Life AfterMath

18 Months!

2012-01-27T16:58:00.002-07:00

Wow! Our little Critter is 18 months old! EVERYONE warns you it goes so fast, but no one can prepare you for quite how fast... perhaps its just because there is SO much change in such a short time. It's like Riley picks up something new every day, well, several times a day actually!

***Warning: Since blogging is my excuse to not journal or scrapbook, this post is just going to be a collection of facts about my little girl's 18-month-old-self, mostly for my own benefit!

At her 18 month check-up, she measured: 21 lbs 10 oz (13%) and 30.5 in (19%). However, she was freaking out when being laid on the scale and measuring tape, and even just on the table top as I changed her diaper, so the numbers could be a little off... She's been pretty close to the same growth curve since birth, and she's been pretty proportional the whole time, so that's all that really matters! Her eyes are staying blue; her hair is still blonde and un-cut.

She still LOVES books. Some of her current favorites are: Piggies, Napping House, A Frog Thing, Hop on Pop, Cat in the Hat, Just Like My Dad, Me & My Dad, Me & My Mom, The Very Quiet Cricket, The Very Busy Spider, The Fish Book, and Tell Me the Stories of Jesus (which is an interactive flap type book which I have had to glue back together numerous times already...)

Some of her favorite songs: Pat-a-cake, Popcorn Popping, Twinkle Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus, The Itsy, Bitsy Spider, If you chance to meet a frown, I am like a star shining brightly

Favorite games: Ring around the rosies, peek-a-boo, hide-n-seek, beeping noses, chase, Here comes the bumblebee. She also really loves going to the aquarium!


How big is Riley? SOOO big!

Animal sounds she can do:
horse/neigh (which she also does for the seahorse as well, lol),
cow/moo,
rooster/doodle-doo,
cat/meow,
dog/woof,
owl/whooo,
sheep/baa,
goat/maa,
ghost/boo,
pig/oink,
monkey/ooh-ooh-ah-ah,
dolphin/ee-ee-ee,
donkey/hee-haw
snake/sssssss,
bear/roarrrrrr,
lion/roarrrr,
butterfly/roarrrr,
elephant/umm, don't know the onomatopoeia for that one... we kinda blow raspberry things with our lips...

**Funny story. Around Halloween, we were trying to teach her that a Ghost says Boo! She, however, seemed to think we were saying goat, not ghost, so she maa'd for the longest time! She finally seems to have picked it up though.

I know they are not animals, but she also does:
pirate/yo ho yo ho (well she really says yo yo yo, but she also swings her arm while she does it!)
firetruck/wee-ooh-wee-ooh,
train/choo-choo,
car/vroom-vroom
nose/beep (occasionally ah-oo-ga, since that's what mommy's nose always says)

She loves to climb... The other day I heard her crying somewhat hysterically and discovered that she had managed to climb up on the second shelf but then couldn't get down!

She talks up a storm, and she is definitely a little parrot. She can pretty much repeat anything you ask her too, and even many things she just hears and you don't necessarily want her saying, lol... Here's all her vocabulary words (that she says on her own) that we could think of off the top of our heads!
She can say: hi, hello, bye bye, no, yeah, again, car seat, naughty (which she likes to say as she is doing something she knows is wrong!) 'nana (banana), orange, melon (she LOVES watermelon),help, more, cereal, up, down, all done, bubble, one, two, three, six, ten, twelve, animals, car, apple, crackers, puff, milk, chocolate (for chocolate milk), meat, noodles, rice, cheese, cookie, M&M, cone (she likes ice cream cones, plain or with ice cream, it doesn't matter), pizza, quesadilla (dee-ya), yogurt, Cheerios, Charms (for Lucky Charms), Kix, yogurt, soup, french fry (fry-fry), nugget, sauce (ketchup or BBQ), snack, yummy, bite, bowl, fork, spoon, toes, eye, ear, head, mouth, nose, face, forehead, eyebrow, shoulder, tummy, armpits, knees, back, neck, lips (when she wants chapstick), socks, shoes, sparklies (what she calls her glitter shoes), boots, shirt, pants, diaper, button, snap, jacket, hat, watch, rings, necklace, bracelet, crazies (=hair ties, she picked it up because we would always tell her how crazy her hair was before we fixed it), thank you (it started as just thanks), please, O.K., stuck, towel, this/these, flower, sticker, pink, bug, turtle, donkey, fish, kitty, bee/bumblebee (bum-bee), butterfly, monkeys, zebra, giraffe, dog, bear, horse, dolphin, shark, alligator, orca, starfish, hippo, on, light, TV (which started as TT), remote, cartoons, Einsteins (Eye-nines: for the show Little Einsteins), phone, game, card, clap, book, story, camera, pictures, baby, zip, table, high chair, couch, climb, snuggle, hug, hands (usually she says this when she wants to hold hands), dirty, wow, sing (she will say/sing "lalala" when you ask her to sing), Rose (for Ring around the Rosies), nap, sleepy, bed, shower, bath, open, peek-a-boo (peek-oo), upstairs/downstairs, inside/outside, Pooh (as in Winnie-the-Pooh), Mickey, Donald, Elmo, Mama, Daddy (Dah-ee), Mormor, Morfar, Grandma, Grandpa (still sounds like Grandma sometimes), Jessica (Jessca), Jessie, Hillary (Illry), Bekah, Lincoln, Collin, Lexie, Garrett, Toby, Alex, O'Malley, Odin, Riley (She started saying Ry-Ry, but now usually says Ry-ee), Jesus, church, and temple. Some phrases she's got down: Love you (luh-you), do it (when she wants to do it herself), carry you/me (she's still not quite sure which pronoun to use!), fix it, peel it (when she wants an orange/clementine), another one (nuh-er one).

Some words she is getting down but not using on her own quite yet: Lloyd, Christ, Amen (which she can say just fine, but needs to be reminded when to say it pretty much every time), smooth and scratchy (when comparing my face to Ron's unshaven face), blue, green, brown (which she says a lot, but not for the right colors), stinky and P.U. (which she says, but doesn't seem to say it until we let her know something is smelly), Breakfast, lunch, dinner (she can say them all, and will even walk into the kitchen and say it, but she doesn't know that they refer to different meals), piano, happy, sad, careful, home, counting numbers...

That's all I can think of for now; I am sure there are a few more though... Wow, that's a TON of words! Every time I walked away from the computer, she would say a few more and remind me of others I needed to add.

A video to leave you with!

*I didn't realize it until after I played the video back, but after Riley sees her nose in the camera screen, she starts saying "beep beep" lol

San Diego, Dec 2011

2012-01-15T11:01:00.000-07:00

After the two days in Disneyland, we got to spend another two days in San Diego at my grandparents' house. We were able to go to beach and dip Riley's toes in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. (Riley had been to San Diego to once before, but it was a VERY quick trip for a funeral, she was only 1 month old, and I was far too paranoid of a new mom to bring her to the beach, lol).

