Posting is a little tricky for me right now. I don't have access to my computer with its picture-processing capabilities (that is, any capability at all), and of course Rosie is a wee bit busy with the new baby. But we're checking in with some baptism pictures, because how awesome is a baptism?
Not only is it good to baptize the baby as soon as ever you can, but for Rosie, it's helpful if I'm there (as I was with Molly as well). I can give a needed assist in getting out the door, and I can stand in for godparents who aren't getting to Oklahoma any time soon (in this case, Sukie and the Quack!).
This time Fr. Phil did his thing, which combines his high comfort level with infants and a robust interpretation of the ritual, filtered through his Eastern Rite tendencies.
We're pretty sure that Nora caught some air here during her triple dunking. Yikes! And Amen!
All is well. Our new little Christian in her beautiful baptismal garment, comprised of pieces from both of the families.
Nora was a trouper — she had a look of real consternation at the moment(s) of peak elevation/descent, but kept it together; and Pippo and Molly were truly as good as gold.
I honestly don't know if we are really cut out to be bloggers or how the other people do it, though. We are trying to get photos with some reasonable inclusion of the necessary characters (and also manage early-morning curly hair) and then get out and get food and naps. A couple of friends of Rosie's stepped in to take pictures of things as they happened, for which we are grateful!
If for some reason we are making this look easy to you, you are not paying attention!
Still — for us, this such efficiency! Baby: Born, baptized, boom!
priest's wife @byzcathwife says
The priest and his “eastern rite tendencies”- hahaha 😉
Many years to the new Christian!
Lisa G. says
Rosie looks extremely beautiful for someone who just had a baby!
I know little about these things, but it sure seems good to me to have the child baptized ASAP. The photo of the two with the red-faced baby is really cute.)
Angela says
So, so sweet and beautiful. I cried at these lovely photos, as I do at every baptism:)
Kathy@9peas says
Beautiful, all of it – just beautiful and Leila, I have that dress too, loving the polka dots! Congratulations to Nora and yes Rosie is just glowing, so beautiful!
Tara says
Mom of 3 looks good on you, Rosie. Welcome to the faith, baby Nora.
Patty says
Love the Eastern-style dunking. 😉
Mary Alice Phillips says
Which parish and where, if you can? I adore “Eastern Rite tendencies” myself.
Leila says
Mary Alice, email us at LMLDblog at gmail dot com and we will let you know.
Lisa says
Love it! Blessings to you all! And you are blogging just fine.
Mary says
Oh my! What a beautiful and joyful family! Welcome to the Church, little one!
Jenny says
Beautiful pictures and family! How fortunate Rosie is to have family who understands the importance of baptism and why it should be done as soon as possible. God bless you and your family!
Kim says
Brought tears to my eyes, as our youngest one was also dunked! We left her baptismal gown and blankie in the back room and daddy went scrambling to find it afterwards, was quite the scene! God’s blessings to your beautiful family!
Joy in Alabama says
Such beautiful babies! And a beautiful Rosie! Thank you for posting, even though it’s hard.
Shannon says
congratulations! what joy! and you all look wonderful!
Mary says
One of my sister-in-laws is Greek Orthodox. I loved every moment of my niece and nephews baptisms. Such a beautiful rite. Welcome to the church sweet Nora!!
Stephanie says
I am duly impressed by your efficiency indeed! 🙂 And I do think that you all make it look easy, but in a very good and real-life way; that is, this blog is always written and structured in a way that makes it clear that whatever might seem easy to the reader is not solely because of your innate talent or intuition, but also because of the fruits of your hard work and progress and experience. And this seems very truthful, and is very encouraging! (Well, that’s one reader’s perspective, anyway, but I’d be surprised to find it not shared by other readers!)
On another note, I LOVE the name Nora! (I like the name Eleanor very much on its own, but its diminutive forms are lovely too – especially Nora! She has a great full name and “nickname!”)
Welcome, new little Christian! Blessings to you and your whole family!
Lori says
Thank you so much for sharing! Congratulations, Nora!
Margie says
Absolutely beautiful!
Thanks for sharing.
Lisa says
Oh, dear. I’ve always been weepy at baptisms, but now I’m finding myself teary over these pictures. There is nothing as beautiful as a young family. Welcome to our Catholic family, Nora!
Melinda says
I can smell the new baby-baptism oil from here!
Jamie says
Congratulations all around!
One thing I appreciate about the realm of LMLD is that you make things happen. It isn’t easy but you do it and you get the essentials and then some. It takes everyone and makes a strong family. Good job, Chief, Auntie Leila, and Habou for setting such a wonderful example.
