Sunday, January 11, 2009

Her First Production

It's over. Kaylani's been baptized, and it's over. It sounds terrible to say, but I'm just glad it's over. And the funny part is, the actual baptism part wasn't the hard or tiring part. She actually behaved real well during the entire Mass/ceremony. It was everything else that led up to that point that was the hard part.

It actually started out a few weeks ago when we scheduled her baptism. With most of our friends and family living out of town, there were certain logistical challenges with having Kaylani be baptized at our church in NJ. So after weeks of planning and scheduling, we got to a good place (thank you Mom and Dad for voluntarily staying at a hotel) and everyone was squared away. We had a Mass scheduled with our favorite Priest (Father Vince) and a place to host a brunch at (our favorite restaurant, Sotto Ristorante in Princeton). All we had to do was get to Church, and then get to brunch on the day of the baptism, and we even had a plan for that.

We were going to wake up at 7am, shower and get mostly dressed (not fully in case of spit up), then wake Kaylani up around 8:00, nurse her, and put her in her beautiful handmade dress from Puerto Rico (thank you Abuela)! And then, she would nurse again before getting into the car, which she would fall asleep in on the way to 9:30 Mass at Church, which we planned on getting to by 9am so we could make sure she stayed asleep and was okay. That was the plan.

We actually woke up at 7:25am, showered and started to get ready before Cousin Alisha and Rohan woke up and required some attention. Mommy was ready enough to wake Kaylani up around 8:30 and start to get her ready. By the time we were even remotely close to get out the door, it was more like 9:15, and we ended up being at Church by 9:25am. Father Vince gave us the 30 second version of the 10 minute prep course on what we had to say and when we had to say it, and we headed in to present Kaylani to our Church.

The Mass itself went great, except for a few awkward moments. First, while Mommy, Daddy, Kaylani, Godfather Tim, and Madrina Maria were standing at the Altar in the front of the Church being introduced, Madrina Maria was mouthing "The Flash, The Flash" to Titi Glendalys to make sure she had the flash on while she was taking pictures. The funny part was that Titi didn't even have Maria's camera, but I'm sure anyone who saw Maria thought she looked pretty funny. Then, when Father Vince asked us "and to the parents, what do you ask of the Church?", Mommy and I looked at each other at a loss of words because we didn't remember what our line was (although we're pretty sure it was left out of the 30 second version at the onset). Luckily, Father Vince prompted us to say "Baptism" (duh!) and we moved past it. Kaylani even behaved when they poured water on her head, and basically slept through the entire Mass.

Brunch also went off without a hitch (although I think we overwhelmed the restaurant by seating 40 people at the same time and placing individual orders). At the end of the day, what I took away from all of this was that in 40 years when I let Kaylani get married (that's right, I said 40), this is what her wedding day will be like. We'll get up early, scramble to get everyone ready, and get off to the Church in time. And I'm guessing that we'll also be cutting time a bit close on that day too, but on that day, it'll be her day and her day alone, so time won't matter nearly as much.

Here are some pictures from the Mass, the brunch, and also of Kaylani dressed in a NY Giants outfit that she'll unfortunately never wear again. And before we move on, we must thank Godfather Tim for spending his birthday with us down in NJ and at the Baptism, so Happy Birthday Tim and thank you! As for the rest of us, it's on to the next big production, which will be her Moon Yuet next week in Boston (a traditional Chinese welcoming ceremony). So enjoy the pictures of today, and for all of you that shared it with us, thank you. And for those who did not, we hope this made you feel a part of the day as well. Until next time...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a cool photo. Sorry I missed it brother!

JonnyTam13 said...

Thanks man! If you move to the Northeast, you wouldn't miss a thing!