The wave came in a little faster and bigger than the previous ones, and I didn't want her clothes all wet!

We went hunting for sea shells too

Riley found a big muscle, but it was kinda hairy and yucky, so we left that one...

We ended up keeping a piece of coral that we found (I've never found coral before!), and the still connect shell on the right... It has since fallen apart because Riley dropped it on the floor!

We also got to go to the remodeled Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center. Riley fell asleep in the car on the way there, and was not happy that her nap got interrupted. She wasn't very well behaved during the tour part so we don't have too many pictures, but she did seem pretty interested in the panning for gold that they had out back!

They take a picture of you at the end of the tour. Riley still wasn't very happy at this point... They print one out for you and you can have a digital e-mailed to you all for free! I thought that was pretty cool.

She tried to eat the "gold". We had two pieces, but in my attempt to stop her from eating it, we lost one...

The "gold" we found. Those are laptop computer keys at the top of the image (or look in the previous pic at the piece in my hand) to get an idea of it's size.

Daddy and Riley in the covered wagon. Oh, I'm so glad I was not a pioneer...

Family wagon pics!

Just so you know we actually do things WITH other people... My brother's family was there too.

Disneyland 2011

2012-01-15T10:14:00.001-07:00

If you've been following my previous posts, then you've seen that my parents' gift to all of us this past Christmas was a trip to Disneyland. Here are pics of fun day and a half that we spent in the parks!

This was Riley's very first ride: Astro Blaster (the Toy Story ride)

That's Ron's score... he ended up killing us...

Riley in the jail at toon town

In the chair at Mickey's house, sporting her brand new Mickey (technically Minnie) ears!

The line for Mickey was pretty deceptive since it wound around and around his house, yard, and barn before you got to meet him. It took a LONG time, and Riley wasn't really all that enthusiastic when it was finally her turn!

She got pretty tuckered out after meeting Mickey. I think it's cute how her hat went over eyes.

Thanks to Saveology, we scored giftcards to Rainforest Cafe 1/2 off. Didn't have my camera, so we didn't really take pics, but here a couple taken with Ron's phone!

Not very flattering of me, but Riley was looking dead on...

We were trying to get her ready for bed. She just wanted to get up and go!


In the hotel, Riley got to sleep in the pull-out bed all by herself. She looks sooooo tiny in it!

I thought it fitting that while across the street from Disneyland, Riley slept with the Winnie the Pooh she's slept with since birth, plus her brand new Mickey!

I was surprised that Riley really didn't move around a ton as she slept, even though she had all that extra space!

As part of our travel package through Costco (Costco Rocks!), we got to go to a character breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen. Here's my entire side of the family + Goofy!

Riley wasn't too happy taking pictures with any of the characters...

People thought Riley was asking for Mulan, but really, she wanted melon... This kid LOVES her watermelon!

She *almost* looks like she is smiling in this picture with Aladdin... but she's really about to cry out, lol


Baloo

At the park, some of the bigger kids and adults went to go on rides we couldn't take the kiddos on, so we went to get pics with Winnie the Pooh characters!

Riley's really in to beeping noses right now!

Why are they looking and I'm not?!

She was not excited to be taking pics with Tigger...

Eeyore did a really good job of acting forlorn. Riley did a really good job of pushing him away...

Pooh was the only character she really seemed interested in meeting and didn't push away!

And just so we're clear, yes, that Elmo she is wearing is a harness/leash. Yes, I leashed my child. No, I'm not ashamed.

Rockin' Mommy's sunglasses!

After the character breakfast, we took the monorail to get into the park. That was the most fabulous idea since hardly anyone was in line for the monorail (the entrance of which was located more in downtown Disney outside of the park), but the park was Cuh-Razy packed with people and lines were uber long for everything!

On the monorail!

Riley got to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. In fact, our WHOLE entire family rode it together. We had one boat completely to ourselves!

Daddy helped her raise her arms for the few dips in the ride :)

This pic was inside the haunted mansion. The ride stopped very briefly a couple of times while we were on it, so I snapped a pic during the first time. But an employee got mad at me, so this is the only pic we got on that ride...

The Disney Castle all decked out. It's gorgeous, no?

World of Color in California Adventure. Oh my goodness! It's UH-MAY-ZING! If you get the opportunity, don't miss it! It's definitely worth waiting in line to get the fast-pass tickets for (even though its pretty long for a fast pass line and you have to do it pretty much first thing in the morning!) We really lucked out too, because on our way to go see it, some random guy gave us his preferred seating tickets!

Ok.... I've been trying to upload a video clip of World of Color for days, but it keeps having an error. I give up. Just trust me, it was awesome!

The Cousins....

2012-01-02T15:26:00.000-07:00

At my parents' house, Riley and her cousin Lincoln had fun playing piano duets!

I love this one! I feel like they both look like serious piano students here!

All of Riley's cousins and her, finding out about Disneyland on Christmas Eve.

They all got Disneyland autograph books to open.

We carpooled with my brother's family, so Riley got to spend LOTS of carseat time next to Lincoln.

They're holding hands! Isn't it cute?!

We thought it was pretty funny that they both fell asleep with their magnadoodle stylists in their hands!

At the hotel across from Disneyland, Lincoln and Riley decided to play inside the bathroom cupboard.

Christmas Lights

2012-01-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I'm not telling our Christmas vacation chronologically... It seemed easier to post by theme/events. So this is the Christmas lights post. We went to Draper park (which was cool simply due to the sheer number of lights they put on a single tree!), we drove through the lights at Thanksgiving Point (no pics of that, sorry...), we saw the lights at temple square in Salt Lake, and we also went to the temple in San Diego.

Draper Park:

It's like they hardly missed a branch, there were sooo many lights!

Temple Square, Salt Lake: We went right as the sun was going down, and that was the time to go! There was hardly any people there yet, but it was plenty dark by the time we left (and getting more packed), so we still got to see the lights after sundown.

For the cold of Salt Lake, we pulled out the old snow suit from last year. It says its like 6-9 months, but it was GI-NORMOUS last year. It was a bit snug this year, but we made do. She kinda reminded us of Ralphie's brother in a Christmas Story :)

San Diego Temple & Grounds:

It's not so easy to tell from the pic, but these Christmas lights are designed to look like palm trees, with hanging fronds.

I LOVE the San Diego Temple. It is so beautiful, and so princess-castley. We were living in San Diego at the time it was being built, and my family would go take pictures in front of it's progressing construction periodically. I ended up being only 3 weeks too young to be able to attend the dedication, and I remember being really disappointed. It will always have a special place in my heart though.

Riley and her cousin really wanted to ride on the nativity animals!

