According to local legend, the three cone-shaped islands in the background are the very same stones thrown by the Cyclopes at Ulysses. The islands are called "isole dei ciclopi". My dad goes scuba diving there. 
Il Porticciolo has the best seafood in Sicily, especially the fried calamaretti (baby calamari that melts in your mouth!), lobster linguine and mussel linguine.
Ella and I play here after our stroll around the indoor track. 
We love it here!
Mom and I were on our own all week while Dad attended a conference in Las Vegas. While Mom turned her back for a second to put dinner (Chicken Capers & Couscous Bake- my favorite!) in the oven, I found the bottle of Pine Sol she mistakenly left on the edge of the bathtub after she had washed the floors that afternoon. Mom found me in the hallway between the bathroom and kitchen with a soaked face and shirt and a surprised look on my face. As soon as she picked me up, my pine fresh smell gave it away and she instantly knew what I had done! PANIC TIME... Mom called Sigonella's emergency number and said, "MY SON DRANK PINE SOL!" The dispatcher asked if we wanted an ambulance to come to our house, but my Mom said she could drive to the hospital faster than explaining where we live out in town, so off we ran to the hospital. When we arrived at the emergency room, they were ready for us... "Ahhh, is this the little Pine Sol drinker?" The emergency team had already investigated Pine Sol ingestion while we were in route to the hospital and they were able to reassure my panicky-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown-mother that Pine Sol is one of the better household cleaners to consume, if you're in the business of consuming cleaning products that is! It's a lot better than let's say... bleach or ammonia! If my Mom had called Poison Control first (like she should have!) she would have been instructed to make me drink water and then see a physician. But Mom was scared and wasn't thinking clearly so we headed straight to the ER. As a matter of fact, we left the house in such a hurry that Mom forgot to bring the bottle of Pine Sol (the ER staff scolded her for that!... "If you had brought the bottle, we could better determine how much he actually consumed!") and a diaper bag (the hospital only had newborn diapers so I left the hospital in a diaper that looked like a G-string on me!). Thankfully, Mom did remember to turn off the oven before leaving the house so we had a home to come home to at the end of the eventful evening. After a urinalysis, a chest x-ray, a shower and three hours of observation, we were discharged from the ER. I was completely fine. My mom on the other hand, a guilt ridden wreck... "How could I have forgotten to put the Pine Sol away?... Why was the bathroom door even open to begin with?... I should have had him in the kitchen with me with the door closed!... I really screwed up!" It's been a week since the incident and Mom still doesn't think the jokes are funny... "Pine Sol removes tough grease and grime and leaves your baby smelling clean." "Currier's going to have super powers now- everything he touches will instantly become clean!" "Did you wash the floors today or did Currier burp?"... Okay, maybe a little funny!
Lately, I’ve been desperately trying to say “DOG!”, but it keeps coming out as “GOD!" My parents are trying to nip that in the bud since Bruco and Paolo already have superiority complexes.
Every Thursday morning I go to Tiny Tots Fitness class to make friends and make my way through an obstacle course. This chic is crazy if she thinks she's getting past me!
Mom tells me that this is a sink for really short people, but I think she's telling another one of her "stories".
Mom couldn't wait for it to rain so she could dress me in my new raincoat and boots. I got totally soaked playing in the puddles out front of my house.
We arrived at Hotel Movenpick at 6PM. Before entering our hotel, we got sniffed by bomb dogs and had to walk through a medal detector. Over the course of our Egyptian vacation this became common practice before entering any public place. We weren't sure whether this level of security made us feel safe or nervous. Once we checked into our hotel, we had a half hour to freshen up and be back down in the lobby to depart for a Nile River Dinner Cruise. Eating and drinking in Egypt can cause "gastrointestinal distress" (fancy way of saying "explosive diarrhea") to visitors because our bodies are not accustomed to Egypt's "different" water (that's putting it nicely!). Drinking water or anything with ice is a definite NO and eating anything washed with water (fruits and vegetables) may also pose a risk. In preparation for this trip, our doctor prescribed antibiotics for us and Mom packed a whole suitcase filled with canned fruits and vegetables and every snack you can imagine (we nicknamed this suitcase "snack city"). Mom and Dad also had to wash my bottles with bottled water. We still sampled the Egyptian cuisine but with caution. We ate lots of bread, cheese, chicken, and rice. The cruise down the Nile was a perfect kick off to our 8 day Egyptian adventure. As we ate dinner overlooking the Nile, a belly dancer and a weird spinning guy dancer entertained and fascinated us. 
