Parish Picnic

We just got back from our parish picnic, where Nicholas was remarkably well behaved considering that it was during his normal naptime. Our parish picnic really is just a picnic, rather than the festivals some churches hold under that name. But we have a strong affection for it because that is where we met our church friends 2 years ago, weeks after we joined the parish.

We were planning to wait until after Nicholas took a short nap before we went to the picnic, but he refused to go to sleep, so we figured we would just go for a little bit. But he was so wonderful that a little bit turned into 3 hours of fun!

Here he is, quite content to hang out with our church friends:

From Nicholas - Month 4

After about an hour of hanging out and being agreeable, he got fussy and we decided to head home for him to nap. As we left, I said, "unless he falls asleep before we get to the car, in which case we'll be back." We took the long route to the car and put the shade over the stroller and sure enough, 10 minutes later we were back at the picnic.

Nicholas only stayed asleep about half an hour, but it was long enough for us to get our hats handed to us in a game of bocce ball. It was also long enough, apparently, to recharge his batteries and buy us another hour or so at the picnic. This made Joe particularly happy because it meant we stayed long enough for him to judge the dessert contest, something he has been wanting to do since our first picnic.

Nicholas didn't get to eat the desserts, but he apparently knew something cool was going on because he watched Joe taste them in rapt attention:

From Nicholas - Month 4

And since other people were holding him a lot, I got a chance to play with the camera some. I've started playing with the great zoom function on our camera recently. I'm not a good photographer, but every once in awhile I get a shot I like a lot.

This is my favorite one from today:

From Nicholas - Month 4

Even though he isn't smiling, I like this picture a lot, I guess because of the natural light.

One of the couples we are friends with has a grandson almost exactly Nicholas' age and talking with them today reminded me of how lucky we are with Nicholas. Their grandson still has a lot of the sleep patterns and quirks that Nicholas had as a newborn but that he grew out of months ago (because, yes, he is now old enough that "months ago" is possible). Thank you, my darling boy, for sleeping in your crib, going to bed at a reasonable (and downright glorious) hour, and learning to suck your thumb to fall asleep. And thank you for giving us some time today to chat with adults and even play a little.

On another note, happy birthday Uncle Andrew! We're sorry we couldn't see you today, but feel better soon and we'll celebrate when we see you next.