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< > July 2004

• Wed, Jul 21, 2004 10:46 AM

  my daughter, my pleasure.
  
  kaya just sat in her rocking chair with Mommy for almost an hour, reading Dr Seuss and pointing at pictures. before that, Daddy took Kaya out for syrup-drenched French toast and a trip to the market. Kaya helped Daddy pick fruits and flowers for Mommy, and we sang songs while we waited for our breakfast.
  
  She's definitely a morning person...

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• Wed, Jul 7, 2004 4:16 PM

  i'm back!
  
  whenever i miss a few weeks of journal entries, i feel as if it's a disservice to my daughter, only because i hope that this record can serve as some sort of memento to her world in these early years...years she won't remember when she's big and tall and distracted by the details of life.
  
  we spent most of june in southern tuscany at a rented villa, which you can see in our latest photo album. this trip was yet another massive, blinking reminder that everything is different when you have kids. we'd been to this house once before, in 2001, and we watched the sun traverse the olive groves while we sat through 3-hour lunches, even longer dinners, and afternoon pool lounging. this time, it was, er, different. first off, 2 year olds don't quite get the idea of time zones, and we had 5 days of painful crying sessions when kaya would wake up at 1AM, ready to party, only to find that mommy and daddy weren't coming in, and it was dark, and, well, boring. the way back was even worse, and even now, more than 1.5 weeks after our return, are we coming back to normalcy.
  
  but i'm focusing on the wrong things - what i bring back from italy are afternoons of gelato (straticatella being our preferred flavor), mornings spent wandering the piazzas of 1000-year old tuscan hill towns, sampling "stinky cheese" and managing kaya's newfound obsession with churches - specifically, organs, bells, and "the jesus", or, as she says it, "see the geeezus". we're not quite sure how to break it to her that we are, in fact, not Christian. oh well.
  
  there's something poetic and timeless of seeing your kid exploring the grass outside the house, running around under the sun, chasing lizards, smelling rosemary and petting the neighbor's cat, Silvestro. our daughter embraced italian cuisine quickly, asking for, and then becoming sick of, the local spaghetti, called "pici". she did not, however, become sick of wine, and over one long afternoon lunch, she probably experienced her first WWI (walking while intoxicated).
  
  we took many day trips, including Florence, Siena, Orvieto, Montepulciano, Pienza, and more, and generally, we found that the smaller the city, the more fun we all had. Florence was overrun with tourists, and suffered from cars and pollution, while little Cetona, the tiny town nearest to us, had a maze of hilly walkways, undiscovered churches, playful young kittens, great restaurants and more.
  
  our favorite town, by far, was San Casiciano Di Bagni, a nearby town known for it's hot spring-fed spa. we spent at least 6 afternoons there, kaya all decked out in her Dora-The-Explorer floaties, touching the waterfall, tip-toeing around the kiddie pool and just chilling. when we finished with the spa, there was the gelato place on the piazza with probably the most scenic view of tuscany you could ever ask for, and the gelato would melt onto our fingers and shorts as we watched the clouds go by.
  
  i don't get 3 weeks straight with my kid anymore, and i only realized upon my return to work how much i miss it. she changes so, so fast - in these three weeks, she's got full sentences, she's peeing in the potty (well, once or twice), she discovering emotions (scared, silly), and she's just becoming more and more fun to be with. now i'm back at work, and i've never felt so much that i wanted to be back on vacation, with my family.

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