The Baby in Roger Rabbit

Finally

It seems to have taken F-O-R-E-V-E-R for Riley to decide he wants to make walking a part of his life. Last Friday at work, he thought the stairs of the mezzanine were worth the effort. He walked across the shop like it was nothing. He still preferred crawling to walking, but then this last weekend he changed his mind. If he's standing, you can bet he'll walk to his next destination. I'll admit that Dave and I were a little taken aback last night when we were in the kitchen talking, and then suddenly we saw a little head walking by. Just weird...

Busted up

Last night Riley was under the dining room table crawling around when all of a sudden his hands came out from under him and he smacked his cheek on the bottom rim of the chair. He has a nice bruise on his cheek today and since this is the first time he has had an injury that left a lasting mark, I deemed it blog worthy.

October Roundup

October is probably the busiest month of the year for us as far as birthdays. Add holidays and friends and the month flies by. Here's all that happened.

Riley's birthday started the month off right on October 1st. Here's a picture of him eating a birthday cupcake the day after his birthday at work. Now that he knows they exist, his favorite thing to eat in the whole world is a cupcake. The 2nd of October was also my mother-in-law's birthday and she took us to a wonderful italian restaurant for dinner. She even put up with Riley in a restaurant! :)

Next up on the October calendar was my birthday on the 18th. Dave surprised me with a long weekend at Northstar. We stayed in a condo and did absolutely nothing. Well, we ate...and we looked at the shops...and we ate...and watched movies...He knows that one of my favorite things ever is 7 layer chocolate cake from Claim Jumper and so he brought a piece as a surprise and brought it out on my birthday. Sigh....he's great.

After that came the Olsen family birthday party with a whopping 5 birthdays in October. Kel and Dal flew in for it too which was great. Riley had more cake and got to play with his cousins.

The next weekend, Riley and I had a play date with my best friend Lisa and her kids. Riley loves playing with older kids and he especially took to Lisa's oldest daughter Dani. All he wanted to do was hug her! Lisa only has one boy and never thought that her son would carry around a baby boy. Riley thought it was pretty cool too.

And we can't forget Halloween. The weekend before, we went to a local pumpkin patch. Riley LOVES pupu as he calls them and so he was just thrilled to be in a place with pumpkins everywhere.

For Halloween, Riley was an 80's punk rocker. He carried his pumpkin container happily up to the door of grandmas house and life couldn't get any better in his mind-he got to carry a 'pumpkin' around and then people put something in it for him! We only went to a couple houses but Riley had a blast! Dave made Riley a special shirt for the occasion. Can you tell what it says?

We also updated our pictures so follow the link at left if you want to see more.

Happy Birthday Riley!

I can't tell you how excited I was for Riley to turn one. It was monumental. It was proof that we had made it through a year. We made it through all the spit-up, the sleepless nights, the non-stop crying, the poop explosions, the illnesses, the temper tantrums, and did I mention the sleepless nights? We made it. And we have an incredible, funny, handsome little boy to show for it. A closer relationship with each other too. So here's to Riley's first year of life. We can't wait for the next.

Overdue Haircut

Riley has been long overdue for a hair cut. The top of his hair was almost down to his eyes and his hair is getting so long it curls wherever it can. Yesterday, I decided I'd had it, I was going to cut his hair. Armed with toys and Dave with his iPhone (he has a music video on it that Riley loves) I cut cut cut cut cut. He would only sit for the top and sides so I finished the rest this morning and boy oh boy is he one clean cut little boy now! Doesn't he look better?

Up up and away!

Last weekend we got up early and went to the balloon races. Not Dawn Patrol-you think we're nuts?-just the regular balloons. Other than just staring at them like, "hey, look at that..." Riley wasn't very excited about it. We had a good time though, complete with breakfast-corn dogs. According to Dave, "you can't go to the balloon races and not have corn dogs for breakfast! They make the whole getting up early thing worth it!" (Just so you know, I couldn't do it).

On the belly...no more!

Official date is August 13th. Riley is a much happier baby now!

