Italy 2010: Highlights from Venice

Back in September we went on a trip to Italy to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary.  Well that was our excuse anyways.  And Ashley -  used her as an excuse also, saying that we wanted to take one last trip before starting her on solid foods.  That way we could reduce some of the extra "stuff" required when traveling with a baby.

On our trip we took so many pictures that we haven't had the time to sort through them!  But better late than never, right?

Our first stop was Venice.  We arrived on a Sunday morning after flying from Hartford, changing planes in Philly.  Ashley was great on the flights, sleeping most of the time.

We hopped on the Alilaguna to our hotel, the Hilton Molino Stucky (thank you Priceline!).  The boat ride was Ashley’s first.  She slept through most of it:

She missed some nice views while she slept:

Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we dropped our bags off and headed over to St. Mark’s square.  The crowds were quite a shock: two cruise ships were docked.  We quickly realized that a stroller wasn’t generally going to be a good option for walking around Venice with Ashley.  We had bought a new carrier for the trip, so we went back to the hotel and checked in, put Ashley in the carrier, and continued to explore the city.

The hotel was in the La Giudecca area of Venice rather than the main part, requiring about a 10-minute boat ride to get to St. Mark’s square.  Here’s Ashley and I waiting for the boat to pick us up.  The boats are like the yellow and white one in in the right of the photo.

We spent the the rest of the evening and next morning walking around:


And that afternoon we checked out St. Mark’s Basilica, the Museo Correr, and Palazzo Ducale:

View of San Giorgio Maggiore from Campanile di San Marco:

Ashley was a really good sport, spending most of the time in her carrier as we wandered through alleys and up and down bridges:

On our last full day in Venice we took a trip to the island of Burano, famous for its lace-making and wonderfully colorful painted houses (Nancy’s favorite):



The next morning we slept in, checked out of our hotel, and slowly made our way with our up to the train station (where we had a rental car reserved), bags in tow. We stopped for a nice lunch on the way... and ended showing up at Hertz really late for our car reservation. Of course, when we showed up they said that they'd given our car away since we were late (nevermind we'd prepaid), and had no other cars. No matter, after some negotiation, we ended up with a BMW instead of the Ford we'd reserved, and they threw the car seat in for free. And so it was on to Levanto...

Walking Practice - Part II

When Ashley received her toy walker for Christmas she was only interested in playing with its fun features while seated.  Since it is fairly lightweight and has wheels, at the time it wasn't providing her with the stability she needed to stand up & walk.

Fast forward a couple of months and she's a pro walker:



I think it's hilarious when she falls down on her knees, but keeps walking and then stands back up again.  That's determination!

Walking Practice - Part I

Upside-down laundry baskets on tile floors make good walkers:

Humpty Dumpty

Back in January Ashley and I started a Waterbabies class at my gym.  We had a blast.  Our My favorite thing was the "Humpty Dumpty":



Now that Waterbabies has come to an end I am still trying to keep up Ashley's enthusiasm for "swimming" by taking her to Family Swim time at my gym each Sunday.  I can't wait for summer to be here so we can visit the wading pool in the park across from our house!

Divide & Conquer

We have been having a hard time tearing ourselves away from our darling daughter Ashley to keep this blog up-to-date.  Sorry Blogger, but you really can't compete with this:

In an attempt to increase our posting frequency I decided that we needed a strategy:  divide & conquer.  So I'm going to try and write more posts, leaving Christopher to work his magic with the pics.  We'll see how this goes...

Ashley’s First: Trip to the Playground

It wasn’t exactly warm here yesterday, but we’ve been itching to take Ashley to the playground across the street.  She got to try a swing for the first time, and she sure did love it!

Sorry Ashley, your doggy isn’t allowed in here:

We’ve always suspected she was a bit of a thrill seeker, and confirmed as much yesterday.  The higher and faster, the better!

“Hey, what’s she doing in there?”

Eleven months

At eleven months, Ashley:

• Is starting to point at things.  She uses her index finger on her right hand, and her middle finger on her left.  Her arm will point in the direction of the thing she wants to point at, but her finger extends randomly from there.
• Is a really good stander.  And can walk behind a laundry basket, or her walker, a little.
• Is also really good at looking under things.
• Will fake cough on cue.
• Still hasn’t quite got the hand-waving thing down yet.
• Loves to look at pictures of herself.. so vain! :)
• Loves her dog but seems to find her elusive cat to be a little more fascinating.
• Weighs about 21 pounds.
• Has already been on eleven flight segments… too bad she isn’t collecting frequent flyer miles.

Some photos from March 15, 2011: