10 Months!

Chesley was 10 months old on November 5th. She weighs 21lbs 8oz. She is standing without holding on to anything for a few seconds here and there but mostly when she has no idea she is doing it. The scond she realizes it her little tush hits the floor and she looks at me like, "What was I supposed to do next?" She has decided she is totally done with saying Mama and all she says now is Da-da-da-deeee! Which is really a shame because Daddy's not here for a while-and is missing his girl!! He's worried she may walk before he gets back but I doubt it. Just in case she decides to prove me wrong I am doing nothing to encourage her! So one day when she asks how old she was when she walked I'll tell her however old she ends up being and then I'll say, "But you might have walked sooner if I hadn't stunted your development so that your Daddy wouldn't miss out!" She's still her smiling sweet self but gaining attitude every single day! Once again the monthly photo shoot was no easy feat! Mom had to come over and then walk into the kitchen and hide then sneak up behind Chesley on the couch to hold the sign up. This only lasted till Chesley got curious about what I was looking at behind her and then it was all over! We got a couple cute ones though-enjoy!

"Wow, Mama you can flip me over and get back into camera position pretty quick! But not quick enough to catch my smile!"

"Annie, I know you're back there now. You can come out!"

Mr. & Mrs. Ashley

This past weekend was Amy and William's wedding and I actually took a few pictures. I am pretty proud of myself for this so I thought I would share. I am mad at myself for not getting any pics of the beautiful bride in her gown and for not getting any of the beautiful bride singing 'Fancy' at the end of the reception--she had plenty of help during this FABULOUS rendition from every friend she had there, and it was by far the most fun thing I have ever done at a wedding! But I did get a couple of cute pictures of the happy couple on the night of the rehearsal and of Amy's precious flower girl Miss Causey, (see Harper's blog for more pictures of Causey in her wedding finery). Anyway, it was everything one can expect from a Delta wedding and I had a blast! Thanks Amy and Willie for including me in your day and congratulations!

Amy looks so sweet and normal, right?

But this is more like the Amy I know!

Willie knows that Amy too-so nobody can say he wasn't forwarned!!

Causey looks absolutely miserable here but she had just spend the last 10 minutes directing each and every one of us to sit by her on the steps. Then we decide to take a picture since we've all hauled ourselves down on the groud for Miss Priss--and she won't smile! I say all this to explain that we did not force her to sit there and take a picture with us regardless of how depressed she looks-she started it! She was a precious flower girl when she went down the aisle, and even more adorable when she told her mama, "I do it again!" and ran back down the aisle and almost out the back door to the awaiting bride and her father before her mama caught up with her! It was hilarious to everyone, (especially the bride), except her mama--I'm pretty sure she's over it by now though.

Gammy-time!

This past weekend I was in Greenville for Amy and William's wedding (congrats!!), which was a blast-and Percy is out of town so Chesley stayed with her Gammy. I wish I had taken a picture of the worn out child I got back on Sunday afternoon. She took a 2.5 hour nap, and when I got her up I went so far as to take her temperature because she was acting so sluggish, (she has also been sick so I wasn't being a total freak). No fever-just a post Gammy crash! Friday night was spent having dinner out on Pops' boat the Time Bandit where she charmed all Pops and Gammy's boat buddies by flirting with everyone! Saturday they had breakfast with Honey, (her great-grandmother) and then went to watch Chesley's cousin Morgan, (who was my flower girl), ride in a rodeo, (where I heard she won poles but nobody gave me any more updates than that so Congrats! on the poles and someone let me know how she finished in everything else). Well, Miss Priss got to ride around with Morgan when she wasn't cheering her on in the stands. I was told she altered her favorite trick to fit the situation-she loves to throw her arms up when you say Touchdown! But she was at a rodeo so whenever they said Barrel Run! up the arms went! Her Aunt Casey was at the timing table and heard the ruckus over there. Then it was back to the Time Bandit for dinner and a sleepover. I'm still not sure how Gammy pulled it off but she managed to get her to sleep through the night in a boat bed with Gammy on the outside-better her than me! Back to dry land for a bath and breakfast then back to the boat for lunch and that's where I picked her up. She fell asleep in the car and was a sack of potatoes when I transferred her to her crib for a nice long nap. It was all she could do to stay awake to take her last bottle before bedtime! So thanks Gammy and Pops and Morgan for entertaining my girl! Next time she needs wearing out I know who to call!

Sweet sweet cousins!

Think Gammy wants a cowgirl?

Chesley and Ranch, (the dog), kicking it on the Time Bandit while Pops looks on-probably wondering how his boat got taken over by babies and pups!

Don't do it Ranch!

But he's paying more attention to you than me, if I jump off the boat he'll have to come after me-have you seen how short my legs are??

Halloween Play Date

We had a blast at play group this week! Wendy Bryant suggested we bring the kids in their Halloween costumes and it was hilarious! Chesley actually stayed in her outfit, hat and all the whole time! She lost a foot a couple times but let me put them back on and went right back to playing! Quack Quack enjoy the pictures!

