Folegandros

Not too far from Milos is Folegandros, a beautiful tiny island.  We decided it would be the perfect place to take a day trip to take with Daphne and MJ.

We bought out tickets (which were surprisingly expensive!) and woke up early the next day and headed down to the pier.  We had some time to spare so we had some frappes to start our day. 

To quote Veronica Mars (thanks Daphne for getting me addicted to yet another show), Randy – you should only ever wear this.

The ferry was only an hour long and we were all in good spirits, even this guy. Gone were the ferry trips of yore with bouzoukia players and soccer leagues.

We arrived at the port and drove up to Hora, one of the oldest Medieval town in the Cyclades.  While most Greek towns have one main square with all the life of the town, Hora has three in a row.  We chose one of the many cute restaurants and had a yummy meal.

 

 

After a yummy lunch we headed to the beach.  This time not only Adam, but Malcolm also fell asleep.  So I waited in the car with the boys, ah life with two little boys 🙂 thanks goodness for kindle on my phone and a new David Sedaris.  After a bit, Randy came back and switched with me so  I got a whole15 minutes of beach time in before both boys woke up.  After the beach we headed back into town and walked around for a bit.

We picked another square and another restaurant for dinner.  I love long yummy dinners in Greece and especially love them with Daphne and MJ.  They last so long and always end with the boys rotating around everyone’s naps and lasting for a long time after we had finished eating.  I love how in Greece there’s no rush to finish eating, you just want to linger and linger.  Even Adam seemed to get this and loved the after dinner lingering.  In fact, he probably loved it the most.

Then the real star of the day.  We had some time before our ferry back to Milos, so we decided to have a drink at the Anemomilos Hotel.  Our friends Erika and Henry stayed here when they visited Folegandros after our wedding and if we had known how beautiful it was we would have spent the whole day there.  We ordered a couple of desserts and drinks and watched the sunset.

After a wonderful day we got back on our ferry and headed home.  Happy and full of smiles that you can only experience in a place as beautiful as this.

Sarakiniki Beach

Looking on the bright side, Adam’s lack of naps was a blessing in disguise, well for me anyway (not so much for Randy).  But I got to do all the best stuff in Milos twice.  I got to walk up to Castro twice and I got to go to this beautiful beach twice.  The first time when we were on our way over to the beach, you guessed it, Adam fell asleep.  Daphne, MJ, Malcolm and me headed out to Sarakiniki beach and Randy was going to meet us when Adam woke up (you may wonder why poor Randy always has to wait in the car, but since I’m currently Malcolm only food supply it made more sense for me to go ahead). We brought our beach stuff and headed down.  Once we were all the way down we realized this was more a place to take pictures.  So we went ahead and walked around and took a whole lot of pictures and were back before Adam even woke up.  I knew I needed to go back with Randy and Adam, so once Daphne and MJ left and we were feeling lonely and needed a pick me up we headed back. 

 

 

Adam was so excited to ‘walk up the mountain by myseeelf!’  He’s getting so big and can do so much. I can’t believe this big boy is my little baby who I used to carry in the ergo.  Now Malcolm’s made it his second home and this boy is walking up mountains himself!

Top of the Mountain

We have so much to catch yo on but I can’t stop posting all the beautiful Greek pictures 🙂 so bear with me. 
Like all the Greek islands we’ve ever been to Milos has a wonderful little town on the top of a mountain.  We packed up the boys and headed up there.  And of course Adam, who is boycotting naps fell asleep on the way up the mountain of course.  Randy hung out in the car with him (what a great daddy) and Daphne, MJ, Malcolm and I walked around the town.  The town did not disappoint.  It was full of little boutiques and cute little windy cobblestone roads.  But the best part of this town was the Castro, which is on the highest peak in the town.  After walking up and up and up you get to the top and there is a little church and the most amazing views. 

Eventually Adam woke up and we went to have a yummy lunch. 

It was so beautiful that the next morning, while Daphne and MJ were off, Randy and I loaded up the boys and walked up to the top.

Hong Kong

So much still to write about Greece and everything that’s going on since! More to come, but we’re off to Hong Kong this weekend, Grandma Gretch, Malcolm and I! We have big plans to see the sights and of course spend time with these beauties!

Some side by side comparisons coming up.  These two have grown so much and this will be the third time already they’ve seen each other (five if you count in utero)!  I just know these two are going to be best friends!

Long lunches

One of the things I love most about Greece is how they assume when you come to eat you’re there for the long haul.  Even if you’re in a rush, the quickest they can get you out of there is an hour. The norm runs more towards two.  Lots of time to eat to your hearts content and lots of time after to take some pictures. My favorite kids of lunch.

But first of course some relaxing on the beach.

Then it’s a long walk twenty feet up to the tavern where you get to eat with views like this and best of all you can eat in your bathing suit and no shirt and it’s totally acceptable.  Is there anything better?

If you’re lucky there are some of these to keep Adam entertained.

And if you’re really lucky this happens! 

With views like this how can you not take a million pictures!  

