Cugini

Luca and my niece - Emery.

My sister found them like this - all snuggled up and watching the boob tube - one day last week when we were visiting. I love the way these two love each other. 

Stuff we've been up to...

I'm certain I will never be able to piece together highlights of the last year, but here are some of the things we've done lately...

Evening playdates on the beach...

Enjoying our container garden and other local fare...

Hands Across the Sand

Fun on the water...

Fun IN the water...

And - fun on the sand.

One Year and Twenty-Seven Days Later...

It's Debbie's birtday today (well, yesterday - since we've passed the midnight hour). We bought her an ice cream maker, since she is koo-koo for the stuff. The first pass on the machine was a lime yogurt sorbet, made by our friend Tammy who is visiting this week. Matteo got a sneak preview earlier this afternoon, while the second pass (blueberry ice cream) was churning.

Brief Update

The kids and I are just back from a two-week jaunt to Philadelphia while Debbie was in South Korea on a business trip. We gad a great time seeing lots of family and friends, but we're glad to be home and all back together again.

I have pics to upload and updates to share - but, the most pressing thing for us right now is to find a new place to live by August 1st. The lease is up on the current rental home we're in and it's proving much harder to find a new home than we imagined it would. There are a few possibilities out there - and one that we are really, really wanting. Hoping this is all settled and done with by next week so we can get to the business of packing and purging and gradually moving into our new diggs.

In the meantime - we're play dating, gardening, bug collecting, water ice-eating and hanging out.

Luca is in "camp" this week - and next - at the Montessori school he attends. I also just signed him up for a week of soccer camp for the second week of August. His first organized sport! If he likes it, we'll enroll him for the coming school year.

Matteo is almost eighteen months old. Hard to believe. As my mother would say, he's being a real "pip" right now. Usually jolly and compliant - he's suddenly turned into a shrieking, food-throwing, cookie-demanding naysayer. I'm hoping the phase passes quickly...

Brutha Love...

Luca is home again today. Feverless - but still too cranky to be released into the wild. 

All three of us have enjoyed the lazy morning portion of sick days at home. 

MONDAY: more on fevers and a fortamajig...

As predicted, Matteo gave Luca the gift of fever. Matteo - besides taking over two hours to fall asleep tonight - is now feeling fine, but his brother went to bed in a high-temp haze. 

Last night, though, Primo was well enough to demand that we break out his fortamajig as he readied for bed. Great timing, as it's a bit of a production. Luckily, I was on Segundo bed-time duty - a good excuse to sneak out during the increasingly heated fortamajig negotiations. 

After Matteo fell asleep, I went to Luca's room to say goodnight - and this is what I found...

SUNDAY: Fevers, Food Processors and Five-minute Time Outs

Segundo came down with a fever late yesterday afternoon, making today a "home day" by default. We had hoped to go to the beach and/or hang out with friends today, but it was obvious we needed to quarantine the little hot head. And, not feeling one hundred percent, the poor thing was somewhat unsteady on his feet and wound up falling into a bench in the backyard - resulting in a bruised and somewhat swollen nose. He currently looks like he has the schnoz of an aged drunkard. But - he recovered well. And, since we had at-home projects on our (loose) agenda and since his fever was only low-grade during the morning/early afternoon - staying in and around the house worked out just fine. 

As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that Primo might be next in the fever line, as his behavior today was less than stellar. Countless mini-tantrums (and subsequent time-outs) added more than a bit of aggravation to our Sunday - but we still managed to get some things done and have some fun in the process. 

Debbie set up the kiddie pool and the water table out back so that we could get some gardening done. Some of the plants are starting to show the effects of the Florida heat. They're still faring pretty well, but we had to shift a bunch of things around so that the ones that were becoming afflicted with a "mid-day sag" were moved into shadier spots.

The tomatoes are still doing well - and we've been snacking on them as they ripen. 

Luca has been good about asking before he picks them, but I don't think many of them will be seeing the inside of the kitchen.

I also don't think I will ever get tired of discovering those tiny, new tomatoes. 

The cantaloupes are steadily growing. I counted seven that are well under-way, and getting bigger by the hour.  

And - we figured out that we're growing long beans. 

They're not kidding about the "long" part. There are already a bunch of them that are measuring about twelve inches.

Some of the basil plants aren't doing all that well. 

I'm not sure if it's too much sun, too much water, not enough water, etc. 

I moved them into shadier spots and am hoping for the best. Since some of the leaves weren't looking that great, I decided to put them to use before it was too late to use them at all. I didn't have enough of any one variety - so I picked some of each of them (Spicy Globe, Thai, Mammoth and Italian Sweet). 

Then, I broke out the Cuisinart and made the first pesto of the season...

We also picked the arugula from the garden and added it to a salad with a tahini/rice vinegar dressing. 

We'll most likely be home tomorrow, too. 

Hopefully with lower temperatures and fewer time-outs.