Almost two...but not quite

Recently, Mudpuppy has decided that it's fun to climb into the play fort on his own...
even if he can't quite get down by himself yet.

It's time for a Mudpuppy update! Here's his typical day, now that the kids are in school:

Normally, he sleeps through the night -- although we just realized (about a week ago) that he has the same cyclic vomitting issue that Mouse developed at that age, so once in a while, he wakes up earlier because of nausea. When he wakes up, he sits up and looks around; sometimes he will come to the gate at the bedroom doorway and look out and shout, "Hi!" Eventually someone (usually Starling) comes in to change him. He's very enthusiastic about greeting everyone in the morning!

Then it's downstairs for breakfast -- typically a sliced-up apple with peanut butter, a banana, or maybe some cereal and milk. He can say "cereal," "banana," and "drink," but beyond that he typically just watches the other kids, occasionally supplying an interjection or exclamation to the conversation. This morning, he actually started pointing at the people sitting around the table and naming them. He does “Mama,” “Dada,” and the oldest kids’ names pretty well, but he hasn’t quite got the hang of Jaybird’s name yet. He sits there pointing at her and staring, like it’s going to come to him any minute now.

Breakfast ends when he starts saying "Down" or when he starts throwing his food, or dumping it out all over the place.

Then it's into the car to take the other kids to school. "Car!" he announces, over and over again. "Car! Car! Car!" He points to the back door and leads the charge.

In his car seat, he likes to read the morning paper (just kidding) or a book that one of the kids has left around. He’s actually very interested in books, probably because he sees all of the “big” people around the house reading them. He "talks" with the other kids, sometimes. If music has been playing and a song finishes, he will sometimes say, "Yay!" and clap his hands.
In fact, he will say “Yay!” for anything that he is excited about now. Announce a snack and he’ll clap his hands (or raise them in the air) and exclaim, “Yay!” with that trademark grin on his face.

As the kids leave the car, he may wave goodbye to them and say, “Bye-bye!” He does that a lot now, especially to store clerks. If he sees a bus drive away, he will say, “Bye-bye bus!”

Then it’s usually off to run errands. If we go to the store, he will tolerate sitting in the cart for only so long before pointing down and saying, “Down! Down!” I usually let him down, if possible, on the theory that the more stimulation and exercise he gets, the sooner he will go down for his nap. (My motives are pure, I tell you.) I am trying to teach him not to touch, but it’s hard when you’re dealing with a young toddler who has very little impulse control, in an environment that is constantly presenting new and interesting things, and on top of that, every single adult in the store is picking things up off the shelves. Toddlers really do want to do whatever the big people are doing; I think it’s a hard-wired survival instinct (“Learn as fast as you can!”). He walks through any store like he owns the place, bustling along, head down or swinging side to side. As he goes along, he says “Hi!” to absolutely everyone he meets, raising a hand in a casual greeting. He turns heads, as you can imagine.

He occasionally stops and tries to take things off the shelves; I tell him not to touch, and then eventually he ends up back in the cart, begging to get down again, which I may let him after a few minutes.

At the checkout, his job is to help me empty the cart, a task he performs with relish. A few items tend to sail overboard every time.

If we’re not shopping, we’re probably going to a class somewhere. These days I’m swimming at the YMCA on Mondays and Wednesdays to get in shape, so he stays at the Kids Corner childcare room for an hour or so while I do that. (I’m taking adult swim lessons in the early evening on Fridays.) He has not been liking that one bit, but he only fusses a little bit; then he’s fine, and he always seems happy when I come back. On Tuesdays we go to Parenting with the Spirit at church; for some reason, he seems to be better about staying in the childcare room there, maybe because he is so familiar with it by this point. On Thursday mornings, we go to Early Childhood Family Education classes. When it’s time to separate, he goes toddling off after the other kids into the Zoom Room with nary a backwards glance. I think he’s okay with it because I spent the last half of last year staying with him in the kids’ room for half the class; he knows the routine. (See the picture below of him painting at ECFE!)

If we end up staying home to do chores, he is my shadow, generally undoing whatever I am trying to do. Or making a new mess somewhere else. The other day I finally tackled cleaning out the refrigerator; with a chore like that, my choices are to either 1) strap him into a high chair for an hour, or 2) try to integrate him into the job and just minimize the damage as much as possible. In the case of the refrigerator, he had a blast pulling bottles and containers out and putting them on the floor, in cabinets, on the table, etc., and then putting them back into the refrigerator, haphazardly. He looks so proud of himself!

