Welcome to the New Little Christian!

Yesterday, our little grandson G-Man was baptized.

My husband and I, unfortunately, had to miss the big event.  But there's a good reason for this.

We had spent the month of January in VA, staying at the home of son #3 and his wife Preciosa, babysitting for the little guy during the week while his parents worked.  (Luckily, my hubby's airline job gives him lots of flexibility and he was able to commute to work from there.)  Originally, we were going to stay long enough to see G-Man receive his first sacrament and then head home today, traveling by car; but instead, we flew home to NH on Thursday to spend a long weekend checking on our house, collecting and sorting through the mountain of mail that's been held for the month we've been away, paying bills, and keeping some key doctor's appointments.  And tomorrow, we're planning to fly back down to VA--where we will be living until May (with the exception of about 7-10 days per month, when we have to be at home and/or other places)!  Our daughter-in-law is going to stop working at UVA as soon as the school year ends in mid-May, and then she plans to stay at home full-time.  She found herself feeling very sad about the prospect of putting her angel in daycare...so until she begins her new career as a SAHM, Papa and Grammy (with some help from Preciosa's parents and some other relatives on her side) are going to be the full-time caregivers for that sweet little boy.

And he is sweet, let me tell you.  Check out this photo of him: he's smiling while sleeping.  He is one happy baby.

Back in 2011, when our twin granddaughters were on the way, I went on a christening gown-making spree.  I made two identical gowns out of some linen and cutwork pillow shams that had been part of my late mother-in-law's collection.  Then I thought they might be a tad big for twin babies, who were bound to be tinier than most newborns; so I made two more gowns, in a different pattern.  The twins weren't all that tiny, for twins anyway (6 lbs. 10 oz. and 5 lbs. 9 oz.), but my daughter-in-law Regina chose the smaller-sized pair of gowns, which left me with two extra beauties to pass on to my other sons when they began having children.  I blogged about these dresses ages ago, and I had one of my porcelain dolls model them for my readers.

Here is the gown that G-Man wore (along with a cap I sort of pieced together at the last minute).  He's about 15 lbs. now, and it fit him perfectly!

Before we left on Thursday, my husband and I took a slew of photos of him modeling his christening outfit.  Here's a sampling.  (It sure looks better on this living doll than it looked on the porcelain one!)

While we had to miss G-Man's big day, at least his other grandparents were able to be there.  And since three of our sons (#2, #3, and #4) live in VA these days, 3/5 of our children were there celebrating together.  When my daughter-in-law Ginger texted me this photo of my three boys, their wives, and the adorable newly baptized Christian, my heart swelled with love and gratitude.

God is good.  All the time.