HANNAH SHARES

This post is half a life update and half an excuse to show off our first family photos Nancy (Michael’s mom) took of us while she was visiting.

Lucy is almost two months old and the weeks are just flying by. My parents arrived at the end of June – my dad stayed for ten days and my mom was able to stay for an extra week, which was especially nice as it was Michael’s first week back at work after his paternity leave. Our apartment has never been as clean, and never will be again, as it was when my mom was here. She can’t sit down for long and I was so grateful for her help! Dad, I think she should retire from teaching and spend every other month in Italy. What do you think? It was so special to have our first family members finally meet Lucy! She was in for an entire month of extra love from all of her visitors. We spent most of their visit hanging out at home, but did a day trip to Soave and a weekend in Florence. We enjoyed several meals at wonderful restaurants in Vicenza and at home, drank plenty of good wine, and spent lots of time exploring downtown.

The day my mom left Michael took her to the airport and picked up his parents and sisters at the same time! Lucy and I had about three hours at home to relax and get ready for our next visitors. We again spent most of their visit lounging at home and loving on Lucy. We did another girls’ day trip to Soave and enjoyed several dinners out. While the girls and Mike were only able to stay for a week, Nancy stayed an extra week. We now have an album with over a thousand photos of Lucy thanks to having a photographer in our home for two weeks. 😊 It was wonderful to be able to take special family photos in our home here in Italy that we will cherish forever. We also took photos at Monte Berico, the same place we did our maternity photos back in May. While Michael was at work that week Nancy and I started learning some beginner embroidery and she also showed me around one of her old cameras. I am excited to hopefully be able to take some great pictures of Lucy on my own now!

It was hard to say goodbye to family each time they left, knowing we can’t just hop in the car or take a quick flight home to visit. There were lots of tears each time. Admittedly, I feel a bit guilty that we are so far from family since they can’t come to see Lucy whenever they want. We are so incredibly lucky to have this experience living abroad for a few years, and are taking advantage of every minute we are here, but it does come with some cost. I know how much our family is missing us and Lucy as we are missing them, and we will rely on Facetime until the next visits. Lucy is still anxiously awaiting to meet her Aunt Greta (who actually got the very first smile via Facetime!) and Uncle Peter along with her big extended families who have already spoiled her from afar. We are fortunate that both of our families are able to visit us here, and we have plans to visit both Omaha and Chicago over the holidays this year. I already have a list of must-dos, other than to see family: Runza, Chick-fil-A, aimlessly wander Target for two hours, take Lucy to the Zoo, and get a latte in the Starbucks drive thru. We love the food here, I love that there really isn’t “fast food”, and the whole coffee experience is better, but there is something about the convenience of everything at home that I do miss. So my first meal will be a Chick-fil-A sandwich and I will be ordering a coffee on my Starbucks app and picking it up in the drive thru to combat jet lag on our first morning home. Hopefully there is a Chick-fil-A across from a Portillo’s or Michael and I might have to debate for dinner that night!

Now for a Lucy update! As I’m writing this she is seven weeks old, and officially graduated from “skinny camp” (as we like to call it) at five weeks. She took her sweet time regaining her birth weight and was slow to gain for a few weeks, so we were doing weekly weight checks at the Clinic on-post until they were comfortable with her progress. Since then she really looks different every single day and we can’t believe how quickly she is growing now. I want her to stay this small forever! She is still most comfortable with her hands up by her face (her position even as she is napping next to me as a write this) and loves to suck on her hands. She has incredible neck strength and holds her head up on her own (apart from some surprise dives every now and then), spends long periods of time awake, has started smiling, and even slept through the night (I’m calling it) for the first time last night (11:30 – 5:30). We have her two-month well-baby visit next week and can’t believe how fast the time has gone.

This weekend was our first with just the three of us since Lucy’s first couple of weeks home. Yesterday morning we didn’t have any plans and decided to drive up to Asiago for the day. The town is about an hour from Vicenza in the foothills of the Alps, so the weather is a lot cooler and it was a nice break from the heat. It’s where the cheese of the same name is from. We arrived just in time for lunch and spent a couple of hours walking around window shopping (with gelato in hand of course). The weather reminded me a lot of parts of Colorado in the summer, including the reliable afternoon rain. It rained off and on the whole time we walked around, but just gave us a good excuse to pop into different stores around town. I still can’t believe we can wake up in the morning and decide to drive to such an incredible place.

Next week we have some very special friends arriving! Our friends Josie, Zach and their little boy, Thomas, are visiting us. They actually lived here for a few years pre-Thomas, so it will be fun spending time in Vicenza with them. We are heading down to Portofino for four days while they’re here, too! Now that we are feeling settled into a routine we have started thinking about our travel bucket-list and planning out our travels for the near future. We can’t wait to get out and explore Europe with Lucy in tow!

xx Hannah