De-heathenification

Peter was baptized yesterday, and his mother and I spent most of Friday evening and Saturday getting ready for the reception that was to follow. In fact, Peter and his mom were out Friday night when I got home, visiting Bed Bath and Things (or was it Linens ‘n’ Beyond?). I spent the evening tidying up. Peter wound up being up until after 10:00 that evening, partying.

Saturday was a day of cleaning and cooking, and Peter was the ideal baby on such a day as he decided he’d just sleep through all the work we were doing. Had he been an unhappy lad it probably would have been a difficult day, but instead he just slept and slept, so much so we had to peek in every once in a while just to make sure everything was ok. We kept working until 11:00 when Peter needed a feeding. Mommy crashed and decided to take a nap “for an hour.” An hour passed, and the nap continued. Sleep was more important to us, really.

Sunday morning we woke up before dawn, still making our place presentable and getting food ready. Peter slept through most of that work, but he did require a feeding around 7:00. It was a warm, humid weekend (fortunately it was not as hot as the well-paid-but-usually-wrong meteorologists threatened), and we felt like we had a coating of sludge covering our bodies. We actually managed to get showers in at a good time, but even after I dried off I still felt gross. I gave Peter a bath a couple hours before the baptism, too, and this time I did his hair. But his wedding dre… I mean baptismal gown has a bonnet (yes, my son wore a bonnet – for the last time in his life, I might add), so no one saw the nice job I did on him. By the time we had to leave for the church not all things were done and ready, but it was close enough.

We got to the church 10 minutes before the mass, but the other family that would be getting a kid dunked was no where to be seen until the start time. Call it a guess, but I think what slowed them down was the cast on the mother’s right leg which required her to stay in a wheelchair. The cast itself was really just a wrap, it was not a hard-set one, so I’m guessing the accident (I’ll propose she didn’t do it on purpose) happened within the prior 24-48 hours of the ceremony. Word of the tardiness of some of the participants didn’t make its way up to the cantor, who started the mass on time and announced that everyone should look to the back of the church so the families could be welcomed. Of course, there was only one family actually back there and that was us. It took a good five minutes for the other family to get their baby into his wedding dr… baptismal gown, and all the while we stood there trying to look inconspicuous. In retrospect I should have whistled as if there was nothing out of the ordinary going on. Or I could have put on a juggling display, but there was nothing really back there to juggle except communion wafers, and I don’t know if that would go down well (although, technically, they were just unleavened wafers, so it’s not like they were consecrated or anything).

So they eventually wheeled out the mother and their baby (Joseph James, AKA Joey Jim) and we brought out our baby (Peter Charles, AKA P-Chuck). We answered the regular questions (Whozzat? Peter Charles! Why’s he here? Baptism! Hooray!) and then we processed to the front of the church. Peter was a good boy during the mass, but he got a little hungry by the time of the end of the first reading, as we didn’t get to top off his tank before leaving for church due to all the preparin’ going on. His mom whispered into my ear that she was going to try and imperceptibly feed him right there, and she did. Peter had a nice snack, and eventually fell asleep during the homily. When we were called up for the baptism itself he was still asleep. He slept through the first anointing. He slept through me dangling his head over the baptismal font, but when he got some chilly water poured on his head his eyes opened up pretty quickly – but no crying or nothing. He got another dose of anointing oil massaged into his hair (which his mom is thinking might have additional benefits for his cradle cap), and that lovely head of hair I arranged for him was rendered a spiky mess of anointed bed-head. The priest and deacon then each took one of the boys and walked out to the pews to present the newly baptized buckaroos to the waiting throngs. Father Mike, the pastor, had Peter, and when he came back with him after showing him off he said “he’s one big baby, now.” And he only hauled him around for about a minute.

Back in the pew Peter was awake and looking around. At one of the times when we had to stand up towards the end of the mass Peter let out a rather sizable belch, but due to the noise of everyone else standing up the noise didn’t travel far. We’re just glad he didn’t gurk out a glob of spit-up on the wedding dress. Baptismal gown! D’oh!

The reception afterwards went very well, except for the humidity. Peter had his awake times and asleep times, but as far as I recall he was a pretty charming fellow. His mom and I would go off and do this or that that needed doing in order to keep the machine of the party operating, and we didn’t have to wonder where Peter was because he always had someone with him, usually sitting on a lap being charming. That was actually pretty nice. Every so often I’d go looking for him, and he’d be with an aunt, uncle or grandparent, maybe chatting, maybe drooling. I don’t have any anecdotes, though, because I was running around most of the time. The closest thing to an anecdote I can think of is trying to figure out how to get him out of his long white outfit by myself so I could change his diaper (in short, I couldn’t).

In three weeks we’ll be going to Madison for Peter’s cousin Elana’s baptism. Hopefully Peter will be as good a boy as he was on his own special day. And Elana should do fine in a dress, what with her being a girl and all.