You thought I was kidding

In case you doubted, I went ahead and scrapped her 4 month page to capture her cuteness of grabbing her toes. I am a few days early for the 4 month (!) mark, but this is the thing I want to remember and share with her about this time in her life. She's already "outgrowing" the phase, moving on to more exciting things like rolling. When she wakes, I'm starting to hear her banging around on the aquarium, even starting the music with her feet. At least I know what all the banging is this time. We didn't know what to think the first time we heard Miles playing with it!

I added this photo to the album of old scans - me at about her age. Guess she comes by it naturally.

Miles has been doing great - he wore underpants all week long! We had a few #2 accidents - boy, are those fun. He said after the first one, "I don't like the way that feels" but still has not gone on the potty. Not sure what it will take, I feel like we've promised everything: new tools, a trip to get ice cream, special snacks, and a Diego spinning toothbrush is the latest bribe. Still no go. Not sure what to do! But he'll stay dry in the underpants, so we're not going back to Pull-Ups except at night. Although most mornings he wakes up dry, so we may try underpants at bedtime soon.

We're less than two months away from his big 3rd birthday and we've already started talking about it. One of my magazines had a birthday issue and he picked out THE cake that he wants... surprisingly he did NOT want the excavator cake. So now we'll be figuring out the rest of the event based on his must-have cake. Stay tuned....

What they did

Here are some of the laughs from their evening without mom.

Saturdays are HARD

Wayne did quite a bit of clean-up in the yard and she practiced her rollovers a few times. Maybe that's why they're so sleepy! And Miles was napping at this point. What was I thinking? I should have been napping too!

But I was getting ready for a baby shower for my friend Chrissy. It was lots of fun and I didn't even get a call from Wayne. He had to manage the witching hour and get both kids down all by himself. He did great and got some cute video of the kids that I'll post next. I missed her bedtime feeding and pumped when I got home. Today I missed the late afternoon feeding because of an outing with Miles (more on this next) so I needed to pump when I got home. The "mechanics" of nursing require that you pump as close to the same time that you're missing a feeding in order to maintain your milk supply. That's why Will Farrell carried a pump to the Golden Globes last year, and why it's really easier to take her on vacation with us (thanks anyway, mom). Anyway, I started to pump with her playing beside me and she did NOT like it! She knew there was milk and thought there was no reason it should just end up in a bottle. I got to see some of the fiery redhead, uh-oh!

Miles had a BIG BOY day today. We've been working really hard on using the potty and have been wearing underpants for long portions of the day at home. Today we went on an outing and he wore underpants! Miles and I went to Target to pick out some more underpants. He chose Diego ones and was so proud to show the cashier.

We've been trying a new tactic that I read about in Making the Terrible Twos Terrific. Dr. B. (his pediatrician) has "told us" that Miles is a big boy and can go to the potty all by himself. Dr. B. gave us a bell that goes off throughout the day to remind Miles to go do his thing. If he needs our help he can call us. And he does... he can go, pull off his pants, use either potty - but he usually picks the Diego potty, which includes emptying and rinsing the bowl in his routine - and wash his hands all on his own. He sometimes needs help getting back into his pants, but other than that he's self sufficient. That's not saying that he always does it on his own, but he can. We'll try a couple more days at home in underpants and I ask his teacher before I send him to school in underwear, but it shouldn't be long now! We all so proud of him.

Please keep our friend Courtney in your prayers this week... they are going to welcome their new daughter and bring her home. Such a blessing. What an exciting time!!

And finally, I've been going through old albums and scanned some photos that I want to make sure to have - ones with my grandparents and even great-grandparents in them. Tiffany, there are some great ones of you! If you don't have these, let me know and I'll mail them to you too. Here for your viewing pleasure: the 1970s. (click on this picture to see all of them.)

Old Photo Scans

This is what she does:

Holds onto her toes. All day long. In fact, I have to swaddle her body at naptime or she'd be playing with her feet and never go to sleep! Silly girl.









