Sylive’s Naming day

I was lucky enough to be asked to conduct Sylvie’s Naming Day. Dan and Kate have been friends of mine for quite some time and I conducted their wedding along with a number of weddings for other members of their family. Since then I have been named the family celebrant! I was privileged to be able to conduct Sylvie’s sister Astrid’s Naming Day when she turned 1 and so it was such a special thing for me to be able to conduct Sylvie’s Naming day too, also timed to Celebrate her 1st birthday!

Dan and Kate thought about the name Sylvie when Kate was pregnant with Astrid. Kate tried to convince Dan that Sylvie was a great name, but Dan wasn’t keen on Sylvia, which Kate insisted would be the ‘proper name’ so it never happened. Throughout Kate’s pregnancy with Sylvie, Kate and Dan worked through many name options and although Sylvie arrived so late they still hadn’t decided on her name. After she was born they played with three names and in the evening finally settled on Sylvie, Kate compromising and ditching the ‘a’ in Sylvia.  Sylvie, from Sylvia, is a french name meaning from the forest. (See the gorgeous forest themed cake at the end of this post)

Sylvie has made Dan and Kate more relaxed, patient and understanding parents. Sylvie gets far more cuddles to sleep and co-sleeping as they are well aware of how fleeting these days are. Dan and Kate can now understand completely why the youngest child is always the baby to their parents. Sylvie’s favourite person has always been Astrid. From birth she has kept her eye on Astrid, eager to learn how to do all the things Astrid does, playing, walking and now dancing too! Sylvie has always loved to move and was on the go early. She even started walking while holding onto Astrid even though her sister was trying to escape!

Her big loves this first year have included looking at her favourite family photos, climbing, “reading”, playing in her sister’s kitchen, baby doll Cailin, getting messy outdoors and just being all over Astrid. She loves to make kissing noises, waving at anything that moves and is a big koala style snuggler. She loves Ryan Adams and starts “dancing” as soon as she spots the cover artwork.

Dan and Kate chose their very close friend Miranda to be Sylvie’s mentor. Miranda has been friends with Kate for almost a decade and they have travelled together. She was the witness at their wedding and has always supported both Kate and Dan on their parenting journey.

Dan and Kate had a passage chosen to be read during the ceremony for both girls.  A lovely Mark Twain quote, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

It was a beautiful day and a great time to catch up with lovely friends, and the the extended family of these wonderful people that I am lucky enough to see at these special occasions.

Baby Naming of Emily

I have been friends with Emily’s parents Tom and Scarlett, since before they were a couple; It was wonderful when they got together. I remember when they fell pregnant with Emily and I watched Scarlett’s tummy grow as the months passed before Emily was born. Scarlett and Tom  have been there throughout my pregnancy too and were there to answer questions and give helpful new parenting advice. So when it came time for Emily to have her naming ceremony it was only fitting that I quickly agreed when they asked me to do perform the ceremony. Even though it was going to be about two and a half weeks after my own baby was due to be born, however my own baby had other ideas and decided to be born about 5 weeks before Emily’s naming day.  This made things a little easier as far as having a fresh new baby when the naming ceremony was happening.

Emily had her naming day on her first birthday; a Teddy bears picnic themed party at Presidents Park, in Wyndham Vale. It was quite a cold August day but the sun did decide to come out for a while. There were so many of their Emily’s family and friends there and having it at the park was great as there was plenty of play equipment to entertain the kids. They had a BBQ lunch and loads of wonderful cakes and finger food, even teddy bear shaped lamingtons!

Many of the guests had travelled from a great distance to be there,  from Wagga Wagga and as far away as Perth. It was really lovely to see that so many people knew how much it meant for Scarlett and Tom to be able to announce the Godparents that they had chosen for Emily and for the Godparents, and Tom and Scarlett themselves, to make some special promises to Emily.

I had a truly lovely day, and it was so nice to see friends of mine, surrounded by all of their closest friends and relatives.