When I pictured this summer, I had a lot of ideas of how it would look. We had trips booked — in particular a long-planned family reunion in France — and others in the works. We had family and friends intending to come stay with us. I expected to spend a lot of time on swimming lessons and pool dates at the base pool. In September, I planned to take Loch for a quick trip back to the States to see family members and attend a cousin’s wedding.

Obviously, covid-19 stomped on our plans. If you asked me back at May, I would have told you that I expected this summer to totally suck.

Luckily, I was wrong.

While we are still deeply disappointed by not being able to see our families this year, we ended up salvaging a pretty awesome summer after all. Obviously we’d prefer none of this had happened, but since it did I think we did a pretty decent job finding the silver linings. For instance, pretty much all of our friends — who travel as much as we do and many of whom typically leave for the entire summer — were around to hang out with more this year. This was the year of the group beach trip! Because of social distancing, we spent a ton of time outdoors this year — the beach, hikes, riding bikes and even the base pool once it opened up. With way fewer tourists this year, the island was also much less crowded than usual — we even ventured to Taormina in August! Normally, I wouldn’t be caught there during the high season because it is absolute madness but this year? Bam Bar in August, baby!

Overall, since we didn’t travel internationally much (other than our quick trip to Malta), we spent a lot of time just really savoring Sicily and spending time with our wonderful friends. While I certainly hope that by next summer we have a vaccine and more freedom to travel, I feel unbelievably grateful for these last few months. I love this gorgeous place!

For most of this summer, we ended up spending at least two, sometimes three days a week at the beach — usually once on the weekend as a family, and once or twice during the week with friends since beach time is a good socially-distant activity. The big kids had an absolute blast swimming with their friends!

We took advantage of trying out various different beaches this year, including a rocky beach to the north near Fiumefreddo. We also took a nice trip down to a town called Marina di Ragusa for a three-day stay in June.

This summer also ended up being a perfect year to try out a few activities that we’ve been meaning to do but never seemed to get around to, including the Adventure Park at Monti Rossi in Nicolosi. I was so proud of my big kids for completing the ropes course!

We did get to travel a little this summer and seized our opportunity to go to Malta about a week after it opened to travelers from Italy. We also had tickets to go to Poland at the end of July, but unfortunately ended up bailing on that trip because of some airline scheduling changes shortened to the trip so much that it didn’t seem worth the travel time any more. Unfortunately both those countries are now labeled “red,” meaning anyone returning to Italy from there has to either quarantine for two weeks or get a Covid test as soon as they return. We had hopes of leaving traveling internationally this fall, but since it is risky to book anything without knowing if a country will turn red before or during our trip, we’ve pretty much settled on staying within Italy for the rest of the year. Fortunately there are still so many places we’d love to see here!

Owen and Fiona started school in-person last week for the first time since March 10, and I can’t even explain how happy they are to be back. Owen is in second grade this year, while Fiona is in first. Things are much different at the school this year, obviously, but they are so happy to be around other kids that they don’t seem to mind much. I’m insanely grateful that we are living out here at this moment in time because our numbers have been mercifully low in Sicily and I feel comfortable sending them back. I know most of my friends in the States are dealing with distance learning this semester as well as juggling jobs, and I just want to send you all hugs (and all the wine).

Looking back over this strange, stressful and sometimes scary year, I’m ultimately glad that the Italian government took the steps it did this spring. Our extremely strict lockdown was difficult to deal with from March to June, but it has really allowed Italy to stomp on this jackass of a virus. We went from almost 1,000 deaths per day during the darkest days, to single digits each day for weeks now. While each of those deaths still happening is a tragedy, the Italian lockdown and the precautions still in place now clearly saved countless lives. Here in Sicily, everyone is watching the numbers with some concern right now because our numbers of cases are starting to rise (perhaps letting our guard down too much at the end of summer?), but having made it through one lockdown already, I know we can do it again if need be. At any rate, I am clinging to the knowledge that each month that passes brings us closer to the release of an effective vaccine. And with that, closer to the opportunity to see our families at last! It has been too long.

The post Our Covid-19 Summer in Sicily first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Our Covid-19 Summer in Sicily appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

A month. Really, since I’m writing this later than I intended, it’s actually been more like 32 days of lockdown. More than a month since our kids have left the property. Wow.

I will preface this, as usual, with a message for our friends and family: we are healthy, we are safe, we have everything we need. Adding: thank you all so much for checking in, and I’m sorry I’ve been so slow to reply to messages these days. I’m trying to get better about it.

I’ve been meaning to update sooner, but to be really honest, it has been difficult to find the motivation to write. However, I’m sitting on my balcony with a cup of coffee and a rare bit of solitude, so here goes nothing!

(Cue one of my children showing up to ask me to arbitrate a dispute like “who gets to be the murderer” in a game they want to play. Yes, that is an actual fight they’ve had recently).

On the news-y front, there isn’t a ton to update here. Every day at 6 p.m. we check to see the official death/new cases count out of Italy (a morbid ritual we’ve gotten into) and search for signs things are improving. At the moment, it’s hard to say. The number of deaths have fallen from the peak for several days in a row, but when you are talking about another 600+ people dead every single day, it is hard to feel encouraged. Numbers of new cases seem to be up and down. We are hoping those numbers continue to fall, but I think that I need to accept that it will not be a sudden drop off in cases as I secretly have hoped.

Lockdown is expected to be extended until at least May 3 here, with rumblings that it will go on in some reduced form for much longer. At the base, and now in all of Italy, you may no longer be out in public without a mask. For the most part, the Sicilians I’ve seen have almost all been wearing masks since the beginning anyway, but now it is official. The new mask requirement for the base started earlier this week. I’ve been so impressed by the great number of people on base who have been making up big batches of these masks and leaving them for anyone to come grab. Love to see people helping each other during these crazy times!

What we’ve learned so far: Observations from lockdown

1. We have to have things we “have” to do. While doing the e-learning stuff was a bit rocky for the first couple days as we figured it out, I have come to be glad we have it. As a group, we do not do well if we don’t have some kind of a “plan” for the day. I kind of knew this about myself, but holy cow is it ever true for the kids as well. Any day where we don’t have things to do, we all turn into absolute grouch monsters. The kids watch too much TV or play too many video games, which for whatever weird reason INVARIABLY leads to them deciding to fight all damn day. If I don’t have things to do, I get into a shitty mood, which makes me way less capable of dealing with the constant bickering. Then the sound of us all arguing gets to Chris, who ends up longing to be at work rather than in the other room listening to us all be cranky at each other.

   

On days we do have things to do, on the other hand? Honestly, it is such a difference that it is hard to even describe. I have no idea why doing school work or projects in the mornings makes them so much more capable of playing nicely together in the afternoon and evening, but is just freaking does. Having a sense of “crossing things off my list” also gives me a sense of accomplishment, which I honestly need. Especially as I am also not working at the moment because my freelance clients have taken all their work in-house.

This week was spring break for the kids, so I was very worried about what we’d do to stay sane. At the suggestion of one of my friends, we decided to do a “theme” for each day and various activities. It worked really well every day except Thursday when, after a bad night with the baby and a lack of planning on my part, we didn’t really do many of “Portugal” themed things. Unsurprisingly, Thursday sucked. Real bad. We got back on track yesterday though, and consequently it was a dramatically better day.

School starts Monday and I am SO RELIEVED.

2. It’s all jammies all the time over here. Having a “routine” does NOT extend to getting dressed, however. Owen, who has bizarrely shunned pajama days at school in the past, has declared that when they go back to school he wants to make EVERY DAY pajama day. I suspect he’ll change his mind about the fleece jammie pants when it is 100 degrees out, but in the meantime I’m all about it. Ha!