This is what he does:



GOOF. BALL.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Here we go... mobility! This morning Audrey officially rolled over. Yes it was the "easy" way, from tummy to back, but she's getting there. She can get fully up to her side from her back, so I don't think it will be long until she's flip-flopping like a politician!

And this is a fine example of why I'm so glad I keep this blog... I couldn't remember when Miles rolled over and my notes from that time are sketchy. I have a note that he rolled over in January, so almost 5 months old. If she gets the back-to-front roll soon it will be before she's 4 months old. Already trying to one-up big brother!

Old School Lullaby!

How fun is this! This site lets you make a mix tape like the good old days. I put together some of my favorite bedtime tunes for the kiddos, enjoy!

who is this child?

Miles had Wayne and me exchanging glances filled with shock and amazement all evening. After a day filled with the usual mealtime tantrums and some general ongoing pouting he joined us for dinner, ate our food, tried new things. And liked them. Wait. I need to compose myself after uttering that. Okay. So Wayne had decided to grill some steaks we'd thawed, some shrimp in a new sauce and we threw on the chicken that was in the fridge since the grill was hot. We also roasted potatoes and carrots, and since the oven was hot I made cookies - just break and bake, don't get excited.

Miles was very busy playing with toys, filling up Chelsea's crate with cars and planes, just generally having fun. Audrey was taking her 3rd nap of the day. We called him to dinner. He said, "no, I'm playing." I told Wayne that he (Wayne) could have a cookie if he ate his dinner. As planned, Miles overheard and said, "I want a cookie!" I told him he'd have to eat, so he came to the table without a fuss. (wow) He looked at his plate and started to say I don't want that and I reminded him about the cookies. He ate a potato. He initially said he liked it, but then spit it out. We had seasoned them with pepper, so maybe he got a hot spot. But he got points for tasting it! (Wow) I had only put chicken on his plate, figuring he wouldn't want steak or shrimp, but we offered him bites of ours. He said no to the shrimp but ate the steak. Halfway through chewing he opened his mouth, pointed inside and said, "I Like this!" (WOW) He then ate many more bites of steak, all the chicken I'd given him and even a big bite peas (required for the cookie.) And he was pleasant and charming the whole time!

3 months old

Thank you for all of your confessions support after my traumatic maiming of the infant child. She somehow survived the night and even smiled the next day, which was good as we had her 3 month portraits taken that morning. I was hoping to possibly get an e-mailed sneak peek from the session to share, but since Garvey is busy getting ready to go sailing with my dad he hasn't [hint hint ;)]. She did great and we got lots of beautiful portraits to try and pick from.

Her first three months have flown by. I know with Miles the time seemed much more relaxed. Now with a very energetic kid running, jumping, spinning, galloping around getting into monkey business I don't think I could remember the definition of relaxed, lazy days with a baby. He's going to school 3 days a week in the summer, so hopefully I can dedicate some more attention to Audrey. [She's napping, so I'm only neglecting housework while I blog now.]

I'm trying to keep track of what she's been doing because it changes so fast. She can already sit while supported really well and has started rolling onto her side a lot. A couple of times this week she's worked herself around 360 degrees while laying on her back. She likes grabbing her toes and is often holding her fists out in a driving pose. She's quite chatty, I'm trying to get a video of her jabbering away to share. Oh and she is sucking on her fingers and drooling like mad... could it be teeth already?

And finally... big congrats to our friends Amy & Jason... they're expecting!

Happy Days

We're celebrating two big days this week, Wayne's birthday was Saturday and Audrey hits 3 months on Tuesday. Yippee! Miles loves birthdays, in fact any gathering of many people is called a Birthday party, regardless of the true nature of the event. (Example: a memorial day cookout with the Loebner's = "Eileen's Birthday Party".) He was super excited about daddy's cake: an Oreo cookie pie. Miles made sure we knew by telling us "I like birthday cake!" and "I got a big ol' piece!" I forgot to look at the clock when we pulled out the cake and realized as we scarfed down the deliciousness that it was exactly 10 minutes before Miles's dinner time. Oops. So he held on and waited up for us to grill out burgers and enjoyed his dinner with all of us.

