As promised!

It's definitely too late for our family and friends on the east coast, but here in Alaska it's still "tomorrow night" (as per my last post), so I'm getting pictures and video up!

That first picture is from last Thursday, the day before Michaela turned 3 months old! As I said in last night's quick update, she's no longer considered a newborn now. She's officially an infant. And, in the interest of full disclosure... I had no idea there was a difference/dividing line. I learned that just last week!

Moving onto the Baptism. Yesterday, October 18th (the Feast of St. Luke), Michaela was Baptized into the Episcopal church. Her godparents are Ryan and Heather, who, of course, couldn't make the trip up for the service. So the whole congregation pretty much acted in their behalf. She did really well through the entire service, except when I put her hat on her. Her hat (which I didn't get any pictures of on her head) was the hat I wore at my Baptism. It was then turned back into a handkerchief, which I carried at my wedding. I then turned it back into a hat for her, and will now safely tuck it away until she gets married (a long, long time from now if she knows how to keep her daddy happy). So the hat stayed on her head for about 2 seconds and she immediately stopped crying as soon as it came back off again. We figured quiet baby was more important than cute hat, so there ya go. Now onto the rest of the pictures...

Being Baptized with holy water. No crying at all, which surprised me because she doesn't really like the water getting on her face during bathtime.

In this one, you'll note that Jason is sort of laughing. She grabbed onto Fr. Paul's finger and wouldn't let go. This wouldn't have been a problem, but he was trying to reach for the chrism. She eventually let go (after he shook her hand off!) and was sealed with the oil.

Shortly after the actual Baptism part of the service, she fell asleep. This does not look comfortable to me, but she seemed quite happy to stay that way for a while. She looks like she's a lot more sideways than she is, but that's a lot of dress around her!

Finally awake, we tried to get a few more pictures. Isn't her dress gorgeous? She looked so pretty... too bad it made her sweat like crazy! I'm looking forward to doing a portrait session and getting some good pictures of her in this gown, as well as the one I wore at my Baptism. We might even be able to keep the hat on her for more than 2 seconds to get some pictures of that, too!

And, here's all three of us. This would be an awesome picture, but Jason has a little bit of a goofy look on his face. By the time we took it, everyone was starting to filter out of coffee hour, and Michaela was more than ready to get that dress off! So we didn't try for another one. It might not be perfect, but it's a good memory of the day.

And for the final picture, this is also one from last Thursday. This is my girl, sleeping while propped up on a boppy, but on the floor. We figured out that she REALLY likes this little bear blanket that Maryanne (Mimi) gave her before she was even born. It's silky on one side, and very soft fleecy kind of material on the other. With a pacifier in her mouth and Bear in her hands, she'll work the fleecy side in her fingers, and slide it around so the silky side is rubbed all over her head until she falls asleep. It cracks us up, but it's a way for her to self-soothe, so we like it!

And finally, a little video. I was trying to get video of her lifting up her head (she's gotten good at it), but instead she just spent the time on her tummy telling me exactly how much she enjoys being like that (or not).

Things are going well here in general. Michaela is definitely getting to the age where she's so much fun. She interacts a little (blowing raspberries back at us when we do it), smiles a ton, and she's started to giggle a little, too. She keeps us laughing and amazed at how much she's learning and changing every day! SO much fun! We can't wait to make our trip to the east coast next month so everyone can meet her!