My Baby's Wedding, Part 2, the Ceremony

Sneaking out of the back of the church to line up for the precession in the front of the church

The Matron of Honor right behind her

Steve behind with the churchlady who co-ordinates everything

Don'tae  waiting for his bride

Julia

Maya was too tired to make the walk herself. Naomi's close friend agreed to walk with her

The ring bearer, Don'tae's nephew. Don'tae's mom is right behind him

Naomi starts the procession with Steve

This was a cross made of some oak cut down to make room for the church. It was the church's gift to them. Who knows where it is?

They are now married!

The kiss

First walk as man and wife

Signing the license

Father and daughter

Both families together. Don'tae has 5 brothers and 3 sisters

Our half..much smaller as Naomi has only a brother and a sister

The whole wedding party

My Baby's Wedding, Part 1

The dress hung outside the church

Rings

Church cushion in the bride's waiting room

Church gardens

Inside the church before we came

Outside of church, one of the oldest in Michigan built in 1856

Julia doing her hair. Cellphone always next to ear

She likes cell phones too...just like mom

Our flower girl

with Mom

With  2 of her aunts

Stuck behind some plastic thing

hiding

holding on to mom as her hair gets combed out by Aunt Julia

I love this picture. Cost of dress? $5. I bought them in 2 sizes as I didn't know how much she'd grow.

My little shoe fiend

Bridesmaids and Naomi. Shanna, to her left is the Matron of honor. Next to Shanna is my daughter-in-law Julia. The one to the far right is Don'tae's sister who is closest in age to Naomi

Flowers and shoes. My friend, one of the Moms, did all the flowers and decorations. Aren't they pretty?

On church steps

The groom before the wedding

Don'tae and the groomsmen. Josh is to the far left

So the photographer sent us about a third of the pictures. Although there are some great shots of Maya, I can't find a winner of Naomi and Don'tae together, which really disappoints me. These are the preceremony photos. I will post more later.

Well baby visit

boat in front of Kennedy Library in fog

The above is something I photographed back in Boston. I wish I had my camera while I was running as the fog was much thicker..I felt like I was running in a cloud.

I didn't run today. I decided to tackle some home projects before I had Maya for 4 hours. It was a beautiful day and we spent part of it in the park. She loves walking back and forth on the pavement. I took her to her well baby visit while Naomi was in class. As suspected, she has gained weight. Now she's almost 45%tile for weight but 75%tile for height. There is some concern about her lack of words so she has been advised to get a full evaluation.

The  wedding photographer has promised Naomi the photos tonight: all 2000+ of them. We were going to turn one of them into thank-you cards. Hope everyone does not think Naomi was ungrateful.

The tangerine silk kimono

It is now fall. If it would stay fall, I'd be happy but it just leads to my least favorite time, winter, so gray and cold. In general, it is about ten degrees cooler here than in Boston despite being somewhat more south. Less than a week ago, I was struggling in the 80 degree heat and humidity whereas yesterday, I did my run in a 30 mph wind, 40 degrees and in drizzle.The day before, the strong wind caused yet another power outtage..annoying.

I returned home to soggy, moldy flowers and immediately deadheaded them. Maybe I will get some last blooms this week before the killing frost. I already brought in all my tropicals. My hummingbird feeder was a heady mix of mold and dead ants. Steve said he had changed it once. I hope my little hummingbirds had a drink of something clean before their big trip. I haven't seen them since I've been back.

I decided to have some me time. The other night, a friend and I scheduled pedicures/manicures that took an hour in a massaging chair. Included was a hand massage with smooth, warm stones and a leg massage. It all felt good and now I have bright peach nails. I usually polish my toes (or have Naomi do it) but leave my fingernails alone. As a child, I kept track of the compliments I received. It wasn't hard as there was so few beyond those concerning my alleged cleverness as in it's a good thing you are so smart because the way you look, you are going to have to support yourself.When I was ten or eleven, I was with a friend and her grandmother. Grandmother was gushing over her granddaughter over and over because she was just so cute and pretty. After a while, it occurred to her that perhaps she should say something positive about my appearance and after struggling for a bit, she came up with that I had nice hands.

Well thanks.

But maybe I do and now they look even nicer.

The me-athon continued with dinner and some shopping. At a relatively high end resale shop, I bought the titled kimono with its beautiful embroidery.Its color might be closer to school bus yellow than tangerine but school bus colored silk kimono doesn't quite have the same ring. In the past, I stayed away from oranges and yellows as I thought, with my dishwater blonde hair, they made me look especially drab. Now my hair is pale blonde so I don't look so 'beige'. It is a tad long for the look I had in mind but a friend will do the alterations.

Later that night, I woke to a pain near my spine. It felt bruised. I couldn't remember injuring it and immediately my thoughts, as they too often do in the middle of the night, went to the dark side..unexplained bone pain...must be mets. In the light of day though I remembered that the setting of the massage chair was too high and the pounding on my spine probably caused the pain.

I haven't seen my son in almost a month due to our trips but I will see him today. Tomorrow I have Maya duty. I will take her in for her 15 month check-up. Amazing how the time has flown. The pediatrician is out on maternity leave. I don't think there will be any more concerns about Maya's skinniness. She seems to have reversed that trend