YaYa and B had come for the day so Wayne and I could make it to Indy 4. It was enjoyable, but I'm glad my expectations weren't too high! Friday night's movie, however, was fantastic. It's not often you see a theater filled to capacity with women all dressed up to the heels. And this was a huge theater - at least 800 seats in ours and it played on another screen too!

{These photos of her are from 1 week old and today, 13 weeks old.}

So now I must use the blog as therapy and admit to my mother-of-the-year moments today. Miles almost drank his own pee and I clipped the tip of Audrey's thumb during a manicure. Let the flogging begin. First Miles. We got a Diego potty seat hoping that by sitting securely on the floor he'd be more inclined to do #2 there. He hasn't done that yet, but he has been jumping up to go pee and that's a new development. He saw me pour and flush the first time and later was with Wayne and I saw him (Miles) lift the cup - I thought to the potty but he moved it toward his face. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I think I scared him with my shriek from down the hall. Audrey's mishap was much less dramatic but still terrible to see those little eyes welling up. I'm about to cry thinking about it! And it was just before bath and bed time too. Poor little thing. I'm off to drown my sorrows in some iced tea - did you know June is National Iced Tea Month? Too bad we finished that pie, I could use a slice of that too.

We have to go back

In what can only be deemed "inconceivable", I will actually see 3 movies this week. In the theater. I know, hold onto your hat. Since I'd been averaging one per year since Miles was born, this is truly an amazing event. What makes the list? But of course the Sex and the City premier Friday evening, a birthday "bash" for Raven's 30th. And while in Nashville, Elizabeth and I took in Made of Honor, which was very cute & in line with the chick flick genre. And finally for Wayne's birthday we're heading out to see Indy 4.

But tonight we're planted at home, on the edge for the finale of Lost. Dig that crazy show! I made us a new favorite dinner, Chicken with broccoli and garlic sauce, and Miles crawled in bed on his own at 6:50 and hasn't made a peep since. We'll see how it goes...

[Friday morning update] Lost was fantastic, lots of answers, more questions, and 8 months until we get more. Argh! Miles slept until 6:45, he must have been exhausted! The days at YaYa & B's and the 1st day back to school wore him out. He's going three days a week this summer, hope it won't be too much for him. The class changed, with some friends moving on to the 3 year old room, and some younger kids moving into the 2 year old room. He still has the same teacher, but change can be tricky.

Kind of like the change required to share your toys with your baby sister. I've been pulling out old toys and he's glommed onto each one. He even thinks he gets to sit in the Bebe pod. Um, no, you'll get stuck. Crazy kid.

Double trouble

I uploaded these photos over the weekend, but obviously haven't gotten around to posting for a while. We had a sort of rough week last week, bad sleeping from both kiddos. Audrey's back on track, but Miles seems to have decided that it's his duty to wake the rooster, so he starts crowing at 5:30 a.m., with no chance of resting quietly until a decent hour. Several days of that can take a toll on a mama, so I brought them to YaYa & B's for some distraction. Unfortunately for YaYa & B, he's rising at 5 a.m. in central time zone! So we all take naps during the day to recharge.

I'm not sure how this purchase will turn out, but we're a double stroller family now. We like our evening walks, and I like to stroll the mall on rainy days during the week, so it seemed like the best way to keep them both in check. Miles was very excited to sit next to his sister, but hopefully the novelty will wear off and he'll stop reaching over to pet her soon. Probably not.

