16 days old, plus random updates and pictures

I think this is going to be a ring sling baby.

See? He loves it!

Jordan likes the Moby, but today I tried the Maya Wrap Ring Sling and it worked much better for me. I took the girls out in the backyard for about an hour and a half, fixed lunch, and read a book to the girls with minimal interruption. See, I can totally do this. And not only that, but it's going to be awesome.

Carey came and weighed Robert again a few days ago and he was up, I think, 13 ounces? So he probably has gained over a pound by now. And he's working on a double chin.

Yesterday I was sitting in church just thinking about how amazing this all is. Three sweet children, and this little boy is just the sweetest, most wonderful little guy ever. I think he might end up looking like me after all, too.

I am so excited to get the homeschool curriculum we've finally selected and get started with Suzi. In one evening, I did several hours of reading and decided to go with Oak Meadow (kindergarten). We won't be starting until the fall because the first "trimester" of lessons is seasonally appropriate for that time, but I'm still excited to start going through the books. I'll post more about this later.

I need to go change Robert's diaper in a minute, but here are some Easter photos!

From the egg hunt on the 17th...

What the Easter Bunny brought...

Robert at the community sunrise service.

Two little girls on Easter

Ivey liked this rattly toy the Easter Bunny brought her. She also liked scooting across the floor to grab eggs. She started scooting forward (rather than backward) the day before at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Ivey can't have candy, so she got musical toys in her basket. That's one of those percussion shaker eggs and a jingle bell toy. What candy Ivey did get (from the grandparents, mostly) I had to "process" for her so she could get it during a nursing session. Super deal!

I love these bunnies. They are from Miyim's organic line. The problem is, dumb old EB made the HUGE mistake of bringing bunnies that are different. Ivey got a Baby Victoria with a dress and Suzi got a big Victoria without a dress. Of course, Suzi wanted Ivey's.

And then Suzi wanted both of them. She took this picture of the bunnies in Daddy's lap. Now I don't think she wants one at all, so I told her if she didn't want to cuddle with Victoria then I would. These bunnies are scrumptious.

We were smart and took pictures with the girls before going into church. I was so proud that we remembered the camera!

Suzi was excited when she saw that the Easter Bunny had left her a big lavender hairbow to match her dress. Okay, I made the bow with the help of our hot glue gun while watching New Moon on Easter Eve. Don't tell Suzi. I'm proud of it because it's the first bow I've made. Store-bought bows are expensive!

On Grandma's sofa after church.

Ready to eat candy.

Want to be sure we get a good one.

Okay, done. You can go change now.

Easter Egg Hunt!

Suzi really went after the eggs this year.

We helped her a little, because she was one of the littlest egg hunters and we didn't want her to get her feelings hurt if she, for instance, only found like two eggs. (Happened to me once. Although I was eight.)

Daddy held Ivey while we helped Suzi hunt.

Turns out we were so busy helping Suzi, who really cared about finding eggs, that we forgot to help Ivey find any until it was too late! We felt bad.

But Ivey did end up finding a couple of eggs after all.

Then we went home.

Up from the Grave He Arose

We made it to the community sunrise service only a couple of minutes late. It started at 6:30. Aren't you impressed? We walked up beside my parents standing in the back of the crowd, and when Ivey saw my mom she said hi! And what sounded like I didn't know you would be up this early! C'mere! We handed her over to Grandma and Grandpa. Suzi brought her new bunny and we stood outside in ideal morning weather and listened to a lady minister do a dramatic reading from the viewpoint of Mary Magdalene. It was really good. The moon still hung in the dark blue sky over the historical building on our town square and it hit me how lovely our town is. I was kicking myself hard for not having a camera and not being a decent enough picture-taker to capture the moment the way I saw it. We're having a wonderful Easter here in South Carolina. I hope you have a wonderful Easter with your family too!

