Annalisa's Visit

One of the things Seth and I try to be mindful of as we parent our only child is that it takes a village to raise a child.  When I was younger, I thought this meant that children are so troublesome (not so much in Evie's case, but in other cases) that you need all the help you can get.  But as I have come to realize the intent of this phrase, I recognize its importance: a child needs to learn from multiple sources what it means to be a human, a member of a community, a good person.

Evie is so fortunate as to have not only two parents who love her, and two grandparents who live in the same city and see her multiple times a week, and a great-grandmother and great-aunt and great-uncle she sees weekly, not to mention many other great-aunts and -uncles and second cousins who live in the same city, plus uncles, aunts, and cousins who live far away but who we see on holidays or special trips - beyond all those, she has her parents' friends who treat her like a niece.  And chief among those is my dear friend Annalisa who has made it a point since Evie was born to never miss spending her birthday with us.  She used to try to spend her birthday with us before Evie came to join our family, but since 2012, Annalisa has come without fail every January.  She does this not only to see us, but to spend time with, as she says, "[her] favorite little girl in the world".  And this week was Annalisa's birthday week and we were delighted for her company.

I love so many things about Annalisa, and I'll point out here that I particularly love that she will a) always play with Evie when Evie asks her to, and b) answer all kinds of questions that Evie asks with truthfulness and at a level appropriate to Evie's age.  For example, I remember when we were in New York, Evie asked Annalisa about gay marriage (I mean, she didn't use that term, but that was the topic) and Annalisa explained what that means and she later told me she hoped she hadn't overstepped her bounds.  I told her I am thrilled that she's there to be another voice supporting the same information Evie gets at home.  I know that some day, Evie will prefer to talk to someone who isn't her mother about a variety of things, and I'm glad that we have established this relationship with Annalisa early and that she trusts Annalisa.  And Seth and I trust Annalisa to always have Evie's best interest at heart, but also to have their little confidences as she gets older because we know Annalisa will guide Evie to the right decisions.  No pressure!

Anyway, I've waxed on about the delights of having people who help you raise your child enough.  The week was a blast, with Annalisa arriving Saturday instead of Friday due to snow.  We picked her up from the airport and headed to dinner where Evie and Annalisa arm wrestled while we waited for our food.

Sunday was Annalisa's birthday proper, so she and I did a little shopping and then all three of us went to get our nails done.  Evie loved being treated like a little lady and Annalisa helped her navigate the instructions that come with going to the nail salon.

Then we went to the mall and Annalisa was chosen (and thank goodness, because I get seasick on this!) to ride the carousel with Evie.

Sunday night, Evie spent the night with my parents while us grown-ups had a nice birthday dinner and a movie, per our custom.  Monday we took it easy, and unfortunately/fortunately we had snow yesterday so Annalisa couldn't make it out and got to spend another day.  

Evie wanted to have a snowball fight with me yesterday so we went outside and she paced off the court and explained the rules.  It was really cute that she wanted to treat it like tennis.  Then we came inside and had snow cream.

Sadly, Annalisa had to go home today, but we are hoping to rendezvous in North Carolina this summer so it shouldn't be too long before we're reunited.

I have to mention that one of Evie's requests when we got snow was to specifically go out and see our roof.  She just needed to see our roof covered in snow, and she oohed and aahed at it like it fulfilled one of her lifelong dreams.