Parade and Wedding

(I typed this whole entry last night, only to lose my internet connection and in turn, lost the entry ~ugh~)

Big weekend for us!  My nephew got married so we headed to my parents house for the weekend.
We stopped at Wendy's on the way for lunch and Christian got a kid's meal with a hamburger. He took the first bite and got nothing but bun. He proceed to take off the top, in my opinion, to find out where the meat was, and it was spread with ketchup.  He dropped the bun top, raised his clench fisted arms and squealed, "KETCHUP!" People around us laughed :) He does the cutest things at the most unexpected times.
I told him we were going to a party and he put his arm in the air, rotated his forearm and said, "Parrrtttyyyy."I laughed my head off!!! He kept doing that the whole weekend.

I heard "Poppa, Ga'ma" over and over all the way home and he ran to give them hugs the minute he saw them. He does not hesitate to give hugs to the family now which is wonderful. He runs to all of them, arms stretched up, making the last step a leap, fully trusting they'll catch him.  Don't you just love the innate trust that children have :)  The town has an annual community weekend festival of sorts and it fell on this weekend. They had a small parade uptown that I wanted to take Christian too because he's never been to a parade.

So my Dad, brother-in-law, two sisters, niece, nephew, Christian and I piled into a car and off we went.  My niece and nephew were prepared with their plastic sacks to haul in the candy they throw during the parade.  The VFW gun salute for the flag raising freaked Christian out. It was sort of a delayed reaction actually. I held him and told him there was going to be a loud noise. He was ok for the first two rounds of shots and simply said, "Oh!" but the last round he lost it and let out a squall. He calmed down quickly though to sit on the sidewalk at the edge of the road to watch the parade. My niece and nephew were hauling in the candy and after a short time, Christian felt comfortable dashing after it too. I kept my hand lightly on him the whole time, which was a good thing, because he got excited and a little too close to the trucks and I had to pull him back. 

My brother-in-law gave Christian some Smarties during church one time to quiet him down, so when I opened the Smarties for him to eat, he took one and immediately walked over to Bob and gave it to him. He then shared them, one for Bob, one for him, until they were gone.  It's amazing what they remember and how they learn so quickly.

The wedding was a blast!  I left Christian with a babysitter for the ceremony and then retrieved him for the family photos afterwards.  When the Roth side of the family stood there for the photo, I looked around and realized the Christian went from having no family and in six months he has a family of 20.  They all love him so much, someday he realize just how much.

He was SO busy during the reception and I had to chase him around for the first three hours making sure he didn't get into trouble. People were telling me to relax and let him play. I WAS letting him play, but was also keeping an eye on him which was good thing, because here is what he was up to: had the door half open to go outside; I caught his arm just before he pulled over the photographers tripod with the flash on it; I intercepted him before he fell into the cake table in his excitement to get a cupcake; chased him into the catering kitchen when he slipped through the swinging door just before it closed; and pulled him out from behind the bar where he had his hand on a liquor bottle ready to help serve.  Did I mention he was busy???

He danced with the groom, bride, Aunts, cousins and Mommy.  He even participated in the bachelor's garter toss with the assistance from cousin Courtney. He finally caught onto the rhythm of the music and moved a little better as he got his groove on out on the dance floor.  I even got him to push his palms up into the air while he was bouncing up and down, he looked like he really knew how to dance!

Thank goodness for Mom and Dad who took mercy on me and took him back to their house when they left early.  Then I got myself a drink (ok, maybe more than one), cut loose and hit the dance floor. I love to dance and it had been so long and I had a great time! My feet are punishing me, still today, but it was worth it. I can't wait to get the photos back :) Christian was saying, "party?" alot yesterday and a few times today. I explained to him that we went to the party and now it's over. Of course he doesn't get it, but I do hope he doesn't stop doing his "parrttyyy" arm move because it is so hysterical to me :)
~Amy