"No One Puts Lindsey in a Corner"

June 29, 2007

Today stared our fairly early. Ruggie had a nightmare and woke me up at 5. But I laid down with him and he went to sleep. At 7:45 we woke up as usual (kind of hoping to sleep in). For breakfast there was a buffet of everything you could imagine. I had cereal, pastry and a cappuccino. After breakfast we all went to a rope course in the mountains (there were 50+ people and seven kids). I wanted to try the course but opted to stay on the ground with Ruggie. For lunch we had meat kabobs and grilled veggies. It was so nice to sit in the mts and eat while admiring God’s amazing work. However the afternoon was stressful. When we arrived at the hotel (at 4:00) the parents went to the meeting and I stayed with the boys. There is one word that describes this afternoon but is not very PG so I will simply say it was a nightmare. To give you an idea-I was slapped in the face, kicked and hit. The boys went out onto the patio and ran away using the outside stairs. I had to chase them down in the hotel. I finally got them dressed for dinner and we were early so we walked around. They went straight for the hot tub and splashed around in their dress clothes. When we arrived at the restaurant, only one other nanny and bambino were there. The matre D was so nice and helped my when I couldn’t get the boys to eat. Ruggero threw his pasta all over the floor and Michelangelo got on to him for it. I was praying for the parents to hurry up and around 8:30 Pat finally showed up. I was so upset by this time that when Pat said “ciao Lindsey” I burst into tears. I hated to cry in front of the boys but couldn’t hold it in any longer. Pat took the boys while I waited at our table. Michelangelo and asked my why I was crying and I told him and said “at least my eyes are really green when I cry.” He replied, “they look like the Italian flag, red, white and green. “I’m just patriotic,” I said. He brought me a Kleenex and said to breath, look in my eyes (but don’ fall in love) and breath. I laughed and started to calm down. I hadn’t had time to eat with the boys so he set my table (which happened to be in the corner) and as he walked away he said don’t worry we will set your table even though no one puts Lindsey in a corner and smiled (these Italian men sure know how to turn on the charm). Pat came back and told me the boys confessed they were trying to make my crazy (yeah I’m glad they admitted it!!). Then Alberto came and apologized and invited me to eat at their table- it wasn’t quite at dramatic scene from Dirty Dancing, but I left the corner. The dinner was once again amazing. Even though the day was horrible it ended on a positive note and I made a new friend-Michelangelo.