Baptism..or Toddler Show?

Many Catholics grow up hearing stories about their baptisms.  Some of us slept through, some of us charmed the congregation, while others screamed like Regan from the Exorcist.  I’m pretty sure my parents experienced all three (my brother pulled a Regan, my sister slept through most of hers and I like to think was the charming one…although my siblings may disagree, lol).  Traditionally, Catholic baptisms occur when children are still pretty young, as soon as possible really, but typically within the first few months.  That hasn’t been the case with my boys.  They were toddlers…and toddlers have a tendency to make events more…lively lol.  Cam, the eldest of my two boys, was around 14 months old, while Ash, my youngest, was 18 1/2 months old.  Am I a slacker Catholic?  I don’t think so (ok, fine, maybe a little).  The reality is, in typical military family fashion, our families (and many dear friends) are spread out across the country (and the world!).  With our loved ones so far away, we always try to cram in as many things as we can when they come come to visit.  For us, this means we’ve delayed important events, like birthdays and baptisms, so family could attend.  This is what happened a few weeks ago when we had members from both sides of the family in town.  We celebrated Cam’s birthday, Ash’s baptism and Tyler’s promotion ceremony , all in the same weekend.  We had a blast, but it was a super busy few days!

The actual Baptism took place on a Saturday afternoon during Mass.  Tyler and I, Ash’s god father (Cory), and my Mom (acting as a stand-in for the god mother, Tania), were called up to the front.   From beginning to end, the actual baptism only lasted a few minutes.  What follows below is what we’ll call “The Toddler Show.”

When we arrived he had shoes on, but apparently trying (but not succeeding) to throw them towards the Priest/Altar was more fun than actually wearing them.

Next, was a fun game we’ll call “Toddler Hot Potato”…

Uncle Cory won the game of “Toddler Hot Potato”.  Ash then decided it was the perfect time and place for some yoga.

As our Priest was pouring the baptismal water on his head, Ash thought he would check to see if the temperature of the water was to his liking.

Oh my sweet Ash!  Not shown, is when he decided the socks had to go too…thankfully we stopped him on time.  Since he had his audience in stitches, I’m going to put him in the “charmed the congregation group”.  Because this was the last of the three events we crammed into the weekend, and because each of the previous celebrations had their own cakes and a ton of food, we opted to keep it simple.  We decided to forgo a party or refreshments and do simple favors for our friends and family who attended.  I contacted a local woman, “The Cookie Gal”, who has collaborated on projects with our go-to cake designer.  After seeing pictures of her beautiful cookies, I knew her shop was the perfect place to have them made.

She gave us the option of receiving the cookies wrapped or on a tray.  Since we were using them as favors, we went with wrapped.  Here’s a closer look at them unwrapped.

How adorable is that rosary cookie?!?!  More importantly, they were chewy and delicious!  The link to her Facebook business page is here.  Check her out!

Now lets talk about the outfits.  I found a shop on etsy that has the cutest southern style kids clothes.  They feature a lot of baptismal and welcome home (from the hospital) outfits, and when I saw this short sleeved one-piece, I knew it was perfect.

I wanted it to be soft, comfortable and able to be personalized.  It was a little big (he was between sizes), but no complaints from the man of the hour.  I would pay close attention to their processing times, because it can take a little while to receive your purchase.  The etsy shop is called AnneEverettRae and can be found here.

Usually, I would do a separate style post for an outfit I planned to share, but since neither my dress or shoes are available online anymore, I decided to add it to the bottom of this post.

My dress is from Target.  While you can no longer order it online, I’ve seen a few in the clearance section of our local store.  If you love the dress it’s worth combing through your local store’s clearance rack.  I’ve had these Gianni Bini shoes for several years and purchased them at Dillards.

Don’t forget, Pearls & Pinecones is on social media!  Join me on Twitter (@PearlsPinecones), Instagram (pearlsandpinecones) and Facebook (Pearls and Pinecones).  As always, thank you for reading! ? ~Lyssa