Markus's Christening

On Sunday, July 19, we had Markus baptized. It was such a wonderful event! It is very important to me to raise my children Catholic, and Raph and I had the conversation about this back when we were still dating in college. Raph is what we call a non-believer, but even he was moved by the ceremony and told me afterwards that he's glad we decided to do this. We invited almost 50 people to witness the ceremony and almost 40 were able to attend. We had a reception after the ceremony at a Spanish restaurant in our new town, which was delicious. Here are some pictures of the newly christened Markus Daniel.

From a photo shoot I did at home the day after the ceremony. His godmother, my good friend Ericka, knitted him that blanket just for the occasion.















And with his proud and happy parents
















And the favors that I conceived and my sister Natalie executed. She wouldn't let me do anything but fill the jordan almonds. LOL. The little bags have a scroll inside letting the guests know that we made a donation to the March of Dimes. I love how they turned out.
















I just want to express a heartfelt thanks to all of those who came out to witness Markus's baptism. It truly means so much to us that we can always count on your love and support. And an extra special thanks to Markus's godparents, Adam and Ericka. We are now officially compadres, and neither Markus nor Raph and I could have asked for a better match.

Father's Day post - supplemental

Because Raph did such a great job posting about his thoughts and feelings about Father's Day and his birthday, I thought I'd supplement his post with some pictures.










Raph and I at Ovelia

Party people!










The legendary Waldorf Astoria













Raph about to blow out his birthday candle














A wonderful father and son

Father's Day and Birthday

Because 2008 was such a hectic year (new baby, new house, new job, new degree), the only thing I wanted to do in 2009 was to focus on my family and my new house. I decided not to stress about anything else. No planning, no nothing. If someone wanted to do something, that was fine, but I just didn't want to be involved in any planning. However, last week my 30th birthday fell on the same day as my first Father's day. Big milestones, so I managed to invite my friends and family to go out for some drinks the night before.

Sandra's mom watched Markus for the night and Sandra and I booked a room at the Waldorf Astora for the night (we're soooooooooo fancy). The Waldorf actually worked out well because we booked a regular room, but when we go there they gave us a smoking room. We complained and they upgraded us to a mini-suite. NICE! Anyway, dinner and drinks were at Ovelia, a greek restaurant in Astoria which is co-owned by one of my good friends. The evening was a great success. A lot of friends came out and it was nice to see everyone. We even got to see pictures of one of my friends' newborn son, Lucas, and we found out that our other friends are expecting their first! Great, great news.

On my first father's day, I just recognized how lucky I am to have such a wonderful wife and mother of our son, and to have such an incredible little guy in my life. I also recognize the importance of my entire family, and how rare and lucky we are to have such great relationships. It's been such a joy raising Markus and I can't say enough about Sandra being a mom.

We had decided that Sandra would stop working to stay and raise Markus, and that has been the most surprising aspect so far in that I didn't really understand the dynamics of that decision. It's invaluable to have Sandra at home with Markus, and we knew that, but it's also difficult to be with him all day. I never appreciated just how difficult that would be. And while it's great for me to work, well, not work per se, but to get out of the house each day, it's tough not to be with Markus during that time. It'd be great if we could alternate! I love when I come home and Markus gets so excited. I play with him for about and hour, give him a bottle, and put him to sleep. It's so very special. I really look forward to weekends so I can play with him more.

Well, what can I say? I have no words to describe just how I feel about Markus. I love being a father. It really is a different world that I live in now. My thoughts and feelings are so different than before. One small, but powerful moment came a few weeks ago when we were visiting my parents. Markus was sitting down and I was standing next to my dad. I looked at Markus and said, "look, this is my dad, just like I am your dad". It was just a second, but it was one of those "wow" moments. Hard to explain, but very surreal, very spritual.

Well, Happy belated Father's day to everyone! I'm excited to see what the next year of fatherhood will unveil.

Flashback Friday #3

This is a somber Flashback Friday, because we must bid farewell to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest yesterday (June 25, 2009).

Instead of the usual method of photo selection, I wanted to post a picture that reminds me of Michael Jackson.












We played Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" as the bridal party was being
introduced.

RIP, Michael. Don't stop till you get enough.

Flashback Friday!

TGIF! Friday is the best, not least because it's time to enter the wayback machine and go back to some good old days. Just to be clear, the good old days are always being made. Right now will eventually be "the good old days" too, when some time has passed. :)


















The Sausage Cart.

