Monday, May 26, 2014

Special Day

This past Sunday, Adly celebrated the milestone of being baptized. Baptism was honestly something that Adam and I went back and forth on for a long time. We are both Catholic and were raised as Catholics. I attended Catholic schools until college, Adam for most of elementary school. However, in our twenties we had both wavered in our feelings regarding religion and the Catholic church. When we met, neither of us were sure what kind of future we saw when it came to religion. When we got married, we made the decision to not get married in the church because we still hadn't come to any finite decisions as to where we saw ourselves religiously.

Then the miracle of a child happened for us. As with everything, they tend to change a lot of plans.

As I carried Adly, we went back and forth over the idea of godparents and baptism until we were blue in the face. We just couldn't seem to make a decision either of us were happy with. Right before Adly was born, we felt it was important to at least name guardians for Adly since at that point, we had decided not to baptize her. Our viewpoint at the time was that since we were so indecisive, she could make up her own mind once she was old enough and be christened into whichever religion she chose, if and when. We chose our friends Josh and Katie to be the guardians for Adly. This was not an easy decision for us. But being that we each have a number of brothers and sisters, all of whom are at very different points in their lives, we decided to look to our closest friends. When we made this decision, it was more from a legal standpoint. Only, drafting and creating a will become super overwhelming at nine months pregnant, so we stopped there.

Once Adly came, the conversation started again as our feelings began to change even more. Childbirth is something so miraculous and such a surreal experience that the idea of christening her began to nag at us once more. Again came the conversations about how, when, where....do we? After months of talking it over, we took our first baby steps and decided to start by joining a church close to our house. After attending a few times and feeling like it was a good fit, we decided to set things in motion. First thing was informing Josh and Katie that they would be named as godparents, not just guardians. They were thrilled. Then came telling our family, and our mostly Catholic parents. They too, were really happy. My mom had happened to subtly hand down my christening gown, which was also the same one she wore, at my baby shower months prior. I was excited to be able to carry on that tradition.

We chose to keep the baptism for immediate family only because, well, between the two of us our family alone is close to twenty people. On the day of, everyone came over for some lunch and conversation where she was also showered with some of the most thoughtful and beautiful gifts to commemorate her day.

In the end, I'm so glad we chose to baptize Adly. I think it's an important step that we, as her parents, could make to help guide her in creating a relationship with the big man upstairs.












Saturday, May 24, 2014

What are you looking at?!

Something has happened to my darling angel sweetie pie. That precious little girl has perfected the death stare.

Just kidding, she's really not always a darling angel sweetie pie. Along with this death stare we've entered into the phase of testing the limits...which is a phase that will of course last for the rest of her life. This meanie face originated after the umpteenth time of being told to stay away from the electrical sockets that are just waiting to give her the shock of her life. Don't worry, these sockets are covered with protectors and then a basket on top of them. But they must be really exciting because she tests the limits with inching her way towards it (looks back to see if she's been caught). Touching the fireplace brick the basket sits on (looks back to see if she's been caught yet), hearing a firm "Aaaadly", (looks back one more time) then dives for it. You're not that sneaky yet, missy! The face has also made appearances this week after she attempted to bite. Then scratch. Now I find myself diving into books again trying to figure out all the right and wrong ways to best teach your infant how to not be a little jerk.

Sigh. Life is SO hard at 10 months. Anyways, after a few days of associating the face with being upset, it now also appears randomly throughout the day. One minute she's happy as can be, the next she's ready to slice through you with the evilest of stares. Then she's right back to giggling and laughing (usually in response to me cracking up at her death glare). Whatever this change in attitude has been caused by, at least it is hilarious to look at. So glad we finally captured it on camera!

I swear I'm sweet!
Just kidding, sucka!! Put the camera down or I'll cut you!
Muahahahaha, PSYCHE!
WHAT are you looking at!?!

Friday, May 23, 2014

A Day for Me

Mother's Day.

Suddenly this year, Mother's Day took on a whole new meaning. Last year I was pregnant. The day was spent recognizing all the mom's in my life but to be honest I just didn't "feel" like a mom yet. This year started out that way again. I honestly forgot about the day until my co-worker and dear friend Kari mentioned making something with her students. Oooops! Good thing I have her to remind me of such important events.

