Sophia's Dedication

On December 22nd a very special moment in our lives, and that of our daughter, took place.  We knew prior to her birth that we wanted to have a dedication for Sophia, but our schedule along with both sets of grandparents, the godparents, and our pastor were not able to align until this date. The result was a sanctuary beautifully decorated for Christmas, and a string quartet for the performance of Handel's "Messiah". 

Instead of baptizing Sophia as an infant, we would like her to be able to choose that for herself when she is older, and can take a more active role. We view her dedication as part 1 of the baptism process.

At the dedication we instead made a commitment, 'dedicating' ourselves to her spiritual growth. Similar to our wedding, we stood before a congregation and declared our intent. We  committed to strive to live our faith through example for her, to tell her when we don't know the answers, and to guide her as best we can.

When working on the narrative with our Pastor we broke the ceremony down into three parts: 1. Acknowledging that Sophia is a gift from God 2. Committing as her parents to nurture her in faith by living example and teaching and 3. Asking for help to do this from her godparents and our congregation.

A Video of the Dedication can be viewed below:

*A Special Thank You to Sue Perch for the Photography, and James Condon for the Video.

Florida

I knew having a child would mean changes to our lifestyle. Before Sophia got here I tended to focus on the ways I thought I would be limited from doing things I used to enjoy. Those limitations exist, but there are also suprising new things to enjoy. For example, when I was working full time, I wouldn't have joined Joshua on his business trip to Florida.

 

We landed in Fort Meyers at 11 pm on a Monday night. When the gentleman at the car rental agency saw Sophia, and learned we were from "up North", he insisted on  a free upgrade to the 2014 Mustang convertible. Earlier in the day, Sophia had also got us bumped up in line for security, so we were grateful. 

 

The next morning things seemed slightly less glamorous as Joshua needed to take the car to go to his staff retreat (the reason we were there) which was forty minutes away. He wouldn't be back until 5 pm, and when I asked the concierge what was within walking distance, his response was "the interstate".

After a brief walk, which was actually quite lovely with palm trees and evergreens, we went for a swim. Sophia is all about cause and effect these days, and loved the way the water splashed when she kicked. Later in the week she enjoyed the pool again with her Dad.

The first part of our week was spent on the West coast in Naples. We went to the pier and saw pelicans, egrets, and sandpipers.

On our trip we were able to enjoy eating most of our meals outdoors. 

Sophia loved learning how to use a straw to drink water on this trip.

Half way through the week we drove about three hours across the state to the east coast. We were able to see the ocean from our hotel room in Fort Lauderdale, and were privileged to see a plane carrying a very special message.

 

Walking on the beach with Sophia one of the last mornings, I felt so grateful to have this quiet time with her, and the warm ocean foam on my feet. The next day we would land back in Boston during the first snow storm of the season!

Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia

Sophia took her first plane ride to Washington, DC. 

Fortunately the total flight time was only about an hour, so we knew it couldn't be too bad. Also there was actually some unexpected freedom in being stuck in the same space with other people. Unlike when I might feel self-conscious about the need to remove her from the room for making noise, the other passengers knew we couldn't go anywhere.

Our adventure began by exploring the airport terminal.

When it came time to board, Sophia gave her best, "Let's do this" face as her Dad carried her on the plane.

She then proceeded to greet all the other passengers with shrieks as we made our way to our seats. This did not instill confidence in regards to how the rest of the trip would go. However, once we were seated, Sophia showed her understanding of the concept by doing her impersonation of an airplane in flight.

She slept most of the trip until we started the descent. She actually seemed to like the landing, almost as if it were a carnival ride.

We went to DC for a legislative conference her Dad was attending. Sophia was the youngest attendee by about thirty years. Here she is listening to the governor of Wyoming discuss energy policy.

Since we were away from the house there was no laundry to fold, or other chores to accomplish, so Sophia and I passed the time by doing things like building pillow forts in the hotel room.

We spent one day with our friend Shannon, and her two sweet boys, Behr and Hudson. Unfortunately Sophia's shrieks of joy terrified poor Hudson.

However, he was still kind enough to share his stroller with her, providing Sophia with a front row view of DC.

On our final day we rode the metro to the end of the line in Maryland to visit my freshman and sophomore year college roommate, Stefanie. Our little girls are only seven days apart in age.

We ended the trip with a stop at the World Bank to visit our friend Violet.

This final picture documents Sophia's very brief time in Virginia, it consisted of the Dulles Airport.

Family Firsts: First Food

We decided to start Sophia on solid foods when she reached 6 months, and chose avocado as the first one to try. The morning after her 6 month birthday we gave her the tiniest bit. It wasn't entirely clear whether she disliked avocado, or if she was just confused as to why we were putting green mushy stuff in her mouth.

A few days later on Thanksgiving morning, she tried banana for the first time with the assistance of her father and her Uncle James. 

She has continued to eat small amounts of avocado and banana, as well as some strawberry and gnawed on a piece of watermelon without making a dent. In the coming weeks we are looking forward to trying some sweet potato, carrots and pumpkin- hopefully she doesn't turn orange!

First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving began the Saturday before the holiday at our church's annual dinner. 

The table of desserts was almost as long as the table of different side dishes that were brought to share.

What seemed to delight Sophia the most(which is fair since she isn't really eating solid food yet) was the brown paper table cloth and the crinkly sound it made.

In a similar sense, the texture of her Uncle James' beard was a highlight when we went down to Pennsylvania for the actual Thanksgiving day.

Sophia's Grandpa Ray had gone to great efforts to decorate the house prior to our arrival since we will be in New Hampshire for Christmas this year.

Lights in particular are one of her favorite things right now.

She is also rather fond of her Gran (and wearing funny Santa hats).

When it came time for the Thanksgiving feast, Sophia was napping.

She did wake up before we ended the meal and enjoyed making funny faces with her Dad (again her options were limited without being able to eat anything on the table).

Despite the fact that there was no actual food on the table for Sophia, her Gran had bought her a purple crystal cup. She enjoyed the glass this year, and next Thanksgiving she will get to actually have something in it!