Loquacity

When you talk, you talk quite a lot. Now that we are back from two and a half weeks at the beach, fully-immersed in Italian, I am gearing you up for your full-immersion English holiday at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Though your Italian vocabulary grew while being surrounded by your cousins, aunts, and uncles- I am positive that your English vocabulary remains much larger. Thus in addition to hello, bye-bye, ciao ciao, dog, cat, cow, piggy, ducky and many other farm animals, here are a few of your most recent words:

tomato
pee-coo-coo (pekaboo)
butataty (butterfly)
aiseeyooo! (i see you)
oh yeah!
goodie! (usually something yummy you like to eat)
cuccihini (zucchina)
owie
gamma
gampa
ahkhoo (uncle, for your many uncles)
banana, apple, pitsch(peach), pear, kiwi

august 16: lazy summer afternoons and bicultural musings

Today is your 14 month birthday. We went to the beach this morning, as we have been doing for the last 10 days in a row. This is your second summer in Lavinio but your first in terms of really being able to experience the sleepy little beach town in all its ridiculousness: terrible fashion, insane neighbors, traffic, and beach club gossip. I have been coming here with Daddy for six years now and at the start of every summer I look forward to coming here in a way I never experienced as a child. Daddy grew up here- he spent summers with his sisters, cousins and friends building sand castles, fishing, and getting in trouble. The whole family looks on this place with immeasureable nostalgia, though it is no where near today what it once was. You won't remember it when you are older, but these weeks on Violet Street with the Italian half of your family have been priceless. You've learned that walking on the sand won't hurt you and then played in it til your bathing suit was full of it, sat on the shores of the mediterranean, and have entertained your family of 10 to no end. You may not have the same experience Daddy had, becuase things are changing and deteriorating simultaneously, but this is worlds away from my childhood.

At the same time that I treasure these moments: you surrounded by your family, laughing, giggling and playing, my heart aches for my own. I wish they could see you and watch you grow everyday as your Italian family is doing now. Nothing is forever and having you around makes life feel so much more urgent. You are learning to be Italian but at the same time I want you to have all the American experiences I did as a child. Sometimes I wish we lived in America but I immediately feel terrible for what that would do to your Italian heritage.

You'll be waking up from your post beach nap soon and Ihave a house to straighten up. That's all for now.