Front Yard Fridays

Before I get to Friday evening, I have to talk about today. Today we learned that bribery does pay. Sort of. We achieved poopy on the potty!! [The rest of this paragraph will be about poopy, so if you're not inducted into the parenting world and don't understand the necessity of discussing poopy, you have permission to skip forward.] I feel as if I live in the bathroom now, spending literally hours at a time sitting there with Miles. During the week we'd sit for 15-20 minutes, put on a pull-up and he'd go poop in the next 15 minutes somewhere else. So today I decided he couldn't leave the potty until we had poopy. So I {bad mommy alert} held him on the seat when he started getting nervous and tried to leave. Which led to much screaming and crying. But after a looooooooong time, it worked! And then throughout the afternoon he told us a few more times that he had to go, and he did! Yay us! Before we go getting all high and mighty he ran off from his tooth brushing and got us back for a day of great pooping on the potty. Back in the diaper. Oh well. He got his chainsaw earlier and I don't think it would be productive to take it back - yet - so we'll just start fresh tomorrow.

Back to Friday... our great neighbors Beth & Dan started what we hope will be a fun summer tradition: Front Yard Fridays. Basically they invited our entire street and many other families in the neighborhood for an evening social in the front yard. Despite a chilly evening there was a great turn-out and lots of food, drink and fun for all. We met 2 sets of brand new neighbors, one family that had twin girls born just before Audrey. Miles had a big time with all the kids, and chasing another neighbor's cat. Beth got everyone's info and the plan is to rotate homes and have this every 2-3 weeks through the summer.

The most amusing sight of the evening was all the dads sporting their kids around in Baby Bjorns. I think we had three at one time and another dad holding one of the twins. There is a baby boom in our hood - there have been 7 babies born since October within a quarter-mile of our house, and one more is due next month. I'm sure that makes the future babysitters I met happy too - business should be hot. I'm glad there are several babysitters to choose from as well! We'll have to start trying them out, maybe for some good movies coming out soon.

shadrach

Sad news this week... "my" cat Shadrach had to be put to sleep after an onset of cancer. I say "my" cat because although I adopted him in 1995, my mom and Don have been his gracious and loving parents for the last -whew- 10 years!! I think we attempted one time to bring him back to Knoxville and he hid and wasn't seen for their entire visit. He had definitely become accustomed to the new good life! And Wayne's allergies are horrible enough without adding cat dander to the mix.

Shadrach was a sweet cat, very friendly and vocal. We could always hear him when we called home. He did almost get us evicted from the apartment I shared with Erin & Kim in college, but I think he always missed his pal Darby, who Jen adopted at the same time. Miles is now his biggest fan, reminding me at nighttime prayers "we forgot Shadrach!" I think we'll just let it go until we return to visit and see how much explaining is needed then.

The sound of silence

No, you're not crazy. When I sent you to the new blog to hear Miles's favorite Dolly Parton song, you didn't hear it. That's because (as the Nester commented) she'd just taken the music off her site!! Since I know you're dying to know what Miles was jamming to, it was 9-5.

Instead we listened to the Sound of Music soundtrack and Pandora all day yesterday. His favorite was So Long, Farewell (the "cuckoo song"). He enjoyed it so much that he was trying to imitate my goofy choreography - especially the bird flapping to the "I fleet, I float, I fleetly flee I fly" line. So before bed I queued up the movie and we watched the Von Trapp kids say Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu. I wasn't sure how he would feel about puppets, but he enjoyed The Lonely Goatherd too. So now both the kiddos are TSOM fans! Daddy's so excited!

{By the way, if you haven't heard of Pandora, it's fantastic! You name an artist or song that you like and it plays music of similar style. I found some great new artists yesterday just letting it go.}

Was it my singing?

Check out the paws on this kid! If kids are like puppies and grow into their big paws, Miles is gonna be a big boy!! He's on his way to "big boyhood", he earned his first potty-poopy-power tool on Friday. It was sorta a freebie from me since I caught him in the act and rushed him to the potty. He'd pretty much done his business but something did end up in the potty so I figured I'd jump start the process. He was sooooo proud and selected the nail gun from the big pack of tools. Now I've had 24+ hours of ka-CHUNK ka-CHUNK ka-CHUNK as he nails everything in the house. He's already identified the screwdrivers as the next goal, so we'll keep trying. I'm glad it will be a quiet tool!

