Baptism Weekend

Elsa was baptized this past weekend, and also enjoyed lots of quality time with family and friends. Ellen, Dave, and Carter arrived on Friday, and Elsa seemed very happy to see her cousin. So happy, in fact, that she pointed right at him shortly after he arrived and screamed, "Die!" Seriously, she did. But we're pretty sure that by "Die!" she actually meant, "Hi Carter! Thanks for coming to my baptism!" We'll go with that for now, anyway. At least she smiled as she said it. : )


Carter and Elsa spent many hours enjoying Elsa's playroom, which we recently set up in our living room. Since we have no furniture in that room, and it's been completely empty since we moved in, it's now the perfect place to spread out Elsa's rapidly expanding collection of toys. It was also ideal for expert-crawler Carter, since there was literally nothing to babyproof in there.



On Saturday morning, Grandma B. and Grandpa P. arrived on the ferry, and we all got ready for the big event. Elsa and Carter were both very well-behaved in church, although they seemed to think Mass was the perfect opportunity to carry on a very loud conversation of "da"s and "ba"s.


Elsa was baptized by the deacon after Mass, along with two little boys from another family. Ellen and Dave are her godparents. Elsa kicked and fussed a little when the water was poured over her head, prompting one of the other little boys, who had been baptized minutes before, to say, "Well, it's cold." That got a laugh out of everybody.


As you can see, Carter got a little bored with the proceedings after a while. : )


Afterwards, we headed back to our house for a cookout, although unfortunately the weather was cold and rainy, so we were all stuck inside. Opa and Grandma H., Tom, Tanya, Karina, Katie, Nate, Beth, Quentin and Lisa were all there, along with Grandma B., Grandpa P., Carter, Ellen, and Dave. Elsa seemed to enjoy the opportunity to hang out with both of her cousins at the same time, and they all played nicely together, even though poor Elsa had to just sit and watch while Carter and Karina were all over the playroom!



As luck would have it, that night, Elsa had probably her worst night of sleep since she was a newborn. I'm not sure what was going on with her, although she is getting several teeth and had an extremely runny nose starting Friday morning, so neither of those things could have been helping. But she was awake and crying on and off from 1:30 a.m. until 4:30 a.m.—and not only was I worried about her, but I was also concerned about her waking up our guests. Fortunately, the guest that really counted (Carter) never even batted an eye, so at least she didn't disturb him. : )

The weather was much nicer the next day, and we went for a walk, spent some time in the backyard, and enjoyed the sun.



Here are Elsa and Carter, hanging out and chatting:

As you can see, I had Elsa wear sunglasses, since the pediatrician said it was important for her to wear them, with her light-colored eyes. Amazingly enough, she actually left them on, at least for a little while. Long enough for Grandma B. to make fun of them and my anti-sun crusade. : )


Elsa wants to thank everyone for sharing her special day with her. She can't wait to see everybody again very soon!