~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
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Thank you for all your sweet comments about Eleanor's baptism!
A few things that came up in the comments or that I otherwise wanted to mention:
Our priest is very fatherly, and remarkably comfortable with children, including little babies. I know and love many wonderful priests, but I can't think of many who'd be so at ease handling a slippery, wet, tiny baby. Nor, for that matter, would I be as comfortable handing off my newborn to them for a dunking!
He is also bi-ritual, which means he has faculties to celebrate both Roman rite liturgies (like in our parish) and Eastern rite (I am sheepishly realizing I don't remember which Eastern rite he belongs to). Hence the dunking. (And many other beautiful traditions that we've adopted in our parish.)
Also, one thing that helps me get my babies baptized so quickly is that I don't worry about throwing any sort of party afterwards. Part of me would really love to — even if it were just cake and iced tea afterwards! I love parties, and it's certainly a special enough occasion. If we lived closer to family, I could definitely see having someone else host it at their house. But at least for me, just getting out the door on time and looking special-occasion presentable with a newborn (plus, now, other small children) is hard enough when I've just given birth, that with my mom's help we can just get it done. But my house was not party-ready when we got home, that's for sure!
We were able to have Nora's baptism during Mass, which meant that many of our friends were there to welcome her into the Church. And my mom did make us a cake, so we dug into that when we got home. We always celebrate! But we'll wait for another excuse for a party.
(I also didn't get a pretty picture of just her that day, so before my mom left with the gowns — which will be needed soon on both sides of the family — I popped Nora back into her baptismal gown for a few more photos during a well-fed and content moment. No one ever needs to be the wiser! Unless I tell the whole Internet…)
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We gave Nora a bath before the baptism, which is why Molly's still in her pajamas but Pippo is wearing a tie…
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I don't know that I've ever revealed this particular secret of my (always very impressive) housekeeping — do you see that stack of National Geographics?
It's totally holding up the sofa.
You see, right before Molly was born, my brother-in-law came by for a visit. At one point, he sat down on the sofa (which we bought from the as-is section at Ikea, and has been through several cross-country moves since then) and the frame broke right underneath him.
(I should take this moment to point out that my brother-in-law is very slim.)
(Also, he's a seminarian, so while you're picturing this scene, you should imagine him in a cassock.)
I told him that the sofa was clearly structurally unsound, and that truly, he had saved me: I don't know that my pride could've survived the sofa breaking under my 39.5-weeks-pregnant self.
Anyway, we stuck a pile of magazines under it to hold it up, and figured we'd deal with it when I wasn't quite so pregnant. Nineteen months later, guess what's become a permanent fixture in our living room?
No longer! My dad made it his mission to fix the sofa before he left, and indeed it only took him and Captain P a short time to get it all patched up and back in business. So, one baby's birth to break it, another baby's birth to fix it. Don't ever say we don't move fast around here.
(No “after” picture. You'll have to use your imagination to conjure up an image of a sofa held up solely by its own four legs. Aka, a very fancy sofa.)
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After two weeks of taking care of us, my mom has finally abandoned us to our fate headed back to Massachusetts. What does that mean for me? Probably no more fresh strawberry shortcake for breakfast, that's what it means.
Wish me luck!
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Laura says
Congrats to you and your family on your new addition! And welcome to the Church little one!
Kelly M. says
Aaa! Baby in the sink! Love it! Those pictures are the cutest.
Kansas Mom says
The pictures of adoring brother and sister watching the bath warmed my heart! And I loved every part of the sofa story!
Nancy says
Always enjoy the blog postings by LMLD written with honesty (real life) and humor. Welcome to the church Nora and Congratulations to all!
corina says
I love your sense of humor, Rosie! I laughed out loud when you wrote that your mom abandoned you to your fate :)) I had a similar panic when I found myself with 3 children, one of which a very demanding baby. But if I, the incompetence personified, have survived, you will do absolutely great!
Congratulations for Nora’s baptism and my best wishes for the time ahead!
Jill Foley says
Glad you got your sofa fixed…isn’t amazing what we get used to and then put off for so long?
Anamaria says
Congrats! Lovely pictures
PS I think Fr Phil is Byzantine Rite- I went to a liturgy with him in Norman once.
Rosie says
That’s what I was thinking, too, but couldn’t remember for sure and didn’t want to say the wrong thing!
Laura Jeanne says
Rosie, you are so very blessed to have the mother you do. Trust me. There are many women out there who struggle through the early weeks of caring for a newborn all by themselves without even single visit from their mom, even though she lives only a few blocks away. And even though she was tearfully asked to please come. Don’t ask me how I know that.
I am so very glad for you though that you got to have homemade strawberry shortcake for breakfast! Now that’s exactly the sort of things a new mom needs.
Congratulations on your beautiful, wonderful family, and on your newly fixed couch! lol.
Rosie says
It’s true. I truly am blessed, and only wish that everyone had such generous support!
