Lily was a bumblebee for Halloween. :)
Check out those chompers! See that fang on the left? As of this week we are officially in the process of weaning. It is going awesomely so far, and I could not be happier. :)
"Anna" is the first name that Lily can say. I don't know if it's because she loves her so much or because she likes the dogs that come with Anna. :)
Anyway, cutest, squealiest piglets ever. Tiny curly tails and fuzzy, squinty eyes.
Lily was pretty silent and hanging on to me pretty tightly when we first got in the barn. Probably because these guys were making a whole lot of noise:
These really are some of the cutest piglets I've seen. They kind of lined up to have their picture taken.
Eventually Lily got a bit braver and went inside the pen with Anna.
And then Anna held her over the poo pile. Ha!
Anyway, it was a fun time. How awesome for Lily to have an aunt with a farm! :)
I have a better quality picture of it but I prefer the one above because I think it represents the week well. It was his birthday, we tried to get a cake, but it's kind of dark and dreary and there's a thermometer in the background. We didn't have room in the freezer for the cake so it sat out on the kitchen table (melting) while he worked late. It kind of reminded me of last year, when he worked late on his birthday because he did something to the server and it crashed and he didn't get home until 8 or 9 PM. That was his 30th birthday and I was huge and pregnant like this:
The above picture is actually from the baby shower my sisters and kjk had for me at my Mom's house on October 12. So by October 21 things had gotten even more difficult, but I invited everyone over and made pork chops (not something I usually cook) and a cake, though poor Benj had to work late, at least he came home to a surprise party. Anyway, this year he turned 31 and I'm not pregnant, but I do have this to contend with:
So I gave her dinner while we waited for Benj to get home. She of course ate all of the greenbeans and cheese but threw all of her pasta on the floor. This picture was taken not long before she threw the plate on the floor and it cracked in half. Of course this is my fault for not having gone out and bought some plastic baby plates yet. She broke another plate this morning so as of today I have officially learned my lesson and will be going out later to get some plastic plates.
Anyway, eventually Benjamin came home and we had our dinner and ate some cake. He worked late again last night but I don't want to talk about it.
I have gotten orders for 2 more of them. I find they're much easier than working on bedding as it's just generally so much easier to sew small things. :) And unfortunately this bedding set is on its way back to me to try to resell as the woman never got around to paying me for it, strung me along for months, and now is finally just sending it back after 2 months. Don't get me started. :(
And my hair wasn't much better. So yeah, it was a rough night. My mom keeps telling me I need to night wean her, and I agree, but I also just don't have much hope for it working. :( The girl has a mind of her own and tends to decide when she's ready for things and until that point it's really just a pointless struggle on my part to change things.
The pastor was from Jersey and looked and sounded a lot like Christopher Walken, or at least I thought so...
Here I am after about 4 hours of sleep and some time spent out it in the rain:
Gorgeous and glamorous, as always. :( Anyway, Lindy and Steve were happy and sweet and it was a beautiful ceremony. I especially love my very happy grandmother's face in this picture of them kissing (that's her in pink on the right):
Anna made a nice speech, though she was pretty nervous. I fought back the tears until I saw Aunt Ruth crying, then I was a mess. But look at this lovely arch someone decorated!
The food was nice and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Though Lindy accidentally burnt a hole in her napkin on some candles on her table:
Very typical Lindy. :) Lil partied like a big girl for a bit:
But eventually got a bit fussy so Benjamin took her downstairs to play. Apparently she enjoyed this big red chair:
Mostly.
(I made her dress.)
She rubs her head on things when she's tired, poor girl.
Anyway, overall I'd say it was a very nice day and a beautiful wedding. Everyone chipped in and did their part. Like Uncle Josh running the sound:
And Benjamin and I making a champion effort at some kind of cake:
And plenty of sweet little girls with happy faces:
And now Lindy is married and Lily has a new Uncle Steve. Oh happy day! :)
and learning to walk like Chica.
(She reminds me of Mowgli from The Jungle Book in this picture.)
Keep in mind we haven't had a full night's sleep in a year, so we pretty much operate in spaced-out zombie mode 24/7. I knew Benjamin was over-tired when I told him I was worried about one of the layers not cooling fast enough and he immediately tried to put it in the fridge. Apparently he laid it in a drawer on top of a wine bottle, so of course the cake broke:
His response? "I thought it was flatter than that!" Poor guy. Anyway, we finally finished the first layer of icing and went to bed around 12:30.
We woke at 5:30, worked on the cake some more, showered, dressed, fed and dressed Lily, and packed up the car. Lily played sweetly on the floor with marshmallows and confectioner's sugar while we worked:
So we were exhausted to say the least. The wedding was scheduled for 11 AM in Chadd's Ford (which is about an hour and a half from here), and we had a cake to deliver. Oh, and it was pouring rain. Lindy had planned an outdoor ceremony. Stay tuned.
Kelly assisted in snack consumption:
The ceremony was scheduled for 3 so we got dressed, and Lily reveled in the novelty of Pampers:
Unfortunately this is the only picture we managed to get of the ceremony:
But it gives a good idea of how beautiful it was. What it doesn't show is the overwhelming smell of incense, and though you can kind of see the bride and groom, you can't see how absolutely beautiful she was. Amazing! As Benjamin put it, there was "lots of conch shell". After the ceremony we spent some time hanging out with Santanu and the other old Boston crew (Kevin, Jason, Mike, AJ, Frances) out on the hotel patio. Lily liked most of them but loved Uncle Shmoop:
Or maybe it was just the scarf? :)
Frances loved Lily and spent a lot of time playing/dancing/cuddling with her:
That picture was taken during the cocktail hour, which had some fantastic food and even more fantastic mango lassis. The reception was a bit rowdy so Lily spent some time playing outside the ballroom area:
Which may have been her favorite part of the whole event. :) I took her up to bed soon after and came back to the reception to eat some lamb and paneer and other things that my Central Pennsylvanian palate was just not made for. Eventually the reception was rowdy enough that we all decided to hang out outside the ballroom area so we could actually talk:
Though Jason and Fran were still a bit obnoxious and asked me rudely as I was leaving whether it was because I had to go breastfeed (Jason sat rubbing his chest while asking this). You can't see me but my eyes are rolling out of my head as I type that. 
And by 8 AM had so tired herself out that she basically just passed out on our bed:
And after a quick nap was up and ready to wreak some havoc again:
Which included some time in the hotel pool that she did not enjoy at all. (Benjamin saw this picture and said "I look like some kind of weird European." ha!)
So that was our trip! Not great pics, not much of a story, but overall Lily seemed to enjoy herself. :) Thanks again to Kelly for coming along and being such a wonderful and helpful friend to me and to Lily too!
