It was five years ago today that we moved to Sicily. We celebrated our survival with a giant Sicilian lunch in Aci Trezza, a small fishing village with a quaint marina dotted with colorful boats.
We had the typical three course meal at Ristorante "Il Cove Marino" and somehow still had room for a small gelato from a gelateria on the stroll back to the car. Our bellies were bursting! 
I was pretty fussy in the car seat the other day so Mom handed me her cellphone to 
This went nothing like Mom had planned. No masterpiece created... just a massive mess!
There's a little boy, Stefano, who lives in the apartment complex across from ours. Our balconies overlook each other. When we eat dinner on our balcony, Stefano shouts down, “Ciao Bimbo!” Stefano is not calling my Mom a floozy; he’s talking to me. “Bimbo” means baby or child in Italian.
The boy who lives upstairs from us, Alessandro, turned three years old today so his parents rented a little hall in Motta for the celebration. There were about 20 kids, snacks, pizza, cake, loud music, 100 balloons and lots of plastic balls= a blast for me and a headache for my parents! This was our first time at an Italian child's birthday party. We were completely surprised that all of the gifts that Alessandro joyfully opened were clothes. We were the only ones to get him a toy... a John Deere tractor. We think he liked the American tradition better!
when I spray my mom in the face with the shower head, but when she does it to me...
it's not so hilarious. 
It got eerily quiet in the house so my parents assumed I was up to no good in the other room but they just found me hanging out in Paolo's house having a little drinkie.
In the past month my vocabulary has exploded and it seems like everyday I spit out a new word that amazes my parents. My all time favorite word is "no". I even put my hands on my hips, flash the evil eye and say it just as sternly as Mom. A few other words I like to say are: ball, book, dog, hot, cookie, go, cat, clock, duck, truck, car, balloon, and apple. I also speak a little Italian: no, si, grazie, cane, pallone, pesce, acqua, e ballo.
Doesn't this look like one of those aweful pictures of a terrified hostage holding a newspaper to prove his existence on a certain date? I'm proving my existence with this provolone cheese packaged on September 6th 2007. My captors love cheese.
Sometimes after dinner we take a walk to a gelateria for a gelato. Gelato is Italian ice cream and it's one of the many things we will miss about Sicily. 
Our favorite flavor is Zuppa Inglese which translates to "English Soup" and we're not sure what the heck that is all about, but it tastes like frozen eggnog with chocolate chips—so divine! 
she couldn't be lovelier. Apparently we missed the BIG eruption last night. Our very talented friend, Nicole, got some fantastic shots of the show. Check out the spectacular images of Mt Etna erupting on her website.
Yesterday we drove to Santo Stefano Di Camastra to do a little ceramic shopping. The town is known mostly for the production of bright red ceramics, but we were on a mission for something else...
Mom finally got that antique terra cotta pot she's been eyeing.
After a morning of shopping (BORING!), we headed to Cefalu for a seafood lunch along the waterfront. To avoid the pesky paparazzi, I tried going incognito with big sunglasses but that crazy woman with the camera follows me around everywhere I go!
After lunch we sat on the rocks and let the waves crash over us. 
Last weekend we went to Taormina to buy a couple of pieces of artwork from Nenad Babic. Babic is originally from Sokolac, Yugoslavia and now lives and works in Florence, Italy. His work is colorful, unique and a little bizarre. We love it! He spends his summers in Taormina, Sicily selling his artwork in the main piazza. Every summer for the past five years we have bought several pieces of his artwork. I guess you could say we are collectors. 
Mom and Dad almost bought me one of these Sicilian puppets until they realized that their swords are actually little knives! 
