More Bass Pro

FOr those of you who did not know, the pictures with the Easter Bunny were at Bass Pro Shop.  As you can see their EB leaves a little bit to be desired in the charm department, however, take your kids to Bass Pro!  Riley was obsessed with the stairs and the animals.  He had a great time and then went home to take a great nap.  Here are a few more pics from that trip.  Riley loved the bear...Jake not as big of a fan.  But then again, Riley's Mommy is not strong enough to lift him up that high in the direction of the bears massive snout and teeth!

Below you can see Riley enjoying the EB, and then Jake!  They were both thrilled as I am sure you can tell!

All better once we got away from the bunny and over by the aquarium. 

Easter

This is what Easter is looking like around our house.  Pay special attention to our mantel and the new addition on it!  Can you believe those eyes?

Babysitter of the year...

I know I said that I would post pictures yesterday...but, I didn't.  So here you can see the fun I had playing with a little girl when I babysat for Chappell the other day.  I am sure that if her parents had left her wardrobe with me I would have dressed her up like a barbie doll, but instead I had to settle for hats.  Ya'll know I was all over that Owl sun hat.  Poor Chappell was wondering why she was wearing a sun hat in doors.  And we were inside because babysitter of the year here had let her scrape her knee when were outside on a cat hunt. 

You can see from the picture below that Chappell wanted to know why her parents had abandoned her with me...and why I felt the need to put Riley's chick hat (courtesy of Chappell's cousin Meredith) on her head. 

This weekend...

I PROMISE that tomorrow I will post pictures and not just words.  But remember this is my journal too.  Anyway, I just want to post about what a wonderful weekend we have had!  Friday, was a great day at work, so it got the weekend off to a great start.  We were all called into a meeting for a marketing webinar, only to be given hot cookies (seriously you would have thought we were a group a 5 year olds they way we freaked over these cookies) and then we found out we were watching an awards presentation for Marriott.  So what was that awards presentation for..."The 2009 Global Leadership Awards"...and who you may ask won...we did!  The hotel had three winners, and one of those was, "The Property Sales Team of the Year", we won for our division, the Central division and overall- as in overall full service franchise hotels within Marriott glabally!  So needless to stay this was a good start to the weekend and an even better reason to leave the office at 3:00 and head to the Alley Bar.  Carolyn and jason and Allen and Angela then headed to our house where we all hung out had dinner and a few beers and watched a little basketball.  It was a nice way to kick off the weekend.  Then Saturday I got a lot done and felt quite accomplished...Riley had a playdate and I got the house ready for Easter...and I did our tax return all by myself.  (like a real adult)  Then I forced Michael to come home from the river, so he said since he came back into town we were going to do something- so we walked to El Ray and placed an order and then walked over to the church and back home.  The weather was gorgeous and Riley was sooo happy.  The child is completely obsessed with being outside.  After our stroll we had dinner and Riley was a perfect angel and even stayed up until 8:30.  It was a perfect Saturday evening.  My parents drove up late that night and so we visited with them and my Mom and I made plans to take Riley to see the Easter Bunny with the Dwyers today.  I will post more on our Easter Bunny excursion tomorrow, but for now, I will tell you that Riley does not like people in costumes- but bring on the stuffed 8 foot tall bear!  After our EB trip we had a beer with the Dwyers and then Momma and I took Riley on another stroll- this weather has been out of this world and I mean to take advantage of it until it heats up and that is when the complaining will start. 

How to recognize stress?

I think you know you are stressed out when someone points out to you that your shirt has a rip in it and while you are sitting in your office stitching up the hole you think, "tonight I get to throw this shirt away...one less piece of laundry".  And a smile creeps across your face. 

Who thinks like this?

Tonight was so weird!

