Fermoween has come and gone so I thought that I would share with you a couple photos from the big night. The message that the Italians have about our Halloween is that it is a night dominated by witches and ghosts. Therefore, it almost goes without saying that Greta was the only butterfly in all of Fermo, for that sake the only female non-witch in all of Fermo. And Gracie was the only little pumpkin. Our trip around the piazza did not last very long. Greta was scared of all the ghosts and wanted to go home. Oh well. She did stay out long enough to eat an ice-cream.


Yesterday was Sandro's (Claudio's Father) birthday so the girls got all dressed up to go out and celebrate it. We ate way too much but enjoyed it. We hope you are all well.

It has been a too long since my last posting. But I am just recovering from having the girls to myself for almost two weeks. Yikes! The first couple of days were quie challenging, but now we have a little routine down and everything is a bit easier. We have entered into a pretty dreary Autumn here. It has been very rainy and cool over the last couple of weeks. We need the rain, but this is a bit too much! There is even snow on the mountains. Hopefully we will have a break in the rain long enough to make it up to to mountains this weekend. Hopefully there will still be leaves on the trees to see if we do make it up there!

The girls are doing well. Grace had her monthly check-up and she weighes 6.8 kilos and is 67 cm in length. So she is growing and doing well. She is obsessed with the idea of moving, she is always trying to get onto all fours, but up until now she has yet to go anywhere, except to fall forward onto her face. Greta still loves school, and told me that the cook there is much better then I am. Oh well, at least she eats there! Tomorrow is Halloween, (Happy Birthday Dana!) and she wants to be a ballerina. In fermo we celebrate Fermoween, there is actually an entire Fermoween organized with afternoon snacks with ghosts, trick or treating etc..., if it would only stop raining.

We have twp new additions, to our house, two little water turtles which Greta has named, (1) Light-Dark, and (2)Tom and Jerry, those are two names, there was no talking her out of them. The second being a set of chairs for the living room. Yesterday I went to Chieti to visit my old lab. I will go back in January and I have another entire year on my contract. I am not thrilled, but it is a well paid job and they are not easy to come by in Italy. My boss is allowing me change project as well which should make it more enjoyable.

And that is about it here. Claudio is working, Greta is at school and now Gracie wants her lunch so I better go.

This was a week of firsts here. It was Greta's first real week of school going for a full day, and she loved it. It was Gracie's first trip to Bologna and Florence, and she seems to be a real city girl.

I guess first Greta, she was around first and all, so Greta loves school, and along with it the food that they serve. She comes out around 4:00 in the afternoon completely spent, but very wound up. The inevitable happened though, she has an intestinal virus. They said that all the kids have it, which makes me wonder about handwashing and such. But, on the up side. After Salmonella this summer this stomach virus seems like nothing, thankfully. This morning she wanted to go outside and play with her ball, the outfit was put together completely by Greta.

Gracie made her trip up to Bologna, we went by train so we would not have to worry about parking and getting around, since you can not drive into the center of the city. She was a little angel the whole way up and even sat with us in an Osteria for an apertivo. The next day we took the one hour train ride (60 euros return) to Florence, where Gracie won the hearts and minds of the americans in the consulate who granted her citizenship. We just hope that the passport arrives in time. We had a really nice day walking around Florence and then in the evening around Bologna again.

The next morning we took the train back to Fermo. It seemed so small as we arrived, after being in the cities. But as always it was nice to be back in our own house. Claudio is off again tomorrow for a couple weeks in London. He is a little less then thrilled but thankfully he will be back in time for Fermoween. Greta has already decided that she would like to be a clown. I guess I need to start getting organized!

We are back from our week in Sardegna. We had a really wonderful time. The weather was fantastic for our entire visit so we were able to spnd a good amount of time at the beach. Greta is quite pleased as she was able to get a little closer to her goal of being "brown."

We stayed in a house that we rented just to the east of Cagliari. It worked out very well. Greta liked it so much that she calls it her beautiful house. There was a hammock in the garden that Gracie enjoyed swinging in, and I even fell asleep in it, only to awake covered with mosquito bites.

Since we had rented a house we did not eat out very much. But we did go for lunch once to a hotel just outside of cagliari overlooking the sea. We had wonderful spagetti con botarga and Greta had her shells which she loves. The food was excellent but the best thing about the resturant was by far the view.

The rest of the vacation was passed just relaxing and enjoying being in a new place. Saying that it is nice to be home again.

Gracie eats. Pardon the two very out of focus shots, but she just looks to cute. Today Gracei went crazy eatting puree of vegetable with pasta (yes, Italians start out young on the pasta), and puree of pear. She seemed very happy, and very satisified. Greta as always is a fantastic helper and got in on the act, as you can see she goes a bit overboard at times, helping her Babbo as well....

We asked Greta to smile for the camera and here is the result. She was all wound up today, she
started school this week and to our great relief she loves it. This morning as she was entering she told me to go away. Then EVERY day this week when I go to pick her up she starts crying because she does not want to come home yet. We couldn't be more pleased, she has changed so much in the last few months really turning into an outgoing fun loving little girl. It is really tiring to pass the day with her but fun. She still has a lot to learn though, she picked up the saying "Oh my God" this summer, thanks Uncle Larry, and she says it all the time, ie. "Oh my God, Wolf made a mess!" Te other day I asked her if she knew who God was and she said "Yes... you tell me" she also thinks that Christmas is Santa Claus' birthday, thankfully they start religious studies this year at school. Again, we are in Italy the Vatican is never to far.

That is all for today. Claudio and I are finally enjoying a glass of Cannonau, a Sardinian Red which we enjoy in the peace, which only parents can appreciate, that settles upon the house when the children are finally in bed. Adieu

The other day we took a day off and went to a little town North of Ancona. It was very pretty, I think it is on the list of the piu belli borgi in Italia. Or the prettiest villages in Italy. Greta spotted yet another Fiat 500, this time a red one in really nice condition. The obligatory photo was taken. While there we found a house, well the front of a house with this sign on it. It says more or less that there is this house that the son of one of the towns inhabinents sent money from America to construct. He did so with the desire to return someday and live in this house. Unfortunately for the son his father was a great drinker and frequented the towns pubs where he spent all of the money that his son sent him. He got away with it for some time until finally the son asked for some photos of the house. He quickly constructed a facade. At that point the money

stopped arriving, but the facade remains.

In other news Gracie had her first ever cold this week. She fared pretty well, it is almost 10:00am and she is still sleeping so she must be feeling a bit better. And that is about it. The countdown to the beginning of the school year has begun, Greta starts on the 17th we think that she is excited. That is all for now.

Gracie had her first swim this week in the Adriatic, this is the pre-swim photo of her all decked
out in her pink bathing suit and hat for the beach. Regardless of this outfit the Bagnina, the lady who runs the chalet at the beach where we go asked me for the 10th time this summer if she is a girl or a boy, when I told her that Grace is a girl she said to me "oh yes, but there is a bit of a boy in her isn't there?" Can you imagine, she is way into her 70's and losing it a bit but still.


In other news this week our little monkey Greta got stuck in her
blocks barrel, there were many tears shed before Claudio managed to extract her. Poor thing, she actually had a couple of scratches on her back to prove that she was indeed stuck.

And to conclude just a couple of photos of Mom and the girls and yet another photo of Greta and a Fiat, this time a white one which was parked in front of our house yesterday. Yes, the 500 fascination is still alive and well. Yesteray we saw several white and one red one. Ciao ciao for now...