Herrin really wasn't as scared as he looks! But that is a big yellow duck in his face!

Once Chesley displayed interest in the flower on his hat he was much better!

This may be the only group photo I got that shows Chesley's face! Once I moved to the middle I was never low enough to get a good look under that bill!

Simmons (lime green flower middle) really wanted to face plant off the couch-and she attempted to do so with a huge smile on her face each time! My child never looked up unless she was about to flip over and make a run for it or smile right before flailing her way off the couch! Notice that Herrin (green frog far right) never moves a muscle-oh pictures were so easy in those days! Unless you are Bailey (smaller pumpkin) and you have a Simmons blocking you from the camera!

Pruet (the larger of the two pumpkins) liked to take off his hat and throw it way more than wearing it!

Then he decided William's looked like a fun hat to remove as well!

Katherine and Kristen had the right idea holding their kids, they couldn't get away and they were safe from the antics of the others!

Chesley is not in fact poking Bailey's eye out, she was kind of petting him-but it got a little more aggressive and if I remember correctly this was the only picture I could take because at this point I had to move her away from the sweet boy lest she 'love' him too much!

Some pictures of the cousins!

Baby Herrin was a trouper! He made it till the very end then just pooped out on the couch where he had sat so patiently during pictures amid the wild banchees! Sweet little frog!

Just one of the many times she tried to eat Caitlyn's tail

Victory!

State Fair 2009

Percy and I took Chesley to her first ever State Fair, not that there was much for her to do but we had to take her anyway! We ran into Hillary and Chesley and Pruet on our way in and met back up on our way out for some kiddo pictures. The carousel was one thing I figured she would enjoy, maybe? Well she loved looking around as we waited and I was holding her tight and talking to her but once that horse started moving up and down underneath her- she was not happy. She didn't mind the going in circle part, (and I swear that thing has sped up since the last time I rode it bc it about made me sick!), but she couldn't handle the ground beneath her feet, or in this case the farm animal beneath her tush moving. So I just held her and held on and prayed I wouldn't puke before it was over. Such sweet memories!

Taken before anything moved

Just starting to move

Right before it reached it's maximum speed

And look closely-she's done! She didn't cry just made fussing-I-don't-like-this-a-bit noises and I picked her up before she became that kid that hates the carousel.

We were all screaming "Touchdown" and "Clap Clap!" to get them to do something but Chesley wasn't really into that idea.

Yes, I fed my child vanilla ice cream and she loved it!! No cows milk before one year old blah blah-she lived and I figured a couple licks would be ok-anyway-She was in heaven!! It was pretty chilly outside but she didn't mind a bit!

Mm-num-num-num

"Daddy, you want some of this ice cream action? You're missing out!"

Nine Months!

Chesley is 9 months! We went for her check-up and she is still as perfect as ever (in mama's opinion!) She is talking 90 to nothing all of the time. She does not know the meaning of the word 'still'. She is crawling everywhere at mock speed! A new trick is to crawl under things-like under the ExerSaucer, under the coffee table which has a second level so she just lays under there in between the two levels until she gets sick of it, under the dining room table and chairs, etc. She pulls up on everything including me in order to better be heard. She has a couple new tricks- clap clap is old news, the new hot ticket it "Touchdown!" and she flings her arms over her head and grins. This is in fact precious except when she does it while I am trying to feed her baby food, at which point the food goes everywhere but usually mostly on her. Fun fun. She loves looking out the front window when Daddy pulls in-she and Weeza stand there making happy noises and waging their tails. And although she doesn't seem to understand 'No no', yet she will shake her head at me as I say it to her. Oh! and she has the 2 teeth on the bottom from last month and is grwoing 2 more on top-but they aren't the middle 2 they are the next 2 (the 2 between the middle 2 and the eye teeth!)-- if they would grow a little faster she would be a vampire just in time for Halloween! Never heard of this in my life and certainly never seen it but not to worry I will take plenty of pictures when the fangs come in!! She just keeps getting cuter and cuter and faster and faster! Lord, help me when she walks!

Nine Month Stats:

Height 28 inches, 65%

Weight 20lb 6oz, 76%

Head Circumference 44.6cm 68%

Aunt Hillary aka Tilly had to help with the pics this month-thats her hand, thanks Hill!

Meeting the Great-Grands

My mom and I drove three hours to Arkansas to let Chesley meet her great-grandmothers. My dad's mom had a ball with Miss Chesley and of course the camera made its way out. She held her and talked to her and played like the mother of four, grandmother of nine, great-grandmother of 3 that she is. At first she was letting Chesley play with a tissue she managed to grab from the box but when MawMaw had to go in after some chewed off pieces she decided to try another option-and it was a hit. MawMaw has a ton of her rings all hooked on a gold chain-not sure why but she does and she wears it everyday and when she started jingling that wad of shiny stuff in Chesley's face the child was euphoric and it bought us another 30 minutes of visiting time before Chesley was done. It was a wonderful visit and one I am very glad we were all able to make.



