birthday weekend

this past weekend, we went back out to mems and teed's house. the purpose of our visit was two-fold: to attend lucy's show, which we do every year, and to celebrate bebe's birthday (which, of course, we also now do every year!).

before i get to the show and the party, however, i need to tell you about the rain. on saturday morning, it poured. poured. the forecast i had checked the day before was completely inaccurate (thanks a lot, accuweather -- might want to think about changing your name), so we were totally unprepared. bebe kept standing at the door asking to go outside, and josh and i kept telling her she couldn't go outside because it was raining. finally it dawned on us, duh, why not? why can't she go outside in the rain?

and so she did.

the show.

rare family picture, courtesy of aunt marge.

the side pigtails have taken bebe to a whole new level of cute.

she was very excited to see her friends vito, harry and john again. she spent a lot of time watching them.

and chasing them.

harry

vito

john

bebe wore a dress that lucy gave her right after she was born, when she came to meet her in the hospital. i couldn't stop taking pictures of her.

the party.

pool party! woo hoo!

i loved seeing so many of my favorite people all gathered together to celebrate bebe. mems, teed, aunt marge, omi ingie, papi don, alec and rachel and harry and john, lucy and vito, my friend jessie and her husband liam. the only one missing was uncle ben, who's in california visiting his family.

waiting for cake.

(like the white dress, this bathing suit was also given to bebe when she was born -- by omi ingie.)

she had been singing "happy birthday to bebe" for days, and talking excitedly about her party, so i was a little surprised that she got very shy when everyone sang to her. she hid one eye with one hand and refused to blow her candles out. luckily, harry helped.

she wasn't shy when it came to eating, though.

bebe got some great gifts -- books and cool alphabet flashcards -- from our guests. after they dispersed (some to give a talk at a local library on 10 years of painting in italy, others to watch the world cup final), she got some more from aunt marge and uncle ben, and mems and teed.

this year, she's actually old enough to open the gifts herself!

her favorite gift from aunt marge and uncle ben was some awesome matchbox cars and trucks (including a helicopter, cement mixer and crane truck!).

and mems and teed gave her a dollhouse, which she was instantly taken with. i had no idea that she would be so ready for it -- i thought this was a gift that she'd grow into. but as soon as we got home and set it up, i walked past her and saw her putting the entire family into the bed, pulling the covers up over them and saying, "now, everybody is taking a nice cozy nap." then she made them each pee on the potty in turn. last night, as she was walking to her bedroom to get into bed, she stopped by the dollhouse and called, "good night, doll house!"

after another fun weekend at mems and teed's, she was so tuckered out she fell asleep on the way home, right in the middle of a snack. she was actually still chewing a pretzel when her eyes closed!

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