Arkansas or Bust!

Funny things that happened in Arkansas:

1. My Uncle Warren challenged my cousin Jeff and my dad to see who could drink the most beer. (My dad got a kegerator for his birthday, so the beer was flowing freely. He offered Todd and me our first beer at 10:30 am, but we thought we should at least wait until lunch.)

2. I was reminded not to take baby advice from my relatives. My cousin Jeff and my brother Patrick both kept telling me to give Emiko rice cereal so she would sleep through the night. I don't want to give my preemie baby (who is just four months old!) rice cereal. She's not getting any solid food until she's six months old. But I was thinking I could consider the idea, until my sister Heather told me that she was talking to Patrick's wife about baby sleep problems, and she told Heather that she never gave her kids breast milk or formula. She fed her babies unpasteurized cow's milk mixed with Karo syrup to keep it down. And they got rice cereal from the beginning. So they slept the whole night, but it's a wonder they woke up! These are farm kids, so they aren't going to be fat, but I am concerned about their future health.

3. My brother Patrick is a chicken farmer, and he's really a great guy. But he's country, there's no question about it. It's funny, because although we grew up in South Arkansas in the Mississippi River Delta (Gillett, home of 900 people and the Coon Supper -- that's another post), we didn't grow up on a farm. My dad's a pharmacist. So how Patrick got to be so country we aren't sure. Anyway, Pat called Emiko Meeky, which was really sweet. He kept saying that I was going to have to send Meeky to stay at the farm in the summers. Which will happen, but not for awhile. A few weeks ago my sister left her 15 month old son with my parents -- they took him out to Patrick's farm. So Pat put him to work! He had to walk out to the chicken house and and collect dead chickens! To celebrate all his hard work, Patrick gave him a Pepsi! My sister was a little annoyed by that part. But Aaron loved it -- he had the best time. I'm not ready for my baby girl to collect dead chickens. I don't think I'll ever be ready for that.

4. My friend Shawn G knows nothing about babies. I believe the picture at the top of this post illustrates that point beautifully.