The Bear

Yesterday, Brennan had the honor of being the ring bearer in our good friends Dave and Evelyn's wedding. I never knew I would be so nervous for someone elses wedding! He talked for a few days last week about how he was going to be "the bear". On Friday afternoon he asked where his bear costume was, and was just slightly disappointed when I showed him his ivory linen outfit. I let him pick from a few choices of what to wear for rehearsal, and he chose the most dressy option. He also wanted to wear his new wedding shoes. I had high hopes that this would be an easy new gig for him. Unfortunately, he fell asleep on the way to Huntsville and wasn't the happiest once we arrived. Rehearsal was a bit of a struggle, but he managed to participate a little.

His favorite role was secret service agent to the bride and groom.

We aren't big on bribery, but after Friday nights performance we decided to pull out all the stops. Mike ran to Walmart and found a new Monsters University coloring book, Smarties, and a little Batman. I had a plan to make sure Brennan's room was as dark as possible Saturday morning so he would sleep later, and hopefully be ok with little or no nap. I also planned to pick up his favorite lunch, chicken fingers from Dari Delite, to make sure he had a full tummy.

Saturday morning, Brennan awoke 15 minutes later than normal. There was no convincing him that it was still dark outside, he pulled back the curtains to prove it was time to get up :). The lunch plan did work however, and he left excited "to get married".  He fell asleep on the way over again, so when we arrived I checked the schedule. They weren't ready for his pictures yet, so he got to sleep for about an hour. He is normally one to wake up happy if he is excited about what is to come, even when he hasn't gotten his full rest. As luck would have it, when we woke him he was extremely cranky. He would have no part in anything he was asked to do. It took him almost an hour, and almost all of the picture time to come around. I'm not sure there will be any good pictures of him, and there are not any of him with the wedding party. The one thing that saved the day.... a little Batman. We had planned to give it to him after the wedding, but I finally gave it to him and said do what you're asked to do and you can keep it. Before I knew it, he had planted himself in a picture with the bride. He then practiced walking down the aisle multiple times with Mike. The rest of the afternoon he was his normal, mostly cooperative self.

At wedding time, he lined right up with the flower girl and walked down the aisle. Where was Batman you ask? Tucked in the ribbon holding the two Bibles he was carrying of course. The plan was that he would go from Mike at the back to me sitting close to the front. When he got to me, he shook his head emphatically and said, "No, I'm going up there!" He went right up and stood in the bride's spot! The matron of honor kept looking at him, looking at the minister, looking at me. My face was as bright as my pink dress I'm sure. Brennan proceeded to have a conversation with the groom about Batman's boots. As the bride started down the aisle, Brennan told the groom he was going to go sit down now. He came, sat down, did a fair job of being quiet, and was very excited when it was his turn to walk back out. He did ditch the Bibles so he could run faster into the arms of the groom. Mike and I breathed huge sighs of relief.

At bedtime, I asked Brennan what his favorite part of the day had been. His response, "When I ran to Mr. Dave and he picked me up." He fell right to sleep and woke up at 9:30 this morning....two hours later than usual.