Meme turns 90!

This past weekend we celebrated quite the milestone. Meme, Michael's grandmother turned 90. Her birthday was actually on St. Patrick's Day (what a great day to be born), but we celebrated all weekend long. It was a great weekend because all of the Otts side of Michael's family was together. It was so neat for me, because the only other time I had been with everyone was our wedding, and that was hard for me to keep up with everyone I met. So it was great to actually get to visit with everyone. Riley got to meet two Great Great Uncles and Aunts, how cool is that! Unfortunately these are all the pictures that I got last weekend, but nonetheless here they are.

Here we have Pop and Meme, the birthday girl herself.

This is Sadie and Great Aunt Francis (Etta's sister).

Great Great Aunt Elizabeth, Great Aunt Mary Lee (Another of Etta's sisters), and Great Great Uncle Jim. Anyone who has been through Demopolis heading toward Boligee is familar with Great Great Uncle Jim's handy work...he is the infamous hay bale sculptor.

And here Riley and I are with Pop. Pop is so good with Riley and he refers to Riley as "Tiger", and I just love it! He also makes a cool popping noise with his mouth that Riley really reacts to. Michael, Riley and I are so lucky to have so much wonderful family and this weekend was such a blessing to be able to spend time with such a large group at once.

3 Month Photo Shoot

Sorry it took me forever to post these. But here are Riley's pictures from his 3 month photo shoot. It won't be long before his 4 month photo shoot.

Hails...it's about time!

So I only had to ask Katie about 200 times, but I have finally got some more pictures of Hails. I have not seen a picture of him since he was 4 days old until now. And he is soooo cute! So I thought I would share with ya'll. These were taken a couple of weeks ago so he was just over 3 months at the time. Next week he will be 4 months!

The best thing about work....

Because I am back at work and because Michael and I want to spend time with Riley on the weekends and in the evenings we hired Ruby! Ruby is the best thing ever and she starts today! Ruby has been in housekeeping for 25 years with Marriott and today she is doing a deep cleaning on out house and I am sooooo excited I can hardly stand it! Goodbye fur balls and dust!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This morning was a terrible morning. It is just impossible to get everything done in only 24 hours. I went to sleep at midnight last night and then I tried to get my day started today at 6 am. Sadly I think I am going to have to get up earlier then that. For someone so small Riley requires an awful lot of energy. It really is amazing. And it is true that you cannot even imagine how your life will change until it changes. Things that used to be a simple task now take twice as long, and planning to leave the house at a certain time is the craziest notion of all! Because Riley is the one in charge. I wonder if I will ever get used to it.

And to make this morning even worse I decided to try to be festive! WHat a mistake. Trying to find a green item that fit in my closet was sad and frustrating. I cannot even begin to tell you how badly I want my body back! Someday...

The worst possible time to be fertile!

You know right after you have a baby they say is the time you are most likely to concieve again. Scary thought. It is totally a mean trick on Mother Nautures part. Anyway, last week I was in so much pain I thought I was getting mastitis. And then he next night I was dizzy and then the next day I caught myself saying, "I am so tired and I haven't been this tired since the first trimester. My Mom responded, "you're not pregnant, are you?" And my answer was, "of course not." What kind of crazy question was that? Then that same day I was still getting a funny flavor in my mouth which I had attributed to sinus issues, and food was just not tasting good and I got a headache (another thing I have not had since the 1st trimester). And then all of a sudden I was completly useless at work because I started to freak out that I was one of the ones that fell outside the 99.9 %.

So when I got home I took a test just to get the crazy thought out of my head, and it was negative. Whew!! Sunday when we got back in town, Michael saw it in the trash can and said that it didn't look negative to him. Knowing that a test cannot be trusted after 10 minutes have passed I assured him it was negative on Friday, but then he was nervous and I got nervous so I took one more test. Well that darn digital test said "Pregnant". Michael could hear me in the bathroom laughing a very strange laugh, which turned to tears. He just looked at me in disbelief while holding Riley and tried to calm me down. After a few minutes of converstion we decided the digital test were crap and I went to the store for the kind I trusted. Whew...relief when that test was negative. But just to cover all of my bases I went to the doctor and had them draw blood and it is official...I am not pregnant and Michael is going to have to sleep in the guest room.

New things!

So Riley seems to do everything right as he should. Every week I read in the book the new things he will be learning developmentally and he is always doing them. It is so strange how all babies seem to do things at the same time. Riley as you have seen is some photos I have posted can sit up when propped against something. He has very good control over his neck now. He loves to squirm his way up you when you lay him on your chest on his stomach. He has begun to talk a bunch. Last week he was talking my Mom's ear off on Thursday night, right about the time that he was suppossed to be calming down and going to sleep. Then on Friday afternoon in Brewton he was in the middle of one of those chatty sessions when his grandmother Etta starting acting silly and he laughed for the first time! Michael has been able to get a giggle out of him the past two days as well. It is the most amazing thing to watch him learning all of these new things. But the thing Riley seems to love most of all is standing. If you hold him up and he is in the mood, (which is almost all of the time) he stands. He wobbles so you can't let go, but he gets so tickled with himself when he stands. It is so much fun to watch him get so excited. But when he wants to stand and you set him down, he gets very unhappy. So he is requiring more attention at times. He has also begun to recognize us and if you leave his eyesight he gets upset, so even though he is not yet mobile and moving, you cannot stray too far because he wants to see you. His language has changed into more vowels sounds as well and he has recently been able to soothe himself to sleep without any assistance from us.