Some new gear

Since Christopher is growing by leaps and bounds we had to make a couple of new baby gear purchases. We bought a new convertible car seat - which should last him until he is about 55 pounds. He doesn't need it just yet, but we got a great deal on it so we figured we'd go ahead and buy it ahead of time. In the next month or two we'll have to switch him from his infant seat to the bigger seat. That will actually be a welcome change because he is getting way too heavy to carry in and out of the car in the seat. I've started just undoing his belts in the car and taking him out of the seat these days, especially since I get bruises on my arms and hips when I try to carry that seat around. In related news, I've got some pretty nice biceps now!

The other purchase we made was a new high chair. I was torn whether or not to get a traditional high chair or a chair that hooks on to the counter or table. Based on my research and the fact that most chairs that hook on wouldn't work with our table, we decided to go with the high chair. I read the reviews and the chair I bought is easy to clean, lightweight, portable (wheels to move it around the kitchen), and has a cute design and a toy that came with it. So far, so good! Christopher seems to really like it, and his parents like it too because we can put him in there and know he is safe while we prepare his food and clean up afterwards. Tucker likes it too. It didn't take him long to figure out where he should be hanging out in the kitchen when Christopher is eating.

Christopher says "I like my high chair!"

Tucker knows where to hang out in the kitchen

Baptism

On Sunday, June 12, 2011 Christopher was baptized at St. Gerard's church in Canton, Massachusetts - my home town and parish. We decided to have his baptism there because we were going to be traveling to the east coast anyway, and we knew that this way some of our family members would be able to attend the service.

Godparents

Christopher's godparents are his Uncle Bob and his Aunt Mary. Uncle Bob and Nana made a special trip  from Charlotte for the event and we're very grateful that they were able to be there for Christopher's special day. The baptism took place during a regular Sunday Mass and the whole crew went out to lunch afterwards. 

Out to Lunch

Christopher really wanted that beer coaster!

Missed Flights!

I have never missed a flight in my life. I have come very close, and some have been cancelled on me, but I have not ever arrived to the airport too late to get on a plane.
For this reason, I feel very badly that within just one month, I have been a part of TWO situations involving missed flights. I'd like to add that neither missed flight was my fault or the fault of the flyer involved. We just happened to run into other problems along the way.

The first missed flight was by my Mom/Grammy. She graciously came to keep me and Christopher company in May when Chris had to go out of town for a work trip. I figured it would be a lonely week and asked her to make the visit. She agreed and we had a wonderful time together. Her flight home was on a Wednesday night - actually the red eye back to Logan airport in Boston. We were all ready to go - suitcase packed, Christopher in his PJs, and the car was loaded. As we were about to leave I pressed the garage door opener on the wall and the garage door only opened about 1 foot high. I tried and tried and it just wouldn't work. I googled how I might fix the problem, and I even tried to get some neighbors to help - but no luck. Finally, I called a garage door repair company to come out to help us. Keep in mind that as all this was happening the minutes were ticking by on the clock and the time we had to get to LAX was dwindling. The garage guys came by and saw that the motor on the opener was shot, and the large spring completely snapped because of this. The guys got the door open manually for us which was no small feat and we jumped in the car and took off to LAX. Needless to say, Mom missed the flight. It was just bad timing. We did however get to pick up Chris at the airport that night so it wasn't a wasted drive and we got to spend two more days with Grammy!

The next missed flight happened on Father's Day. We (Chris, Christopher, and I) had spent the week in Ocean City, NJ and had a wonderful time. Chris had to fly to London that night for work so we had decided before our trip that he would fly out of JFK to shorten his total travel time. My dad even flew down to Atlantic City so I wouldn't have to make the drive from JFK to Boston alone. We left with lots of extra time in case of delays. The drive time from OC to JFK should take about 2. 5 hours - unfortunately for us, there was at least one 15 mile stretch that took us at least 2 hours. It was a very stressful drive and Chris, and hundreds of others, missed their flights that night. Luckily he was able to rebook out of Boston the following evening and we all made it to my parent's house in Canton about 10 hours after we started. One thing we did learn is that Christopher is an amazing traveler - he cried for about 15-20 minutes out of the whole adventure!

Back from a break

After a not so brief hiatus, I'm getting back to blogging. I have LOTS to write about, but we spent more than two weeks on the east coast (with Chris in London for part of that) having a fabulous vacation at the beach in New Jersey and with family in Massachusetts. Christopher met lots of his relatives and made some new friends and he is unfortunately still working his way back to being on Pacific time. Thankfully, he does it all with a smile!

Here's a sneak peak from our adventure back east: