The growing Roza family: Busy June

After Lilah's first unsuccessful attempt at eating solids in late May, I waited a couple of more weeks to make sure she was ready. On June 9th, we tried again, feeding her some thin rice cereal. And she ate it! She just needed a little more time, and after giving her some more time to mature, she was ready by June! She did really well with her solids and has continued to be a good eater. We fed her rice cereal for a couple of weeks, and then she graduated to something better.
I have decided to make all of Lilah's baby food instead of buying it for her. I'm not quite sure where I find the time, since I have 1.5 jobs and a lot of duties here at the house as wife and mother. But it's worth it to us that Lilah have good nutrition from the start, and making baby food is a lot cheaper than buying it! Lilah's first solid beyond rice cereal was a sweet potato puree I made for her. She loved it! And she gobbled it up. She does so well with eating solids now and she never leaves food behind! I've since made her carrot puree also. She developed a diaper rash a few days after introducing the carrots. So I removed them from her diet, but now I'm not so sure the carrots were the culprit. I've also made pear puree, but I haven't fed it to Lilah yet since she is still suffering from a stomach bug as I type this (July 22nd). I bought some sweet peas today and will puree those up once Lilah is done with the other foods I have made her this past week. I enjoy making food for Lilah and it's fun to see her try all these new flavors for the first time!
My birthday weekend was a very busy one. The day before my birthday, my cousin Lauren married her fiance Wyatt up in Auburn. Lauren was an absolutely beautiful bride! I'm so glad that we were there to share their special day with them. My cousin chose a good guy - Wyatt is awesome and we love him! Lilah was very well behaved at the wedding. Unfortunately her rash was looking pretty bad that weekend, and we had to explain to each person what was going on every time someone came over to meet Lilah. We didn't leave the wedding until after 10:30 pm that night. Lilah was fast asleep by then, of course! Friends of the family held Lilah while she slept so that Edward and I could cut loose on the dance floor for a bit. Boy, was it fun to get out there and dance again! We really enjoyed ourselves! Beautiful wedding for a beautiful couple!

Daddy with Lilah in her pretty dress!

Father-daughter dance! I didn't get any good photos of the bride unfortunately. I had my hands full with Lilah throughout the wedding.

Wardrobe change as the evening got cooler.

Lilah loved Daddy's tie!

Lilah was sporting the noise-reducing headphones to protect her precious ears from the loud music.

On my birthday, June 12th, we headed to the Bay Area to visit with one of my best friends. Marianne was in town visiting from Hawaii! She and her husband traveled out here to California with their daughter Bailey. Bailey is 16 days older than Lilah, and this was our first time meeting her. And it was great for Lilah and Bailey to meet each other! Bailey is a lot taller than Lilah so you could definitely see the size difference between the two! Bailey is also a very happy baby, and she was screeching and squealing like crazy. Lilah was a little more quiet that day, just curiously taking it all in. Lilah rolled over several times towards Bailey, then she tried to grab at Bailey and touch her! Our high school friend Casey and his wife Keiko came over to visit with us and meet our daughters. It was great to see them again! I had a wonderful birthday visiting with my good friends and spending time with my family!

Me with Lilah and Marianne with Bailey!

Lilah was trying to get up close and personal with Bailey!

Lilah's rash was particularly bad that day.

Marianne bought them matching outfits to wear!

Friends for 19 years!

Hanging out at Gramma's house to celebrate my birthday with some dinner and cake!

Later in the week, I took off a day of work so that Lilah and I could spend more time with the Greshams. We drove to Lodi and spent the afternoon with Marianne, Bailey and Garrett at Garrett's parents' house in Lodi. We had a wonderful and relaxing afternoon with them. We went to the Farmer's Market and had a great time checking out all of the booths and food. Then we went back to the house and relaxed in the yard while Garrett BBQ'd a delicious dinner for everyone. Garrett's siblings and his nephews were there, and it was fun hanging out with such a close-knit family.