The Rebirth of Augustine

Yesterday was Gussie's baptism day. It was a wonderful day from start to finish, and all of the kids were great the whole day.

Gussie slept through the whole mass and Michael Jr was much quieter than normal, nicely distracted by the grandparents and great-grandparents and other family and friends in the pews. I tried to wake Gussie up to feed him near the end of mass so he wouldn't wake up hungry and crazy during the baptism, but he mostly just wanted to sleep. 

He slept right up to the point of getting water poured on his head, then woke up and looked around a bit, giving due appreciation to being a new creation. 

Gussie allowed a few photos.

Then he gave a big yawn and went back to sleep.

As soon as his baptism was over, Catherine did a Superman change into her soccer uniform and I sent her and assistant coach Daddy, along with a posse of admiring spectators, off to her soccer game.

Catherine reported that "we losed again" when I asked her about the game, but I really like this picture of her taking on the majority of the opposing team in an effort to poke the ball away and turn it around. She was not this brave the first few practices and games.

After they got home from the game it was time to celebrate. We let the kids man the keg for us (don't worry - it was a keg of Fitz's root beer).

And everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather and root beer floats.

My sister and Brian (Gussie's godparents) were able to make the trip here for the baptism at the last minute. We played baby-swap as soon as they got here so she could meet Gussie and I could squeeze my nephew Julian, although with the general party bustle I did not get my hands on him as much as I wanted. I guess Dema and his dad took care of him well enough.

Gussie must have had a good plan in mind with the entire morning of sleeping, because he was gracious and happy for his whole party, not minding at all being the honored subject of the pass-the-baby game.

 Either Grandma is really funny, or he really likes looking up at the sky.

Many thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us. And if you want, you can stop by for a root beer float this week as I don't think we've managed to empty the keg yet, unless Catherine has been drinking out of the tap while playing in the backyard...