Archive | Lena

happy halloween!

November 1, 2012 at 12:10 pm

Say hello to our little Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz! She got to show off her costume last night at a fun Halloween party some friends of ours hosted. I think she was deee-lighted about all the toys and kids and couldn’t care less about anything else, including the candy. We’ll keep the illusion going for another year or two that Halloween has nothing to do with candy…

As of 12pm on Halloween, Lena did not have a costume, and the party started at 5pm. At the store earlier that day I had looked half-heartedly at costumes, but the crafter in me said, “You have to make a costume! Even if it’s a brown paper bag… you’ve got to make something! Come on!”

Back at home, I dejectedly searched for “last minute homemade Halloween costume.” (It’s not a fun search to make.) Eventually I settled on this cute snail costume even though I secretly suspected Lena wouldn’t wear it. I don’t know many 1.5-year-olds who will keep a hairband on their heads or a “backpack” on their backs.

As a last ditch effort, I pulled open my fabric drawer and saw this cute blue-and-white gingham. All at once the pieces fell into place. Dorothy! “I have a white blouse that would work… and a basket she can carry with a stuffed animal inside to be Toto… and I can put her hair in pigtails… and she has maroon leather shoes that will be a bit of a stretch, but a) I just couldn’t put red glitter on them even if I owned some and b) they’re so stinkin’ cute that no one will care….”

Now the question remained: could I make her a dress from this piece of fabric?? I stared at the fabric and then studied photos of Dorothy, and very quickly the whole idea came together. I pulled out my sewing machine and shears, cut up the fabric into a few simple rectangles, and started sewing everything together. In a couple of hours I was able to craft something that fit her, even despite the fact that the only thing she wanted to do with the measuring tape was put it around her neck.

I’m proud of it! At any rate, it’s better than her Halloween costume last year…

14 :: in arts and crafts, holidays, Lena

a little Virginia autumn for your weekend

October 26, 2012 at 2:39 pm

^ “Umm, Mama, I’d really like to go on a walk with you but I just have to figure out how to bring all my shoes along too.”

The weekend before we left Virginia and returned to Sicily, my parents, siblings, Elliott, Lena, and I drove to a pretty little getaway in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Elliott and I swung by UVA to pick up my sister Emily on our way to the house my mom had rented for all of us. We soaked up time together with hikes in the mountains, leisurely meals and conversation indoors, and quiet moments around the fire pit or in the hot tub outside. Lena especially enjoyed the huge walking stick bugs (“bee! bee!” and giggles) that her daddy caught for her.

I’ll leave you with a portrait of a blogging couple. This is how we spend many evenings together but usually no one else is around to say, “Aww, you two are so cute with your matching computers!” and take a picture.

5 :: in family, Lena, Virginia, weekend

to fix a leaky chimney

October 24, 2012 at 1:42 pm

what is actually happening in my life vs. what I wish was happening in my life

Well, I was thinking of sharing some fun photos from our time back in the States. (See above right photo.) However, at 7:40 this morning (5 minutes after I woke up) the door bell rang and there was a work crew on the front step. What?! So early.

It’s okay, though. Early can be good. I knew they were coming to do an assessment today because we have an issue with our faulty chimney leaking smoke into our house. After the assessment we planned to decide on huge chimney repairs vs. getting a wood stove installed in the fireplace instead. Suddenly, a few minutes after they arrived, I heard a hammer hitting the wall and chunks of plaster hitting the floor. “Stop! What are you doing?!” Well, so much for an assessment. The chimney will be fixed this week!

Well, maybe not this week. But in “a few days.”

My house is a total disaster, with dust everywhere, a man pounding on the chimney, and huge chunks of plaster falling to the floor. (See above left photo.) My baby, meanwhile, is trying to sleep in the other room. I think she actually is sleeping, but that’s only because I have the White Noise Lite app on my iPhone turned up so loud that at first she couldn’t sleep at all.

Oh living in Italy! I really love it, but it’s definitely hard with the language/communication barrier sometimes. I only wish I spoke fluent Italian and could be trusted to do all the communicating on my own. But instead every conversation has to go through an interpreter, often over the phone… and when you’re cell phone doesn’t get good reception in your house, that adds to the complications!

Anyway. Here’s a fun video of Siena and Lena to end today’s post. (I keep calling Siena “Luna” because that’s my sister’s cat’s name.) You can see one of Lena’s greatest interests every time I take a video of her… oh vanity, you start so young!

5 :: in Italy, Lena, life lately, Siena, video

to fix a leaky chimney

October 24, 2012 at 12:42 pm

what is actually happening in my life vs. what I wish was happening in my life

Well, maybe not this week. But in “a few days.”

7 :: in Italy, Lena, life lately, Siena, video

of toddlers and kittens

October 23, 2012 at 12:00 pm

she stretched out her paws to rest them on my leg and then fell asleep like that

I wish I had captured today on film, but the photo above is the first photo I took all day. After a weekend where my camera barely left my hands, I was DSLR’d out. So the camera never took a picture, and even my phone mostly sat by itself.

That’s fine. It’s just that today was so peaceful and homey and full of love. I wish I had a few more photos capturing the little moments.

Lena slept so much today. Two 2.5-hour naps… what?! My poor darlin’. I guess she’s still recovering from jet lag and travel exhaustion and she also had a super busy weekend with friends and festivals and hikes and late bedtimes. She was a happy camper today, though, with a sweet attitude that just made me so glad to be at home with her, savoring every day of her being 18 months old. I watched her as she busied herself with her toys. She is very into stacking and sorting things. Later I found all her wooden puzzle pieces in two neat little stacks, one for each puzzle.

(I wonder if I will have another daughter? I have been sorting and storing all her outgrown clothes from this summer. Will another girl of mine ever wear them? Or is she my only one?)

Lena can’t really say “cat” yet (“ca… ca?” or “dee-tee” for kitty) but she can say “meow,” and so that is Siena’s name in Lena’s mind right now. Watching her squat down beside Siena and gently rub a hand in her fur, then stand up and look at me and giggle gleefully… oh, my heart just melted into a big puddle of love juice.

As for Siena and me, well… I’m smitten. OK, I wasn’t so smitten when I saw her on my kitchen counter licking butter out of my butter dish, but she is just five months old and part of me thinks of her as a toddler in need of guidance.

The other part of me looks at her as this beautiful, foreign thing–a cat! in my house! my cat!–and marvels at her, the mystery of her, the delicacy of her grooming, the lightness of her leap, the austerity of her gaze.

But I think she loves me. She followed me all over the house today. She really is like a dog, just like they say Maine Coons are. At one point she lost me–I had gone into the laundry room and partly closed the door–and I heard her yowling at the top of the stairs. I stuck my head out and called, “Here I am, Siena!” and she took one look at me and came bounding across the room to join me.

Big puddle of love juice.

In other news, this is how we blog now, apparently.