Our house:

I didn't post this picture for you to see our tree. There are 2 things I want you to notice about this pic. #1) It's daytime. See the light pouring in through the windows? #2) It's kind of hard to tell because of #1, but the Christmas tree lights are on. Why are the lights on during the day?? I couldn't tell you. Ask my daughter. That's right, my 17-month-old has become quite adept and plugging in and unplugging the Christmas tree. We tried putting the covers in the outlet a while ago, but our outlets are too loose and the covers come off too easily. It seemed like having them in just gave Riley more of a reason to play with them since it was apparently fun for her to pull them out. So we gave up. She hasn't really tried putting anything besides the plug in the outlets so far, and hopefully it stays that way!

And because I really just don't know where to stick these, here's some family pics in front of my parents' Christmas tree:

3 Santas

2012-01-01T01:00:00.001-07:00

Riley actually got to take pictures with 3 different Santas this year. Not that she was very thrilled about it...

Santa #1 was a surprise at Ron's family Christmas party. Neither one of us was prepared (Riley psychologically, or me with a camera..). My sister-in-law got the first pic and my father-in-law got the family pic. Thanks for sharing them with me!

The very next day, we went to Cabela's for the free Santa pic they have going there. Riley was doing well through the whole line, but when we were next, she got tired of waiting and wanted to play on the stairs by Santa's chair. Not wanting to spoil the other family's photos, I tried to keep her back, but she was getting fussy. I pulled out my phone to entertain her. It worked like a charm. However, she didn't want to give it up when it was her turn for Santa's lap. Rather than risk another episode like we saw in the first pic, we let her keep the phone. Santa worked with it and he and Riley played a match game together. In fact, Santa was so into it that he kept her on his lap until he finished the game, lol. For this reason, all the pics have one (if not both of them) looking down at my phone...

Checkin out Santa #2. Neither of them are looking, but hey- she's not screaming!

Playing match/memory on my phone.

This is the Cabela's print... She's not very happy, but she's looking...

At my parents' house, on Christmas Eve, Riley got to try out a third Santa.

She didn't want anything to do with sitting on his lap...

But she did want the present, so Ron acted as a buffer between Riley and Santa's lap :)

She was unwrapping her present even before her part of the naughty/nice list had been finished!

Festival of Trees

2011-12-31T23:50:00.001-07:00

We went to the Festival of Trees. There were some really AMAZING gingerbread houses and some fun and gorgeous trees. I can't believe how much was donated! Glad the spirit of Christmas was honored with such a tremendous spirit of service. I was lame and don't have any pictures of us, but here are just some of the cool things we saw!

Halloween

2011-12-31T23:30:00.001-07:00

So I posted some pre-Halloween when I finished Riley's costume, but I never actually got around to posting the actual Halloween festivities. Here they are!

BamBam & Pebbles. It is SUPER difficult to try to get two toddlers to not only stay still for a picture but to actually both look at the camera... oh well!

Ron's pumpkin on the left and Riley's pumpkin on the right (a monkey for our monkey)

My pumpkin. I thought a nativity scene would look cool lit it up. It was more difficult than I anticipated-had some breakage that I attempted to piece back together with toothpicks... Didn't last long. Think I'll try again next year though...

The grocery store had a trick-or-treating event around the store. Morfar and Ron are taking Riley around now.

Riley and her cousin trick-or-treating at the store

We did take her trick or treating to a couple of houses too.

They're both sorta looking, but only cause I cheated... Could you tell that I did a headswap on this pic? Do you even know which child's head I swapped in?

Carving pumpkins

Checkin' out the insides

She wasn't such a fan of pumpkin guts...

She doesn't seem to like getting her hands dirty.

We probably could have fit Riley inside of that pumpkin!

She attempted to eat the seeds. We made her wait until we had roasted them, and she really seemed to like them!


'Ello!

Nobody told her she had pumpkin guts on her forehead :)

It's blog, or exercise... so I'm blogging...

2011-12-31T20:47:00.001-07:00

Ack! Where to begin? Where to begin... I like to pretend that blogging is my journal, cause I was never very good at that... Almost every single journal entry began with "It's been a while..." followed a summary of the previous 6 months or a year or however long it was since I'd written last. I justified to myself that if I blogged, I didn't need to keep a hard copy journal (as evidenced by the fact that I never even wrote down Riley's birth story, even though I dated the page ready to do so...) Sadly it seems like my blog is no longer providing the justification to not journal since it seems to be falling by the wayside as well... One thing after another comes up (like too many holiday events packed in, and my computer dying, too many pictures/videos to upload taking toooooo much time...) and it all just gets a little overwhelming.

But here I go.... get ready to get caught up (it's blog, or exercise, so let's blog)! Massive update in progress!!

Here's a pic to give you a reason to actually look at this post, lol

I found her after a nap with all her blankets and stuffed animals in one corner or her crib. She was so proud of herself-you can see her smile even with the pacifier!

Some Pre-Halloween

2011-10-30T20:57:00.000-06:00

We coordinated Riley and her cousin in Pebbles and Bam Bam outfits for this Halloween. Here's Riley in the costume I made for her. I also ended up making matching leg warmers and slippers since Utah is getting cold already...

I had the hardest time getting her to hold still for a pic!

Ready to go trick-or-treating!

We ended up going to my sister's ward's trunk-or-treat, since our ward's was pretty early in the month and we had family in town.

I think the hay was a little poky!

Couldn't get a pic of both of them looking at the same time...

This one of Lincoln sure turned out cute. Of course Riley isn't even looking...

For Family Night on Monday, we bought pumpkins. We got as far as scooping out all the guts and seeds (which we roasted, of course. Ron and I love them, and even Riley asks for them!). We finally got around to actually carving them Wednesday night. Hey- don't judge. Last year we simply scooped out the seeds and threw the pumpkins away! Ron and I only care about roasting the seeds, lol. At least we did it this year!

Ron's pumpkin on the left, and I carved the monkey for Riley on the right...

After carving Riley's pumpkin, I got this brilliant idea. I was pretty excited about it, cause I thought it would look awesome all glowy. It was going really well, until I was trying to get the very last piece of the carved part out-that's when pretty much the entire middle section broke off :( I tried to salvage it with toothpicks, and I guess it worked ok. I am pretty bummed about it though. I suppose I'll just have to try again next year...

My pumkin... toothpicks holding it together and all...

So much cuteness...

2011-10-12T09:40:00.002-06:00

It's been a while since I've uploaded any video, and I thought I might catch up- all at once. Sometimes, she's so cute I can barely stand it. Like when she counts or folds her arms, or says her name. I LOVE IT! And the dancing is pretty good too. Enjoy!

She's been folding her arms since the last Sunday in September. We occasionally practiced at home, but nothing consistent. Then a gal sitting next to us playing with Riley asked her to fold her arms for the closing prayer, and she did! Also in this video, Riley has just started attempting to say her own name in past couple days. So cute.

