Happy Birthday Luca, Mio Bambino Bello!

My beautiful baby boy, Luke, turns 3 today.  I am having a hard time with this one.  My baby is not a baby anymore.  I have had babies for so long, that it seems so strange to be done with this phase.

And oh, how much I have enjoyed this baby!  Luke was the perfect last baby.  He loves to cuddle and snuggle.  Still does, thankfully.  And lets me hold him when I need my baby fix.

One of my pet names for Luke is Luca, the Italian form of Luke.  We took Luke to Italy with us when he was 4 months old, the absolutely PERFECT age to travel with a baby.  He didn't crawl yet, and was happy to just be carried/ strolled everywhere.  And Italians LOVE babies.  His chubby cheeks opened a lot of doors for us there, in fact.  It was fun to have him with us.  Little old ladies would scurry across busy streets just to take a peek at him.  Even men stopped us on a regular basis to see the bambino.  In their broken English they would always ask me his name.  I would tell them "Luke".  "Luck?"  They looked confused.  "Luca," I would correct.  "Oh Luca!  Luca!  Bambino bello, bello!" they would always declare.  Apparently they like that name there is Italy, like nothing could please them more than a big chunky blue-eyed baby named Luca.

Here is Luca sitting on top of a cornice on an ancient column at the Roman forum.  Isn't it amazing how you can just touch and sit on something that is thousands of years old like its no big thing?  (Don't worry. I was hiding behind the column holding him up.)

Luca is also the name of a new favorite early Renaissance Tuscan artist I discovered on a visit to the Bargello in Florence, Luca della Robbia.  He is famous for his blue and white glazed terra cotta sculptures of Madonnas and babies.  Unlike so many Renaissance and pre-Renaissance artists whose babies look strange, like miniature adults, della Robbia's babies are yummy and chubby-wonderful.  I fell in love with this "Madonna and the Apple" there at the Bargello.  Don't you just wanted to SQUEEZE those baby thighs?  My Luca had thighs like that.

Not anymore. 

But he is quite an artist himself, and sometimes he is also the artwork!  I think he has his mother's love of color.  What do you think?

Here are a few more pictures I took of Luke, with red marker lips, and Caleb:

Maybe Luke is no longer a baby anymore, but he will always be mio bambino bello!