Tissue Tug-of-war

Oh the concentration!

"Are you gonna give me back the necklace, MawMaw or just taunt me with it?"

"Hey, is that something shiny on the floor I haven't inspected yet?"

Bad Idea

The following pictures were taken following my first attempt to take a shower while letting Chesley play in the bathroom while I did so. I closed the doors to the toliet and closet and put the trash can on the counter, gave her a couple toys and my hairbrush which is a favorite toy and hopped in. She came crawling over to the shower door at a rapid clip, plopped down and stared at me like I was a stranger. I was at this point shampooing my hair and made the mistake of making a funny face at her to see if she would cheer up. Bad Idea #1 She then proceeded to burst into tears in a tone I had yet to hear from my child and which I can only now assume is the tone of sheer terror. So Bad Idea #2 I jump out, strip her to her diaper and haul her in there with me. She settles a little as I hold her away from the water but let her reach out to touch it. So then Bad Idea #3, this one may not count as a Bad Idea because really what else could I do other than set her on the floor of the shower so I could finish and get us both out-but as soon as I did she just kept crawling towards the drain because it was the only thing of interest on the floor. But this brought her into the stream of the shower which is apparently NOT OKAY. She alternated between screaming and mild fussing throughout the rest of the ordeal as I alternated between holding her and setting her down away from the water and trying to block her from heading towards the drain again with my foot-while trying to rinse conditioner from my hair while hopping on one leg and singing Old McDonald. Good thing she looked so cute wrapped up in my towel afterwards...

Dinner with Pruet

Here are a couple pictures from when Percy and I took the munchkin to eat dinner with Hillary and Chesley and Pruet-they were some sleepy babies towards the end but hung in there so their moms and dads could enjoy some adult conversation on a rare night out!

Gotta Love a Bath Baby!

Note the mohawk

Chesley's Dedication

Chesley was dedicated at church today, (we're Baptist so we don't christen because we get fully dunked later.) Lots of our family and friends came to church and to my mom's afterwards for brunch. Ingrid, aka baby Pruet's grandmother, catered the food which was incredible! Our very dear friends Jim and Amy came down from Tupelo and Amy's mom Ellen came along too to help with Emma who we were thrilled made the trip too! Jim and Amy are Chesley's godparents (remember we were Methodists in Memphis-plus Percy grew up with godparents he loved to this was something we really wanted to do for Chesley as well), so it meant so much for them to drive all the way down for one night-but it was great to see them and to get to hang out with Mrs. Ellen and Emma-who is a doll and loves her some Chesley!
Chesley did great- no fussing or anything major just a healthy appetite for her bonnet! (Her gown and bonnet were made by a woman who made dresses for my sisters and me when we were little and will be used for any future babies as well as long as it survives!) She tried to eat it at the beginning because it kept slipping into her face because I didn't tie it tight enough-oops! So the bonnet didn't do fabulous but the rest of the service was wonderful. It is just a short bit at the beginning of the service but it meant a lot to us. This is the church I grew up in and was married in and that my husband chose to join without any prompting from me when we moved back-so to have Chesley presented to the church and hear the congregation vow to help nurture her spiritually was very moving for me. Thanks to all who came- it meant a lot! P.S. I didn't take very many pictures but I feel confident I will have plenty from my mother-in-law soon to add!

This is kind of a new thing- she doesn't smile quite as instantly for the camera anymore because so much catches her attention-so we tell her to clap clap and she will usually smile and look at the person taking the picture-kinda worked here but not great!

I think my mom is about to try and steal Chesley from Harper who might not give her up as easily as some... That's my cousin Matt's wife Lindsey on the floor aka William's mom, and Hillary's mom Ingrid who catered the fabulous food standing on the left.

Aunt Alex on the piano

This is Jerry and a very worn out Chesley-Jerry has known me since I was 2 so it's humbling for him to meet my child!

More Dedication Pictures

Below are the pictures Percy's mom took and emailed to me-thanks Gammy, I knew you would come through!!



That necklace has been tugged on and eaten by many a granchild and great-grandchild, I think it can take whatever Chesley is dishing out and honey seems totally unconcerned with the diamonds being gnawed on!

My sweet girl...

Percy with his grandmother and Chesley

Honey and her great-grandchild, her 90th is coming soon!

Pruet, a rare moment of stillness- it looks like he is trying hard to make a decision about what to grab next, or more likely where to run...(well crawl/run, you know what I mean).

oh the gown...

Sweet Emma playing with Chesley

Is that not the sweetest thing you ever saw??

Baby-central, loved it!

Percy, his sister Casey and miss priss

Percy's dad (who hasn't picked a grandfather name yet...) joins the photo shoot

And then the future Uncle Buck joins in

Chesley and her Aunt Casey

She fell asleep on Gammy, (which makes me so jealous bc she never does this for me anymore!!) and slept for about an hour-she was pooped!

Gammy and Pops with that sweet sleeping girl

She woke up! Barely...

