I Enjoy Being a Girl

Fairy wings take it to a whole new level.


I could eat...this...up.

Anything You Can Chew, I Can Chew Better

Shock and Awe

The only words we have to describe this:

Steve and I had been despairing of Andrew ever learning to ride a two-wheeler. It's concerning enough that Andrew's life plan is to live in his dinosaur room upstairs and go to work with Steve every day when he grows up. I will still be packing this kid's lunch when he's 35. But to envision him as a grown-up living at home, wearing a pocket protector to work, carting his lunch off in his Pottery Barn Kids lunchbox every day, and still not being able to ride a bike without training wheels...well, let's just say my prospects of ever welcoming a daughter-in-law and dandling grandchildren on my knee in my old age were beginning to look grim.

However (cue the Hallelujah chorus), after Andrew heard about his buddy Seth's recent success, he told Steve to take the training wheels off his (what seems now ridiculously small) bike. Then he hopped on his bike and pretty much took off. Really, just like that. He still needs help getting started and making turns, but the basic skill is there! Way to go, Andrew!

It seems just yesterday we were so proud to be watching him ride his bike for the very first time:

I may hold those grandchildren yet.

The Week in Pictures

Catching some rays...

It's Mommy's birthday!

Adam's new scooter...

A ball player to root fer!


Batman & Clone Trooper playing the Wii...

Mommy, Mommy, what about me?

What About the Children?

Several people have wondered why my children were not part of Aunt Lindsay's wedding. Andrew and Adam could have been bell ringers, ring bearers, pages, or other general Little Lord Fauntleroy-type characters. We could have wheeled Libby and cousin Mary Caroline down the aisle in a red Radio Flyer wagon, a la the Duggars. They are obviously perfect candidates...why on earth were such adorable specimens of little people not prominently featured in Kyle and Lindsay's big day?

Well, what no one outside of my family seems to be aware of is that Children Ruin Weddings. At least, that is our family motto and has been since 1977 when Alison Ruined Uncle Kevin's Wedding. I was three years old when I was invited to be the flower girl in my uncle's wedding. I was old enough to take direction and old enough to know this was a Big Deal. My Aunt Terri's 3-year-old nephew Ryan was the ring bearer. All went well at the rehearsal. Ryan and I were given our places to stand and knew what to do for the big day. The day of the wedding, I marched down the aisle with Ryan sporting my Herself-the-Elf haircut and Holly Hobby-style 70's flower girl dress. I was Hot Stuff. But then that little fink poor, frightened child Ryan got stage fright and ran off to sit with his mom. This wasn't part of what we rehearsed. I got confused and tried to find my mom, but she was nowhere to be found in the sea of faces. I couldn't find anyone I knew. Until I saw her. The bride. My beautiful new Aunt Terri, coming down the aisle in her wedding dress and veil, clutching her father's arm. So I raced to Aunt Terri's side and walked down the aisle next to her and her father.

Aunt Terri and Uncle Kevin, heaven love them, did not seem to mind in the least. Aunt Terri said later she didn't even realize I was there next to her, what with her own wedding-day jitters. My father was a different story. (Of course, no one ever mentioned anything about Ryan Ruining the Wedding. Just Alison. Not that I'm bitter.)

Thus was born an ironclad, indisputable truth in our family: Children Ruin Weddings. In the last 32 years, never have any of the Moon kids appeared in another wedding as children. Whitney was lucky to squeak into mine as a junior bridesmaid at age 12. I could just hear my dad muttering under his breath about it, too, so convinced was he that Whitney was going to drool on the guests or pick her nose during the wedding.

The truth is deeply ingrained in all of us Moon kids. Lindsay and Kyle's golden retriever Murray stood a better chance than any children of being in the wedding. Besides, they really couldn't have crammed another name onto that program...

The last photographic evidence of a Moon child appearing in a wedding. This was taken right before I Ruined Uncle Kevin's Wedding.