I need to stop here in order to head to bed, but I will try to post part two later this week.

(Part two follows below the pictures.)
 

He insisted on riding the saddle swings, just like his big sister.

Ah, yes...the venerable wooden toy train set, now being
enjoyed by a fourth generation of small hands.

One of his first paintings at ECFE.

Part 2

Lunchtime comes around 11, sometimes earlier. He adores apples, which he will eat whole or halved; potato chips (none of the other kids got potato chips at his age, but he sees his sibs with them, and they like to share!); and—ketchup! He really likes ketchup. If the refrigerator door is open, he will take it out, hold it up, and say, “Yum!” He likes ketchup with his French fries or with hot dogs. He will also eat grapes and bananas and pears and other fruit. When he’s full, or if he can’t swallow something (apple peels), he spits out whatever is in his mouth.

By 12:30, it’s time for “night night.” I have three strategies for trying to get him to sleep. One is to take him on a walk in the stroller; that works sometimes, but not usually. Still, the weather has been so beautiful in the last week or so (highs in the 80s every day!), we’ve been taking a lot of walks by the lake. He REALLY loves that. If we’re in the garage, he will pull out the stroller and beg to “walk, walk!” He likes looking at the passing scenery. We have our own park bench—a swinging one, near where our street runs into the park—and we sit there and watch the ducks and the passersby. He comments on every dog that passes: “Dog! Woof! Woof!” (He learned this from a Sandra Boynton book.)

A second strategy is to take him somewhere in the car and hope he falls asleep on the way home—tricky, because sometimes he falls asleep on the way to wherever you’re going. If he does fall asleep in the car, I can pick him up and move him to his bed without him waking up, which is a new experience for us.

A third strategy is to simply put him in his bed, read him a few stories, and lie down with him until he goes to sleep. I use this option when I need a little nap myself. He is possibly the only one of our kids who doesn’t resist taking a nap; he is enthusiastic about getting into bed. He likes flopping backward on the bed. He likes reading the stories (lots of simple board books). And he likes tickling. Lately, I have occasionally put him to bed, kissed him good night, and then closed the door and walked away. I know, this is not novel to you guys who have been doing the same thing since your kids were babies, but it’s breaking new ground in our house.

Once he is asleep, he’s down for at least an hour. During that time, I can talk, walk past his bedroom, vacuum, run heavy machinery, blast rock, etc. with no effect on his nap. After that initial period, I do try to be more quiet. He generally sleeps for a couple of hours, getting up at about 3.

At that point, Starling takes over. She changes him, feeds him a snack, and generally tries to keep him out of trouble while simultaneously preparing dinner and managing the other three kids, which I DEEPLY appreciate! (No, I do not feel the least bit guilty, since that has been—and will be—my job when she’s teaching. A year off from the afternoon grind every ten years or so is not too much to ask, is it?)

Sometimes in the late afternoons he will go outside with the other kids. He climbs up on the play equipment—which is pretty high for a kid his age, and probably not safe, so we try to spot him. He can climb up but he can’t get down by himself. He will slide down the slide (saying, “Whee!”) if someone spots him. He also likes swinging in his swing very much; he can do that for half an hour, if he has someone with that kind of patience to push him.

Another thing he does outside is play with a basin of water that we set out on the picnic table (which is on the deck). He likes using buckets and cups to pour water back and forth, and works very intently for a long time. Sometimes we will give him the hose, which we turn on just enough so that it drips. He ends up completely soaked most of the time, but when it’s warm out, who cares? It’s the one thing that keeps him occupied for any serious length of time.

Another thing he likes to do is to load and unload the dishwasher, which is one reason why we now let the dishes pile up until he’s not around. He also likes to drag out all the pots and pans, and the kitchen utensils, and pretend to cook. The funniest thing he does is to take the oven mitts out of the drawer, put them on, and stand by the oven door, pointing at it with his oversized hands. “Hot,” he says, very seriously. “Hot!” He knows not to touch it now.

