Picture Post – The Reluctant Grownup

So I recently came into possession of a laptop computer, which is a giant big deal in my world. I love having it, but I keep forgetting I have it, since it’s been so long (since 2003?) since I had a working laptop of my very own. I always just used the Prof’s or my work laptop – which was fine except I could not store pictures on those. So, bringing us around to our point . . . now I have one, and it’s mine, and I can put my pictures on it, and voila! You get picture posts! I’m about to get a new phone as well – mine is many years old and I used it so darn much, it’s just worn itself out and turns itself off a few times a day. So once I have a new phone with some actual memory, plus a computer, then I shall have photos to share! All the best blogs have photos, and I’m gunning for a blue ribbon here.

So, the following is a narrative loosely knitting together some photos from the last few months:

First, we shall return to the bachelorette party to end all bachelorette parties . . . downtown Nash Vegas, karaoke bar and beers!

On the left thar is the mom of Baby Cute, which is the name that Craig calls my niece Hannah. (I used to show him pictures of her on my phone and say “isn’t the baby cute!” So he just started calling her Baby Cute. WHICH IS DARNEDEST CUTE.) That’s Amanda. She’s three and a half years my junior and lives in North Carolina. She got married in November 2011, had Hannah 4 years later. In the middle is our youngest sibling, Corrie, who lives in Texas and was married in July of 2011. On the right is me, in a slightly unflattering pose but ok w/it.

This is Amanda on the left and the bride on the right. So the bride (Caki, short for Catharine) just had a birthday, and we facetimed her. At the end of the call, Liam asked if we could buy her baby Hannah a present. I told him – “Wrong brown-haired aunt, buddy.” Another funny story – when Jack was a baby, we lived near Aunt Amanda. We would occasionally visit Aunt Caki. So he knew them both. One Christmas, during a visit to my parents, both Aunt Amanda and Aunt Caki were there. And Jack was dumbfounded – looking at one, then the other, then back to the first one. He had never realized they were two different people.

I am also frequently mistaken for these other two by my parents’ neighbors. Corrie, the blond, was spared this fate.

Craig asked to hold the baby. She was very tolerant. This picture makes them look roughly the same size but the camera lies – she is actually quite small and his head is probably twice as big as hers. Nevertheless, he is still a very small human and him holding an even smaller human was pretty adorbs.

I only took one or two pictures of the wedding day, as I wanted to keep my phone out of my hands and keep my focus on the moment. This is one of them! Doesn’t he look sharp!

This is the only photo I got of the bride, with my mom photobombing with some kind of stealth move there in the back. But she looked stunning, and I can’t wait to see the real pictures.

The boys took me to burgers on Mother’s Day. The meal was good, but even better? They behaved themselves! That thing in Jack’s hand is the insert to a stuffed giraffe that plays jungle sounds. The giraffe was discarded in favor of this hard plastic box. Kids are weird.

This is often how the boys look on the weekends in summertime. I think I took this photo while we were on our way to a birthday party that included a giant blow up waterslide, a paddling pool, a squelchy, sodden backyard, and tons of stand up fans and some karaoke equipment plugged in everywhere. Basically, I spent the entire party certain we were all going to be electrocuted at any time. It is difficult being a lawyer. Just ask my kids what I do when I have to sign a release to let them go to a birthday party in a bounce house place. There’s lots of reading and scribbling and thinking real hard, as they stand there rolling their eyes.

We spent the morning swimming, and then grabbed some burgers on the way home. Right now the big boys are playing “dad” in the hallway, with a stuffed lamb, a nap mat, and an empty pizza box. It’s thunderstorming outside. Craig is napping. I am about to go work out. I shall leave you with this – Baby Cute, in all her wedding finery.