Milestones

Well this posting is about new beginnings. This past weekend we celebrated Anja's baptism. It was an amazing weekend, as family and friends from Michigan, Texas, West Virginia, Baltimore and DC arrived to celebrate. It was a beautiful day- albeit a bit more like mid-August than early October. It was wonderful to see that Anja has so many people that truly love her.

Mark and I were a little worried about how the mass would proceed- could she make it for an hour without crying? We decided several weeks ago that Mark would be the one to hold her for the ceremony. I have no shame admitting that he has a calming touch that I don't seem to have- I won't go as far as to call him "golden hands" as he has named himself. But, there is something there. And sure enough, she was smiling the whole time. She was actually quite a ham in front of the camera- she clearly does not take after her mother - or maternal grandmother- with this trait!

The second milestone we are experiencing is that I am going back to work tomorrow. Given that there could be people from work looking at this blog I won't say much more than that. It will certainly be a transition. Fortunately, Mark is staying home with her for another 5 weeks before she has to go to daycare. Needless to say, Mark, Anja and Pip are very much looking forward to the coming weeks a bit more than I am.