***Warning this will be boring- but I think his grandmothers and aunts will find it interesting. 

It was almost storybook like.  Maybe Riley was just particularly happy or maybe Michael and I have not been giving him enough credit.  Anyway it was just a dream of an evening.  When Michael and Riley walked in the door (riley carrying his lunch box) I wanted to avoid the begging for Thomas the Train scenario that takes place everytime we enter the living room, so I had Michael bring him into the kitchen.  He immediatly got frustrated and knew what we were up to.  Michael put the baby gate up so Riley could not get back in the living room.  He stood by the gate and protested.  I repeatedly told him we were not going to watch Thomas and he repeatedly let me know what he thought about that.  Finally I said, "Riley do you want to go outside with Daddy instead?"  He immediatly calmed stood and looked at me and contemplated his options, and turned to follow Michael out the back kitchen door.  Outside he was thrilled with his freedom and grinned from ear to ear, at first I do not think he knew which way to go.  I was sitting on the swing and asked if he wanted to and he gave a happy sigh and b-lined it to join me.  Then we went on a cat hunt- Velma was not as good of a participant as Roxy normally is.  Then eventually I said, "Riley, do you want to eat dinner?"  He ditched the cat and followed me to the fence. I said, "Tell Daddy bye bye" and he turned and waived.  Then with the observation that Daddy was not coming to he looked back at me worried and back at Michael.  I said Daddy is coming in in a few minutes, and Michael said he would be in soon and he joined me at the gate.  He walked up the stairs into the house and we went to the high chair.  He ate a fantastic dinner of brown rice, carrots, brocolli, and black eyed peas, and even used the spoon to feed himself a couple of times, as well as his fingers!  This was a huge feet, for the most part he would just rather sit there and be fed by me.  But tonight I saw some independance.  He got upset half way through the meal and wanted out of the high chair, but this time I waited him out and said over and over "you cannot get down until you finish dinner", and he finally turned around sat back down and ate.  Eventually he seemed to be finished and I said, "Riley, do you mean to say, 'no more'?"  And he shook his head and said, "no more".  I asked him if he wanted out of the chair and he nodded.  Next I told him he needed to get out of his dirty clothes and he put his hands up in the air so I could take his shirt off.  And this morning I was putting his shoes on and he said "mm-mmm" and shook his head no, and then I picked up the pair with the giraffes on them and he grinned. 

When did my baby learn how to communicate???  It is like it happened over night.  How bad have Michael and I been not to ask him more questions.  He is constantly doing more...I am just amazed! 

OMG...and you thought I couldn't possibly get more OCD!

Thanks to Lindsay I have now found a website that is dedicated to all things in need of organizing! I might just have my whole life organized by the summer. If you would like to be OC about organizing check out this website...I love it!!!

Things I want to do when I grow up....

I don't know if it is the Spring time, or it is the fact that after 9 months of pregnanacy and 12. 5 months of baby I finally feel like me again, but I am on a new kick to get my life organized. So in a perfect world I would do the following:

"Spring Clean My Life"- Check out this post on Martha Stewart.com. I so want this to be my weekend project! But it won't be, because I have too many other projects!

Find My Style- I want to consult my friend Nick (the coolest designer in Ny and on the web). I have always enjoyed decorating and pulling a room together, but lately I look around my house and I feel like it is all discombobulated. I also used to come up with decorative projects and crafty things, like my friends Emily, and Holland, and Anne, and Lindsay. But these days the closest I get is reorganizing Curious George, Good Night Moon and Eric Carle books in the nursery- putting the board books within prime reaching zone for a 30 inch tall being. (remember 20th percentile in height and observed by his Great Grandmother Betty to be "no bigger than a bar of soap") So if any of you are coming by my house any time soon- know that my decorating gene was stolen by pregnancy which happened about a week after we moved into our residence and please don't judge!