3. Exercise is crucial. Another discovery — every single one of us is a jerk if we don’t get some exercise. Preferably in the fresh air (which mostly means the balcony, since we aren’t allowed to walk outside our property. I’m so jealous of all of you in the States who have been going hiking). I started with my balcony walking as a way to get a bit of solitude, but now it is freaking ESSENTIAL to my mental health. We’ve had a lot of bad storms in recent weeks, some of which were so torrential that we couldn’t even walk on our covered balcony because of how slippery the tiles got. On those days, we all felt terrible. The kids are now required to do 30 minutes of activity as a bare minimum, and I definitely see a difference in them too.

4. The kids still like us. Ha! I guess what I mean to say is, while I know they miss their friends they really seem to be enjoying the opportunity to have more one-on-one time with us. While I’m SO READY for life to get back to normal, I do love the talks and snuggles we’ve had recently.

Every time they talk though, I realize how many of our verbal tics they’ve picked up. Whoops. I guess I should be glad they aren’t dropping f-bombs (yet)?

5. WE EAT SO MUCH. If there is one thing that is driving me a little bit crazy (audience: only one?) it is the absolute unending relentlessness of the dishes/cooking cycle. How is it possible for five people to eat this much? How is it possible to do so many dishes and yet ALWAYS HAVE A SINK FULL OF DISHES?

We did finally order pizza from this one local place that delivers starting at 6 p.m. (!!!) and it was a very nice change. We haven’t ordered much because not a lot delivers here and we tend to eat a LOT earlier than restaurants usually deliver. This pizza wasn’t my absolute favorite, but the owner spoke flawless English over the phone, it got here in probably 35 minutes and it was cheap. So, I imagine we’ll be having it again.

6. The low-budget carriers are a bunch of bastards. I won’t get into a whole big thing about my hours of efforts to try and get refunds for our cancelled flights to Amsterdam, Bordeaux and Lisbon, but it has been a mess. At this point, I’ve settled on vouchers since they’ve deliberately made it impossible to go through the process to get the cash refunds we are entitled to. Here’s hoping these airlines don’t fold before we get to use them, as Chris predicts.

It’s been weird not only not going anywhere, but not knowing when it will be possible to plan future trips. We did move one of our Bordeaux flights to be a flight to Lyon at Christmas time, but beyond that we are just waiting and seeing. At this point, I might start planning stuff for Summer 2021, just to scratch that itch. Ha!

7. There aren’t enough hours in the day. I would have thought that we’d have an excessive amount of free time now, but go figure — there still isn’t enough time to get everything done that I mean to. And when there is free time, I’m too damn tired. Oh well! 

Tell me: how are things by you? How are you occupying your time? 

The post LOCKDOWN: Reflections on 1 month at home first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post LOCKDOWN: Reflections on 1 month at home appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Prefacing with this statement, as usual:

We are healthy. We have everything we need. We feel safe. 

(We are, however, going through sleep problems with Lochie once again. Thanks, kid.)

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, greetings once again from lockdown. We are doing okay. Online school is going well enough and we are honestly finding lots of ways to occupy ourselves. When this all started, I wondered how we were going to fill the days since normally we spend so much time out and about. Turns out, I somehow feel like I have even less time than usual?! I think that’s a good thing though. I keep saying that if this had to happen, at least we have an amazing amount of educational and entertainment options to keep us occupied.

The news out of the rest of Italy isn’t great though. The death toll in this country has exceeded that of China, with 627 deaths in the last 24-hour period for which numbers have been released. I don’t know what official numbers are here in Sicily, but I’ve heard rumors of there being some cases in a town near us and of positives among locals working at the base. As far as we’ve been told, there are no Americans on base who’ve been diagnosed. Both Italy in general and the base specifically have, however, tightened restrictions here even more. Some of the changes:

-No one is allowed outside their homes for anything other than work, doctor visits or one grocery/pharmacy run per day (one member of the family only). So, no taking jogs or walks, even with the proper social distancing. Our friend was walking her dog and got told to go home, and nationwide something like 40,000 people have been fined for failure to comply. In the hardest-hit area in north, Lombardy, the Army is being dispatched to enforce the lockdown.

(By the way, I wrote a lengthy post for my Facebook page about my visit to the grocery store in town. If you missed it, check the Babies With Backpacks Facebook page.)

-The stores that are still allowed to remain open (grocery, pharmacy) are now closed on Sundays. This includes our base commissary and exchange. Children are not allowed in stores.

-The base is now taking the temperature of everyone trying to enter. If you have a fever, you aren’t coming in.

-Yesterday, guys went through our town spraying some kind of disinfectant in the streets again.

-Lochlan’s 12-month well-child visit has been changed to a telephone call with his pediatrician. The idea, I would imagine, is keeping healthy people away from the hospital. Works for me.

-Lockdown is expected to be extended past April 3, but no date is officially given.

-In Sicily, the airport, train and ferries are closed. The island is meant to be completely closed.

So, that’s the update. It’s not great. But again, to reiterate, we are personally fine.

Moving on to cheerier topics: how have we been amusing ourselves?

LIFE IN LOCKDOWN: A PHOTO ESSAY

1. School! Owen and Fiona’s classes have both moved online, and the last two days have actually gone really well. The kids have even gotten to do meetups with their entire class and their teacher this week, which was a lot of fun for them.

   

   

   

   

2. “Educational” (in theory) activities. As I’ve said, the silver lining of this whole thing is that it is happening at a time when there are SO MANY COOL THINGS online for the kids. Not pictured: educational videos from zoos, Owen working on coding from Khan Academy, science videos on YouTube, fun math games from abcya.com, etc.

We are also listening to audio books (and will probably listen even more now that Audible is offering free kid stories!) and are making a lot of progress in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. For fellow fans — we are at Xenophilius Lovegood’s house and about to hear the Tale of the Three Brothers. Chills!

3. Other fun stuff the kids are coming up with, including endless fort/rocket/wagon building. The mess around here is incredible lately, but at least they are occupied. 

4. Chats with friends and family! Unfortunately I did not snap any photos of these because we are always using my phone, but they really like getting to see their friends again. Of course, the second they are on the phone they turn into crazy people. And don’t get me started about their obsession with filters!

5. Walking the balcony. The kids have also been watching some kids’ exercise videos and Chris is lifting weights, but I’m still compulsively walking circles on my balcony. I’ve been trying to hit 10,000 steps per day, but averaging closer to 9,000.

6. Eating. OH MY GOD SO MUCH EATING. Those memes about people eating all their quarantine food on day one? That’s basically us. 

Anyway, I’d say that about wraps up today’s update. Other than to note on the travel front, I’m still working on getting refunds from everybody. Even with all flights cancelled, it seems refunds are not automatic so there’s a LOT of sitting on the phone to do. Fortunately, my sweet friend Leigh Ann managed to get through the insane Chase Travel line and not only did she get her stuff sorted out, she convinced her customer service rep to call ME directly. She (and he) are actual miracle workers.

Stay safe, everybody!

The post LOCKDOWN in Sicily: Our family update first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post LOCKDOWN in Sicily: Our family update appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

I would like to note that Chris’ preferred title for this post — just so you know — is HIGHWAY TO THE RED ZOOOOOOOONE. I told him it only works if you can hear him singing it to the tune of “Danger Zone,” so it ended up on the chopping block. 

Greetings from our apartment in Sicily, which I have left just once since last Wednesday. Let me start off by saying how much we appreciate the many messages that we’ve received from family and friends alike. To answer the questions we are getting most frequently: We are fine. We have plenty of supplies — Chris stocked up on essentials weeks ago, and things are still available at grocery stores and the base commissary. While Italy has the biggest outbreak of the virus outside of China, we are living in the area of the country that seems to have the fewest cases thus far. (Knock on wood). We are healthy. We are not panicking.

