Brendan's baptism on August 18

This is Brendan Andrew dressed in his powder-blue suit, with a very fancy tie (designed and manufactured by my dear friend Karen's son, Thad, who is a fashion designer in New York City) ... he is all ready for his BIG baptism day. Kelly found this little suit for him on Friday ... just in time! And she later found out that BLUE was exactly the color Brendan was supposed to wear. Yay!

Brendan was baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church this last Saturday, August 18. I took a lot of pictures that afternoon and then posted a little album of the event over on Facebook. I'm not going to repeat the whole process here in my blog, but I did want to include a few of my favorite pictures of this little family because they are precious to me ... 

I am especially fond of this one of Dylan and Brendan. 

And these two of Kelly and her little fellow completely capture how sweet they are together. 

Here, Kelly is removing Brendan's blue suit and replacing it with his "birthday suit" ... he was wrapped in a nice soft blanket for his actual baptism.

He has the most precious smile ... such a captivating little person! 

Brendan likes having his picture taken and gave me a really nice smile for this one. 

Brendan is being anointed with oil and then baptized. There was much that went on in the ceremonies, many layers of meaning, all of it centered on raising Brendan to fear and love the Triune God who made him.  

A very happy Kelly and Dylan just after Brendan's baptism. 

And Brendan seemed quite happy about his big day too! Isn't he precious? 

I took over 300 pictures, but I think these are the nicest ones of Dylan, Kelly, and their little love.

Ten years ago today ...

Today is my granddaughter's 10th birthday. She is my firstborn grandchild, which means she is extra special (naturally). How is it POSSIBLE that ten years could zoom by so quickly? She has been more than 1600 miles away from me for half of that time ... so four times a year, I travel to Texas to see her, "the brothers" (as Emma calls them), her mom and dad, and now her baby sister too (Kaity). 

So today, on your 10th birthday, Emma, my heart is right there with you ~ and I am sending you all kinds of love, with prayers that your day is special in every way. Asking God that He will deepen your faith this year and give you an understanding of how deep and wide and long and high His love is for you! 

P.S.  I posted this AFTER midnight ... so technically, August 16 ... but the post date still shows August 15 ...

Violet and Philip come to visit the Beach House!

Look who came to see me at my Beach House today!!

Last week I received a phone call from my friend, Christine. I used to be a very part-time nanny for her family (last winter) while Christine was recovering from foot surgery. I had promised that once my little cottage was "finished", I would invite them over to see how beautiful it turned out! So we arranged for them to come over this morning to play for awhile.

This is Violet. Isn't she darling? She will be entering the first grade this fall. She is one of the smartest little girls I have ever met, and she is completely delightful! Violet enjoyed my finger puppets for awhile. This is the very first time I've had children over to play in my toy room. Baby Brendan has been here, but since he is only six months, he hasn't even begun to play with all of his grandma's toys!

This is Philip, who is just past four-and-a-half ... but he can tell you more about space travel, the Wright Brothers, planetary systems, and other amazing Science facts than you can almost begin to understand! I got down my LEGO bin for him to explore ...

Violet bouncing on one of my beach balls ... Yes! A cottage simply MUST have beach balls!

We played a little game called: "Count the Lighthouses!" and went from room to room to see how many lighthouses were in Miss Carol's cottage?!! Here are Philip and Violet looking everywhere to see if there were any lighthouses hiding up on my shelves or on my bookcases ...

 And since it is my birthday next week, they surprised me (completely!) with a perfect birthday cheesecake and other amazing goodies! They sang "Happy Birthday" to me both in English AND Chinese!

 And then Violet ran to the piano and played me the "Happy Birthday" song ... wonderful, Violet!

We also listened to all of my shells ... Could we hear the sea rolling in? 

 Since my very favorite color is RED, Violet wore a beautiful red headband and flower in her hair and a pretty red shirt. Philip wore a nice red shirt as well. And the children brought me two separate bouquets of red flowers. This was so BEYOND nice! Walk with me, and I'll show you where I put their flowers ...