Celebrating half a year in style

How to explain Malcolm at six months.  I think Daphne said it best when she spent the week mooning over him, wearing him in an ergo and calling him a trap baby, which is a baby that is so sweet and calm it convinces you to have a baby and then when you have your baby they are of course the complete opposite. 
In just the month since we left for Greece Malcolm is a different baby.  He is all of a sudden so alert, so giggly and into playing and grabbing everything.  I wasn’t paying attention at dinner the other night when he was on my lap and before I knew it he had a fistful of spaghetti and sauce he was about to plop into his mouth.  Although he loves to chew on anything, blankets, your finger, his toys, Adam’s toys, his shirt, he’s not picky. 
He loves to laugh and be tickled and even wakes up in the middle of the night with a huge grin on his face.  I would rather he not be up in the middle of the night at all but it’s pretty hard not to smile back at his infectious grin even at 4 am. 
Adam is so enthralled with Malcolm these days.  He’ll play peekaboo and dangle toys in his face trying to get a laugh.  Adam thinks its hysterical when Malcolm grabs his shirt, hand, even his hand.  Malcolm grabbed a fistful of Adam’s hair the other day and I was sure it was going to end in tears but Adam just squealed in delight and yelled again.  I guess after six months of not doing much I can see why the hair grabbing would be pretty exciting.  Our time in Grece seemed to really help Adam love Malcolm and become much more used to his presence.  When Malcolm is crying, Adam will walk over and say in a concerned voice – ‘Malcolm, what’s wrong, you tired?’ or in a reassuring voice ‘It’s ok Malcolm, we’re almost there’ if we’re in the car.  He’ll even throw in a couple of Shhhhs.  And amazingly enough if you shhhh Malcolm most times he will calm down and goes to sleep, just like that! No circus tricks needed. 
Malcolm’s also been rolling up a storm, ok not a storm but it’s happened at least ten times, finishing his first real rollover (I’m not counting that one rollover from 6 weeks) on the beach in Milos. He’ll lay and play with his toys for hours. When he wants to get your attention he’ll lift both his legs together and kick them down together. It’s pretty funny or if you’re near by he’ll try to kick you until you look over so he can smile at you.  He is interested in EVERYTHING. Meaning if you’re talking in the room he’s watching you. It’s also pretty cute, if I’m talking to anyone in the room he thinks I’m talking to him and gets excited and starts smiling and talking back.  I can tell he’s going to be a chatty one.  And who wouldn’t want to talk to this guy! My friend Elilanna in Greece said he is going to be a cheeky one and I can see what she means.  I have a feeling he’ll be able to smile and charm his way out of any trouble!

This baby has quadrupled in size since he was born! It’s hard to imagine he was ever this small. Every time I look at his chubby little cheeks I think about how lucky we are that he has grown to be so healthy and as Randy like to call him, stocky.

What made this half birthday even more special was that we got to celebrate it with Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj! I just wish we had a better picture with them…but it was getting late and Adam was hungry so we only got this one picture. 

This would have been a nice picture but Adam was very not in the mood. Note to self, next time pack an extra tie for Adam.

To celebrate and just because we were in Greece,  we headed out to an amazing dinner.  We went to Tripiti, a little town on top of a hill that had some awesome restaurants and even better views. 

Happy half birthday Malcolm! May you birthdays always be spent somewhere as beautiful as this! 

The slow boat to Aunt Das & Uncle Mooj

We’ve been waiting for Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj to come meet us in Greece.  We had agreed to meet them for a whole week in Milos and were so excited!

But first we had to leave Naxos and take a veeeeery long ferry to Milos. We had an hour delay (again, but this time at least there was a reason, it was super windy) but we amused ourselves with boat watching.

Has our luggage grown from our last ferry trip?

Milos is only 85 miles from Athens and even closer to Naxos, yet our ferry was so slow that it took us 8 hours to go from Naxos to Milos with five stops on the way.  As Randy said it was the slow ferry to nowhere, but it was actually the slow boat to Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj, worth every minute.  But the competing bouzoukia bands who played the whole eight hours, were fun to watch for the first hour but after the fourth we were ready for some peace and quiet. It was also really windy which made for a rocky boat and a seasick husband.  I did manage to get both boys to sleep simultaneously in their stroller for an hour, this may have been the peak of my parenting skills.  It was a super nice hour. Randy was laying down outside trying to feel better and I was able to relax and read my book.

Luckily there was a deck with beautiful views just a few feet away which got us away from the bouzoukia and helped Randy’s seasickness.

Adam, look up! you’re missing the most beautiful views! Thankfully the Ipad died right after this photo, which caused an uproar but I was secretly happy about.  We generally don’t let Adam on the Ipad but when traveling (especially for 8 hours straight) those rules go out the window and i am thankful for every minute of it.  But it was nice to have him looking at the boats and the sea instead ot the Ipad.

Even though our ferry was very long we still arrived at Milos not too late and were able to settle in and get ready for Das and Nooj to arrive early the next morning.  Another example of just how small these Greek Islands are.  We arrived and realized we hadn’t set up arrangements to get to the house we had rented.  We could also turn on our internet and find a phone number to call but since our roamings fees are pretty high we first asked the guy helping us at the rental car company first if they knew Takki in Pollonia.  He was already helping us bring our luggage the 7 kilometers from Port to the town we were staying (note to self, all that luggage does not fit in teeny European cars) so he said we could just find it when we got there.  We pulled into town, he stopped to ask a man, who got into his car and showed us where Takki was.  Amazing that the first person he asked knew exactly where we wanted to go!

Malcolm and I woke up early (oh wait, that’s right we’re up early anyway 🙂 and picked Das and Nooj up at the airport the next morning.  On our way back we stopped to pick up some yummy pastries from the bakery.  Adam was so excited to see Aunt Das and Nooj, I think all those hours on Skype really helped Adam know them.

After two weeks of greek yogurt and honey (which is delicious) it was a nice treat to have donuts and chocolate croissants and koulouria.  And extra nice to have your aunt there to butter your koulouri and your uncle to make you laugh and a view of the water and boats to watch while you eat them.

Not a bad way to spend the morning! Pastries, a loving aunt and uncle and this view!