That said, we are taking the lockdown seriously over here.

It’s been a strange week. Up until last Sunday, the COVID-19 issue had been somewhat in the background here. While we’d hear concerning things about what was going on in the hardest-hit areas of northern Italy, for a while the most that seemed to change down here was base cashiers and gate guards beginning to wear gloves when they handled documents. At that point, our biggest concern was whether our flights to Amsterdam — where we were scheduled to meet friends for a long weekend trip — would get cancelled.

And then things changed quickly. After declaring first a lockdown specifically of the affected northern counties, last Sunday night I started getting bunches of messages from friends letting me know that the Red Zone had been extended to all of Italy. For a day or two, it was a sort of “milder” lockdown, where restaurants and bars were allowed to be open between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., as long as patrons kept a distance of 1 meter between them. That quickly changed, and now essentially the entire populace is under strict lockdown until April 3. Here’s some of what’s going on:

–We are not to leave our homes unless it is to go to work, to the doctor or to get groceries. If you do need to go get groceries, only one person per family can go. Anyone leaving the house needs to carry a sort of travel declaration form that includes your name, address and where you are going. There is a 6 p.m. curfew. The Italian police can fine you or even arrest you for being out when you aren’t supposed to. So far, I only know one person personally whose been stopped for leaving her house; a friend was stopped twice on her way to the bakery for bread.

–Everything is closed except hospitals, pharmacies, grocery stores and (apparently) pet stores. This means that almost everything on base — library, gym, food court, movie theater, bowling alley, etc. — is likewise closed, with the exception of the commissary and the Navy Exchange. In town, grocery stores are open but the number of people allowed in is strictly controlled, in an effort to maintain social distancing. I have not made an attempt to go out in town, but I heard from friends that there were extremely long lines outside stores on Monday as facilities implemented a “one in, one out” policy for shopping.

–Chris is still going to work. For now. However, he’s been encouraged to telework as much as is possible and has been able to do so for one day so far. A lot of what he does requires him to be onsite, however. Those who are remaining at his workplace are being hyper vigilant about keeping their distance from one another.

-The kids are out of school until at least April 13. All Italian schools, universities, day cares and other such facilities are closed. We believe the base school was actually the last in all of Italy to close, but as of Wednesday it is shut down. Lockdown ends April 3, but spring break starts immediately after so they won’t return until after Easter at best. Luckily, the teachers here are working hard to get e-learning up and running and our first day of that (Friday) went pretty well.

-We aren’t leaving the island until at least May. Obviously, flights to and from Italy are almost entirely cancelled until April 3 (exceptions for essential movements, of course). On top of that DOD has banned both military and civilian employees from leaving for 60 days, so we won’t be able to go anywhere until at least May 12. All PCS moves, either to or from here, are cancelled, so many people are in a bit of limbo. All work travel is obviously also cancelled, so Chris does not expect to go to a training in the U.S. in May as planned.

You may ask, “Isn’t this an over-reaction?”

No. We don’t think so by any means. Is it inconvenient? Hell yeah! I honestly can’t remember the last time we spent this much time inside. Even after Lochlan was born, we still went out as a family, and people could come to visit us. As anyone who knows me can tell you, being stuck in the house for much more than a day and I start getting a little stir-crazy.

But we believe that staying in the house for the next few weeks isn’t just our legal responsibility, it is our moral one. 

It would be easy to write COVID-19 off as “no big deal” because honestly, even if we get it, in all likelihood we’ll be fine. None of us are in the demographic that seems to be most affected by it so far, though I do worry about Lochlan since our little dude has already battled a few respiratory infections in his life. However, we could unknowingly pass the virus on to untold numbers of people, many of whom are bound to be in a heightened risk group. Italy has one of the oldest populations of any country in the world, and culturally it is extremely common for older people to live with their children and grandkids. In northern Italy, hospitals are already struggling to keep up with the numbers of people coming in with the virus and in some cases, hard choices are being made. There are so only so many ventilators in any given facility, so how does one decide which patient in need gets one? If this thing spreads as widely in southern Italy — which is much poorer than the north — it will be ugly.

You can read more about that on your own; if your Facebook is anything like mine, I’m sure it is full of articles about this issue. But before I step off my soap box, I will just encourage you all, wherever you are, to take this seriously.

But on to more about us! How have we been spending our time?

Mostly by making messes, ha! Just kidding. The kids are really doing better than I expected thus far — honestly, I think I’m the one having the hardest time with not being able to leave! Friday was our first day of online school, and it went pretty well (with a few small hiccups). Owen and Fiona have been having fun inventing new games together, which is sweet to see. Lochlan loves having his big brother and sister around all day to entertain him, and is also helping out by taking good morning naps.

We are also playing with a lot of old toys and science kits and games we haven’t touched in a while. In our non-lockdown world, we usually spend most weekday days rushing around dealing with school, sports, homework, dinner, etc., then weekends tend to involve birthday parties or events with friends or more sports. On vacations, we are almost always rushing around seeing things. Perhaps we’ll eventually consider this enforced idleness a nice break? Time will tell.

For my part, I’m taking breaks by walking around our balcony. It encircles our entire apartment, so I just walk an endless loop like a hamster on a wheel. I’m listening to David Sedaris’s new book, Calypso, which is laugh-out-loud funny, so I generally look like a crazy lady walking in circles, cackling like a witch. I’m sure it is a good look.

On the travel front

Obviously, our vacation plans are the least important thing right now. But, as this is a travel blog, I’ll give you the update all the same. Both our spring break trip to Bordeaux and Lisbon, and our planned long weekend in Amsterdam with my friend April and her family have been cancelled. I’m bumming pretty hard about these because both have been in the works since at least 2018, at least in principle, and hours of research went into planning it all out. I’m hoping we can reschedule some of this, but at this point it feels like we need to wait and see what happens.

On the refund front, it’s been a bit rocky. We were able to get almost everything back on our rental house in the Netherlands (whew!) after a phone call to AirBnB, and allegedly I’m getting a refund from RyanAir for our cancelled flights (but it hasn’t shown up in my account yet …). However, we used points to pay for several parts of both trips and trying to get that figured out is a bit of a mess since the Chase travel lines are overwhelmed. I will keep at it them.

We have a trip planned for this summer with my parents and my brothers and sister, and I’m SO SO SO hoping we are able to go ahead with that. It feels like it took a near miracle to get everyone agreed on a time and location (the south of France and Provence) — not to mention SO MANY HOURS OF RESEARCHING — so if that has to be cancelled, there will be quite a few tears. But again, I do appreciate that this is definitely a very minor concern compared to everything else going on right now.

So, that’s the update! I apologize for how long it took me to get this up, but I do appreciate everyone’s concern. Everyone, please stay healthy (and stay home!).

The post LOCKDOWN in Sicily: Life in Italy’s Red Zone so far first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post LOCKDOWN in Sicily: Life in Italy’s Red Zone so far appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Helllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooooooo.

It’s been a bit, hasn’t it? Amusingly I had BIG PLANS for blogging a bunch while I was on “maternity leave” from my regular freelance work. I had fond memories of the two big kids sleeping a lot as infants, and I figured I could spend some of that time updating this blog.

Ha. Ha.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

So, that didn’t happen. Obviously. For one, the big kids continue to have the same number of activities as they ever did before Lochlan was born. For another, there was a surprising number of required steps to get our little dude’s birth recognized. For still another, this guy pretty much demands constant motion when awake (and thinks mechanical substitute that is the cool-as-hell swing we bought him is bullshit).* Anyway, I’m not sure why my genius self thought that I’d be somehow less busy with all that than I was before he was born. But as you can imagine, I was SORELY MISTAKEN.

