When I found out that our church was offering a children’s music class, we jumped right in. Funded by her Great Aunt Susan, Brittain attended a 15-week class on Saturday mornings along with some of her favorite friends, Robert Evans, Emma-Kate Kirkland, and Gracie Mulder. It was such a growing experience for all of the babies, learning new things and bonding with each other. It was such a special time that we shared with Brittain as she blossomed week to week. Her first class was on March 9th and “graduation day” was July 6th. Here are pictures from (almost) each week of the class starting from the beginning:

March 9th:

March 16th:

March 23rd:

March 30th:

April 13th:

April 27th:

June 1st:

June 22nd:

June 29th:

July 6th:

I can remember a couple of years ago (pre-Brittain, of course) having some friends over for a 4th of July celebration. Even this, compared to most would probably be considered “low-key”, but in my opinion it was quite a party. As with most 4th of July parties, there was drinking and fireworks. In fact, there were a couple of times that night where people’s shirts were slightly on fire because of “mishandling” the fireworks (a.k.a. stupidity).

As you can imagine, this 4th was much different, but what I considered much more enjoyable. Dan had to work, so Aunt Susan, Kristen, my parents, Pappy, and Lola came by for a relaxed 4th where the highlight of the day was watching Brittain try out her new baby pool that we bought for her. We feasted on homemade ice cream and enjoyed the company of each other as we celebrated our first 4th with Brittain as a part of it.

For some reason Brittain was afraid of the water (even though she had been in a MUCH larger pool at the Ritz). Yes, I know, rough life!

But we soon found out that she only needed her mommy. It’s horrible to be loved this much!

Eventually she was okay with the water and decided she could handle it without her mommy!:

A few days later Brittain spent some time in the water with her daddy. Fortunately she’s a big fan of the farmer’s tan:

Spending time with Pam Aiken is always a blast. Those of you who are reading this may not know who she is, but Pam (and her husband Stewart) are long time friends of my parents. Stewart and my dad were fraternity brothers at Tech and they have stayed close ever since. We will forever be indebted to them for so many reasons, but one is because the help they gave to Cecilia and me at BOTH of our weddings. They served as the coordinators for both of our weddings and made it so that Cec and I were able to sit back and relax while knowing that every detail was taken care of.

This weekend Pam invited me, Mom and Brittain to her home for some visiting and catching up. To go anywhere with Brittain these days takes a lot of planning. It doesn’t matter if we go somewhere for 3 weeks (not that we’ve done this :-)) or 1 night. It seems that packing for either takes the same amount of time and preparation. However, this trip was different because Pam’s house is outfitted for any child. With about a million grandchildren of their own, (I have no idea how many they have now, but I’m guessing it’s about 10) the whole house is baby safe and she has enough toys for any child to be content for weeks. Not only was it a fun and relaxing night away for Mom and me, but Brittain felt as if she was on a vacation as well. With more toys than she knew what to do with and with a comfy crib that seemed it was just for her, we all had a blast.

Thanks for such a great night, Pam. We can’t wait to see you again!

Getting to know Pam:

Even Marilyn made a surprise visit to meet Miss Brittain:

Mimi and Brittain:

Marilyn playing “This Little Piggie” before Brittain said goodnight: