Over the River and Through the Woods to Nana's House We Go

Well, our first full day at Nana and Grandpa's has come to a close. After a strenuous trip yesterday it has been nice to just relax. We hit traffic most of the way home from the airport and instead of landing at 2:00 and getting home at 3:30, we got home at 5:30. The flight wasn't bad though. Ethan slept and Elia watched part of Shrek.

Today we went to Samuel's (Elia's cousin) birthday. It was really more like an informal family gathering with cake and food. We hung out and chatted most of the day while the kids (5 under 4 and 3 under 12) played together.

Elia has really taken to her cousin Bre and her Grandpa (I guess Nana got her turn in Arizona, though Elia still goes to her, I think she likes the change). She has always liked Ken (that's Eric's dad) and this time is no exception. Basically she prefers most people to her "Mama", but when she gets hurt she still comes to me :). I guess I'm not totally out of a job. Today Ken and I were talking about something and playing back and forth. Elia was watching the conversation and "shhhshed" him. We all laughed, especially because she is THE ONLY person who could ever get away with that to Ken.

Another funny moment was when she said, "Actually,... I would like some more ice cream." My reply? "Actually, I think you are done."

She also is still into her "probably not" whenever she doesn't want to do something. Nana once had some toys she was showing to Ethan and one by one Elia came to take them. After she had taken the last toy, Nana asked her if she could have one toy back to show Ethan and she said, "probably not". She was right. She never brought a toy back. We are trying to teach her the concept that she has to trade toys if she wants what Ethan is playing with. Nancy had a little bug that made noise when a button was pushed. Elia wanted it, so brought Nancy a small black and white cat finger puppet to exchange. Nancy wasn't sure that was a fair trade, but we are teaching concepts right?