Weekend of Squeezes

A couple of weekends ago Juju and I got on a little plane and flew out West to see my grandparents in Iowa.  My middle name is the same as my grandma's there (Irene) and Juju's middle name is the same as her great great grandma (Eleanor) who was also there for us to soak up. All the greats can get confusing, so for the sake of this article, I'm going to reference them as from Juju's perspective.

 

Can you tell that we soaked each other up?  We did and how.  I got videos of  Great Great Grandma telling stories about her Great Grandma (to be shared soon!) and pictures galore as you can see.  I think we all hugged as much as physically possible in a three day period.  Juju ran around like an only child and danced and sang and strutted her stuff because she had the perfect audience who clapped when she paused.  She took to her Great Grandpa quickly and led him around by the finger wherever she willed.  She had a special game she would play with Great Great Grandma at the dinner table where their pointy fingers would run along the table edge until they would meet then they'd bounce up into the air, then they'd laugh.  Great Grandpa and Grandma would play peek-a-boo with a toy froggy at the table too.  Dinners were my favorite part for lots of reasons, the food was so good!!  

We decided to celebrate Juju's birthday a week early together and Great Grandma made a perfect angel food cake with pink icing.  Juju eyed it all day and was SO excited about her party.  After we sang to her and she blew out her candles (which, of course caused us to applaud wildly), I began to cut the cake.  Juju had a look of horror on her face and shouted, "Don't cut the cake!!!" She reached for the candles (which she had already licked) and stuffed them back into the cake and with her hands tried to push the cake back together to fix what Mommy had done.  Under some pressure from soft hearted grandmas I agreed to relight the candles and let her have another go.  We repeated the previously stated lighting and clapping and this time I insisted on cutting the cake afterwards.  Juju, ever stubborn, protested, calmed down to open presents, but did not eat the cut cake.  She did partake of some ice cream however.  

We had a wonderful visit and can't wait to go back!