This sweet face belongs to little Mikey. He is the son of Dave's niece and her husband and is a truly unique child as well as quite a character!

He has grown up in a home with two loving parents who also happen to be hearing impaired (Mikey has normal hearing). His mom is totally deaf and communicates through sign language which Mikey has learned and mastered since early on.

When I first met Dave's family years ago, I was amazed at how they all communicated through signing. Dave's sister signs everything that is occurring or being said so that her daughter will always be a part of what is going on around her.

Mikey also now has a new little sister who I was told is slowly mastering the signing also. Pretty amazing.

Anyway, back to Mikey. This little five year old is, and has always been, very verbal and expressive way beyond his years.

It seems as if he has developed a serious crush on his cousin Mary-- who was the bride this past weekend. Every time he was around her he turned beet red and lost all ability to speak. He would just stare and blush. It was cute to watch...but obviously affected Mikey and embarrassed him.

At the rehearsal dinner, Mary and her equally adorable bridesmaids surrounded little Mikey and flirted away with him Well, this just did him in for the rest of the night...and as we left the restaurant he began to talk about it all. He said, "Those girls really like me. I wonder why they all like me so much?" . Of course we all told him that he was cute and sweet and that was why they liked him. He looked at me and said, "But, I'm just a little kid!" : )

He then spent the rest of the evening excitedly talking and fantasizing about how it would be for him at the wedding the next day with this bevy of beauties encircling him. I am sure that he was picturing himself the center of attention dancing the night away with all of the women that were present. I know that he went to bed with a new sense of self-confidence....happily dreaming about how things would be the next day.

Fast forward ahead to the wedding.

All of Mikey's bravado gave way to complete and utter bashfulness. He became very quiet and timid as his big eyes focused on all of the young women in attendance. And, every time that his cousin Mary got near him, he retreated into himself and was seemingly stunned and immobilized.

As the evening progressed all of his determination gave way to his tiredness and this very sleepy "Romeo" ended up in the safety of his mom's welcoming arms.

Oh well, his time will come soon enough when he will have exciting evenings filled with romance...and by then he will be old enough to stay up for them.