Bautizo 2.0

Two years ago, I wrote about the baptism of my first child.

Look at my little baby!

This past Sunday, I put the family dress on my second baby and once again, we took our place at church.

Sofia was a year old when she wore it and Andrea is five and a half months,

but it still worked.

Andrea's godparents are here and since we're moving, we wanted to make sure we got her baptized before we left.

It was a no-brainer to ask Aimee if she would 

be Andrea's godmother.  

She's such a special baby that she gets two 

godfathers.  Drew's good friend DJ (left) and Matt (right)

stood up for her.  Matt's girls are the sweetest

kids you'll ever meet and they just adore Sofia.

We went to Mass before the baptism and that made for a long day for Sofia.  This was her first time in church and while I was prepared with snacks and toys, it wasn't long before she became insistent and antsy saying over and over again "Mom, we have to GO.  Mom, it's time to GO."  Bless her heart, she hung in there but it was just a little much for her.

Between Mass and the baptism.

They were literally jumping around in circles.

I begged her to take her fingers out of her nose, but no dice.

Eventually, she cooperated.

Then it came for the ceremony.  We all filed in, symbolizing our

welcome into the Church.

Anointing her chest with holy oil.

That's what she thinks about this whole thing.

Andrea was blowing raspberries, Sofia was just about to melt down

but I got a shot of my girls.

They called us over to the baptismal font (fount? I'm not sure) one by one and as we walked over, the gravity of the whole thing hit me.  I haven't stepped foot in church in many many years and there are lots of things I disagree with, but let's face it.  I was raised in the Catholic Church and these things are ingrained.  They don't just go away.  My spirituality is a part of me, for better or worse and I was moved.  The symbolism of what we were doing - we were presenting our daughter to the Church - it was major and I was humbled.

When things are major, I usually cry.

This was no different.

Seeing her receiving her blessing, being held

by my dearest friend,

surrounded by people who love my baby and our family,

yeah I was ugly crying.

Of course, Andrea was a champ.  The water surprised her but 

she didn't cry.

Anointing her forehead with oil.

Holding the baptismal candle, the sign of new life

The baptismal garment, symbolizing purity and innocence

Blowing more raspberries.  

I need to get a video of her doing it because it's the cutest thing.

What's on your mind Babe?

For that matter, what's on my mind?  Why so serious?

PS, this was where all the families came up to the front to be formally 

presented and congratulated.

With that, my baby was baptized.  It was such a wonderful day and it was one of those amazing special life moments, you know?

All special life moments require cake.

And macarons.  That's a rule.

Poor baby.  This whole party was for her and she 
got no cake, no macarons, no sandwiches, no punch.
Life's just not fair.

I don't know why words are failing me right now to describe how much this meant to me.  All of it - being in church with my family, sitting next to my husband singing the hymns that I remembered from grade school, saying the prayers just like I remembered all those years ago, presenting my daughter just like I'd presented my daughter two years prior, seeing the water wash over her little forehead, having feelings about church and religion in general, yet feeling that twinge when the priest talked about marriage being between one man and one woman (c'mon guys don't mess up this great day), being surrounded by our friends but missing my mom and other members of my family, but feeling very like a matriarch myself, and feeling very much the Woman of my own house....

You guys, it was so much.

I'm so happy we did it and I'm beyond blessed to have such a beautiful family and SUCH wonderful, funny, happy, healthy daughters.  Seriously.  Blessed.  For real.

And I'm looking back at these pictures and I kinda feel the need to talk about my dress.  I know it's not about me, but I just have a feeling that maybe someone might take issue with the neckline of my dress in church?  I know I was self-conscious,  but I needed something low cut so I could nurse.  I did Rent the Runway again since I don't own dress up clothes anymore and I needed something knee length, with sleeves, low cut and in my size.  This was pretty much my only choice and I kept telling myself that it has to be low cut, I have to be able to nurse.  I even practiced a little speech should anyone say anything, but thankfully no one did.  Actually, I got a pointed stare in church for Andrea crying, not for me nursing her.  I had pumped a bottle just in case but you should have seen the side-eye I got from Andrea when I tried to give it to her.

