Hi! For all those that have been reading along, Nick is the usual writer
of these posts. But, given that we spent three days with my family, I
figured I'd take the reins for this one. Here goes!
Sunday, we had one of our longest drives since Minnesota - 9.5 hours! We took off early enough to make it for dinner - and we were welcomed with big hugs, kisses and screams of mixed delight and fear of new faces. Standard fare for kiddos, I'd say. Nick and I were expecting our twin 2 yo nephews, Sean and Luke, to take a while to warm up. Other than Sean's blood-curdling screams when we first arrived, nothing could have been further from how it went. We were happily cuddled, squeezed, played with (Nick more than me - no surprise to any of you who know us) and sought out every morning we were there with a Marco-Polo type phrase "Cata? Cata?" Neither twin differentiated between Nick and I - to them, we were "Cata", here to visit, play and entertain to their hearts delight. We loved it!
The other two kiddos - Isabel and Daniel - were equally, in different ways, happy to see us. For those of you who know my sweet niece, whelp, she looks like a cross between my brother's head size, my hair color, and my mother's intolerance for hot temperatures --complete with her own mother's sass and accent. Needless to say, she's already a spitfire. While there, we had a "girls day" which consisted of ice cream, a merry-go-round ride and a negotiated visit to the arcade. While with her, I realized that 4 yo olds are better salespeople than the best drug rep for Pfizer. Take this little convo, for instance.
Cat: Ok, Isabel, let's agree on how many games were going to play. How many do you think?
Isabel: Um I think 12 sounds good.
Cat: Uh I don't think so. I think 4.
Isabel: Ok 5 sounds great.
Another anecdotal note about our niece: she's entered the "tell me a joke/I'll tell you a joke" phase. However, the punch line aspect of knock knock jokes absolutely elude her. This is how it normally goes:
Isabel: Cata, let me tell you a joke.
Cat: Ok- go ahead.
Isabel: Ok I'm going - knock knock
Cat: who's there?
Isabel: Cupcake
Cat: cupcake who?
Isabel: I'm going to get you a yellow airplane! Rawr!
Or this little diddy:
Isabel: Why is 6 scared of 7?
Cat: I don't know, why?
Isabel: Because 7 ate 9,10...
And she would continue counting her numbers. Needless to say, Nick and I cross our fingers that our little girl is as spunky, but we hope she gets Nicks witty sense of humor ;)
Daniel, on the other hand, is turning into a charming, fun to be around (which is normally not the case with boys his age) and kind kid. He's just so easy to talk to that you often find yourself forgetting he's only almost 9. He introduced me and Nick to his favorite TV show and in turn Nick and I re-lived the 80s through the completely unrealistic Huckstable family.
Other than playing with our niece and nephews, we generally enjoyed being somewhere for four straight nights. We ate delicious homemade food, relaxed and took in the California sun. My brother and his wife are a delight to be around and both California and Minnesota make us want to live in a commune with our siblings (Leah and Ross, come too!) -with kids and dogs trampling around yards in a shared culdesac and horsing into bottles of wine when everyone is finally put to sleep. Someday...We're lucky that in addition to these kids, we have two other adorable nieces who we visited at the beginning of this trip - and both visits leave us with similar feelings. On the one hand, were happy as clams playing the "cool" (or so we'd like to believe) aunt and uncle - spoiling the kids and not having to worry about the tough stuff. Yet, on the other hand, increasingly these visits are making us turn to one another and say..."I'm kinda ready for the tough stuff, in fact, I kinda want it, all of it...you?" And the other emphatically nods. For now, we certainly aren't in a place where we can take that leap - for Pete's sake, we've been living out of our car for two weeks! But, I think when we can work out being in the same place for more than two minutes, were excited (mind you, while still being scared out of our minds) about the future.
We left at the crack of dawn on Thursday - and headed to Salt Lake City, the land of the free and home of the Mormons, a little less exhausted of driving and a little more homesick for a settled life.