Still halfway to dreamworld

First Day Mother's Morning Out

Chesley started Mother's Morning Out two weeks ago, 2 days a week for 3 hours. These are a couple of pictures of her raring to go the first morning (or maybe that was Mama doing the raring!) She did great and could have cared less that I left-she was off and running ready to play! Her cousins William and Pruet are in the same class with her so that should be fun for them when they are old enough to remember that they just might know each other! Anyway- it was a nice break for Mama to get some grocery shopping done and Chesley seems to like it too!


"You take pictures, I'll eat my bag"

"What do you want from me? This is all I got!"

"Come on Mama-I'm ready!"

"Enough!"

Eight Months!

Well, taking these pictures every month is becoming more and more difficult as Miss Priss gets more and more interested in the sign! This was the best I could get-next month it will be a two-parent job with Percy hiding behind the couch. We didn't have a monthly check-up this month but I weighed her and she is around 18lbs. Her hair picks days when it wants to part on the left and days it goes for the right, she is pulling up on everything and moves sideways a little though not a true 'cruiser' yet, she says 'bye bye' and waves-although never on command, she started saying Mama on Saturday (Sept12th) after a couple weeks of mmmmmmmmmma!-she was very into the 'm' sound for a while, Dada is on the tip of her tongue (and would have been said first if not for the fact that Percy knew I would cry if she said it before Mama so he didn't push it as hard as I pushed Mama!), and she can clap when you say 'clap clap' fairly well on command, feet are a favorite as are houseplants with wet dirt and Mama's cell phone. She is growing every day and learning new things all of the time-and her Mama is about ready to slow this train down a bit!

Giddy Up!

Most of you know Percy grew up with horses and is what I consider a honest to goodness cowboy--he may kill me for saying this but I think the pictures I post with that statement will mke him not care about being embarassed. Anyway, Percy's grandfather (whom Chesley is named after along with my grandfather-both of whom were also honest to goodness cowboys as well), bought him a pony when he was tiny- like 3 years old I think and the darn thing is still alive and upright! I mock his family because every fall one of them inevitably says, "Yeah, I think this will be Whistle's last winter-don't think he can make it another year." And then that horse proves them all wrong again! So Percy's mom wanted to take pictures of Percy, Chesley, and Whistle- (secretly i think she plans to use them to send to Guinness World Records when Whistle finally kicks the bucket to see if he is in fact the oldest horse to ever live) and we needed to do it soon because remember, Whistle could pass at any moment...he will outlive us all probably! So I have had these pictures since July and couldn't ever decide which ones to post so I just put them all in a collage-click on them to zoom in better. Percy's mom has much better ones than these but I haven't gotten them from her yet. The first collage is Whistle, the second one is Percy's roping horse on whom he won all his awards that make me call him an honest to goodness cowboy (that and the fact that he thinks you can fix anything with baling wire, duct tape, and...I can't remember the third one-then again this might not make him a cowboy as much as it does country but whatever!) Snake, or as most of his family calls him-Paint, is Percy's roping horse and he traveled all over in high school winning awards on that horse, so we needed pictures with Paint too, (he's old but not near as old as Whistle). It made for some great pictures of my girl and my cowboy- Enjoy!

