February 2000- Albright 4

The Albright Family

Margareta, 37, Juliana, 37, Giulio, 9
(Iliana, 7)

Narrated by Juliana

Things have been kind of crazy recently. We got Giulio interested in painting. He's actually really good.

And then we renovated an empty upstairs room for him. He loved his old bedroom, he justed wanted one upstairs so we used the same paint and flooring.

 
Then he got sick. The first sign of him having the flu was when he hugged me as soon as I got home from work. He's never so affectionate; I didn't even get a chance to take my lab coat off.

He stayed home from school the next day and napped the day away on the couch. He was bored out of his mind but we weren't going to let him go play outside. He needed to rest.

 He tried to deny he was really that sick, but his need for cuddles proved otherwise.

Once he felt better we decided to babysit Iliana, Margareta's sister Mathilde's daughter. She's seven, so, a little younger than Giulio and we were a bit concerned they'd hit the "cooties" stage but they really got along well. They played outside together for most of the day.

When they came inside he did think she was being a little childish when she was playing in the tub. But he got over it rather quickly.

What really surprised me, though, was having dinner with the two of them. It made me kind of sad to realize that Giulio doesn't have a sibling close to his age and probably never will. I don't think Margareta and I will adopt and our attempts to try for a baby have not been successful.

But I think the pangs are more from seeeing the two kids together and then Giulio kept talking about how he was "almost a teenager," (Slow down, kid. You haven't even hit double digits yet.) Greta and I were perfectly content before with Giulio and we'll be content again once we settle back into our routine. I was even sweet talked into letting them stay up past their bedtimes so they could talk.

They're just lucky they're cute.

 After Iliana went home Giulio found himself really bored so Margareta taught him how to play chess.

He was very intent on the game.

He's also recently become enamored with the phone. He's been calling his grandfather, Jules, about everything.

He even called when Margareta got a promotion. We never got a chance to talk to Dad ourselves.

Notes:

• I've decided against elementary/middle/high school updates this spring. (Unless something happens while I play the High School that I think would be important to write about). Instead I will do one mini update with pictures from all three just so I can share cute pictures. :)
• Also, Giulio and Iliana were way too cute together. I wish I'd taken more pictures of them.
• Margareta had really odd hours at work while Juliana got home only an hour after Giulio got off the school bus, so she got left out quite a bit. :/