Such a busy day! We were up late last night getting everything ready for today. Dom made two runs to the grocery store, the second trip was an emergency run to pick up liquid smoke after 8 pm. (He also brought back a beautiful bunch of flowers as an early mother’s day present.)
Finally turned in around midnight. Sophia, who’s been sleeping 8 to 9 hours the last few nights, must have been nervous about her big day. She woke up around 4 and had a hard time getting back to sleep even after she’d been fed and changed. Slept in later than I intended, getting up after 7. While Dom finished up the pulled pork, reducing the juices and making a spicy bbq sauce, I made breakfast and whirled around getting the girls ready and doing a last-minute pick-up. The hard thing about a baptismal brunch is that you show up at the house at the same time your guests do so everything had to be pretty much ready to go before we left.
When I told Bella that today Sophia would be baptized, she immediately responded, “Pour water over her head.” I’m not sure how she knew that, maybe from hearing us comment about her own baptismal photos.
The mass was absolutely beautiful. Father had forgotten about the baptism. Fortunately, we got there early and Dom tracked him down in plenty of time for the necessary stuff to get set up. The music selection was lovely: Come Holy Ghost, Ave Maria, Hail Mary, Panis Angelicus. Sophia, however, was not in her usual good form. She was tired and had fallen asleep just as we got to church, only to be awakened almost immediately so she could change into her pretty baptismal gown. She was fine for the first part of mass; but then started screaming during the Gospel Acclamation. I had to take her away to the chapel to try to calm her down. She screamed so loudly I couldn’t hear either the gospel reading or the homily over the chapel’s speakers. She finally cried herself to sleep just in time for me to take my place in the front pew for the prayers of the faithful.
When Father poured the water over her head, Sophia opened her eyes a little and then settled back to sleep. She woke up a bit more and yelped when we put the white garment over her head. She napped a little bit through the consecration and woke up again after I returned from receiving communion. She screamed on and off through the rest of mass; but I couldn’t take her out because I didn’t want to miss the final blessing said over Dom and myself and because we were expected to process out.
It was quite a squeeze having all the family in our small apartment; but a jolly good time. Fortunately the weather was beautiful and the kids were able to run around outside most of the time. Had it been rainy, I’m not sure everyone would have stayed quite so long.
I’ll post pictures of Isabella and her birthday cake later. It was so fun to see her tear into it. And to defend it jealously from her cousin Cecilia. A great time was had by all. Plenty of food. Lots of presents all around. Isabella is sleepy from a truncated nap but still gleefully rejoicing in her loot. Sophia, the newly minted Catholic, is screaming in the swing, trying to recover from her big day.
The rest of us are relaxing and thinking about cleaning up all the dishes. Maybe I’ll leave them for tomorrow.
Congratulations on Sophia’s second birthday!