November fun

Yesterday we spent nearly the whole day outside, partly in an effort to encourage better and sounder sleeping in Cecelia. It sort of works, but 5 am is still her preferred waking time. The lawn mower is her new favorite toy, and would like the ability to ride it herself around the yard rather than depending on mom and dad who are always eager to get on to the next yard task rather than roam aimlessly around the yard. After the lawn mower, lying on the blue tarp with the leaves and getting dragged into the woods was most fun. No pics of that, though, sorry. I will try to catch it later this week. Plenty of leaves left to drag.

Note to friends and relatives: On top of Cecelia's Christmas gift list: boxes. This one held our bathroom sconces and then became a good place to practice our impressive climbing skills. Her face is covered in chili in this photo. One thing we feel very fortunate about is that Cecelia will eat just about anything we put in front of her. Have not tried liver, however. Or the more exotic green vegetables....like peas. Mom doesn't care for them.

More Italy pics of poor quality

Sorry that these photos are not clearer. I realized that I did not put up any of our castle in Umbertide, which really deserved some blog space. Here are Cecelia and Leo playing 'pretend to water the bushes' together. They made an interesting pair, as she is exactly one half his weight and size. He just approached Cecelia and she fell over backwards. Our castle, Santa Giuliana, has 10 different renovated apartments belonging to people from all over. Our courtyard here had sage and rosemary bushes and a wide view of the valley below. The only downside to all of the lovely stone is that it is hard as rock, and tough on little bodies that tend to fall down quite a bit.

This is the courtyard in front of our very own Chiesa di Santa Cecilia, our CeceRose's namesake. It has a special place in our hearts because Jim and I were engaged there, and we returned to present our Cecelia to the saint herself. It is a lovely church, in Trastevere on the western side of the Tiber River, in case you are ever in Rome.....

Peanut at first real Halloween

Cecelia's Grandma Jane made her the CUTEST COSTUME EVER this year!!! She was a peanut, as you can see from above adorable pictures. Strangers called out, " Let's get a better look at the peanut!" We trick or treated in Housatonic with our friends and their toddler twins. Cecelia was the youngest candy-seeker out there, as far as I could see. We will have to put her in the outfit again for the entertainment value. She didn't mind wearing it at all, except for the hat. Mom and Dad got some candy out of the venture and she got to stay up an hour late.

More Italia

Here are: fussy and squirmy in Perugia with patient Daddy, in front of the 2,500 year old well that we went deep underground and paid the equivalent of $6 to see. Perugia was my favorite town/city we visited. Very young, hip and fun. Good food, too, which is a necessary prerequisite in my mind.

Then..Erica, Sheela and Cecelia, who stood still long enough to take this photo in front of the beautiful cathedral in Orvieto. She LOVED the piazza in front of the church and spent many fond minutes running through, around and up and down it. Then....Cecelia eating her own little gelato cone. She doesn't get to eat sugary foods at home, but who could deny a child on her first trip to Italy, or any trip to Italy, a taste of gelato.

Belated Italia

I was having camera tranferral issues, so our pics from our October Italy trip are 2+ weeks late. But as they say...So here are some cute ones from, a) lounging with Mom and Dad on the grass opposite the 'Bocca Della Verita', which is near the banks of the Tiber River, and at which one must pay and wait on a long line for the priviliege of sticking one's hand in the mouth. Cecelia didn't care if we were in Rome, Timbuktu, Cleveland or Great Barrington, grass is grass and worth playing on. b) Cecelia unimpressed with the Colliseum, one of the 7 wonders of the world, at the age of 13 months....a sad commentary at our jaded youth of today, don't you think? and c) her car seat, (though the photo looks more like it should be accompanied by a bio, like, " Distinguished author Cecelia 'Chickpea' Clary teaches Infant's Literature at the University of Peanuts. She lives in Housatonic with her parents and doggie Alice." ) She spent quite a lot of time in her car seat in our little Renault, but luckily she had Auntie Erica to entertain and feed her on our long jaunts to Urbino, Perugia, Todi, Gubbio, and San Marino (to see what was so special about it to make it a whole separate country. Turns out, not much.) More photos will be forthcoming.