This past Saturday, Mr. W and I missed Allie’s bedtime routine for the second time since she’s had a bedtime routine (infancy). The first time was recent, too. It’s a little easier to do that now since Allie’s in the process of weaning herself. In the last two weeks, if she nurses as part of her “old” bedtime routine, she’ll only do so for a few minutes then announce she’s done, and in the past week, she’s mostly told me immediately, “No, done-done” and pointed straight at her crib, telling me she’d prefer to skip the nursing and go straight to bed. That is why we were able to attend Claudio and Jenny’s wedding on Saturday.

My parents came over during Allie’s noontime nap so that they’d be there to put her to bed; the wedding time was 4pm so we had to leave by 3pm. This was my parents’ first time doing Allie’s bedtime routine. Mr. W asked them to babysit for this occasion about a month ago, without discussing it with me beforehand, and I wasn’t happy. My mom doesn’t like to do what I tell her, and she projects all kinds of things on Allie that she makes up in her own head, and if she doesn’t agree with something I’m doing, she just won’t do it. =P Mr. W said this is their “trial” and that if they don’t do what we ask, then we’ll revoke the week of babysitting that he’d offered to them in mid-August (which again was offered to them without consulting me first).

Allie was excited to see “Gong-gong, po-po,” but whimpered when she saw us leaving. She knows our leaving in mid-day and leaving her to my parents is not a normal thing. But she didn’t cry and I was sure she’d immediately be fine. I saw the three of them waving to us from her bedroom window upstairs when I pulled the car out of the garage.
Mr. W and I were 10 minutes early to the ceremony, which took place at Cal State Fullerton’s Alumni House.

This is a selfie by Mr. W and blurry, but he blamed my phone. I think it was him, cuz MY pictures are clear. =P
Meanwhile, back at the house, Allie was having fun goofing off with her Gong-gong and Po-po. This is a nice clear view of her broken teeth. My poor Baby Vampire.

Mr. W was a little alarmed when he saw this photo (emailed to me by my mom) because there were also other photos where she was in the boppy on top of an outdoor side table without an adult sitting next to her. Now that she’s older and more active, we don’t let her sit on high surfaces alone, and definitely not in a Boppy that can tumble down with her stuck in it. But moving on…
Where we were, the ceremony had begun. If the best man looks familiar, that’s because it’s Dwaine! He’s made several guest appearances on this blog already. (So has Claudio, the groom.)

I was only armed with my cell phone, so many of my photos didn’t turn out all that well. Their wedding party was so big (5 groomsmen and 5 bridesmaids, plus 2 flower girls and 1 ring bearer boy) that I couldn’t fit them in the frame of my phone camera.
The bride and groom looked great. They’d both lost a significant amount of weight for their wedding, and were already attractive people to begin with.

This was the first time I’d seen or heard of a unit necklace, and I liked the symbolism.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Allie was enjoying a private Sesame Street puppet show.

And she had her dinner dessert-first, which isn’t a big deal because it’s just fresh fruit with my mom’s homemade plain yogurt. My mom told me that Allie still ate her main course well afterwards.

At the wedding, we had made it to the reception. I just happened to match the wedding party’s attire. Andrae (left) was a groomsman, and Dwaine (right) was the best man. And photobombing us was the groom. I was clueless, altho Andrae, the multi-degree blackbelt, seemed to have better awareness of his surroundings.

Mr. W and I had a great time, even tho he made me walk REALLY FAR to see the campus arboretum after hearing great things about it from Dwaine’s mom and my high heels were killing my feet, and all for nothing, as it turned out the arboretum closes and is locked down at 4:30p daily. It was a fun walk, tho. We laughed and joked as we hadn’t done in a long time.
Mr. W offered (jokingly) to “borrow” some bicycles chained to bike racks on campus to give me a ride back to the wedding since my feet were in so much pain. I turned down the opportunity to commit burglary. He said it was “joyriding” and not “burglary,” because we weren’t going to permanently deprive the owners of their bike. I claimed that if we were caught with the bikes, the defense (us) wouldn’t be able to prove we did not have the intent of stealing the bikes as opposed to just borrowing them. He said sure we do, we have our car here so clearly we weren’t going to ride the bikes home. I pointed out the fact that we have empty bike racks on our car which could be seen as premeditation to steal bikes and bring them back with us. He laughed. I had a point. So we ambled back, joking about chalk arrows on the ground, me limping slightly, waving off his offers to carry me back to the wedding on his shoulders like he carries Allie.
And then as if he’d forgotten my pain, when we got back, he MADE ME DANCE WITH HIM. Ouch! Dwaine snuck by to take a photo and I faked it for the camera. See?

It was also nice to meet some of Claudio and Dwaine’s friends that until then I’d only heard about, or seen on their social networking pages. They’ve heard of me, too, and another groomsman, Geoff, said he’d been wanting to meet me. Another groomsman named Tony exclaimed mid-dinner that he didn’t realize I was THE Cindy, and if he’d sooner realized I was THE Cindy, he would’ve thrown himself at my feet upon meeting me and bowed down to me. I said I was VERY flattered and that would be an impressive thing, indeed, because Tony is a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic. He said he would’ve been impressed, too. Their friends (college buddies) are goofballs, and very witty and funny.

(L-R: Dwaine, me, Andrae, Claudio, Geoff. I joked that this photo makes no sense. It’s all wedding party people…and then me. It’s all old guy buddies…and then me. It’s all Arizona State University people…and then me. I guess I’m special cuz I even fit into places I don’t fit into.)

During dinner, I checked the babycam at 6:45p and saw my parents and Allie in the living room playing. I checked again at 7:15p and Allie was already asleep in her crib. Success! I was very happy. My mom texted that it’s fine for us to stay out as long as we’d like, since Allie was already asleep, but we felt a little bad and left the wedding early — but not too early. We left while the party was still in full swing a little before 10pm, with an hour to go according to their schedule. My parents had a long drive home from our house.

According to my mom, Allie had protested and cried when she was placed in her crib for bedtime, so my mom picked her back up. And then my mom dropped her off in her crib again, so Allie cried again. So my mom picked her up again. And then my mom tried again, and Allie cried, and my mom picked her up again. My dad finally told her to put the baby in her crib and get out of the room already. So my mom did that and Allie went right to sleep. Meanwhile, my mom texted me, “Hope Allie won’t hate me that I left her in the dark room while she cried & reached her hand out to me! My heart was melt!” Two graphics of crying emoticons. Sucker. I told Mr. W that Allie had better not try that with me, and Allie didn’t. The subsequent nights went as normal; Mr. W and I went thru her bedtime routine, we said goodnight to Dada, leaving her alone with me in her room, she pointed to her crib to go in, I put her in, she stretched out her palms toward me for kisses, smiling, then I went to turn off the light and close her bathroom door, came back to her crib where she was waiting laying on her side with her hands sticking out of her crib slats, playfully smiling at me, I kiss her fingers thru the slats, I blow her kisses as I back out of her room and close the door, she sits up and watches me leave, then lays back down and settles onto her fuzzy bear.

I’d say it was a successful night.