We don't even practice counting to 10. Really. I mean, this girl LOVES her books. LOVES them. She has several that count, and those must have rubbed off. Why she is learning her 3s first, I have no idea, but she's pretty much a genius.

Pushing Daddy off the bed is pretty much her favorite game.

I love how she puts her arms up when she dances!

She likes to play on our bed.

We staged this one for the video, but she will often try to play her piano with her feet or bum as well as her fingers.

Every night before bed, Ron reads her one regular book and several poems/nursery rhyme from this treasury. I think this is her favorite one. We used to think she clapped because she knew Patty Cake was on the next page, but notice that-despite being quite proficient at patty cake moves- she does not clap for that one!

Overcoming my fear....

2011-09-09T10:48:00.001-06:00

I have a fear... of the zoo! Well, not of the zoo itself... See, I spent much of my childhood and many visits since, in San Diego. I know right? Luh-key. So naturally, I got to go to the famed San Diego Zoo fairly often. Then my dad's job transferred our family to Nor Cal. Though the Oakland Zoo wasn't THAT far away, somehow I never made it there. Then I moved to Utah for school, and ended up marrying a Utah boy and starting my family here, so I never left. The Hogle Zoo is even closer than the Oakland zoo was, but still, I never got around to going... Knowing how huge (and hugely awesome) the San Diego Zoo was, I knew deep in my heart, that nothing around here could compare, and I feared a very disappointing experience too much to bring myself to visit these other charlatans that also claim to be 'zoos'.

Alas, my daughter is officially a toddler, and it was time to face such disappointment on her behalf. Thus, I finally made it to the Hogle Zoo. It wasn't as bad as I feared, though definitely not close to San Diego. It was also cheaper than I expected, which is always a pleasant surprise. And with it being smaller, you can spend a mere two hours walking around and see everything there is to see, without any accompanying sadness about what you could have seen and didn't make it to.

Anyway, we went. We saw. We conquered. Critter was a little sleepy, and not very willing to pose for pics. She would often point at the animals, which was pretty cute, though many animals were sleeping and I'm not sure she really knew what she was supposed to be looking at.

Do you see the black swans in the right of this pic?
Does that give you any clue as to how GINORMOUS this tortoise is?!

Two of the tortoises. And yes, that is a kangaroo laying in the background.

For some reason, she LOVED sitting on this railing at the elephant enclosure.
It actually might have been her favorite part.

She still doesn't like to sit on statues for pics... There's a frog at the aquarium that makes her cry, lol.

The orangutans were playing under a sheet when we got there.

"So big!"

Clapping

Ron liked these monkeys especially. I think it's because of the lion-esque mane.

Wouldn't stand still for a pic in front of the turkeys.

The turkeys really aren't caged in that well...

Water feature at the main entrance

Not really sure why this camel's hump has fallen down

They had two bald eagles that they had rescued after wing amputations. You can see the left wing is pretty much gone.

A little Randomness

2011-09-02T13:03:00.003-06:00

The other day, I couldn't resist going to peek at my adorable daughter one last time before I went to bed. I found her with her feet sticking out between the bars of crib. Apparently, she no longer fits perpendicular in the crib. She's getting so big!

This morning, after Ron went in to say goodbye to Riley while on his way to work, he found that she had pulled the blanket down from where it was hanging over the back of the crib and pretty much buried herself underneath it. The bottom left of the picture is her little legs in the sleep sack poking out.

Some days, Riley seems only interested in eating crackers. In my quest to find ways of getting her to eat more meats, I thought I'd try a Lunchable. It came with an Oreo for dessert. I just thought I would document her first experience with such tasty goodness.

She's already figured out the best way to eat an Oreo is to pull it apart!

Incidentally, she ended up eating the entire half of the cookie WITHOUT the creme, but didn't seem to like the rest. I enjoyed "cleaning it up" after her ;)

Monkey

2011-09-02T12:53:00.001-06:00

Why have we lovingly dubbed our little girl 'Monkey'? She is quite the climber. We have had multiple comments that we need to get her into gymnastics someday since she frequently has a foot at chest height or higher trying to climb onto things.

See that ottoman Riley is on? Well, we had it there as a sort of psuedo baby gate to keep her out of the office/library [We took the door off of that room a long time ago in order to fit a row of bookcases along the wall]. It was also a convenient place to put the diaper bag out of the way so Riley couldn't get into it and pull everything out. Obviously, it's kinda useless now. She also appears to know a little about valuables, since she went straight to a side pocket of the bag and pulled out my wallet!

This is the cradle my dad made. What's so special about this picture? Riley climbed into it herself. She can climb into it from the floor, but seems to prefer climbing onto the couch next to it and climbing from there into the cradle.

Then one day, I caught her taking it one step further and climbing onto the narrow side of the cradle! It's only 3/4 of an inch wide. Granted she was steadying herself on a nearby shelf... but still. The cradle has now been moved!

The Box

2011-09-02T12:41:00.002-06:00

They have some really cute baby/toddler toys out there. What with hand-me-downs, presents, and me just being a sucker, we have more than Riley really knows what to do with. Even still, it seems she often has the most fun playing with random things. Case and point? The Box. We got a second carseat, you know, one of those ones that converts from rear-facing to front-facing, and even to a booster? We pulled it out so that we could have two carseats available when we carpooled to Wheeler Farm so that we could have it for Riley's cousin. Riley might just have had more fun playing with the box than going to the farm! lol

Peek-a-boo!

I absolutely LOVE how much she LOVES books!

Wheeler Farm

2011-09-02T12:08:00.000-06:00

About 2 weeks ago, we decided to go to Wheeler Farm with my sister-in-law Jessica and her son. My brother was at orientation for his MBA cohort, so he couldn't make it.

The main reason we went was to see their giant duck pond and to share some old pancakes with them. We started (and ended!) there.

This duck seems to be part Flamingo...

We got to see some goats up close, since our neighbors no longer have them over there.

We're pretty sure this was an albino rabbit, complete with red eyes.

They got to pretend to drive a tractor. Riley immediately went for the gear shift.

Lincoln checking out the pigs.

Checking out the turkeys.

I thought some of the chickens were kind of interesting with feathers all down their feet, like those crazy bigfoot boots...

More ducks. I particularly liked the tuft of feathers on the back of it's head.

Got to see some cows as well. Lincoln was much better about making the animal noises than Riley was.

Back to the duck pond.

It was really REALLY HOT that day, and time for Riley's nap at this point.

The Balloon Festival

2011-09-02T11:21:00.000-06:00

My city has an annual hot air balloon festival that is totally free to go to. What's even better is that it is at the park about 2 blocks from my house, so it's a nice walk (though going back home is mostly uphill...). Ron decided not to get out of bed, so Critter and I went with my friend Elise and her son.

There were several more balloons this year than the last time I went in 2009 (I skipped 2010 since I had just had my baby about 2 weeks before!)

As we were walking to the park, the balloons were flying right over the top of us.

