The Jewish Ghetto and Church of the Sky

Back in October (5th) when my little red-head was still 2 and a half, we went with some friends of our to the Jewish Ghetto and a nice long walk around the city. And I'm just getting around to the pictures now :)

This turtle fountain is one of Emma's favorites, and I think mine too. In fact I may buy one of those turtle rings I see on the streets when I see them again. They're just so cute! (BTW, street vendors for me and my stroller are like drive-through's for a mom with a kids in a car. Very convenient and very tempting.)

We also saw a bunch of restaurants that served Jewish food. Or so I think. I don't really know what Jewish food is, but I know its out there somewhere. After a while we decided that our calves were much too happy and that we should tackle over 200 stairs with said double stroller. (We took the kids out for this one)

Look at those men work.
No, not the ones on the left. They're wimps.

 I think I remember Emma kind-of whimpering/complaining as she went up all the stairs. On the inside, I was doing the same thing.

What a trooper!

 I can't remember the name of the church now, but I think it was the Church of the Sky, or the Church of Heaven, or something that meant, the Church that will burn off the last few meals you've eaten, or Reeaaallly Reaaaaalllly High up in the Air Church.

Here's the view from the top

  Everything is either connected to building next to it, or only a few inches away from it. The building on the left is connected and it overlooks this cool piazza.

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 As usual, the inside of the church was beautiful. I think its the oldest church in Rome? (this is why I need to post sooner.)

Love it. Two nuns with a backpack saying their prayers to Mother Mary.

I don't think I had ever seen so many glass chandeliers in one church. they were gorgeous!

Emma and her friend Viola had fun lighting candles with their intentions (aka playing with the candles)

The back of the church, and a corner of the ceiling. Ceilings may be one of my favorite features in a church.

Emma touched too many candles so we sent her to confession.

Again, there was some significance to the bees (help me out Leon!) but I don't remember them now. Sooo, cool bees, huh?

Actually, they might  be the bees referred to in the Easter Exultet text.

The floors were so worn, but the mosaics were still very neat. They also had what looked like carven pictures of the Popes or others' in the ground, which made it a little hard to walk on.

Emma tries really hard not to smile sometimes

 She was proud to recognize our Mother Mary.

Here's a picture of one of said tombs. The faces and details are worn away by people walking on them through the centuries.

These three were holding hands and going to all the different altars to kneel and pray. It was very cute.

Here, (sorry, not turning it) you can examine the beauty of the carven ambo or the beauty of my husbands face.

Eventually we released the baby and she wanted a closer examination of the Marian altar. It's so huge next to her

She was loving her freedom. While it lasted...

Which wasn't long.

We were up so high, it was freaky. Especially as I watched Stella toddle around out on the balcony. Just look at how close we are to the clouds!

 Ahhhh, that's better. Safe in Daddy's arms.

This didn't really give me much comfort either. But she never was that succesful scaling the stone fortunately.

She and Giacomo were really quite the team when it came to daring feats.

Then the treck down!

We soon stopped for a snack. And only ate with our most delicate manners.

Those two girls almost look like they could be related. They all had a good time together.

 Then there was Stella, still trying to escape.

 But doing it in a very cute fashion, as usual.

 We all sat on some benches and watched the kids make rock castles and listened to the drum core that was performing somewhere in one of the lower piazzas. It was another lovely day in Rome!

:)

Happy Halloween!

There are a few more events I need to catch up on like our trip to the beach, and our trip up over 200 some stairs with two kids and stroller, but for now...Halloween!

It's still morning here, but I have everything I need to post about Halloween, because unlike you lucky ducky Americans living the American dream out there in good ol' America, we won't be trick-or-treating tonight. But, fortunately we were able to go to a mad-house of a Halloween party last night. Boy, I always love cramming a hundred or so people in a hot room with no windows (after briskly walking 30 mins to get there). It probably took me about 45 mins to cool down. There were a ton of fairies, a couple bumble bees, spidermen, witches, Mini Mouses, and just one ghost (Ya Stella!).

I wish I could have captured Stellas outfit pre-party, because by the time we made it home for pictures the front half was completely missing. She looked more like an escape from a luny-bin. But still cute.

Who's the one seeing a ghost here?

We had a sheet split in two within the first few weeks of being here, so a few minutes before the party I cut a hole for the head and split the ends. It really was very effective, and without any sewing! I cut a few more little holes and made held some ties to hold the sides together. But its hard to see any of that here.

Pinning her down didn't seem to help the pose.

We got home at about 8:30, and had only eaten junk food for dinner: candy, cup cakes, chips, pretzles, hot dog bites, etc. So trying to get a hyper little one year old to pause for a few seconds was almost impossible. Had I a few more seconds I might have been able to make the costume look more legit.

Then there was Emma's costume, a fairy hand-me-down from my cousin. It was awesome. She even got her face painted, so maybe she was some kind of butterfly fairy by the end. 

Classic over the shoulder, wing shot

 The wing-span definitely managed to get in the way of some people at the party.

Yes, the bats on the wall are real!

"You want more candy? Sure, how can I say no to that?"

And this one is by far my favorite. Stella even managed to say cheese!

Happy Halloween everyone! May Red dye 40 never you trouble you, though it be labeled a dangerous carcinogen!

The insanity of bags and Medical world

I know I've been bad about getting new post up recently. But you want to know how exciting its been here? The kids are searching out new adrenaline rushes because our day to day life has been so over the top that regular toys just aren't doing it anymore. Here I caught them experimenting in the kitchen.