But anyway, the boy is asleep, I’m caught up on work e-mails and I’ve got a couple minutes (update: he woke up. ha. I am now continuing this days later) so I thought I’d take some time to share what we’ve been up to lately.

*Update: I started this post about two week ago. Then continued it a few days later. And am now finishing it. The good news? He’s gotten over this constant motion nonsense and is much more chill lately. He also hates his swing less than he used to.

Hospital visits 

So, prior to Lochie’s arrival we’d had exactly one emergency room visit in 6.5 years of parenting. And that was because Fiona stuck a Lego up her nose.

In the last month, we’ve been three times and had our first two hospital admissions (non-birth category).

Luckily, it hasn’t been quite as terrifying as it probably sounds. Since we are on the base, if our kiddo gets sick anytime that isn’t between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, the emergency room is where we have to go. Lochlan acquired what seemed at first like a little cold when he was about 7 weeks old, but on a Saturday morning his cough started to sound a little worse and I was afraid he was working too hard to breathe. The diagnosis at that particular ER visit was pretty much “worried parents,” but the doctor gave us a couple things to look out for and told us to bring him back if he started doing any of them. About 12 hours later, he started breathing faster than the doctor told us was OK and spiked a low-grade fever, so it was back to the ER we went. My mother-in-law Gail was visiting at the time so she was able to stay with the big kids while Chris and I went to the ER, which was fortunate because it was one of the roughest nights we ever had, primarily because of the number of times they had to stick him with needles. Ultimately his breathing improved with one Albuterol treatment and a chest x-ray didn’t show anything too worrisome, but since he was so young at the time they had to do a bunch of blood work to be safe, which required a 48 hour hospital stay while they waited for cultures to come back.

We ended up spending more than two days at the hospital (in the room next door to where he was born!), but fortunately Lochlan seemed to improve completely within only a few hours of receiving an antibiotic shot in the emergency room. We aren’t sure entirely what was wrong, but given how he responded to the antibiotic our doctor figured that it was probably a virus causing the respiratory symptoms plus some other random infection. RSV and UTIs apparently go hand-in-hand for whatever reason, so they think that’s a possibility.

We were released from the hospital with just-in-case antibiotics, and over the course of the next week-and-a-half he improved dramatically. We had his two-month well child visit on a Thursday, and he looked totally fine.

So, naturally, on Friday he started doing the increased-work-of-breathing thing again. In the evening, because he obviously knew his favorite ER doctor was working that day and I guess he wanted to visit? We ended up doing a couple breathing treatments there, then were admitted so they could monitor him all day to be safe. Fortunately for us all, no fever = no blood work this time, so it was dramatically less traumatic for him than the previous visit. (For context, at his first stay they concluded that he couldn’t possibly be too sick purely because of the intensity with which he fought them off during his final blood draw). We were also happy to see several of our favorite nurses upstairs as well, including the one who almost had to catch Lochlan when he tried to rush into the world, another who snuggled him when he was two days old and, weirdest of all, one who turned out to have gone to the same high school as me. Small world, eh?

We aren’t entirely sure what his deal was the second time — same virus? different virus? some kind of reaction to something? — but the important thing is that he seems to be on the road to recovery again. He still has a bit of a cough that he’s trying to shake, but he’s been in much better spirits lately and you can just tell by looking at him that he feels better. We’re crossing everything that we are done with the hospital now!

*Weeks later update: he’s all better!

Baseball games

So while clearly our weekend evenings have been dedicated to visiting our friends at the base hospital, most of our week nights have been dedicated to baseball — two nights a week for Owen, one night a week for Fiona — plus games on Saturday mornings. Its been adorable, but somewhat trying because of these insane swarms of gnats that have been plaguing the area. “Gnats” don’t sound too bad, but these things are insane — swarms flying directly for your nose, ears, eyes and mouth.  I don’t remember these at all from previous years, I guess because they weren’t common higher up the mountain.

Both of the kids enjoyed their baseball season though!

*Update: the season is now over! Now on to swimming. 

Lochie’s adoring public

We’ve had visitors! My parents came out to visit at the end of April/early May, followed by my mother-in-law, Gail! We had a great time with both, though unlike previous visits we mostly hung out close to home so that we could attend ALL THE BASEBALL practices and games. Unfortunately Gail also got the short end of the stick because she was here for Lochie’s first hospitalization, but that ended up being super helpful for us at least. We did get to hit a few places though — Taormina with Gail, Enna with my parents.

Trip planning for 2019

So, things have been hectic but never too hectic for a bit of trip planning! This has been our longest stretch without leaving the island since we arrived here in October 2016, and we are getting a little antsy.

We decided to cancel the trip we’d planned as our first family-of-five vacation (a trip to the other side of the island) after Lochie’s first hospitalization, which turned out to be good since his second hospitalization was on the day we were scheduled to leave. So now our upcoming schedule looks like this:

Trip to the U.S.: We’ll be spending a few weeks this summer with our families back home, and couldn’t be more excited! We are perhaps less excited about the plane ride with Mr. L, but I’m hopeful that since he’ll be not-quite-4-months old, he might sleep some stretches. This may be wishful thinking.

Barcelona and Mallorca: This is an exciting trip because we’ll be joined by Chris’ brother, Brett, and my sister, Torie! It was a bit of a spur of a moment thing because flights to Barcelona from Chicago were unbelievably cheap (we’re talking in the $300 range). After they’d booked those, we spent weeks trying to decide where else we wanted to go from Barcelona. We ultimately decided we wanted a bit of a resort-type feel, so we ended up selecting this hotel on the island of Mallorca.

Vienna: A super cheap fare discovered six days after Lochie was born means we are headed to Vienna for a long weekend this fall! We’ll probably also plan a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia, in the mix.

Garmisch and Salzburg: We’ve been hearing rave reviews about the Edelweiss resort in southern Germany ever since we arrived in Sicily, so this winter we are planning on giving it a try.

Final thoughts

-Owen is done with school for the year! I can’t believe that kindergarten is already over. Owen has learned and grown so much this year and I can’t wait to see what he gets up to next. Fiona has school through the end of June, sadly these will be her last few weeks in her Italian preschool. We’ll miss them so much!

-It’s been a hard few weeks because we’ve had to say goodbye to some of our closest friends lately, as they’ve returned to the United States. It’s rough on us all, but kind of the nature of living here. We’re looking forward to visiting our friends in the States some day though!

-Owen and Fiona remain AMAZING older siblings. I was worried that they might be jealous or act out after the new baby arrived, but it’s been completely the opposite. They are absolutely obsessed with him. They constantly beg to hold him and especially love showing him off to their friends!

So, that’s about it for now! As you can tell, this took me about 100 years to finish so I don’t know when I’ll be back (especially as I’ve started working again and suddenly our kids have the busiest social schedule in the world). But I’ll keep in touch as best I can!

In the meantime, here are a few more cute kid pictures.

The post Hospitals, baseball, visitors and trip planning: what we’ve been up to lately first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Hospitals, baseball, visitors and trip planning: what we’ve been up to lately appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Hello! It’s been a bit so I thought I’d pop by to say hi. As you might imagine, we’ve been grounded for quite a few weeks now while we wait for our baby boy to make his grand entrance. Which, by the way, should be scary soon — tomorrow marks 39 weeks, so we have at most about two weeks left. Whaaaaaaaaaat.

First, on the travel front: We already have plans to spend Chris’ leave mapping out the rest of the year for our new family of five, which will include a return to the US to see family sometime this summer. Woohoo! Also on my hopeful list: Austria, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Croatia and Thailand. We’ll see how it goes =-).

