Izzie's Baptism

Two Sundays ago (7/20/2008), Sophie and I became members at our church, Redeemer Presbyterian Church of NYC. (Well, technically, we became members a couple months ago, when we were confirmed by the Deaconate during one of their leadership meetings, but for logistical reasons, we didn't make our vows in front of the Congregation until two Sundays ago.) Redeemer is perhaps most well-known for its Pastor, Tim Keller, who has been recognized for his theological teachings. Tim was actually the main factor that compelled me and Sophie to attend Redeemer for the past two years, although we've also been blessed with some wonderful community through our weekly fellowship group and also other church activities. We waited awhile before committing to membership because we had some uncertainty regarding our future plans, but with our recent decision to stay in New York for the time being, we decided now was a good time to take that step.

As part of becoming members, we were given the opportunity to have Izzie baptized. (By the way, I think I've mentioned it here before, but the name Isabella means "consecrated to God".) It was actually a bit of a tough decision for us, since I hadn't grown up in the tradition of baptizing infants, so I really had no idea what the theology behind it was. After all, infant baptism doesn't appear in the Bible. But after some further investigation, we decided to go ahead with it. It wasn't so much that we pondered over the theology and concluded that infant baptism was correct; a large part of it was just trusting the theological teachings of the church leadership.

But if you're like me and had no idea why infants get baptized, the (very, very basic) idea is that infant baptism is a sign given to children of believers (or in Redeemer's case, church members), bringing them into a covenant community, whereby children are held accountable to pray and worship in ways we would not hold unbelievers. This is the case even though infants are not born-again and have not received justifying grace. Infant baptism is a continuation of the Old Testament tradition of circumcision, which was never later repealed. Admittedly, this is a difficult issue of Biblical interpretation, and many highly-regarded Biblical scholars have come down on different sides. If you're interested in reading more, I found this post (http://jollyblogger.typepad.com/jollyblogger/2005/02/infant_baptism__1.html) by a Presbyterian pastor to be particularly helpful when trying to understand the practice.

So enough preaching. On to the fun stuff – the story itself!

Izzie getting baptized:



And afterwards:


Being on stage, and watching Izzie get baptized was absolutely amazing. It reminded both Soph and I, how everything really is in God's control - including Izzie's faith. We're both so glad that its not up to us (what a relief) and we realized how we are so blessed to be her parents. When we woke up in the morning, we listened to "How Great is Our God", and the words of the song kept going through my mind the whole day.

How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God

Many Updates to Come!

We have had many events happen recently:

- Baptism
- First Plane Ride
- Greg & Wendy's wedding

We'll update the blog with posts dedicated to these events, but in the meantime, here is a really cute pic to tide you over:



LOL!

Izzie, you're 7 months old today!!! And.. Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Dear Boo Boo,

Hey Izzie! You turned 7 months old today! In the last month, you've just had an explosion of development. The biggest change we see is in the way you talk. In addition to "ma" (which you've been saying for quite awhile), you've mastered "ga", "da" and "ba". You like to talk to anybody around you that will listen, and you also enjoy talking to all your toys. You now use both your hands to grab things and play with things - your coordination is really getting better!

You started solid foods this past month. You love sweet potatoes, avacados, peas and carrots - but you weren't a big fan of the plums. We make batches of your food during the weekend, freeze the food and then prepare it for you everyday. We're going to start you on pears and mangos soon. And it's all organic too!

You're also getting better and better at sitting up on your own - we think it'll be really soon where you'll be able to do it without supporting yourself with your arms. You also roll around and scoot backwards to move. While we're excited to see you be mobile, we still need to baby proof the apartment - so wait a few weeks till you start crawling, ok?

You're just so much fun, Boo Boo, and we love to spend time with you.

Your 7 month birthday is also your Nai Nai's birthday! When you were first born, your Nai Nai came to help us take care of you. We're going to go visit everybody this weekend, and everybody is so excited to see you! When you see Nai Nai, make sure you give her a hug and say "Happy Birthday, Nai Nai!"

Love,
M+D



An outtake... its so difficult to get her to sit still now!

Convo between Mom and Dad

Sometimes Al and I set up webcam sessions, so that whoever is not at home can see Izzie in action. The other day, Al was away and I was at home, and this is the convo:

Albert: is booboo awake?

Sophie: yeah
she woke up from her morning nap
she's so cute
it kills me

Albert: ok webcam then!

Sophie: ok. well not now
she's not here yo.
want to see me?

