What a beautiful day celebrating with our closest family and friends. Emilia was absolutely perfect during the ceremony and so well-behaved and mellow at the party we hosted afterward. I couldn’t be prouder of my sweet little girl.
The day didn’t start off well with grey skies and rain and Emilia was uncharacteristically fussy. I’ve noticed that she will get like that when Brian and I are stressed and running around, not engaging and playing with her as much as usual. She probably picks up on the tension as we fly around trying to get out the door.
We were already running late because of this and she’d not napped more than 20 minutes that morning so she fell asleep as soon as we got into the car to head to St. Catherine’s. But the worst moment of the day happened right as we pulled up to the church. As I opened the car door to wake her and get her out of her carseat, a firetruck drove right by us and sounded it’s alarm. Her eyes flew open and there was a moment of open-mouthed, absolute, terror before she WAILED. The rare times that she cries are always hard, but this was gut-wrenching because she was so scared. All my mom-nerves were electrified and I couldn’t have cared less about being late as I tried to help her catch her breath, calm down, and sop up her tears.
Thankfully, as soon as were settled into the pew she calmed as she looked around at everything: the cathedral ceiling, the candles, her dress; she drank it all in and was smiling in no time. We were seated closest to the front of the sanctuary, so Father Jean-Pierre came to bless her first and she absolutely beamed at him. He exclaimed in his French accent, “Oh my God, what a bea-u-tiful bebe!”
Now I know we’re biased, but she really did look gorgeous in her gown. It didn’t escape notice that he didn’t repeat this to any of the other babies. Father Jean-Pierre definitely took a liking to her though, especially after she didn’t cry as he poured the water over her head as she was baptized. She actually seemed to enjoy it even though the water was quite a bit cooler than anything we’ve used when we bathe her. I just remember smiling down at her really forcefully, so she’d know everything was OK and whispering “It’s OK, love. You’re OK!” and “Awww, is that so nice??” Like I was willing her to stay calm by being all “la-la-la- isn’t-it-fun-to-have-water-poured-on-you-with-an-enormous-clam-shell?”
After, all the families and godparents were asked to remain standing to complete the ceremony and Father Jean-Pierre chose Emilia to hold as he completed the blessings and, again, told us again, how beautiful (and cute) she is.
After the ceremony, we spent some time taking photos at St. Catherine’s, I nursed her quickly, then we headed back to get all the food going back at our place. To say that we were a little daunted hosting so many people in our tiny apartment is an understatement but thankfully, everyone pitched in and we were only an hour and a half late getting the food out. Ahhh.
We wanted to keep the menu simple and easy: a large garden salad, meatballs with sauce on mini bulky rolls, sausages with peppers, and chicken broccoli ziti. I prepared this recipe the morning of the Baptism and was really please with how it turned out! And of course we had a cake.
It was a wonderful day spent with our immediate families and friends.
Married with Style 
Awwww beautiful post Wend!! I didn know about the fire truck going by-we came outside after.
The pics are great! That family photo of us though…love that I’m on the men’s side and pretty much as tall as them lmao 😂 and Kev looks like he partied too hard the night before…