Visit from Uncle Vinny!

We were so lucky to get a visit from Uncle Vinny (and the lovely Kat) while he was back in the US! It was a quick trip, but we made the most of it with an adults dinner out, pool time, and lots of catching up. It was wonderful getting to know Kat, who we all really liked.
The one hiccup was Ellie - when Vince walked in the door with a full beard, long hair and a trucker hat, and proceeded to bear hug her dad into submission, E flat out freaked out. We all felt terrible - Vince felt bad for making E cry, and we felt bad for Vince that E was basically crying at the sight of him. We thought maybe it was just being tired at the end of the day, but the next morning (Vince's birthday) he walked in the kitchen and the same thing happened. You couldn't help but laugh.
Fortunately they became friends later in the day when Vince took her outside to play a little corn hole.
It was the first time, too, that I have ever seen Ellie truly, 100% SCARED. She's definitely been clingy, or unsure, but for some reason she was terrified to the point of shaking. It would have been more heartbreaking had there really been a reason for her to be as scared as she was. Poor girl. At least she was happy about the cake we baked him (with sprinkles compliments of Ellie.) And funny story - when I told her what I wrote on the cake, she kept saying, "no mama - UNCLE vince!" so eventually I said fine and we squeezed in "uncle" on the already written out cake. Then she proceeded to stick her finger in it. Ah, toddlers.