Right with the Lord

We scheduled Mia's Baptism for the first Sunday I was home. That passed about a week ago and the event went swimmingly.

Our good friends the Duffs, and their lovely daughter Annabelle were in town for the weekend as well. They had their daughter baptized on Saturday and asked me to be the Godfather. An honor I take on with great happiness and excitement.

Daddy Duff and I have been friends since roughly the 4Th grade, well perhaps not friends till a little later in the Boy Scouts, but you get my drift. He is my oldest and closest friend. He introduced me to my wife and more or less dared me into the Army. Two of the biggest undertakings in my adult life. I was the best man at his wedding and floundered the speech. I know it's suppose to be my thing but I got a little overwhelmed. He was the best man at my wedding and hit the speech out of the ballpark. I mean wow it was a good speech. He and I have daughters that look just like us and they are 7 weeks apart. (See the Annabelle entry for more info.) So, it's only right that he should be the Godfather of the little M. Now they are Godsisters! I know he will be a great choice.

So both events were quick and to the point; holy water, blessings and an abundance of pictures.

Mia actually seemed to be having a good time as the center of attention and in the holy bath. It's good for her considering I am getting her enrolled in the nearest nunnery just as soon as she old enough! Just kidding--Maybe.

As I was busy being the Godfather and Daddy I was negligent in my picture taking. I think Grandpa got some, so as soon as I can gather them up I will post the good ones.

Last two points:

1. Baptising my daughter means that the catholic church is going to be a baseline for our daughters spirituality. However she finds her way to God and her own inner voice is mostly in her hands. We will continue to show her a path with church, C.C.D or Sunday school, but in large her relationship with God will be a personal choice.

2. Annabelle on the other hand is my God daughter and I will take a more formal approach. I think that Daddy Duff and I have similar views on most things and I will line up however he needs me to in order to help his daughter grow and develop into the church.

Amen

A letter to Mia.

So what is to follow is going to be a letter to the little M. Now, I had a little trouble trying to figure out if I should address her now as she is, all cute and basking in her babiness or if I should address her as someone who would actually read and comprehend a letter from her father. I haven't mentioned but we would like to collect all the posts from the first year and send them off to a company that makes blogs into books. So considering we wouldn't give her the book untill she is a teen. It solves my problem I will address her as such.

Dear Mia,

I wanted to write you a letter about the here and now. I often wonder about my own years as a baby. My life is a young child was not typical and there were a lot of challenges for me. I spent a lot of time moving around. Eight different foster families in fact. That includes different schools different friends and different personalities.

What I hope for you is something very different. I need you to know how happy our world is now that you are here. In a very real sense you fill an empty space that I have always tried to fill. Your that missing thing in our lives. So far we have stumbled our way through the first eight months of your life. We guess a little about what to do. We argue a little and meet somewhere in the middle of what we both believe to be right, but we are never without an abundance of love for you.

We love you very much.

Your a very happy baby, and beautiful. You have big giant eyes that already melt the hearts of everyone who sees you. One of our friends referred to you as impossibly cute. I agree. Yesterday you laughed, giggled out loud at something we were doing and it was as if the world stopped for a moment and we held our breaths. Ask me about it, I will remember it till the grave.

The world will forever be in turmoil, sides will always bicker. If you get one thing from me I pray that it is hope. Hope that if we do our best, and give our best that it will always be enough. I hope for you that you are the best part of me.

Forever your Father,

Petrie

The Helmet and the flat

Anyone who has had any personal time with the little m. will know that she has a flat head. There I said it, her head is flat. Anyone who has had any personal time with me may understand why I would like to do everything in my power to ensure that she has every chance at a nice little round head.

I know what your saying oh she is so cute it's really not necessary etc. etc. Thank you, your right she is lovely! Yup were still doing it.

So the process to correct the flatness will require three months in a helmet for 21 hours a day. It's a cute helmet, got little butterflies on it and everything. we will have a ton of pictures for you to enjoy.... I said enjoy laugh with not at. I know who you are.....

Well, I don't have pics right now but we will be sure to keep you updated with the before during and after. Plagiocephaly as the Dr calls it is fairly common these days, even an epidemic according to one smart Doc.... My dad! It has become an epidemic due to the risk of SIDS and the need to keep kids on there back to sleep.

So make sure you tell her how nice she looks in her helmet!

Home

So I am tempted to give you a nice long post with all the newest and greatest, but I learned in my recent stint away that I should break em down and keep you the two readers I have interested and not overwhelmed. So you will get four or five posts in the next two days, YIPPEE!

So here I am home again. How wonderful to see the Little M. and Trixie again. I pulled into my driveway after the three months away and the 10 hour drive home. I had to park 9 feet up from the end of the driveway because that's where the plow was blocking the driveway. When I pulled away in late March that's how much of the driveway the Snow mountain had overtaken.

Anyway I pulled into the driveway and the first thing I saw waiting for me in her stroller was the very big baby M. The effect was a little startling. I had just seen her in person not three weeks ago, but here was a very big and attentive smiling baby. Well everything was wonderful that night there was giggling and smiles, cuddling, and playing. All things in the world were good again and I had the happiest baby in the world. So, everybody is happy and off to bed. I, thanks to Trixie slept like a man who has slept in a tiny little bunk bed for three months and is just meeting a king sized bed for the first time.

Then there was morning... "wait you were up every hour after midnight?"

"Who's demon child is this and what do you mean your going to work?!?!"

Then began our day together. It was nice she didn't want to be put down but it would be nice to have a free hand. Finally about noon when the green snot faucet was working and the feeding was not, Trixie mandated I bring the little M. to the Dr's office.

Dr said she's fine..... Yeah she sure is. So daddy's out of practice forgot the little thing called a diaper bag. Who wants to get changed have a snack and a toy to play with? Daddy does at the very least. So yeah she's fine.

Well nobody died that day but people were tested perhaps some feelings got hurt, who can say. What I can say is that two little teeth down there on her little gums were suddenly where they were not. And suddenly after two days our baby returned.

Even with all that said I am happy to be home. I am happy to have traded my big green duffel bag back in for a Baby Bjorne (yup spelled it wrong on purpose)

So what I want to close with is this. We are dealers in words and I use them as well as the next guy. We typically know what to say to people to make them feel better to hurt them and yes, to sometimes manipulate them. So sometimes the words seem not enough, so I can't help but not want to use them. In particular when it comes to Trixie and how she dealt with my absence and how she cared for protected and provided for my one and only child. She had help to be sure, which she also had to organize and task. I hope there is a way for me to make her know how important it all really is to me.

It's a shifting of weight. She has the baby squarely on her shoulders like Atlas had the world. I am standing here nudging my way in and for the most part she is giving me my fair share, but I can feel her not wanting to let go. Not all together ready to share the full load. And I so get that, I love it, it's how it should be. So I will stand close and take my shared share and just keep being there.