Suppertime is generally a disaster. He’s usually not hungry, so he picks at his food, or throws it, or is constantly demanding things he can’t have. A little later in the evening, we have family prayer, which lasts about half an hour. He tears around the living room playing with the loudest toys possible, climbing on people’s laps, kicking them (accidentally), talking, singing, taking things out of the desk drawers, etc., until I pick him up and hold him on my lap, over his protests. On the up side, he REALLY enjoys singing, and will try to join in when we sing a song together. He also follows along with all the major prayers; he can’t say the words, of course, but he mumbles a decent approximation, and says “Amen!” loudly and enthusiastically at all the right places. At church, too, he seems more intent on what is happening up front than any of our other children at this age.

Bedtime is a long, drawn-out routine. Starling usually lies down with him. She reads him three or four books, sometimes more than once. Then she sings songs to him, which he enjoys greatly, smiling and saying, “Again!” And then he spends about half an hour tossing and turning before he falls asleep for good.

And that is a good thumbnail sketch of Matthew at age two!

When he's ready to go to bed, he says, "Nye, nye!" before embarking on an
elaborate bedtime routine that involves several stories, three songs, and an adult
(usually Starling) staying with him until he falls asleep.

Mudpuppy reads a book! and more...

Sort of.

Starling here. When I was reading to Mudpup this evening, a jaunty board book called "Thank you, God" (which M likes because of the "Amen" refrain throughout), he picked it up, turned it back to the beginning, and turned the pages quickly, saying "Amenamenamenamenamenamenamenamen!" until he reached the end.  He then closed it in triumph and grinned.  He's read his first book.

He also pointed to his siblings earlier and did reasonable imitations of their real names--Bear's was dead-on, Mouse's was sort of close, and Jaybird's was "Brrroooo."  Well, OK, he tried.  "Mama" and "Dada" are mastered at this point, as well as more, up, down, book, (ba)nana, cookie (sigh), hug, yes, sit, okay, again, drink, and quite a few more.

Sometime in the past two weeks, he hasn't yet turned chronologically two, but he has gotten into the spirit of the two year old.  He's on a constant seek and destroy mission.  It's been a bit crazy, especially when we were traveling.  But except for the occasional mild tantrum, he is still our smiling, happy go lucky child.  Just intent on destruction one day, up in arms the next....

p.s. It is tempting to rename him on this blog, because cute though Mudpuppy is, we actually find ourselves calling him Machu-Pichu quite a bit.  I know, it's odd.  Don't worry much--he knows his real name, and we like it.

Mudpuppy: Not just sitting around!

Well, as Mudpuppy approaches his first birthday, he's still not walking . . . or crawling . . . or rolling. But that doesn't mean he's just sitting around!

Here he is on his first day of school (this would be at Early Childhood Family Education):

With the parent educator, Katy Smith.

He liked trying out some of the new toys; he also liked circle time, especially the clapping part (he can clap and likes practicing). He is not separating yet, so he comes into the parent room with me.

Here is Mudpuppy in his new high chair. 

Like all the kids, he likes watching birds at the birdfeeder outside the window.

Oh, and he also likes ice cream, especially fudgecicles. Who would've guessed?

He also likes swinging -- here, with his brother. We don't have a bucket swing for him yet.

And finally, here is a short video of him swinging:

Mudpuppy kisses

Starling here with a cute baby story alert.

Mudpuppy has been growing by leaps and bounds (but not crawling).  As I was getting him to bed tonight, I rubbed my cheek and said "mama", and then rubbed his cheek and said his name.  I did that twice, and then said  "Mama kiss!" and kissed him on the forehead.  I did it again, because he grinned.  Then I put my cheek to his mouth and said "[Mudpuppy] kiss?" and he didn't know how to work his mouth, but clearly with the same general intonation, went "mwah!"  I tried it again to see if it was a fluke--it wasn't.  So I gave him a big thank you hug.  I just received my first Mudpuppy kiss.

It's been a wild, wild weekend....

It's kind of been a very full weekend around Gracewatch. It's past my bedtime, so (once again) you're going to get the short version.

We begin with the Steamboat Days Kiddie Parade -- that's Mouse being a fish, since she was marching in the library's "Make a Splash" float. Bear also marched, but being nearly 10, did not want to be photographed in a fish hat. Jaybird sat on the sidelines and cleaned up in the candy department. "It sure took a long time to get that candy," she remarked. We stayed for the free kiddie concert and cheap hotdog lunch. The older kids stood in line for 30 minutes all by themselves to get a lousy hotdog, chips and pop for a dollar. Way to stand in line, kids!