Standing at the base of these enormous and powerful monuments made us feel so small.
We rode camels around the pyramids. It was a little scary and the camel that Dad and I rode had some disgusting infection on his neck. PETA needs to pay these camel handlers a visit and teach them something about animal compassion.
Second stop was the Sphinx, the guardian of the Giza Plateau. The Sphinx is known to the Arabs as Abu al-Hol, the "father of terror".
Next stop was Saqqara to visit the Step Pyramid of Djoser. We then walked to the Pyramid of Teti (it's not worth photographing because its just a pile of dirt) where we went down inside the pitch dark, claustrophobic tomb following some man who kept lighting matches and yelling "watch your head... watch your head" until we came to the end and saw the king's giant sarcophagus by match light. It was pretty spooky.
Before heading back to the hotel for dinner, we stopped at the Luxor Papyrus Institute to learn how papyrus is made. While Mom and Dad shopped for papyrus, the Egyptian women kept me entertained. We've found a culture that adores children even more than the Italians! Everywhere we went, people kept asking if they could take my picture or if they could hold me. Everyone kept calling me "Habepi" (Mom thought they were saying "Hey Baby") which our tour guide explained was a term of endearment meaning "My love" in Arabic. 
All the artifacts were amazing but our favorites were the hieroglyphics, the treasures from King Tutankhamun's tomb and the mummified body of King Ramses II. 
Tutankhamun's 3,330 year old tomb was discovered in 1922 and the Tutankhamun Galleries display 1,700 items from the tomb of the boy king. It was amazing to see the painstaking preparation that the ancient Egyptians poured into the Pharoah's after life. Obviously the most impressive is the solid gold death mask, which my Mom has dreamed of seeing in person since she was a little girl. 
We paid an extra fee to go inside the Royal Mummy Room to see the mummified body of Ramses II. Ramses II is often regarded as Egypt's greatest and most powerful pharaoh. To come face to face with this legendary king was truly an experience of a lifetime. 
After lunch, we visited the Mosque of Mohamed Ali' and the Citadel. We sat on the floor of the Mosque to give our feet a rest and our tour guide explained the Five Pillars of Islam.
Before heading back to the hotel for dinner, we made a stop at the Bazar Khan El Khalili to shop for cartouches, lotus perfume, jewelry and silly souvenirs. 
Are you kidding me with this ridiculously, brilliant, turquoise water?... 
This evening Mom got sick with "gastrointestinal distress" which she coined the name "King Tut Tooties". She immediately started the antibiotics and felt better the next morning. She was the only one of us to get sick on our Egyptian adventure.
Along the way, we saw an oasis. How anything green can survive here is a miracle. Our tour guide told us that it only rains once every two to three years!
St. Catherine's Monastery is thought to be the oldest Christian monastery in the world (founded in AD 527). It is believed that this is the site where Moses saw the burning bush from which God instructed Moses to lead his people out of Egypt to the Promised Land.
Here we are standing under the evergreen that is said to be from the same stock as the burning bush. Mom has a sheet wrapped around her legs because the ding bat wore shorts and had to tip some guy to borrow one of his sheets to cover her inappropriate attire.
Dad saw a unicorn fish, a blue spotted stingray, a school of barracuda, and a cargo ship wreck. The cargo ship was carrying toilets as you can see in the bottom right hand corner...
While Dad was diving, Mom and I hung out at the hotel. We played in the pool, walked to the beach, checked out the Kid's Club, ate lunch and took a long nap. When Dad returned from diving, Mom went to the spa for a another massage.
In the evening we took a cab to colorful, downtown Sharm El Sheikh and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and shopped around for last minute souvenirs.
This is my mom's new project to gauge my growth. On my birthday every year, she's going to take a picture of me in the same Boston Red Sox T-shirt until I reach my 18th birthday... I should grow into it by then!
Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me in Italian and English and then I ate a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting. 
I opened lots of great gifts and played with my friends... Dawson, Maureen, Ella, Aja, Jadeyn, Jen, John, Bina & Antonio.
It was a FUN day and all the excitement wore me out! 
This morning we let Mom sleep in and we made her heart shaped mini quiches, fruit salad and fresh squeezed orange juice and served it to her in bed. I gave her a fancy new camera and Bruco and Paolo gave her a cool camera case. She had a perfect 1st Mother's Day!