They even looked like they were landing in people's backyards!

I love the solar flare in this pic. That's straight out of the camera, no editing.

We even got to climb inside this green one (while it was still on the ground of course) and pose for some pictures.

Riley went right to the pilot, who held her while I was climbing in. There is no nice swinging door, just a little reinforced hole in side that you use as a foothold.

She didn't complain about the pilot holding her, but she also didn't seem to trust him and wouldn't look away, lol.

They ran out of helium while we were in line, but I managed to snag a balloon to blow up for her myself.

Afterward, the kids had fun playing peek-a-boo behind the kitchen curtains.

And giving hugs.

1 Year Old Photo Shoot

2011-08-26T22:58:00.003-06:00

My sister-in-law took some 1-year-old pictures for us. I just got 'em back and thought I'd share!

(P.S. Mom, there is a picture that we took just for you... See if you can figure it out!)

I think we all look slightly awkward in this pic, but Riley's face is just so awkwardly cute I still had to share!

The statue that this is a replica of is housed in Denmark. When my family traveled to Europe in '98 we got our pictures taken with the original. I had Jess take this one in honor of that.

This is why we call her Monkey... She is quite the climber!

Some of the latest video of the kiddo...

2011-08-15T20:47:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to share some of things Critter has learned in the last little while...

Lots of tricks in one video:

This is why I can't let her play with my phone. She did it twice in under 10 seconds; it's no accident. She can even power it back on!

She may have taken her first steps on July 4th, but it has taken her just over a month to find the motivation to try again! Finally, she is taking a lot more steps. She still falls a bit, but it's no longer because she is sitting down throwing a tantrum about walking! lol.

I think my child is really pretty lazy. She won't usually make an effort to hold her bottle/sippy cup unless you grab her hands and put them on. If she isn't tilting enough to get the liquid to the spout, and you try to help her tip, she drops her hands and expects you to continue holding it. I don't know where she gets this from, because we have been getting her to old it herself for months. Going along with this laziness, she hasn't really shown any interest in holding a fork or spoon herself. I've tried to have her help with a spoon, but she flat out refused. The other day, I let her try a fork, and she actually did pretty well, especially for her first time! It's just too bad that all she really wants to eat right now are crackers, no utensils required.

A Happy Monkey Birthday

2011-08-09T19:32:00.001-06:00

Oh man, it has been a pain and a half to get all these pics uploaded! I ended up having to do the last third or so one at a time... It may have taken a while, but FINALLY, we have a birthday post!

Before I forget, here are her latest stats:
She hit a growth spurt, finally breaking out of the teens and 20s for her percentiles. As of her doctor appointment on July 26th, she was 20 lbs 6 oz (37 %ile) and was 29.06 inches long (46 %ile). Her head also went up to 29 %ile.

She's starting to be more vocal, imitating more sounds. She still will say 3 when we count, she says hi, and we've been teaching her to say up as well. She took her first steps on July 4th, but pretty much refused to try again (as in she would sit down and cry). Some of her new tricks include identifying her own head thanks to head, shoulders, knees and toes, and she can point to someone else's nose.

A break down of the big day, July 19, 2011:

She woke up, having somehow managed to get the zipper of her sleep sack open!

What Mommy? I didn't do it...

Birthday girl waves hello!

Her first taste of chocolate. Breakfast of Champions.

While I was decorating cakes galore, I went to check on her and found her playing with finger puppets, even putting them on her fingers all by herself!

Our little monkey, ~~spoiled~~ *loved* as she is, ended up having 2 birthday parties, so I made a lot of cake that week...

The main cake. I made two of these, one for each party...

This was Critter's personal smash cake for party #1. I thought sprinkles would attract her attention, and the cheerios might help her dig in...

I also made some cupcakes...

This was her personal smash cake at her second party. She didn't get into it nearly as much as the first!

Some monkey cupcakes I made for her second party!

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

Remember the Jungle Book?? Grandpa calls this her Mowgli walk:

Chillin with daddy while waiting for guests...

Opening presents. She did pretty well actually ripping into things. She really loves cards the most for some reason.

Her Grandma made her a fabulous Quiet Book

Oooh, dollars.

Ready for cake with the party hat on!

Singing. She wanted to touch the flame, of course.

What is this?

Not sure about this...

Ok, I'm having fun!

Grandma prepared an ice cream cone with a little chocolate ice cream in it.

She seems to make a lot of um, fun, faces when eating cold things. She does the same thing when we give her ice cubes, but she loves them and keeps wanting more...

She really did seem to like the ice cream cone better than the cake.

Her 4-year-old cousin got a little messy too!

She was reaching for Ron, so we told her to get his nose all chocolatey :)

The damage:

See the chocolate ring left in the tub? lol...

Gonna wash it all down with some milk!

Mormor (Swedish word for mother's mother) has a tradition of giving her grandchildren their first truffle from See's Candies.
Riley didn't seem to like it at first...

She even pushed it away!

Going as far as spitting it out!

She eventually came around and quite liked it!

She also enjoyed squishing it in her fist!

Cousin Lincoln also got his first truffle the same day... He wouldn't even really give it a chance!

No thanks.

100th Post and a brand-spanking new one-year-old!

2011-07-27T11:50:00.001-06:00

I have a one-year-old! I cannot believe it. It's all a bit surreal still. I know I am going to have a ton of pictures for her birthday, so I figured I do a separate post for all her monthly/comparison pics.

12 months:

Looking Back:
11 Months

10 Months

9 Months

8 Months

7 Months

6 Months

5 Months

4 Months

3 Months

2 Months

1 Month

Brand New

Aquarium

2011-07-21T16:07:00.000-06:00

We recently purchased memberships to the local aquarium. Riley seems to really enjoy looking at all the fishies. She will even wave and say hi sometimes.

She wouldn't really stay still for the pic, but I thought it might be fun to come back year after year and take pictures next to the penguin exhibit. So here she is, at one year!

I love how she is squatting as she tries to get a better look.

This one's for you, Mom!

Maybe it is because the male takes care of the young, but for some reason I find the sea horses pretty fascinating.

The next few pics are from Riley's favorite tank. I think she could stay in front of this one the whole time and be happy. It has the most variety of color and fish than others.

I don't why it brings me such joy, but I like it when the sea horses are holding each other's tails...

They have this big frog for kids to play on, but the couple times we have tried to get Riley to sit on it have all resulted in episodes such as this:

First Steps!

2011-07-05T09:44:00.000-06:00

Alright online journal (and those few humans that actually read it...), BIG NEWS! My little one decided to celebrate Independence Day by developing a little independence of her own. Thanks to my sister and brother-in-law who helped coax her to do it, Critter took her first steps on July 4, 2011!

On a related note, Critter did really well during fireworks. She flinched a little for the loud ones, but didn't cry or act scared. She did really well, despite it being WAY past her bed time. In fact, she actually started falling asleep towards the end, despite some of the biggest/loudest ones being set off. All in all, it was a pretty good day!