This year, my in-laws came down Saturday night to celebrate Mothers Day. All of them were so thoughtful and brought random gifts for my "first" Mothers Day. Adly even helped her aunt Nora and great aunt KK make a pot with her footprints in the shape of a butterfly. So cute!


To celebrate the actual Mother's Day, Adam and Adly had me open the gifts they shopped for which included some new sunglasses and a locket necklace bearing a picture of the three of us. We then headed out to dinner to celebrate. This was a big deal because it was the first time I was out of the house in weeks with the family and in a gasp! public place! But I hobbled my way in and out of the restaurant just fine.

The best part of the day was watching my ever-growing daughter ham it up with everyone in the restaurant. She has become such a personality in the last few months and to see her in a public setting blew me away. From the moment we were seated, she began pounding on the table, talking away. She immediately caught the eye of the owner and a few waitresses. She loved catching their attention, grinning, giggling, batting her eyes, and soaking in all of their coos towards her. She also had a great time smiling and grinning away at everyone seated next to us. Such a little charmer.


I'd say my first real Mother's Day was definitely a success. A big thank you to my amazing husband and family for all the loving gifts, flowers and cards. I certainly felt extra special this year!

Thursday, May 15, 2014

10 Months!


I think there are spiderwebs growing on this blog. What an INSANELY busy, crazy, trying few months we've had. 

Seven weeks after surgery, I'm still gimping along. That said, a gimp is better than full brace, no weight bearing and crutches! After almost 5 weeks of having constant care to help out Adly and I, we were happy to begin getting back onto somewhat of a routine. This began with me carrying Adly around with crutches and a Baby Bjorn. Gotta work with whatcha got. But hey, we did it! Now the crutches are (almost) gone and we're finally getting the last of the boxes still lingering in the apartment taken care of. For the first time since March, it feels as though life is finally settling down. I cannot thank Adam, our family and friends enough for the insane amount of help we received during my recovery. I definitely could not have done it without them all.  

Now, on to my ever-growing child. Her ninth month was filled with a lot of new exciting things, mainly being the concept of crawling. She (thankfully) spent the first month after learning how to crawl exploring only a 5 foot radius around her. It was the best of both worlds....we had an exciting new crawler on our hands...that didn't crawl far. But by almost ten months, that magical period was over and she realized her legs could move--and quickly. Not to mention the fact that there was a whole lot more world laying outside of the living room rug for her to explore. Now we've entered the realm of battling the constant need that infants have to find every cord, outlet, and easily toppling piece of furniture there is around every corner. 

Additionally this month, Adly also sprouted two more teeth. Her two bottom teeth are fully in and then her left incisor has also made her way in. Looks like she'll have two little fangs up top first. So far she really seems to be taking teething like a champ. Usually the worst of it is this heart wrenching cry she lets out when she lays down from time to time. Other than that the only sign we've seen regularly is a lot more sleeping during the day. Cropping new pearly whites must be exhausting for the little miss. 

This month she's also developed an obsession for dogs...in videos. I know, it sounds weird. But she's met a few doggies in real life and they've continued to scare her. After our friend Nicole and her doggie Pearl visited while I was recovering, Adly started to say "oof" and look toward the door every time she heard the word "doggie". So I started showing her YouTube videos of little dogs barking, hoping to get her more comfortable with dogs. Turns out she loved them and now one of her favorite things to do is watch these videos over and over all while clutching my arms, looking up to make sure I'm there and then saying "oof, oof!" over and over again. It's adorable. 

She's also learned some new words this month including "pretty" (tee-tee) and "woof" (oof) and at the very end of 9 months an adorable "raaaar" for lions. She'll also wave her hand in front of her face and go "eeee-ooo" for pee-yoo, stinky! That came from imitating me one day after an especially ripe diaper change. I know all the modern parenting sites say not to offend your infant by talking about their stinky diapers to them, but my God, sometimes I just can't help myself. Girls got some stanky diapers. 

Another exciting moment was when she first associated "da-da" with Adam. For a while, everything was "da-da". Then in the last week or so it's become an excited da-da! every time she sees Adam. It's beyond adorable.



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