Anyway, I just feel like I had to point out that I wasn't being disrespectful.

Ok!  Enough about me!  My baby got baptized!  My family is amazing!  

Seriously though, it was a great day and we are incredibly blessed and I just wanted to share the day with you, my friends.  

Everything and nothing

Ugh, has it been nearly a month since I've been here?  So much for 'meaty content' aka 'I'll be blogging omg So Much!'  Man, kids and summer will do that to you.

It takes me a couple of hours to write a decent blog post and I just don't have that kind of time anymore.  As Sofia gets older and more articulate, she's much more demanding.  As in, "Mom, do you want to play with me?"  Every Day All The Time.  Every time I want to say no, because didn't I *just* play with you, kid?, all the articles and posts I've read about how the time goes so quickly, how play is so important, how they'll remember everything forever, how dare you not play with your kid, but all I really want is some time with just me and my writing, but of course I end up on the floor, playing dolls or cars or blocks.  And I'm not *really* complaining because one day she'll want nothing to do with me and I'll long for the days when she was at my heels, begging me to play.  I just wish there were a couple more hours in the day, just for me.  Just so I can recharge.

Then there's Andrea.  My chubby chunk-a-lunk, happy go lucky, babiest baby.  

Oh this baby.

She does indeed have every bit of my heart.

True story: I texted my girlfriend the other day because I was convinced something was wrong with her because she took a two hour nap and I'd laid her down more awake than drowsy and she just rolled over and went to sleep.  I just knew she had some sort of vitamin deficiency that makes you sleep all the time because Sofia never ever in life went to sleep that easily.  Hell, she still doesn't.  But my little Andrea will sleep anytime, anywhere and it's never a battle to get her to sleep.  Of course, I'm sure I'm jinxing myself as I write this but I really just want to record this for posterity.  At one time in my life, I had a kid who slept easily and often.  I never thought it could happen to me, but dreams do come true, my friends.

She's a finger and thumb sucker too.

I've tried my hardest to get her to take a pacifier but she just

spits it out and puts her fingers in her mouth.

I sure do hope she outgrows it and doesn't end up sucking her thumb for life.

In house news, it's officially on the market and I'm hoping and crossing my fingers and toes for a speedy sale.  We haven't had any showings yet, but we listed it the week of the 4th so I wasn't panicked that no one had called.  This week we haven't had activity and that's caused Drew an insane amount of anxiety and guess who gets to deal with that?  He asks me nearly every day if I've heard from our realtor, as if I'd forget to tell him, or I'd keep it a secret from him.  No really, I'm crossing my fingers, toes AND eyes for a speedy sale because another ten months of that is not the business.  Already, I've been like "BABE.  Seriously.  If I hear anything, you'll be the first to know.  SERIOUSLY."

I mean, who wouldn't want our little house?

We didn't actually intend to do the front purely to sell the house.  We wanted to clean up the landscaping for our own enjoyment, but as the universe would have it, we got the word that we'd have to move after we'd committed to having the landscaping done.  That was a fun little cursing session, and we briefly debated pulling the plug because we didn't want to put more money into a house that we weren't going to live in much longer, but there was that pesky contract we'd signed and hopefully the new front yard would attract buyers.

So they commenced to ripping up the front yard

and Sofia and I spent several mornings watching them work.

At the bottom right, you can see the concrete slab to nowhere that

always bugged me.

I thought a walkway would look better, since you always had to shimmy past the cars

to get to the front porch.

Also, the beds weren't even, as the one on the left (top) was 

much skinnier than the right.

Then there was this nasty mess o' weeds on the right side of the driveway.

