Four Years Old

Philadelphia

We traveled to Philly a couple of weekends ago to visit with family and to introduce Matteo to my grandmother. It was just a three day trip and there were lots of folks to see. The plan had been to set up camp at my sister's - but my poor nephew came down with a high fever and tonsillitis the night before we arrived. Instead, we parent-hopped between my mom and my dad's houses. We saw my sister and brother-in-law a few times throughout the weekend, but we only got to see Max on our last morning there...




He cracked me up clomping around in my hiking shoes.



Something about the way he's standing here reminds me of an illustration in Where the Wild Things Are. I haven't had a chance to look to see which one.

We began our trip by driving directly from the airport to "The Home". My grandmother was feeling good that day and had a really nice visit with the boys.




Matteo and his great-grandmother got a chance to bond a little.



They had no problem connecting.





On Saturday, my mom hosted a little gathering for some family and friends - otherwise known as - Matteo's "meet and greet".









As usual, there was lots of food...



- and lots of love...



The highlight of the trip was connecting with my high school friend Jenn. On Sunday - we met up with her and her three kids - including five-month old Michael - Matteo's new best friend.



We hung out at the Elmwood Zoo - which turned out to be a great place to visit with each other.

Luca horsed around with Angelo and Belle...





...while Jenn and I caught up.



Debbie was the designated kid wrangler. A necessity that day.











We did our best to get a nice group shot of our rag tag crew at the end of our visit...





It was a great trip and we were all worn out by the end of the weekend. But - only some of us got to sleep...

Old Meets New

Rain Day Map Making with the Directionally-Impaired

We had a "pajama day" yesterday - due to the pouring rain. We read books, did a few puzzles, finger-painted and watched a movie. We even got all crazy and ate popcorn before lunch. We also drove to the Starbucks drive-thru so the baby would fall asleep and I could get my iced coffee fix. This is usually a relaxing kind of break for me, even with two kids in the car - but yesterday's drive turned out to be less than that - due to the fact that Luca had to pee before we were anywhere near home. I had to pull into a (closed) bank parking lot and let him drop trough in public. Even though I attempted to shield the obvious from public view by positioning him between the front and back open doors on the passenger's side, I am pretty sure the bank employee's saw us as they left the building for the day.

Anyway - since reading Me On The Map, Luca's been tossing the map idea around in his head. So, while finger-painting yesterday - he decided he was going to make a "Map of Friends". He proceeded to draw his version of our city and assigned several of his friends different locations on the paper as he painted. Having no sense of direction at all in real life, let alone in the Land of Make Believe - I kept forgetting who lived where on his map. The fact that my mind was beginning to numb, because we had been stuck inside most of the day, didn't help either. He kept correcting me and seemed totally annoyed by his directionless mother.



Still - it was fun to watch him map out his version of his own little world and to see the sense of accomplishment he felt when his map was complete.