bottles, Florence and Prada

 This picture above is amazing!!  Why?  Because I'm pretty sure we tried every nipple/bottle system that we could find at the stores here and he rejected them all!  We had given up when one of the ladies in my baby/playgroup suggested the "Tommee Tippee" bottle, I think the only one we hadn't tried.  I was skeptical but decided to give it a go and low and behold without blinking an eye Van took the bottle like that's the only thing he's ever had.  We didn't want to jinx it so I went out and bought a few more and put the 20 other bottles we'd tried away.  This came as absolute perfect timing because that weekend was my girls weekend get-away to Florence, which was part of my birthday present was my wonderful and thoughtful husband.  Thank you Eric!!  I'm sure the discovery of this bottle made his weekend much much easier since otherwise he would have had to cup feed Van and that is oh sooooo messy!

For almost 3 days and 2 nights I had the luxury of being kidless in Florence with 2 other ladies.  We walked around, had coffee, wine and wonderful leisurely dinners without the interuption of "Mama, Mama, mama!"   Oh and we also went to the Prada outlet about 45 minutes away from Florence and I bought my first Prada purse!  Other than being in the hospital with Van I've only been away from Keenan overnight once and never from Van.  We'd be walking along when all the sudden I would get that panicky feeling that I was forgetting or missing something only to realize that I wasn't, the kids were at home with dad and I didn't need to pack a stroller, diaper bag  and two kids around.  I love my kids, don't get me wrong but it was nice to walk around with just a purse and not all their gear and not have to worry about their schedules or entertaining them.

Although walking around Florence did make me miss my sister Christy, can't believe it's been 5 years since we took our trip to Italy.  We had so much fun on that trip and it couldn't have been planned at a more perfect time since immediately afterwards we both got married and started having kids.  So Christy and Jami, hurry up and come visit me already!

 Happy Van!

Sleepy Van.