Sofia goes for a ride

Young T. A.

                         

Sofia's Birthday Cupcake

It's so much better to watch this video in HD and full-screen. Just click on the video, and when it comes up in the YouTube window, change from 240p to 720p, and click the full-screen icon (those four arrows to the right of the resolution toggle).

Independence Day

Paris, the final stop!

These pictures are just a little bit stale, as I'm still scrambling to catch back up to real-time posts in time for the babies' birthdays. So without further fanfare, here are the last of the Summer vacation pics, in all of their Gallic glory.

These pictures were taken in our sweet little rented apartment, in a strange observation fort in front of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in a children's clothing store on Boulevard Saint Germain, in a the Tuileries garden (next the Louvre), on the Champs Élysées, around Boulevard Saint Germain, and finally in front of Notre Dame on a statue that has been converted into a makeshift pigeon toilet. Fun fact: the fumes from pigeon guano possess a powerful soporific effect, as Sofia demonstrates.

Thomas gets baptised

On a warm day in June, a group of Americans and Romans descended upon the stately Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in order to make a proper Christian of young Thomas Alessandro. His days of debauchery, incredulity and disbelief had run out. This change didn't come a moment too soon, since in the past year he often drank until he vomited, then passed out only to wake up with his little trousers filled with his own filth, all the while babbling incoherently to anyone who would listen. I'm not saying that he's perfect now; he still wakes up in his own filth and babbles, for instance. But his drinking problem is behind him now and it seems like he's doing a little bit better every day.

We love you, Bubba!

Inside Santa Maria Maggiore

The Roman basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, so called because it is a great (Papal) church as well as the largest of the 26 churches in Rome dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is a beautiful, imposing building with a mysterious history. Even more mysterious is how a group of unruly Texans were allowed into this church to baptise one of their own. When you're in a foreign land it's best to just smile, nod, refrain from asking too many questions; and in Italy that goes doubly so.