Albert The Great

Albert Daniel was baptized at St. Patrick's Church on Sunday, January 11th.  It was such a special day!  Not only was it the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord but it was also my Dad's birthday.  Sylvia was baptized on Sylvain's Dad's birthday, so this was fitting and perfect and I loved it.

Father Jeff had a beautiful homily in which he mentioned that Albert was uniquely made and that "his mom and dad were hand picked for him, and his mom and dad are the best mom and dad for him."  I got teary.  After the homily we stood in front of church with Albert's special Godparents: my brother John and my cousin Gina.

I must say....we picked awesome Godparents for our boy!  John is an amazing Uncle to all of our babies, but when he held Albert for the first time in the hospital, when Albert was only hours old, I took one look at John and knew instantly that he was Albert's Godfather.  The same goes for Gina.  She has been here for us in a pinch in more ways than one.  She loves my girls fiercely and joyfully and when Albert came along....she was the first helper on the scene!  She helped me through the first scary moments of labor and she stayed with my sleeping babies while I went and had another one.  I felt so secure and safe standing up on the altar, holding baby Albert, with Sylvain, John and Gina at my side.  This boy's got it made!

At one point during the baptism, Father Jeff called him "Albert the Great," and my mother-in-law later informed me that he is the patron saint of.....wait for it.....SCIENTISTS!  I should have known that, but whatever.  She's a scientist and she gave Albert a St. Albert the Great medal as a gift.  The boy now has a nickname that's way better than Prince Albert.  He shall henceforth be known as....Albert the Great!

Here are some pictures from his special day.

Seven Months!

Poor Albert.  No monthly pics for this dude!  But his six month pics just came in and ISN'T HE HANDSOME?!?!

  

He continues to be the world's greatest baby and we are really enjoying his journey into our family.  His personality is starting to shine and I often wonder what he must think of the rest of us!  Can you imagine life as a baby with two older sisters?  The boy never gets a moment's peace!

I wish I could post his six month check up stats here, but sadly, I have no idea what they are.  I think he weighed about 15 pounds?  Maybe?  I know he was in the 9th percentile for weight, height and head, which blew my mind because he seems like such a chunker to me!  He's wearing 6-9 month clothes, though, so I know he's not too tiny! 

I intended to write an update every month, like I did with Margot, but guess what?  Since he's our third, I just couldn't find a whole lot to say each month!  Here are a few quick facts about our 1/2 year old:

Likes: nursing all day and all night, rolling over, chewing on anything he can get his hands on, reaching for whatever you're holding, playing on his playmat, jumping in the jumperoo, eating baby food, laughing at his sisters, sleeping with his dou dou bears, any and all types of eye contact or facial expressions.

Dislikes: loud and startling noises (especially the blender), being alone in the middle of the damn night, being poked in the eye, waiting to be fed or changed.

Accomplishments: rolling over was a big deal (don't ask me when he started that, but he's been doing it for a while) and he's starting to push up on his hands and knees, but no official crawling yet.  He is also very close to sitting up on his own.  He was baptized in January, if you count that as an accomplishment, but I'll write a separate post about that lovely day.  His most recent accomplishment happened at dinner time tonight when he finally grabbed at a puff and scooped it into his own mouth without pushing it out!  He's starting to figure out this food thing and I'm dying to give him more finger foods instead of purees, but OH MY GOSH that boy loves pureed baby food.  I can't shovel it in fast enough! 

Life with Albert:  Things are really starting to fall into a rhythm around here and our days are getting more and more predictable.  He's taking some solid naps and he usually only wakes up once a night to nurse, but sometimes he wakes up twice and, rarely, three times.  I try to remind myself that he is probably our last baby and the middle-of-the-night feedings won't last forever, but it's taking its toll.  Luckily, the girls and Sylvain all sleep right through his crying, so I'm the only one who acts like a zombie all day.  Sylvain is enjoying his time at home with the kids, but he just started a new work-at-home job and it's challenging, to say the least.  We've made our way through some rough patches over the last few months, probably because of the holidays, maybe because of some lingering post-partum hormones, or maybe just because three tiny kids are downright hard, but things are getting easier every day.  It helps that Albert is the most easy-going and care free baby we've ever met.  He is so genuinely happy and it's so EASY to make him laugh or giggle.  We are so lucky to have him here! 

I can't wait to see what the next few months will bring.  Sitting up and crawling are right around the corner and then it's....you know.......college.