Baby Blessing

We blessed Arden on July 4 at church. It was a great time to have a baby blessing since all of David's family from around here could attend and David's dad flew out with his wife Marilyn from Utah.

A baby blessing is a special time in the Mormon faith. Basically, usually the father of the baby will give the baby an official name and blessing during church. The father speaks from his heart and pronounces blessings that hopefully will happen in the baby's life. Arden was perfectly quiet and still during the blessing. David gave a beautiful blessing, where he expressed what a joy it was to have Arden in our family. He also said he hoped that Arden will be a good example to her friends and that she will marry a good man.

I think baby blessings are wonderful because every parent wishes that their child will lead a blessed life. To hear the blessings that you hope your child can receive is comforting. I was so moved since I felt in my heart how blessed I was to be Arden's mother and to be a part of her life. Wow, I've used a variation of the word "bless" a lot in this post but sometimes I have to just sit back and think about everything I've been given in this life. Sometimes I don't know how I got so lucky. My children are gifts from God (even though there are days I forget about this!).

Arden is just a sweet, beautiful baby. She's still packing on the pounds like nobody's business. At her 3 month check up she was 15 pounds 10 ounces. Holy Cow! Actually, Ava pointed to Arden one day and called her a cow. Not sure why. But Ava pointed at me and called me a cow too on a separate occasion. That's okay, Arden and I can be fat together. This baby weight is not coming off quickly enough!

Arden will suck on the tips of her fingers and her little mouth makes loud sucking noises, especially in the middle of the night. We've tried giving her a pacifier a few times and Arden acts like she doesn't know what to do with it. She does the same thing with a bottle but we've only tried once. I've kind of shot myself in the foot with nursing her while lying down all of the time. She won't really nurse while I'm sitting down and it gets a little tricky when we're out and about.

Arden isn't making the strange noises she used to make (she sounded like a baby dinosaur from "Jurassic Park"). She doesn't coo a whole lot but just gives us a big grin whenever she sees us. She's a quiet one but I've gotten a few giggles out of her. Arden still likes to sleep a lot during the day. On the good nights she'll go for a five hour stretch, but there are usually two or three feedings between 8pm and 8am. She just doesn't have a schedule yet. She just doesn't like to be awake for more than 2 hours at a time.

We had a light meal after the blessing on the lounge area of our building

This is the same gown Ava wore when she was blessed. David's parents got it in Ecuador.

We had brunch with Papa and Marilyn at Sarabeth's. This place is delish! Arden is lying down under Ava's seat. Can you see her legs?