Baptism

Esme got baptized this weekend at the Basilica of St. Mary's in Minneapolis. There were about 20 other babies/kids that were baptized so they had a separate service at 1pm.

The Basilica is so beautiful!


Esme wore the gown and bonnet that I wore when I was baptized and a bracelet made by a friend. The bonnet lasted just enough to take a couple of pictures.


First, we went to the right side of the altar with the Priest and Esme got baptized.

Then we went to the left side of the altar where the Deacon welcomed Esme to the congregation. As we walked over there the Deacon and his assistant both got huge smiles on their faces. I didn't realize it because I couldn't see Esme's face, but I guess she had the biggest grin on her face as we walked over there. You can kind of see it in this picture.

With Father Bauer.


Steve and Jodie are Esme's Godparents.


Pictures with grandparents.


When Esme needed wardrobe changes, we learned that the trunk of my car makes a great changing station. :)


Afterward, we went to Brit's Pub for dinner to celebrate.


What a great day!

Grandpa and me!

Here are a few pictures of my Grandpa Rex and me!

Esme's first 5K

This morning Esme, Grandma Jackie, Kirsten, Jack and Charlie and I went for a 5K walk around Lake Calhoun.


Kirsten introduced me to a blog (www.mattlogelin.com) when I was pregnant and for those of you who haven't heard of it, it is quite compelling. It's about a guy from the Mpls. area whose wife dies the day after giving birth to their first daughter. Not necessarily the best thing to start reading when you're pregnant with your first child, such a sad story. Definitely have the tissues nearby if you're going to read it. You'll also be able to read the significance of the robot in the picture above.

Anyway, this guy (Matt) started a foundation for people in similar situations and today there was a 5K fundraiser. The walk was around Lake Calhoun which is 3.1 miles. Kirsten and I decided to do it a couple of weeks ago. This weekend is Esme's baptism so Grandma Jackie joined us since she was in town. All we knew was that it started at 10 am at Thomas beach, which I (we?) assumed was on the north end of Lake Calhoun. So we got there about quarter to 10 and no one was at the beach on the north side of the Lake. We quickly found out that beach is called North Beach by the way. So we kept walking around the lake figuring that eventually we would run into everyone. We ended up being just exactly across the lake from the real walkers. The start of the walk was on the south side of the lake! So we kind of did our own 5K. Look at Grandma Jackie vying for 1st place!


It ended up being perfect because we got to the Start Line about 30 minutes after everyone left. There was no line and we got our t-shirts right away. Plus Matt and Maddy were there!


Esme was tired of being in her stroller so she got to get out and eat.


Jack and Charlie got to play in the coolers with Maddy!


Then they made her cry... they clearly need to work on their flirting skills!


So we started back on the trail for the second half of our private 5K and Esme was out.


She woke up just in time to get her diaper changed in the trunk before we headed out. I think Matt would be proud!


Thanks Kirsten, Charlie, Jack and Grandma for a great day!

Back to the real world

This week I went back to work and Esme went to "daycare". "Daycare" is Grandma Barb and Grandpa Dan. :) She has stayed there so much that I wasn't worried about her at all. But I still cried like the baby in the family the first morning. Aaron normally gets up at 4:30 am (yes I think this is crazy too) and takes the dogs for a walk before getting ready for work. Tuesday morning I woke up with him and was crying. Ugly crying. Sobbing. It wasn't pretty. Not that I was worried about her at all, because I wasn't. But I went from spending all day every day with her to now only getting to spend a few hours every day with her. From being in charge of her naps and her feedings to just hearing about them. It makes me very sad. But unfortunately we haven't won the lottery, so staying home isn't an option at the moment.

I don't really think Esme liked being woken up to be put in her car seat which can be one of her least favorite places in the world.


The good news is that she's such a happy baby that pretty much as soon as she's actually awake, she's smiling up a storm.


On my second day at work, I got a nice surprise. And proof that Esme is every bit advanced as we believe she is. She sent me flowers! AND she wrote a haiku! How talented is that?!?


It's quite a change for us this week. I actually do like being back at work and visiting with patients and coworkers. It's nice to be back in the real world. But I already really miss sitting on the patio with Esme, Kirsten and the boys. I would very much love to keep doing little adventures with Esme and getting to be the first to see all of her stepping stones. We kind of were in a little cocoon the last 12 weeks. I didn't make a huge effort to get out in the real world because I knew our time was limited and I just wanted to hold on to it. So it seems like a pretty drastic change. That probably was not the smartest on my part. I promise if I win the lottery to do a better job. So if anyone wins the lottery and wants to share...........

Funny noises and funny looks

The other day Esme and I were driving and I heard this funny noise in the back seat. I couldn't figure out what the heck Esme was doing. Every single time I turned around to see what she was doing, she would stop. But then I would face forward and I would hear the noise again. When we finally got home, she started doing it again and now she does it all the time. It's very cute!

Yesterday morning we went for a walk and it was pretty sunny out. We decided to try the sunglasses that Grandpa Rex got for Esme. Here are a few pictures.

The sunglasses lasted just about long enough for us to take a few pictures and then she was "all done" with that! We had to go back to the blanket draping over the stroller. Oh well, we gave it a try. :)

Tonight Esme had a bath and afterward she sat in the chair like a big girl. Soon she won't need to be propped up at all!

I'm so big!