I achieved a small victory last night as I survived my first time at home alone with all three children for the entire night. I am appreciating my mom more and more every day! I was left alone by around 5pm with Isabella, Ginevra, and Claudio. We played outside for a long time, mostly with the gardener and the cleaning lady. Then they helped set the table while I cooked them dinner. We ate a lovely meal out on the patio (with only a few pieces of food flying across the table and only one glass of water being spilt). Then we played some more and had a little English lesson. They watched some cartoons and then when I turned off the TV, two out of the three of them willingly went upstairs to start getting ready for bed. Pretty good numbers! We skipped bathtime (shh...don't tell), but they did all brush their teeth. And all was quiet by 9:30pm!  I think I did a pretty good job considering the vast language barrier. I can only imagine how funny this would have been from the outside looking in.

A lady on my flight over to Italy told me that what I'm doing would not only be a great experience for me, but also an excellent method of birth control. Not that I really need that right now - but I get what she meant...