11 Months... Heavy on video clips!

2011-06-28T08:40:00.000-06:00

Hi!

A certain someone is almost a year old! So crazy! Here's her 11 month update...

In case you missed the post, Critter has said her first word: "Three"! (see videos here). It was super shocking since it came completely out of the blue. We had been practicing 'mama,' 'dada,' 'hi,' things like that. But no. While counting out the scoops for her bottle, I said one, two and then she threw out the three all on her own! Just goes to show you that no matter how hard you try, kids are still gonna do what they wanna do. Now she will even do it when you count with your fingers--without any audible numbers.

According to our bathroom scale, she is 19 pounds.
She has managed to completely wean herself from nursing. Right around my birthday she just kinda quit. That was convenient for me since that's when her top teeth broke through and I wasn't all that psyched about getting bitten...
She has 5 teeth. 3 on the top and 2 on the bottom.
She has been pulling herself up on the furniture and standing for quite a while, but on May 24 (my birthday, so she did this first for my brother and sister-in-law that were babysitting her...) she stood up in the middle of the room all on her own. She's done it several times since, but we can't get her to do it on command or even by ~~bribing~~ motivating her with a toy or remote. Thus, we don't have that on camera.
She still isn't all that interested in walking. If we try to force her to do so, she often cries to get out of it.

She has also learned how to fake laugh on command. She has faked/forced laughter before, but she was doing it in the car the other day and we were imitating her. We kept doing it back and forth and now she's picked up on the cue.

Memorial weekend we went up for our traditional Island Park/West Yellowstone Vacation. It was cold and snowy so we didn't end up getting out much. While there, she learned how to go up the cabin's carpeted stairs. I showed her how to do two, and then she was off up the rest of the stairs on her own. I think she could have learned how to do it a long time ago, but since our stairs are wood, we have had them gated off and don't let her near them. Falling on those won't be fun...

This is one of her I'm-messing-my-diaper faces, lol

The little specks of white on Ron's jacket is snow. It looked nice when we left the cabin, but it didn't last...

She enjoys being chased around. She'll crawl away, laughing. It's really cute. However, my mom has pointed out that it won't be that fun when she does it at the store without anyone realizing it resulting in a lost child... lol

For some reason, Critter has developed an aversion to grass. If we sit her down in it, she will allow one leg/foot to touch it out of balance necessity, but the other three limbs stay up in the air. It's pretty funny. If we don't want her to crawl away, all we have to do is sit her in the grass.

She's been swimming in the pool a few times and really seems to enjoy it.

The previous video was actually her second time swimming. I wanted Ron to have an opportunity to be involved since we went (and will probably continue to go) swimming while he's at work, so we took her in the hot tub at Ron's parent's house.

And just some random pics to end with!

She seems to understand that she is the one making the light turn on and off via the remote now.

She's getting good at pointing and often wants to touch the camera...

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T00:01:00.011-06:00

To my daddy and my husband: Thanks for everything. Thanks for always taking such good care of me and the rest of my family. Thanks for all the love and support. You are amazing and I hope you know it.

P.S. Ron- 11 months ago today you became a daddy. Thanks for giving me our beautiful, little girl and taking your turn with everything, the fun and even not-so-fun aspects of parenting. And I just LOVE LOVE LOVE when Riley's face just lights up when she sees that her Daddy has come home.

She Speaks!

2011-06-14T07:36:00.000-06:00

So I've read that throughout the day, you should narrate the things you do to help your infant's language development, to associate words with things. There I was in the kitchen, with Riley sitting on the counter next to me, as I prepared her lunch time bottle. I was scooping the formula and counting aloud (lets face it, I also needed to count out loud so I wouldn't lose track of how much I had in there... which I did a few days ago...). Anyway, I was scooping... "one... two..." and then I heard something like this:

It blew my mind. I always wondered how I would know that SHE knew what she was saying, but to have her just throw it out there right on cue but without any prompting or expectation... I was floored! So immediately, I pulled out the camera to test out if this was just some sort of fluke, and to document it for Ron (who was at work) if it was real. She went on to do it time and time again (these videos were actually taken at two different times of the day. We were also able to get her to do it live for Ron several times in the evening.) And if you are not convinced that she did it on purpose, here's further proof! :)

10(ish) Months...

2011-06-13T11:16:00.000-06:00

Well, seeing as how Critter is almost 11 months old, I figured I had better post a 10 month update...

I tried making 2 age signs, hoping one would occupy her enough to leave the other alone. Alas, she just wanted them both...

She didn't really hit any major milestones during her 10th month, though there will be a couple in her 11th month post. Mostly she's just been playing and crawling all over! She's finally hitting that really clingy, separation/anxiety phase... She'll even scream through my showers when I am just on the other side of the curtain. That has been a little frustrating.

Remember how she likes sticking her tongue out (see here)?

She's managing to take it to new extremes lately.

Daddy's trying to coax her to do it...

She's getting really good balance and can stand alone for a few seconds. She never seems to stay up very long, but when she goes down it's controlled, she doesn't just fall.

Caught with the fan remote. She loves remotes.

Daddy's holding her upside down.

She was crawling around and did a little face plant. Since she had two bottom teeth, she ended up splitting her upper lip a little bit. It's a little puffy on the upper left in the pic.

She still likes putting all kinds of ridiculous things in her mouth.

When we ask her how big she is, we've taught her to raise her arms up over her head while we say ''So Big!''

You can kinda see her painted toe nails in this pic... That was a nightmare to do and since I'm somewhat of a perfectionist about that sort of thing, I don't think I'll be repeating the experience any time soon...

She's been dancing for a little while now. This is the best I've managed to record:

Just some random pics...

She was entertained by talking into the PVC pipe we use as an extra lock on our sliding glass door.

In the next video, Riley was having a good time, laughing while I made faces like I ate something disgusting. This one I took on my phone, so it's not the greatest. But you get to hear her laugh.

The next video shows Critter's sort of half bear crawl. She does it consistently in dresses, but even in pants she will throw in a step on her foot every once in a while. Sometimes for no reason, but also when she is slowing down or pausing.

I don't know what to say about the next two videos except that I cannot believe any child of mine would react to mashed potatoes this way. I LOVE me my mashed potatoes...

Easter

2011-05-06T22:08:00.000-06:00

I just realized that I didn't post pictures of Critter's first Easter! I know it's not THAT big of a deal... but I am no scrapbooker, and I go through phases with a journal, so this blogging thing is my way of recording her life. Anyway, so here it is!

April 24, 2011 was Riley's first Easter. Ron and I decided we would like to help our children focus on the real reason and celebration of this holiday- the atonement and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Thus we chose to keep the basket contents more religious. She got a cloth baby bible and a fun little elephant (which is actually church related since it is a quiet toy she can play with in church, lol). She also got a canister of her favorite Sweet Potato puffs since she can't have candy.


