Zoe's Baptism

We went to Houston this weekend for baby Zoe's baptism. While we were in the neighborhood, we decided to see Richard and Natalie who had twin girls last August. We sat at their house for a bit and then went out to lunch.

It was so neat to see the girls. They are fraternal twins, not identical, and both were just precious. I think the best part, though, was seeing our friends, whom we always knew would make great parents, being as wonderful with their girls as we thought they would be.

After an afternoon with the twins, we went to the north side of town to see the Langs.

I, of course, loved just sitting and holding Zoe. Suzanne even let me sit with her from about nine to about one in the morning so that she and Dave could sleep. One of the strangest things about holding her is that now, at two months, she is right at the size that Sydney was at birth, and is still a pound lighter and a half an inch shorter than Jack was when he was born. She still, therefore, feels like such a newborn to me. So the way she was holding her head up and how alert and awake she was being was very unexpected!

The next morning was the big event. The pastor kept pointing out how Zoe was raising her arms, like she is in this picture to show her own excitement at becoming part of the body of Christ.
After the baptism, I wanted a picture of me and Dave, him with his little baby girl, and me with my girl and my not-so-little baby boy.

After the baptism, the family gathered at the Lang's house for lunch and just time together.

I have spent a lot of time with this picture, trying to sort it out... the four kids on the swings are first cousins, that was straightforward enough. The boy on the slide is holding his niece, which although unexpected, is also easy to suss out. What has gotten me confounded is figuring out how to relate the children on the slide to the children on the swings.

But after some time researching, I think I have it. The kids on the swing with Sydney and Jack are David and Alana, their first cousins. Noah is on the slide and he is Sydney's first cousin, once removed (which is to say that he is my first cousin) and baby Zoe is Sydney's second cousin (which is to say that they have the same great-grandmother, my Mema). Whew. No wonder we normally just call them all "cousins."