If you haven't seen this video yet, you really should watch it. It makes me happy in at least three different ways. (I love the hymn, I love cute kids, I love cute kids singing hymns.) I really hope we get to sing this one in church today.

We're off to get ready for church! Pictures later.

The Rest of Suzi's Easter (in mostly pictures)

"You want some, Papa? It's good."

Whoa Nelly! Those are real eggs!

Look what the Bunny brought me!

I don't know how long they think I'm going to leave these shoes tied.

Baby's First Easter

Before you get confused at the way Suzi's looks have changed--these top two pictures are MY first Easter in 1985! I wanted to post a picture of her daddy at his first Easter, but we couldn't find one in time. He was cute though.


Here's Suzi after church Easter Sunday:

One thing stayed the same from my pictures to hers: the basket! I didn't want to buy Suzi a cheap plastic basket for Easter. I wanted her to have a strong basket which would not splinter and would be just the right size. And I had one--my Aunt Jeanie painted it for my first Easter. It just needed a facelift. I borrowed some white paint and brushes from my mom, touched him up, and now he's ready to go for another little girl! I was happy to see something old turned new for Easter.

Suzi went to the egg hunt at church Saturday. She was a little confused; she thought, what's the beauty of finding eggs if you can't stop to chew on them and knock them together? She didn't like sitting in the grass either. (This doesn't surprise me since she's certainly never seen any grass in our yard! She probably didn't know what it was!) Nana, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, Daddy and I all enjoyed watching her anyway. Then we walked downtown for lunch, and there was even a parade which lasted about two minutes--the perfect length for Suzi! She met the Easter Bunny. After all that excitement she settled down for a long nap in the sunshine while she rode back to the church.

"Grass isn't scary, grass is our friend!" (Jordan and his mom, Deidre)

It was my favorite Easter ever. I have more pictures of her in her Easter dress and looking at what the Easter Bunny brought her, but I'll add them later in a separate post.

Beautiful day for a field trip!

It's probably weird to take pictures of your groceries but I am excited about discovering Whole Foods. Jordan, Suzi and I spent Saturday morning in Greenville. I had been hearing so much about Whole Foods and wanted to go, so I convinced Jordan it was worth the trip. We came out from under our rock and drove 45 minutes or so to get there.

If anything is worth a trip to Greenville, this is. I expected to find organic foods and other things not usually found in Wal-Mart, but the shopping experience itself is so different. Outside the front door there are plants for sale; when you go through the doors you are hit not with a traditional stale grocery store smell, but rather with the aroma of spices and--well, I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it smells good! The food is not as expensive as I'd expected. I'd been wanting to try some quinoa, which Julie said was good, and I think it cost about the same as grits.

You know those cheap, impulse buy pick-me-up items you see in Wal-Mart? Change purses, cheap jewelry, little toys. They don't have that at Whole Foods. Instead, they sell unique items that are, for instance, handmade in Africa and bought for a fair price rather than made in sweatshops. Didn't buy any but I wanted to. Then I saw the bath product section. I found a big bottle of mint shampoo, which I'd been searching for for years and couldn't even find online, for only $3. I got the soap to go with it. We also bought five of their big 99 cent shopping bags--and they even credit you ten cents per bag for not using paper or plastic. I'm going to start using them every time I shop because those plastic bags just clutter up my life!

When we got home I cooked some quinoa, and it was so good! I like it better than grits and that is saying something. It is also way easier to cook than grits. I tried to feed it to Suzi but she didn't like it; it's too grainy for her yet. I can see now we're going to have to start making a trip to Greenville once a month just to go to Whole Foods.

We also went to a craft store and bought Suzi some plain wooden eggs after she so enjoyed Jackson's the other day. Then I dyed them pretty colors. She loves them! Funny, because this is a toy that cost less than four bucks.


Today: Church and hopefully (real) Easter egg dyeing. I know it's a bit early but last year we waited around and ended up being too busy to do it. We have to dye eggs this year; it's Suzi's first Easter!