God bless what's-her-name...

So Jane's christening on Saturday was wonderful. The priest did seem to have a little trouble remembering her name, which is understandable given that it's so exotic, but even so the ceremony was quite nice. Incidentally, the priest's name is Fr. Sam; and one of the altar boys was also named Sam; so our little guy was pretty excited at this festival of Sams.

When we booked the date for the christening, we worried that Jane's godparents, Karen and Ben, might not be able to make it from Colorado for Jane's big day. What we didn't realize was that Jane's big day coincided with the annual church carnival.

Which explains why it was available when all the other dates were taken through July. And which meant that there was absolutely nowhere to park owing to the bejorted masses drawn by the siren call of the tilt-a-whirl. On the upside, every once in a while the wind would carry the sweet scent of funnel cakes through the church. So all in all, a plus.

Jane was an angel, as usual, and I actually got to hold her for the full hour of Mass. I almost never get to hold her at all, much less for a whole hour [see: Samson; see also: kicking and screaming].

At one point, I found myself losing track of what Fr. Sam was saying --- in all fairness, his sermon kind of zigged where it might have zagged --- and just gazing into those big blue eyes of hers and thinking: "What a gift. Thank you."

Speaking of gifts, Jane fell asleep at 6:30 with a house full of people downstairs and didn't wake up until 8:45 the next morning. That's 14 hours of straight sleep. It's like she's practicing to be in college.