Next up we have something nearly as exciting as a parade -- yep, backyard berries. It's that time of year, and this year, it seems like all the berries are coming at once: we've got small juicy strawberries, and big plump raspberries, and just the first few blueberries (although we expect a pint or two down the road). The kids are very, very excited about hunting for those juicy little treasures. Each of the first three blueberries (over three days) was announced, paraded around, and examined extensively before being consumed. So friday evening, we had them on vanilla ice cream.

Saturday, we celebrated Bear's tenth birthday by having lopsided lemon cake and ice cream. And he opened presents, after a great deal of anticipation. The "big" present was a new bicycle -- a 21-speed mountain bike. He had very much outgrown his old bike. He proclaimed it the "best birthday ever."

As part of the birthday celebration, we went down to the carnival. Every year we go to the carnival, and every year I am reminded of exactly how seedy and sad it is, and what a ripoff besides. But . . . the kids really enjoy the rides:

Or I should say most of the rides. Bear and Mouse went on the bumper cars and neither of them could get their cars working properly; Bear came away sulky and Mouse was openly sobbing. Nothing that the human canonball couldn't cure, though.

And then, today we went to the Steamboat Days parade -- a two-hour extravaganza that Jaybird in particular enjoyed from start to finish (especially the candy). We got some good photos and video, but here is my favorite (shot by Starling):

Yes, it's me, with Mudpuppy, in honor of Father's Day.

We also went to a picnic and a party and a play and quite a few other things, but that's all I'm going to write about, since it is now way past my bedtime.

On a more serious note . . . my father was hospitalized over the weekend after falling over backwards in the garden. He is in more pain than the morphine can adequately address, since he broke several ribs and fractured a couple vertebrae; he also had a collapsed lung. Amazingly, Fairview Southdale sent him home twice -- even though he was screaming in pain the second time -- without diagnosing any of this. Fortunately, he is now under much better care at a competent hospital. Prayers are appreciated.

Just eatin' my YoBaby yogurt!

Happy, Happy Baby. Just watch where you throw that head!

Eight month old Mudpuppy is the happiest child alive. The verdict is in. This video is an example.

Earlier, Starling (that's me) went to the library with Mudpup in his car seat for a quick exchange of videos. That's an errand Jackrabbit usually does with Mudpup and Jaybird every week. A man I didn't know remarked how happy Mudpup was and said "Oh, he can't be that happy all the time, though!" To which the library assistant (whom I didn't even know) chimed in "Yes, actually, he is."

On the down side (is there a down side to this?), he was happily exercising/throwing himself back in my arms earlier, while I was sitting at the dining table, and threw himself into the table edge. Ouch. Yes, he cried, poor boy. But not too long.

Jackrabbit adds:
I get this wherever I go with him. "What a happy baby!" Truly, it is the most frequent comment we get about him. Heck, we find ourselves saying the same thing (or a variation -- "What an easy baby!") at least five times a day!

Mudpuppy's first food!

Mudpuppy tried his first taste of solid food last week -- mashed up banana. Judging from his expressions, the jury must still be out, taste-wise. But he's such a voracious eater, he has to start on something! Lately, he's been taking natural applesauce, too. I mix it up with breast milk and he takes it right out of the bottle. Next up, strained brussel sprouts. Mmm!

Mother's Day Tea Party

So, we went up to the Twin Cities to visit my parents for Mother's Day; my sister was also visiting from Milwaukee with her three littlest girls. To celebrate Mother's Day, they had a tea party in the backyard:

We also spent part of the previous day ripping up the weeds at the top of the hill in the backyard in order to plant switchgrass. Hopefully, if it takes, it will be easier to maintain. We're laying black plastic over the area for a couple of summers to kill off the weeds and grass; then we'll try to establish even more prairie grasses.

Here is Mudpuppy (center) with his two baby cousins:

And Jaybird with her cousins:

Reach, sit, eat

Now that we are well into our long, gorgeous spring, it's time to set out laundry again. Jaybird is just barely big enough to begin helping....