Become an outdoors men...I mean outdoors woman- Well, that might be taking it a bit far. But I really want to focus on our outdoor living space. Our little house has a nice size backyard and I really want it to look manicured, but in a free flowing kind of way. We entertain allot (I know I am embarrassed by my house yet I invite people into it all the time...wheres the logic? Maybe it left with pregnancy too). When we entertain we usually end up outside at some point...even in the middle of winter, as you can see here. And now I want to not be ashamed of the yard. I will say this- Michael and my Dad (along with others who got thrown in like brother in law Blair and cousin David) did put some work into it before Riley was born. They banished the chain length fence...seriously our cute little house had chain length fencing. And they put in a wooden fence. Michael also put up some bamboo fencing to cover up "redneckville". For those of you that are unaware, "redneckville" is Michael's shed where he keeps all of his manly belongings like yard equipment (minus the weed whacker that was stolen...he is still sad about it) and some tools (minus the drill he loaned out and can't find). Anyway it is covered and that makes me happy...it has antlers hanging over the entrance and not in a chic way like this. So now after a long and slightly dramatic monologue on my yard i will let you know I am moving forward with this project. I contacted Aunt Anne- not my Aunt, but my best friend Anne's aunt. Aunt Anne, aka Anne brewer, is a master gardener and she is going to give Michael and I some direction on our yard. You can check out her stuff here.

So I know I listed allot of stuff I want to do (I would say we, but we all know Michael is does not really "want" to do any of this)...but I am really good I procrastinating so wish me luck moving forward.

Riley always knows what is going on!

A few weeks ago, Michael and I were having a conversation and it was the first time that we realized how much Riley understands. Riley was getting cranky because it was late in the day and almost dinnertime, and as Michael carried around our little "crankapotumus", I suggested that he just give in and give him the paci. (even though we are trying to get him used to only having it at nap time and dinnertime) As soon as the words came out of my mouth the whining stopped. Michael said something to the effect of no, it isn't bedtime or nap time, and the whining resumed. I said just give in and the whining stopped- but Michael did not react quick enough and he got upset. However as soon as he turned to head into the nursery and get the paci Riley calmed down. It all happened so fast and it took about 30 seconds for it to register- then we looked at each other shocked and realized how we were going to have to REALLY watch what we are saying in front of this muchkin.

Other things that have surprised us, would be his ever expanding vocabulary, here are the list of words he says below:
duck
cat
dog
dolphin
stop- (there is a stop sign on his "little people" parking deck)
no- (on occassion)

Then, on the way home from daycare I ask him "Can you say...?" Below is the list of names that we go through, and his responses:
Mama? "mamamama ma"
Daddy? "Daaa Di" or the occasional "Da da"
Gie Gie? sometimes sounds like "G G" and sometimes like "gaa gaa" and sometimes is met with silence
Etta? He seems to be a little unsure of the e sound, so often I get silence, but occasionally I get "eh ahl"
Big Mike? When he responds to this it sounds like, "bahm"
Grandcoy? The response here is always silence. He is obviously overwhelmed by this name.

The good thing about the names is that no matter what he can always pick everyone out of a picture. We have a grouping of pictures in our living room and he can pick out his grand parents, Aunt Izzy, and his great Aunt Mimi. I say where is...? and he points and grins. The first people he was able to recognize (outside of Michael) were my Mom, my sister and Michael's Dad. And Michael and I have deduced that this is because they look so much like Micheal and me.

I will also quiz him on things like "bye bye" and "no". They say "no" is often the first word that toddlers say and say most often. However when I quiz Riley on these words I get a silent response- instead he waives his hand for "bye bye" and he shakes his head for "No". And believe me the child knows how to shake his head no.

Last week, Riley was playing with one of Michael's old toys, an airport, and Big Mike said, "Riley, bring me the helicopter?" So Riley ran over and grabbed the helicopter and took it back to Big Mike. Who knew he knew what a helicopter was!! I credit Thomas the Train for this, because one of the characters is Harold the helicopter, who is kind of a snob. Mom's of boys, look out, you too will soon be able to recognize all the names and their characters too! There is Percy and Toby and Gordon- he's grumpy, and James...the list goes on! Here is Harold for your viewing pleasure- can't have a post without a picture!



If you are actually reading this, don't worry I am almost done. I do not just quiz Riley on words he can say, but also on where certain things are, for instance, "Riley, where is your nose?...or eyes?". He will respond to these two questions by either pointing to my eyes/nose, or his eyes/nose. This weekend I found out both of his grandmothers have been asking him "where is your hair?" and he pats the top of his 65th percentile head.

