Florence then and now

Last weekend we discovered the Forte Belvedere, a great lookout over the whole city that also serves as a park these days--lots of families there on Sunday afternoon, lots of sitting in the grass and strolling around to take in the prospect. A kind passerby took this photo of us and when I saw it, I remembered the bottom photo.

That photo--one of my favorites of us--was taken just over 3 years ago in a spot not very far from the fort. Bill and I had just started dating and he had come to visit me while I was living in Rome. We came to Florence for a couple of days on that trip. It was my first time in Forence, but Bill had spent a month here the previous summer. He had spent it, in fact, at the Florence Academy, doing their summer program which is also an appetite-whetter for the whole program. When he came to visit me, he was hoping to be able to come back and enroll in the painting program, but didn't have a clear idea as to whether or how that would happen.

Now here we are--a year and a half in to our residence in Florence, and married with a 5 1/2 month-old baby. It confirms again to me that it's a good thing that we can't see the future before it happens. There is no way that we could have imagined this future, standing there in the cold, windswept piazza that February. Even if we could have, we would have been completely overwhelmed by all of the intricate ins and outs and ups and downs that its taken to get us here as we are at this moment.

I'm so grateful for our life here--so glad that that weekend in Florence was a preview of what would be coming, and so glad that it was hidden from us at the time, allowing us to make the choices step by step to bring us here as we are.

...or you'll miss Eva's just-beginning smiles! She gave her first genuine smile-in-response to her aunt Rebecca on the last night of her visit (about 2 weeks ago). Since then she has slowly begun to smile more and more, and she seems more and more aware of what she's doing. What a difference this makes! Her smiles are so sweet--mouth wide open, the grin starts and gradually stretches both up and out.

We have yet to catch a full smile in either a picture or a video, but these are hints of it...

Looking up

One of Eva's favorite things to do is to look up. When we're holding her, she loves to lean back and hang her head back as far as it can go, seeming to be entirely engrossed in something fascinating on the ceiling. Now the wooden beams and tiled ceiling in our apartment are interesting in their own way, but not what one would call riveting...She is probably most drawn to the lights in that direction (as she is drawn to light coming from any direction).

However, there is one place we go every day where Eva's fascinated looking up is more than justified. Here light pours in from high windows around the octagonally shaped building and the entire domed ceiling is covered in gold mosaic. Here there is no lack of light, even on the cloudiest day. Here she could look up for a lifetime and never exhaust what there is to see.

It's always easy to take daily and routine things for granted, no matter how amazing they may be. Eva's love of looking up helps me not to take this view for granted, but to remember every day to keep looking up and to keep letting the beauty of this small place soak in.

[These are photos of the ceiling of the Baptistry in Florence, the small but glorious church which stands just a few feet away from the Duomo and which used to serve as the place for baptisms for the cathedral. Dante Alighieri was among the notable Florentines baptized here.]

Zia Rebecca..

Eva's Zia(aunt) Rebecca made the long trip to see Eva...obviously enjoying it..

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Eva in the morning

Sleeping beauty

Though Eva is spending more and more time awake, sleeping is still tops on her list of things to do(though nursing's right there as well). Eva has been hard at work spreading joy to everyone we encounter, friends and strangers alike...The last pic is of Lance, classmate of Bill's who wasn't sure if he had even held a baby before..after a little encouragement he worked up the nerve to give her a hold... She's simply contagious, and we enjoy sharing her with everyone we can.

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We're back!

After a long pause primarily due to technical difficulties with our internet service at home, we're back with some great new material.

First the details: Eva continues to grow and is truly growing like a weed. She's putting on at least an ounce a day and so is changing rapidly. As of last week, she weighed over 4 kilo, something over 9 lbs. I noticed just yesterday that her wrists have officially disappeared: there is now only a crease in the baby fat where her hand joins her wrist. To top it off, her fingers and elbows are appropriately dimpled and new rolls are appearing. Looking at our glowing, growing, healthy girl, it's already hard for me to remember and believe how small she used to be.

All the medical news is good news too. We had lots of follow-up appointments of various kinds at the hospital during February, all with the same result: Eva is well and healthy and right on track for a baby of almost 2 months (her "corrected age" based on her due date.)

Eva loves to be held--by us and by others--so much so that for a while it was difficult to ever put her down if she was awake. This picture is us using the wonderful sling from my friend Salia that does just the trick when we're at home and Eva needs to be held while I do something that occupies my hands.

Amazing how quickly things change, though: that was only a couple of weeks ago, but already Eva is becoming much more self-entertaining. Especially in the morning, she can kick around and talk and stretch contentedly by herself for long stretches of time. More of that as we get caught up to the present in photos...