Meanwhile, Mudpuppy continues to make progress on all fronts; his latest milestone is sitting in a high chair by himself. He has seemed both shocked and pleased at this amazing development:

And finally, here is a short video of Mudpuppy taking a bottle. I don't think we have video of any of the kids doing this:

Baby ministry

Years ago, when Bear was in his smiley phase as a baby, I remember being pleasantly surprised at the reaction I would get when I took him public places. More often than not, if a stranger came up to him, he'd break out into a big, big smile, like he was absolutely thrilled to see them. Now Mudpuppy is doing the same thing -- I can't take him anywhere without attracting a crowd. (I often have three or four people interacting with him in checkout lanes. This can be problematic: a few weeks ago, I was in a hurry checking out at the grocery store, which was very busy, and the manager came over and started cooing at Mudpuppy and asking me all sorts of questions. Between carrying Mudpuppy, unloading the cart, answering her questions, and sorting coupons, I forgot to present a few coupons -- costing us several dollars. Oh well.) And forget church: judging by the comments we get, it seems like half the church is watching Mudpuppy!

I've started to think of this as Mudpuppy's special ministry: making people smile and laugh, and light up. Something about a baby does that to most people. And it's a "ministry" that is uniquely his: if any adult (certainly me) went around smiling at strangers that way, it would just creep them out. Down the road, as a single male, he'll be lucky to make eye contact with most cashiers. But for now, he has the magic touch.

Mudpuppy Spouts the Summa Theologiae

Starling here. A university colleague of mine and parishioner at St. Mary's, Sr. Margaret, came up to me at church Sunday and said "My, that little [Mudpuppy]! Looks like your raising a St. Thomas Aquinas there!" (???) No, he hasn't been spouting off with phrases like "sed contra" or "tantum ergo sacramentum"--in fact, no words at all--but I guess he does bear a certain resemblence (big, solid, and mostly bald). He also drools a lot these days, but I don't think that is related to St. Thomas.

In unrelated news, I went out with Jaybird this afternoon for a "date" (I'm doing that with each of the three older kids this week). She wanted to "pinky swear" that we would love each other forever, no matter what. So we did. :)

Scooting backwards

Sorry this video is so dark -- it was one of those cloudy, overcast mornings. As Starling noted, Mudpuppy has also rolled over from tummy to his back a couple times, and he's sitting up as well.

Lazy Saturday morning

Nothin' like a lazy Saturday morning!

Slideshow of the Kids

Here is the finished slideshow of the kids -- from literally hundreds of photos over several days. Click on a photo to go to a page where you can print it out.

Mudpuppy update

Well, Mudpuppy continues to say "goo," as demonstrated in this action-packed video. Actually, it's not so action packed. I've been trying all week to get good video of him smiling and laughing, but every time I take out the camera, he gets real quiet and just stares at it. I guess that's not surprising -- it has a light on it when it's recording, after all.

It has been a joy to have a baby in the house again, even if he does continue to buck the bottle. We made a big push to get him to take the bottle, though -- basically offering him nothing but the bottle consistently from 8:00 to 4:30, and it seems to have helped.

He's also manipulating things much more with his hands--if a blanket is on him, he picks it up and looks at it (and looks at himself holding it with some amazement--wow, I did that!).

He's a cutie, all right!

Mudpuppy discovers his hands

Here is a quick update on Mudpuppy. As the title of this post suggests, he has discovered his hands. He looks at them with fascination, and is beginning to exercise some very basic control over the general direction in which they fly. He can hold onto objects, which we discovered about two weeks ago when Jaybird gave him this wand. If we had it on video, you'd see him waving it wildly, which is pretty hilarious.

He is smiling and laughing quite a bit now. This is the stage that I always hold out for: the smiling, cooing, and laughing stage. They're not big enough to mess up the house, but they're SO DARN CUTE when they do that big smile and laugh. I will try to capture some video of that for the benefit of far-off relatives.

For the most part, this is a pretty laid-back baby. He actually likes his car seat most of the time, and he sleeps for long stretches. We all feel so blessed to have him in our home.

The only downside is that, ever since Starling went back to work, he has had trouble taking a bottle. This is a big problem, since Mom can be gone for as long as nine hours. We're not sure why he stopped taking the bottle: I am hoping that it's just a technical issue, like upgrading to a larger hole size on the nipple. (I ran out to Target and got a new bottle nipple -- the "medium flow" variety -- on Friday.) Most of the time all it takes to set him off is just showing him the bottle when he's hungry: I put the bottle in his line of sight and he sets off screaming his head off, making it perfectly useless to even try feeding him. Sometimes I manage to get him sucking on the bottle for a little bit. He'll be doing fine for about 10 or 20 seconds, and then he'll pull off and just start crying. A lot of times he doesn't even latch on to the bottle correctly, or he'll try sucking and breathing at the same time and start choking. If it's not the nipple, then the other possibility is that he's just mad about not being able to breastfeed, and he's going to cry until he gets what he wants. People say, "Well, he'll eat when he gets hungry," which I suppose is right, but then you've got a fussy, crying, screaming baby on your hands for hours at a time. One day he went the whole day without eating, which can't be good for him -- and of course that means that I am trying to calm him or feed him for most of that time, which means everything and everyone else kind of goes by the wayside.