Wait it's bedtime & he's screaming from be for more water....

Okay, I'm back. No water given, but I did sing some Twinkle Twinkle. He doesn't mind me singing his lullabies, in fact he will request one after the other at nap and bed times. But I know it's not because he loves my voice. While driving around if I start singing along to the music he pipes up "No, mama, don't sing!"
But he does let me play air guitar when we're home. I stumbled upon a new blog with a fun playlist, and we air drummed and guitared to Dolly Parton (the 2nd song on the playlist) for a long time.

But Audrey gets a silly grin when I sing to her, so she must find the comedy in my voice already. While she enjoys the usual Mother Goose fare, she has gotten really excited when I sing Edelweiss and Do-Re-Mi. Gotta love the Von Trapps! So I'm off to download the soundtrack, then go catch another classic that's playing on TV tonight. Must be ready for the latest Adventure in a couple of weeks!

2 months

Our little girl is 2 months old! (and a full 9 weeks today... need to try another shot in the chair). We had her checkup this morning and she's up to 12 pounds and 23 1/4" - 75%ile for both height and weight. She got her vaccinations BAM! BAM! BAM! in the thighs and wasn't very happy about it.

It's so easy to write about the goofy things Miles does, but seems to get repetitive with Audrey's activities: stared into blue eyes; exchanged coos; fed, burped, rocked her; changed poopy diaper. Mix. Repeat. But there are highlights in the routine. She has discovered... her hair. Oh yes, she loves her hair. Always wants to have both hands up there, twisting through the curls. We swaddle her for sleep with both arms tucked in and it's high drama when we have to pull those hands away from the locks. But we will swaddle and keep those arms tucked in tight. I'm convinced that's why she's been sleeping so well. We didn't do it with Miles and by this point we were zombies, still getting up 2-3 times each night. But not our dear Audrey. She's been going 5-7 hours at night. Of course tonight we'll be woken up 4 times because I just wrote that, but we'll survive!!

Miles is coming up with the cutest things lately. The best is how he plays daddy/mommy to his bear. He carries brown bear around and says "This is my baby." And he likes to feed brown bear too, and pulls up his t-shirt to feed him just like mommy feeds Audrey!

Also his wishlist is growing. Every time we pass a lawnmower or piece of heavy machinery he says "I want THAT lawnmower trailer and THAT weedeater and THAT blower and THAT lawnmower." We've told him to save his pennies and maybe one day it can all be his. At least we know what his summer job will probably be in 15 years.

We screamed

For ice cream!! I bravely took both kiddos for free cone day at Ben & Jerry's yesterday and we had a great time. I was already out, so picked Miles up early from school, hoping to beat the crowd from the high school around the corner. We got there and there was a pretty good line, but manageable. I'd talked with Miles very seriously about staying with me since there would be a lot of people. But after only a minute or so someone handed me a "Go to the head of the line" pass! Seriously! I was not only going to get yummy deliciousness for free, but I got to skip about 40 people and get it NOW. Sweet!

We got the same flavors as the weekend (didn't want to be rude when skipping line and linger over the flavor selection). Miles really likes the Mango Mango sorbet. We sat inside and Audrey snoozed while we tasted each other's flavors and decided that they were both yummy. I'm so glad we got there when we did, as the line stretched out the door when we got to the table and stayed that way until we left. One thing I did learn is there's no limit to the number of cones. You can go back through the line as much as you want. Note to self for next year... start running now so I can handle several flavors not to mention handling two kiddos with ice cream.

the snoozer

If I didn't blog about anything else, I need to share that April 29 (Tuesday!) is free cone day at Ben & Jerry's. Wayne has already wondered aloud if he could go at lunch, then change his shirt and go back with us after Miles gets out of school. We went Saturday when YaYa and B came for a visit. Miles picked Mango Mango Sorbet and ate the entire thing with much flair. I tried Imagine Whirled Peace, which was quite yummy, although not on the post-natal diet plan.

