Baptisms, Babies and Little Black Dresses.

I'm doing all that I can to avoid thinking that tonight is the last night I will put my baby to bed as a baby. 
Never mind the fact that he spends more time vertical walking, than crawling these days. and babbling and virtually hurtling towards toddlerdom, full speed ahead. Yes, I know what you're going to say. "But he'll always be your baby!" And I'm calling bullshit on that right now. Because yes, he'll always be the baby of the family but he won't always be twenty-three pounds and he won't always curl himself into a ball with his legs wrapped around my hip and his head tucked beneath my neck. He won't always eat his puffs with that adorable little pincer grasp and point that chubby little finger in the direction in which he wants you to carry him. 

He isn't going to be a baby for very much longer- I've been here before and I know that in like thirty-three minutes he'll be three years old and running circles around me and giving me attitude of the century while throwing the missalette on the floor of the church during his Baptism. And in like two weeks he'll be ready for college. So no, he won't always be my baby and that makes me sad. 
Yesterday, the Baptism of Maclane and Collins was a welcome distraction from this inevitable growing older. In fact, I was so focused on getting through the day and celebrating our two newest Catholics that I didn't even realize that Collins' birthday was just two sleeps later. 

Despite the priest wanting to initially baptize Maclane as "Marlene" and later, anointing "Connor" with holy Chrism, it was a beautiful celebration and I cannot wait to see how God works inside the hearts and minds of our boys. I don't spend a lot of time writing about our personal relationship with God- as a matter of fact I don't really talk aloud about it all that much either as my faith has always been kind of a private matter- but when we're gathered in Church, surrounded by family and friends that love our boys just as much as we do, it's really an incredible thing and I am so thankful for that. Our three boys are blessed with some pretty amazing godparents and I don't know if it's birthday eve hormones or what, but I'm so glad we have them in our lives to stand beside our sons.   

Let's pause for a moment and talk about that dress. That was not the initial dress I planned on wearing for the Baptism. In fact, that wasn't even the second dress I planned on wearing for the Baptism after I decided the second dress wasn't really church-appropriate.

That dress is the product of a late night (and one too many glasses of wine) spent on Rent the Runway searching for a romper to rent for Collins' first birthday coming up. On a whim, I rented that dress and figured that if it didn't fit right when it arrived that I still had two other options to choose from and really, what did I have to lose? 

But then it arrived and I fell in love with it and wished that I had a dress like that sitting in the back of my closet to pull out for events that require me to shave my legs and wear a real bra. I love that dress and wearing it rekindled my love for RTR. You can use my referral link to sign up and we both receive a $20 credit to put towards future orders. 

I mean really, it's a win-win if you ask me! I hate to say it but even my husband was a little disappointed when it came time to putting that dress back into the mailer bag last night...

Happy Baptism Day Collins Mason and Maclane Allen. We're so proud of the little boys you are becoming- now to soak up every last bit of baby in that little one on the left up there before he turns one tomorrow...