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snapshots

April 24, 2012 at 4:03 pm

Hello from Virginia! Lena and I arrived on Saturday night, exhausted and thankful. We had journeyed from Sicily to Milan, Milan to Paris, and Paris to D.C. Those 18 hours were rough, as Lena did not want to sleep and we had a pretty miserable time for much of the journey. I remember with fondness the trip Lena and I made to visit Elliott in Israel when Lena was 2 months old. She slept for seven hours of the 8-hour flight, and I slept for about 6 hours myself. Incredible! Those days are long, long gone, I realized woefully as I balanced a baby on my lap while attempting to eat dinner off my tray and feed her at the same time and keep her hands out of the sauces, juices, and vanilla eclair.

“What would you like to drink, madam?” the flight attendant asked me.

“White wine, please,” I replied.

She handed me a miniature bottle of wine. I was supposed to pour it into a pretty little cup on my tray, but I realized I’d lose most of the wine if I did this, thanks to Lena’s deft little grabs. I unscrewed the bottle cap and furtively gulped it down between bites, hoping I didn’t look like some kind of alcoholic! Usually I try not to drink before breastfeeding because the diluted alcohol can seep into breastmilk… but this time this was exactly what I wanted to happen. I’ll attribute the wine (and God’s mercy) to the fact that Lena eventually did sleep for about 3 hours of that flight.

Anyway, now that I have admitted I was trying to get both my daughter and myself slightly tipsy, we can move onto some pictures. These are some from the past month or so from home in Sicily. I’ll have more tomorrow from our trip to the States and a couple adventures we’ve had since arriving here!

1. “pajamas are too big, Mama”

2. visiting Daddy’s office and checking out the operating room

3. quiet evenings with Eden, Mom, and Dad in Sicily

4. a new sweater from Grampa

5. making friends in the Malta airport

6. stylish little jet setter in her plum-colored corduroy skirt and striped leggings!

7. pistachio gelato with Aunt Eden

8. buying mussels for dinner in the Catania fish market

9. “See me stand!”

10. apparently shoes and socks are not required at the weekly market in our town

11. checking out her “Abi doll” that her Aunt Abi (and bride-to-be this weekend!) made her

12. our cozy room at home in Sicily

1 :: in family, Lena, motherhood, travel, Virginia

snapshots

April 24, 2012 at 3:03 pm

“What would you like to drink, madam?” the flight attendant asked me.

“White wine, please,” I replied.

1. “pajamas are too big, Mama”

2. visiting Daddy’s office and checking out the operating room

3. quiet evenings with Eden, Mom, and Dad in Sicily

4. a new sweater from Grampa

5. making friends in the Malta airport

6. stylish little jet setter in her plum-colored corduroy skirt and striped leggings!

7. pistachio gelato with Aunt Eden

8. buying mussels for dinner in the Catania fish market

9. “See me stand!”

10. apparently shoes and socks are not required at the weekly market in our town

11. checking out her “Abi doll” that her Aunt Abi (and bride-to-be this weekend!) made her

12. our cozy room at home in Sicily

1 :: in family, Lena, motherhood, travel, Virginia

a birthday party for Lena

April 16, 2012 at 5:20 pm

What fun I had planning and executing this little party! I love an excuse to bake and craft, and this was the best excuse most mothers ever get: their baby girl’s first birthday. My favorite things to make were the invitations and the cake.

For the invitations (and later for the pennant banners around the house), I used some fabric I purchased at Purl Soho in NYC when I was pregnant with Lena. I wanted to make her something special, and finally I had just the right occasion. I also used fabric from the dress my mom and I sewed for Lena and which, of course, she wore for the party.

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law (Eden) were a huge help getting ready for the day. Even my father-in-law helped with nailing banners to the wall, and Elliott came home with a huge bouquet of wildflowers after I sent him out just to get the balloons blown up.

(In the midst of all this prettiness, all was not as perfect as it seems. Elliott was trying to get our car repaired as everyone at home prepared for the party. [We are constantly, constantly having issues with this little car of ours.] Unfortunately the car did not get fixed in time, leaving him stranded at the mechanic’s before the party. He had to catch a ride with some of our guests to his own daughter’s birthday. When he caught a ride back to the mechanic’s after the party he discovered that the mechanic had broken his tools trying to get the last bolt off! Our car had to be put back together, unfixed. The car is still not repaired, despite Elliott’s sacrifices that day. Oh, for a car that runs without complaining!)

