A Visit from Grandparents
As soon as they were eligible to get a visa, H's parents booked flights to come for a visit!
H's parents were the only people willing to quarantine for us, and as soon as they could get visas to come, they did. It was so wonderful to see them! Don't you just remember that feeling of being a kid and getting to hang out with your grandparents? There's no one in the world who will praise your strengths and ignore your weaknesses like a grandparent. All the while showering you with gifts! It's a great part of being a kid.
It was also a great excuse for us to explore some parts of the city we hadn't seen before. Of course, we went back to the famous musuems and all our favorite restaurants with them. But we also got to do some new things that we usually wouldn't work up the energy for doing. Like going up the gondola! We told the girls that one of them could pick our first activity and the other could pick our first meal with them. So E chose to go up the gondola and M chose for us to eat at her favorite noodle/stuffed bun place. So the very first day they were out of quarantine, we did both of those things!
We also asked if, instead of bringing a suitcase full of clothes for the girls to choose what they wanted and return what they don't want, Habo could just take them to a store here and they could pick directly. The girls loved that! G opted to go with Yeye and choose a Lego set instead of clothes, and the girls all went to my favorite store and went on a shopping spree! It worked out perfectly; the girls got things that they could really use for school, and they loved the excitement of picking it themselves. G picked a Lego set that was really too hard for him, but then he had such a great time building it with Yeye's help that it turned out to be just the perfect little bonding experience.
H and I also enjoyed the chance to go on dates without taking K! K isn't much to handle in a restaurant usually but it's still definitely nicer for it to be just us. The only bad thing was that the big kids were at school all day, so they didn't get to see them as much as everyone would have liked, but K sure soaked it up! On the second or third day of them being here, he fell asleep for his nap saying "Babooo, Babooo, Babooooo!" (That's his approximation of "Habo.") And Yeye helped a ton with doing school drop off and pickup, which was really nice too! I think everyone really enjoyed the visit and we're all looking forward to the next time they come!