Was on my way to do a little post of recent pictures from the phone when I realized I never posted anything on St. Patrick's Day. What a crime! I didn't bring my camera, so the only pictures I took were the ones with my cell phone. So, allow me to back up a bit...
We found a parking place and played in Forsyth Park before making our way to the parade start.
{If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see mine and my brothers' bricks on the top row - a gift many years ago from our grandmother. I was being artsy.}
{Green water!}
{Taller than the trees...A view from Hannah's vantage point.}
{Joseph and Uncle Will Will}
For the first time, we rode the whole parade route on a float. {The Board of Education float with Joe's parents. Last year we were only on it briefly.} It was a completely different perspective of the parade and we really enjoyed it.
{Three Josephs}
{Hannah waving with Gran Gran}
{That's the Old Harbor Light in the background. Little tidbit: I did a hand-rendering of this spot for the Save the Dates for our wedding. Resembling a giant street light, the Harbor Light was erected during the mid-19th century to help guide ships into the Savannah Harbor.}
When we got back to Meme's house, we turned on the recording of the parade so we could see ourselves on TV!
Back to our trip. On Wednesday, April 3rd, we arrived in New Orleans. My mom rented a big house in the
Garden District. Seventeen of us stayed there. It was fun, if a little crazy. As I mentioned before, I didn't get any pictures with my camera, but between my phone and Facebook, I managed to scrounge up some of my family.
{Hannah and Cousin Jackson at the welcome party
Wednesday night.}
{My sweet boy, post-sleep obviously.}
{Thursday morning, with Uncle Ben and Jackson watching the construction going on outside our house on Napoleon Ave.}
{With Cousin Juliana, Thursday after manicures and pedicures.}
{Thursday night at the rehearsal dinner, toasting the bride and groom with Ben.}
Wedding Day:
{Friday morning, Wedding Day breakfast. Joseph enjoyed Aunt Charli's beignets very much.}
{In the limo - unsure at first. No carseat, afterall.}
{My Hannah girl, outside the Bride's suite.}
{Later in the limo, totally herself. Love how her bag of chips is right in front of my face. Classic.}
{Flower girls!}
{My little ring bearer!}
{The ceremony was in the courtyard behind the Pharmacy Museum in the French Quarter. Beautiful bride, beautiful groom, beautiful everything!}
{Laughing at Joe's homily.}
{Making it official.}
{Listening to Lucas, our cousin who is a professional opera singer, up in the balcony (Joseph was up there, too, with Aunt Katie at this point). Amazing!!}
{My girl with the best man, Uncle Ben. Really...just like me.}
{Hannah hugging Ava on the dance floor.}
{Dancing with Cousin Lucas - who, as she reminds everybody - broke her trampoline (at a party at my mom's house, back in October) Looks like she's forgiven him.}
{With the groom!}
{Breakfast on Saturday at Cafe Du Monde, before we pack up and hit the road.}
We made a stop in Birmingham to visit Joe's cousins before our final leg of the journey home, with one sick kid and one exhausted family!
And that's all. Looking forward to seeing the photographer's pictures. Hopefully there's a good family one.
Joseph had a great second birthday. If you understand the significance of that statement, you know how incredibly happy we were. {Afterall, there haven't been a whole lot of happy days - especially happy days back to back - with this child. Between his GI issues and recent sickness, he's not been feeling too good. And when you don't feel good, well, you're not happy.} But the last week and a half might be the best we've ever had. We are so very grateful and praise God for it. We are also praying it continues.
Maybe this is that switch or hurdle - you know the one that seems to happen between 12 and 18 months when the baby is just more independent, more fun...and things just seem a little easier all of a sudden? Maybe we just had to wait 24 months with Joseph... I don't know. Maybe it's that he's feeling better. Maybe it's just that he's older and more capable. Maybe it's that he's talking now and can articulate what he wants. Maybe it's a combination of things. Maybe the time is fleeting and I shouldn't get my hopes up! Maybe I shouldn't think about it too much and enjoy it!!
So, on Thursday, April 18th, we celebrated Joseph's big day bringing cupcakes to his preschool class:
We took Hannah away from her class long enough to celebrate with us, but she wasn't too cooperative with pictures. She did flash us a couple twos.
We went out to Fox's Pizza for lunch, Joseph's favorite. Then, after nap, he had a good time playing with his water table from Meme.
And when it came time for more presents, he had to make sure that every single scrap of wrapping paper was taken off the boxes.
Playing with balloons from Uncle Ben and Aunt Katie:
When Daddy got home from work, we showed Joseph his new teepee!
He was all about going in and out. In....and out. He'd go in, close the flaps, then bust out like a horse out of the gate. It went pretty much how we expected it to go.
Thursday night we sang and had more cupcakes. The kid loves cupcakes. And candles.
Making a wish or concentrating on blowing out candles?
He ate some and then we lit the candles again.
The MJ outfit is from Uncle Will Will and Aunt Crystal. Friday, and the rest of the weekend, we played some more. Everyone likes the set of sports balls from Auntie Jen, Uncle Daniel, Leah and Audrey:
The bath toys from Ms. Brannen, Mr. Mitch, and Pierce:
And the bubble blower/flashlight from Meme:
Can you hear Joseph saying, "Buh-bul! Buh-buuuul!!!"?
Want to experience it? Here's video:
Happy birthday buddy, and happy third year of life!
