Roosters, Rolling, and Real Food

Roosters, you ask? I thought they bought 4 hens...  Well, we thought that, too, until last Friday when one of our hens crowed.  That's right, one of our shes might just be a he.  He/she hasn't crowed just once either.  He/she lets out a few bellowing cock-a-doodle-doos every morning now and sporadically throughout the day.  The darn thing is even beginning to look like a rooster (see above).  Needless to say, here in a few weeks if our suspicions prove to be true (they are) we will be eating some fresh-out-the-coop crockpot chicken.  We have similar suspicions, though not as strong and sure, about another of our chickens (you might spy the other in the above pic), but our fingers are crossed she's just an "athletic" hen.

As for Susannah, the past couple weeks have included some exciting changes: we have started her on solid foods and she learned how to roll over!  She can only roll from tummy to back right now, but she is really close to being able to go all the way around.  In regards to her food, we first attempted rice cereal, which she didn't take to very well.  After reading a little more about what foods you can introduce when, we decided to try some apples, bananas, avocados, and sweet potatoes!  She loves everything except for the apples.  We'll have to try those again sometime soon.

Lots of pictures because it's been so long since my last post!

First rice cereal attempts.  More interested in chewing on the spoon than the food the spoon brought.

LOVES sweet potatoes!

But she loves avocados the most!

She gets confused sometimes and tries to eat her bib...

...and drink like a big girl (she really does love "drinking" from a cup these days).

I mean, seriously.

We don't exactly fit inside Daddy's jacket anymore...

Always so happy to wake up!
 

Holding Daddy's hand while taking a snooze
 

Our attempt at an Easter picture.  Self-timers don't work well with babies and every one we took was extremely over-exposed.  So this is the best we got!

Sal and Sus To Collierville

Praise the Lord, we made it out alive from our airplane adventures!  Susannah was a champ and slept on all 4 airplanes, 2 legs to Memphis and 2 legs back.  She fussed during the takeoff of each one, but was fast asleep by the time we reached 10,000 feet.

Our first flight, however, was interesting, so if you'll humor me, I'll share the story with you real quick: (if you're not a fan of breastfeeding stories, feel free to scroll right on to the pics)

I've been stressed about flying by myself with Susannah since January, when we booked our flight.  So over the past couple months, I paid very close attention to Susannah's favorite toys, favorite silly faces, favorite positions, favorite EVERYTHING so I could hopefully combat any fussiness successfully.  That morning I packed up all her favorite things into her diaper bag and timed her eating schedule so that she would nurse as we took off out of Norfolk for her little ears to pop.  What I did not factor in to that seemingly perfect equation was that she would be extremely tired and I would still be extremely stressed out; meaning, she was too tired to drink long enough for my milk to let down and I was too stressed for my milk to let down anyway!  So poor baby was WAILING for the first 10 minutes we were in the air, but by the grace of God, she miraculously fell asleep on my lap right in the middle of her I'm-so-hungry-but-so-tired-too fit.  I took this opportunity to very carefully reach into the diaper bag for my wallet, pull out my credit card, and whisper to the 25-year-old man next to me that I needed him to order me a glass of red wine...at 8:30 in the morning.  Because gosh darnit, if that baby woke up, I was going to be able to feed her!  It was one of the best, most relaxing glasses of red wine I've ever had.  I drank it straight from the mini-bottle.

And now for the picture documentation of the week:

Snoozin on the plane.

Happy to finally experience the magic of PopPop and SuSu's house!

Cousins! (Photo cred: Lauren Ware)

Proud grandparents with their grandbabies!  (Photo cred: Lauren Ware)

Happy Hour with the girls.  Turns out, Sus didn't like being the only girl left out, and she let PopPop and Eric know...

So glad to be reunited with Bethany, Whitney, Baby Nelson, and Bun-in-the-oven Natalie!

Susannah couldn't take her eyes off that handsome Walker, my college roommate of 3 years Leah's 2nd son.

Spending time with Janelle (high school friend) and her boy, Caleb!

HUGS!

Playing at the park with 3 of my best friends and their kids: Allie and Lila, Leah (sans kids), and Amy and Jackson!  Jackson was holding Susannah's hand for the picture.

All the park activities put these girls out for the count.

There were many other fun reunions and "play dates" that occurred that week, but the camera unfortunately did not get pulled out each time.  It was wonderful getting to see so many of my friends from both high school and college (and all the babies that we've since produced) and my Ware family.

And lastly, Mom pulled out my baby book while I was home, and I stumbled upon a little gem that I shall leave you with.  I hope Susannah grows up to be as hip as her mama once was!

No words.

A New Level of Weird

(This post was supposed to post last week, but I forgot to schedule it!  Next week will cover our trip home to Collierville, as the trip is mentioned at the end in the future tense.)

I have never in my whole life had many inhibitions in the area of weirdness.  My twin sister can attest, as can my husband, that there are very few limits to what I find funny, particularly in regards to silly voices, songs, and dance moves.

But it's gotten even worse as of late.  I find myself doing the most ridiculous things to entertain the only human I interact with during the day.  For instance, I've recently joined my indie friends as a singer/songwriter.  Each day holds a new song for our little babe.  The most recent track to drop from the ole 3117 is a rock ballad entitled "Freedom," and here's the basic gist: "Freedom from the confines of clothing!  (Yeah, yeah)  Freedom from the confines of clothing!" (You know I'm talkin bout) Freedom from the confines of clothing!  (Let me hear ya say) Freedom from the confines of clothing!"

Good, right?

Or there's my very clever rendition of "Crazy Girl" by Eli Young Band called "Baby Girl"; a song in which anytime you see the word crazy  you change it to baby.  You also replace woman or lady with baby.  Indeed, you say, very clever.  And, of course, there's "My Susannah" sung to the tune of "My Sharona."  (We only sing the first verse of that one...things get a little sticky after that.)

If you have any ideas for new songs, I'm always open to suggestions.  Things can get a little mundane around here if we're not constantly trying to turn real life into a musical.  Pete will thank you personally for anything you suggest, I'm sure.

PICTURES!!!  

This girl is going to walk before she crawls.  She LOVES standing!

She is playing with or eating, rather) her toys now!

Happy girlie in her new yellow sleeper.

The next two picture crack me up:

"Well, hellooooo..."

"You talkin' to me?"

 And our little angel baby:

I'll be in Collierville with Susannah all next week (poor Petey is going to be all by himself), so I won't be posting this Monday.  I can guarantee a good amount of pics next Monday, though!