Tuesday

Who knew that the hormonal teenage thing would set in at the age of twelve? Charlotte can't help being snotty. It's as if we're all stupid and exist on this earth only to serve her. Unfortunately, this unbecoming behavior does not just stop with her; the example she is setting for her siblings is horrendous. I don't want to rant too much about it, but we are going on an austere program of attitude readjustment. For my sake, I hope it works (I think I understand the boarding school concept now!)

There are always last minute things you want to do before going away for vacation. Hair removal is one of them. Laundry would be another. Today, I did both. Since our housekeeper started her holiday already, we are doing our own laundry in preparation for our trip. I've been doing more laundry since we moved to Rome. Correction: I've been doing some laundry since we moved to Rome because in Chicago I didn't do ANY. The reality is, I don't really mind -- there is something rewarding about getting the stains out!

The kids only had a half-day of school today. Everyone (including those that took a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich to school) came home for lunch. Charlotte had plans to go ice-skating with two of her school friends but it had been raining all day. She assumed they would get together anyway and do something else, so when her friend called to cancel their plans altogether, Charlotte was understandably upset. She suspected that the other two girls were getting together and leaving Charlotte out of the mix "because she isn't Italian." We'll never know.

Olivia was invited to a classmate's birthday party to watch a movie -- Kung Fu Panda, in Italian with English subtitles (hey, that's got to be good for either her Italian or her reading, or both!). When Josh took her, he was invited in for coffee and homemade cake. He struck up a conversation with the hosts (many are curious as to what in the heck we are doing here) which led to a discussion about his interest in contemporary art. As it turns out, the hosts were friendly with their downstairs neighbor (which is always a good thing) who is an art collector. They promptly phoned her and she invited Josh to come over and see her contemporary art collection. Josh is so happy to be an Italian speaking American living in Rome -- he gets quite the treatment.

Later that evening, we received a text message from Charlotte's swim coach. She's good to go for the swim meet in Grosetto in January. So the day after, we return from Egypt, she will board a bus with her team-mates for the long weekend. She may not swim well (right after vacation), but she will have a blast. Lucky girl. I hope she realizes it someday.