I love this picture of Audrey... it's not that great of a photo, but it captures her right now. She's actually a pretty good sleeper! (I know, sorry Wayne, I just jinxed us for the next week). I've held off saying anything because I thought it was too good to be true, but we're getting some good nights - at least 5 hours then 3 more most nights, and she's thrown in a couple of 7 hour stretches once in a while. Now we're working on some structured daytime sleep... we're getting a little morning nap routine down, but the rest of the day is just haphazard. Here she was playing on an activity mat and just fell asleep. Love that little belly b! I read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child with Miles and think it really helped, so we'll be working on that with her soon. Thankfully we may get to skip the nighttime "cry it out" steps sine she goes down fairly well now. That could change when I stop the feeding-to-sleep routine!

And we did celebrate Earth Day last week, though a little late. I got some reusable bags and took them for a spin at Kroger on Friday. We fit what would have been 10-12 plastic bags very easily in 4 of mine, and they were so easy to carry! I guess I'll just leave them in the car and hopefully remember them every time. [Don't we look eco-friendly with our bags on the cork floor!] Too bad the bags are filled with processed food - that's Quik, there are eggos and even hot dogs in there. But one was filled with produce!!

We really have to work on Miles eating better. He has zero appetite anymore and all he wants to eat is nuggets - but not at home! He'll only eat McD's, Chick-fil-a or Wendy's. Seriously. At home it's PB&J and fruit of all kinds. We've just set forth a verbal "no nuggets out until you start eating what we have at home" rule. We'll see how long that sticks. Our other problem with how he eats is that he'll ask for something, we'll make it, then he'll refuse to eat it. Argh!! I'm wondering when this turns into the stage when he's eating us out of house and home. That can't be too far off, right?

7 weeks

It's hard to catch on "film" but we're getting lots of great smiles from Audrey these days. We'll have a little flirt-fest with each other and I don't want to ruin the fun by flashy-thinging her. She's 7 weeks old and is a real sweetheart. She absolutely lights up when she sees Miles, so I can't wait until they can play together a little better. He adores her too, the first thing out of his mouth in the morning is "Where's Audrey?" I'm sure that's out of concern for her, and not just to see if he gets all the extra space in our bed for a while. Back to her... she's starting to swat at her little mobile over her bouncy seat, but hates tummy time. She can hold her head up well when we hold her in our arms, but gets really frustrated trying to lift her head from flat on her belly. I remembered the mirror I used to hold for Miles and I think that is giving her a little more reason to look up - who is that cute baby over there? And check out that thick mane! It's really coming in and I affectionately refer to it as Kramer hair. Especially when freshly washed, it curls on top and sticks up until she sleeps on it.

Poor Miles has been running a fever today. It started before bed last night and continued all day today. But despite being sick, we had one of the best days together in a long time. It was close to a zero-fussy day, and he didn't try to swindle treats and TV time out of me, even though we were home all day. I started pulling the Disney books off the shelf to read, a big step because the stories can be really long. We started with the Three Little Pigs, which I don't think is in the book club anymore. We also tried Pinocchio and 101 Dalmations. I hope I can find Mickey and the Beanstalk at McKay, because one of his favorite Little Einstein episodes right now is about the giant up the beanstalk.

More fun stuff from Miles - he's totally into his tools. He insists on wearing jeans so he can wear all of his tools around the house. He especially loves these carpenter jeans because of the loop on the side. He refers to them as his "hooker" jeans. When we had the guys here working on the kitchen he would ask them if they had hookers. That got some good reactions! I've gotten him to call a belt-loop by the proper name, but that loop on the side remains a hooker until I can come up with a better name for it.