Lauren says
Read the links about the importance of quick baptism and completely agree. But I have a more difficult question given families that may have to travel. We travel 1 1/2 hrs to attend a traditional catholic parish which is totally worth it for our family’s formation, sound doctrine, and sacred liturgy. However whenever there is a newborn to be baptized it becomes more complicated. The local parishes will not baptize anytime prior to 1 month old (they do group baptisms on a set date in California for efficiency). Our traditional parishes are super supportive of doing the baptism in the first few weeks but then I am traveling a significanr distance post partum. The last three babies have been 2 weeks (c section), 1 week, 1 week old. I always felt JUST well enough to be out of PJs, up and walking around, then the long baptism day always wore me out (even with TONS of help from my Mom and Mother in Law). So anyway, I feel so torn because I like baptizing right away but feel like because of circumstances in the church, distance to be traveled, and me being post partum may wait til 2-3 wks old. What are your thoughts Leila based on the collective memory etc?
Mrs. B. says
I’m not Leila, but I wouldn’t feel anxious if I were you, you’re doing your best and with the best intentions. All my babies have been C-sections, and we also travel some distance to our parish: it would have never occurred to me to fear that I am denying the importance of Baptism simply because I’m waiting to feel barely normal…
Leila says
Dear Lauren, you are doing fine. If the baby is in any danger, you can do an emergency baptism. The time frame you are citing is MORE than reasonable. Many women have a hard time recovering much sooner than that, or even that soon. Given the lack of support from the church on a quick baptism, it’s reasonable to aim to get it done within 6 weeks or so.
(In my dream world, the community would gather in the lying-in hospital, which would provide a lovely courtyard for the event. All you’d have to do would be to get out of bed briefly 🙂
Lauren says
Ok thanks! I tend to overthink things! I am going to slow down this time with scheduling it.
Maria says
Actually, in Eastern Orthodox tradition, the mother and baby stay home for 40 days to rest, recover and bond. Then after the 40 days, the baby is brought to church to be baptized and to receive Holy Communion for the first time.
Marcia says
Boom! indeed! God bless everyone 🙂
Elizabeth says
Congrats on the baptism and welcome to the faith, baby girl! When Eleanor was introduced, I really thought she’d be an Elly. I am not sure if that name is at all used in the US? But it would be so sweet to have two sisters, Molly and Elly. Nora is very nice too though :)!
Stephanie says
I’m not from LMLD (just a fellow reader!), but I love any discussion of names, onomastics, etymology, and related topics, so I’ll offer this reply – We do use Ellie (usually spelled with an -ie ending) in the States, both as a standalone name and a nickname for Eleanor (and other El- names). Other relatively common nicknames for Eleanor here are Ella and Nora. (In old genealogical records, a lot of Helens and Ellas and Ellens, and I suppose some Eleanors, went by Nellie, but I don’t think that’s so common these days. That’s just an anecdotal observation, though, and could well be incorrect, or regionally dependent!) 🙂
Stephanie says
Oops… realized I should’ve been clearer… here in the US as elsewhere, Ella, Nora, and Nelly/Nellie are standalone names too, as well as being used as nicknames. Anyway, thanks for the chance to chat about names! 🙂
Becky says
What adorable little people! I greatly appreciate the way that you keep it real even in your pictures. I think there is a great deal to be said for the fact altho the girls don’t always get to write with consistency because they are BUSY. It makes me feel so much more relaxed about *my* prioritization of my family’s needs.
Also, “feeding” reminded me of something for Rosie. When I had 3 very small people, I found it immensely helpful to pack lunches for those eating solids every night. I got little bento boxes and they liked having the same thing every day which was useful for me: pb and j, yogurt, fruit, and cheese. It seemed like everyone always got hungry at the exact same moment and it was especially stressful when we were coming home from something (church, playdate, or preschool, generally) I could just plop the lunches down in front of the older children and get straight to nursing the baby and then I just had to cross the hurdle of launching nap…
Kelsey says
Becky, the lunch idea is genius! I am putting this into practice ASAP!
Virginia says
That’s a fantastic idea…
Debbie says
Rosie, you look gorgeous! Congratulations to all, and many long, happy, healthy, and blessed years to Nora.
XOXO
Kelsey says
Congratulations! Both of mine have been baptized within the first three weeks of life, but I do wish we could figure out a way to make it all happen even sooner. There are such strange (to my mind) cultural trappings involved with the celebration of a baptism – it is, of course, needful to celebrate, but certainly tricky to pull this off at such a tender time! And I second the thanksgiving for friends with cameras. No way have I ever gotten it together enough to take my own photos!
Kelly Sue says
You are so right in wanting to baptize children ASAP, and your assessment of the physical practicality of doing so when mother has just delivered and needs to recoup for the preservation of her own health (in order to care for her newborn and other, young, not-yet-old-enough-and-capable-of-putting-on-the-post-baptismal-celebration-themselves-with- daddy children) rings true as well.