This is the first picture that came up, and it's an interesting one. It's of a cart of meats and MOONSHINE that was brought by the parents of the bride at the wedding Raph and I attended in Warsaw, Poland. The wedding was in October, 2006. It was such an awesome trip. This is one of those flashbacks that needs more than one photo to describe. BTW, yes, we tried the moonshine, and YES it could light a fire without a match and put hair on your chest! Whooo!

The Sightseeing.

After (recovering from) the wedding, we spent some time in Warsaw seeing the sights. Eastern Europe is extraordinary, where the impact of WWII was so intense. So much was destroyed during the war, and the people who live there still talk in terms of "before" and "after" the war. It's absolutely beautiful, though. I would love to go back.

The Train to Wroclaw.

Raph, his parents, and I took a train to Wroclaw, which is the town his family is from. At the time, his grandfather still lived there, and we stayed with him for the rest of our trip. I loved traveling on the train! The ride was about 5 hours long. We thought we were getting a Haryy Potter-like compartment for the 4 of us, but we ended up having to walk through several cars, towing our luggage, before we found the car we were supposed to be in. It was super early in the morning, and people actually use these trains to commute from Warsaw to work. The first thing we did was go to the food car and grab some breakfast, and then we spent the rest of the time sitting watching the pastoral scenery. It was a lovely experience.
















The Rynek (Market Square).

This is where people used to meet back in the day. There are stores, cafes, restaurants, bars, you name it. Very quaint. Wroclaw is a university town, so there are lots of young people there, and it was bustling with activity.

The Family.

At Raph's grandfather's apartment in Wroclaw. I love this picture. Rest in peace, dziadzia.

Flashback Friday!

Happy Friday!

Thanks to all those lurkers who found the courage to peak out from behind their monitors and say hello! :)

Here's your Flashback Friday photo:















Raph and I (in our sexy yellow ponchos) are at the "Journey Behind the Falls" at Niagara Falls. We took a trip there for our first anniversary, May 7, 2006. Great trip! We love Niagara, and the wines up there are awesome. We even went back with a couple of friends in the fall of '07 for another wine-buying trip.

Raph is trying to highjack my post by telling me to say: "Raph sez: 'Niagara-on-the-Lake is the place to be.'"

Hmm...maybe we should take another trip there this fall...

Some Parenting Stuff

We knew going into this that parenting would be hard. There are so many responsibilities and things to think about, so many decisions to be made. We've been fortunate that Markus has been extremely healthy. I want to document a couple of parenthood moments that we consider minor rites of passage.

A few weeks ago (5/20), Markus had his first fever. Raph came home from work and noticed that Markus' head felt warm. We took his temperature (our first experience with the rectal thermometer and may I just give Raph MAD PROPS for doing the honors...) and then called the doctor's office - the temp was around 101 degrees. It was after hours, so we had to leave a message with the answering service, and the doctor on call got back to us within 20 minutes. We had already determined (and my mom concurred) that he just needed a little baby Tylenol and some rest, but we were glad to speak with the doctor and have that confirmed. She actually said to dose him every 4 hours throughout the night and come in if the fever didn't break the next day. Raph is pretty level-headed about this stuff so he was able to sleep, but I was too nervous to get a good night's sleep. I woke up a million times to check Markus and feel his head for fever. When I wasn't awake and checking the baby, I was dreaming about it! I decided we didn't need to keep dosing Markus after the first time, because his head felt normal again within an hour. Thank God, we weathered our first baby fever unscathed.

One big decision we've made recently is not to take Markus to a cranial specialist. He has positional plagiocephaly, which is a flattening of the head due to his having favored one position over the other while lying down. Markus lay his head to the right about 90% of the time from birth, and as often as we tried to turn it to the left to even it out, he would just turn it back. Before he was able to sit up, we gave him as much tummy time as he would tolerate, several times a day. But newborns spend lots of time on their backs putting pressure on the backs of their heads, and Markus' head now appears misshapen.

Our research shows there is no developmental detriment to allowing the head to grow and fill out naturally, but many doctors recommend that the child be taken to a cranial specialist, who will almost certainly recommend a helmet. We decided not to take this step because we don't want Markus to have to wear a helmet for 23 hours a day, for 3 summer months. Especially considering that this will only speed up the "rounding out" process, which we believe has already begun. Now that Markus sleeps 10 hours a night on his tummy, and plays sitting up most of the day, he is no longer putting pressure on the right side of his head regularly. When he naps, I always make sure to turn his head to the left if it's not already, to make sure that side gets a little pressure. Here's a picture of Markus' head from the top. What do you think?