Big Weekend, Part II: There Went the Bride

Life has certainly been a little over-the-top lately (in a good way). Andrew has started kindergarten, Adam has started preschool, and Libby has started practicing for her terrible two's. And I've discovered that I have a little case of "lunchbox righteousness." I imagine everyone at Andrew's school is terribly concerned with the contents of his lunchbox. I want to be sure his lunches say, "Look, I have a mom who is concerned that I am getting a nutritious lunch (heavy on the fruits and veggies), 2 snacks, and drink, but who is also hip and caring enough to throw in a Star-Wars-themed thermos and some good chocolate pudding." It can be a little stressful, making sure Andrew's lunches project a true picture of our family values without causing him any undue social awkwardness. In addition to all that, we've begun a minor redecoration project which really has become major just by virtue of having to work around/under/behind three little would-be "helpers." So I've not really had time for things like cleaning the house, preparing meals that don't go in lunchboxes, and keeping up with the electronic record of our life and times.

But I did not want any more time to pass without saying "Congratulations" to the newlyweds, my sister Lindsay and my new brother-in-law Kyle. It's about time you two made Murray legitimate. Lindsay and Kyle had a gorgeous wedding almost two weeks ago. They are in the enviable position of having more friends (and sisters, in Lindsay's case) than they can count, so they had 163 people in their bridal party.

OK, OK, I'm exaggerating. It was only 20. See? Under normal circumstances, you would be shocked at a bridal party of 20. Who on earth would have 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen? But now, after thinking it was 163, 20 seems reasonable, right? I'm clever that way.

Rehearsal dinner photo of Lindsay and her bridesmaids...minus one! Wow, that's a lot of girls crowded into one picture...

So Lindsay and Kyle, attended by a ginormous number of witnesses, spoke their vows on a gorgeous summer Carolina evening in a beautiful garden. And then they had a par-tay. It was so fun to see all our friends and relatives gathered from afar for this happy occasion. And big ups to Lindsay for choosing what is probably the only bridesmaid dress I have ever worn (and there have been many) that could actually be worn again. I speak truth to all you doubting Thomasinas who are reading this. I don't know exactly where I will wear it, but I will wear it. Perhaps to Harris Teeter. Perhaps to the preschool pickup line. Or maybe to Andrew's parent-teacher conference. I do have an image to uphold.

Congratulations, Lindsay and Kyle! May your marriage bring you much joy.

Moms Take the Fun Out of Everything

Here are just a very few of the things I have inadvertently neglected to warn Adam specifically against doing. I have since remedied this.

1. Do not silently slip out of your carseat when we are about to leave for preschool and race down to the neighbors' house to "give Josh a present" while Mommy steps back into the house for 5 seconds to get her tea. She will be extremely worried when she returns to the car to find the child she left securely belted in inexplicably AWOL.

2. Yanking a bolted baby gate clean out of the wall, while quite effective for your immediate purpose of getting from Point A to Point B, is not a good idea. Especially when said baby gate (and said wall) is not in our house.

3. We don't write on sofas with ink pens. Especially when said sofas don't belong to us.

4. Only the preschool teachers are allowed to open the playground gates. No more of this Pied Piper stuff, buddy.

5. You are too little to reach your top dresser drawer. If you stack pillows up against the dresser and stand on the pile on your tiptoes during "naptime," you will fall and get hurt.

6. 3-year-olds should not pull tiny Lego pieces apart with their teeth. The American Academy of Pediatrics would probably frown on that. Only mommies can do it.

7. Nor are 3-year-olds allowed to give snacks to their baby sisters. It took Mommy a long time to clean all that chocolate off Libby.

8. Not everyone thinks seeing your bare little bottom is as funny as you do. (OK, I admit...it gives me a chuckle.) But if I were you, I'd stop flashing it.

Riddle of the Day

What do Libby and this guy have in common?



She has a clean diaper, so it's not that...

Stripes.

More road rash.