Please take me back home...

to Mississippi.

We are moving back to Jackson- (insert cheers or boos here). We sold our house, (or I should actually say we have a contract on it b/c Percy has hung out with the Calhoons too much and is now superstitious about jinxing such things), and are set to move out March 22. Now we just need to find a house, buy it, pack up, and move out- all with a 8week old in tow... Pray for our sanity over the next few weeks please!

As for the boos and cheers- I like to think some of my Jackson friends will cheer at the news, and I have already gotten some boos from my Memphis friends and to be honest-we are pretty torn. We have always known we wanted to end up back in the Jackson area eventually but it was always this distant, way far off, 'sometime kind of notion'. Now that it is real and we are actually doing it, we're pretty conflicted. We will miss our Memphis friends incredibly but then we are excited to be closer to our families and all of our Jackson friends. So when I quote Afroman in the title of this posting (if you don't know what I am talking about you are showing your age...mom...gammy-i'll explain it sometime), I don't mean it to say 'get us out of here'- because we have loved living in Memphis and would recommend it to anyone starting out after college- Memphis has been great for us and will always be the place we both got to experience downtown living, the town where we got our first 'real' jobs, the place we came home to after our honeymoon, where we bought our first house, the city we learned all about through good times with great friends, and of course the it's where we welcomed our first child. Percy and I will have been married 5 years March 6th and will have lived here for 6 years, (almost 6 for me and 6 for Percy). We were proud to be Tennesseans while it lasted but it is time for this Mississippi girl and her Madison county boy to go back home. So- as for the Afroman song lyrics- we are going home, but we made a pretty nice one here too-I just thought I was being clever.

Don't worry Dad

Chesley didn't want her daddy to worry that she wasn't looking just like him anymore since she decided to look like a Calhoon for the camera yesterday- so she's going for the same hairdo as her daddy. She reaches back and grabs her hair right at the crown of her head and pulls. This doesn't appear to hurt bc she will sit like this forever, just hanging out, but if I don't stop her she could look even more like a little Percy in no time at all!

Just call me little Ricky

So, you don't think I have any Calhoon in me, huh?



What about now?

Yes, she is the spitting image of her daddy but she can pull out the Little Ricky and Mini Alex look too! My little sister Alex and I both looked alot like my dad when we were little. And lately more and more people have been saying Chesley looks like Alex. I don't always see it but when in these two pictures I do! The top one is all Alex but the bottom one looks so much like my dad it's scary!

As I mentioned before, the smiling baby on the changing table prompted a marathon photo session that continued on into the chair and so many of the pictures are so similar so I just put most of them into this collage. Click on it to see wach individual picture bigger.




"I may not be able to hold my head up yet, but I can grin with the best of 'em!"

Changing Table Heaven!

I read on Gracie's blog that George loves his changing table and I laughed out loud bc my strange child loves hers too! She will sit there smiling and cooing and pumping her arms and legs like crazy! I never remember to take pictures of her when she is doing it but I finally did yesterday and it turned into a marathon photo session. Here are just a few of my smiling girl!

She will smile when she sees me now, and Mama loves this!

Most of these are wide open mouth smiles b/c she gets so excited that a demure little closed mouth smile just won't do.

She was just about to laugh in this one but didn't quite make it- she did laugh the other night though and Percy and I both about fell out when we heard it- she was kind of dozing off in my arms and then just giggled. So of course like any good first time parents, we didn't let the child drift happily on to sleep- I tickled her and poked her and we finally got one more little chuckle out of her before she conked out!

Babysitters in the Making!

We went to Jackson for my dad's birthday a couple weeks ago and had lunch with Percy's family on Sunday. Percy's cousin DR came over with his family and Chesley got just a little bit more spoiled than she already is.


Miss Emma wants Chesley to come to her house for her birthday, and wants me to come to town some weekend and drop her off with her for the day and not tell anybody else so she doesn't have to share! She was great with her and will be on babysitter duty in the future without a doubt.

D.R. trying to see if he still has the touch with babies and Shannon remembering when hers were that small (they are still that sweet though!)-- maybe Emma and Trey need another sibling????

Trey did hold Chesley but I didn't get a picture, he couldn't have been any better with her! Emma must have been good practice for him!

Making the Rounds

Chesley is still making the rounds and meeting all of our friends and family.



Lauren doesn't hold 'floppy' babies any more than Jennie does so this was worth a picture!

Amy brought Emma up to go to the Memphis Children's Museum and to meet Chesley. She was so sweet with her, whenever Chesley made a peep Emma would say, "She has a stinky diaper, dontchya think?" or, "She might be hungry-what do ya think?" or, "She just wants her mama, but I think Baby Chesley might have a stinky diaper." She didn't have any stinky diapers while Emma was here but the little mama in the making was just trying to do her best to take care of Baby Chesley. She was adorable and so helpful, and even though Amy was worried about her being gentle enough the whole time they were here-Emma could not have been sweeter!

Addison did a little Baby Whispering while he and Lesley were here, Chesley was being a huge fusspot and Addison calmed her down and had her comatose again in no time, he didn't even flinch when, as he put it, he felt her diaper blow up and deflate in his arms...thanks for the ladylike manners Chesley- I love it when she is so well behaved for my friends...

One Month Birthday

Ok, so I know that technically I should just post one picture of Chesley on her one month birthday but the photo session was so much fun that I need to post a couple and let you know what Miss Chesley was thinking, she told me.



"Really, must you keep on with the camera? You're giving me a headache."

"Yo, what up my homies?!"

"Seriously, if you don't quit it with the camera I will punch you, don't make me do it."

"Did you say there will be presents with this one month birthday??"

Swaddle Me Happy!

I bought this swaddler and hesitated to use it for a while because Percy was convinced she hated it bc she strained against it and grunted when we put a different one on her one time before. Well, she must have just had a little tummy upset that time because she is officially a fan. She sleeps in it all night and sleeps anywhere from 4-6 hours with it. Mama is a fan as well...

Squeaky Clean

Percy went out of town last week and I had to bathe Chesley...alone. With her head still flopping every which way I feel strongly that this is a four hand job-but the child needed a bath. So Mama decided to try out the new bath tub instead of just using the sponge thingy that we lay her on. Well, after she ended up laying in the bottom of the tub horizontally a couple of times I finally got the bright idea to put the sponge in the tub. This helped, somewhat. But there was just nothing about this bath that looked right-or safe to be totally honest. But we both survived and I even clicked a quick photo while she was still semi upright, (note the downward slide she is beginning to make, and the dishtowel i grabbed to try and keep her head from flopping into the side so much), to commemorate Mama's first bath. It turns out that this picture could be used against me as evidence of child abuse since I looked at the box for the tub afterwards and realized I had it mounted in the sink completely wrong. Like so wrong as to be negligible. I had it over half of the sink so it sat really upright, hence the sliding down, but you are supposed to have it across both sides of the sink so they recline more. Well, we both survived and Child Services let this one slide. I have also given her another bath by myself with the tub mounted correctly over the sink with much better results. Oh, the adventures in motherhood by mama liz...