Sydney's Blessing

This weekend was crazy at our house and is just winding down...although not really, because we've just made the realization that we're low on formula and out of diaper wipes so a trip to Walgreen's in is the immediate future.
This weekend was Sydney's blessing which we (I) decided to hold at home for a variety of different reasons. We both ended up really happy with the decision as it worked out to be a perfect choice. My family arrived at our house on Friday night. My mom, my sister Katie and her three children Preston, Cameron, and Kylie and my sister Ashley and her two little girls Abbi and Tatum. Also, Sara who is very much like a sister to us, flew in with her husband Jose. Sara and Jose are Sydney's Godparents. So, if you've done the math...when you add everyone to our own crowd that makes 13 kids and 7 adults in the house thru the weekend.
Albert's Dad and step-mom "Aunt Dorothy" plus his Aunt Pat and Uncle Ron also made the trip and it was really good to spend time with them as well. Albert's Dad is a pastor so he does the baby blessings in our family most of the time. It's a tradition we really, really cherish.
Our church of course offers a baby dedication but theirs was held on a Monday night which makes it really difficult for our families to attend since most everyone lives out of state. Also, they do several babies at one ceremony which I feel is impersonal and doesn't allow the families of the babies to tailor the ceremony to each individual child. We liked the personal feel of holding the blessing at our house...we had 13 children to get ready so we wanted it to be casual, and stress free. In fact stress-free on many levels was why I really wanted to do it at home. By the time we'd have gotten 13 kids ready and to a church, we would have been super stressed and it wouldn't have been enjoyable.
So, Saturday morning at 11:00 we held the dedication. It was really intimate, quiet and special. We had all the family I mentioned plus a couple of close friends. We both thought it went perfect. We got lots of really great pictures which I will try to post this week and lots of yummy food.
The boys said small prayers during the ceremony....funniest of which was Jackson who prayed for something (I can't remember exactly what) that was totally unrelated, trivial and important only to him...it was something like thanking his Dad for helping fix a toy or such. It did provide a moment of laughter. Also humerous was when Albert said his prayer and was asking God's blessing in raising Sydney. Without thinking he said "Please guide us in this chore."
Really? Chore? Did he say Chore?
Saturday night Brice started complaining about his toe hurting. After about 354656575 complaints, I took his sock off to have a look and it appeared that there was a small blister on the side of his pinky toe. It didn't seem like it should be causing him as much grief as he was making it out to be but all night he continued to cry off and on. Even a game of twister with all the cousins couldn't pursuade him to stop crying. And indeed, he slept in our bed and woke up twice in the middle of the night crying about the toe.
By the next morning it had become redder, hotter and and swollen. Then we noticed the tell-tale red streaks moving up his foot. My sister Ashley who is RN (BSN) told us to take him to the Dr. quickly. That posed a problem because Albert and the four oldest boys were supposed to go to Albert's nephew's baptism. Neither of us thought I would be able to handle taking Brice, Isaiah, Alexandria and Sydney by myself and my family had to leave to get on the road/catch their flights. Albert said he'd just stay home and not go to the baptism but I could tell that that would have made him pretty sad not to mention disapointing the boys who were looking forward to seeing their Grandad/Auntie/Cousins. So we figured that if he still went and just didn't stay long, that we could safely take him after the event (figuring it'd take us a while to get ready anyhow even if we WERE going to take him right then so we really wouldn't have been losing that much time)
So the guys went to the baptism though unfortunately they couldn't stay as long as they'd have liked due to Brice's impending trip to the clinic.
So, when we got Brice seen the dr. told us he had cellulitis and most likely staph. Lovely. We got two antiobiotics..one oral and one topical and hopefully he'll be fine.
We got home...of course just too late for evening church and fed babies and put them down for the night. Now, of course we have to go get formula/wipes and then hopefully we can both fall into bed...after soaking Brice's toe in epsom salt and administering the first dose of antibiotics.
What a weekend! I miss my mom and sisters already! I'm so glad they made the trip. I love them so much and couldn't imagine not having them here. I know they went through a lot to be able to make the trip and did a lot of driving (16 hours round trip) for a weekend visit. They really mean a lot to me.
The weekend was really special and I'm sad it's over. Hopefully next week will be a quiet one, though as I'm typing I wonder if I should knock on wood....