Grocery bags everywhere!!

 See?! See them flirt with danger, completely straight-faced? Brave children.

Seasoned X-Games Pro

 Don't let the cute demeanor fool you. Regularly playing with grocery bags has been proven to cut years off your life, and give you premature red hair.

Can't mess with this.

 And don't forget the bag tags! That's when it gets crazy! I can't watch...

On three! Ready?

 If you're not careful, the passing of bag tags could cut off a finger! The threat of paper cut is imminent!

Success! Phew! That was close!

Ok, but seriously. We did have a scare last week, taking Emma to the ER to get stitches in her head. I might post more on that later. Don't worry, that's not very gruesome either. Tough girl fell backwards on the radiator and after 7 hours in the waiting room and a five minute surgeon visit, she came out with 2 whole stitches. We're really blessed that's all she needed. 

Then starting Sunday morning, Stella puked, no doubt from something she picked up in the waiting room. She was fine Monday and then puked again this morning at 5am. So its a bug that's rearing its head once every other day. Strange. I'm hoping its over now and Emma is in the clear. 

Other exciting happening include my first train trip to my first official midwife meeting. Aside from me confusing her with talk about my "pounds" and "inches", it was a pretty successful. So this week I'm 14 weeks along.  Since then I've been on a mission to try to figure out how to register for the free health care here. Our insurance doesn't give us any maternity since we signed up while I was already pregnant. Very convenient. 

I asked help of an Italian lady in the Economo's office and she said its confusing for even those who have been here their whole lives. Good. Very encouraging.  So my game plan was to follow every lead I got, not knowing a lick of Italian of course, but 'bene' and 'si'. This gets you very far when discussing simple matters such as we find in the medical world.

Basically, I was plan on getting rejected once a day at least until someone could help me. I'd go into an office and tell them I needed to register. They'd shake their heads, ramble on in Italian, and I'd be thoroughly confused as to where they were telling me to go. Eventually I get a street name and number written down and I'd be on my way. Then, rinse and repeat. 

Yesterday I actually went to three places. The first hospital sent me to an office that was closed. Then I went to the address that I was given at  my first rejection. Praise God I didn't have to take a ticket and talk to someone behind glass who was trained in saying 'no'.  There was an old man wandering the hallways, taking a smoke break and asked me, well, I don't know what he asked me. Maybe if he could help me, and he did.  

With my type of visa I have to pay 378 euros to register for the year. However, if I registered now it would run out in December and have to register again in January. So, now my next week will be dedicated to finding out how much blood work and an ultrasound cost, to see if I should register for the last 2.5 months of this year. And yes, it could take me at least a week to find these answers. 

It's because of all these bus rides, train rides, and lots of waiting that I've finished a book in a week. That's a first for me. In fact, now I'm halfway through #3 in the trilogy. 

On another exciting front, I found a louffa. 

Now, as we refer back to the exciting grocery bag adventures of the children, you'll see that it really was seem pretty darn exciting. Let's just all try to control ourselves here. 

Family Day at the Park

We had a lovely family trip to Villa Doria Pamphili last Friday and we took a lot of pictures. As we were walking in, we got hit by a nice fresh breath of air, one of the first we've gotten in the big city.

 Not far in there was a playground. We made our mandatory stop there.

 Emma and I came to this playground once before. So she wanted to show Dad her awesome climbing skills.

 Then she wanted to be caught at the bottom of the slide.

 Leon got a workout on the see-saw...look at those squats!

 Stella was also very excited to be there. Estatic really.

 First thing Emma says on the swing, always: "Really big"...meaning really high.

 She's getting so big it's crazy!

 Leon insisted that he take a few pictures to prove that I live here too.

 So I got a turn pushing.

 Stella is just out of control when it comes to swings. We had to restrain her.

 She was a little challenging at the park. I don't know if we'll bring her back

 The little ham.

...with the big ham.

 How many pictures did you want of swings?

Ok then. Just a few more. :)

 I think these ones make it worth the wait.

(Guttural) "Aaaaaaaaaahh"

 "OH NOOOO!"

 Aaaaand we've lost contact.

Juuust kidding.

 Then horses...

Time to move on. We saw lots of neat things at the park. It was such a lovely day.

The pond was filled with wildlife, living wildly.

This man was throwing bread into the water and at first you think it's for the fish. But there are dozens of turtles poking their heads up.

I think that man actually had pitched tent there, beyond the "Do Not Tresspass" iron gate.

I really was facinated at seeing so many turtles at once. I don't think I've ever seen such a big bale of turtles in my life. (Yes, that's the official word...not flock)

This one I'm adopting as my guard turtle.

"What is it, boy? More turtles?! Holy reptiles, turtle boy!"

We'll mark this shot as "3 and a half months pregnant, not fat"

And we saw big fish.

And more turtles.

And cool, cave-like bridges.

New Facebook profile: check.

Watch me move this big rock.

Amazing shrubbery. I want some like this but about 7 feet tall in a maze. The kids get bored and I'd send them out into the shrub maze and then not have to worry about them until dinner.

Oh yeah. Our stroller can handle that.

The palace of the rich family that the park is named after. (I'd make a great tour guide, dontcha think?)

Their personal chapel! So beautiful!

A great mosaic on the top

And we could even come here for Sunday mass.

So we did get a little "lost" on the way out. We had a few almonds, but no lunch, and it was nearing two o'clock. I wouldn't say we were desperate or anything, but now that I think of it, I may reconsider that garden maze idea. That's just cruel. And lovely.