There was a tree stump in there, a bunch of big rocks and tons of prickly plants

that of course were Sofia's favorites. 

They dug all this up and now it's a nice bed of grass.

I wish I'd gotten a better shot, but that tree was massive.

The stump wasn't that big, but the roots were insane.  

After a few days of their landscaping magic, we have our new walkway!

The beds are nice and even and it's so much prettier this way.

See, doesn't it look so inviting and symmetrical?

If I were spending more money on the house, I'd get a bench

for the front porch and maybe a planter or two, but

I'll leave that for the new owners.

Remember our awning?

Back in May, we had a hailstorm.  Thank GOD it was before we did the landscaping - I think Drew would have set the world on fire if we paid all that money for new plants and stuff only to have it destroyed mere days later by hail.

As it was, I couldn't do anything but watch as my brand new car

got pummeled.

Remember my pretty azaleas in the dog pen?

All gone bye-bye.

Drew was in China at the time, and this was my first hailstorm.

I know I know, I lived in Kansas and Texas, how is this my first storm?

But it was, and truthfully I was a little scared.

Of course, my Sofia was completely fearless and ran outside the second it was over.

"Look Mom! It's balls!  It's cold!"

Thanks to the hail, we got a brand new roof.

They also took the awning down.  You can see where it's all pockmarked from the hail.

It made no sense to repair or replace it, 

as it was original to the house and they don't even make them anymore.

It looks so much cleaner and more open, I'm not sure why we didn't do this before.

Do you see, New Owners?!  Do you see the awesome house you get to have?  New roof, new landscaping, new laundry room, nice open back patio, I mean really, how can you not snatch this up??

**Please, someone buy my house.**

We haven't even bothered seriously looking at houses in Raleigh because the real estate market is so crazy down there that houses are selling within days of being listed, so there's no point in even looking because we have no idea when we'll be ready to move.  The good thing is that Drew won't have to leave until we all leave so I won't have to mess with getting the house ready for showings by myself.  It's just that however you slice it, trying to sell your house is no fun and having to wait until it sells before we can get on with the next chapter is just a pain.

Yet, I'm thankful that we have a house to live in.  I'm thankful that my husband has a great job that's affording us this move and as always I'm thankful for our collective health and wellbeing that allows us to focus on everything else going on in our lives.  If any of those things weren't there, this would be a much different story.

 Everything's okay as long as I've got them.

And I sure do love that man.

These kinds of pictures are my favorite and I can't

wait until both girls can hold his hand.

Oh be still my heart.

I could take pictures of the two of them all day.

Who am I kidding, I do.

They're my favorite people.

Vacation this year was down to Williamsburg, Virginia.

We wanted to stay close to home as this was the first time we'd taken

Andrea on a trip and we're traveling again in a couple of weeks.

We didn't get out a ton because this was right after Drew's China trip

and I wanted family time more than tourist time.

So we spent most of our days lounging around the room or down at the resort pool.

We did make it out to The Living Museum and that was fun, 

but it was all pool all the time on this particular vacation.

Of course, I got no pictures of our pool time because two kids in the pool requires hyper vigilance and all hands on deck so we have only memories, no photos.  Although, I'm going to have to take some pictures before summer is over because Sofia is really doing so well in the pool.  She can't go without wearing her floatie just yet, but she's almost there; I can feel it.

There you have it - we've been doing a lot of everything and nothing around here, much like all of you guys I'm sure.  So in closing, I sure would appreciate all your good vibes for a speedy sale of our house and hopefully it won't be this long before I get to blog again.

For now, I have to start getting ready to travel.  Yup, this time I'm the one who gets to go out of town!  Oh yeah, I'm taking both girls with me on a plane by myself.  I'm not crazy, not in the slightest.  But I sure would stay home if it weren't for a good cause - namely, my 20 year high school reunion.  

Good lord, I'm old.  Let me go dye my hair and put on some eye cream or something.