Albert: oh halmuni* actually took her in the stroller?

Sophie: yeah

Albert: no i don't want to see you

Sophie: :(

Albert: i only want to see booboo

Sophie: too bad you can't see which finger i'm holding up right now

Albert: brb
love you

*halmuni is our nanny

Baby Feet

Baby feet are so cute:


Especially, when it is this little girl's feet:

Izzie Learning How to Sit

Izzie has been learning the art of sitting up on her own - I can tell her balance is getting better day by day. This is another new way of her finding support for herself:

Central Park Walk

One thing that Al and I have been trying to do is to make more of an effort to walk around the city. I don't know why we didn't do more of this before the baby, but its better late than never, right? This morning, after Izzie woke up for the day, and had her morning meal we headed out for a long walk. Our plan was to walk from our apartment to Central Park (about half a mile away), walk through the park all the way down to 67th st, run some errands, and then take the subway back.

Here we are getting started:


Morningside Park, your one-stop shop for illegal substances (I wish I was joking):


Al's favorite part of Central Park - the reservoir:




So apparently, the All-Star concert is going on in the Great Lawn today, so they kicked us all out of the park today at around 85th st. There was a lot of security because of the concert. I've never seen so many cops in one place so I wanted Al to (discreetly) take a picture. He just straight up walks in front of them and takes a picture - I thought he was almost going to make them say "Cheese!":


The museum, where I'm sure, we'll be taking Izzie a lot, next year .


Izzie did great today. She took two catnaps in the stroller, and in between did some intense hamstring stretches in her stroller:

Central Park Zoo Party

Every year, Al's firm hosts a party at the Central Park Zoo. Its supposed to be THE event of the summer, and Al and I have been looking forward to it for awhile. I even bought Izzie a little zoo-themed outfit to match. Before walking over to the zoo, Annie had asked us to babysit Miles for a little bit. It was fun looking after a newborn again, and when it was time for a diaper change, Al and I realized that we had never change a boy diaper before. It was full of suspense, because we were so afraid that he would start peeing on us, but he did great.


Izzie, being the all-star baby that she is, napped on the walk over there:


Miles napped too (eventually):


I love Central Park:


The sea lion show:


Izzie, chillin':


The buffet:


It was a baseball theme this year, so they had games that were baseball-themed for the kids. I could tell that next year, Izzie would really enjoy the party, but for now she was perfectly content being held by Al and cooing at everybody else. =]

Pasta Makin'

Soph and I have been wanting to purchase a pasta machine for awhile, and finally, a couple weeks ago, we took the plunge while casually browsing the store at Williams and Sonoma. We figured that the long weekend was the perfect opportunity to try out our newest toy - and we have to say, it was a success!

Here is our well with the eggs. The well totally fell apart. Not to self: next time, make bigger well.


Sophie dutifully rolling the dough:


All of our pasta sheets ready to go:


Fettucine!


And our finished product.... Fettucine with shitake mushrooms, garlic and arugula.


Izzie was pretty good throughout the whole process. She started on the floor:


Then Soph wore her for a little bit:


And then she entertained herself in the jumperoo:


We had to add the obligatory baby photos - too bad she's not big enough to eat the pasta yet.

An Afternoon with Josh

Josh was in town for the holiday weekend, so we met up with him to have lunch so that he could meet Izzie for the first time. Izzie took a liking to Josh pretty quickly. Here is the girl with the groom-to-be:



It was good catching up. We had lunch together, and Izzie chilled in her stroller, like the all-star she is:



Of course, by the time dessert came out, our little girl started getting antsy, so being the nice guy that he is, Josh held Izzie while Al and I finished our desserts. Well, I guess Izzie felt super comfortable, because Izzie decided to go number 2 in a surreptitious kind of a way. When we were done, Josh handed Izzie back to me, and I immediately sniffed the offending scent (solid food is not my friend), and then I claimed "Ugh, she needs a diaper change." And then I saw the stain.

On.
Josh's.
Pants.
And.
T-shirt.

Oops, sorry, Josh. My kid pooped on you.

Josh laughed the whole situation off and we headed to the bathroom. The particular bathroom that we went to, didn't have a diaper changing table in the women's or men's bathroom. So, deciding that two hands was better than one, Al and Josh took Izzie and changed her diaper on the bathroom sink (exciting day for Izzie).

Anyhow, thanks Josh, for being so understanding - Izzie will love you for it!