Lately

Right now, Grant is napping and Laura is watching a movie with the college girls. It is a perfect time for me to reflect on the past 25 days. They haven't all been easy. Some have been filled with belly laughs and others times of tears. I've come along way in the 3 weeks we have been here. At first, it was confusing to find my way around town; communicate at the grocery store; pay for stuff; and even figure out how to buckle Grant into a carseat. Everything seemed complicated and backwards!

Then, Grant was not adjusting well AT ALL. He was being super stubborn and downright disobedient. And on top of it all, I got sick. Our family has never lived in such close quarters before, so we were all learning how to live together and try to find some time to have "alone" time to recharge our batteries. It was an interesting 2 weeks. I feel like this past week, we've done a lot better. The kids seem happier and content. Jim and I have figured out a routine (for the most part) and we are settled in. I didn't imagine it would ever take so long to feel adjusted, so I'm very thankful that we are in the groove.

We have found some fun things to do that are "kid friendly". One of them was to visit a ludoteca. It is a neat little play area indoors with fun games and such. Grant was pretty excited to play with a car and I even got a kick out of the Italian Monopoly game!

We enjoyed our first pizza as well. Both kids have really enjoyed having pizza so much.

On Fridays, we have gone to the Scandicci library to help Italian children learn English. It's been fun to interact with them and it has also helped us learn some new words as well.

One day in Florence, we found a book exchange and the kids both enjoyed finding some new books to buy.
The weather has finally warmed up a bit. The wind was so brutal for about 10 days. It was just bitterly cold and we had snow as well. We've seen some beautiful churches and amazing towns that I'm going to blog about next.