Bozo's wedding and Sammy's smiles

One of Fiona's most natural and pervasive activities is assigning names to stuffed animals and assigning spirit animals to people ("You're a manatee.  I'm Mr. Fox.  She's a wombat." etc).  Before heading down to Jersey for Sonal and Jeremy's beautiful wedding last week we took Sonal's magnetic face off the fridge to refresh our Seattle friends at breakfast.  When I pointed at Sonal's face and asked her what her name was, Fiona said, "Bozo".  I almost peed laughing because Sonal's the least Bozoish person I can imagine; really the opposite of big, fat, and dumb.  Perfect.

So, here are some pics from Bozo's wedding.

Friday night was a party of traditional dancing with Saris swirling and dandiya a-tappin'.  Fiona was overwhelmed until Deedee offered her a bracelet to wear along with jingle bells on her ankle; then she was ready action, wandering away from us, high fiving new friends, and getting her moves ironed out.

Yay for west coast residency friends!

Saturday afternoon Fiona stayed with Auntie Alice and the boys (who actually left for Seattle that day) since the Hindu ceremony was going to be long and during nap.  

Loving Auntie attention.

Do I fit in here?

Yes!

Apparently she peed in the bucket.  Who wouldn't?!

Sam wasn't yet up for dancing but he was a good sport, getting bounced around as we danced with Jeremy's groom procession towards his waiting bride.

 We had some kid-juggling challenges during the speeches (nursing and making potty visits and hugging the right parent at the right moment...) but being surrounded by loving and toddler-engaging friends made it pretty darn easy eg. "Where's Fiona as I sip this Jack and Coke and catch up with Nicholas?  Oh, with Deedee way over there, cool."  "I'm attached at the breast to Sam and can't reach Fiona who's pulling away from me and grabbing for cutlery but the doctor (Ellen Lackermann) who managed my pregnancy and cared for her as an infant is making dolls out of napkins: awesome."  

I include this blurry picture to remind myself of the first moment she shoved something really far up her nose: a decorative rose petal.  It disappeared and Elliott couldn't dig it out.  The next morning he found it in her groin fold and Alice said, "Oh, she did just have a big sneeze".  So that's settled without an urgent care visit.  How nice.  

This girl LOVES to dance!  I hope there are some pictures out there of her boogying because it was beautiful.  But here are a couple from when she got tired and hitched a ride.  

Thanks for this one, Jen Flament!

Tuckered out and heading home to Philly.

Rested and ready for an outing to the park.

And to see the Chrismer Chlan!

For the parental record (as this blog is primarily for our egocentric pleasure), the thing most likely to make Fiona crack up these days is rhyming.

All we had to do to keep her belly laughing on the drive home from Philly was say, "Foy, roy, loy!" when she said, "Koy, moy".  

Overheard in the bathroom once we got home:

"Do you need a bandaid for your pee-nuss, turtle?"

"Yes, I do!"

"There you go."

"Thanks!"

How thoughtful. 

Just a couple princesses reading about inter-species friendship with Zoe of a morning.

And he's smiling! 

Smiling is so deep.  It feels like his announcement that he's joined the human race. 

"I'm here!  I'm with you!  Parenting will be super fun!"

Wow.

For every moment I worry that I'm not able to be as attentive to Sam as I was to Fiona there are two moments like this one which, I think you'll agree, is stimulating.

And, as Fiona says, "He likes the music a lot!"