In the meantime, I thought I’d share some pictures of our finally (mostly) completed travel-themed nursery! Back story: we put a lot of thought into Owen and Fiona’s nurseries when I was pregnant with them. For this one, we thought we’d be less obsessive about it, given that we are living in a rental and didn’t plan on doing much painting or anything. I honestly thought we wouldn’t get real worked up about it.

Turns out, we couldn’t help ourselves. So, a travel-themed nursery it was!

I fell in love with these prints from Etsy, then spent literally days trying to decide which cities to go with. We wound up with, from left to right, Dublin, Berlin and Amsterdam. The first two are two of our favorite cities, and the third was just so pretty I had to have it.

For various reasons, we actually came to Sicily with two cribs in tow. We ended up deciding to use Fiona’s because the white would pop better against the blue. We also snagged this fun passport-stamp crib sheet from Etsy. Elephant was a gift from a dear friend.

This wall decal was also from Etsy, and it sat in the nursery for a couple weeks because I was scared I’d mess it up (as various school projects have shown lately, I am NOT GOOD AT CRAFTY THINGS). Luckily some sweet friends gave us a hand to make sure it got up there properly! The chair, by the way, was from Owen’s nursery back in Indiana. So, new baby gets something from each of them!

The dresser was actually part of our bedroom set, but since it doesn’t fit in our room it got repurposed into the baby’s dresser as well. The rug and the Kensington Station clock are both from a cute shop over here called Maison du Monde, while the globe was a Christmas present from Chris’ mom that we realized fit in perfectly in this room!

The Boppy pillow has always been my favorite, most-used piece of baby equipment, but its old cover was looking a bit rough after six years and one international move. I picked up this travel-themed boppy cover (which has soft navy-blue minky fabric on the other side) from, no surprises here, Etsy.

We opted against curtains in the room because the door has very effective and easy-to-use shutters, which made curtains fairly pointless. I do want to possibly add one more piece of art to the corner near the chair, but I haven’t found anything I’m in love with yet so that’s on hold. (Also, hanging things here can be a bit challenging).

So, that’s it for now! It is a little less elaborate than our other nurseries, but I’m absolutely in love with it. And relieved that blue wall came out as I hoped!

Lastly, for those of you asking about this boy’s name: he doesn’t have one yet! We never made a decision on a name until we meet our babies anyway, but narrowing it down this time has definitely been more challenging. In the last six years we’ve met a LOT of baby boys, plus now any name we select needs to sort of “fit in” with Owen and Fiona’s names. So, everybody please cross your fingers that this boy comes out with a name tag!

The post While we wait: our son’s travel-themed nursery first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post While we wait: our son’s travel-themed nursery appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

How cow, 2018 was a fun year for us in terms of travel! And an eventful one. We may have gone a little crazier than normal on trips since we had a bit of a carpe diem attitude (“gotta go now, Owen starts school in the fall!” and “let’s go before we have another baby” and “what if we never see fares this low again?!”). But, absolutely no regrets!

This year brought us to Belgium in February, Florence/Tuscany/Rome with my in-laws in April, Berlin and Scotland in May/June, Slovenia in June/July, Malta in August/September, Berlin (again) in October and Frankfurt and Strasbourg for Christmas markets in November/December. In March, I had spent my first days away from the kids since they were born spending four days in Paris with my bestie. Chris had a bunch of work trips, including going to Ireland and the US in April, plus he and his brother had an impromptu trip to Paris themselves in October.

If you are wondering whether it is lost on us how insanely lucky we are to have this opportunity right now: it isn’t. We are grateful every day.

Our favorite places of 2018, according to each of us:

Fiona’s favorite country: Malta
Fiona’s favorite city: Also Malta. (She would not consider selecting an actual city)

Owen’s favorite country: Scotland
Owen’s favorite city: Berlin (worth noting: he had his birthday in Berlin, and Fi had hers in Malta)

Chris’ favorite country: Slovenia
Chris’ favorite city: Bruges

Yours truly’s favorite country: Slovenia
My favorite city: Edinburgh. Just barely — I went back and forth between Berlin and Edinburgh as my favorite.

Some recurring themes from our 2018

1. Castles on giant cliffs. 

Castles are always a big thing for us anywhere we visit (one of our favorite trips all-time was seeing castles in the Loire Valley), but this year it was all about castles perched on cliffs. We saw these all over the place, particularly in Scotland and Slovenia. Inside some were more exciting than others, but the view never gets old.

1. 

   

   2. Unexpected favorites

   This year, we found ourselves surprised by some of our favorites! Obviously we wouldn’t go somewhere we weren’t at least somewhat interested in, but in some cases it was the side-trips we added as a whim that turned out to the be the best. For the Belgium trip, it was the day we spent in Bastogne and Orval Abbey that blew us away, especially the amazing WWII museum in Bastogne. For Florence/Tuscany, it was a day in Greve in Chianti (despite the bus misadventure). Scotland? The town of Pitlochry,  originally chosen largely for convenience. And in Slovenia — where we went specifically to go to the Lake Bled tree house — it was falling in love with the unspellable city of Ljubljana!

   

   

3. Visitors!

This year was especially great because so many friends and family came to spend time with us! My friend Shaina spent several days with us in April after our Paris trip, my aunt and her significant other came out in May, my parents were here in August, our friends April and Josh and their daughter visited in October, and my mother-in-law and her husband were here in November. We love showing our island to the people we love!

4. Mythical creatures

Once again, I’m not sure what it was about this year but mythical creatures seemed to be a theme. In Scotland, it was seeing unicorns everywhere (in art, sadly, not in real life. Though Fi and I aren’t entirely giving up hope!). In Slovenia, it was DRAGONS. Next up: finding more countries with badass mascots for next year.

5. Paris with friends

This year, Chris and I each sneaked away for a visit to Paris with friends! (Well, technically Chris went with his brother, but they are also besties so …). Each of us had been there before more than once, but our travel companions hadn’t. We each had a great time seeing sights both old and new to us! Paris will never get old to me.

Some things about our flights this year

This section brought to you entirely by the fact that I am a nerd, and that also a few weeks ago I decided to put off my actual work in favor of the obviously urgent task of determining what the average costs of our flights were this year.

See also: this post about our accommodations this year!

1. Direct flights only. This year, we did not take any flights that required a stopover anywhere. It started off somewhat incidental, then as the year went on we realized we really liked wasting less time in airport. I hope this trend will continue in 2019, though obviously not for a trip back to the States because that does not exist.
2. Low-budget airlines. With the exception of Chris’ work flights, our travels were entirely on RyanAir, EasyJet and Volotea. Low budget carriers all, but hey — can’t beat a $40 flight to Belgium! Next year we are trying out a new one, WizzAir, to get to Budapest.
3. No bags. Well, no checked bags, that is. We’ve grown increasingly efficient with our packing and made it through each trip with just one or two small carry-on suitcases. The only time this was slightly problematic was our 12-day Berlin/Scotland trip; we booked an AirBnB with a washing machine so we could do laundry, but it didn’t occur to us that it wouldn’t come with a dryer. And it turns out things don’t air-dry as quickly as you might hope in a damp and chilly place like Edinburgh. Lesson learned.
4. The cost? For the eight round-trip flights we took as a family (I’ve excluded our individual trips and work trips), we paid an average of $72 a ticket. That’s actually a smidge higher than I expected, given some of the crazy deals we had this year, but not bad at all for going all over Europe!

