Hilton Head Island Wedding

Last weekend, Mike and I packed up our car and took Tyler down to my girlfriend's wedding. From Richmond, it should have been about 7 and a half hours. It took us 10 hours. Here's what happened on our way down:

10:00 am - We have the car packed and are pulling out of our driveway (after diligent planning, and packing the night before, we are able to leave at exactly the time we wanted to leave!)

10:30 am - Mike (who is driving) hears Tyler make a weird noise. I turn around just in time to watch Tyler projectile vomit his milk and Cheerios all over the travel tray, his book, and the center console of the car.

10:32 am - Mike pulls the car into a Sheetz parking lot (we were headed there to grab breakfast, anyway) and we proceed to do some damage control. It's about 55 degrees outside so, as I'm cleaning Tyler up and taking his wet vomity clothes off, all he keeps saying is,"It code! It code!"

11:15 am - We've cleaned up, gotten breakfast, and are back on the road.

12:00 pm - Mike suggests I pick up his Nintendo DS and play Zelda, just to try it out.

12:30 pm - I am now addicted to Zelda on the DS and continue to play on and off for the remainder of the drive.

1:00 pm - Tyler falls asleep (time for his afternoon nap, anyway)

2:30 pm - We start seeing billboard signs for South of the Border. I mention to Mike that it looks like an interesting place to stop and stretch our legs, and let Tyler run around a little.

3:00 pm - We arrive at SOB, and it doesn't take long for us to get freaked out. But we keep thinking that each store/building holds something new or interesting. They don't. We buy Tyler a set of maracas and us some fireworks.

4:00 pm - Back in the car to look for somewhere to eat lunch. We drive about 10 miles down the highway and stop at a gas station with a Subway.

4:40 pm - Now it's my turn to drive, and we're in South Carolina. I drove the rest of the way and stopped once for coffee. Tyler watches Cars on the portable DVD player.

8:30 pm - We arrive at our hotel!!

It was such a long drive for a short visit, but it was still better than flying, because we could take everything we wanted to with us. With flying time and layovers, we probably would have taken the same amount of time to get there, too (and spent more money).

Anyway, the wedding was beautiful. My girlfriend was gorgeous and much more relaxed than I would have been. I found that I was exhausted the whole weekend, though, and didn't have any energy to stay up much past 10:00 pm during the whole trip. I was glad that I got to see my friends, that Mike and I were able to bring Tyler along.

Here is Sara, in her gorgeous wedding dress:

My friends and I, in front of the wedding hall:

Here we all are, in Sara's dressing room:

And again, after the ceremony: Mike with Tyler (Mike had some pretzels in his pocket):

Tyler:

Civility and Empathy

It's finally happened, folks! Drumroll please...our son has learned to say "please" and "thank you"!!! Most often with coaxing, i.e.,"What do you say?" or "What's the magic word?" for when we want Tyler to say "please", and we still have to say "Say 'thank you'." But, sometimes he'll say "please" all on his own, instead of reaching his hand out and whining/grunting. It's so wonderful to hear (he actually says "peez") and we totally cave anytime he asks us for something and says please. I don't care, it's music to my ears :)

We've also taught Tyler to say "sorry" when he hurts someone. It's gotten to the point where all either one of us has to do is say, "Ow!" or "That hurt!" and, if he thinks he was the cause of our pain, Tyler will pat whoever he hurt on the head and say,"Tah-wee". On a rare occasion, he has kissed the boo-boo himself! Just this weekend, he started asking if I was okay. He kept asking, "Okay?" until I answered him that I was okay. What a sweet kid I've got!