Wedding & Birthdays!

So much has happened since I last posted (other than the mini post last night).  The big event was flying up to Boston on Thursday night for my cousin Devin's wedding in New Hampshire.  The four of us flew up on an uneventful flight and spent the night at my parents.  Friday morning, along with Gigi, we visited the Children's Museum (might I also add that they let my mom in free.  That was very nice considering that the pass is obviously just for the four of us).  It was Duncan's first visit and I think he was suitably impressed.  We didn't stay long since we wanted to drive up to NH during nap time.  The weekend was a flurry of activity from the rehearsal dinner on Friday night (none of the Grodacks were in the wedding but the whole family always goes to the rehearsal dinner) to church, hiking, bachelorette /bachelor party, the wedding, and the reception.  We rented a house for Friday and Saturday nights with my folks, Shawn, Camille, Camden, Aunt Lori, Uncle Charlie, and the Conrads.  We saw a bunch of pictures of the place ahead of time but curiously, none of those pictures showed the large metal spiral staircase going upstairs and to the lower level.  A small child nightmare to be sure! We had to be on extra guard the whole weekend.  Other than that, the house was very nice especially as it was right on the Saco River and had a beautiful view.

We very much enjoyed spending all the time with the family.  It's nice for us all to be together for something besides a funeral.  The only one missing was Marcela, Jonathan's wife, who is going through a bit of a challenging pregnancy (sidebar...today they found out they're having a girl!) and it's a long trip from Texas (they both work at Southwestern Adventist University).  Camille and I were both very excited when Gigi when on kid duty on Saturday night so we could participate in the bachelorette festivities.  Fortunately the kids settled right in to sleep and caused no trouble.  We did a picture scavenger hunt and some other games.  If we were playing by strict "Nova Scotia" rules, I would have been on the winning team with Kelly and Lori (the bride, Leigh's sister) but we decided not to make a big deal about it and let the bride's team claim victory.  Big of us, huh?

                         The groom looking pretty relaxed the day before.

The wedding went very well and they honestly couldn't have asked for a nicer day.  It was about 70 and beautifully sunny.  The reception place was lovely and there was a ton of great food.  Calleigh probably had the most fun out of anyone there.  There were a couple of other little girls and she was running all over the place with them.  It was like she was her own little person.  I didn't really need to watch her very closely.  My favorite part was when she took one of the disposable cameras and started taking pictures of the bridal party.  They were sitting at their own long table and she kept going up to them to take their pictures.  I have no idea if she was actually taking pictures.  Aunt Sherrie was the one coordinating it all.  I almost wanted to take the camera to develop the pictures to see for myself but thought better of it.  With everything going on (the wedding was at 2:30) she obviously didn't get her nap.  We left at about 7:30 to drive back to my parents and I think she was literally asleep in 15 seconds.  She was plumb tuckered out.

              Devin and Leigh.

              All of the cousins and their significant others

               Calleigh and her posse

               Brace family photo

Monday was Calleigh's birthday and we celebrated by first doing the Freedom Trail in Boston, or at least part of it.  We were joined by my parents, Aunt Wanda (who flew in that morning), Ricky, Kathy, and Bruno (who is turning six next month).  Bruno and Calleigh get along really well despite the age and gender gap and they were laughing and playing the whole time.  My mother had gotten a double stroller from someone and for much of the journey, Bruno and Calleigh were in the stroller.  Bruno managed to get in even though he's a little big.  Aubree hung out in the Bjorn.  It was another terrific day weather wise and I thought to myself numerous times during the walk about how nice it was just to be walking the streets of Boston with my family.   It's an awesome city and it was neat to be tourists for a little while.  Duncan had never done the Freedom Trail and I'm sure it had been years since I had done it.

          Bruno and Calleigh walking the streets of Boston hand in hand.

We got back to my folks just in time for the little party.  Kathy and Bruno came, along with Barry and Gail Irrgang and their granddaughter, Lily; Elena Kimbrough came with Karolina and Valentina, and then Kathleen and Bob came too.  My mom made pizza and then the big moment with the cake arrived.  You may recall that Calleigh doesn't do well with cakes but I thought that was in the past.  Well, not so much as it turns out.  It started out great but then it all went downhill very fast about halfway through the song when Aubree tried to swipe some of the frosting off the cake.  My mother batted her hand and then the next thing you know, she's bawling.  Then we prompted Calleigh to blow out the candles and she refused.  And then she started bawling.  She kept saying she didn't want to blow out the candles.  I don't know why.  I finally blew them out for her and that set her off even more.  I removed her from the room and I finally got her calmed down but I still don't quite understand it.  Anyway, this actually turned into an even bigger deal because between the time I was videoing the cake and singing with my camera to the time that I brought Calleigh back into the room, my camera disappeared.  I couldn't find it any where and neither can anyone else that has looked these few days later.  It's a complete mystery.  Readers of this blog may think that this seems fairly typical as this is not the first time I/we have lost an item like this.  In the past, the items have always resurfaced and I hope that will be the case here.