I think she liked the ribbons on the basket as much as anything else.

We filled a whopping 2 plastic eggs this year, one with cheerios and one with puffs. Then we "hid" them in plain sight and let her go after them...

And we had to get a few pics showing off her Easter dress...

The Tongue

2011-05-05T09:07:00.000-06:00

My little one rather enjoys sticking out her tongue. Photo documentation from several different days to follow.

She kept trying to crawl at me and get the camera and I couldn't back away fast enough to still get a pic of the tongue while also getting far enough to have the flash not wash her out...

9 (and a half) Months!

2011-05-05T07:54:00.000-06:00

Wow! It's kind of hard to believe that Critter has now been outside the womb for as long as she was inside... Actually, the pregnancy seemed to fly by (maybe it was the working full time and going to school full time thing...) and now that I am just home with the little one enjoying each day, it feels like she's been here brightening my day, but also making it harder (in a good way, of course...), for so much longer than I carried her.

Anyway, it's time for her 9 (and a half...) month update!

Critter is 17.4 pounds (19% ile) and 26.7 inches long (15% ile).

Her head circumference is 16.9 inches (14% ile)

Still small,of course, but still proportional (thank goodness!).

She's crawling all over the place and pulling herself up on just about everything she can.

She often does this half-bear/half-normal crawl where she uses her left knee and right foot (never vice versa) to get around. It is somewhat entertaining since she looks a little gimpy and then travels a little crooked whenever she does this. She has never done it for me on camera though...
Now that she crawls rather efficiently, she pretty much refuses to let us stand her up or try to make her walk with us. She will stand if she pulls herself up, otherwise she kicks her feet out and complains until you let her sit back down. Ironic, since she used to prefer standing to even sitting!
She still has just the 2 teeth, and she definitely likes to chew on things she's not supposed to. There are times when I catch her chewing on something, but find nothing when I check her mouth. A minute or two later I see she is still chewing only to find that she had cheeked whatever it was and still had it the whole time! At least she seems to be really good about not swallowing the foreign objects she chews...

Looks like her eyes are stayin' blue! They're still a bit darker than her daddy's, but they're definitely not my brown... we just hope that she got my eyesight though...

She's getting better at clapping on command, and I also think she does it when she wants something.
Some of her other tricks include: patting things/people, waving, kisses (basically just mouthing you, and sometimes babbling with her mouth against you), opening drawers (looks like it's about time to baby proof the kitchen...)

She likes to be put on your shoulder and bounced around "sack-o-potato" style, especially when going up and down stairs.

She still likes to have her tummy gobbled, but you have to move your face from side to side and burrow in as you do it, or you don't get the laughs.
Oddly, one of her favorite things to do is to play with the pvc pipe we use as an added security measure in our sliding door. Also, she cant seem to leave the wood floor vent covers alone.

She has started disliking diaper changes. Hopefully she will outgrow this phase soon... Mostly she just refuses to lay still. She is always moving and wiggly... Speaking of which, I just painted her toenails and her wiggly-ness made it a NIGHTMARE (even while sleeping)! And she wouldn't even keep her feet still for a pic... This is the best I got for now.

She likes to stick her tongue out. We have numerous pictures like this (and more to come later!):

Looking back:

9 months


8 Months

7 Months

6 Months

5 Months

4 Months

3 Months

2 Months

1 Month

2 Days

More Bath Time

2011-04-23T01:10:00.000-06:00

Critter has not been a happy camper of late as far as bath time goes... However, I decided I wanted to get a picture of her being fascinated by the bubbles in the tub, so I pulled out the camera. Either I picked a really good day and caught Riley in a super good bath-time mood, or else her desire to ham it up for the camera completely turned her bath attitude around. Regardless of the reason, we had a good time in the bath for once, so I'm sharing the pictures!

Splash!

The Ducky Tub. I LOVE it. It inflates/deflates for transportation/storage, and it even QUACKS!

Hi!

Reaching for some bubbles

If you look, you can even see her two bottom teeth

See, baths aren't so bad

Bubbles...

I got some!

These bubbles are interesting

I must try to get them from my right hand.

Now I must get them from my left hand.

Another smile with teeth!

Trip to California

2011-04-23T00:15:00.001-06:00

My little sister got married last week. Weird. Not only that, but now that we are both married, we both have the same last name again. Double weird, lol. It was an awesome excuse to get to enjoy some warmer weather in California though! Plus, Critter got to go on her very first plane ride ever! Turns out, she is an awesome flyer... which is good, but also bad because it's gonna make me want to just fly everywhere rather than drive.

15 minutes before we were due to head to the air port, I noticed Critter's head was pretty warm. I was thrilled, a sick child on a travel day is not the most fun thing. I thought, why not give her some Tylenol? We can bring down her temperature and maybe it will help her on the flight too... well, Critter has decided that she no longer enjoys her medicine and the instant I even put the dropper to her lips (even before I squeezed it!) she gagged herself so bad she threw-up. All our clothes were packed and changing wasn't really an option for either of us. Joy. So I am spot cleaning my clothes (she managed to get it all over my sweater, my shirt, AND my jeans!) as well as her pants, when my in-laws show up to take us to the airport. I ended up throwing her pants in the dryer while I sat there with a hair dryer on my clothes. Her pants were still a little damp when I redressed her, but I figure the diaper provided protection from the outside right? And plus, maybe the damp would actually help her stay cool... Oh well!

After that great start, we were off! We learned that flying with children lets you cut through the security line. That's pretty cool (especially since Critter is young enough that we don't have to actually buy her a ticket but still get the perks), though I felt a little awkward as the other waiting people enviously watched security people undo the little ropey things and march us right up to the front. In Salt Lake, they had to take her bottle and food aside for some little test to make sure it was not explosive (are you kidding? My baby is WAY too cute to blow up!), but in Oakland, they couldn't seem to care less. I had it out and ready, but apparently the x-ray machine was enough for them. Guess all my worry about baby food and ice packs getting through security was very unwarranted.

Once on the plane, Critter still acted sickly. Basically just hot and quiet and cuddly. We had a bottle and pacifier all ready for take-off and changes in cabin pressure, but nothing seemed to phase her at all. She didn't much feel like eating, but did enjoy playing with the airplane seat belt.

Towards the middle/end of the flight, I think Critter really started not feeling all that great. All she wanted to do was snuggle.

Landing didn't even make her flinch. You can even hear other babies having a rough time, but not my Riley!

