The Flower Girl

My brother-in-law got married this past weekend,* and he and his fiancee had asked Brigid at least a year ago to be their flower girl. While I thought was sweet of them to ask at the time, especially when I saw how excited Brigid was about the whole idea of wearing a pretty dress and carrying flowers around with her everywhere, I was nothing less than terrified at the prospect of keeping my can-sometimes-be-a-'handful' toddler under control for the day of the wedding, once that day finally arrived.

The ceremony was about 40 minutes away from our house, and while my husband and the rest of his family spent the night before the big day in a hotel near the wedding venue, I took Brigid and Caitlin home after the rehearsal, hoping I could get Brigid a better night sleep in her own bed than I could in a strange hotel room where a majority of her favorite people would be spending their time. And that would have been an excellent plan, had it not involved my child, who apparently doesn't need sleep anymore. It was close to midnight when I went to check on her before I went to bed, and she was still awake.

See? Terrified.

I let her sleep until the absolute last moment before we had to leave the next morning, so she still got a good 9+ hours of sleep in for herself, but then when we tried to get her to take a nap a few hours later, knowing she'd be exhausted by the time we walked down the aisle at 7:30? No dice. She wanted in her dress, and she wanted to get the show on the road.

(In case you were wondering, THIS is what you get when you ask Brigid to stand still and smile...)

I got her dressed at the hotel, loaded her awkwardly into the van (carseats are NOT designed to hold flower girl dresses, for future reference...), and began the eleven minute drive to the wedding location.

ELEVEN MINUTE DRIVE. And this happened...

Because of course it did.

Luckily, we had an hour before she needed to be up and running for pictures, so Steve and his dad took turns sitting with her in the car while she napped for about 45 minutes. And while she wasn't exactly thrilled with life when she woke up, there was no meltdown.

She survived pictures. She decided at the last minute that she wanted to walk down the aisle by herself (instead of with me), so that she could hold her flowers with both hands, like all of the other bridesmaids were doing. She didn't run all over the altar during the actual ceremony. She was AWESOME.

And then she celebrated.

(Sparkling cider. Steve got her some sparkling cider. You should have seen me jump across the table before I realized what it was. The videographer thought she was going for the beer next to it...)

She stayed up until something like 2am. She wasn't all that great about going to bed when we told her to go to bed in the past, and now? We may never get her to bed at a decent hour again.

Party animal, that kid.

*(CONGRATULATIONS GREG AND CHRISTINA!! We love you both! Thank you so much for asking us all to share in your special day.)