Stina and Ben's Wedding

I attended my first full Catholic wedding ceremony on Saturday. Jeff had been to one or two growing up, but this was my first. So we churched it up early on Saturday and before leaving Edie with "aunt Heidi" for a fun-filled 2 hours, she snapped a few shots of us.
It was a beautiful sunny day, already 85 degrees by 9:45am, so we decided to take the Vespa to the ceremony. I'm not going to lie - I *loved* scooting in style. It was like we were our very own parade! And while I'm not a fan of watching parades, being in a parade? Don't mind if I do.



After lunching at home post-ceremony, my parents showed up to take Edie back to their house in Bellingham for a slumber party while we packed for our very own sleep over in Poulsbo. Stina and Ben's reception was a casual affair held at Liberty Bay Marina and the invitation specified that a hat was required for all guests - "vintage, nautical inspired, what have you." I essentially took this as an excuse to raid the high school costume closet where Heidi is the drama teacher and force Jeff to dress up.

Hot hot heat

You guys. It's been too hot to hang out in the upstairs office and post pictures. The heat wave is to end soon though so expect pictures from our Bainbridge Island wedding antics this last weekend and Edie's overnight trip to my parents (in short, it went swimmingly). Edie has taken to spending her days in air conditioned venues such as Target, the library and grocery stores with a bit of Greenlake wading pool time thrown into the mix - where she literally runs through the water to steal 2 and 3 year old's water toys. My kid is like a little chihuahua that tries to attack dogs 10 times her size.

Meatball

I put my kid to bed tonight REEKING of meatball. She's developed a new habit of eating, then rubbing any food residue into the back of her head. So instead of smelling sweetly of baby, she frequently reeks of Trader Joe's turkey meatball, Pirate's Booty, or, if we're lucky - peaches and blueberries. I'd meant to bathe her before bed, but we had dinner with friends and didn't get home until 8pm at which point Edie was ready to crash. I suppose part of growing as parents is Letting Go. I wouldn't say that letting go has been something I've been particularly good at in the past so actually, letting my kid go to bed still greasy from sunscreen, with blueberry skins under her nails and meatball juice in her hair is something I would consider progress.

Wedding Season

Wedding season is beginning for us. I guess you could say it already began because I hosted a bridal shower at our house on Saturday. I'd been running around all week to get things all ready. I had the perfect vision of little round tables with rented linens, paper lanterns strung from my trees and us drinking Thai iced tea in the back yard. Instead it was 60 degrees and pouring rain. Wah-wa. Everything still went really well though and we were nice and cozy inside (where I still insisted upon hanging the lanterns). I hope to have pictures up soon.

Next on the docket is a wedding this weekend for a former college roommate. The ceremony is early on Saturday, but then the festivities are a ferry ride away that night. Edie has booked herself a night at the Grandparents so that we can stay late and I can do my favorite wedding activity - drink champagne. Boy do I loves me some champagne at a wedding. Pair it with a bad sing along to Madonna or Michael Jackson while dancing with old friends and I'm pretty much in heaven.

The following week my (not so) baby brother is getting married. Woot woot! And then two weeks after that is a weekend wedding extravaganza on Whidbey Island for a very old friend. Hopefully Edie is up for the challenge, because I'm looking forward to all the celebrating.

Speaking of Edie, she woke up a ray of sunshine yesterday and was more than a delight all day. We ran errands, napped well, read book after book (that girl can't get enough of books these days), and then ended the day with a very successful trip to the gym daycare. Have I mentioned that I joined a gym? I did. And it has a really nice daycare for Edie! It's pretty great. Yesterday after I worked out I came to pick her up at the "Kids Club" and found Edie standing over two older girls (sisters I think) about 2 and 4, watching excitedly while they did some sort of sit-up meets dance routine. Also looking on was the fattest baby ever, named ... wait for it ... Andre. Andre was probably about 7 months old with the roundest head and adorable cropped Afro and he was staring raptly at Edie as she toddled around, exclaiming about the older girls and their awesome moves. I feel like it's the perfect way to introduce daycare right now, Edie gets a punch of social time, and I get a workout to boot. It's what Steve Carell might call a win-win-win.

Also? Edie found the paper bag in which I keep all the plastic sacks. Oops.

I love my daughter

Edie was a delight all morning and afternoon today. Then something happened during her late afternoon nap and she woke up a miserable sack of shrieking baby. I'm not sure what my damage was today (nor Edie's), but I just wasn't up for hanging out with a scream machine. I tried everything. Holding her (hated it), reading (pissed), singing (super pissed), finally I decided that despite having chugged an unprecedented 10 ounces prior to her nap, she was hungry again. So I saddled her up in the high chair and provided her with some left-over chicken satay from a party I hosted yesterday. She didn't want it. It made her angry. She clearly wanted ANOTHER bottle instead, but I just kept looking at her and thinking, "GAAAAWD, just eat the effing chicken!" Then we had a stare down. Which she totally won. I made her another bottle and she drank it. But then the shrieking resumed. Jeff went to The Sounder's game tonight - I just put her to bed and I feel so relieved.

It's normal to have a day where you just can't hack it, right? I mean, technically I *did* hack it. I didn't throw Edie out the window or anything (mostly because my neighbors were having a BBQ on their second story balcony) but I wasn't really my usual self. I have no real excuse.

The only thing I can point to is that Edie's sleep seems to be shifting. She's sleeping longer at night - from 8pm until 8am - and then her solid napping schedule seems to be getting shiftier as a result. I think I relied too heavily on those naps and when I don't get them for as long, or as predictably, it throws me off. I'm not adapting well and that needs to change. Also, I have always been sort of annoyed by picky eaters. Okay, majorly annoyed. I love eating and I struggle to think of more than one food that I won't eat (oysters) so I get a little high-horsey when people are all, "Is that blue cheese? Hmm... do you have any mild cheddar?" Except obviously the universe has a way of teaching people lessons and apparently instead of teaching picky eaters to suck it up and be adventurous, it feels more like teaching me that picky eaters are okay by having me GIVE BIRTH TO ONE. So sometimes when Edie doesn't want my tasty grilled chicken that I marinated in greek yogurt, curry, ginger and garlic (thanks Steve Johnson!) I feel like throwing said chicken in her face. I mean, I don't do it! I really don't throw chicken at my baby, but the thought did cross my mind for a second tonight.

To remind myself that Edie is usually a ball of sunshine and that I really do love her very much, I thought I'd post some adorable pictures of her.

The sleeping beast

Since returning from Orcas, Edie has returned to being a good sleeper. Not without a few nights of transition mind you, but she has slept from 8pm until 8am without a peep for the last 5 days or so. Well, except for today when she woke up at 6:30, gobbled a bottle and then conked out on my lap. I carried her into the bed, which is something I haven't done in months and she popped right up, looked at Jeff, exclaimed something inarticulate with eyes wide open, then put her head on my chest and promptly fell back asleep until 7:45.

Two faced