   

Some other big developments from 2018

1. We moved! At the time it was the most stressful thing in the world — massive drama, house hunting, packing, etc. But you know what? I could seriously not be more happy with the way things worked out! Our not-so-new apartment is half the size of our former villa (though still 2,400 sf, so still pretty large!) but actually feels like more space because it is just much more functional. We now have five real bedrooms all on the same level, which is perfect since our new baby will have a room of his own and we’ll still have a guest room. We “only” have two bathrooms instead of five, but amazingly we can use both showers at the same time! Even if the washer and dishwasher are running! Even better, the power isn’t constantly going out. You’d have to have stayed in our old house to know how remarkable these things seemed when we first moved in. Most importantly, our landlords are the absolute BEST! They could not be sweeter or kinder or more thoughtful. We love them! 
2. Owen started kindergarten! And Fi started a new preschool! These kids are growing up so incredibly fast, it is just blowing my mind. Both are absolutely thriving in their new school environment and learning so much. Owen is starting to read and loves math, and Fiona is constantly coming home with new Italian words as well. It is amazing that now they have these whole social lives outside of me — we go to base and each of them invariably sees friends they have to run over and greet. Sniff, sniff. 
3. We’re having another baby! Woohoo! Our baby boy is due March 23. That’s only about 12 weeks away — crazy! Next up: working on a nursery. Well, I’d say that about does it for this year’s recap. Next up: all the posts I meant to write, but never did. Well, about a paragraph about each location I didn’t write about because I was tired/busy/pregnant/insert other excuse here. Because #realistic.

Can’t wait to see what 2019 brings! What are your travel plans for next year? 

The post 2018 in review: Highlights of our year! first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post 2018 in review: Highlights of our year! appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Boy! 

Per usual, I’m a bit late on the update but … we’re having another boy! Yay!

We already think that he looks like Owen. 

Getting our anatomy scan involved a fun venture out into town, as the base hospital can’t do them there for whatever reason. It went fine, but I’d say the highlight was that the OB repeatedly offered me espresso and seemed truly disappointed that I didn’t want any. He told us, “George Clooney says it is fine!” Apparently, Clooney is a spokesman for whatever brand of Italian coffee he was drinking, haha.

He also ran out of the office to “get us breakfast” at some point, which turned out to be him ordering some pastries to be waiting when we finished. I’m not a big fan of most Italian pastry, but the ones he got turned out to be pretty awesome. Perks of going to an Italian doctor, perhaps?!

I attempted to do a reveal cake for the kids this time around, and uhhhhhhh construction went fairly poorly. I was really short on time because I had assignments to finish and my in-laws were due to arrive about an hour after our ultrasound, so the night before I made a couple of box cakes with the intention of slapping blue or pink frosting in between before I picked the kids up from school.

Yeah. So it turns out I can’t even make box cakes properly, as they crumbled pretty badly as I  was trying to get them out of the pans and then again as I was slapping on the frosting. At one point Chris had to come to the rescue with some tin foil to wrap around the edge because every time I tried to stop the blue frosting from peeking out, it deteriorated further. Whoops.

The kids had fun cutting it open though! Owen was very excited it was a boy. Fiona was a pretty bummed, but I think it was much more about having been wrong in guessing what we were having. She and Chris had guessed girl, while Owen and I were team boy. She got over it quickly though!

But overall, I think the most important take away is that I WAS RIGHT. Again! I’ve been calling this baby “he” for months. A certain member of our household doesn’t believe in intuition when it comes to this stuff, but the fact is that I am now THREE FOR THREE.

So, to sum it up just once more, I was right and Chris was wrong. YAS.

Also, hooray for another little boy!

The post IT’S A … first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post IT’S A … appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

In Italian, in dolce attesa translates to something like “in sweet waiting.”

Today marks our eighth anniversary, so it seems as good a time as any to announce that we are in dolce attesa!

Time to start researching how quickly we can get an infant a passport!

The post In dolce attesa first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post In dolce attesa appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Yikes, it’s been quite a while! I’d apologize, but to be honest the last couple of months I’ve just been flailing around trying to keep up with everything that needed to be done. It’s been a fun but incredibly busy summer!

So, a quick recap since I last left off …

1. We had visitors! My parents and youngest brother came to visit for a week! We spent a couple days on the island of Ortigia, visited “fancy beach” Lido San Lorenzo, walked around on Mount Etna, had BamBar and beach time in Taormina and visited the beaches at Cassibile.  If that sounds like a lot of beach, it is because it is HOT here in late July/August and the water is the only place to be.

   

   

   

   

   

2. We moved! A couple days after my family left. Moving was very stressful, but we are beyond thrilled with our new place, which is an apartment in a town much closer to base. I wasn’t sure how we’d like apartment living at first, but now I can’t stop gushing about how much we love the new pad. While it is technically about half the size of our old mansion, it is still quite large at 2,400 square feet and has five bedrooms and two big living rooms (plus a garage that has replaced our basement for storage needs!). We honestly don’t feel like we’ve given up space, which is sort of amazing when you think about it. It also have SEVEN air-conditioners (we don’t run them all at once, ha!), which is a huge upgrade. It is definitely hotter in New Town compared to Old Town since we aren’t on the mountain, but since we now have functional air conditioning we are actually more comfortable. Good upgrade, ha. We also have found ourselves with a lot more usable outdoor space for the kids, as there is a large area where they can ride their bikes and play soccer.

We’re also loving living in New Town. I didn’t think I cared that much about driving to base when we lived 35 minuets out, but living only five minutes away? Holy cow. It’s been a game changer. All of the sudden we have a lot more free time (especially Chris) and everything is just so easy. It is especially helpful now that the kids have so many more activities going on (currently soccer for both, and Fiona starts ballet in a couple weeks). I love spending less time in the car.

The absolutely best part of the new place, however, is our landlord/neighbors. We are living in a apartment building where the rest of the tenants are a couple, most of their adult children and their families. They are absolutely wonderful! They’ve been so welcoming, bringing us delicious food and inviting us to their parties and just generally looking out for us. There are little boys right around Owen and Fiona’s age living in the building, and the kids love playing together outside or having play dates inside. It is great!

3. We went to Malta! We just got back earlier this week from Malta, an island only a 25-minute plane ride from here. We stayed in the Hilton Malta using points we’d horded for the purpose, and it was FABULOUS. This trip was actually a huge departure for us since it was totally just about relaxation, rather than marching around seeing absolutely everything possible (see: Belgium, 4 cities in 4 days!). I’ll write more about this later, but we basically spent five days mostly playing in the pool, eating delicious food and generally relaxing.

4. Fiona turned four! We celebrated Fiona’s birthday in Malta! Our little princess got her nails painted in the morning, spent a bunch of time in the pool and then we hit the national aquarium and a nearby playground. We ordered a cake from the hotel and the maid was sweet enough to decorate a bit for her birthday. All in all, it was a great day!

5. Owen started kindergarten. Cue the waterworks, because Owen started kindergarten. What? How? Why?! This was his first week and he seemed to really enjoy it so far. He has two great teachers and is already making some new friends! His ride to school is much shorter now than it would have been otherwise, so that’s another reason  to be grateful we’ve moved to New Town as well.

6. Fiona started a new preschool. Fiona also got to start a new school this week! Since we’ve moved, the old school was just too far for us to continue with. We are very pleased with the new school though, and Fiona seems to really enjoying herself so far. Her class is small, only about eight or nine kids, and when I picked her up yesterday she was giving big hugs to another little girl and begging for a play date. Yay!

It’s also been an unusually busy period with some of my other writing projects, but for everyone else that’s pretty boring so I think we’ll stick the bullet points, ha. Now that school is starting, I’ll have a little more free time and I’m hoping things settle down a bit. On the other hand, I have had a whole list of projects I’ve been intending to do “when things are less crazy” for at least a year. So possibly I just need to accept that life is just going to be generally crazy for the foreseeable future?

6. We are growing our family! Now that we are “out” with this news, I can add it to the list here. We found out in late July that we’ll be adding another little traveling kiddo this spring. We couldn’t be more excited!

