Lola Loves...Feeding Herself

Lola is starting to really like her food. She is liking it so much so that she wants to take her spoon and feed herself.

Lola chillin' mid lunch. Gotta take a break to wash it down.

Smiling for the camera...such a camera hog!!!

Spoon feeding herself.

Big smiles for Mama.

She looks like she's been caught eating cookie dough or something!! That's a "Savannah-Face"!!

Lola Loves...Fresh Air (When it's not POURING rain!)

On the days that there aren't tornado warnings, which hasn't been very many, Lola and I have been fighting the heat and hanging out outside in the shade. The Kipfer's have a very lovely back patio that has some amazingly comfy chairs. Lola loves watching the trees and listening to the birds chirp. She actually sits there and watches them for quite some time. We laid on the hammock today for 45 minutes just watching the birds and the trees. For all moms, you know it's an amazing feet whenever you keep your baby's attention on any one thing for more than 5 minutes, let alone 45 minutes!! It was a great time for mommy to relax while Lola watched everything. She does get a little hot so I'm thinking about investing in a blow up baby pool or one of the plastic ones. Other than getting a little bit warm, Lola loves the outdoors and could hang out there for quite some time without getting too bored with herself. This is great for Drew and I since we love being outside. There have also been a few times that Lola has chilled in her bouncy seat while we've eaten dinner together on the back patio. Makes for a very relaxing evening!!! One day, in the not so distant future, Lola is going to be running and screaming around the backyard while we try to enjoy a lovely evening together. Oh how I cherish the days when she is immobile and just so darn cute!!!

Lola using daddy for a lounge chair on the back patio.

Her Buddha belly was getting in the way so she had to lean back and use Daddy's legs, like in the last picture.

Lola's gonna like flowers just as much as her daddy does.

Hanging out in a chair of her own like a big girl!!!

My Photo Editing Skills

If only Lola weren't so photogenic, then I might be able to stay away from the shutter button on our camera. Alas, it doesn't quite work that way. I always find myself gravitating toward our camera when Lola is laying on her play mat or when we're outside enjoying the hammock and all the pretty birds. Once I take a full memory card's worth of memory, the photography madness doesn't stop there. I then put them on my computer only to get lost on Picnik and edit away into blissful oblivion. The problem is arises then when I hear Lola screaming at me to snap back to reality. (She doesn't actually do this but I like the dramatic effect I'm creating. Haha.) The pictures go from most recent to the least recent. Enjoy!!!

Our baby's little button nose...so cute!

Still loving on the nose!

This picture is by far one of my favorites. Obviously her eyes aren't this blue yet, but I can only hope that she'll keep them blue since it's my only claim to her. She's a Drew copy-cat!!

More of the same...only different.

MY FAVORITE OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!

I love the little smirk!!!

This one makes her look like a little angel walking through a garden of mist.

Baby toesies!!!!!

I don't know why I find her feet so fascinating, but they are!!

I had to get her wrist roll in a cute picture. It's a very characteristic "Chunky Monkey" trait.

One of the few times Lola fell asleep on her play mat.

Pouty pink lips.

Solids foods...Yummy in Lola's Tummy

At Lola's 4-month appointment our doctor said it was alright if we wanted to start introducing her to solid foods. After a few tears about my baby Bean being all grown up, I started to get excited about all the fun foods we can introduce her too. Dreams of steak and potatoes, spaghetti, and pancakes floated through my head. But before I get ahead of myself and Lola's immature digestive system we need to start with the basics. Rice cereal is the place to start. She did pretty well with that for the first week or so. After that it was time to move on to more interesting cuisine...pureed squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans and peas. It's best for Lola that we start off with veggies because if we start off with sweet fruits she'll never like veggies. Drew and I have a SERIOUS sweet tooth and I'm pretty sure we've passed it on to her. Lola LOVE LOVE LOVES green beans and sweet potatoes. It's so funny to feed her. Once she's had her fill she has learned that she can blow bubbles in the food when I put the spoon to her mouth. I'm really excited to see how much she's going to grow now that she's eating real foods. Our little Bean will grow like a little weed!!!!

Grandma Nean feeding Lola some rice cereal.

This is the face she makes when she's full and over the whole eating game.

Lola loves her green beans...when she keeps them in her mouth!! :)

"I swear I'm gonna eat Mama!!!"