Sunday, we had one of our longest drives since Minnesota - 9.5 hours! We took off early enough to make it for dinner - and we were welcomed with big hugs, kisses and screams of mixed delight and fear of new faces. Standard fare for kiddos, I'd say. Nick and I were expecting our twin 2 yo nephews, Sean and Luke, to take a while to warm up. Other than Sean's blood-curdling screams when we first arrived, nothing could have been further from how it went. We were happily cuddled, squeezed, played with (Nick more than me - no surprise to any of you who know us) and sought out every morning we were there with a Marco-Polo type phrase "Cata? Cata?" Neither twin differentiated between Nick and I - to them, we were "Cata", here to visit, play and entertain to their hearts delight. We loved it!
The other two kiddos - Isabel and Daniel - were equally, in different ways, happy to see us. For those of you who know my sweet niece, whelp, she looks like a cross between my brother's head size, my hair color, and my mother's intolerance for hot temperatures --complete with her own mother's sass and accent. Needless to say, she's already a spitfire. While there, we had a "girls day" which consisted of ice cream, a merry-go-round ride and a negotiated visit to the arcade. While with her, I realized that 4 yo olds are better salespeople than the best drug rep for Pfizer. Take this little convo, for instance.
Cat: Ok, Isabel, let's agree on how many games were going to play. How many do you think?
Isabel: Um I think 12 sounds good.
Cat: Uh I don't think so. I think 4.
Isabel: Ok 5 sounds great.
Another anecdotal note about our niece: she's entered the "tell me a joke/I'll tell you a joke" phase. However, the punch line aspect of knock knock jokes absolutely elude her. This is how it normally goes:
Isabel: Cata, let me tell you a joke.
Cat: Ok- go ahead.
Isabel: Ok I'm going - knock knock
Cat: who's there?
Isabel: Cupcake
Cat: cupcake who?
Isabel: I'm going to get you a yellow airplane! Rawr!
Or this little diddy:
Isabel: Why is 6 scared of 7?
Cat: I don't know, why?
Isabel: Because 7 ate 9,10...
And she would continue counting her numbers. Needless to say, Nick and I cross our fingers that our little girl is as spunky, but we hope she gets Nicks witty sense of humor ;)
Daniel, on the other hand, is turning into a charming, fun to be around (which is normally not the case with boys his age) and kind kid. He's just so easy to talk to that you often find yourself forgetting he's only almost 9. He introduced me and Nick to his favorite TV show and in turn Nick and I re-lived the 80s through the completely unrealistic Huckstable family.
Other than playing with our niece and nephews, we generally enjoyed being somewhere for four straight nights. We ate delicious homemade food, relaxed and took in the California sun. My brother and his wife are a delight to be around and both California and Minnesota make us want to live in a commune with our siblings (Leah and Ross, come too!) -with kids and dogs trampling around yards in a shared culdesac and horsing into bottles of wine when everyone is finally put to sleep. Someday...We're lucky that in addition to these kids, we have two other adorable nieces who we visited at the beginning of this trip - and both visits leave us with similar feelings. On the one hand, were happy as clams playing the "cool" (or so we'd like to believe) aunt and uncle - spoiling the kids and not having to worry about the tough stuff. Yet, on the other hand, increasingly these visits are making us turn to one another and say..."I'm kinda ready for the tough stuff, in fact, I kinda want it, all of it...you?" And the other emphatically nods. For now, we certainly aren't in a place where we can take that leap - for Pete's sake, we've been living out of our car for two weeks! But, I think when we can work out being in the same place for more than two minutes, were excited (mind you, while still being scared out of our minds) about the future.
We left at the crack of dawn on Thursday - and headed to Salt Lake City, the land of the free and home of the Mormons, a little less exhausted of driving and a little more homesick for a settled life.
love it!!! especially the part about you guys being ready :)
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