And Summer Begins

I was enjoying my weekly attempt to post something on this blog... my reliable hour or two in the evening on the computer because I knew the baby and two big kids would be asleep. But, summer has arrived and there is no preschool to rush out the door to in the morning and, therefore, bedtime is non-existent... not because the kids are refusing, but because life is more enjoyable here when the 90's sink into the mid-70s and the townspeople begin to emerge from their hot little houses. Life begins fresh again at dinner time with my after-dinner espresso, as it did at the breakfast hour with my morning cafe latte. Without air-conditioning, it is too hot to be in a hurry for anything so we don't rush eating, playing, or sleeping.
 Last week was a whirlwind of school activities, air shows, and living the seaside life.
Because last week I could not fit in a single moment to post, I will catch up in photos I took this past week.


Friday
I rushed 2 kids and baby out the door while my husband finished a 24 hour shift at work. He met me at the school later to catch a little of the show and pick up the baby to take her for her first vaccines.

A friend and Rachel get ready for their end-of-school year recital as a caròta e melnzana,

or carrot and eggplant.

There are also tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes, and parsley running around.

Little Samuele is the dark green parsley between the two light green parsley.

Later that day, after we met back at home and napped the kids, we went to watch the Frecce Tricolore practice for an airshow that they would have on Saturday.

The kids asked for earplugs...

but, the baby doesn't need them.

Frecce Tricolori literally translates to tricolored arrows. It is the world's largest military aerobatic team and is regarded by many as being one of the most prestigious. The Frecce Tricolori aerobatics team is made up of ten Aermacchi MB-339-A/PAN aircraft from the Italian air force.

Saturday

We began the day with errands into the center of Lecce which usually lands us at McDonald's, a rare treat since this is the only Mc D's in the area, and is not a short drive, nor is it easy to find parking. Next, grocery shopping, home for naps, and a mad dash to get ready for a trip to the beach. On the way out to the car, a neighbor stopped us and asked us to come up rooftop instead to watch the airshow again, Saturday's version using the colored smoke. He had bought ice-cream for everyone and so as not to disappoint the kids already dressed in swimming suits, we hauled up buckets of water and a kiddie pool.

Cars line the roads in the surrounding fields.

At bedtime, little brother comforts big sister as she loses her first tooth!

Sunday

My husband hits the water at 5:30am for some spear-fishing and when he gets home we head out for a day on the beach.

The baby falls asleep after her first swim before I can even put a diaper back on her!

Then we head over to a seaside resturant where a man grills and fishes at the same time.

The food is amazing, but the kids like the bread.

Our Greek friends enjoy the pasta too.

The best Italian food comes on plastic plates while you sit in plastic deck chairs.

You know this if you have spent any time here.

Octopus meatballs

And so, in all the chaos of the weekend, we forgot to buy toilet paper. We'll fit that in Monday before we head outside to watch the Italy soccer game and cook out with friends. 

Just What the Doctor Ordered

Once, when I was in college, just when the trees in the student forum where budding, a friend noted, as we watched some flip-flop and short clad students pass by, that she hated seeing people "push summer" by pulling out their summer clothes early. The first sign of a warm day, and it is hard to not want to increase your wardrobe by unpacking your summer attire and adding it to the mix of still needed jackets and jeans. My daughter is about to turn 5, and since she started dressing herself at 2, has always preferred shorts and tees to sweaters, and flip-flops and sandals to sneakers or anything else that confines her toes. She would gladly wear a leotard and tu-tu or swimming suit out and about town, no matter the weather.

Well, as my previous post would tell it, the Italians stay bundled with jackets and scarves into the 80s, or until the page on the calender is flipped to something showing a beach scene. Needless to say, we stand out when we have a walk around the town. I give in to letting Rachel wear a tu-tu... it does compliment her pink cowboy boots from Oklahoma. As Italian little boys wear speedo-styled swimming suits, my son has been wearing his swimming suit like underwear under his clothes for a few weeks now.  Even my Italian husband now breaks out the shorts and "pushes summer" when the temperature hits the mid-70s.  And I, being American and accustomed to everything and everywhere being air-conditioned, am sensitive to getting  uncomfortably overheated; I break out the summer clothes the first day I deem necessary.
 Last year at this time we were just coming off of a long, hard winter battling ear-infection after ear-infection. We had the doctors baffled as Rachel just couldn't knock the infections. The doctor's final advice: Take the kids to the beach every day in the summer. And we did just that. It sure beats fighting the kids to take antibiotics or the Italians favorite cure-all, saline nose spray. We followed the advice and the final verdict for this past winter: not an infection at all, not one!

I swear it was the snorkeling that their spear-fisherman father encouraged that cleared their sinuses permanently.  They spent almost as much time under the water as they did building sandcastles. Throwing his head down underwater, my son was only 2 and unaware that he was swimming, his feet lifted off the seafloor with each gentle wave. Passersby would panic and tell me to hurry and catch him before he sunk, and I would have to explain, in my Italian, that he was breathing just fine through the snorkel. I'm sure I looked like a negligent mother.

Being from landlocked Oklahoma, I am slowly learning the beach culture of Italy. My kids and husband, on the other hand, are hooked, born for this salty, sea life. My husband has been out catching octopus for weeks now. This spring we have "pushed summer" at the beach already a few times. With chilling water, I wouldn't get in, but kids are immune to cold when it comes to surf and sand, and they've been swimming. So, while some Italians are still clothed head to toe, all I can say is that we are just starting in a little early, just doing what the doctor prescribed.