Luke's Baptism

Luke was baptized this morning. All went well. I have a ton of pictures to sort through, but wanted to at least post something in the mean time. Here is a picture of the Baptismal party (sponsors on the left: Aaron and Becky Richert, Pastor Douglas Punke, and parents on the right: Michael, Kira and Luke Standfest).

Here is one of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther in the Large Catechism on Baptism:
"Thus we must regard Baptism and make it profitable to ourselves, that when our sins and conscience oppress us, we strengthen ourselves and take comfort and say: Nevertheless I am baptized!; but if I am baptized, it is promised me that I shall be saved and have eternal life, both in soul and body. For that is the reason why these two things are done in Baptism namely, that the body, which can apprehend nothing but the water, is sprinkled, and, in addition, the word is spoken for the soul to apprehend. Now, since both, the water and the Word, are one Baptism, therefore body and soul must be saved and live forever: the soul through the Word which it believes, but the body because it is united with the soul and also apprehends Baptism as it is able to apprehend it. We have, therefore, no greater jewel in body and soul, for by it we are made holy and are saved, which no other kind of life, no work upon earth, can attain." LC 13.4.44-46

New Teddy Bear

Yesterday, Great-Grandpa Standfest brought a teddy bear for Brendan. We tried to give it to him before dinner, but when he saw Kira go towards the dinner table to get it ready, he ran off to his chair since he was hungry. It was really cute.

After dinner, he got his new bear and liked it. When Great-Grandpa took it out of the bag, Brendan had a big smile and said "Hi!" to it, like he does with most people. He then took it and ran around the room. Although it won't replace Teddy, this new bear is certianly loved. I'm still convinced that Brendan will take Teddy with him to college someday.

Uncle Aaron and Aunt Becky

"Uncle" Aaron and "Aunt" Becky stopped by last night for a quick visit and to check in on the kids. I'm not sure who adores who more, whether the Richerts adore the children or if the children adore the Richerts more.


Luke enjoyed being held by both of them. I think he's catching on that the Richerts are pretty cool too. He is also starting to get the same crush on "Aunt" Becky that Brendan has.


"Aunt" Becky is due in early July with a baby girl.

Unfortunately, Brendan didn't sleep well last night (that is why I didn't post last night). He had a minor reaction to a food allergy (we think?!) to something that he had earlier in the week. He has also had a hard time adjusting to having Luke around. He hasn't been quite as happy as he normally is. Once you put both of those together, it adds up to a rough week. He woke up around 9:30pm and didn't really settle down back to sleep until around 1am. I took him out to the living room and he watched one of his "Baby Einstein" DVD's. It helped distract him from everything else that was bothering him. I felt so awful for him, but like most children when they get upset, it's hard to calm them down. He eventually got to sleep in the bedroom and went down to bed very easily tonight. Hopefully that will still be the case during the rest of the night.

Both Grandpa's and Grandma's and one Great-Grandfather are in town right now. They are here for Luke's Baptism tomorrow. I have some pictures from their visit today that I put in the web album, but will have to post on them tomorrow. It's getting late and I didn't sleep well last night.

An Update from Me...

Figured I ought to actually post here again since it's been quite awhile. I'm doing well, recovering quickly and very much enjoying both my babies. It's amazing how different Brendan and Luke are. Not only do they look completely different, their personalities are almost opposites. It was difficult to get Brendan to sleep in the beginning (still is some days), Luke falls asleep the moment he's done eating almost every time. He's starting to stay awake for a little while after one or two feedings each day. Brendan would squirm and wriggle all the time, Luke is content to curl up in a ball in my arms and stay there all day. Thank goodness for the sling my in-laws bought for my birthday! He loves it and it frees my hands up to take care of Brendan. Anyway, it's rather late and I need some sleep. My parents are coming down tomorrow and I'm looking forward to being able to nap (almost) whenever I want to.

Luke's Baptism

Luke Timothy Standfest will be baptized at 9am at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, 2313 Hanna St., Fort Wayne, IN 46803, (260)744-1389. All are welcome to attend.

Aaron and Becky Richert will be Luke's baptismal sponsors, just as they are to Brendan.

Computer fun, friends, and baths

Today, we got Brendan started on his keyboarding skills.



I'm pretty sure that isn't where the mouse goes.
If you want to, you can download and view these movies to see how it all went:
Keyboard01.mov Keyboard02.mov Keyboard03.mov
They are each about 4 megs and require Quicktime or VLC.



His friend Eleanor stopped by to play. They had fun together.
(Rachel, did I spell her name correct?)



We gave both children baths tonight. Brendan was quite upset during most of it. Usually, he loves baths. Luke survived his bath and cuddled with Daddy afterwards.


Sleep well little child.

New clothes

Here are two of Luke's new outfits from yesterday's trip.


It's nice to have clothes that fit him. His preemie clothes should last another two or three weeks, then we'll upgrade to newborn clothes. Thankfully, in the next few months or weeks, Luke will be able to wear a lot of clothes that were given to Brendan that were simply too small.




Our "big boy" Brendan is still doing well. He's just as cute as ever.

He's adapting to Luke, sometimes he's fascinated and other times he's jealous of him being held and getting too much attention, but Brendan is only an infant too.

If Luke gets really upset and cries, so does Brendan, so good luck to mommy in the coming weeks!

Overall, he's doing very well with it all, especially since he gets some special "mommy time" when daddy is home.

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On a side note, if you click on the Family Pictures link on the side or just go to http://standfest.org/pictures, you can see far more pictures than what appear on the blog. The web album is updated more often than the pictures on the blog.

Still going well

Mama and Luke are still doing well. Luke loves curling up with Mama.


We made sure to allow some "Mama and Brendan"-time this evening. They were playing with his new block shape sorter from Babies R Us.

We went there to get some preemie clothes for Luke since he is swimming in all 0-3 month and newborn clothes. The only problem was that they are good at carrying cute things which trick you into spending more. Between that and we haven't recovered from our "baby fever" which causes us to enjoy babies and not think straight, we went around picking out all sorts of things. We stopped ourselves before we went overboard. We got Luke about 5 sets of clothes and some booties. We also got the block shape sorter for Brendan ...


and matching tie-dye shirts for the boys. We had some money left over from Christmas money for the boys and enjoyed spending the last bit on the shirts and the toy for Brendan. He was soooo well behaved and has been adapting well to Luke. Both Grandpas and Grandmas will be in town this weekend and hopefully we'll be able to get a couple more of the matching tie-dye shirts. They are so cool! and we are apparently hippies.

In other news, I went back to school today for choir and history. It was nice to be back for a bit. Kira will have help tomorrow so I can go to all of my classes, but I will miss being at home.

Brendan and Daddy did a 'big boy' run to Sam's Club today for batteries for the baby swing and for some extra baby wipes (we seem to be going through more of them lately, not sure why). He enjoyed it. Wednesday morning, I will take him for another quick field trip as I have to be somewhere in the morning.

Good night one and all!