Destin Trip 2009

Percy, Chesley, and I went to Destin for a week with my family. We had a great time but I wasn't sure if we would ever make it there. The Wednesday before we were supposed to leave on Saturday there was a huge storm all night and all morning. We lost power and so I took Chesley over to my mom's so I could heat up her bottle and feed her that morning. I came back home to change clothes and noticed lots of water forming a stream against our neighbors house. When I got inside our house I thought I would go and check to see how the drains on the side of our house that gets the run off water from the higher houses on the street were doing. I looked out Chesley's window and saw we had our own little river running alongside the house. Then I took a step back and heard a squish. I felt the carpet and it was wet. At that point it was only wet about a foot into the room but within an hour it had made it all the way through Chesley's room and was soaking the wood floor outside her doorway. Every room in our house that shares that exterior wall was taken in water. I was seeping in where the floor and walls meet. Percy was working an hour away and I called him right after I felt the wet carpet., he left immediately to come home but instructed me to go check to make sure the drains were actually draining to makure sure they weren't clogged or anything. So I put on rain boots and walked to the back line of our property where I found that the drains were gushing with water-they were in fact working fine this was just your run of the mill flash flood that our drains couldn't keep up with. Bad news, right? So the good news is that my father in law runs a company that dries out water damage! Thank goodness for his crew. They were out in no time at all and immediately started taking bits of my house apart to dry it out and telling us what we needed to do and what would happen etc. They were great because we were clueless, (ever find yourself in need of his services let me know I'll give you their number!). Good news, right? So the bad news is that the machines used to dry everything out are still in my house. They had to drill some holes in the bottom of some cabinets in bathrooms, laundry room, and a closet, and take some baseboards off to get the air movers (aka hard core fans that put Jennie F's wind machine to shame!) pointed behind walls etc. They said hard wood floors are the hardest and take the longest to dry out so to prepare myself for these loud air movers and dehumidifiers to be around for a while. Chesley's room took the worst of it so the carpet was ripped up, baseboard removed, lots of machines in there and so on. So we stayed at my mom's Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday before we left for the beach since we would have had to disassemble her crib to move it to another room in the house for her to be able to sleep. Percy's sister Casey and cousin Dottie house sat and Weeza sat for us while we were at the beach so someone could monitor the machines and deal with the painters I planned to come and paint my bedroom and bathroom while we were gone- sounded like a brilliant plan to me at the time, have the painters come in and make their mess while I was gone and come home to a freshly painted house!-then we flood, not so great)- in come Casey and Dottie who put up with the mess for us and take care of Weeza and deal with the flood fall out-love you both so much! So, we gallivant off to the beach where some of my dad's family is also vacationing on a crazy coincidence and we have a great time playing on the beach with Chesley, who was very laid back about the whole beach/sand/pool thing-she really liked turning her face into the wind and found a deep love of bubbles. We went out to eat with our cousins twice, ordered in alot, cooked a little and had a wonderful trip. We headed home and do in fact come back to a freshly painted bedroom and bathroom, and our housesitters have left the place immaculate (don't ask don't tell...) but we still have a few unwanted house guests-the air movers and dehumidifiers. So Chesley's room is still uninhabitable and she and I have been staying at my mom's since we got home. Percy would stay with us over there except for the fact that our dog and my dad's dog are insane together and howl all night if seperated and Weeza howls all night if she is away from us and knows we are there in the same house. I think it would put my mother over the edge if Weeza came to stay too so Percy is staying at our house. They came to check the machines Monday and told me if I want to speed things up it might help to turn up the heat. So as I am typing this I am sweating becasue our heat is on 90degreees. Percy is gone for three nights for work so I figured I would take advantage of that and crank up the heat to try and get these things out of my house!!! But I have been getting nasty comments about not posting any beach pictures yet so I came over tonight get these cute pictures of my sweet girl up for yall to see. Hopefully the house will be back in one peice soon and our family will be under one roof soon and this will be a distant memory! It could have been so so so much worse and we know that- we are so grateful to Percy's dad for all his help and to Casey and Dottie who dealt with it all for us for a week and to my mom for housing the homeless, (even if she won't house the Weeze). Sorry I know this has been a really long post and if you are still reading I'm impressed! Enjoy the pictures!!!

We had just gotten to the beach that afternoon but had to take Babycakes to see the ocean for her first time and put her little tootsies in the water! Ignore her parents-they had been in the car all day!

She liked digging her fat little toes in the sand!

This is sweet Ethan, my cousin Carrie's son. He loved playing with Chesley and she was a BIG fan of her cousin Ethan too. He sang to her at the restaurant when she got sleepy and helped keep her happy when she got fussy, sweet, sweet, boy.

Seven Months!

Chesley turned 7 months while we were at the beach but I actually did remember to take her picture! Quick recap of month 7-she is mobile. She crawls everywhere and with increasing speed and dexterity. She can sit up unaided until something catches her eye and then she is off. She can't get back up to sitting from the crawling posistion yet and this is not ok with her. She stands up on her hands and feet, tiny booty up in the air and fusses because she doesn't know how to get back to sitting where she can lay easily with whatever object sent her scurrying away after it in the first place! She makes a funny face all of the time where she squenches up her face and makes her cheeks real big by spreading her lips out sideways but not opening her jaw-she squeezes it shut like she is trying to press her upper and lower jaw against each other and sometimes she bites her tongue while doing this face as well. I call it the teething face and it cracks me up the first 100 times she does it in one day-then I get over it and just change her diaper. She is more and more fun every day and we feel very very blessed to have her in our lives!

She officially will not let me take the picture with the sign sitting there if she has spotted it so my mom helped out and hid behind the couch to hold it over her head-thanks Annie!

My dad always feels the need to put his hats on Chesley, (maybe because it makes her look like the boy he is sure he will never have-poor thing), and the thing is she lets him. I can only hope she will be like Causey and adore a hat or bonnet well past the point at which most kids despise them!

Ok, so the house we stayed in was great. It was right on the beach, gorgeous view, lots of room for us all to have our own space and nobody step on the highly mobile Chesley-but, in the words of my father, "This house is great but if I were the owners I would shoot the decorator." Over the top would be putting it mildly. The light fixtures, excuse me-chandeliers in every room, (looking in from the porch one night I counted 7 chandeliers of varying sizes visible from my vantage point), had feathers on them- or were strung with so many jewels and/or pearls you would think the Mardi Gras parade just came through. But the best bit of decor of all was the at least 7 foot tall urn in the living room. We spent the week trying to guess what it would be used for and Katie came up with our best bet- to hold a very fat man's ashes- (it reminded me of Stan on Will and Grace). This thing was huge and so so so ugly. As my mother said, "It wouldn't even be pretty if it was a normal size, not even in miniature." So I have taken a picture of it to share with all of you because you really have to see it to grasp just how bizarre the thing was. Chesley decided she would help put things into perspective for you about how enormous it actually is. Oh, and I think we might have rubbed it to see if a genie would pop out until someone screamed,"No, don't-can you imagine how big the genie could be??"

