Today, on Riley’s 10-month brithday, I’m finally getting around to writing about her 9-month check-up… what can I say, we’re chronically behind around here. Her official height is now 18lbs 6oz and her height is 2ft 4.25 in. Nothing else really to report about the visit, except that she got a much coveted flu shot, and also a hepatitis A shot in preparation for our upcoming trip to South Africa to visit Riley’s uncle Michael.
I guess the biggest news about Riley is she’s crawling now! All of a sudden one day she just took off. She can be pretty quick when she wants to be, so you definitly have to keep an eye on her. She loves cabinets and drawers (which she’ll open and slam shut over and over again, pretty exciting) and definitly enjoys picking up and investigating every little thing she finds on the floor (thus providing a whole new motivation to keep our place clean). At the daycare when we drop her off in the morning she always goes straight for the little climbing structure and goes right up the stairs. The teachers say she spends most of the day sitting at the top or going up and down the stairs. She’s surprisingly agile… I’m always afraid she’s going to topple over (especially when she starts crawling down the stairs head first) but for the most part she stays upright pretty well.
The pediatrican recommended giving her a “lovey” to sleep with at night, so we put a bunch of stuffed animals in her crib to see what she would choose. We thought it would be the super soft lamb, but the winner turned out to be the Valentine Lion that Micah gave her. She especially likes the long hair which she twirls in her fingers while falling asleep. Many nights we go in to check on her and she’s either curled up around the lion, or lying on top of it… pretty cute. I’m always tempted to take a picture, but it doesn’t seem like a good idea.
Riley’s starting to develop definite opinions and will let you know what she does and does not like. Especially when it comes to eating…she does not like anything on a spoon and would much prefer to feed herself, thank you very much. Mostly she’s not too picky though, thankfully. Keep your fingers crossed that she’ll stay that way. In general she continues to be very vocal. Still a lot of indiscriminate “da da da, ma ma ma,” and recently she’s started saying “eee iiii eee iii eee iii” over and over again (almost like she’s saying “e i e i oh” but with out the oh), it’s pretty cute. Sometimes it sounds like she’s telling a story, but she doesn’t really have any real words yet.
Okay, that’s enough. Now for some picture posts…
November 9th, 2006 in
Happenings |
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We went to Chicago a few weeks ago for the Association of Women Surgeons conference. The weather was beautiful, but still cold enough that Riley finally had an opportunity to wear the super-cute hat Will gave her…
We did some sight seeing, but Riley was most interested in the huge flower arrangments all over downtown Chicago.
Friday night Riley stayed in with a babysitter while we got fancy and went out to a gala dinner for the 25th anniversary of AWS. Now we know every big city seems to have a babysitting service where they’ll send a CPR-certified, background checked babysitter to your hotel room. Very good to know given how much we seem to be traveling these days…
Family pictures!
Can you tell Sage and I are exausted? But still having fun…
October 31st, 2006 in
Happenings |
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October 31st, 2006 in
Happenings |
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We took Riley to a pumpkin patch last weekend. And not just any pumpkin patch, mind you: this one had goats, sheep, chickens, a train, a cornfield maze and a haybale maze (it’s on a “real” farm in the middle of Mountain View). I think she like the big orange yellow things, but we didn’t stay for too long. There is such a thing as too many parents with digital cameras… so we got our pictures and left!
On one of Riley’s first days of school they had a photographer come in to take portraits of all the kids. This was during the time when it was still very hard for Riley to say good-bye. Anyway they took her in right after I left. Apparently sitting alone in the middle of a room with 2 big stranger men was too much for Riley though and her teacher said she cried, so they probably didn’t get that many shots. Not a big deal, anyone who’s looked through our pictures knows Riley’s infancy has been very well documented.
We weren’t really expecting to get any pictures, so I was surprised when they gave me an envelope of proofs last week. There was only 2 pictures inside: One of Riley looking miserable and frightened and crying, and another of her still crying but reaching her arms out to picked up. Needless to say my heart broke into pieces and I nearly started crying right there. It’s hard enough to convince myself Riley likes daycare (damn stay-at-home moms getting into my head…), I don’t really need to see pictures of her CRYING! I gave them back to the teacher, who felt really bad, and told her not to show them to Sage.
Don’t worry this story has a happy ending! Today when I picked up Riley her teacher Liz said she had a present for us… She had put together a little scrapbook with pictures she had taken of Riley! It’s called “A day in the life of Riley!” and it’s really very sweet. It hads pictures of her playing in the classroom and with the other kids outside and going on walks and in all of them she looks very happy and content.
So whatever sensitivity those photographers were lacking is more then made up for by her amazing teachers, who really seem to care about the kids… and also about the parents.
(willow is the name of her classroom)
Click the picture to see the rest of the book
October 4th, 2006 in
Happenings |
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These boots are from Chloe. I think they might be a bit big… Here’s to planning ahead!
Riley started swim lessons at the local pool a few weeks ago. The first one went really well… it was a beautiful hot and sunny day and Riley had a great time splashing in the water and playing with the various pool toys. It’s not so much a lesson as it is structured play time, so there was lots of singing of songs and games. Riley’s favorite part, amazingly, was when the teacher had us swoop her through the water and dip her ears in, she thought that was pretty funny.
The 2nd week it was grey out and riley was a bit under the weather and we didn’t make it through the 30-minute class. Then last week we didn’t even make it to the class (it was cold and we were all sick). So we’ve decided to postpone further classes till the spring. It was fun while it lasted!
October 3rd, 2006 in
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Jesse gave this shirt to Riley–it’s from Gwen Stefani’s baby clothing line. yes it’s offical: Riley is more fashionable then either of her parents…
October 3rd, 2006 in
Happenings |
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I forgot to include a funny story about our trip home from LA…
When Riley’s falling asleep she likes to put her hand on your cheek, or stroke your arm, or play with your hair. We flew Southwest home and Riley was feeling kind of crummy so I had her kind of half-sleeping on my shoulder. Suddenly I saw the guy sitting next to us kind of jump. I looked over and there was Riley’s little hand gently scratching on his arm. Luckily he didn’t seem to mind…
September 19th, 2006 in
Happenings |
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We went out for bagels they other day (which we used to do every week) and the woman behind the counter gave Riley a mini-bagel to chomp on. What a great idea! (why didn’t we think of that?) Riley’s real food repertoire is expanding, it’s fun. Pretty much anywhere we go there’s something she can try and eat. Like fruit samples at the supermarket, or a chunk of bread at a restaurant, or whatever we happen to be eating. This weekend she’s going to try french toast for the first time (minus the sugar and syrup of course). fun fun!
September 17th, 2006 in
Happenings |
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