Baptism

Last Saturday, exactly 18 months after receiving his referral, we made the trip to northern Illinois to Chris' hometown, in order to have little J baptized.  Much of the family was able to come and share the day with us and since it was so close to J's birthday, we also snuck in an early birthday party combined with the baptism celebration.  The boy was. in. heaven. We had the baptism after the 5pm Mass that day, which normally only takes an hour, but that day we were de-light-ed to have a mission priest visit and say the Mass (read: sarcasm).  I know that is awful to say, but it was quite a day to have that kind of luck because, well, the homily was over 30 minutes long!!  You read that right.  3-0 minutes.  Half an hour.  And our little guy was a little angel throughout.  It probably didn't hurt that he had only taken a 45 minute nap that morning, so when we gave him his binky at the beginning of Mass, he was content to pretty much just chill out in our arms the whole time.  (But did he go to sleep?...nooo, he was determined to stay awake.)  I'm going to brag though, because we had strangers come up to us after Mass and tell us just how good he had been during Mass.  He actually acted better than some of the adults that were there when the homily starting turning into a marathon!

So anyway, after Mass, the family went up to the front of the church and J was baptized.  Chris' brother and sister-in-law are his godparents and the whole ceremony was amazing!  Every time Fr. Mike talked to J, he actually talked to him, as though they were having a conversation.  And J would stare at Fr. Mike, just like he understood every single word he was being told.  It was really very touching.  When it came time for the actual baptism, Chris and I were both thinking that J was not going to do well, considering he doesn't like to lay on his back in the tub and have water poured over his head (I found that out the hard way.  Tried it once.  Never again.)  But our child let his Daddy hold him over the baptismal font with his parents and godparents all touching him, one finger in his mouth, and allowed the priest to pour water over his head three times without letting out so much as a peep of displeasure.  (We thankfully have that on video, but for privacy purposes since the priest said his entire name, I am not going to post it here.)  I am very glad that my sister got that on video.  I just wish we had the priest's final blessing over our family of three on video too!  Now I'm just being greedy, huh?

A few pictures of the baptism and after:

Watching Fr. Mike 

Couldn't have asked for a more perfect picture!

J and his godparents

We then went back to Chris' brother's house (where some people had been waiting for us for an hour!) and had the double celebration with family and friends.  Thanks to my MIL's friend who catered the event; she did an amazing job!!!

The cupcake tower.  And those little blue and brown boxes had J's absolute favorite candy inside them: M&M's.  We didn't let him know that until much later or else he probably would have tried to get all of them out of the tower!

He loved being the center of attention when we were singing "Happy Birthday."

And he blew both candles out on the first try all by himself.

 Can you have any more adorable cuteness in one photo?!?!

The tractor Grandma and Grandpa T got him for his birthday.

He would not allow anyone to touch the gas pedal to make it go, but he is now warming up to it just a little bit.  He'll be racing around in the thing before the summer's over, I just know it!

Everyone was dog tired the following day after a late night.

(I swear, we didn't pose her!)

He was out like a light not two minutes after we left town on Sunday.  Worn out from all the fun times!

We had a great time seeing family and celebrating last weekend and cannot thank his godparents enough for being willing to be such a central part of his life.  You are strong, amazing people and J is fortunate to have you as his aunt and uncle!  Love you guys!!