Chesley was pretty blase about the pool. She just kicked back in her raft and looked at us like,"Yeah it's a pool? So? Why are you people ooohing and aaahing and looking at me like mad people?

Thanks so much to Haaga for a great tip-she told me to buy a kiddie pool to corral Chesley in on the beach- I told my Dad and Percy this and they came home from Wal-Mart with a hard plastic one- i think a blow up one might have been what Haaga meant but the men doing the buying knew they would also be doing the blowing up and made an executive decision. It worked great and she didn't mind it a bit- we gave her toys and she just hung out. She tried to reach out for the sand a couple times which brought my mother running saying, NO her eyes her eyes!, no sand got in her eyes but mom was freaked out enough by the possibility that she kept me from just dumping her in the sand to see what she would do (i thought that was a great idea-just plop her down right before we planned to go up anyway and let her have at it and see if she liked the taste of sand or not-i'm pretty sure i lived on a steady diet of white Gulf coast sand in my early years and have survived-but mom said, "Her eyes, her eyes!" enough to scare me off the idea!)

Did I mention my mom taught Chesley how to grab glasses off of peoples faces? Yes, it's a charming little trick she now does ALL of the time-she lunges at strangers dying to get her hands on their eyeware- and Aunt Katie's neon orange sunglasses were a favorite-Katie really seems to mind doesn't she?

Alex and Ethan taking care of Chesley who was knocked out since we did go to lunch during her naptime...whoops.

Aunt Katie had to hold sweet sleeping Chesley too since this is the only time she is still these days!

My dad bought some bubbles which Chesley thought were great but, she really liked it when Annie popped them and made weird pac man sounds as she did so-she laughed and laughed-thought it was hilarious-i brought the bubbles home with me, they are sure to come in handy...just got to get that pac man sound down though.

Here are a couple pf pictures from our little family photo shoot- we had to wrangle the help of both my sisters for the job of photographer since we had to go out on the beach twice since we couldn't quite see in the bright sun the first time.

Me and Chesley with my two beautiful sisters.

Ni-night with Gammy

Percy's mom and stepdad came over last night so Gammy could get a Chesley-fix after not seeing her for a few days. They stayed till bedtime and Gammy fed and put Chesley down for me after reading her a story and singing to her, (good thing Chesley likes her singing better than the rest of her family does...).

Carrots and Highchairs

Harper told me a peeled, cold carrot from the fridge is a great teether for a munchkin like mine so I gave it a try the other day. She seemed to take to it at first then she decided she wanted nothing to do with holding it and would literally wipe her hands on her clothes after touching it. I started to worry I was going to have a priss pot in my hands that didn't like her hands getting dirty but today I gave her a teething biscuit in her new high chair, (after i stripped her down to her diaper and a plastic bib-hate those teething biscuits!) and she went to town with that thing! It melted all over her hands and face and belly and legs! So, apparently she has no problem with dirty hands, must have been the cold carrot.

First high chair

She looks like such a big girl I can't stand it!

My Dad Rocks

My dad gave us this t-shirt around father's day for Chesley to show her daddy some love. I decided the perfect time had come to post a picture of her wearing it since Percy was Mr. Mom for part of this past weekend. I went to Brinkley, Arkansas with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law Casey, and cousin-in-law Dottie to help find Casey a wedding dress. We left Friday night and spent the night in Tunica where we ate a fabulous dinner and gambled a little while. I played black jack for a couple of hours and won $1! I consider that a huge win since I'm not sure I have ever left a casino up even a little bit! Anyway, we were hugely successful in finding Casey a dress that she looks incredible in and knocked out the bridesmaids dresses while we were there too. All the while Babycakes was keeping Daddy busy back home. This was the first time they have been without me overnight and it appears they can in fact live without Mama. Kinda sad but I'm pretty proud of Percy, (who did call me about 20 hours into the weekend to tell me he only thought he knew what I do all day but until then he didn't have a clue and wanted to tell me that he and Chesley say thanks!-that's my very sweet husband!) So it was time for the 'MY DAD ROCKS' t-shirt to tell Daddy thanks for passing on a couple golf games to keep the home fires burning while I played with the girls!

Okay, now she can!

I'm not sure if you can call it 'crawling' exactly, but she can move in a forward motion. She started heading in a reverse scoot a couple weeks ago but today while I was on the phone she crawled from her play mat over to the green chair by the white column in our living room. What I mean by crawling is really more of a flinging motion. She gets up on her hands and knees and then flings herself forward landing on her belly only to lift back up and do it again. My smart little girl found away to no longer be stuck in reverse! One can hope that true crawling will come next and soon for the sake of her little belly which is taking the brunt of this type of movement!

