The baptism was lovely. Uncle Joe’s whole crew was there. Super Joe’s youngest had pink eye, poor thing, so they couldn’t come to the party afterward because it was contagious. We were so glad they made it to the service though.

Embry, Kate and Stacy did an excellent job as godparents. It all seemed to go so fast. Deacon Schuster officiated expertly. I like how you walk through different parts of the church to show how you join the Catholic community as you are baptized. Especially how you end up at the altar and they talk about how the sacraments are a great comfort. You begin your life at the altar during Baptism, have your First Communion, Confirmation, marriage and eventually the altar is brought to you during your last rites. All a part of the cycle of life and how the Catholic community participates in the cycle. It is comforting.

Giada looked very sweet in her white dress and only cried once.

I know that these are not very Thanksgiving-y pictures but Giada spent most of the holiday asleep in our bedroom as she was only a few weeks old. We had the whole Cullivan family at out house for dinner, which was really nice as we don’t all get together too often. Everyone contributed food, some of the highlights being my Aunt Marilyn’s homemade ice cream and My Uncle Pat bringing a Petit Jean ham from Arkansas. All of the food was delicious. Brad’s brother, his wife Vicki and their son Evan, one of 2 cousin’s on the Palmer side, all came up from Houston to enjoy the weekend. Giada’s other cousin Marshall and his wife came and stayed upstairs at Ann’s. We played our traditional family card game of 31 and had a great time!

Baby announcements – What you didn’t get one? Well don’t get upset, no one else did either because we never managed to get them out. What we DID manage to do is have our good friends Brian and Amanda Jackson (We call them Brimanda) come over and take baby picture announcement photos. They both have incredible design minds and Brian is pretty amazing with a camera. We had purchased a few tulips for the occasion but then had the bright idea to pick some of the beautiful roses growing in our own garden. As you can see, they are gorgeous fat and yellow. We had posed Giada with the flowers for about 10 shots, then suddenly Amanda whipped her out of her basket so fast we all were standing there with our mouths open. She said, “A bee! A bee!” and darned if a big  ole fat bumblebee didn’t stagger out of the middle of the rose tight next to Giada’s face.  Almost heart attack 817…

I don’t think Giada’s first full immersion could have been more traumatic for her than it was for us. Both Brad and I were holding on to this teeny-tiny wriggling thing trying to wash her for the first time and we both almost had heart attacks.

After this experience we thought, “Really, how dirty could she be?” Consequently, baths afterwards were few and far between.

Giada woke up on Tuesday with a very gummy left eye. I immediately thought it was some eye eating bacteria that was going to make her lose her vision. I called the pediatrician at 9:20 and was in their office by 10am.

It looks like it is a blocked tear duct, apparently common and self correcting by 6 weeks. I’m a little worried because brad had to have surgery to open his tear ducts but My pediatrician, Somer Curtis, assures me this is rarely done any longer, the surgery causing more damage with scar tissue than beneficial opening of the ducts.

Since we were there and her two week appointment was on Friday we went ahead with the PKU testing and check up. I am tired of having my sweet baby’s feet pricked for blood – which are more like slices as her skin is so fragile. Thankfully she does not go back for 2 months.

She is 3 days early for her 2 week appointment so here true percentile might be off but they came in: Weight: 6.8 lbs  (birth weight was 6 lbs 11 oz) 20th% Height: 20 1/2 inches (up 1/2 from birth) 75th % Head: 34.4 (Don’t really know what her head circumference was) 25th%

Pampers has a racket.
They give you some at the hospital and when you run out they are the ones you want.

What I love about Giada now is that she stays where I put her.

It is hard to believe that I have pretty much learned all that I know about keeping this kid alive in these books. The best, I think, was what to expect when you’re expecting. I remember when I was a kid I had “Where Do Babies Come From?” Book that had illustrations and a purple colver. I think What to Expect When You’re Expecting was the next most imformative. 🙂

I scoured the name books for weeks on end. Both brad and I were pretty postive we were having a boy and had a 3 page list of boy names picked out. We were surprised when We heard it was going to be a girl and took a hiatus from the books for awhile. As you can tell from one of my first posts, it didn’t take long to get back into the name game.