The post We moved! And other updates. first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post We moved! And other updates. appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Orange picking in our own little patch of Sicily, as a matter of fact!

Since we first set foot in our Sicily house, we’ve admired the many gorgeous fruit trees in our yard (and we always seem to find more tucked away). There are apples, lemons, pomegranates, plums, plus a ton of kiwis. But the prettiest of them all are the orange trees in our yard.

Except since we’ve gotten here, that’s about all they’ve been to us. Pretty. Every time we’ve tried the fruit, it’s been kind of gross. Until yesterday! On a whim, Chris grabbed one of the mandarin oranges off the tree and to our immense surprise, it was delicious. The regular oranges? A little tart, but tasty as well. Go figure! I wonder if we’ve just been picking them at the wrong time, or if perhaps last year was a bad season for them. Either way, we got to picking some of our oranges this weekend.

We’ve been meaning to take the kids on a orange-picking adventure here in Sicily sometime, but somehow have missed out on various excursions for one reason or another. This was much easier than going to a farm, ha!

Afterwards the kids decided to wash their fruit …

And then the juicing could begin.

I wouldn’t really describe these as blood oranges, but a couple had some tinges of red! Lovely.

This juicer leaves a lot of pulp, which the kids don’t love. So now we run it through a mesh strainer.

We were all pleased with the results! Especially Fiona, it seems.

Before and after.

We also tried one of these weird lemons that are so common here in Sicily. I’m not actually sure what they are called (which is sad after more than a year here in Sicily), but our landlord tells me you are supposed to put them in salad.

The outer rind (not sure you are actually supposed to eat it or what?) was weirdly over-sweet.

The inside? Not so much.

We may have further research to do on how to eat these!

The post Orange picking in Sicily first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Orange picking in Sicily appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Picture Frame Hill in Pedara.

Just popping by to say hey! We had a busy weekend over here as far as trip planning went after realizing how few options were available in one of our destinations even months out, which prompted some minor panic-booking. I’ll get into that some other day though! In the meantime, I just wanted to drop by with a few pictures from a short hike we did this afternoon to Picture Frame Hill in Pedara with some sweet friends.

Most of my friends have already done this hike in Pedara. Rhe official name of this area is undoubtedly something Italian, but we call it Picture Frame Hill. Bet you can’t guess why?

Picture Frame Hill is a short, easy hike in Pedara, a town near us. (Much less strenuous than the Asino trail on Etna!)  It was perfect for the kids because while a bit of a steep hill in the beginning, it was paved in that area and easy enough for them to negotiate. Guard rails along a lot of it helped too, especially when Fiona decided to run downhill and basically lost control of herself. She ended up grabbing the rail and holding on while the rest of her body tried to keep moving … which as I type I realize probably sounds pretty awful but was kind of hilarious at the time. Um. I guess you’ll have to just take my word on that.

I wish it had been a bit less cloudy, but the view was still pretty. We definitely plan to go back on a prettier day soon!

There was also a small “park” nearby. I use this term loosely, for obvious reasons. There actually is a really nice new park in Pedara, Parco dei Sorrisi, which you should definitely visit if you are at Sigonella. Preferably after doing the Picture Frame Hill hike!

The post Monday afternoon hike to “Picture Frame Hill” first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Monday afternoon hike to “Picture Frame Hill” appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Hey all! It’s been ages, so sorry about that. I’ve spent most of the last couple of weeks working my butt off on a bunch of assignments all due at once, and fighting The Plague in our house. It seems like we’ve all been sick off and on for ages, and the last couple of weeks have been no exception. We got to take Fiona to the ER room Saturday morning because she woke up sobbing about her ear hurting, so that replaced this weekend’s planned excursion. C’est la vie! (She’s feeling much better now, by the way)

That said, it hasn’t been all lame the last couple of weeks. Last weekend we visited a honey farm (well, sort of) in Zafferana, a town about 25 minutes away from us that is known for its honey. According to something Chris just read in our Lonely Planet Sicily, Zafferana produces “up to 35 percent of Italy’s honey.” Whoa.

We visited Oro D’Etna in Zafferana and highly recommend the place. We just showed up and one of the employees took us around, showing us one of the smaller beehives on site and explaining to the kids how they get they honey out. Since we were the only ones there, they were able to ask plenty of questions! We tried a whole bunch of different honey flavors, made from bees who hung out with different varieties of flowers/plants, I guess?. (We ended up buying the chestnut honey). They also had some blended honeys, and we ended up taking some forest berry and strawberry flavored ones home with us. I don’t even want to talk about how quickly we are going through our supply.

She said that this little on-site box is home to 45,000 bees, and that in the rest of their hives there are usually 90,000. Those numbers seem enormous to the point that I’m wondering if she didn’t misspeak (though her English was excellent), but what do I look like, a bee-expert? So yeah, no idea. 

Oro D’Etna also had a variety of other products, and we ended up sampling basically everything. “We” being Chris, Fiona and I, of course, as Owen is a bit more suspicious about absolutely everything. Oro D’Etna also produces a lot of flavored olive oil (we look home some chili-flavored, obviously) and some wine and various liquors. We bought some pistachio liquor that we have been pouring over vanilla ice cream and it is Top. Notch.

Fiona’s favorite was the Etna pesto, which she put on approximately 20 chunks of bread while we were there. My favorite was the pistachio pesto, which we ran out of on Day Two. Whoops.

Anyway, good trip overall — we’ll be back soon to stock up!

Chris and I also had a nice date night at a new spot we’ve been meaning to try, a local spot called La Caverna del Masto Birraio (The Brewer’s Cave). It was a craft brewery with what turned out to be mostly American-ish food, like burgers, pulled pork and chicken wings. The food was decent if unremarkable, but the building itself was very cool and cave-y as you can see. It was definitely a busy spot on Friday, we came in right at 8 and it filled up quite fast.

Later in the evening, they had live music going in the back. 

We tried a couple of their beers and enjoyed the red ale, Aci Re Ale, a lot. There was also huge outdoor area that looked like it would be really fun in the summer, so we’re definitely planning on heading back sometime then.

Per usual, people were showing up with their babies and small children to start dinner at the time we had finished scarfing ours down. How does anyone stand to eat so late?! Waiting until 8 p.m. on the rare occasions we go out these days always seems rough enough on us 5:30 p.m. eaters.

That about does it for news around here, EXCEPT that we did register Owen for kindergarten this fall. How is it that time already?

And for those of you who have been asking, it has been quite warm here. This morning was about the coldest lately, maybe upper 40s when we left for school, but by mid-day it was in the low 60s again. And that’s pretty much how it’s been all winter thus far, definitely different from our frosty, extremely rainy winter last year. I’m not complaining! Here’s hoping that this year is normal, and last year was the outlier.

In contrast to last year, when I swear there was snow constantly from late October until the mountain started erupting in February and March, there is very little left up there right now. That is actually a bit of a bummer because we’d signed up for a sledding trip on Etna a few weeks ago, but it ended up being canceled for lack of snow. We plan to go up there if it ever snows enough up there again, but if not it is hard to be too sad about it when the weather has been so mild. Sorry, Chicago people!

The post What we’ve been up to lately: honey in Zafferana, beer in Acireale first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post What we’ve been up to lately: honey in Zafferana, beer in Acireale appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Cats in Sicily, guys. Let’s talk.

Going into this, you should know two things:

1. I don’t care for cats.

2. There are cats everywhere here in Sicily.

I’m not entirely sure whether the cats in Sicily are mostly pets roaming (some definitely are) or feral, but none of them seem to be starving. Probably because about every third time we put out our food trash, cats end up tearing into it for snacks. See point 1 above.

They also show up at our kitchen windows to loudly beg for food. 