"All this 'crawling' is wearing my out, I'm just gonna lay down for a sec Mama."

The length of her journey.

But she CAN'T crawl!

I left my child on her playmat in the middle of the living room for about 5 minutes today and walked back and couldn't find her, for several seconds. I looked at the ExerSaucer thinking I had forgotten that I put her in there instead of on the floor but she wasn't there- then I took another step forward into the room and saw she was hidden by the ottoman-and she was no where near where I left her! This may not sound that strange until to consider the fact that the child CANNOT CRAWL! I am sure of this, so I guess she rolled and maybe scooted her way over to the wall and then found a cell phone charger cable to play with, which was plugged into the socket-Child Services come and get me. Never occured to me to unplug a dangling cord from the wall to keep it away from my six month old who CANNOT CRAWL! So I quickly unplugged the cord then ran for my camera to capture the escape artist on film. After fully documenting this bizarre occurence I placed her back on her playmat and went to brush my teeth. When I returned she had at least stayed put but had managed to collapse the playmat arches and tangle herself up in it. Granted, the playmat arches are not difficult to collapse but never in the 4 months that I have owned the thing has she ever done this. I found it quite comical since it happend minutes after the roll-a-thon across the den. Check out the pictures below and maybe you will too!

Oh, and I forgot- she had a teething ring around her leg as she took this little journey!

That's the ottoman that hid her from me for a terrifying millisecond. It's about 8feet from starting position to where she ended up-with a big 'ol smile on her face for mama!

Here is Miss Priss in her collapsed play mat. Can't imagine how she managed to do this!

She was trying to untangle herself from it without much success!

Six Month Check-up Stats

Chesley's check-up went great- she was declared perfect by her pediatrician, and her mama. Her growth stats are:

Weight- 16lbs 5ozs, 58%

Height- 26in, 61%

Head Circumference-42.7cm, 58%

Six Months!!

I can remember being 6 months pregnant and thinking, "Wow, I have been pregnant forever," little did I know that you don't know the meaning of the word forever until month 8 rolls around!-Anyway, my point is while I was waiting on the kiddo to arrive and she was busy growing and doing things to make my body rebel against me, time could not have moved slower! And now I would do just about anything to slow it down. It is just not possible that this little girl has been here 6 months! And it just is not possible that she was ever not here. Love my sweet smiling girl!

Six month check-up is tomorrow so I'll add her stats and such then. Enjoy the pics!

P.S. We went to the Point for the Fourth and I didn't take a single picture! Lots of laying around, eating, napping, and then more eating-not many photo ops! But a good time was had by all-including Babycakes who lapped up the attention of her aunts and grandparents like crazy!

Here are just a couple cute ones from the end of the 6 month photo shoot, this is after she killed the 6 months sign...

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Wednesday was Percy's 29th birthday-Happy Birthday Babe! And Chesley gave her Daddy a card. We didn't do much just went out to eat,had the early bird special so we could include the Babycakes. But I wanted to commemorate Percy's first birthday as a Daddy! Also wanted to say that I got the proofs for Chesley's four month pictures with Allison Rodgers and they were great- she did a fabulous job again! So anyone who wants to see them email me and I will send you the link.


"Like my card, Daddy? I picked it out myself you know..."

Clones?

This is the newest gift that I had to take a picture of my child in, a hoodie towel- kinda hard to tell in the picture but it's a duck and it is precious- big thanks to Mark for giving it to Miss Priss- we love it!

Quack! Quack!

JA Class of '99 10 Year Reunion

My 10 Year reunion was this past weekend and it was so much more fun than I ever thought it would be! We had some friends over to cook out Friday before everything kicked off and a bunch of people came back over afterwards as well. We all stayed up way too late playing Catch Phrase (aka the greatest game ever), and it was a blast. After sleeping late, (thanks Annie for keeping Babycakes so Mama and Daddy could act like kids!), we headed up to the school for an Ice Cream Social aka- come show off your kids- which I did and enjoyed thoroughly. Then we all met up at my house to head out to the Yacht Club for the big party. Thanks Alex (my baby sister) for driving a load of us out there- she should not be old enough to drive! The party was a blast- it really was so much more fun than I thought it would be! The scary part was that the last 30 minutes of the party every time I turned around I heard people saying, "Late night at Elizabeth and Percy's," or "Yeah, we're heading over to Elizabeth's- do you need directions?" Needless to say I was a bit worried but it worked out fine and my house survived the take over of aging Raiders fairly intact. Special thanks to Staci Tyler for doing such a great job planning the whole weekend- it was so much fun! I stole most of these pictures from Brynnen so thanks BB! She and Adam stayed with us all weekend and were great houseguests- come back anytime! Enjoy the pics of us all reliving the glory days!


Mark, Revere, Bobby, Adam, Seth, Brynnen, Me

My sweet husband who put up with us all the whole weekend and Happy First Father's Day too Babe!

Brynnen, Me, and Revere

Brynnen and Adam- my fabulous houseguests for the weekend who cleaned up every time I turned around!

