I know I’m jumping ahead but I shattered my iPhone with all the pictures from the first weekend and second week. I’ve been waiting to get it back to post but every day I go to pick it up and it’s not ready. My back up phone has a very small memory and is already full of picture so here goes.
Warning: This post contains A LOT of pictures… the grandparents appreciate it 🙂
A summary of our second week: A few highs and many lows. The week started off wrong. I worked on my school notes until 2am and then cooked and cleaned till 3am. Right as I was about to go to bed, Metu woke up. They both sleep really well and only ever wake up if hungry. I tried ignoring Metu to see if he would go back to bed and then Solu woke up at 4am and said he wanted cereal because he was hungry. We finally went back to bed close to 6 and so I started the week on less than 2 hours of sleep. It was a tough week but I’ll write about it later. So on to the weekend!
Friday!!!
I was happy to see the day and the work week end especially after another hard day. I made up my mind before coming to Perugia that I would work hard during the week and focus on the boys and having fun during the weekend. I had tried being productive over the weekend last year and it was an exercise in futility. I gave up the break and lunch to make sure my work was done so you can imagine the horror I felt when my computer randomly shut down and restarted which reverted my document to an old version. It was too much for me. I started crying in class. You are probably thinking I could have just auto recovered. Well one of the things that made my week crappy is that my Microsoft word stopped working so I had to switch to Pages which doesn’t autosave. So I basically had to start my work over. Anyways I eventually stopped crying and got back to work. I didn’t get too far before Solu’s teacher dropped him off and then Metu’s carer dropped him off. Oh well. I shut down my computer and we headed home.
The sun was out so I decided to take the boys to the park. Between trying to sort out my phone and the weather, we only went to the park on Monday this week. So we packed up some popcorn and rice cakes for ourselves and the birds and headed out.
It was cold and a little windy but we did not care. We sat and fed the birds… well the boys did. I loved how after feeding the birds, Solu just sat and ate with them. Little moments like these just brighten my day.
As we were sitting and watching the birds and just people passing, the wind blew the bag that was holding our ball and Solu ran after it. It was quite interesting and very brave of him. He caught the ball but not the bag and was sad. Thankfully it got caught somewhere and we were able to get it back. We talked about how we could hold it down to prevent it from getting blown away again and found a stick to plug it into the ground.
After that little excitement, they decided to walk around the circle. Solu is very interested in shapes and also in walking the line since he started school. They walk the line daily and he now seems to see walkable lines everywhere. This means additional time whenever we have to walk somewhere but I don’t mind. He is seeing more and taking in more from his environment.
After they walked for a while, we played a game of who can find. We looked for a tree, a light pole, a bell, red flower, white flower, green leaves, yellow leaves, a stick, a stone, wood, a bench, and  a tap. It was fun and involved a lot of running. It is interesting to see how much Metu understands. He played too.
We ended up running around and just enjoying the time outdoors. It felt good to just let go of the week’s stress and soak in the joy and laughter from my boys.
We headed home and the boys were seriously famished. They ate Pasta with meat sauce for dinner, took a bath while I took a shower and slept as soon as they touched the bed. I did some work before also going to bed.
Metu woke up hungry on Saturday. I took him to the kitchen and gave him some apple. I then went to use the bathroom and he was coming to meet me and somehow slipped and bumped his head. I felt so bad for him. I pressed it with some ice and gave him paracetamol. His cry woke Solu up  so we all had breakfast. I love catching them collaborating. Solu wanted to get the cereal down so he asked Metu to wait while he climbed to get it.
After breakfast it was time to clean up the house. The boys have been so helpful since we’ve been here. It has been so great to see how capable they are. They (mostly solu) do dishes, sweep, load the washer, hang up the laundry and are just very involved in the practical life activities.
After cleaning, doing laundry and taking a bath they were hungry so I made them a snack of popcorn and mangoes. While they waited, they formed a cutlery band. It was fun until Metu decided Solu’s head looked like a drum. lol. Solu’s school has a wonderful music program with an amazing music teacher (Maestro Rico). He has always loved music but since he started there, he is literally always singing, humming or making some kind of music.
After snack we read some books. I included this picture because it shows another side effect from Solu’s Montessori school experience. He rolls every rollable. Every Montessori teacher recognizes those hands.
