the glorious twelfth

Well, not really. That's the first day of pheasant hunting in Scotland.
But it was a rather celebratory weekend.

Adam was the best man in the wedding of his friend Josh (THE Josh, not to
be confused with Josh the brother or Josh the brother-in-law, or whatever
we're calling them these days) to Katie (no, not that Katie, the other
one). Josh is a friend from Texas, was also an MK, and to our good luck
(especially Adam's) ended up in the area. And to his good luck, ended up
successfully wooing Katie, a venture culminating in this weekend's wedding.

This weekend was also when Brigid turned three months. In celebration of
her three month birthday, which was also the day of the wedding, Brigid
Decided to be Good. Adam and I were at church for about twelve hours
straight (see, it was the glorious twelfth. Or at least twelve).

First there was the rehearsal, during which Adam rehearsed, and Brigid and
I read. Then Brigid decided to eat, so I went in search of somewhere
quiet to nurse her. There being karate in the parish hall, I sought the
quiet of the library. Having just settled down to nurse her, all alone
with the books, I was visited by the flower girl. I should have realized
what this meant: the rehearsal was over. Very quickly, the library filled
up with the bride's family, all seven hundred and eight of them. Right.
Wrong choice of nursing ventures.

The rehearsal over, I handed Brigid over to her daddy, and he watched her
while I went to karate. Good thing I didn't miss karate, because it
turned out we were breaking imaginary boards. Yep. (But we also were
run through the differences in technique when using a snap break, versus a
hammer fist break, et cetera. I did learn something, no matter how silly
I thought it sounded.)

Having changed back into normal clothes, Adam and I decided to walk across
the street to get some food. We've discovered that you can get really
good food for cheap if you ignore what restaurants try to pass off as
proper serving sizes. That is, you can feed two people for five bucks
instead of one person for five bucks if you split the meal. This works
especially well with Subway sandwiches and (what we did on the wedding
day) two entree Chinese platters. Terriyaki chicken, mmmm.

When we got back, I went back on Brigid patrol, while Adam changed into
his tux and went out to take pictures, and spend the rest of the afternoon
consoling the groom about the fact that he still had a few hours of
bachelorhood to get through. I think he also played games with the
groomsmen, but you'd have to ask him.

And Brie was Good. I put her down on a beanbag in the Sunday school room,
and she decided to spend the afternoon cooing up at me while I read a book
and cooed back at her. We also took some time to walk around outside and
peek through the windows as a very handsome groomsman posed for pictures.
(Adam cleans up well. I know you normally never see him even in shoes,
but wow does the man shine in a tux. And I got to watch him go up and
down the aisle, politely escorting women to their seats and asking,
"Bride's side? Groom's?")

So Josh and Katie got married. Then they partied - and it was a lovely
party - and it was a very Kenfield/Cunningham party, full of little quirks
and touches that only Josh and Katie would have, like the MC Escher
puzzle-cum-guestbook and the ornament-making.

Then, of course, since it's a wedding with our group of friends, we all
went out to the Ship afterwards. This was doubly necessary since Nate and
Lindsay were in town. I love weddings, I really do, but my favorite part
is always going out with friends afterwards. At Bill and Becca's wedding
in Colorado, we were forced to use a Starbucks instead of our favorite
British pub, but it was still fun.

And through the whole thing, Brigid was Good. I swear, she knew it was
her birthday, and decided that she was going to sit up and enjoy the whole
thing. (I'm partly serious about the sitting up part. For those not in
state, you should know the lovely Brigid has the back and neck muscles to
sit up now, if only she had the balance. Alas, our child could not walk,
or even sit, a tightrope if her life depended on it.)

Today, however, is not Brigid's birthday, and she's feeling poorly. For
some reasons her guts have decided to stop the lovely newborn
pooping-six-times-a-day thing and have changed to a gut-wrenching
(literally) poop-once-or-twice-a-week thing, and it makes her terribly
fussy, on off days and on days. I'm informed this is perfectly normal for
breastfed babies, since breastmilk is digested more thoroughly than
formula and thus produces less waste, but it's troublesome for Brie (and
for Adam and I). Also, Brigid's pretty sniffly, and so are Adam and I.
Today she either wants to be held or to be in her swing. I think she's
just new to the feeling crummy thing (I hate being the one to introduce my
daughter to the fallen world) and wants comfort, which means Mom, Dad or
Motion.

But we had a really fun weekend, and Saturday was so much more fun that
day-long events usually are, and so back to the point of this blog:
Congratulations Josh and Katie! May your marriage be long, faithful,
joyful and long! May it involve many good movies, good laughs and many
trips to Hawaii! May your friends be with you through the journey and may
God be with you every step of the way! Congratulations!