Little Liam

Like sisters do (ok we're not sisters but she's as close as I'll ever get so I'm not gonna be to particular about titles here), Julia and I teamed up and became Mommy's at the same time. This wasn't planned but it was in God's plan. Liam was due 4 months to the day after our little bean was due. Well he decided to make a surprise entrance that involved him being 2 weeks early, a mad dash to Morgan County Hospital instead of Community South, and a sprint to the finish where I had to rush through traffic to get Will there only seconds after the little guy was born. I tried my best to get him there on time but it was the stupid construction on 465 that got in my way. Will was in training for the Army Reserves and when their bundle of joy decided to make a special appearance a few days early and very quickly some of the plans got rearranged. But nevertheless, William "Liam" Alexandro Tucker II is here and slowly but surely becoming a little chunker like Lola Bean.

Liam getting all cleaned up for his birthday.

Liam and his Nana.

Liam loves his stripes!!

Julia with both babies. I CANNOT believe Lola was ever that small!!!!! Where does the time go?!?!?!

Summer Time = LAKE TIME!!!!! Woot Woot

I love the lake!! I love being on the water out in the sun and I definitely hope that this is a love that we pass on to Lola. To make sure that the love of the lake is started early we felt we should introduce Little Miss Lola to Lake Wawasee. She loved the water where it was cooler, but up by shore where it was a little warmer she wasn't such a fan. This was kind of strange since it felt more like her bath water. I guess she's very particular about bath time versus time in the lake. I think we have a primadonna on our hands :( Hahaha. She better get used to the shore line because that's where Dad and Uncle Ben are going to teach her to catch turtles on the sea wall. Gotta keep the family traditions alive!!! Yay lake time and sunshine!!!!

Daddy introducing Lola to the water for the first time. She was given it the "stank eye".

The lake is a sand bottom so I was willing to put my feet on the ground. That's one thing that I HATE about lakes is the mucky bottom. Thank you Wawasee for being AMAZING!!

Happy family time on the lake.

Mommy and Lola in our "Stunna Shades"!!!

One of My Favorite Things to Do...Sleep

In college I had a tendency to sleep in. I never missed class because I knew of this need for sleep at an early point in my college career. I made sure that I didn't have classes before at least 10 a.m. to ensure that I made it to most of, if not all, my classes in college. As a first time parent I'm learning that sleep comes at a high premium. The first month of Lola's life we slept when she slept. She didn't sleep often so this ensured that all of us were as rested as we could be so we could try to enjoy the first month of her life. The second month we began to feel almost like humans again. She was sleeping in 6 hour increments which meant that we only had to take one shift during the night. This was AWESOME!! I definitely noticed my mood lightening a bit and I was enjoying Drew and Lola much more than I had been in the past month. Then came the third month...FANTASTIC!!! Lola has decided that she likes to sleep from 9ish at night until 8:30 to 9ish in the morning. I have never felt so good! I feel like my old self again. I can go for runs and not feel like someone is killing me because I'm so tired. I find much more joy in my days since I'm not spending most of them yawning or trying to keep my eyelids open. And my favorite part of my day (other than just watching Lola and laughing at all of the amazing things she does to keep us entertained) is when we have a family nap in the afternoon. Now I know that co-sleeping is not big in the United States. There are many people that are very much against it. In saying what I'm about to say I don't mean to offend any anti-co-sleeping believers out there; this is absolutely my own opinion and I respect all other opinions no questions asked. I love taking a nap as a family with Lola in the middle! Since Lola was born I've loved sleeping cuddled up with her. This did not make Drew happy when she was a newborn, but I had to kind of play the "mommy card" and do it anyways. She would sleep on my chest on the couch because it was the only way that she would sleep for the first few days we were home. I really do enjoy being able to smell her cute little head whenever I wake up from a nap. It's a really good way to continue the rest of my day. I won't let her sleep with us at night. It's just some mornings and for our afternoon nap that I'll let her sleep with us. I don't want to start too many bad habits this early in her life. Cuddling with two of my favorite people is just a really good, relaxing part of my day. When an activity involves Drew, Lola, me and sleep it's bound to be in my top 3 favorite things to do of all time.

Lola getting ready for bed with her blankie that Great-Aunt Alyssa gave her.

She didn't really understand why I was holding the camera up over her head.

Our little angel sleeping on daddy's chest.

Two of my favorite people doing what we love to do...sleep!