Yankee, Punky & Prayer

Yesterday after our swim and before her nap, I put this Yankees t-shirt on Gianna. 

 The first words out of her mouth were, "Uncle Jimmy. Aunt Elaine."

 It was pretty impressive that she made that connection, as they were the ones who brought her that shirt - about ten weeks ago. (Aren't their memories amazing?)

You see...even though I embrace my status as a "southern girl" wholeheartedly......I'm technically a Yankee. My family is from New York.  I born there and grew up on Long Island (NY) until I was in 6th grade when we found our way to SW Louisiana. 

 We still have much of our family up in NY and we were excited about having my aunt and uncle come down to visit at the end of April.  The last time they visited was for our wedding six years ago....today in fact! (Happy Anniversary, Iain.)

It was the first time they had the opportunity to meet Gianna. 

They formed a mutual admiration society.

and Uncle Jimmy even tried to teach her the benefits of "shooting in raw"

- which is a concept that her Mommy's yet to embrace. (inside joke)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

So back to the Yankees shirt:

We stayed around the house yesterday and just chilled a bit...

...and then we turned on some Elmo music (you know the personalized kind where they say the child's name a GAZILLION times?)

She's BIG into dancing these days and requested her tutu (or toot toot - as she calls it).

That made for quite an interesting look.

But alas, the look was not complete!

She asked for Elmo socks....

....and some shoes

...and a hat.

And that brought us to this little Punky Brewster inspired look....Iain says Cyndi Lauper.

...and apparently the eclectic ensemble inspired some seriously funky dance moves.

I'm afraid she's got her Mommy's moves....and some of her Daddy's too.

Hmmm....I wonder if they'd consider a Toddler Project Runway....or So You Think You Can Dance.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PRAYER

Part of the reason we were chilling at home yesterday, was because our day started off with some shocking news.  Our dear friend, Fr. Wayne LeBleu, was involved in a freak accident at a local gym and suffered 3rd degree burns on 22% of his body.  He was airlifted to a hospital in Baton Rouge who has a superior burn unit. 

Wayne met during our high school years at our church's youth group (CYO is what it was called then.)

We are like brother and sister and have become part of the fabric of each other's lives.

This was after the first Mass that Gianna attended when she was barely two weeks old.

These two still love each other BIG.

She keeps saying, "Uncle Wayne sick. Mommy ky-ing. We see him?"

We're in constant prayer for him and his mom family (who just buried their husband/step-dad last week) and claiming an awesome healing testimony for him in the future. 

For those of you who know him and would like to keep updated, there is a Caring Bridge website set up at

THIS LINK.

Happy to have passengers on this special prayer train!