If Becca had been born on her due date, today would be her 5-month birthday. This week Becca got an early 1st year birthday present: Grammy Sutter made Becca her very first dolly and named her Eva. My mom’s first doll was made by her grandmother, my mom made me my first doll, and now my mom has made Becca her first doll. Grammy spent hours sewing Eva and did a lot of work hand-stitching her face. Becca seems to like Eva, and I think they are going to have many fun adventure in the years to come.

We’ve had a good week. Friday night our date was a trip to Rita’s Italian Ice. My brother, Dan, gave me a Rita’s giftcard last year for my birthday. We were waiting until this summer to use it and enjoyed our weekend treat. It was really nice for me, since I can’t have dairy, to eat something that was cold and sweet, without having to worry about milk ingredients.

Monday evening we had one of my former BJU roommates over for dinner. Kimberly and I were roommate during the first semester of my senior year, Fall 2003. Kimberly was a freshman in the academy. We’ve stayed in touch since then and have been planning to get together since I moved with Josh out to Texas. It was great to see Kimberly again, and I look forward to seeing her more this summer.

Josh gave me a wonderful birthday. He made me birthday oatmeal for breakfast, birthday eggs for lunch, and birthday tacos for dinner. He also made my birthday watermelon fruit basket (something my mom made for me on my first birthday and many years after). In the evening, we went on a birthday walk, played a birthday game of Othello, ate some birthday popcorn, read my birthday card, and did some birthday reading in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It was a lovely day and I enjoyed the extra activities we did together. I am REALLY excited about my birthday gift from Josh. . . . It won’t be done for a while, so you’ll have to wait to find out what it is!

Now, to wrap up the photos from the Becca Tour. While in PA, we visited with Mr. and Mrs. Burd. It was Becca’s first time in a pool, and both Josh and I enjoyed swimming. While in NJ, we spent the night at America’s Keswick and took a quick trip to see Harvey Cedars Bible Conference. It was fun to show Josh some places where I’d spent time when I was younger.

One other important person Becca met on this trip was her Great Uncle Johnny. Uncle Johnny called me every day from the time he found out I was in the hospital until the day Becca came home from the hospital. Becca spit up on Uncle John’s shirt. . . . I figured that was her way of letting him know that she likes him. Becca also got to meet Owen Bucholtz. Owen was born at 28 weeks on September 28, 2009, and went home from the NICU a few weeks before Becca was born. It was encouraging to see his pictures and hear of his progress while Becca was in the NICU.

This concludes the pictures from the Becca Tour. Becca seemed to enjoy meeting everyone and we enjoyed showing our little girl off to our friends and family.