The Christening

It was Harry’s Christening on Sunday and – to our great relief – everything went according to plan in the end.

There were, however, some little dramas along the way to keep us on our toes. The first happened about five minutes before we were due to leave for church.

Harry was sitting in his chair smiling happily when suddenly his expression changed and we had a full nappy. Nothing unusual in that, you might say, but Harry had already filled his nappy twice that day so it was a little unexpected.

To compound matters, the contents of his nappy had somehow spilled onto his vest, which meant we had to undress him completely. As you can imagine, caused some excitement as Melissa and I battled to change a nappy while trying to protect our outfits.

Anyway, we managed to get to the church in time and Harry was perfectly behaved for the first part of the service – before falling soundly asleep in my arms.

This left me with a dilemma. Should I wake him up before handing him over to the vicar to be baptised, or should I let him sleep. I chose the latter.

I admit I can’t think of many things worse than being woken up by somebody pouring water over your head while being dangled upside down in front of an audience, but Harry handled the situation with aplomb.

True, his bottom lip quivered but, thanks to the swift intervention of Chirk vicar, Rev Tony Rees, Harry was soon back to his smiling self and the rest of the service went without a hitch (or a scream). I think Harry just enjoyed being the centre of attention.