This is the sign that was on the door of our stairway Monday morning. What does it say?? It says that on March 2 between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. the priest from the Catholic church next to our house will be visiting the families in our apartment complex to give them an Easter blessing.

We politely declined.

It’s warming up and spring is well on it’s way. What does that mean? It means the Davidson’s all get colds.

This was what last week and the first part of this week looked like. All three of us were making use of our new respirator.

I was feeling better and decided to dust with the greatest invention ever…the Swiffer duster. I mean, really, it is GREAT! I don’t mind dusting now. I look for things with dust! Dust bunnies, beware!

My ballerina pose with the Swiffer Duster. Seriously, go buy one. You will not be sorry.

Here in Naples new mothers but what is called a carrozza. In England it is called a pram. It is like a flat stroller. They tend to cost a lost of money and you can only use it for two or three months. So we decided to get a regular stroller and use a papoose carrier until Lily can go into the stroller.

I tell you that as set up for what happened to me today. It’s a nice day and I decided after being cooped up in the house for a week with colds Lily and I would go for a little walk. Naturally, I put her in her papoose.

I decided to go into United Colors of Benetton (a Gap-like store). Now, let me insert a parenthesis here. When you walk around with a baby, all Italian females, young and old, will stop you to say “Che bella” (How beautiful) or something like it. Back to the story. As I was walking around the store with Lily an old Italian lady passed by and looked at Lily. When she turned back around I thought she was going to come look at Lily and ask about her. That was not the case. Instead she told me that I shouldn’t carry Lily around in the papoose. It is bad for her. I should put her in a carrozza. In fact, a pediatrician had told her that papooses are not good for babies, and she is a grandmother and she knows. Her daughter tried to tell her that lots of people use the carriers now. But she would not hear of it. I politely said thank you and “Si, signora”. Then we parted ways. I did not go buy a carrozza.

Paul has been gone since Wednesday evening to a meeting in northern Italy. Lily and I have been holding down the fort….and we’re both under the weather. Well, Lily is doing better. Paul is sick as well. He’s just not in the comfort of his own home being sick.

Being alone with Lily for two days has given me an appreciation for single parents. I really don’t know how they do it. I keep thinking about women who have a baby without a husband or any family to help. Life is difficult enough without having to raise children by yourself. I wonder how they do it, but I am learning you do what you have to do. You can’t wallow in what could be or what you don’t have because life keeps going and there is someone else depending on you. You can’t not show up when there is another person depending on you for every single thing. So, I tip my hat to all the single mothers and fathers in the world.

Time flies. That phrase has a totally new meaning now. Lily is 2 months and doing well. She’s starting to sleep better, can lift her head really well, and ….. she smiles all the time. Take a look.

Lily smiling at one of her favorite toys, Sister Bear.

I have to be honest….in the past I have been rather critical of mothers. I could not understand why women I knew stopped doing the things they did before they became mothers. “Can’t you just make the time to work out, go out with your friends, clean your house, etc,” were my thoughts. I would even try to give advice to these women. I also did this to women who were married when I wasn’t married.

I would think to myself, “I will never be like that” or “I will never do that.”

Now I realize how conceited and self-righteous and arrogant I was. What in the world was I thinking giving advice to people when I had never walked in their shoes? I realize now why mothers don’t have time to clean the house or hang out with friends a lot or go shopping or anything else they used to do. I realize why my mom hid in the bathroom. It was just to get some alone time. I think it became a sanctuary for her, and I am pretty sure it will become mine in years to come.

How could I be so critical? I don’t even think I knew I was doing it until recently. How dare I criticize someone who is just trying their best?

Life lesson learned.

After almost two entire weeks we have internet. I have to say though the internet “fast” has been nice. There was no worrying about urgent emails or friends’ facebook statuses. It was a nice change of pace.

Well, it’s been about a week since there’s been internet at the Davidson household. Frustrations aside, it’s actually been nice not to be a slave to all the emails and facebooking, but that’s not the good part. The great part is the reason WHY we don’t have internet.

Well, about 2 weeks ago we received a phone call early in the morning from the “centro assistenza”or assistance center claiming that a new law says that our internet provider is no longer able to charge more than 30E a month for internet. And all we had to do in order for this to take effect on our bill was to agree to the terms. Sounds great!!! Especially when i’ve been in and out of sleep for most the night because this was when Lily still was crying through most of the night and 6 weeks of no sleep had taken its toll on both MacKenzie and I. Well, I agreed to the terms, after a bout 10 minutes of going back and forth with the guy on the phone because it just sounded too good to be true. Well, you know what they say about those things….they usually are too good to be true! Well, Monday morning rolls around and whatya know! NO INTERNET! I preface that with saying it’s not a normal occurrence to wake up and not have internet. In fact it happens quite often. So, I decided to give it a day and see what happens. Tuesday…nothing. At this point i’m calling my provider (which is delayed because there’s nothing worse than talking to a service person in another language), however i keep getting a busy signal. Wed…no change, still busy signal. Thurs, Fri…same story.
Finally i get through on Fri and after a while i find out that essentially what I agreed to was to change my internet provider to a completely different company!!!!! Wow. yep, I got duped. Here’s your sign. However you want to say it. The only good news out of this mess is that I think i’m actually going to save $$$ in the long run. yeah!
So the moral of this story is, if you want me to say “yes” to anything, just call me early in the morning.

Yesterday we celebrated Alessia Worthy turning 3 years old. It’s so weird. We were here for her first birthday and now she’s three! Time flies when you’re having fun. I just can’t believe how big she is. She’s a walking, talking ball of fun, this one is.
The party was filled with all things Barney and Friends. Lily even went dressed color appropriately. Some friends from Rome came down. Shannon and Charlie made lots of yummy food, including pizzettas, popcorn chicken, pigs in a blanket, cookies with the Barney song written on them, and of course a Barney cake, made by Shannon.

Precious, just precious! What you can’t see is that Alessia would hug and kiss Lily’s hand and face.

Opening presents. There were lots of them too.

Our new friends Kyra and Nolyn. Hubby Reid, though not pictured, is also included in the category of new friends.

I think she looks just like her mom.

Getting a little help from dad.

I just couldn’t resist posting some pictures of Lily. 🙂 You can’t really tell but she has on a purple dress with purple bloomers and white tights.

Dudley and Lily. She was really good while Dudley had her, smiling and whatnot. But this picture is funny, so it makes the blog.