Last Weekend

We headed into the weekend with a visit from my friend (and ex-coworker), Cindy, and her daughter, Eleanor (Ellie), who was born exactly a week after Aveline. They came over to the house and we took a stroll down to the Oakhurst Village to grab lunch to-go from Kavarna, and then walked back to the house to eat and chat. It was wonderful to catch up with her and fun to see our babies attempt to interact with each other. They really seemed intrigued! And Elsa actually did really well with two babies in her midst, and actually seemed to think it was kind of fun.

On Saturday morning, bright and early, my parents arrived. They are crazy and usually like to leave at the crack of dawn on a Saturday to make the four-hour drive to our house. Then they typically leave Sunday afternoon, which was the itinerary for this trip. Elsa slept late Saturday morning, and was really just getting out of bed when they arrived around 8:45 a.m. I had forgotten to tell her the night before that they were coming, so it was quite the surprise for her. In her groggy state, she was not sure what to make of it all at first, but soon was very happy to have her grandparents at arm's reach. She even got to stay with them at a local motel Saturday night, as our house is so crazy right now that there was not much room for them here (more on that in a later post, I am certain)! And since Elsa was gone, I let Avie sleep in the crib overnight for the first time, and, of course, we both ended up in Elsa's bed together early that morning.

Avie, trying out the big girl bed

My parents' main reason for the visit was to attend Aveline's baptism, which occurred at church Sunday morning... in a somewhat nontraditional manner. Our church already seems rather nontraditional at first glance, seeing as we are a fairly new church plant (just over a year old) that meets in a neighborhood recreational center in the East Atlanta neighborhood. But things became even more unique Sunday morning when we arrived at the rec center to find that we were all locked out. A family in the church, who lives close by, graciously opened up their home to the congregation, and we ended up meeting in the downstairs of their house. The house is fairly new -- they had it built over the last year or so -- and it was nice that they designed it in such an open manner, such that Matt, the pastor, stood in the living room, but people were gathered in the two adjacent rooms and could see everything just fine. At first I was not even sure if the baptism would go on as planned, but Matt said if we were fine with it, he was, and, thus, it happened. And it was actually really nice. The intimate feel of the entire service really lent itself to this special event in our little one's life. We feel very privileged to be a part of such a close-knit, loving church community. Kate, Tim, and James were also there, which was a nice treat, and we all went out to lunch at Ted's (still "the buffalo restaurant" to Elsa, where she now orders "macaroni and cheese and broccoli" all on her own) afterward as a little celebration.

Sunday was also my dad's birthday, which made things even more special. To celebrate, I made him a peanut butter pie. It was my first attempt at a peanut butter pie -- and a gluten-free version at that -- but it turned out quite well, if I do say so myself. I meant to take a picture, but totally forgot. It was delicious, though, and Jarrett and I are still hoarding the last piece in the fridge. It's likely to be shared this evening. Happy birthday, Dad!