We're using tools for a higher purpose now too - bribery. We got him the jackhammer he earned by wearing the cute suit and shoes for Uncle Kyle's wedding. Now we have a chainsaw up on the shelf just waiting for a poop on the potty. We also got a big set of tools to dole out for more achievements like staying dry all day, telling me when he has to go, etc. The incentives haven't worked yet, but I need to start making him try to go hourly. I guess it can be my Earth-Day resolution - get the oldest out of diapers!!

A wedding weekend

I could just take the easy way out and tell you to read Tiffany's blog, but I won't (you should read it anyway!). I'll try to recap as briefly as can be, mostly since Audrey is stirring and we'll have to run and pick up Miles soon.

Thursday: We're lucky to have family in Nashville which lets us break up a looong drive, although it does add days to the trip. Miles loves playing with YaYa & B and we also got to visit his cousins and see their fantastic new home. We made it to Memphis Thursday afternoon, just beating some torrential rain coming.

Mom hosted a BBQ dinner for the family, so everyone got to see Miles and meet Audrey in a somewhat relaxed environment. Kyle and his buddies were heading out for the bachelor party, so brave Megan spent an entire evening alone with the future in-laws!! Extended-family in-laws at that!! Wayne joined Kyle for the bachelor festivities, which included a Barbecue Crawl. Much like the better known pub crawl, their BBQ crawl had them hopping around Memphis, trying out some of the best ribs around.

Friday: Since all the family would already be in town, we took the opportunity to have Audrey baptized just before the wedding rehearsal. It was a really special event - both of my grandmothers were able to attend (they're 92 & 91); both of my godparents were there; and all 14 family members from 3 generations who have worn the baptismal gown were there! I just realized that, we should have taken a picture to mark the occasion. Miles wondered why there weren't ducks in the baptismal font.

The rehearsal was next followed by an excellent dinner at Currents at the River Inn. As Tiffany described, all the cousins were again seated at the "kids" table, and I think Kyle wished he and Megan could've joined us back there for the usual antics. No, Miles & Audrey weren't subjected to our craziness. YaYa & B graciously came over to keep the kids in the hotel while we were all occupied with wedding festivities.

Saturday: In the morning, Miles introduced Ellie to big-kid toys like Rocket. Later in the evening we had to promise Miles more big-kid toys, specifically a jackhammer(!), to wrangle him into the evening's finery. (We haven't delivered yet, but possibly will tonight if we can manage family dinner out.)

Okay, this is getting long....

The wedding was beautiful. Miles told me Megan was dressed as a princess several times, and got his shy-smile going whenever he was with the bridesmaids. But he was NOT shy with Tatum, the flower girl! She was a feisty one, and they were chasing each other all around in the dressing hall of the church. I was afraid of what could happen going down the aisle. But as they turned the corner to the narthex, they were suddenly subdued. The organ music, singing and the crowd must have overwhelmed them into calmness. I'm not sure about Tatum, but Miles remained in the church for the entire ceremony & photos after.

The evening was getting late so even though the reception hall was in the same block as the hotel, we dropped the kiddos off and headed back out. We missed their first dance, but it was to Al Green's Love & Happiness. We were there for the arrival of the getaway vehicle. A little background here: Kyle called a couple of weeks ago and said he had a problem. He was supposed to arrange for the car, perhaps a nice Town Car or Bentley, but had let the task slide. Now it is prom season and all that was available was a stretch Hummer. I told him if she would be expecting a Bentley and a Hummer pulled up, she might be a tad peeved and he should fess up. He did, thank goodness, because it would have taken much more explaining to overcome the fact that it was a banana yellow stretch hummer. Oh yes. At least by this point they could laugh together as husband and wife. And climb onto the yellow seats and ride off into the night.

Congrats Kyle and Megan!!! We love you!!

UPDATE: Okay, I was just showing Miles the photos on this post and he said "That's Megan, she's a princess." Sweet. Then he said, "Where are her boobies?" Oh man, we've got some social graces to work on.