Party All Night 'Til the Break of Dawn and Then All Day

Welcome to my life.

I'm quite terrified for our upcoming vacation given Teddy's current track record for sleeping at his grandparents' houses. You might recall Easter or any example from my parents' farm. If he sleeps this poorly on vacation, I expect a very stressed family.

So this past weekend we headed to De Pere for a wedding rehearsal and left the boys with Dave's parents. We headed back to their house around 10 to sleep there until the alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. for Teddy to participate in the Bellin Run with myTEAM Triumph.

Well, the Teddy alarm went off at 2 a.m. instead. Teddy woke up, and instead of falling back asleep, he decided he was wide awake. Dave took him for a drive to keep him from waking the rest of the house and hopefully reset him to allow him to fall back asleep. One bright note from their hour of driving is that Teddy knows where our sitter in Green Bay lives. He recognized where we exit for her house, began pointing and making sounds until Dave drove past her road. Since he doesn't talk, it's often hard to know what he knows, but this was pretty obvious and neat to know.

Unfortunately, that drive did not calm Teddy down, so I took over shortly after they returned and booted Dave to bed. (Dave was the best man at the wedding that day, so getting some sleep was pretty important for him.) Teddy and I played in the basement, although he was upset to be down there instead of upstairs by all the people, went for a drive, attempted to lay down a few times and then went to pick up donuts for all the kids once it was 5 a.m. When we returned, AJ and one of the cousins were awake and excited to see the donuts. Teddy was just happy someone was finally awake to play with him. Teddy ate a quick breakfast, and then we headed off to the Bellin Run, a 6.2-mile race.

Teddy was in a really good mood, considering his early morning. He enjoyed the run, smiling and making friends with two angels who were new to us. I've run the Bellin a number of times but enjoyed the opportunity to spectate to watch all the crazy fast runners as well as a bunch of the myTEAM Triumph teams cross the finish line.

When we got back to my in-law's house, all the cousins were awake and ready to play. I sent Dave back to lay down for a bit because he wasn't feeling well. After he came back downstairs, I decided to try napping for 20 minutes before showering and getting ready for the wedding. But then Teddy's cup went missing, which meant I ran to the store to buy another one since there are only a few cups that he can drink from easily. Dave managed to get Teddy down while I was gone, so at least Teddy got a much-needed 2-hour nap.

The wedding went well, and Dave's folks kept the boys until right before dinner. Teddy wanted little to do with sitting for dinner but enjoyed exploring the hall. As soon as dinner was done, I let him free from his chair to explore. He put on 2 miles (seriously, 4,000 steps) during the 2 hours after dinner. He loved the freedom to run all around the reception hall, grabbing random people to try to take them places and sitting at tables with people who I didn't even know.

Teddy's new hobby? He'd like to be a wedding crasher.

Once the music started, he began dancing in his own goofy way. He definitely loves music and likes to dance. Dave got a short video of Teddy dancing, but you can see the video ends when Teddy beelines to Dave to have him join our dance party.

Dave's folks came to pick up two exhausted, dance-weary boys around 9 p.m. Dave and I stayed until the end (since that's the expectation when you're the best man). It really was a fun wedding, but I was so ready to go to bed when midnight arrived. I do believe that's the only time I've ever been awake for 22 hours, and I'm good with that remaining the only time in my life.

But the next day, Teddy managed to sleep until 7 a.m. He had enough energy to explore and enjoy a dairy breakfast before heading to our house for a (remarkable, yet needed) afternoon nap.

This kid loves his tractors!

I Can Dance If I Want To ...

Ah we can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind
Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well they're are no friends of mine
I say, we can go where we want to ...

That last line is certainly true when it pertains to Teddy and the dance floor. We attended a wedding reception this weekend, and both boys were extremely excited to hit the dance floor. AJ has dance moves I'm not quite sure that I've ever seen before in my life as well as near perfect renditions of others I never expected to see my child perform, such as running across the dance floor and dropping to his knees to slide across it or learning the Cupid Shuffle in one night when I haven't mastered it after all these years.

Teddy's dance style is a bit less refined. It involves a lot of face-paced walking around the dance floor, using other people as bumpers to redirect him. Hey, look at this pretty, sparkling white dress! I should touch that! He did some foot stomping and quite a bit of upper body shaking and swaying, complete with holding onto his shirt while he danced. He was rather intrigued by the stage where the DJ was, so we had to provide some redirection there. He was also interested in the photo booth (until we went to actually take photos, which is when he wanted to return to the dance floor). And the garland around the dance floor was rearranged a few times. Hey, I should hold onto this while I dance. Oh, it comes with me? Cool.

I watched with a mixture of pure enjoyment at their happiness and amazement at how far Teddy has come in roughly the year since the last wedding we attended. Then, Teddy needed significant handheld assistance to walk, was carried a portion of the night and spent most of the night walking around the DJ booth because he was fascinated by the lights there.

This time, Teddy could go where he wanted and do what he wanted, as much as we would allow him. Seriously, the child made a beeline for the dance floor every time he could. Sorry, but you're not the groom or mother of the groom. Nope, not the bride or father of the bride either.

Teddy had an absolute blast and was in his element, surrounded by people, movement, lights and music. Oh, and cupcakes. ;-)