A Few Tidbits

As nothing new is happening in our world whatsoever, I thought I would do a blog about Dave and I. Taking the idea from Bri, here are 10 things you may or may not know about us. We've left numbers 9 and 10 blank for you to add something that you think people may or may not know about us too.

About me:

1. I LOVE chocolate. Especially dark chocolate. One of my favorite things in the whole world is the chocolate layered cake at Claim Jumper.

2. I sing all the time. It's nothing out of the ordinary to hear me come from around the corner singing a line from something or the other. Fortunately, Riley (and most the time Dave) likes to hear it!

3. I can count on one hand the number of songs and/or jingles that I know all the words to. It doesn't stop me though, I just make up the ones I don't know and sing the song anyway.

4. My not so secret dream is to be in the movies.

5. Whenever I'm sick I want to lay down and watch Ever After. I have no idea why it's Ever After, but it's the only thing I want to watch.

6. I have two birthmarks.

7. I love to skip and make believe and pretend I can fly. Sometimes I even do it in public.

8. You'll often find me ignoring my responsibilities in order to read. I love books. I'll stay up till 4 in the morning to finish one. (Or at least I would before I had a kid!) :)

9.

10.


About David:

1. He eats Mac and Cheese right out of the pan hours after cooking it.

2. He loves those orange peanut shaped marshmellowish things (circus peanuts).

3. His feet are incredibly ticklish. If you want a swift kick, just try to get at them. I wont be held responsible for any injuries you obtain from such a venture.

4. One of his favorite movies is Barefoot in the Park.

5. 99% of the time he is right. About everything. It's true. Just accept it.

6. He can run REALLY fast. Just try to get away. You wont.

7. He has almost a hundred t-shirts.

8. His feet never stink. Doesn't matter where he's been or what he's been doing, his feet NEVER stink.

9.

10.

The Army Crawl-Riley Style

Lake Tahoe

Last weekend, we had our first day at the lake. I couldn't believe how much stuff we had to bring. It took FOUR people to carry it all from the car to the beach! We had a lot of fun though. I stayed completely covered and under the umbrella (when 30 pounds disappears I'll wear a bathing suit in public again) but Dave and Riley went in the water. Dave went over to these high rocks with his uncle and friends and jumped off into the lake a couple times. Riley sat on the beach where the waves could reach his butt every once in a while and, surprisingly, didn't cry at all. He sure loves the water!

Going black

It seems like everywhere you turn and on every channel on TV, there are advertisements and commercials about going green. About half of them are really very silly and as a whole they are driving Dave nuts. He has decided that he is officially going black-or whatever color is opposite green. We've been joking about this for about a month now, and then last week Dave's WIRED magazine arrived in the mail with a cover that seemed to be made especially for him.

We don't usually write blogs like this, but the cover was so Dave and the article is actually quite interesting so check it out here-http://www.wired.com/wired/issue/16-06 (click on the cover)and let us know what you think.

Camping

Last weekend we took out first camping trip with Riley and it was quite an adventure. More fun than I had feared. :)
After days of list making and packing and gathering everything we needed for the trip (our car was packed tight for just the three of us!) we headed out to North Fork Campground on the American River. We had never been to this campground before but from what we read about it, it was a very popular campground due to the close proximity of a waterfall with a fabulous swimming hole at the bottom of it. Apparently, that weekend, everyone made other plans because we were the ONLY people in the campground. No other campers, no campground host. At night it was just a little creepy-in the middle of nowhere, where no one would hear you scream. Yes, I freaked out a bit. We lived through the night. :)
I had debated for weeks about what to do with Riley at night. We thought about putting him in the pack n play to sleep, letting him sleep with us, I just couldn't decide. I wanted to make sure he was warm enough all night. In the end, we folded a sleeping bag in half, put it on an egg crate, put blankets on top and under it and laid it next to our bed. It worked great. He was so warm he was actually sweating. It was butt cold. Sorry for the expression but I know no other way to describe just how absolutely freezing it was. We would huddle in the sleeping bag in the morning and try to change Riley's diaper while he shivered the whole time. Butt cold. And a heck of a lot of fun. We played games, roasted marshmallows and went hiking to the waterfall. Riley liked the hiking backpack so much he fell asleep in it on the way back to camp.
Dave tried his hand at fly fishing and Riley and I played in the water. Riley had a top tooth break skin Saturday night and that made him quite the unhappy baby half the night, but other than that, everything went very smooth. Did I mention it was cold? Oh and I can't end without giving out a HUGE kudos and thanks to Ryan and Elaine who went with us and didn't complain once about anything-not the teething cries at 1 am, the 6am wake up calls, or having to hang around camp when Riley took his naps. They were huge sports about it. I know they were secretly thinking, "Just wait till we have kids. We'll get you back..."

