Now I know how to say "hippopotamus" in French

This must be Katie's long-lost twin. In France.

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

Don't you just want to eat her up?

Guess where I was this weekend

Hey, I can see my old house from here! Wait, what? You don't see it? Okay, I'll zoom in:

There it is, see it? Right there?

Okay, fine, so I went to go meet the latest family member and be present at his baptism. I went by myself. It was very weird being alone. Traveling was actually... pleasant! I couldn't stay for very long -- about 48 hours to be exact -- but that's enough time to have a good time with family and partake in some baby worshipping!

Hello, Damien Alexander!

Yes, teeth are overrated, especially when you're this cute!

Uncle Dave practicing for when it's his turn. :)

This cracked me up, because it brings back so many memories: how new parents bathe their new baby.


All fresh and fluffy! (and staring at Daddy)

Father and son. Joe is a good Daddy. (I wish I'd taken a picture of him playing WoW with Damien in his lap.)

I spent one night with Joe and Rie so I could get in some extra Damien time before the baptism. Since I was up and at 'em before 6 (technically I slept in!), I got to spend some special auntie time with Damien while the rest of the household slept some more.

Say hi to the internet!

Damien is just a cutie and a half. Lookie dat face! Chubber chubber!

I don't think he ever stopped moving while I was holding him. He's a boy, all right!



Newborn smiles are so precious.

After the last-second frenzy of getting ready and Joe's demonstration of his Pontiac's acceleratory powers, we arrived at the church, where Dad and Grandma together got the star all cuted up.


Grandma with the lucky grandchild who will get the most opportunities for spoiling.

The church was, appropriately, St. John the Baptist.

Welcome, newest Christian!


The godparents were our brother Dave, and Rie's sister Christine (you may remember that Miriam was flower girl at both weddings last summer). Fr. Patrick has been a family friend for ages -- we knew him when he was still frater Patrick, and we attended his ordination and first Masses. He also celebrated Joe and Rie's wedding (as well as Christine's), so it was very special for him to be able to perform the first baptism as well!

Although Damien was the newest Christian on the block, he wasn't the new kid any more -- his second cousin James now holds that title:

babies, babies everywhere!

Before:


After!
James was over 11 lbs. when he was born. Yes, Sara is a superwoman!

All the cousins! Martin, me, Dave, Timi (for whose wedding we came out back in June), and Joe with Damien.

Here's one for Nana. :)

Damien with his godmother, Aunt Tine. She was telling me how close she feels to him -- that when he was born (she was at the hospital, waiting), she felt that he might as well have been hers, she loved him so much. I realized I felt the same way -- when I was playing with him that morning, and snuggling with him while he slept on my shoulder, I felt all my mothering instincts focus on him as well. I never realized I could love another mother's child as if it were my own.

There's nothing like family in the whole wide world. And I'm happy to be back with mine, where I'm queen bee again, even if that involves filling soap dispensers, replacing toilet paper, turning off lights, cleaning off counters, and all those little things that tend to get forgotten when the details person is away. :)

Guess where we were last weekend

Wait, what? You don't see it? Okay, I'll zoom in:

(and that's about as close as we got)

The Big Apple! (People who actually know the city can tell me what part this is, since I haven't the faintest idea.) Miriam's reaction to this scene: "Wow, the buildings are so TALL!" DC doesn't have skyscrapers, since no building can be taller than the Capitol dome.

The Brooklyn bridge, from an extremely non-scenic, yet practical, point of view.

So the reason we were in Nyork Nyork was for the wedding of one of Mr. Pickles' former coworkers. It took place in a gorgeous little church.


The wedding itself was lovely -- the church's schola did the music, so there was chant and polyphany all over the place. The bride processed down the aisle to a chanted Introit that was exquisite. It was awesome -- I think it had to have been the most Catholic-sounding wedding I'd ever been to. :)

The reception was in the church hall, and very sweet and homey. We let Katie have the camera for a few minutes, and had it returned with lots of picture like this:


We actually had an adventure getting TO the wedding -- somewhere in New Jersey we got stuck in a HORRIBLE traffic jam, which we later learned was left over from an accident that had happened 6 hours earlier. We had planned on arriving a couple hours early so we could get together with Miriam's godmother for lunch, but as it was we only had 5 minutes to spare before the wedding started! Yeesh.

We're glad we took the trip -- the bride was radiant, the groom was bursting with pride, and everyone had a good time. Everything a good wedding should be. :)

And most importantly, the Pickles looked good. :)

New York city has always intimidated me -- just the sheer size of it. But I realized it's all neighborhoods -- when you're there you're not oppressed by the immensity of it, because you live and move within a smaller area. And each area has so much character, so much happening -- so much life. I can now understand why people choose to live there. It's a busy, exciting place, with something always going on. It's not for me -- I need more peace and open areas to thrive -- but now I get the attraction of living in the big city. I might even want to live there if I could participate in things like this. :)

The Rumors of Our Demise, etc. etc.

Hello all, yes yes I know we've been keeping all of you adoring fan(s) woefully unupdated (that's a word because I say so) (or should it be "downdated"?)... as I was saying, here is my completely original and novel, never-before-used excuse:

We've been busy.

I'm not entirely sure where the summer went, but I think most of it was spent either at the swimming pool


or reading books

or outside riding bikes with the neighborhood kids. So from a kid's point of view, a good summer!

We also made time for a few home projects.

The yellow dungeon is now Joseph's mint-green room. I haven't taken a complete "after" picture b/c there's still a huge mattress propped against the wall that we haven't found another space for yet. (Joseph doesn't mind -- he likes to hide behind it with Katie. Maybe we'll just leave it in there.)

Mid-way through August I realized that the kids needed more daily structure, so we went ahead and started school 2 weeks early this year. So far they're both really enjoying it -- just this morning (Labor Day), Katie asked if we could do school today. I'll save the details of what we're doing for a separate post.

It was a good summer, filled with lots of silliness.



Hope yours was the same!