and then there were two.

years, in fact. two Whole years. not those abridged years that you see in 80's movies.. with kitschy scenes flashing by to a howard jones soundtrack. we're talking two.. whole.. years. and yet they flew by just as fast. (thankfully without the howard jones soundtrack.)

if you've been by anytime in the last year, you know that quite a few things have changed. see for yourself – click on the first few pictures and then try some of the last. you notice that our little prince has shed the baby cocoon of 2003 and emerged in 2005 a little boy.

milestones met: oh.. just a couple.. little ones.. you know.. walking and talking.

now anyone paying attention might mention that he was "kinda" doing those things at a year. well he's not kinda doing anything now. the kid can walk! and any parents out there know that when a kid learns to walk, five minutes later he learns to run! needless to say, mamma and papa now know how to run too, because that's all they've been doing ever since. and can this kid talk?! oh my! he has a vocabulary that some 3 year olds might envy – but in Two Languages! mamma and x speak only in italian and papa and x speak in english.. unless papa tries to speak italian. which ain't always pretty. (papa's from texas you know).

"ecco mamma"
(here you go mamma)

"grazie amore! ora, lo fai vedere al tuo papa"
(thank you love! now go show your dad!)

"ecco papa"
(here you go papa)

"oh! grasias mio filo! questo un molto piu dispiace!"
(oh! thank you my greek sweet-bread! this is very more sorry!)

papa is learning. just.. slowly, that's all.

this last year was filled with too much fun and too many events to list, but we'll try. we had a great early spring and summer, with daily trips to the park (with the famous slide that x dominates. frequently asked question, "how old is he?!") and when the weather got warmer we even made a few trips to the pool, where x does his best imitation of a tree frog. x got to spend a lot more time with his girlfriends this year: ryan, (down the street) sophia, (five blocks down) and emma (in bainbridge), but mostly with ryan! when the weather wasn't so good we got to play on the new piano, or run around playing with nails, screws and power tools during our remodel (kidding), or play with the wooden train set at our favorite bookstore, Hullabaloo.. which has since closed down. (gee, thanks Barnes & Noble).

we took a few trips this year — california to see grand-J and poppy-J's new house in santa cruz, and nonna and grandpa doug's new swimming pool in san jose. we flew down in october and then again for christmas. we also flew out to the big island in hawaii to see xavier's cousins (emelia, allura and maribella) and soak up the hawaiian sun. unfortunately, xavier gets a cold every time he gets on a plane, and this time was no exception, so we were sick almost the entire ten days. :(

we also had lot's of visits from out-of-towners.. grandpa Barrett came in to town for a train convention in july. followed shortly by uncle rick, auntie noelle, cousin emelia, auntie mitzi and grand-J (nina) — all in town for auntie lisa wedding. we had numerous visits from zia marta and zio cristian from san francisco. a surprise visit from uncle chris and auntie lynnea out from washington DC. we had an early 2005 visit from nonna (joey) and grandpa doug for papa's birthday. and then finally, the week of his second birthday, xavier met his last surviving great-grandparent (on papa's side) griddy (jean aldredge) from texas.

unfortunately, we had two losses in our family this year. both of xavier's surviving great grandfathers: louie baldi, nina's italian father, who spent 60+ years living just a few miles south of us here, and who had just moved over the mountains to Ellensburg a year ago — passed away in august. and papa's other grandfather george aldredge, from dallas (grandpa vaughn's dad) passed away just this february. little x had met bisnonno louie a few times over the last two years, but never got the chance to meet great grandoc. they will be missed.