I guess it speaks to the fact that Harry has old parents when I say that today, at age almost six, Harry attended his first wedding. It was my cousin’s wedding, and Harry was super happy to attend. He had of course seen weddings on movies (like Shrek?) but due to the life phase of most of those close to us, hadn’t experienced one live.
First impression: He was surprised he didn’t have a job. H: “You mean, I don’t have to do anything? I get cake, and I don’t have to do anything?” (The boy is my child.) Me: “Well, you have to sign your name on this leaf thing.” H: “Ok, well that’s a good deal.”
Second comment: “So it’s just a bunch of words and standing, and then kissing.”
Third: “That’s it?”
Then we went to the reception, which I explained was really just a party, with cake. “Like a birthday party?” Exactly. But with less singing and more dancing. (In theory.) I didn’t take that many photos…for one, the church was small and it would have been intrusive. For two, at the reception, Harry didn’t stand still long enough for me to get any good ones.
This is the best one I took.
That night, I asked Harry what his favorite and least-favorite parts of the wedding were. To be such complicated, detail-overloaded, and expensive events with so many legal, emotional, spiritual, psychological and social repercussions, weddings are pretty simple in the mind of a 5-yr-old boy:
Favorite parts:
1. The cake.
2. The running. (Around the reception hall.)
3. The dancing.
Least-favorite parts:
1. The waiting for the cake.
2. The tie.
3. The kissing part.
Oh, to be a five-year-old boy.
He gets cuter every day! And I think he might be the most incisive thinker I know.