The first two days of the trip (including the wedding), Critter was still feeling pretty crumby. We bought her some new grape-flavored tylenol (well, the safeway knock-off anyway) since the cherry flavor was far more gag-inducing, but she was still way more cuddly than usual and not near as energetic or playful as usual. She did not, at least, seem to have any problems with other people holding her. My aunt was able to watch her the whole time we were in the temple for the sealing without any problems (Thanks Janice!). We kept a damp/cool washcloth on her head a lot of the time, and the fact that she actually left it on told us that she was still not feeling herself. Anyway, I don't have many pictures of her during this phase of our trip, but I did snag a couple distant shots at the temple... We'll have a couple more when my sister gets her pics from her photographer.

Daddy and daughter checking out the fountain.

Riley's cousins Lexie and Hannah are in the bottom right.

Friday and Saturday, Riley seemed to be on the mend and feeling much better. We got to make use of some of the fun things at her Mormor and Morfar's house (that's Swedish for mother's mother and mother's father). Their backyard is so much more fun than ours!

It was warm enough there for Critter to wear her new flip flops! :)

There's just something I love about her posture/expression in the next two.

First pool experience. Dipping her feet in the spa.


I'm excited to take her swimming for real and see how she does!

Just in case you are wondering, I didn't want to lug my nice (BIG) camera on the trip, so I just grabbed my rather old point and shoot... and well, the pictures are definitely not up to the usual standard... oh well!

First outdoor swing ride! Looks like we are going to have to find a park with a baby swing!

First teeter totter ride! She didn't really know what to make of this...

First time in the grass! She was really intrigued by it...

Our grass isn't nearly so healthy, we'll see if it's as fun when it finally gets warm enough to play outside!

Cousin Lexie happened to have her 4th birthday while we down there, and Riley had some fun playing with the wrapping paper... I think I am going to periodically wrap up some of her toys and let her practice opening them so she will be a pro by her birthday... lol

Mormor and Morfar got these gigantic teddy bears from Costco (they were an uber good deal, only like $35 for one nearly as big as me! I regret not buying one myself...). Critter, however, was back to her energetic and inquisitive self at this point, so she wasn't all that interested in sitting still for poses with the plush monstrosity.

Refusing to stay put....


Perhaps the normal human-sized chair the bear is leaning against gives you some perspective as to it's size!

I did get a few cute shots of Riley and her cousin Lincoln together with the bear. Lincoln is much more content to stay in one spot for pictures...

At least I got them both looking at the camera and sitting still...

My brother has taught Lincoln the 'touchdown' move

Riley, once again, refusing to stay put.

Touchdown!

Why couldn't Riley take such a good picture?!

That's about it for the fun stuff... On the day we left to go home, Critter slept the entire 45 minute drive to the airport (which, if you know her, is slightly longer than a normal nap). We were told the flight was full, so we had to wake Riley up to get her out of her car-seat to check it with our baggage. She was awake and playing until we got on the plane, and then to our surprise, she fell asleep -again!- DURING take-off! She proceeded to sleep the ENTIRE flight, only opening her AFTER we had landed and were taxiing to the gate. It was amazing! Such a good little flyer. Not a peep out of her either part of the round trip, and she wasn't even sick on the way home.

This is how she was for the whole flight and didn't even flinch during the bumpiest part of the landing! Completely zonked.

Taxiing to the gate, Riley finally decided to open her eyes.

Well, that was Riley's 3rd trip to California, but first plane ride, and a whole bunch of other firsts too. All in all, it was a pretty good trip!

8 Months

2011-03-24T18:12:00.001-06:00

That's right, Critter has now passed the 8 month mark! As you can see, she is still very much into chewing things. As a matter of fact, both bottom front teeth have erupted. She's even getting better about letting people see them.

According to the doc and the book that I'm reading, stranger anxiety often has presented by now. Critter seems to be just fine though. At least, as long as I am in the room. I haven't tried to just hand her off to someone and walk away, but she will smile and giggle with random people behind us in church. And last Sunday, she crawled a few feet away and just hung out for a good 10-15 minutes with some people she has never been held by before. I figure that she is so good now because she needs me to forget how hard the first 4 months were if she wants any siblings... ;)

She received her first piece of mail the other day (unless you count gifts mailed for her birth...). And inside this first card, was her very first dollar given to her by Ulla-Britt, her great-grandma (my mom's mom). So naturally, we had to go by her a cute piggy bank.

Critter still loves it when you pretend to gobble up her tummy. That is one of the few things that gets some good laughs every time. Often I can get her to giggle while pretending to gobble her neck too. Raspberries in either of those places occasionally work. She LOVES to bounce. Whether in her doorway jumper thing or on your lap or on her own. You can often get her to bounce just by saying it over and over. Jumping in front of her used to make her laugh, but not as much anymore. I think something about the way my hair bounces when I jump or bob my head amuses her, so I can usually get her to smile or laugh by doing that. In fact, that method was used to get the smile in the previous picture and in several others... If she is in a good enough mood, all I have to do is nod my head a couple times and she will laugh hysterically! It's so fun. She's sort of ticklish, but also only if you catch her in the right mood. We have been working on clapping and patting people for hugs. She won't always perform on command though...

She's crawling like a pro now- no longer does she find it necessary to dive on her tummy every few crawling steps... She is also really good at pulling herself up to standing on various pieces of furniture. Most of the time she can get back down, though sometimes she gets stuck. Now that she's mobile, I find that it is MUCH more difficult to snap decent pictures. Especially since she always wants to grab the camera or her age sign for these monthly pics...

Practicing pulling herself up has strengthened her arms a lot. Now, when her swing rocks her forward, she will grab onto the bar and hold on to stop herself!

Critter is eating really well now. She has even been able to eat green beans without shuddering. She's also feeding cheerios, puffs, and little pieces of bread to herself. She has also discovered her tongue-she finds it quite fun to stick it out as far as she can, especially when eating. Ignore the veggies on her face...

I just love this last pic, so I think I will end with it. Bye for now!

Silly Awakenings

2011-03-14T12:11:00.000-06:00

For a couple days in a row, Riley woke up (either first thing in the morning or after her morning nap) in progressively amusing ways. I provide documentation for you here. Enjoy!

Happy Anniversary/Tax Refund!

2011-03-14T12:01:00.000-06:00

Ron and I just celebrated our 3rd Anniversary! Well sort of... our anniversary doesn't technically exist this year since it is Feb 29.... but we celebrated on the 28th. Rather than go out, we decided to stay in and try out a recipe for prime rib and king crab that we saw on the show Kitchen Boss. (***Disclaimer: While many of the things he makes are mighty tasty, the show itself does not have near the entertainment value as Cake Boss. I DVR it and fast forward through most of it... I watch just enough to decide if I want to get the recipes online and try it...).

Anyway, just thought I would document our first ever prime rib and crab leg making experience! They turned out well!

Rather than give little presents to each other this year, and knowing the nice refund we had coming, we decided we wanted some cabinets...

Before:

After:

Now I just have to figure out where to put those picture frames I had to move... Especially since I just saw a really cute family tree set at Bed Bath and Beyond that I really want.... We need to move simply so I can have more wall space! lol.