What a wonderful weekend
We’ve been a bit behind on posting, though we think we have a good excuse. This past weekend we had family in town. Lots.
Since none of our family is in St. Louis, it makes it difficult for them to see Esme in person. Before Esme was born, we decided that rather than having visitors every weekend for several months, we would schedule a baby party weekend. This seemed to make sense, given advice from others about how it’s difficult to adjust to a new baby even without company in town, and with our own desire to get settled in to a routine with our new baby. While it was tough for them to wait this long — pictures, video, and Skype just don’t cut it — we think (hope?) they understood.
That being said, we had long been planning the baby party / Hebrew naming ceremony for September 13, meaning we had a lot of visitors this past weekend. Most relatives arrived Friday, spending most of the day passing Esme around, taking pictures, and generally fawning over her. We had a great dinner out, which Esme slept through much to our appreciation, giving us time to talk and not coo over babies. (Not that we don’t want to coo over her, it’s just nice to have some adult time too.)
Saturday morning after breakfast we all split up, many of us to prepare for the party that afternoon. The meteorologists forecast for the remnants of Ike were dire, predicting 88 degrees and pouring rain for our outdoor naming ceremony that afternoon in the park. Luckily — miraculously — the storms pushed to the North and we had fantastic weather all day Saturday.
Rabbi Randy — who co-officiated our wedding over 5 years ago — led a fantastic ceremony in Tower Grove Park (where else?). We laughed, we cried — it was better than Cats. Esme was given her Hebrew name: Puah Yafah. Puah was one of the midwives in Egypt who refused the Pharoah’s orders to kill all firstborn Jews. True, you might not think of it as one of the most heartwarming stories behind a naming, though we think it’s a wonderful story of courage and a strong conscience, qualities we hope to cultivate in Esme. (As an aside, according to this essay, the name Puah “comes from a Hebrew root that implies a particular gift of speech” and that “Puah was able to soothe a crying baby to sleep with her special way of talking.” If only Esme calmed that easily!) Yafah is the Hebrew word for beautiful. It’s fitting — we’re biased, though, of course.
We hung out, ate, played in the park, and then moved the party back to our house. It was a great way to spend Esme’s 6-week birthday. The remnants of Ike rolled in the next morning, though that didn’t mess up too many travel plans. We consider ourselves quite lucky to have everything pretty much go according to plan all weekend, given all the variables.
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. We are blessed to have such wonderful family, and it was a blessing to have so many of our family and close friends with us on this special occasion. With everyone being so spread out across the country, it takes a lot of coordination to get this many people together in one place (the last time was for our wedding!), and we can’t begin to describe how great it was. We think Esme misses everyone, too — she got spoiled being held pretty much the entire weekend and has been expecting Mom and Dad to keep that up over these past few days, much to our dismay.
We have way too many pictures and video from the weekend — over 6 gigs, if you’re wondering, from about 5 different digital cameras combined (and that’s just the family, not even the friends). Rather than subject you to all of them, we’ll just include one — probably the biggest family portrait we’ve had in some time.
More pictures and regular postings will resume soon!
From L-R (from Esme's perspective): Great Aunt Debbie, Great Grandpa Seymour, Uncle Dave, Great Grandma Ellen, Aunt Steph, Grandma Gloria, Grandpa Art, Great Uncle Nick, Mom, Dad, Esme, Uncle Patrick, Great Grandma Else, Grandpa Kenny, First Cousin once removed Robyn, Grandma Jeannie
September 17th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
What a wonderful day in the park – thank you for inviting us to be a part of your day. It was also really great to meet your parents! I’ll have the pictures up from the day up soon.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:47 am
We had a fantastic time! Of course, meeting Esme in person and holding her, kissing her, etc., was the highlight and something we had been waiting for. She certainly did not let us down! She is wonderful and was so accommodating to allow all of us to pass her around like a “hot potato.” To add to all of this, being with all the family, including the Hinyards whom we had not seen since the wedding, added to the sweetness of the moment! This is a weekend we will not forget and one we treasure!