No Small Feet

Finally. Phew. We've got the plans settled for our son's baptism. Let me tell you, this was no small feat.

Let's start at the very beginning. Ok never mind, that's too far back. First, I will prelude this indavertently but foreseeably controversial entry by stating that I was raised Catholic. I'm a Catholic school girl, raised with Catholic virtues, and we do intend to raise our son Catholic, for the main purpose of him having a spiritual guiding force in life. But am I a practicing Catholic? No. Now that I'm older and a bit wiser, I've learned that there are some things in Catholicism that I just cannot agree with or come to terms with, so I've come to realize that I consider myself more of a spiritual gal. I know right from wrong and in the end, I hope to get a fast pass through the pearly gates.

I believe in God, I love God, and like M.C. Hammer, I pray. I admire anyone and everyone who practices their religious faith actively, whatever that religion may be.

Now onto the rest of my story.

Planning this baptism was such a challenge. Since neither the hubby or myself are practicing Catholics, finding a church was difficult since we aren't really parishoners of any. They are tight knit clubs, these churches, and I felt like I was trying to get a bid from a sorority in my attempts to get our baby baptized there with them. To make a long story short, too late, we finally found one, right here by our house and it techinically should be our parish.

So we found the church, you think it would end there. NO. Trying to coordinate the church's baptism dates and timeslots with the reception locale's available dates and timeslots was harder than my 2 day old brownies, and that's HARD! We seriously must have gone through 3 different churches and 3 different reception locations with every weekend date and time slot in August and September imagineable between them. I don't do math - but that's a lot of possible combos there, but we finally found one that worked!

So you think it would end there. NOPE! Then we learned that the hubby and I have to attend baptism classes. Baptism classes? Both the hubby and I attended Catholic school all our lives, we are seasoned in the sacraments and we've attended many a baptism, you'd think by now, we knew enough about baptism. Not according to the church, we had to attend 2 mandatory baptism classes that were 2 hours long each.

And you think it would end there. Not a chance. Then we learned we had to have an interview with the priest! An "interview"! Ayayayay! So the hubby and I scheduled it and off we went. Let's just say job interviews were more enjoyable.

Finally there was the light at the end of the baptism planning tunnel. My sister bought our baby his outfit and so we've got that covered. Now all I really have to get are some shoes for the little guy. I would personally love to have him barefoot. But the hubby insisted that there is some decorum associated with this and he needs shoes for his cute little feet.

So all in all, planning this baptism was certainly no small feat for such small feet!

Pampered

I just celebrated my birthday, and so the hubby and baby treated me to a relaxing spa day and a relaxing weekend!

They spoiled me and treated me to a 90 minute massage! I've never had a 90 minuter. Boy was it nice, and loooong. I told myself to make a conscious effort to soak every minute of my 90 in, but gosh I think I drifted off to never-never land - hypnotized by the infamous spa soundtrack that makes me escape to an exotic place like...Lake Como? I don't know why I think of Lake Como, but I do. Perhaps its because "the force is strongest there."

So I'm in Lake Como, and then whattadayaknow, my 90 minutes are up and it's back to the hustle and bustle of life. Though I must admit, there were no complaints here. I couldn't wait to meet up with the hubby and baby again. I missed them.

So baby greets me with his smiles, chuckles and of course gifts in his pampers. So we head to the lounge and do our duty.

Then the hubby treats me to The Hungry Cat. Very yummy, highly recommend it to all the seafood lovers out there. We've been wanting to try this place out for a while, and coincidentally enough, the owner and chef were in our birthing class - so it gave us more reason to finally go and check it out. It was an evening of good food, good company and of course, a great gift in baby's pampers.

The next day, we ventured off to the Getty. This was baby's first trip there and boy did he love it. He was so happy and excited. He loved playing in the grass of their beautiful gardens.

But of course, we couldn't leave the Getty without a trip to the lounge so I could unwrap baby's next gifts for me in his pampers. And since he's been eating solids, the gifts just get more colorful and interesting!

So overall, it was a relaxing, fun birthday weekend of pampering...in more ways than one!