blessing day

before making it to oregon we went to salt lake for a week of celebration with chip's family. tucked among so many other amazing happenings was the blessing of little charlie. baby was silent and sleepy as his grandfather, great-grandfather, five uncles, one cousin (once removed) and a dear friend surrounded him and chip gave him a beautiful and sweet blessing for his life. it was pure glory to have so many of our favorite people in one room to share our joy, faith, love and life with.

the day got off to a seriously rough start - frustration from an argument with chip and the discovery that my favorite a.p.c. dress was accidentally shrunk was further compunded by the sad reality that none of the pre-pregnancy dresses i packed fit my blubbery body. before i was finally able to throw something decent together to wear to church i was a sobbing mess. hormones are great. but despite all that, i can confidently say that it was one the five best days of the year. in fact, mary's birthday and a really amazing reunion with friends on top of all the fun of charlie's blessing throws it into the top two- only to be trumped by charlie's actual birthday. really, such a good day.

making charlie's little kimono top and drawstring pants was so fun. i have deluded myself into thinking it will be lovingly passed down from generation to generation of baby boys. . .i derive a huge amount of pleasure and satisfaction from this delusion. borderline unhealthy. but, even if charlie is the only baby to wear it, i'm happy. he looked like an angel. the kimono top is from this martha stewart pattern while the pants are from a random pattern i grabbed at the fabric store (after accidentally leaving my preferred pant pattern at home). the outfit was fast and easy and i don't think anything looks as wonderful as a baby in white. the tiny bit of light blue gingham (the drawstring and covered buttons) had to be a part of the outfit, because what is a baby boy without a least a little blue on him at all times?

this picture of charlie on the floor was taken yesterday, two weeks after the actual blessing day, and the kid has grown a crazy amount in those 14 days. do you see how long the arms are? so, the fit is a little different than the original, but the basic idea is still there. and yes, you are reading his expression correctly- very nervous and very unhappy about being stuck on a hard wood floor while i point the camera at him. not his most flattering picture, but i'm just lucky he waited ten seconds before letting me hear about it.

charlie smiles

  

so apparently posting a picture of blueberries is not an acceptable way of helping chip feel in touch with his family. weird. so, here we have his rapidly growing man child, charlie.

the latest: smiling, usually preceded by eye contact and a few short coos. he was showing some clear preference for my sister jeanie, but the competition has left town and i'm thinking i'm the frontrunner for smiles once again. although papa is a clear threat. . .

the dissappointment of not having a third girl has long since melted away and i'm now thinking that, although not the same, making for and dressing charlie is a pretty entertaining game. arrows, cowboys and railroad stripes. with those furrowed brows and manly neck (i swear it's thick, chip thinks i'm nuts) he's already on his way to being the classic all-american boy.

i love it when baby things have pockets. so adorably useless. for charlie, anyway; ruth makes good use of them. when she's not trying to shove his hands in them she uses the pockets as storage for her own treasures. most recently; lipsmackers and crumpled stickers.

kuplink, kuplank

there were no cardigans or overalls, no wandering mama bears or tin pails, but there was a jolly toothless man, a sleeping baby and thousands of plump berries ripe for the picking this morning at the blueberry field outside of brookings. we are back on our extended summer break in oregon and as i picked in the abnormal heat this morning the words and images of blueberries for sal ran repeatedly through my mind. i am finally coming back around to loving summer, partly for the escape i get to make to oregon, but mostly for the berries. even as i wiped away the sweat i found myself so content to be there in the patch, searching for plump berries to the sound of my sister's and mother's wafting laughter and the excited chatter of the bubbly german women to my right. seven pounds later (almost thirty between all of us) we wound our way back down the river to the shelter of an air conditioned home looking out to the ocean.

a good start to our brookings stay.

the heat should subside shortly and we'll soon be back to the regular fair of long sleeves, but for now we've kept the clothes of last week's utah stay, and we're all happy to run through the sprinklers and eat popsicles in the sun.

the next several weeks this blog will be used as an attempt to make chip feel a little closer than 3000 miles from his family, which will not change the content so much as the frequency of the posts if all goes according to my ambitious plans. i'm already behind schedule, with baby to nurse, girls to engage, vampires to read about and blueberries to consume. but at least i've made a start.