I don’t know why, but it’s a lot harder for me to blog about good things and big events than stressful things or minutiae.
Which is why I still haven’t blogged about the wedding part of our trip to DC for a wedding, or the baptism part of Noah’s baptism yesterday.
The Wedding
The wedding was for a couple we just adore. Mikki and Claire went with us to St Martin on vacation last Thanksgiving week. Jill and Mikki have been close for years. Both of them are generous and loyal and smart and funny and we miss them so much. We are beyond happy that they found one another.
The service itself was intimate, sweet, charming, and moving. It was a Reconstructionist Jewish ceremony, including many traditional elements of a Jewish wedding, and a few personal touches.
My favorite part was that the Rabbi interviewed Claire and Mikki separately before the wedding, and asked each of them “Why her?” She took amazing notes on the answers, and told us what they said. It was a touching — and funny! — insight into their personalities and their relationship, and a great element for a wedding.
Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day:

Good times.
The Baptism
Noah and another baby, Madeleine, were both baptized yesterday. She was adorable, just a few weeks younger than Noah. During the preliminaries, she kept grabbing his hand and arm, which I thought was too cute.
I don’t know if this is unique to our church or is a Presbyterian tradition, but my favorite part is that they involve all the children present in the ceremony.
One child stands in front of the congregation, while the rest sit on the floor in front of the pews.
The child standing asks all of the others if they will promise to stand by Noah and Madeleine and be their friends, to help them if they fall down, and to guide them if they need help.
And they answer that they will.
It is the sweetest thing I have ever seen at church.
Here’s what the actual baptism looked like to me:

After the baptism, they finish the rest of the regular Sunday worship service. Noah sat with us, and when the choir started singing, Noah went wild! He loved it. L.O.V.E.D. IT. It looked like he was directing the choir. Only bigger and more wild.
And because of the baptism, we were seated in the front row of the church, so the entire congregation could see his enthusiasm. Approximately 1/3 of them mentioned it at the lunch after the service.
We also took a picture of the whole family, after the service and the lunch:

Today
J, partner of The Baby Juggler, is in town today, and she came over for dinner.
We had a great time catching up, hearing about all the challenges they’ve had moving all the way to the other side of the US with twin 2 year olds, and watching Noah dance.
But wow was it hard listening to her talk about living in her hometown. It made me so homesick for Milwaukee. Especially the part where J talked about all the people in her hometown whom she’s known for 25 years.