Christian Baby!

On June 1st, we celebrated with Iain as he was welcomed into the Christian family through Baptism. We had the great honor and privilege, all thanks to Kevin, of celebrating this Sacrament in St Peter's at the Vatican. God's grace was abundantely clear in many ways, in particular as Iain stayed alert and content and even cracked a few smiles through most of the baptism, despite having not eaten for over 4 hours (a miracle by any mother's standards!)
As you may recall, Iain (the Scottish form of John) is named after John the Baptist. It was our great delight to see, in the baptismal chapel, this painting of John baptizing Christ.

Fr. Tim was generous with his time and performed the baptism, despite feeling somewhat overwhelmed by his studies. God bless you, Fr. Tim! Behind him is the baptismal font.

Heidi and Kevin, Iain's Godparents
Fr. Tim blessing the water
Iain, being born again in the waters of Baptism! Praise the Lord!

Iain, with his white garment
the baptismal candle
Fr Tim, us, Kevin and Heidi (Godparents)

Fr Tim, Adam (Mark's older brother), Mum Archibald, us, Dad Archibald, Godparents
Happy Christian family! :) (well, mostly happy...one of is very hungry and needs a new diaper)
Babi and Grandad holding the newest Christian member of the Archibald family.

Around the world

Mark, Iain and I have recently returned from a whirlwind trip to Scotland and Rome. Rather than boring you with long-winded paragraphs, I've picked some favorite pictures to show off in chronological order.

Uncle Adam, Mark's older brother, with his favorite (only) nephew. This view overlooks part of Edinburgh. It was a nice little walk, though quite windy; my mother's heart was frightened of gale-force winds throwing my baby, stroller-and-all, over the side of the hill. Needless to say, we didn't stay up there long.

Our little family spent an afternoon walking around downtown (if that's what you call it). Here, we stopped at a little cafe so I wouldn't die of hunger...nursing mom strikes again! Despite Iain's appearance, it wasn't a cold day. Rather, he had (and unfortunately now has again) quite a case of what has since been diagnosed as Seborrheic Dermatitis, or, as our family doctor called it "Scottish skin". How appropriate. The hat and sock-mittens were to keep him from scratching at it.
An absolutely beautiful picture of Iain and his Babi (Mark's mum).
While in Scotland, Mark dusted off the old Super Nintendo which he purchased at age 11. Many an evening was spent reliving the old days for a 1/2 hour or so before bed. Here he is playing "Zelda".

A wonderful golden birthday. I turned 27 on the 27th. This was actually on the 26th, at Babi's house. Natasha, the girl on the left, charmed us all while we spent the afternoon visiting with Mum's side of the family.
Iain and Babi...or rather Great-Babi (?) (not sure what the Polish term is).
After a wonderful week+ in Scotland, we headed for Rome to see Uncle Kevin and Aunt Heidi...and BABY!!!
Aunt Heidi, practicing her moves. She has 7 months to perfect them...if all goes as planned (not that I would know anything about that).

I had to include all three of these pictures. Mark has quite a knack for making Iain smile...though when he's in the right mood, he needs no help! Here, he is smiling and chatting.

Ancient Rome was known for its baths. I don't think they went quite like this.

Piazza Navona is a popular tourist site. This is pretty much how our visit went: we traveled to Italy so we could gaze at ....Iain. :)
A trip to Rome is not complete without the famous and delicious Gelato! (Yes, I am a nursing mom, but that's no excuse for double-fisting it; I'm holding Mark's as well.)
Mark and I marvel at how we are blessed with the cutest baby in the entire world. :) This was in Termini station, as we waited for Mark's family to arrive from Scotland. They were able to join us for the celebration of Iain's baptism!

3 months!

