and has the best mom in the world. With Claire's jet lag, messed up internal clock, teething, bathing in sinks, sleeping in strange beds, diaper rash, change of diet, change of scenery, Claire cried a lot on this trip. Probably more this week, than in the rest of her life combined. Yes, we were frustrated, but our frustrations melted away with one of her gapped-tooth smiles. Still, we are not foolish enough to try this again, anytime soon - at least not until the end of August - Claire and I will cancel our trip to Bogota in early August. Don't worry, we are still doing our summer domestic travel plans.

Our day back started out great - though we were down to 2 diapers. Lynn bought 22 diapers and some wipes at the airport for 13 euros ($17.55 US). The plane was packed, but we were fortunate that most of the people who sat near us on the plane were either, incredibly understanding because they have kids of their own, or were wearing noise cancelling headphones. Claire watched Finding Nemo about 3 times (all without sound, as she wouldn't keep the headphones on) and would regularly kiss the monitor. She got cranky a few times (gets this from her mom), but her ears really bothered her when we were descending into Atlanta - first time that has happened - a few sucks on her bottle and she was fine.

Anyway, she went to bed at 6:30pm last night and is still down (it's 6:30am right now). Last night at 10pm, I had a hockey game - the championship game no less, but I was just too tired to make it. I found out ths morning that we won in double overtime - darn, I wish I went! Anyway I am rambling because I am tired. A final recap of our week long adventure, next posting.

Montepulciano

Well, today is our last day in Montepulciano. The bear has been a little cranky and her sleep schedule is definitely off. But when we are out and about, she has been great. She is the town's little sweetheart, especially with the students and grandmothers. I think we will have a great 10 weeks here in the fall. We are going to put Claire in daycare in the fall so she can pick up a little Italian - language, that is. We are desparately looking for vegetables for Claire, as her diet has consisted largely of milk, cheese and bread.

Tomorrow we take the train back to Rome and fly home on Tuesday... just in time for Claire to get adjusted to the time zone here. More photos are posted here.

Ciao bebe

Claire managed to sleep about 10 hours last night, a little shy of her usual 12 hours. So, her morning nap was longer - about 3 hours. When she finally woke up around noon, we headed for the Vatican. First we visited the Vatican Museum, with stops at the Sistine Chapel and more importantly, at the Map Gallery. We also went into St. Peter's Basilica. Claire started losing it (after about 3 hours of behaving well) so she went outside with mom and I went up to the top of the Basilica. We concluded our time at the Vatican with some cold beer. Once back in our hotel area, Lynn sought out and found some gelato!!! Anyway, tomorrow we are going to Montepulciano in Tuscany. I'll posted more photos tomorrow, but in the mean time, here are more from today.

Oh, and thank you to everyone who offered to wire us money and help us out of our money predicament. We found an ATM that was willing to give us some money, despite of the fact our ATM cards had expired!

Buongiorno!

We made it to Rome. It was a long trip, but Claire was a real trooper. We call Delta a couple of days ago and reserved a basinette (aka sky cot) for Claire which hooks on to the bulkhead and she can lie down and sleep. But our flight attendent deemed Claire too large for the basinette and refused to give us the basinette - without even trying to see if she would fit! So Claire spent the whole filght either in Lynn's arms (mostly) or my arms (leastly). But so many people told us either a) what a good baby, or b) what a beautiful baby. In walking around in Rome, you don't see kids, which in part is leading to the declining population in Italy.


I think Claire only slept for 3-4 hours on the flight to Rome. I got in about 6 hours and not sure about Lynn (too afraid to ask). We spent about an hour at the airport looking for an ATM to get some euros, but couldn't find one. We got to our hotel and the three of us took a 3-4 hour nap. We continued our quest to find a working ATM, and visited the Colosseum and Forum along the way. A funny thing happened on our way to the forum, we realized that both our ATM cards had expired - Lynn's in Feb and mine in April, and while they both still worked in Atlanta, they didn't in Rome. No wonder we couldn't get any money out. We called our credit union, who turned out to be even more useless than usual. Lynn about had an ATM card from HSBC, but she couldn't remember the PIN and after 5 or 6 tries, the ATM took her card. So, we got about $23 US between us and will be looking for things to do that are free or take credit cards. We'll figure stuff out in the morning when we are not so tired. And i'll post pictures from our outing.



Buona notte

Happy Mother's Day

To all the mother's who read this, happy mother's day. we had a semi-relaxing day. I cooked Lynn breakfast and then we went back to sleep. Got up with Claire around 11am and took Lynn out for lunch at Costco (visit enough food sampling stations and you're full). The bear was great as usual. Here are my girls on the back deck enjoying the sun. If you look carefully, you can see Claire's farmer's tan. I posted some new photos here from today's activities.

On Tuesday, Claire makes her first international trip. We are heading to Italy for 5 days for work. It's a long way to go for only 5 days. I hope she sleeps on the plane. So this will be my excuse for not posting next week.

Walking and talking

Lynn and I are exhausted. This child does not slow down. Walking everywhere, talking all the time. Actually it is a lot of fun. She is really starting to interact with us, even if it means wanting us to read the same book 10 times a day to her.

She is starting to grow taller and her hair is getting a little curl. She is blowing kisses. We are truly blessed to have this little angel for our daughter. Anyway, it has been a while since I have posted new photos, so here are some.