Today is Becca’s 33-week birthday! As for last Thursday, her weight was 14lbs and 2oz and she was almost 24 in. Our week’s excitement was celebrating Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A. For those of you who don’t know, Chick-Fil-A gave away free meals to anyone who dressed up like a cow on July 9th. We had fun dressing up and eating our meals. Becca was a star at the restaurant! When we walked into Chick-Fil-A, the staff cheered and clapped for us.

Speaking of cows, this week Becca was diagnosed with milk and soy protein allergy. Her body has trouble breaking down the protein in milk and soy (which is similar to milk). This means Mommy has to stay away from eating all dairy products and soy products (except soybean oil and lecithin). The nurse practitioner gave me a list of ingredients to stay away from and told me the diet basically consists on meat, veggies, and fruit . . . it’s amazing how many things contain soy.

Josh and I continue to work on projects relating to our degrees. We’re making good use of UTA’s library, inter-library loan system, and online databases. Becca is doing a great job keeping herself (and us) entertained while we study. She usually eats around 6AM and then goes back to sleep until 10ish. This usually give me a solid two hours to work on my research. Josh entertains Becca in the late mornings . .  . as you can see in the pictures, they have exciting times together. Becca has been enjoying helping me in the kitchen. I made her Kitchen Queen for a day.

Now for more pictures from the Becca Tour. Becca got to meet all of Josh’s immediate family. The Erkens were visiting from China — it was great for the whole family to be together! Becca also met all four of my brothers and my three sisters-in-law. And she got to meet Grandfather David Emil Sutter (my dad) for the first time. I enjoyed watching my dad playing with Becca. Grandpa enjoyed giving Becca watermelon, and she seemed to enjoy it too!