From Dill to Brown and Beyond: Serious Weekend and More Wedding Photos

Oh, man. We just had a serious weekend. We traveled to Grand Rapids (well, Ada, Michigan) yesterday for the Brown family reunion. Nora cried almost all the way there. When we started the trip, she started wailing, and I made Willis pull over so I could see if she was poopy. She was. So, I changed her diaper (and her clothes), and I nursed her for about 45 minutes (that's seriously how long she ate) until she calmed down. She was fine for about a half hour or 45 minutes, and then she started wailing again. Josh and Ian were in the car with us, and I'm pretty sure those guys are not going to be wanting kids anytime in the near future after that episode.

It was so sad: the kid wouldn't nap in the car, and she ALWAYS naps in the car. She was fussy all day long, and any time we got her in a deep sleep, we'd try to lay her down, and she'd wake up screaming. I was thinking of just wearing her in the sling all day so she could sleep on me, but everyone wanted to see her and hold her (most of the family hadn't even met her yet). So, that wasn't going to work. I just felt so helpless. I didn't really feel like I could enjoy myself because I was really too stressed out about Nora being so upset. Mary (my mother-in-law) did her best to help me out by holding her and soothing her, and I do think Nora did pretty well for a large portion of that time.

On our way home, it was just Ian, Willis, and I in the car, and I sat in the back with Nora. I was able to curb her screams (don't tell the authorities, but I climbed over to her side of the car and nursed her in her car seat a couple of times when I couldn't get her to stop screaming). Luckily, Ian was sawing some logs up front, so he didn't get a show or anything. That's not something I ever thought I'd have to do with Nora, but . . . man . . . I got pretty desperate to get her to calm down. A few times, she was sucking my pinky finger, and she CHOMPED me. Once that happened, I realized she had to be teething again. I got to looking at things a little more closely, and I realized that I was seeing some more white spots on her gums. It was just terrible timing (but when is it ever good timing, honestly?).

In the past week, she's been really difficult to get down for naps and for night time. I think this is why. She's also been a lot more fussy, and she's been wanting to be held more than usual.

Today, I think she was just so tired. After everyone left this morning, I took her up to her crib, put some toys in there with her (her mirror and two small toys), and left her in there awake. I heard her playing around with her toys for a little while, and then after about twenty minutes, I heard nothing. I walked in there to check on her, and sure enough, she was asleep. She slept for a good two hours, I think. We had time to mow, trim, weed the garden, put up the hammock, and cut Willi's hair before she woke up again. She's probably going to need another nap here shortly. So, I've got to make this quick.

So, I'm exhausted today. I was up late last night with the girls (Amanda and Betsy), too, after we got Nora to bed. We actually enjoyed our patio last night—even though there's still a huge pile of sand on it. I had to buy some citronella candles and some bug spray, but, by golly, we enjoyed that patio.

Without further ado (and without further torturing you about our hardest day so far with our little baby), I'll share some more photos of my brother's wedding. These were taken by my sister, Julie, or by some member of her very large family. Enjoy!

Jermy, the groom.

Me at the rehearsal, looking like a school marm. That's little Nora standing up for me whilst watching her feet.

Jerm and Marlene at the rehearsal.

Daddy.

See how seriously uncool and school marmy I am? It's pretty significant.

I look like I should be holding a ruler or something.

Dark photo of Nora and me at the mansion. It's highly likely I had no idea where we were supposed to be here. I was wondering around the place for a good hour or so before I figured out what was going on. I felt really bad about that.

This is definitely where I had no idea where I was supposed to be. Nora was screaming for about 45 minutes straight here, too, which added to the stress level a bit. Killian was trying to help cheer her up. I think she grabbed his glasses clean off his face at one point.