Just Another Day

So not much is new right now. We've gotten pretty much everything we need for the apartment (except for a new bed for Michael and I, which will come in the next couple months) and we're all settled in. Due to a week of very stormy weather, we haven't gotten to go out and explore like we had planned this past weekend. Tomorrow (Thursday) we will either be going on a Safari or going downtown again, so some nicer pictures of the area will be coming soon. So here's an update. Caleb likes strawberries! This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but considering he never used to like any fruits or vegetables, this is a big deal. Now he's eating an apple almost every day, beans, bananas, strawberries, and he ate stuffed peppers for the first time a couple nights ago (minus the pepper on the outside). We've also gotten into the habit of grilling salmon and talapia (or shrimp) once every week or so, and Caleb has tried it all. He liked the salmon, he has eaten a piece of shrimp here or there, and he ate the talapia like someone was about to take it away from him. By the time we leave here we'll have him eating, or he'll have at least tried, everything! We are all doing wonderful and are really enjoying ourselves. Michael has had a couple days of excitement at work recently, but thankfully (for safety reasons) it was all false alarms. Caleb and I spend most of our days going to the park, or for bike rides, taking Sucre for walks, and just playing games and enjoying ourselves. There are a lot of kids around so usually there's someone else on the playground he can play with, as well as the people we've already made friends with. Sucre has almost doubled in size since we got him a couple weeks ago. He has his next vet appointment on the 8th, where he'll be getting his first set of shots and a set of tags. We haven't had too much trouble not having him tagged, but there is one certain guy in security that likes to stop by whenever he sees me out with Sucre and always asks about his tags. The other day we went to IKEA and Leroy Merlin with some friends of ours. That was quite the adventure! Not one person spoke english (which wasn't too much of a problem for me because I've caught on quite quickly to the Italians), but I've never been in a store so big that they had arrows on the floors directing you on which way to walk. We figured this out when we were the only ones walking the wrong way and kept running into everyone. Here in Italy there are fireworks every night. Sometimes we can see them, but most nights you just hear them in the distance like thunder. There are always strikes going on and every other day is a holiday here in Italy. And when they have a holiday, they shut everything down. One of the other bases here was completely shut down one day because the Italians didn't want to work. You couldn't even get onto the base. They love life, and they love to have fun that's for sure! The weather here has been hot and sunny almost every day since we've been here up until the past week. When it rains here it pours. It's been almost like a mini-hurricane every day, and it's been cooler, more like in the 70's instead of the 90's. From the looks of it though, it's gone back to normal. We have a few more pictures and videos, but not much else has been going on lately. We're just going about our every day lives right now, finishing up whatever paperwork, errands, and settling in we had left to do. We've also tried our fair share of good Italian wine, for those of you who are interested! There's wine tasting at the NEX almost every day, but you have to watch out, because at Italian wine tasting you are guaranteed to leave with a buzz. Instead of a taste, they give you about half a glass to drink, and they'll continue to shove wine at you until you just walk away. We can't wait for everyone to come visit us! We miss everyone and love you all very much. Next blog I'll have more interesting things to write about!