              A few seconds before the eruption.

Tuesday was a relaxing day at my parents although we did make a trip to Target to get some gifts for my nephew Camden who will be turning one on Monday.  Our flight back left Boston at 6 pm and it was a really nice flight.  I guess it pays off to travel on a Tuesday because the flight was only about half full and we were able to move to the back of the plane where there were numerous empty rows.  It was bliss.  Megan was kind enough to pick us up and we made it back to watch most of the second half of the Celtics/Magic game.  And then it was super nice to sleep in my own bed.

We're settled back in to regular life once again.  No more trips until Nova Scotia at the end of July.  Fortunately the next wedding is down here so we don't have to go anywhere.

Today we had Calleigh's swimming lesson and boy, that was quite an ordeal.  It started getting bad at the tail end of the lesson last Thursday (obviously we missed this past Tuesday's) when she had to put her face in the water.  That did not go over well at all.  This week she knew is was coming so she was already crying by the time she got to the edge of the pool.  She did not want to go in.  After a few minutes, they asked me to leave since this supposedly helps the kids concentrate more or whatever.  That was pretty tough.  I went inside the Y to hang out with Lizzie's mom (Lizzie is doing MUCH better).  After I had been in there for probably 20 minutes, I snuck out a little to see what was happening and the older lady started walking toward me as she was leaving to go somewhere and commented on poor Calleigh.  She said she was crying terribly and she thought it was because Calleigh thought I had just left her there and she didn't know where I went.  I think it pretty much turned out that my leaving did NOT improve the situation.  Anyway, I went back out there and Calleigh came right up to me and basically wouldn't let me go.  Since the lesson was almost over, I just let her be.  I'm not sure how to really resolve this.  Do we go and practice at R&E's pool until she's comfortable with her face in the water?  Do you make her do it at their pool even if she cries and says she doesn't want to?  I just don't know.  She loves being in the water...just not that aspect of it.  Clearly I need to talk to some other mothers who have gone through swimming lessons with their kids.

After nap time, we hit up Walmart for our groceries.  I only mention this because of my hunt for whole wheat hamburger buns.  I can never seem to find any in the bakery so today I went up the bakery people and asked if they had any.  They said they didn't and that they weren't getting them any more.  I said I found that strange since people wanted to be healthier and you would think there would be a demand for whole wheat.  During this discussion with them, Calleigh tugs on my arm and says "It's okay.  It's alright.  You don't need to be worried."  She kept talking to me and trying to comfort me about it.  She was very concerned that I was distressed (I use that word loosely because it wasn't that big of a deal) about the situation.    After what seemed like forever waiting in line to pay, we went outside and started walking to the van.  And out of the blue she says to me "Mom, you don't need to be worried about the buns."  I reassured her that it really was okay and I had bought a different kind of buns.  So then she says "Are they healthy?"  I guess she was paying pretty close attention to my conversation with the bakery!

We made a quick grocery drop at home (at which time I accidentally backed in to close to the garage and the tailgate on the van hit into the garage door as they both opened at the same time.  Shhh, don't tell Duncan.  There's no damage fortunately) and then it was on to Sweet Tomatoes to meet the Isidros for supper.  With all of our traveling and the twins, we haven't seen them in awhile so we were very happy to catch up.  Of course, it's quite a distraction with now five kids but we made it work.  The twins are definitely growing.  Allen has actually started his own weekly blog which you can read here.  Calleigh and Braelyn get really quite wild when they're together and we had to do a lot of shhh-ing.  I stole this picture off Allen's blog because of my camera situation.

I can't forget Aubree.  She had her birthday yesterday.  What an amazing first year it's been.  I really couldn't have had an easier time of it when it comes down to it.  She has been a very easy baby to take care of.  Sure, she's met the milestones a little later than her sister, but that's okay.  I was excited yesterday morning when she started pushing a push toy around unassisted.  She's making progress. I would post a picture of it if I hadn't lost my camera!  She's also pulling herself up on some objects such as the side of the tub and the bottom stair (hasn't started climbing them yet though).  She's not saying words per se but she's definitely saying "Da da" and a form of "hi" and also she says what almost sounds like "fish."  You can certainly hear the "ish" part.  I was pleasantly surprised when I asked her where her toes were and she grabbed her toes.  I didn't know she knew that yet!  I knew she knew tongue and fingers but not that one.  She's a great eater and continues to eat pretty much whatever is put in front of her.  If only Calleigh would do that again!  Actually, the only thing she has no interest in is baby food.  That was completely tabled at least a month ago.  Both of the girls are going to the pediatrician on Monday so we'll get all their measurements then.  The big question is, will Calleigh cry?