Aside from, and certainly not to diminish the prominence and significance of spiritual preparation for each of our children’s first sacrament, Baptism, we recognize that we live in a temporal state which invites us to deepen our faith through the physical.
Keeping that in mind, I am so happy that my sisters and my extended family would “do all the ‘work'” associated with the preparations before the baptism (getting young siblings ready, being there for their needs, seeing to the tasks related to the post baptismal celebration). Granted, each family’s expectation of what a post-baptismal celebration “should” be will vary – and perhaps somewhat significantly – but, well, what I’m getting to is this: We who are capable of lending a hand to the parents of our soon-to-be Newest Christian should do so. And make that offer ahead of time, so that the parents develop an understanding that this is a COMMUNITY (read: extended family and friends of the family, and the larger church community) celebration, in which the Christian Community – not just the postpartum parents – gets ready for the newest member! Each offering to lend a hand or a prayer according to the time and talents given by God.
Jessica says
“If for some reason we are making this look easy to you, you are not paying attention!”
This is how other bloggers do it. The rest of us are not paying attention! 😉
Caitlin says
Rosie you look absolutely stunning! Such happiness! 🙂
“If for some reason we are making this look easy to you, you are not paying attention!” Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m a bit too tired now to pay attention since we have been trading illnesses for the last month, so thanks for the reminder!
Emily b says
I love this! Dunking, efficiency, all of it! Just beautiful. Congratulations!
April L says
Am I the only one who thinks Nora looks exactly like Pippo in the picture of Leila holding her?
Donna L. says
These are indeed beautiful photos…but I must admit–I caught my breath when I saw the priest hold such a tiny newborn so high aloft! I can barely handle anyone touching my new babies, let alone dunking? I would be holding my breath the whole time….
Glad it went well for you all
Leila says
Donna, it was a rollercoaster of emotions 🙂
I have no idea how she survived 🙂
Mamabearjd(Michelle) says
So beautiful! So nice to be able to bypass the laypeople sacramental police and all of the ridiculous class requirements! You really have to work it in my diocese to bypass hoop jumping.
Virginia says
What a beautiful mama and a sweet family. And what fantastic icons in your church! When our first daughter was baptized, my Church of Christ mother-in-law was concerned that the full immersion would pop her eardrums! By daughter two the disapproval level was much less : )
This might be interesting to those of you who are interested in Eastern Orthodoxy. Traditionally, the mother stays at home for six weeks after childbirth and then returns to church and is blessed in a “churching” ceremony that is controversial, but I think it’s really beautiful. Then the baby is baptized shortly after that.
This is an interesting article about it: http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/OT/view/wehr-the-churching-of-women
Congratulations!
Clara says
Congratulations to the newest Catholic! Rosie, you look amazing for having just had a baby! Great post, despite the technical challenges (computers and such) and yay for friends with cameras. The pictures are great.
Saiorse says
God Bless! Don’t know if I could have handled the triple dip on my newborn when I was so soon post partum! My parish has a similar font – that my brother dubbed the “Baptismal water slide”. I spent my daughter’s Baptism with one eye on my older sons who I was convinced were going to take a swim in the lower part be it voluntarily or with brotherly assistance!
Leila says
Saiorse, we definitely had half an eye on Molly, who definitely had more than half an eye on the dunking pool!
Valerie says
So Beautiful! I love how Pippo is carefully watching as his baby sis is being ‘dunked’; what a great photo of everyone!
God bless your beautiful family!
Melanie says
beautiful, and, erm….such lift! lol…that looks chilly, Nora! We were down your neck-ish of the woods recently I think,…took my teenager to visit St. Gregory’s University.
Adri says
I am not Catholic and this post had me all teary eyed. Beautiful, trusting a man of God to handle the baptism with its eternal rewards… The grandma who assisted w/ the duties…and the admittance that none of it is easy. But, so worth it and special!
eclare says
Just wanted to add a note of encouragement to other young families who don’t have the support of family or community: you can do it, too!!
You just have to start earlier (ie. do the toddlers’ baths and the ironing the day before, and pack the car with lots of granola bars, diapers, and fluids for you so they don’t get forgotten in the morning), fill up the baby and put him in the swing/seat while you dress everyone else in a whirlwind, leave early so you can stop to feed the baby on the way (or clean up toddler vomit with baby wipes… I hope that never happens to anyone else!), skip the extras like photos and cakes, and plan to spend the next few days back in bed drinking lots of fluids to avoid/cure a breast infection. It seems impossible in the middle of it, but just do one thing at a time. God’s grace makes it possible and the rewards are wonderful.