Olivia Rae Braheem

All is well with miss Livy these days. She is loving school (And doing extremely well at it). In late October we had our parent teacher meeting and Olivia’s teacher referred to her as “My Go To Girl”. It was pretty clear that not only was she doing well academically, but that she also had won her teacher over and had become the “Pet”. In fact, one comment that was made was “I just wish that I could be a fly on the wall in the student council meetings as I’m sure she is a riot!” Speaking of student council, Olivia is enjoying being a part of the decision making process at school and has even created a suggestion box for her classroom so her fellow students can help her generate ideas.

Italian has started to catch on for Olivia and we are finding that she is using it more and more these days in communication with us. It is not uncommon to hear her answer our basic daily questions in Italian and she seems to enjoy showing off what she is learning in school. She like Trey has Italian every day in school for 45 minutes.

One particularly terrifying moment for Olivia came when we discovered the Lily (Formerly known as Iris, which is a long story that Anna can fill you in on!) our cat has taken to exploring the outer ledges of the castle. This would not be a problem at most houses but the drop from our ledges must be at least 100 feet to the ground! Upon noticing Lily, walking the narrow ledge in search of pigeons, Olivia became terrified at the prospects of losing her kitten! We managed to calm her down and coax miss Lily back to safety. Don't need any more tragic moments on our hands!

I mentioned last month that Livy was looking for a hobby and I think that we have found one for her, “Swimming”. We signed her up for swimming lessons a few weeks ago (She knows how to swim already but this is to teach her advanced swimming strokes) and she really loves it. In just three weeks, she has already moved up two levels and is able to swim the length of the pool using the backstroke. Her teachers speak a bit of English and her improvement in Italian has helped bridge the rest of the gap. There’s just something about seeing her in her little one-piece bathing suit with her cap and goggles on that warms your heart.

Bike riding on the other hand has not taken off like we would have hoped. Olivia is still a bit gun shy from the breaking of her arm and won’t allow me to let go of the seat just yet when she is riding. If you think back to this big step in your life (Riding on two wheels) it takes an understanding that you need to have speed to be able to obtain balance. We are still in the process of developing her comfort in this area. It doesn’t help that the only place to ride at the castle is on gravel! Not exactly the ideal training ground for two wheel bike riding.

October brought Halloween to Italy (Not exactly the Trick or Treat capital of the world). We did see a few decorations in stores here and there as the days drew nearer to the 31st, but the act of trick or treating is not practiced here in Italia. The kids were able to celebrate a bit at school with a pumpkin patch, but the actual day of Halloween fell while we were in Seville Spain. Anna’s parents (Gina and Brunz) were so thoughtful and found some really cool costumes for the kids on the internet and sent them along with my parents. Olivia and Trey were so excited to open the surprise and immediately tried them on in the hotel room. The next step was to convince Trey to walk the streets of Seville on Halloween night as the grim reaper (As usual, Olivia was up for anything and loved the idea of parading around as the snow princess!). After about a half hour of negotiations we were finally able to convince him to give it a go. It was so fun to see the reaction of the dozens of people that passed us that night when we meandered the streets. I would imagine that it wont go down as being the greatest Halloween experience of their lives, but I also don’t think that they will ever forget the time that they were the only ones in costumes either!

Livy also missed a couple days of school in mid November with a nasty little bought of lice! We’re not quite sure how she contracted it, but it must have happened at school. Nothing like having to comb out the living bugs in your daughters hair for 90 minutes (Anna handled that chore), followed by placing all of her sheets and towels in sealed hefty bags for three days to kill em all off! The result was a day with mom and dad shopping, which actually turned out to be one fun day with just the three of us.

Lastly, perhaps the highlight of Olivia’s month (Other than seeing her grandparents) was when she received a letter from her best friend Brinn from back in California. There’s nothing like a little kid getting something in the mail. It made her day!

This month’s interview with Olivia –

Q – How did it feel to see your grandma and grandpa for the first time in three months?
A – “Really super duper good. It was fun to stay up late and surprise them and see they look on their face.”

Q – How do you like Swimming so far?
A – “I love it. I like the things that they are teaching me. I never new that you had to take a breath when you put your face up and then blow bubbles under the water.”

Q – Tell us about Spain. Did you like it and why?
A – “Italy is much better. We always get to see kitty in Italy and I like living in the castle. The food is better in Italy, especially vegetable soup and pasta with meat sauce.”

Q – What is the strangest thing that has happened to you since you have been in Italy?
A – “Me breaking my arm, because I never broke a bone before in my body. I don’t really think about it any more but I remember it. It was hard having a caste because the glasses for drinking water are big and I like to lift them with two hands. With a caste it was tough. It was also hard when I had an itch.”

Q – When you come home for Christmas for two weeks, what are you most looking forward to?
A – “Seeing my grandpa and grandma and my friends. I am really looking forward to seeing Brinn, my friend in Thousand Oaks. I hope I can see Fluffy and Fuzzy our hamsters and Tasha our dog.”