The other quiz we love to play is "where is...?"- the blank is filled in by whatever is on the pages in the book. Riley is still obsessed with books and he turns from page to page pointing at things and saying, "that?" (which sound more like "at") We respond by telling him what he is pointing too, whether it be the crab, dolphin, duck, bunny or pig. It is usually an animal. Then we will turn it around and say "what is that?", while pointing at the animal. Some things stick and some things don't. And don't get me wrong he does not always say these things. One day last week every animal he saw in the book was a duck!

A real update on stuff...sorry I haven't done this in a while...

So I have not done a post on Riley and his milestones and habits and well checks in a while...so here it is. Feel free to ignore this post, if you are not a Mom or related to this munchkin it is probably pretty boring!



15 Month Appointment: Riley has figured Dr. Trumbell out! As soon as we got out of the car he was interested in going anywhere but in Pediatric Healthcare. We sat and he sat in my lap for about five minutes before he was over being shy. (I do want my child to adapt the way he should socially, however this shy spell gives his Mommy alot of time to just hold her baby, who otherwise does not want to be held...unless Thomas the Train is on) After the five minute warm up RIley was ready to explore. I put him down and assumed he would walk all over the way he had done at his 12 month. Nope. He instead walked until his saw the big glass doors and b lined it! At that point I had to snatch him up and go around the corner to another set of chairs, where I did what any good toddler parent would and bribed him to sit with me by opening the snack ball. If you don't have one, you should get it, part toy, part snack container. The best thing about this ball is that I put his little organic cheddar ducks, and organic wheat bunnies in it like a month ago and they were still tasting great, plus they had not crumbled into a million pieces. And I would know how great they tasted because Riley was happy to feed a couple to me. Then we got called to the exam room and at that point there was no bribing and no silence. He knew what was about to go down and he repeatedly walked over to the door to try to escape. Everytime a nurse came in to measure him he was certain to let out a cry. It was the normal routine, strip him down and measure him...20th percentile for height- 30 inches. His head, whatever the measurement was...wait for it...65th percentile- was anyone who has seen my son surprised by this? (especially not TJ- who has a fascination with his head shape) And then the little shrimp had his weight checked, 20 lbs and ??ounces- 8th percentile! Dr. Trumbell said he is just going through a lean phase, and he is not worried about it at all- wish I could say the same for me.


As soon as Dr. Trumbell came in he lost his mind and preceded to scream the entire visit. When Dr. Trumbell was done he said, "Riley you're going to really like this...Bye bye (with a waive)" and RIley got quiet and waived goodbye to him...peace at last. During the appointment Dr. Trumbell and I had talked about continuing to feed him a wide variety of foods and not catering to him by feeding him only the foods he will eat (which makes my life easier). So what did we do when we left the appointment- we went to publix and bought some Annies mac and cheese and a Kashi veggie pizza and I took Riley home to feed him dinner. What can I say- I am gluten for punishment, raising a picky eater! No, really, I just wanted to feed him something I knew he would love beacause he had a bad day!



Rileys Favorite Foods:



Speaking of his dinner that night- his favorite foods to date (and for now) are: pizza, mac and cheese, apple sauce, grilled cheese, bunny grahams, butternut squash/pumpkin/acorn squash, and creamed spinach. He seems to be over his yogurt obsession. The good thing about all of this stuff that he is eating, he is absolutely fine with the fect that his noodles, bread, and pizza crusts are whole grain, his pizza is smeared with pureed spinach and loaded down with veggies, and his cheese of choice are usually white in color (which means less saturated fats). His favorite version of apple sauce for which he goes absolutely mad is pomagranite apple sauce. The other night we were having tacos for dinner and he thought this container of salsa was the pomagranite apple sauce and he wanted it! I gave him a taste and he just looked perplexed. I am sure some of your reading this are thinking I am turning into some kind of crazy food fanatic, the check out guy in Publix just about asked me as much, but I am not. I am well aware of the fact that eventually my child is going to through tantrums for fake, processed snacks and meals that come in boxes with toys! I just feel like while I have the control I should try to give him the best options out there. Plus Michael and I could both stand to eat better and lose a few lbs that we have both been carrying around since pregnancy.