Mark will be home from the Dominican Republic in exactly 24 hours and I can't wait to see him! Iain and I spent the last week in MI visiting family and friends. I won't bore you with too much detail, so you can go right on to the important stuff: pictures. I will say, just briefly, we have one SMILEY boy. I wish I had more smiley pictures to prove it, but he is a charmer! (And that's a quote from the lady who stood behind us in line to board the 2nd of our flights, yesterday.) Speaking of which, I think I scared the poor guy I sat next to on our first flight, yesterday. I don't know which he thought was worse: a screaming baby, or the remedy, which was me nursing Iain. :) I will try to get more smiley pictures posted soon.

Our baby is getting so big!


The thinker I love the expression on Iain's face in this picture, it makes me laugh. :) (And doesn't Mark look handsome?!) :)

The way you dress a baby for a walk in April, in MN. Cousin Charlie...sorry it's blurry.
Iain charming his Grandma and Great-Grandma
After all that hard work, smiling, he peacefully drifted off to sleep in Great-Grandma's arms.

Bath time, among other things

When I decided to get my BS in Nursing, I thought, if nothing else being a nurse would make me a better mom. Has it? Well, that's debatable, but I am definitely more of a hypochondriac. At least it's been good for something, right? :)

Case in point: Iain slept for 6 hours last night. Yes, 6 beautiful hours. And, in fact he has slept quite a bit this morning as well. (Having said that, he just started screaming; someone's hungry!) So, what has been on my mind since 6:45 am? Has it been, "Thank you, Lord, for a whole night of sleep!"? No. (ok, that's been thrown in there a few times.) But mostly it's been "Is he ok? He's eating less, too. Do I call the doctor? What would I say?: "Yes, hello, my baby slept well, and I've been able to do some laundry inbetween nursing him, for a change. No fever, no cold symptoms and nothing else unusual. So, should I bring him in, or go straight to the ER?"

Honestly, I'm sure he's fine. My guess is that he just finished his latest growth spurt and is back to his normal self. I'm just not sure what "normal" is. And in my own defense, with the rough first week of his life and my own health history, I may be a bit more sensitive to what I perceive to be unusual.

Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment. I think they're self-explanatory.

Happy Baby!

These may not be the greatest pictures, but we managed to capture the tail-end of a smile! Iain was in quite a happy mood this morning, until the camera came out, at which point he'd had nearly enough of the smiling game.

By the way, he had his 2 month check-up, yesterday. He is a hair short of 24 inches and weighs 12 lbs. That puts him in the 95% for height and 50% for weight, for babies a month older than him (according to his adjusted age)!!! He's off the charts for height and 95% for weight for 1 month babies. You've come a long way, Iain!
For those of you that read my last post, you'll recall that we had quite a beauitful, snow-covered April 1. Well, here we are, 3 days later. It is currently 59 degrees. This is the view out of our kitchen window (please pardon the screen).
Here is a close-up. I have to admit, this makes me laugh: shorts and snow in the background. :)

If it snows in Heaven...

...it might look something like this. Happy April Fools Day. Love, God. :)
This is the view from our living room window. It might be the most beautiful snow scene we've had all season, I just didn't expect to see it on April 1st.
On to the more important pictures! Happy 9 weeks, Iain! (Pictures narrated by Iain)

Look how big I am!

Mommy tried to put me to bed in this outfit. I thought it was too girly (so did Daddy) so about 2 minutes after she put it on me, I peed all over it, right through my diaper.
This is how I felt about that last outfit. This is the new one mommy changed me into; Daddy and I both approved, even though it's a little big on me.
Mommy decided to do a little photo shoot this morning. Grandma and Grandpa got me, yes ME, a new camera, and though Mommy's no professional, she thought she'd give it a whirl. By the way, this is our new favorite outfit. Thank you to Beth P. for the Easter present! Mommy esp. likes how it brings out my beautiful (only Mommy can use that word) hair color!

This was actually a smile, but Mommy was just a little too slow.
This pose made Mommy laugh. I think I look pretty darn cool!
This is Mommy's favorite picture of the day.