Bambine

Oh the bambine (little girls) just crack me up. Franci (or Franchi as it would be pronounced in English) is turning seven (sette) in seven days. And it has been a countdown each day. At first though, she was angry that we reminded her of how many days until her birthday, because she wanted it to be a surprise (sorpresa...I know that word!). She will say a few words in english and then ramble off in italian like an old italian mama mia! madre. It is so funny to watch/listen to! She is very helpful when I ask, what does this mean, or, how do you say this in Italian, and she patiently teaches me the pronunciation. In the pool the other day she was riding on my back and I asked, "How do you say Pony?" and she said in a very beautiful and dramatic italian accent "Pohhh-ney." All I could do was laugh and say "oh, it's the same." Franci, by the way, has the accent of any normal, boring american kid most of the time when speaking english-- so this, was particularly funny.
The other day when we were walking to their mom's work to visit, on the way there, we passed three men in a row who were all wearing yellow pants. I whispered to the girls to take a look and Franci, who truly is Italian and cannot be discreet, laughs histerically and begins to say in her scratchy yet powerful voice coming from her little body, "Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow!" and continues all the way until we pass the men in the yellow pants. Luckily, I did not see them react, so hopefully, they had no idea what she was saying.
In the mountains this past weekend, Franci had us all in stitches, when she kept referring to herself in third person, with a name derived from the sounds she often makes, saying "Farticus is hungry", "Farticus has to do this... " or "Farticus wants that..." She is a clever one this Farticus...
Also, in the mountains, Farticus, I'm sorry, I mean Franci found a walking stick and started referring to it as her boyfriend. In the car she was going on and on about her boyfriend, pointing to his eyes and nose and even kissing his lips! We asked her if they were going to get married, and if they do and have kids, what would they call them. Some of the favorites were, "Branchy" "Twiggy" "Peg" and for the little one,"Splinter." When we arrived back to the mountain house, Franci had fallen asleep with her boyfriend poking into her cheek, so Dina, Jane's friend, fearing that Franci's boyfriend was abusing her, removed the stick and left it by the side of the car. When we were already on our way back down the mountain to Firenze, Franci woke up frantically, screaming "where's my boyfriend!" We had to break the news to her that he was hurting her so we had to get rid of him, but Franci was so heartbroken that she cried and cried halfway down the mountain.