Weekend in Binghamton

We went to Binghamton last weekend to visit Doug's grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc, one last time before we leave for Europe. Although we still don't have a date for that...I promise to post here as soon as I know anything! We had a great time visiting and Gianna loved having so many new playmates.


Being an airplane courtesy of Pop-pop.
Playing with her second cousin Nora.

Relaxing with Great Grandma.

Playing with Great Grandpa Ray.

Having a snack with Great Grandma Betty.

Last week silliness

Here are a few silly pictures and a silly video from last week.

This is her new favorite activity: "Ride Daddy horsey"

This is the way she responds when we tell her to make a funny face.

And this is her camera smile. Lovely.

And this video involves a lot of whining, but it also has some cute moments. I also just noticed that she's not wearing pants and is not wearing them in any of these pictures either. I promise, she usually wears pants...well, she always wears pants outside the house, but after naptime at home all bets are off!

Cute videos

This first one is really for Isabella (Gianna's cousin) and her parents, but for those of you who care to read, I will give you a bit of background. Ever since Bella could make noises, she has made one noise in particular and apparently Gianna has been able to associate that noise with Bella. She sometimes does this unprompted, but for video purposes, she needed the cues. Enjoy!



Here's another one of Gianna playing with her Little People school bus (it starts with some more Bella noise though). I wanted to post it because it's awfully cute, but it also has a lot of her talking which is pretty amusing. Here's a brief, condensed translation: "off the bus, in the bus, climb steps, up steps, almost there, go now, bagels, bye bye bus." Or something to that effect anyway!

Haircut

On Friday Gianna got a haircut...and she's still talking about it! But surprisingly it went really well. Not one tear was shed. I was completely shocked! The haircut is a little more severe than I had hoped, but hopefully now it will grow nicely instead of like a mop! Good thing to do before we leave for Europe, I tell myself. Though it is growing on me...it's nice to be able to see all of her cute little face!

We spent a great weekend with my parents. They even relieved us of our parenting duties for one night so we could celebrate our anniversary at a bed and breakfast in Flemington. We had a lovely day in Doylestown, PA and then a fabulous dinner in Flemington. The B&B was very nice and breakfast was delicious! It was great to get away...thanks Grandma and Grandpa! Unfortunately, we have no pictures of our adventures, so you'll have to settle for one of Gianna's new haircut!

A Fest-ivus for the rest of us

Apparently, every organization in NJ was having some kind of fest this weekend. And we tried our best to enjoy them all. Our little town had a small fair for local businesses which was great for getting coupons and free bubbles and balloons for Gianna. Then Doug and his parents braved the freak fest, I mean Renaissance festival, while Gianna and I napped. Whew, I'm sorry I missed that one (note the sarcasm). Though, I guess the turkey legs were delicious. (Hope I haven't caused too much offense about renaissance festivals, they're just NOT my thing.) But the highlight for us all was the food and music fest that was the Greek festival at a local church. The food was delicious and plentiful and Gianna had the time of her life dancing to the Greek music. And we all had a great time watching her. Hope you enjoy it too!

We had a great weekend with Nonna and Pop-pop. Here are a few pictures of Gianna with them that also feature her gift from them, the DVD (DBDB as Gianna calls it) of Disney's Jungle Book. She can't stop talking about it and loves the DVD cover almost as much as the movie! She loves to name the characters and to discuss the elephants. I hope we can avoid watching it daily, but it will be hard to ignore her adorable requests!

Finally, on a silly note, Gianna loves to wear goggles as an accessory, usually like a necklace. But yesterday she wanted to wear them for real. This was the most ridiculous picture, by far, which makes it totally blog-worthy.

Bah-ston, well Cambridge anyway

Last week Gianna and I braved the long-ish drive and took a trip to visit some old friends in the Boston area. We stayed with the Tammy, Jason, and little Will for a couple of days in Cambridge and managed to see some other friends as well. It was great to catch up and to see all our "baby friends" as big boys and girls! We had a lovely visit and can't thank all our friends enough, especially Tammy for her generosity!

Joey posing

Ella and her cupcake

Meghan finishing her cookie

Gianna and Will playing

Mother's Day

On Saturday, my parents came for a visit. It was really nice to have them here. Gianna calls them Grandma and Paca. She refuses to say Grandpa thought we're sure she can do it. We'll say, "Say grand" and she'll say it. Then we'll say, "Say pa" and she'll say it. Finally we'll say, "Say Grandpa" and she'll say, "No Way!" and laugh like crazy. It's hilarious.

We had a really nice Mother's Day on Sunday. We went to the local Azalea Festival, which was just beautiful. There were crafts and music and food. Gianna especially loved the saxophone players and the funnel cakes. Here are a few of the best pics we took that day.