Birthdays and Mansions and Nana, Oh My!

We had a great weekend.

Saturday morning I got up early and played with G. A little later I went for coffee and had a lovely time with a very cute (and pregnant, yippee!) friend…just the two of us, over coffee, on a Saturday morning! So Adult and stuff! Obviously, I don’t get enough of that in my life. Later Saturday afternoon my little family went shopping for birthday gifts for my 5 and 6 year old nieces (toy shopping! more fun!) and then decided to go out to eat (because even after that rant the other day, I didn’t feel like cooking…it’s a woman’s prerogative, shut up!) On Sunday we went to see my sister-in-law’s new house. Ummm, “Enchanted Fairytale Mansion” is not hyperbole in this case. The place is freaking HUGE and manse-like. From there it was over to Nana’s house for Sunday dinner and the birthday bash for the two little girls. Then home again for some football, baseball, crazy sugar-hyped toddler play (and a migraine, but we shall not discuss that) and bed.

The cutest part was the absolute transformation in Giuliana when she was around her cousins and her Nana. She was sorely missing her Nana on Saturday. G’s Nana is a World-Traveler. She goes on these exotic trips 2 or 3 times a year. This time it was Nimibia. For real, I’m not making this up. So G hasn’t seen her weeks (well, she saw her at the Pirate Dance Party last week, but with all the craziness there it wasn’t what she needed, I guess.) She kept wishing and hoping we were going to see Nana all day on Saturday. She actually started crying just before we went out to dinner and when I asked her what was wrong she just said, “Naaaaaaanaaaaa!” Clearly, even if it hadn’t been planned, a visit to Nana’s was in order.

And it was exactly what she needed. As I mentioned, before we headed over to Nana’s house we stopped by John’s sister’s new house. They were completing their final walk-through to close on Tuesday. You may remember that Gina was married this summer and she and her husband created this beautiful (and giant) blended family. But this (giant) family) has had to squeeze into Gina’s small house for the last several months as the mortgage process on the new house has been dragging along. Finally! Finally they are going to close on their new, big, Great Gatsby-style house. So we went to see it. Giuliana went a little nuts running around this ginormous empty house with her cousins. They raced around all four floors, in and out of rooms, up and down both the grand staircase and the “secret stairs” and all around the yard (or “The Grounds” as I insist on calling it.) She ran room to room shouting “Daaaaaaaaaaaaantttteeeeeeee, are you?????” as she and her cousin Dante played a toddler version of hide and seek. They danced and twirled on the dance floor in the basement. She ran circles around the fairy-tale “talking trees” outside, crunching through the beautiful fallen leaves (these trees have ceramic faces hung on them, in a slightly creepy but cool enchanted forest kind of way.) It was awesome. When Nana arrived a little later, G was so geared up she squealed and ran to hug Nana’s legs in her delight.

We all trooped back to Nana’s house and Giulana continued to run wild with her cousins. She had a fantastic time. She played “scary ghost” with 6 year old Sophia, running up to her and yelling “Boo!” to Sophia’s shrieks of mock terror. She climbed behind an armchair and giggled until someone walked by at which time she would jump up and shout at them. We got to sing “Happy Birthday” and blow out real candles on a real cake, just like we have been practicing at home. (G has a new favorite game. There is a picture of me from my 30th birthday blowing out the candles on my cake. G loves to dig through the photo album and find this picture. Then we sing “Happy Birthday” to whoever she chooses and then pretend to blow out the candles and cheer. Repeat, repeat, repeat.) And, of course, then we ate the cake…hence the sugar-hyped toddler previously mentioned.

It was a grand weekend. I absolutely adore seeing Giuliana so excited to see her family. She just has the best time with all of them. These are the moments I cherish.