It is actually two days after your monthiversary as I write this. Don't grump up, I have an excuse! We were a little busy on the actual day with, oh, I don't know, your baptism & the HUGE BARBEQUE that followed! And yesterday was mama's birthday. You may be only 8 months old, but surely you know that mama always overplans her birthdays so that she doesn't have a spare moment to write. Especially since you decided last night to be awake & jovial at 2:20 a.m. when I got home. So even though I was jazzed with birthday energy, I chose to put you to sleep (and then pump like a lactating crazywoman). Thus, there was no writing yesterday.

Ahem. Your mama tends to justify herself a lot. Sorry about that.

You are eight months old. We baptized you on Sunday, and our family came from all around to see your pretty little face shine with Satan's light for the last time. They also came for the shishkabobs. You may not realize this, my turtledove, but your grandparents cannot celebrate anything in the summer months without a barbeque. They won't throw an indoor party to save their lives, but they look for all kinds of crazy reasons to fill the pool with kids & the grill with meat. You were terrific up there at the baptismal font: you smiled during the questions but looked serious during the actual baptism, as if you were pondering the symbolism of the event. At the party I made a pretty little speech about the importance of family on a day that you were welcomed into the family of God...and then we cut the fish cake.

(The cake was in the shape of a fish. I'll explain it to you when you're older. We also liberated your father's Jesus Action Figure from the box and placed him alongside the cake, as if he'd created it to feed the multitudes. You may or may not find that funny later. Right now you really enjoy sucking on the head of Our Lord whenever you can get your hands on His Holy Action Figure. Like mother, like son. Ask your Uncle Preacher what that means.)

It was important for your father & I to have you baptized this week. We had been putting it off with the idea that we'd wait until we found a church community we could call home. But then we realized that we were just avoiding a decision. We also thought about asking Uncle Preacher to baptize you last week in Edmonton, but we knew that we weren't going to convert to his church and it seemed like a lie. We finally baptized you in Grandma's church because we decided that your baptism shouldn't be about us; it should be about you joining the community of God. It should be about our promise to raise you in kindness and love rather than our desire to wait until everything was perfect. We know that you don't have to be religious to act kindly and lovingly toward your fellow human beings, but we think that you need those ideas in your mind from an early age no matter where you end up on the faith spectrum. You need a vocabulary of grace, and you won't get that if we don't make the effort to teach you about righteousness.

Anyway, don't be creeped out by that last paragraph. Your father and I are pretty sincere about the path we've taken, but we're more concerned that you grow up with ethics than that you grow up pledging allegiance to the United Church of Canada. Just don't heap scorn on religion like your Uncle Nic. Or if you do, know your facts beforehand, because your father & I run with a crowd that will skin you alive (rhetorically & theologically speaking, of course).

We went to Edmonton this month, and it may have been the best thing we ever did for you. We stayed with a family of 5, and you had your first chance to live in a house with other kids. You had a great time, but you reserved a special place in your heart for Boadicca (the one-year-old who inspired you to start climbing & standing) and Sula (your second mom). While we were there I watched you leap ahead in your development, from crawling to climbing to pulling yourself up again and again. At night your little brain steamed with new growth. You were – you are – amazing.

You're also talking a lot more this month. Last night you kept us awake with the most amazing syllable string: all b's and g's and h's & z's, over & over in a random pattern. It was almost 3 a.m. and we were both dog-tired, but we couldn't bear to turn out the light. Why do I have the feeling that you'll be singing before you're talking?

You still aren't sleeping for very long periods of time. Your naps are excellent. Good work there! But you're still waking 6 or 7 times a night. Maybe you'll start sleeping when you're through this recent spout of development. Or maybe not. At least I'm used to it now. Your favourite thing to do in the morning is to crawl over my body like a jungle gym, biting & pinching as you go. The only parts of my body you don't bite these days are my breasts. I can conclude from this that you know it's wrong to bite me – but you don’t care as long as you get to nurse. Smart boy.

You also like to push yourself up to standing on my sleeping body, aim your mouth at my nose, and then let yourself fall. You are the great white shark of the family bed. I can't wait to see what new game you'll discover next month.

P.S. Stay sleeping! See what all the fuss is about! You won't miss anything important.

- 0 comments/hedgehogs -

- Rocketbride's adventure of 8/09/2004 10:02:00 p.m.