People have offered a wide range of possible solutions, but I think the bottom line is that eventually he will figure out how to take the bottle or we will just bump along until he's old enough to take a cup.

Anyway, he sure is cute most of the time. Here he is with his Twin Cities grandma; below, he's the first baby in the lineup of baby cousins at my parents' house at Christmas. My sister is the picture, too -- she looks very good for having had a major heart attack just a few weeks earlier.

Baby's baptism, part 2

We completed Mudpuppy's baptism on Sunday; the actual baptism took place on ur back deck several weeks ago during the H1N1 outbreak in our house. A "precautionary" baptism, as they say. The supplemental rites were completed on Sunday -- the candle, the chrismation, the white garment. Everything but the actual water rite. However, our pastor did bring out a small bowl of water that he used to sprinkle on Monkey as a reminder of his baptism; the rest of us signed ourselves with the water as well.

He was pretty good during the baptism -- even though he's been pretty fussy the last few days. As evidenced below:

"Ack! I'm getting a sugar overload just by hovering near that cake!"

Our friends served as godparents; they are converts from the Nazarene Church. Count on converts to be hard core about their faith and their godparental responsibilities:

Finally, here is a priest friend of Starling's admiring the baby:

Incidentally, Starling wrote up a very funny post about baptism at her blog.

Moon wakes up

Baby Moon turned six weeks old this past Wednesday, and right on schedule, he has started "waking up."



For his first six weeks, baby Moon did two things: sleep and cry. On the rare occasions that he was awake, he looked pretty shocked to be here -- wide-eyed and worried most of the time.



Now, though, he is doing a lot more looking around when he's awake -- sometimes very calmly. He has also begun to smile a lot more (see photographic evidence above). He still cries quite a bit when he's awake, but not as much as before; and he is sleeping more soundly, and for longer, than before. He will turn his head toward someone who is speaking to him, and seems to be seeing farther -- he looks around as if he's noticing his environment for the first time. He likes bright lights and shiny objects in particular; he also gets an eyeful whenever he passes by our colorful quilt wall hanging. When he is placed on his stomach, he can lift himself up on his elbows and look around for up to thirty seconds at a time (although it's obviously quite an effort -- his head starts bobbing and then he has to rest it by laying down again).



Moon is an easy baby -- by far our easiest. Sleeps almost through the night, and calms down quickly when he gets fussy. And thank goodness for that! We're into a sort of routine with him now, which makes life somewhat easier.


Here is a picture of him getting a bath this morning:

One other thing worth mentioning is the kids' care for their baby brother. They often stop to talk to him, kiss him, pat him on the head, or just comfort him. "I just love baby Moon, don't you?" I overheard Bean asking Meadow the other day as they both watched him sleeping.

The Baptism of Baby Z

Well, Baby Z was supposed to be baptized at church last Sunday, but he ended up getting baptized on our back deck on the previous Friday instead, thanks to the arrival of the H1 N1 flu in our household, as illustrated by this lovely image of M lounging on the couch (yes, she's wearing a face mask):

Because she wouldn't be better by Sunday (and one of us parents would have to stay home with her), and because we expected that someone else would get the flu, too, we decided to cancel the church baptism. Our pastor suggested an emergency baptism, which made sense given the danger to the baby if he caught the flu. As it turned out, S and J came down with the flu that Sunday, so it was good that we cancelled. Baby Z hasn't caught it yet.

So we got a call from our pastor at 8:30 Friday morning suggesting that we do the baptism at 10 that morning -- he didn't want to wait until the afternoon, because he was sick, too, and expected to crash later. (He actually stopped by our house on his way to urgent care.) We quickly called a couple friends and left a message for the godfather, who teaches down the road from us, and then we went out and cleaned off the deck as best we could.

It was a beautiful day for a baptism:

We used a bowl made for us by a friend for our wedding. Here is the godfather making the sign of the cross on Baby Z's forehead:

And here is the actual baptism: