September 15

Carl and I had an amazing time with the rest of our trip in Italy. We walked all over Florence. Our Airbnb was an extraordinary 4th floor room with a view out of the windows that were in each of the four walls. From our bed we could see the Duomo. In the mornings we were awakened by the sunlight streaming in and the church bells ringing. One night we climbed to the top of the Duomo and watched the sunset. I do wish the fencing around the top was higher, but I again managed the whole thing more easily than I expected. We walked through what is left of Dante’s house. It changed so much over the years that they don’t really know what it would have looked like when he was there, but they use the rooms as a museum about his life and times. They had pocket copies of his Divine Comedy that were smaller than my hand by far. I wish I could have seen the size of the text within, but they were closed and behind glass. We saw the outside of the church where Dante saw Beatrice. We went to the Galileo museum and saw his telescopes and other mathematical/scientific instruments that he made. They even have a piece of his finger. We saw paintings by Botticelli, Da Vinci, and Michelangelo. We saw Michelangelo’s David. We ate lots of food. And gelato. So much gelato. Gelato makes a perfect lunch when you want to keep walking. The flight home went smoothly and I felt much less jet lag than I sometimes have with travel. 

The girls were in bed when we got home, but since it wasn’t much past their bedtime we soon heard the patter of small feet and then received wonderfully big hugs. They had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and their sitters. Thank you again to all who made our trip possible!!!!

Overall everything about re-entry into normal life has gone more smoothly than usual. Perhaps this is because I had my sad/panicky time about it on our last night in Italy. I do like to do things ahead of time. The main struggle with being home is the same as it always is. So much of the time with Sarah is easy, but the small moments that aren’t can overshadow the rest in my estimation of how our existence with each other is. The troublesome moments are usually when I say no about something. I can say it calmly and easily and with redirection rather than a plain “no.” I can do this for many minutes to no avail. Then I get more frustrated and everything escalates. Or sometimes her response is immediately large with snatching, banging, screaming, spitting. I don’t handle that with much aplomb. When I make food and she refuses to try it or vehemently refuses to eat a vegetable that is usually a staple favorite, then I feel defensive and angry and that doesn’t go over well either. As usual, I am grateful to Carl for his calm, his creativity, his space for all of us. I hear Amy echoing both of us at various times when she speaks to Sarah. I am weary of the struggle and I’m trying to keep it in perspective that the struggly moments probably only take up 5 or 10 minutes of a day. They just feel bigger. 

Yesterday Sarah had a playdate with her friend from camp and it went well. 

Tomorrow Amy starts Girls on the Run (GOTR). This means her schedule after school will be super packed on some days. Monday she will have GOTR right after school. Immediately following pickup we will zoom to swimming and hope to be on time. Wednesday she will have GOTR and then have a short time at home before leaving for gymnastics. Tuesdays evenings we always have Sc for SR time, a highlight of the week for all. Starting soon, Amy will have girl scouts on some Tuesdays which cuts her time with Sc. Fingers crossed that this will be fun enough that she won’t be overloaded and that I won’t be too stressed.

We have realized we are in new bedtime territory. At least half of the time we just tell the girls it is time to get ready for bed and that is all we do. They do everything and sometimes we don’t even get summoned for kisses or tuck-ins.