Anyway, we’ve gotten used to sharing our yard with our feline friends neighbors, but lately these guys have stepped up their game. So, without further ado … two scenes from the last week.

SCENE ONE: midafternoon, our living room, kids are watching TV while I read the entire internet. Owen, apparently concerned about my lack of attention to the show, is narrating the entire thing incessantly.

Owen: “babble, babble, babble … and a cat is coming down the stairs now.”

Me: “That’s nice, buddy.”

Owen: “Are you going to do something?”

Me: “I have literally no idea what you’d like me to do about a cat on television.”

Owen: ” … ”

Me: “…”

Owen: “THIS IS REAL LIFE, MOMMY.”

A sure enough, there was a freaking cat hanging out on our stairs. In our fortress. That we know from experience is extremely hard to break into. 

I’ve just noticed that this cat appears to be the same one from the picture above. There are in fact several cats that hang out in our yard. Cats in Sicily.

A pissed off cat, actually. Which is a bit rich, considering it wasn’t like we were holding him hostage. This jerk sneaked into OUR house, after all. Again, see point one above.

Scene Two: 1 a.m., our living room, I am up late working and there is an epic wind storm.

I’ve already talked about our beautiful horror movie house, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned that it makes the creepiest noises CONSTANTLY. It frequently sounds like there are people walking around in it. I think it is all the marble? At any rate, we are fairly certain it can’t be haunted because it was built in 2008. (Also Chris would almost certainly like me to point out that ghosts aren’t a thing. My addition: probably.)

All this is to say that it isn’t weird for us to hear strange noises in our house. We also hear cats yowling and dogs barking all the time. On the night in question, however, I hear none of this. At 1 a.m. in the middle of a wind storm, what I instead hear is crying — crying I assume is my kids (for the millionth time). Except that my kids aren’t crying when I check so … ok? Back to work.

Except then I distinctly hear a voice sobbing “Mama” and “Mommy” specifically. Over and over again. So I run and check the kids again, and once again they are still asleep. At this point all kinds of theories come to mind, including that my neighbor’s kid has somehow gotten locked out and sounds like a small child and has forgotten about the existence of door buzzers. And then I realize that with the size of our yard, I can’t possibly be hearing him or anyone else from outside the ( gates. At this point I became absolutely convinced that there was somehow a small child who’d — somehow?? — gotten into our yard and was sobbing and possibly freezing in my yard. So, like any good horror movie character, I immediately run outside our house (without waking my husband to tell him) to go hunt for Mystery Kid.

As soon as I walk outside, I hear the crying even louder coming from the side of the house so I race over there to scoop up whatever kid is in my yard at 1 a.m. Because it STILL SOUNDS LIKE “MOMMY.”

Given the theme of this post, you already know that it wasn’t a kid. It was cats. Fucking cats.

I have no idea what these things were doing — courtship? preparing to fight? Despite the weather they weren’t meowing to get in, they were literally sitting there yowling back and forth at each other like they were having an animated discussion about something. Maybe politics. They were so absorbed that they didn’t even hear me approach, until I yelled “Are you kidding me? What the fuck are you guys doing??” (Yes, that is exactly what I yelled, as if they were going to answer me. I was relieved and startled and pissed).

The cats ran off, but I was up for another couple hours waiting for the adrenaline to finally wear off. So yeah, point one again.

In conclusion, there’s something funny about these damned cats in Sicily.

The post The Homefront: Cat tales first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post The Homefront: Cat tales appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Just as I’ve finally gotten used to writing ’17’ for the year on documents, here we are about two seconds away from 2018. Per usual, I find myself fairly stunned by the passage of time. But as is customary, I thought I’d take a few minutes to reflect on our year here in Sicily.

In our first full year here in Sicily, it has really started to feel like home (even if I do still think our actual house makes an excellent horror movie setting). We’ve made some fantastic friends, learned how to do the cheek-kissing thing properly, and picked up marginally more Italian. Owen started Italian preschool in January, and in September Fiona joined him there for what is her first ever year in preschool. It was a bit rough on them (particularly Owen) at first, but they’ve adjusted wonderfully and now seem to love school most of the time. Lately they’ve been playing games where they talk to each other in “Italian” — quotes because while I recognize some words they are using, others sound suspiciously like gibberish and they refuse to tell me what they mean.

… it is also possible they just know more Italian than I do. Whoops.

We’ve really loved having the opportunity to explore our island this year. For whatever bizarre reason, I didn’t actually research Sicily itself much in the run up to moving here. Now I’m constantly impressed by how much there is to offer. So far we’ve been to Taormina and Siracusa several times, Catania, Cefalu, Calitagirone, Agrigento, Modica, Ragusa and Noto and a few others around us, yet somehow it still feels as if we’ve barely scratched the surface. For me, the highlight has been the incredible beaches. Swimming in crystal blue water was the best part of summer, especially when it was approximately a million degrees inside and outside our home.

“Fancy beach” near Noto.

Another highlight? Seeing our volcano explode. Even after more than a year here, I still get a little thrill when I see smoke coming out of it, but seeing actual lava basically turned me into a giddy little kid. Except I was dramatically more excited than my actual children.

How could you NOT be super excited?!?

We’ve also had our fair share of shenanigans, obviously, because it is us. Although come to think of it, the most dramatic ones have happened when members of my extended family were here … I’ll let you guys draw your own conclusions re: correlation/causation there. Remember that time we locked ourselves out of our fortress house? Or that time we ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere and ate rabbit with a complete stranger? There are also countless times I’ve screwed up ordering food, but we probably don’t need to discuss all of those again … 

Nailed it. 

We’ve been incredibly lucky to be able to go on several great trips this year, and for the last couple of days I’ve been trying to think of what my absolute favorite trip was. Honestly, it’s like trying to pick my favorite kid. Gun to my head, I’d say my favorite single day was driving around the Loire Valley in France. Not only was it stunning, but seeing in real life so many places that I’ve read about in history books was just incredible.

Honestly, even though I was quite sick for a lot of the time we were in France we just had the best time together as the four of us. Paris is one of my favorite cities in the world, and the combination of getting to show the kids how cool it was while also seeing new places ourselves made it great.

Ireland, however, was also freaking amazing. About 12 hours after arriving, Chris had already declared the Irish “my people.” I hadn’t expected to be super into Dublin — most people talk about the Irish countryside most — but we love, love, loved it.

Unrelated. 

My mother-in-law Gail and her husband David joined us for that trip — Gail’s first ever to Europe — and it was so fun for the six of us to explore together. The Irish countryside was stunning, and we got really lucky in having excellent weather almost the entire trip. I also had fun behind the wheel, though Chris has strong feelings about that as well.

And then there was Munich for Oktoberfest. It is hard to beat that trip in terms of pure fun, and that was in huge part because of how many great family members and friends we got to see. We ended up with my parents, my sister, one of my brothers, Chris’ brother, my aunt and uncle, two couples who are longtime friends of the family, friends from our Indiana days, and a couple we met after moving here. We’ve been talking for several years about getting a group together for Oktoberfest some day, but I never would have imagined we’d get so many awesome people together at once!

Or that I would convince Chris to buy lederhosen! Dressing up was one of my favorite parts, even if it was a bit chilly for it.

To be honest, there’s so much more I could say about living here. It isn’t without its frustrations at time — do we really need that epic firework show at 1 a.m.?? — but we honestly love it. I’ll talk more tomorrow about our plans for next year, but I just want to sign off by saying again how profoundly grateful we are to have this opportunity. We’ve wanted to live abroad since before we were even married, and I am doing my best every day to remember how lucky we are to be living out that dream.

Wishing you all a fantastic end to 2017!

The post A Year In Review: 2017 in Sicily first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post A Year In Review: 2017 in Sicily appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.