dude looks like a lady

Well, we've had our suspicions for several weeks now, but today our suspicions were confirmed. Will was sitting at his desk this afternoon (he works out of the home office), and he heard some distinct crowing. Yep, that's right...one of our 14-week old Ameraucana "hens" is actually a rooster! We started getting suspicious about a month ago when this particular chicken started growing beautiful, iridescent green tail feathers. But "she" wasn't crowing, so we gave her the benefit of the doubt. But now that we know for sure, we are going to have to "relocate" him (no roosters allowed in the city). It's a shame b/c he sure is a beauty!


On another note, Maggie has been doing a great job harvesting our blueberries lately. When she's done picking the ripe "buues" from one bush, she'll move onto the next one, saying "next bush". And she's also learned to open and close the garden gate by herself...she goes in there every day to check on the thornless blackberries (even though they are done fruiting).

it's a girl!

We had our big ultrasound today (I'm at 21 weeks), and we found out that Maggie is going to have a little sister! This also means that the boys of the house (Will and Snoopy) are going to be outnumbered 14 to 2 (2 little girls, 1 female beagle, 10 hens, and me)! I guess it also means that in about 15 or 16 years, Will is going to have one more reason to sit on the front porch at 10 pm, "cleaning" his shotgun.

hot hot hot!

It's been very hot the past week, but Maggie still wants to be outside so we've been spending a lot of time in the shade on the back porch, either splashing in Maggie's pool or eating cold watermelon. Maggie also insists on feeding the chickens some scratch every day so she can pet her favorites, Red and Orange.







When I can actually manage to get Maggie back inside where it's cool, she likes to help me with chores.

busy day

We had a busy, fun day today. We took Maggie to Jordan Lake State Park this morning to hang out with friends and go swimming. She had a great time hanging out in her floaty swimsuit in the water with daddy, and she really enjoyed playing in the sand. She was so amped up afterwards that she didn't even fall asleep this afternoon at naptime (she just laid in her crib and chattered to herself for an hour and a half). I was worried this would lead to a meltdown this evening because we were supposed to head to a fish fry at Eli's house for dinner. But she was fine and was so excited to see Eli that she didn't even notice she was tired (and she also loved the fried fish, just like her mama!).

(By the way, for those of you former Ichauway folks, the 2 kids in the foreground of this picture are David & Susan Jones' kids...Ariana (6 years old) on the left and Jamie (3.5 years old) on the right.)






And these 2 pictures are from last night, when Will put Maggie to work shucking corn...she already loves helping us cook!

Just a few random videos

Maggie decided yesterday that she's now a big girl and can walk everywhere, instead of her previous "walk for fun, crawl for speed" thinking. She spent most of her time yesterday after lunch walking all over the house, including going up and down the hallway over and over again.



We also spent some time in the evening hanging out with the chickens. Her favorites are the Rhode Island Red ("red bock bock!") and the Buff Orpington ("orange!"), and she loves to feed them scratch.

Eli's birthday

Saturday was Maggie's friend Eli's 1st birthday, and we were all on hand to help him celebrate. There were cupcakes, toys (but more important = empty boxes!), and a swimming pool. Notice the different approaches to eating cupcakes...Maggie delicately picked hers up and daintily took a bite out of it, whereas Eli smashed it and frantically shoved fistfuls into his mouth (and barely got any in). Maggie had fun and was on a sugar high all afternoon!

playground peek-a-boo

We live right behind a great elementary school, which means we have access to their playgrounds in the evenings. (Actually, between the school, the church down the street, and 2 city parks, there are 5 playgrounds within walking distance from our house, which is going to be a life-saver as Maggie gets older.) So we've been going over there after dinner for the past couple of weeks to let Maggie explore. She really likes the slides...she'll go down feet first but on her belly and try to climb back up, giggling the whole time. But what she really loves is the tunnel with a bunch of holes in it. She darts from hole to hole so quickly that trying to get a picture of her is like playing a game of whack-a-mole.