Eden went out before the party to buy some traditional Sicilian Easter lambs at a local bakery. They were made of almond marzipan and are astonishing delicious. (I’m cutting slices off one of them and nibbling on it now!) They were sweet decoration, too, for an Easter-themed birthday party.

Here’s my pride and joy: the lamb cake. My mom had a lamb-shaped cake tin and made us cakes like this for years and years when we were growing up. I asked her if I could use it for Lena’s birthday, and she got me one of my own! I see many lamb-shaped birthday cakes in the future.

At 1pm, the guests began to arrive! We kept it small with just a few children around Lena’s age from families that have become very dear to us over the last few months.

We catch our baby randomly looking through her books, a sweet habit that we love. (We’ll teach her to read them the right way up one day.)

“Hey Mom, look what I found!” We had a chocolate Easter egg hunt for the kids that were old enough to understand. Meanwhile, Lena finds a hat and decides she loves it (literally) while I clap like I am 12 months old.

Time for cake!

The frosting is the best part!

“Forget the cake, I just need to get this frosting…”

“… soooo good….”

“… ahhhh! I love frosting!”

“That was ah-may-zing. Let’s do it again!”

6 :: in family, friends, Lena

a birthday party for Lena

April 16, 2012 at 4:20 pm

At 1pm, the guests began to arrive! We kept it small with just a few children around Lena’s age from families that have become very dear to us over the last few months.

We catch our baby randomly looking through her books, a sweet habit that we love. (We’ll teach her to read them the right way up one day.)

Time for cake!

The frosting is the best part!

“Forget the cake, I just need to get this frosting…”

“… soooo good….”

“… ahhhh! I love frosting!”

“That was ah-may-zing. Let’s do it again!”

6 :: in family, friends, Lena

Malta {Part 2 of 2}

April 10, 2012 at 3:39 pm

Our second day in Malta was a little more rustic than urban, and we also got to spend more time on the beach. Yesss!

First thing in the morning, we set off for the Blue Grotto on the western side of the island. Pretty little skiffs tugged at their moorings as salty Maltese boatmen caught up on last night’s gossip before beginning another day.

We waited for our own ride around the Blue Grotto:

And what a lovely ride it was! We dipped into different caves formed by years of water washing on rock. Beneath the crystal clear water we could see the deceptively fragile forms of lavender-hued jellyfish, their long tentacles streaming behind them.

Afterwards we walked along the rocky beach for a short distance and then sat down in the sunshine. Lena discovered a little hole in the rock that was filled with seawater from last night’s high tide. She dipped her hand in experimentally and then tasted the water on her fingers. Wowza! Salty and so yummy! She proceeded to dip her hand in over and over, licking the salt off each time. Here’s a video:

Later we drove to visit the temples at Hagar Qim. Our Malta guide book suggested that you could see them fairly well without paying the entrance fee, and Lonely Planet was right, as usual. We followed the paths between the two temple sites and looked through the fences at the ancient ruins. In that way the setup reminded me of Stonehenge. This photo is from the edge of a cliff near the temples. What a view!

We had just watched Gladiator again in our hotel room the night before, and these fields of wheat reminded us of the classic scenes of “the Spaniard” smoothing his hand over the heads of wheat on his farm in every dream sequence. Much of The Gladiator was filmed in Malta, believe it or not, as well as other films like The Count of Monte Cristo and Casino Royale. Like Italy was for spaghetti westerns, Malta is cheap.

By this point it was high time for lunch, and we were starving. Lonely Planet recommended Ghar Lapsi, a nearby town, which consisted almost entirely of three restaurants and a little stretch of rocky beach. Lena got her feet wet for the first time in Malta. She loved it!

Telling us all about it…

Meeting a hermit crab:

In the Blue Creek Restaurant, we ordered their risotto con calamari al nero de seppia, or calamari risotto in squid ink. Lena and I loved it, but it looked like she was eating mud!

At this point, with our departure time approaching, we chose to spend the last few hours in Malta on one of the recommended beaches. Although chilly in April, it was a peaceful way to leave the island. We watched teenagers kicking a soccer ball around and listened to them speak in their strangely clipped English, the language of upperclass Maltese. We finished off the wine from lunch, read a few lines of our books, watched the sun dip into the sea, and kept an eye on our little explorer, Lena.

And then at last to the airport and then home, where we finally slipped little Lena into bed around 11pm. Malta was, like I said, a short and sweet trip for us, but a beautiful one (especially this time of year!) and we’d recommend it to anyone. If you’re coming our way to Sicily, we can suggest an inexpensive flight or ferry ride and you’ll be on your way to Malta for the weekend!