I put Violet's bouquet on the piano! 

 And then in the kitchen, right on my little table, I placed Philip's bouquet!

Now, for days and days as I enjoy these gifts of love, I will remember the preciousness of these little ones (and their mama too!). Thank you so much for coming to play at my Beach House today! 

This afternoon with Brendan ...

I was very happy to be invited to babysit Brendan this afternoon. Dylan and Kelly were joining friends at a Whitecaps game, so I got to come over and care for him. He was sleeping when I arrived and slept for more than an hour more, but then he woke up! I think he was a little dazed at the sight of me, but I told him I was SO excited to see him and as a result, I got a big smile. We went downstairs to play for awhile.

 Do you see his Fraggle Rock doll? Kelly sings the Fraggle Rock song to Brendan and makes this little doll do a dance. Brendan likes it very much. I got the music up on YouTube, handed out the percussion instruments, and we rocked along with the song for awhile ...

 "Dance your cares away, worry's for another day! Let the music play, down at Fraggle Rock!"

We put our instruments away after a bit, went into the kitchen, got strapped into the high chair and had a little reading time. I brought two books along with me about Thomas the Train, but Brendan wasn't interested in them one bit! He wanted to hear "Curious George Goes to the Zoo."  

 "I don't want Thomas the Train, Grandma! I like Curious George the best!"

Brendan listened quietly to each word, and loved every picture!

It was a beautiful weather day, so we gathered up our supplies and took a nice long walk down Cherry Street ... 

We saw so many beautiful historic homes with amazing flower gardens. But for once in my life, I was not taking pictures of the flowers at all! I couldn't take my eyes of this little cutie pie.

"Are you SURE my mama is coming home in just a little while, Grandma?"

Brendan seemed a little concerned about not seeing his favorite faces (mom and dad), so I sang him the Fraggle Rock song ... he rewarded me with this sweet little smile!

I love this little face so much! I kissed these chubby cheeks 100's of times this afternoon ... I couldn't help myself!

We sat on a park bench for a little while and watched the cars and people go by. Lots of folks stopped by to chat, every single one of them mentioning this baby's fat thighs (!)

We were now about 3.5 hours into the afternoon and I think Brendan was getting tired of being with just his Grandma ... I kept telling him not to worry ... mama WAS coming back! 

These are the HUGE smiles that burst out of this little fellow at the sight of his mama! So cute. Well, we survived our second babysitting experience without any disasters ... I feel very blessed tonight ~ being a grandma is the best thing that ever happened to me. Thanks so much, Lord!

The cutest baby boy ...

Isn't this a sweet picture of Brendan and his mama? This is one adoring baby for his very sweet mom. I love to watch them together ... the sweetness of their love touches me deeply with peace and pure JOY.

Dylan, Kelly, Brendan and Shane came over tonight to have dinner. We had such a wonderful time together eating tacos, veggies and dip, chips and salsa, watermelon, chocolate-chip zucchini bread, and cheese cake for dessert! We were celebrating Shane's birthday tonight!

See my new ship's wheel clock? I think it adds nicely to my little cottage, don't you? 

I've decided that Brendan is the cutest little baby boy ... EVER. And I'm not one single tiny bit prejudicial ... not at ALL!  :)  And I will never ever tire of looking at his adorable chubby face!

See how Brendan is sucking these two fingers? Well ... his daddy used to suck two fingers as well, only in the other direction ... if you catch my drift. 

I brought out one of my beach balls for Brendan to play with ... after all, how can a person live at a cottage without enjoying a few beach balls every now and again?  

Brendan was definitely pleased ... I think perhaps Brendan thinks his Grandma Carol is going to be an OK person to play with some day! 

Dylan takes very good care of Brendan too. They seem to have an understanding between them ... Brendan knows this is NOT Mama, but Dylan is surely the next best person in his little life ... 

I am sure I have never seen Dylan any happier ~ and so, naturally, my heart is happy too!