here comes the bride...

Here's my nifty news of the week - I get to perform a wedding ceremony on Thursday for my former roommate and her fiancé. How fun is that? I got my temporary marriage commissioner's license and I officially get to pronounce them 'husband and wife'. Except they won't let me call them 'husband and wife'. They think it sounds old and awkward. Fortunately, because Canada has legalized same-sex marriage, the forms they sent me don't actually use the terms 'husband and wife'. And no, I will not get into a discussion about same-sex marriage on this post or any other. That's best left to in person venues rather than the inter-web in my opinion.

I'm pretty excited to be an officiant at a wedding for the first time in my life, but I'm also a little nervous. I know my girlfriend is very adamant about having a non-traditional wedding ceremony, but unfortunately, a lot of the things we have to do during the ceremony are, well, traditional. Vows, exchange of rings, declaration of intent, signing the register - heck, they even want me to say a little message in the middle. Maybe she and I just have a different idea of what 'traditional' means. She is a Catholic French-Canadian and I a Protestant Dutch-Canadian, after all, so that could explain our different interpretations.

I also have to figure out a way to a) not make her cry too hard at the beginning when I dedicate the service to her mom who just passed away from cancer this year and b) not make her laugh so hard that she can't say her vows properly. Vergil will be co-officiating with me (though I'm the only one who can legally sign the marriage license), so the laughing thing might actually be more of an issue than the crying thing.

We're also Emceeing their reception later on that evening. Less pressure there, but it still makes for a busy day for us. They're only having 30 people at their wedding, so it's small, but with 40-45% of the bride's guests being francophone French-Canadians and 40-45% of the groom's guests being Cantonese-speaking Vietnamese, I just hope our humour is actually understood. Oy vey.

Our good friend Jae is on babysitting duties that day. I'm so glad she was able to help us out. I hope Kai behaves and doesn't give her too much grief.

Anyway, that's what's new in the dela Rosa household this week. My friend Kayla and her little boy Elliot were finally able to come for a visit last week. Elliot is doing just smashingly since his surgery and he and Kai had a great time hanging out with each other!

teeth pictures

Here are a couple pictures of Kai's buds. So much trouble for such little nubbins!

teeth!

Well, it's happened! Kai is cutting his first two bottom teeth. I'll say that the process of teething has been very interesting. He had been really spitty and drooly for about a week before I found the first tooth and his sleep had been (and still is) kind of screwy. At first I thought it was just all the activity and people and disruption of our routine, but now I realize it's been the teeth the whole time.

I'm actually wondering if he's not working on a couple teeth on the top, too, because today's been a rough one. He's been cranky and clingy and whiny and not napping well at all. His top gums look a little red and slightly inflamed, too, so I wouldn't be surprised if I found a tooth poking through there one day soon. Watch him get all his teeth all at once. This kid has no patience for anything, I tell you.

My friend recommended a homeopathic teething tablet by Hylands, so we'll see if they do anything to take the edge off. I broke down and gave him some Tempra this afternoon because he just seemed so uncomfortable. I'm really reluctant to drug him up for every little thing, but I think today was justified.

Anyway, this new phase of Kai's life has definitely proved more trying on me than I had anticipated. I kind of felt like I was just starting to figure him out and all of a sudden, he throws me this teething curveball and I feel like I'm almost back to how I felt a few weeks after he was born - clueless and frustrated. I had a pretty bad couple of days this week where I just felt really down and depressed. My mood improved as the week went on, but it's definitely been a roller coaster emotionally the last little while.

What else was I going to say? Oh yeah, when we first started feeding Kai solids, he got the hang of it really quickly and ate pretty much everything we offered him. There was a week or two there where we could hardly feed him enough. The last two or three days, however, he's been indifferent and kind of irritated with eating even a little bit of rice cereal. I'm assuming it's because of the teething thing and possibly because he'd had a growth spurt earlier that has since ended, but it has definitely added to my feelings of cluelessness and frustration.

Alrighty. Enough whining. I have a meeting tonight which means Kai and Vergil will be on their own for a few hours. Hopefully the nap the little guy is having right now will help with his mood for the evening and doesn't leave Vergil feeling too frustrated with him.

I don't have a good picture of Kai's nubbins yet, so I'll leave you with a picture of him on a happier day.

unmotivated

It's been a busy couple of weeks for us at the dela Rosa household. Kai and I spent the week with my parents at my uncle's cabin last week - Vergil joined us for the weekend, which was nice - then it's been naught but getting together with family all this week. All good stuff, but it does leave a body a little tired after a while. I have to say that Kai is awesome in rooms full of people, even when he's being passed around like a party favor. He's quite the little ham/charmer, entertaining people for hours without a fuss. Last night we had an impromptu party for my youngest sisters, since Brenna, my cousin Farrah and my parents were all in town and Kai did really well until the drive home. I think the over stimulation and exhaustion finally got the best of him. He had a bit of a meltdown and it took a long time to settle him down to finally get him to sleep. He was so tired he couldn't stop crying and then he had the cry-breathing going on for about 45 minutes after.

Anyway, today we were supposed to go out for lunch, but I decided after the day we had yesterday and the evening we're going to have tonight yet, that we'd stay home instead. I think it was a good decision, as he is having a substantial nap right now.

As for me, while I could also use a nap, I could also stand to clean my bathroom. But I don't really want to. Bleh. It's so hard to get the necessities done sometimes when there's so much other stuff going on.

That's about all that's new around here. Summer's turning out mighty fine, I have to say, but it sure does feel like August is almost over already! Seems like I've booked myself full already. I hate when I do that. Oh well, September brings another week at the cabin and then a week in Edmonton to visit my family and my soon-to-be-born niece or nephew! Very exciting!

I'll leave you with a few pictures of our week away: Kai in his (warm) pool and chillin' in the hammock with his granddad: