A Christian affair

This week saw the double whammy celebration of baby Henry's 1st birthday and christening. I think it actually might have been heathen Ollie's first visit to church in over two years. Nick and I had some concerns that he may start melting upon entering the church doors but turns out he was alright. Alright, but definitely not on his best behaviour. Within two minutes of being in the church Nick was chasing Ollie up to the altar to retrieve him from under the table thingy (alright so I'm a bit of a heathen too) and getting in trouble for eating the snacks I'd prepared to keep him quiet during the ceremony (who knew you couldn't eat in church?). So quiet he was not. But fortunately there were a bunch of kids and all seemed to have forgotten their church manners so it wasn't like Obear was the naughtiest one there. Actually he managed to even stay relatively quiet when he came up to the microphone with Nick and I while we did a reading. I'd had all kinds of anxieties about him leaning into the microphone and saying "mummy I need to do a poo" - trust me it could happen.

But all went well and after a significant dousing (I think because he was being a bit cheeky at the beginning and the priest thought maybe he needed a bit extra) Henry found himself welcomed into the Catholic faith. Thankfully this all took only about 15 minutes and before you knew it we were out the doors and on the way to Henry's birthday party (but not before Ollie managed to dunk his hands into the holy water - and surprisingly it didn't burn him!)

Here is the birthday boy with his mum, dad and godparents.

The party itself was great, especially for Obear who helped Henry open his presents, joined other kids in shrieking at balloons and was very helpful to Nick when he put Henry's present together. He also consumed more cake, chocolate and apple juice than I would normally let him consume, but isn't that what birthday parties are all about?

And after running around like a goose and eating cake and chocolate how does one little boy end up? Very very tired! This might also have something to do with the miserable sleep he had the night before. I was up to him about four times and on the final one I decided to do something I absolutely never do - bring him back to our bed. It wasn't a particularly restful sleep for either of us after that. So we were both shattered before we even began the day. Last night saw a similar night but with everyone staying in their own beds. The big problem I've got is that I'm actually already awake before Ollie wakes up and then I can't get back to sleep afterwards. So I'm only getting about 5 hours sleep each night. And if one more person tells me it is my body's way of getting me used to little sleep with a newborn I'll ... well this is a family blog so I'd better not say. Fingers crossed we can both get some more sleep tonight. I've promised him he can have a book about Buzz Lightyear tomorrow if he gets through the whole night without calling out to me. Something tells me I won't be scouring the bookstores for it tomorrow. Seems like a pretty safe bet in my favour, unfortunately.

Slummy mummy moment of the week? We were all in the car when I realised I'd forgotten something. Out comes the word "crap" which Ollie immediately repeats about 4 times, including the creative modification to "crappy". Oh well, could have been worse.