A Busy Week

For the record, I firmly believe that involving children in ANY adult activity is a bad idea. At least until they are six or seven years old, at least. Anything. But, most specifically--and because it was relevant to our activities over this last weekend--I don't think kids should be involved in weddings.

Yesterday, Gabe had the honor of being ring bearer in Libby's cousin's wedding. All things considered, he did a pretty decent job. He didn't explode, he sort of did what he was told, and he didn't bite, punch, or tackle anyone in the wedding party. Moreover, since he wasn't actually given the ring, he didn't lose that. Really, he did as well as could be expected.

Also, Uncle James (sadly, he's no longer Uncle Jeebes--though, for some strange reason, Gabe spent about half the weekend calling him Jason, or Uncle Jason) was here for the weekend. So that's been fun. We always love the opportunity to share our children (i.e. abandon them) with some friend or family member so we can get a few uninterrupted breaths of non-child air. This kind of inflicting our kids on other people I DO support, if for no other reason than we are offering a vital service to our friends/family who don't have kids yet--we are giving them the opportunity to test the waters a bit, to soak in the good AND the bad.

Oddly, none of our non-parent friends/family have ended up having kids after spending a significant period of time around ours. I wonder why that is.

Anyway, I have a MESS of pictures and videos from the last week to put up. So I might as well get started.

Oh yeah, did I mention that Gabe got his first filling on Thursday, too? His mouth is a mess and is going to require several more fillings--a few rather major ones--here in the next year. He did VERY well, though--and we found out that, when he's stoned on nitrous, he's very laid back and cooperative.

Norah doing what she does best: being adorable.

The kids playing in the leaves. Norah had been far more entertaining just before I started recording, of course, plopping down purposefully in the leaves and rolling around in them and stuff. After she was done, we had to clean a handful of dried leave mush that had creeped into her diaper out of her butt crack. Fun!

Norah figuring out the slide. She's still a terrible climber--something we're trying to adapt to since Gabe was climbing up on our dining room chairs by this stage in his development. I think, perhaps, her girth keeps her from being a very successful climber. She just doesn't have the muscle mass to lug her form up onto things yet. But she did love the slide. She spent about a half hour going down it and crunching down into the pile of leaves below (where most of the butt mulch came from, I think).

Norah in her ride. She hasn't figured out how to make it move yet, but she likes to honk the horn.

Uncle James giving Norah a ride.


Gabe officially entered the Army Men phase this weekend. He received a bag of them for his participation in the wedding--which, thankfully, kept him busy during most of the rehearsal. They didn't do QUITE as good a job distracting him before and during the wedding, but one day of entertainment is about what we expect out of a new toy these days.

Uncle James and Gabe.

Gabe and the wedding party. I didn't get to see the wedding. Since I was dealing with Norah, our options were to either let her run around, pestering everyone at the wedding and making terrible noise or sequestering ourselves off in one of the little side rooms where I could shut the door and keep her contained. That's what I did--and I don't think Norah minded missing the wedding all that much.

And, finally, a video of the kids running around at the wedding reception. Well, Gabe was running around and throwing army men. Norah was waddling.