Katie says
You are so funny and sweet! What a beautiful family! I really love that you had magazines holding up the couch for 19 months. So very realistic. I think it’s hard to get away from the new norm of – it broke, buy a new one right away! How very practical to find a quick fix, realize it works, and then finally actually fix it once you had the resources in town (dad and granddad!).
Rosie says
I never manage to get good pictures of our babies in their baptismal gowns… And I always mean to dress them up again and take pictures and then suddenly they’re 5 months old and it hasn’t happened! Ah well, maybe with #6 😉 Congratulations!!!
Julie says
I’m glad I’m not the only one is isn’t picky about stray leaves on cut strawberries. While my husband an in-laws would differ, life is too short to spend picking off every single stray leaf. Looks delicious!
Leila says
Julie, not to burst your bubble, but that’s mint from Rosie’s garden! 😉
Julie says
Shoot…I guess I am the only one, but mint is definitely tastier!
Maurisa says
Oh, the joy on big brother and big sister’s faces! Not to stress you out, but I found the transition from 2 to 3 kiddos the hardest. No worries, we went on to have 3 more, so it couldn’t have been so hard, right? Of course, the difficulty could have been due to my husband being deployed quite a lot during that time. God bless you! You will do great!
Elizabeth says
I just have to say I love your beautiful family 🙂 You keep it real, but also show how lovely that real can be. 🙂 Congratulations on welcoming little Nora into your home and into the Church!
Kathy@9peas says
I absolutely love all of this P,H,F,R!! I’m adding my link tomorrow (again). The sofa break/ fix is too funny, we’ve had our fair share of furniture disasters and military moves to fully appreciate how much the fix means!
I think I’m making that breakfast tomorrow, it just looks too delicious not to. So now Leila needs to do a post on post-postpartum care for daughters/daughters-n-law…we have a few years yet, but I’m closing in on that time and would love to get a sense of how she navigates through this – it seems pretty wonderful!
Kate says
Three of my kids were “dunked” at Baptism – in oily water to boot since holy chrism was added to the holy water (they smelled lovely afterwards). I was a bit worried, but the priest was an old hand and he reminded me that he hadn’t “drowned or dropped a baby yet” – even the screaming ones.
I hope I am as attentive and selfless a mom as Auntie Lelia when my daughters become mothers. Aunt Lelia needs to write some how-to posts on the subject. It’s not something many of us women with working mothers know about.
Melanie says
Preciousness. Love Molly and Pippo together, they are such sweeties together, soon enough Baby Girl will be running around with them. The sofa thing cracked me up. We have sooo many things like that around our house now. Big kids are so darn rough on things. And you just kind of…get used to it, meaning to do something about that closet that has only one side of a folding door because it was broken when you moved in, that missing chunk of deck rail because your child rammed his bike into it one too many times, that broken bedroom doorframe from when a sibling thought it would be a fun April Fool’s joke to duct tape a siblings door shut…and then the sibling got mad and karate kicked the door open…sigh.
Jennifer says
How sweet. I always planned on dressing my littlest up in his baptism gown for photos but never did. Now he’s almost 2! I was really disappointed that I never got a picture of him alone, either. Such is life!
HollyElise (GreenRobotMom) says
“Abandoned us to our fate”, oh my word… I laughed, and remembered the feeling exactly from when my son was a newborn (and my daughter, a rambunctious toddler) and my mom went home to Canada. Praying for your (assured) survival!
Stephanie says
How WONDERFUL to have a baptism during Mass to share with friends and the community! I love when my children get to see the baptism of anyone, especially the new babies, such a BEAUTIFUL reminder of our own birth in Christ! I love all your photos of your littles watching sissie take her bath, when we were first stationed here in Alaska we had three children under four years old, people thought my husband and I were crazy! We were…CRAZY about our kids! We had so much fun! It was so much work, but I just remember loving having my man by me, it is so holy. God bless you
Lisa says
I love that you can just get to the juice of what needs done and do it! A party would be nice but “ain’t nobody got time for that,” so let’s just get this baby baptized. I love it.
Who knew Nat’l Geo could be so useful around the house? It’s nice that they can now be read again. 🙂
Kayleen says
“(No “after” picture. You’ll have to use your imagination to conjure up an image of a sofa held up solely by its own four legs. Aka, a very fancy sofa.)”
hahahahahaha!
When I read gems like this I KNOW I’m reading the right sort of blog 😉
Congrats and welcome to the church, Nora! May God grant you many, happy years!!!
(Ask your priest if he’s Ruthenian. We go to the Byzantine church and love it. All of our children were not only totally dunked but then received the rest of the initiation sacraments including Chrismation and Holy Eucharist.)
Kelsey says
This is my favorite phfr ever! I love your frankness. This was truly a blessing for me today, thank you!
Woman of the House says
I love seeing Pippo and Molly doting on the baby! So sweet! And let’s hear it for fathers (and mothers too) who visit and get things done! Similar things happen when we visit my daughter and her family, but we don’t mind, and I’m sure the Chief doesn’t either. 🙂