Adam and Cal deep in conversation! Just to give this picture some context let me explain that we have a good sized backyard and this table and chair grouping is set up in the far away way back corner of the yard- in the pitch black dark. Don't know what they were discussing but it looks like they were solving some serious world problems and they must have been very into it for Brynnen to catch a pic without them batting an eye!

Michael, Bobby, Seth, and Mark- they have not changed a bit!

Bobby, Bo, Majure, Jacob, Cal, Adam, and Seth trying to squeeze in because ten girls were screaming at him to "Get in the picture too Seth!"

The King is in the Building!

The night we graduated JA kept us out all night with activity after activity and we ended up at Banner Hall for breakfast. The parents had arranged for an Elvis impersonator to come entertain us at 4:30 am. It wasn't very funny to me that night because I was fading fast and this guy sang loud but it was great when the Reunion Committee had him come back to our party Saturday night. He was a bit forceful though and for those of you who don't know- I don't dance. For the most part anyway and if I do I definitely do not want to be on display as I do it- but Elvis just wouldn't leave me alone- he made me dance with him once and sing with him once- I managed to twirl away the first time and walk away the second since he just quit singing and made me finish the song 'Ain't Nothin but a Hound Dog' all on my own into the microphone. He got me for sure. But it really was a blast!


If only Elvis knew that Mark could put him to shame in the dancing department!

This is before he just quit singing on me!

Maj was gettin down with the King!

I thought my twirl away was pretty clever!

Ice Cream Social

Sweet Mark brought Chesley an adorable duckie hooded towel that he went into a store and bought himself- when I told him how impressed I was with this he announced that he is an old pro at this stuff since he has two nieces! Thanks Mark!

Seth was having a little trouble getting Chesley situated for the picture that I forced on him!

But once he got it Miss Chesley was all smiles for him!

She thought Uncle Seto was pretty funny!

Chelsey and Uncle Maj

Chesley and Mary Ellen who had her smiling up a storm!

Me and Chesley and Madison holding Simmons (who won the award for youngest child of a classmate) and precious Hayes.

Taylor sitting by her mama Courtney who is holding Chesley, Summer with Mary Pyatt, Lauren with Mckenzie who is holding Hayden-whoda thunkit that we would have all these precious kiddos!?

Odd and Ends

Here are a couple old and a couple new pictures I have been meaning to add to the blog.


Finally got a picture of one of my best friends growing up Jennifer and Chesley. Jennifer and her husband John and their little girls Cate Rivers and Sheridan (thats the doll on the right) are moving this summer so I was glad she got to meet Chesley before they left town. We're gonna miss yall!

This is Percy's Great Uncle Frank, so Chesley has a Great Great Uncle-how cool? Thanks for stopping by to visit Uncle Frank, Evelyn and Aunt Kay!!

This is Percy's step-sister Courtney and her husband Kirk and their twins Sharlee (green) and Savannah (blue). They were in town for Father's Day and finally got to meet Chesley after many failed attempts to come see us in Memphis before we moved! Their girls are adorable and both just messes- they were so sweet with Chesley and thought she was a doll-like a literal one that they wanted to take care of like their babies! Great to see yall!

A Little Cousin Playtime

My cousin Hillary (ok my cousin's wife but really that's just a pain to type and our children are related by blood so from here on out I am just going to say cousin-I'm willing to claim her), and her little boy Pruet, (born one month before Chesley), came over for a quick visit. Since Pruet and Chesley kept reaching out for each other we decided to stick them in the crib and grab the camera to see what happened. Pretty cute as it turned out. They just kept looking at each other and cooing and reaching out, my child is a grabber/pincher so I was quite pleased no brawl ensued. Pruet 'tapped' Chesley's face so sweet and gentle, (his mama was terrified he was going to be to rough with her but he was so sweet- just checking things out Mama!), it was lots of fun to watch them interact. Looking forward to years and years of this so I hope they stay this interested in each other!


"You have a mouth too, Chesley!"

"Want to smell my feet?" "I don't think so, Pruet."

"What are yall looking at? We know we're cute and all but seriously?"

"Hey, where are you going? I can roll too, just not so fast!"

"How do you do that sitting up thing? Haven't gotten the hang of it yet myself"

Since Hillary won't get a blog it is my obligation as his Cousin/Aunt, (he is my first cousin's child so what does that make me?), to show off his preciousness on mine! He may not have stayed standing for long but he did it on his own!

Looking like his Daddy in this one, but I still think he has his mama's smile.

Chesley and her Grandaddy

My dad came over the other night to see Chesley while Percy was working an all-nighter. Got a couple of cute pics of Chesley and her grandaddy- he is tentatively called Big Daddy because when I first found out I was pregnant he jokingly told everyone that's what he would be called. Then it stuck. His joked really backfired when the rest of the fam decided it was growing on them. He now says he wants to let her decide what she will call him but we call him Big Daddy for lack of anything better. So here are Chesley and Big Daddy just hanging out!