I will also fess up that Riley does not always get homemade meals- this working mom gig is kind of time consuming! Plus our little man is still going to bed as early as 6:00-with the recent time change things may be different (cross your fingers). So my latest move for dinner time has been to buy more Amy's Organic products- thank you Amy you are the best! (not to be confused with Annies organic products- which we also love)Riley is very finicky about meat, I think it is a texture thing, so Amys meals are perfect for him. They are vegetarian, but filled with protien. Last night Riley scarfed down tortilla casserole with black beans, tofu and all! This all stemmed from reading "Hungry Monkey" which I wrote about here. I hope that by offering Riley a wide variety of flavors he will be more open to different options as he gets older. I just want to have a little foodie on my hands. All in all I know he will still love to eat hot dogs, pizza, hamburgers and easy mac, but hopefully when I suggest he try a new variety he won't be scared.

Get excited I have several more posts that I am working on that are this boring! Like Riley's ever expanding vocabulary, and other favorites! Ha!

What has this little man been up to:

First he has been sporting the absolute cutest winter wardrobe. I forgot to send a coat with him to Pensacola one weekend, so his Gie Gie found this:

I think I will start forgetting to pack anything at all when he goes to see the Grandparents!

And here below you can see a picture I call, "You're not listening to me" or "I want what I want when I want it"

I'd be lying if I did not say that the above face is a little bit frightening! He apparently wanted to go for a stroller ride and was not interested in being photographed!

He also got a good visit in with the Garrett Quads on his last Brewton trip...you can see how interested he was in them, Etta couldn't even get him in the same frame with the babies. He is funny like that, he has absolutely no interest in babies that are doing less than he is, if you can't walk he is too cool for you. Next time he sees the quads I know they will be running him down and he will be following there every move!

He has also been known to sit around and study things...I call this picture "contemplative Riley"...

...he sits still for about 20 seconds, unless we turn Thomas the Train on.

Now, I know I have commented on Riley's unreal obsession with the pacifier, below you can see for yourself (note one paci in the mouth and one in the hand):

Now for a picture without the paci....

And this final picture is called, "I want to be like Daddy!"
Anyone who has tried to get in touch with me is well aware of the fact that you are probably better off trying to reach Michael...so you know this behavior came from Michael.

A haircut in our future...

I have been thinking my child needed his first haircut for some time now. However, everyone around me, Dad and Gie Gie, disagreed. So I waited. Well, this week some photographic evidence was emailed to Michael and he responded to the picture that it was officially hair cuttin' time. What do you think?

More RIley and more wedding...

Below are some more pictures from Elizabeth and Blair's wedding. Most are of Riley, though I threw in a few of the bride and groom for good measure. All of these pictures are proofs from our fantastic photographers, The Cooks. You will also notice another pint sized being in these pics, that is the most adorable niece of Elizabeth and Blair, Peyton. She turned one the weekend before the wedding. Isn't that fur to die for?

When Riley got to the church that day his grandmother, Etta, carried him into the room where Elizabeth was getting ready. She set him down and he ran straight for Elizabeth! Never mind that he had not seen his grandmother Gie Gie, in 5 days, or his mother in 6 days. He knew who the star of the show was that day...and I guess he figured if he could not be the center of attention he would hang out with her! I don't know why Gie Gie and I were even surprised, Riley always goes gaga for his Aunt Izzy! It is so cute!

Martha Stewart Eat your Heart Out!!

I love a good party theme...so this weekend in order to celebrate Reed's 3-0, I sculpted an "R" out of beer cans! More pics from the weekend later. Reed, we had a blast, thanks for having a birthday and letting us celebrate with you!

AMAAAZING

That is the only way to describe Jeremy and Hara. They have posted pictures from Elizabeth and Blair's wedding and they are so beautiful and creative and artistic and AMAZING. Below is one that I snagged from there blog. It is just a sampling of what are plan/scheme was. This is what Gie Gie and I thought about for months! Go to http://www.cookimages.com/ to check out their post on it.