Life's Lessons: The Wedding Guests edition

We went to a wedding this weekend, and so we've been out of town since Thursday. (Can I claim that as the reason I haven't blogged in two weeks?) It was a pretty hectic trip but I came away with some great lessons:

1. A seven hour car trip is the ideal cure for a nap strike. Thank God.
   
   
2. People think you're brave and admirable when you take a 10 month old to a wedding, which is strange when it wouldn't occur to you to go anywhere without her.
   
   
3. When brides tell you, "it's totally okay if she cries during the ceremony, I don't mind," it's best to ignore that advice.
   
   
4. Crying rooms? Are good. Very good.
   
   
5. My friends want to steal my baby. As soon as I got to the cocktail hour, my friend's wife said, "You need a drink. I'll hold her." And then disappeared.
   
   
6. They always come back to me when she cries though. Or poops.
   
   
7. Champagne? Also very good.
   
   
8. Baby food in pouches is the most ingenious invention ever.
   
   
9. Baby Girl is a party girl. I don't know if it was the strobe light (ooh pretty) or a particular fondness for The Black Eyed Peas, but as soon as daddy got her on the dance floor, she started laughing and singing. (Although, the words are "tonight's gonna be a good night," not "Dadadadada." Close enough, sweetie.)
   
   
10. When you are breastfeeding, you have an excuse to grab an extra piece of wedding cake without anyone looking at you strangely.
    
    
11. Stressing about bedtime is apparently totally irrelevant. My child can party until 10:30, then pass out without a single tear and stay asleep while I change her diaper, wash her face, put on her pajamas, and put her to bed in a hotel crib.
    
    
12. Sleeping through the night though? Not so much.
    
    
13. Going away and having fun is good for me, and it is good for our whole family.
    
    
14. Coming home is pretty darn good, too.