We then had lunch and I told the boys we were going to nap. It was around 12.30. I shut the blinds and we all got in bed. I am not sure who fell asleep first but when I woke up at 3.30pm, they were still sleep. They woke up at around 4.
We got ready to go out. I wanted to pick up my phone and check out a concert we had seen being set up at the center. When we got to the train station, we noticed all the trains were full. We waited and waited and eventually had to squeeze in. There were a lot of people at the center for the concert. I had no idea who was performing but I decided I didn’t want to be there with the boys. It just felt uncomfortable.
We managed to make our way to the phone shop. The guy was pulling away in his car just as we got there and he said something something lunedi which I understood to mean the phone would be ready on Monday. So the two things we came out for were bust. I tried to think of what we could do and then remembered that the Perugia office of science and technology was not too far. It is like a children’s museum. We walked over.
It was free for the boys and 3Euro for me. Totally worth it. The boys had a great time and entertained themselves for almost an hour. It was interesting to see the difference a year makes because we visited last year.
We were getting hungry by the time we left. We walked over to the university for foreigners because I had heard there were more diverse food options but most of the places were closed. I was trying to decide what to do when a message came from my friend. She was was going to a Japanese restaurant. Yay! We decided to join her. She had not left home though so I decide to pass by Mr Chips for some chips (french fries).
On the way there we stopped by the church to pray. The first time we passed by the church, I told the boys we would enter to pray and we did. Since then, whenever we pass by, Solu insists we enter to pray so it has become our little routine. On this day, there was a mass being held when we entered so we sat down and joined until Metu started “talking” and then we left.
We got to Mr Chips and found a very long line thanks to the concert. We waited and got our chips and then headed to the train station.
We enjoyed some music on our way before heading to the train station
There are 3 long sets of escalators that lead down to the minimetro and Solu and even Metu are experts at getting on and off the escalator. I find it quite amazing and feel thankful every time we take time. The first time I got on an escalator was on the day after my 17th birthday. It was at the Abuja international airport and it was on my way to board the flight to go to college in America. I didn’t know how to get on it and it was one of those scenes like from a movie. To think that my 2 year old expertly uses it just indicates to me how much further they will go.
Anyways we rode the train to Fontivegge. Solu knows our stop so he kept saying over and over “we’re not going home?” Anyways, my friend was not there yet so we waited for her at a macdonalds. I tripped on my way and in the process of trying not to fall so I wouldn’t hurt Metu and also keeping Solu from falling, I twisted my ankle. It could have been worse but it hurt. I prayed and hoped it wouldn’t escalate and thankfully it didn’t.
My friends finally met up and we walked a few blocks to the restaurant (Sakura). Interestingly we passed 3 African stores, a hair braiding place and lots of Nigerians on the way there. Who knew?!
The food at Sakura was great! Children under 4 eat for free so that was awesome too. It was 19 Euro per adult and all you can eat sushi or plates. I ordered edamame, grilled salmon and salmon fried rice and shared with the boys. We all loved it and ordered the same thing again. I enjoyed a mezzo bottle of wine since they didn’t sell wine by the glass.
By the time we were done it was almost 9pm. It was the latest the boys had been up since we’ve been here. We headed to the train station but it was still packed so we decided to walk home. At one point I wondered if I had been crazy to choose walking. My knee and ankle were hurting from carrying Metu. When we were close to home Solu said he was tired and asked me to carry him. Lol. I knew he was really tired but I had to just encourage him till we made it home. We all had quick baths and crashed!
We woke up to a rainy Sunday. I had already planned to take it slow and just relax and that’s exactly what we did. We had breakfast and did more laundry. The boys played while I cooked. They had snack, played some more, took a bath, had lunch, played, Metu napped while I studied and Solu played. I napped a little and then Metu woke up… more play. dinner, a bath and then I looked at the time and it was only 5.53pm? How is this possible? The day felt like it was going slow.
7pm eventually came and they went to bed while I went to do my school work.
All in all it was a nice weekend and I feel like we have settled in and found our groove. The weather next weekend is supposed to be nice so I am excited to venture beyond our comfort zone. I’ll tell you about it! Have a great week ahead 🙂
0 Comments
ajulu uzodike · June 19, 2016 at 5:59 pm
Very impressive. Dad
indian girl · June 30, 2016 at 9:08 am
How wonderful for you and the children! What an experience! I am in awe of how you write everything in detail. When did you find the time for this ?!!