hope and honey: a week at cece and mwa mwa cashew's

as explained in the last post, luca, gia, and i spent last week at my parents. ( i know that we have off the wall names for our children's grandparents, but let me say that my mom chose cece - which i love and endorse - and luca made up the pronounciation for grandpa - mwa mwa - all by himself. he also chose to label my dad "mwa mwa cashew" due to their shared love of the nut.)

we escaped central illinois while jesse was hard at work on finishing our hardwood floors upstairs and the stairs themselves. we did the downstairs when i was pregnant with luca (knowing now what parenthood actually looks like - we would have done it all back then, hindsight is 20/20 - so they say - i am not sure i completely agree, but that is beside the point.)

luca was so "ecited" to see his grandparents and uncle chris. he spent monday night with a dishtowel cape tied around his neck and making my dad fly him like superman. when uncle chris tried to join in , he tripped over my dad's legs and fell backward onto the coffeetable with luca in his hands. he protected his nephew (rockstar uncle!), but hurt his back in the process (ouch, but even bigger rockstar!

gia was probably more excited by the increased number of animals to chase (my parents have 4 cats and a dog). she is way faster this visit than the last, and used her increased speed to her advantage at catching them. this also turned out to be a disadvantage because the unfriendly cat was not pleased with her cute little hands grabbing fur and swiped her across the cheek. gia came away with a few scratches. not to be deterred for long, she only needed a couple minutes recovery before she was off again.

one of the best parts of the week was enjoying the cooler weather outside - although some days were darn cold. we took several long walks around my parents beautiful neighborhood. luca helped push the stroller (with a little guidance) and we developed several "chase me" games with luca running in front of us. luca and my dad found walking sticks on one of their treks and we watched uncle chris climb trees and show us his mad skateboard skills.