Little Miss Sunshine

Big week and weekend!

One of our friends, Michael McLaughlin, got married this weekend, and John was a reader in the ceremony. I really haven’t done much shopping since Helen Grace was born (well, other than for her), so I desperately needed a nice dress or two for the wedding festivities. I really shouldn’t have waited until the last minute, but Wednesday afternoon, she and I set out for Dillard’s. She was really a trooper and was content in her stroller as I tried on a few things. Of course, nothing worked, so my shopping was pushed to Friday afternoon. We had a ton of other errands to run that day, so the poor baby was run ragged by the time we made it to Saddle Creek. She was not happy to be in her stroller this time and was wiggling and whining to get OUT. I was trying my best to bribe her with food or keys or toys, to no avail. I was able to get her out for a few minutes at Ann Taylor Loft (see pic below), but after that point, I began buying anything despite price (which is totally not like me at this point in life) and despite not having tried it on. I am going to have to do some major returning later, but I FINALLY found something that would work. Whew!

Friday night, Grandma and Geggy kept Helen Grace while we went to the rehearsal dinner and enjoyed some great times with friends, and then on Saturday, Chris and Emily had us over for lunch to meet their new puppy, Manning, and to see Larry, Carmella, and Thomas who were in town. We loved watching HG check out the puppy, and they were really gentle with each other (big sigh of relief). It was a beautiful day, so we sat outside and watched Thomas and Manning play. I’m sure one day soon, Helen Grace will be running after them as well!

Saturday night, HG spent the night at Spif and Granddaddy/Google’s house while we went to the wedding...our first in-town overnight stay. I woke up at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning in a little bit of a panic with the silence in my house…and then when I remembered where she was, I promptly rolled back over and slept til 10:30. Why have we waited so long to do this!? I took lunch over my parents’ house around noon, and she was just happy as a clam, sitting outside on the swing with them and enjoying the pretty day. When she saw me drive up, she started kicking her legs and smiling like crazy. That does a mama’s heart good. :) They also taught her Patty Cake (see video below). She is such a smart girl! We are very grateful to have parents close by and are lucky that they volunteer to help us out so much- and  that they love doing it!

Little Miss Priss in her first big girl shorts HG and Tyler watching bubbles at FTM On our first clothes shopping trip of the week And on our second, she was not so content to stay in her stroller. This bench at Ann Taylor Loft may never recover from the amount of animal cracker ground into it, and I’m pretty sure several items from my purse were strewn throughout the store. I do have her other shoe- it did make it back to the car- I just can’t remember where I stashed it in the chaos…. Meeting Manning for the first time Watching Daddy’s soccer game Sunday afternoon. I did remember to bring the sunblock for her this time, so she was safe and protected from those rays.Still not a fan of the sunglasses…Chris’ girlfriend, Emily, had to help me distract her long enough to snap this shot!

While staying over with Spif and Granddaddy Saturday night, she learned Patty Cake! When you start singing it, she starts clapping along with you, and when you get to the “Roll it” part, she stops clapping so that you can do the motions with her hands. Hilarious!

Waiting with Lovie for Mama to come get her after a fun night with her grandparents!