The Christening, April 13th

Wow, what a busy day!!! We will try to remember it all, but will likely forget a few things along the way, so we ask for your forgiveness in advance.

Things started out pretty smoothly actually...Keith was walking with a sleeping Austin in his stroller around noon while Christine was prepping herself for the 1:30 ceremony. After Keith returned with Austin at around 12:15, Austin ate while Keith got ready. Everything was like "clockwork"...all the precision that Keith and Christine had hoped for. Austin even had an explosive "movement" right before leaving for the church, assuring everyone that there would be no messy "blowouts" on his gown during the ceremony.

The first, and really only "oops" moment came halfway to the church, when Keith realized that he had forgotten the directions to the restaurant that he intended to have available for everyone at the church. This realization led to a comedic "Chinese fire-drill" of sorts in a parking lot: Keith jumped out of the drivers seat of his car and into the rear of his parents vehicle, while Christine ran into the seat that Keith had vacated so that she could continue to drive to the church and get Austin dressed while Keith went back to the apartment to get directions. Fast forward 15 minutes and Keith pulled into the parking lot of the church 5 minutes before the service was to begin and Austin was just getting finished with his "prep-work".



The christening itself went off without a hitch. And let it be known that Austin was the best behaved child there. Granted, there were only four children there, so his odds were better than 25% to begin with (when you take into account that he was older than half of the other children), but he behaved admirably well. Of course, his parents are going to take some credit for this though too...they were constantly bouncing him and trying to entertain him throughout the ceremony. The goal was for Austin NOT to be that one child that everyone remembers screaming during a Christening (like the little one in the front right this Sunday). One of the funny things was that everyone behind Keith must have been fixated on Austin, because every time he was lifted up in the air (for his own entertainment), flash bulbs went off with people getting their snapshots of their favorite 5-month old.





The after-ceremony party was held at the Blue Moon Mexican Cafe (if you enjoyed the meal and live in the area, there are multiple locations throughout Bergen County). The place was packed with people, but it was also packed with love...something that the entire family is incredibly thankful for.



Austin certainly was tired, and occasionally fussy...but on the whole (especially considering he usually takes a 2-3 hour nap from 1-4 pm) he was very, very well behaved and even-tempered for the majority of the afternoon. Keith tried taking him outside in the stroller for 15 minutes to see if he would fall asleep, but he was resistant....so, he came back in and ate (albeit, begrudgingly) from his bottle. After he finished eating, he continued to make the rounds once again and seemed a bit "reinvigorated" for the rest of the evening.



When all was said and done, we had a wonderful day, and we hope that all who attended can say the same thing.