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

Click on the picture for a bigger image and then you can see his two teeth right in the middle on the bottom.

And yes, he has bitten me. Hard. There was blood. It wasn't funny.


Recognize the onesie Nate?

Just for fun

I saw this video on youtube and loved it. Remember doing any of these?

A Sad Goodbye

Today is a sad day indeed. I look back with teary eyes upon the first day Riley saw it. He was having his diaper changed and suddenly there it was, right in front of his face. A wonderful little thing with five toes attached. He reached out and grabbed it...the start to a beautiful friendship.

His feet went with him wherever he would go.

They were the first out of the blankets.

The first in the air.

The best toy ever.

They tasted pretty good too.

Now they have been forgotten. No more fond playtimes together. No longer the best toy ever. They have become simply a means to get want he wants-jump up and down, stand up and reach that oh so far away tv remote, push off our stomachs to get that piece of paper, turn himself around in his crib.

Good bye feet. You will be missed.

On to bigger and better things...

1st Anniversary

For our anniversary, we went to Edgelake for 3 days and were as lazy as could be! We drove up to the lake on Saturday and just hung out, ordered pizza and watched a movie. We had an extra room in our condo and so we set Riley up in there, complete with his own 'bed' and johnny jumper in the doorway. I think his favorite part about the room was that the closet was one big mirror and he could look at himself in it all day! The rest of the time we ate at local diners, watched more movies, did some shopping and drove to Emerald Bay. It was perfect.



Our view from the room


The wind was blowing so hard on Sunday that the icicles grew at a slant. Then on Monday, there was no wind so they grew straight from that point on.

Just chillin in his PJ's.

I'M A BIG KID NOW!

Videos

I think we finally got this video thing figured out! The first video is of Riley talking away to David. It's kind of long so don't feel like you have to watch the whole thing-he obviously has his mother's ability to talk FOREVER. :) The next video is Riley laughing-as promised! Enjoy...

Riley Update

Riley had his four month doctor's appointment last week. Can you believe it's already been four months? He's two inches longer and two pounds heavier and the doctor said he's wonderful. He also had to get his second round of immunizations and as soon as the doctor put him in the shot position he started screaming. It was heart wrenching. He's all better now, and happy as can be.
Dave is busy at work trying to prepare for probably the busiest summer yet and I'm trying to figure out how one juggles a baby and...well...anything else! If you haven't heard of it, flylady.com is a wonderful website about how to keep your home clean in a manageable way. It has worked miracles is our home and I've only been at it a week!
Videos of Riley coming soon...

catch up

I feel like this week is catch up week. Time to catch up on things that got put off during the crazy month of December. So...time for a long needed blog! The first exciting thing that happened in December has nothing to do with Riley-sorry. Every year I do a play. This year the play was Beauty and the Beast. I was just a lady in the village but I got a couple solo lines and we performed our shows the first week of December. Here's a picture from the village scene. I'm up front with the red top on.

Second exciting thing to happen last month and probably the most anticipated was that Riley laughed for the first time. I was holding him in front of me and Dave took his arms and playfully shook them back and forth and Riley giggled. Dave and I just looked at each other like, "you heard that right? He laughed didn't he? I wasn't just imagining things was I?" and then Dave did it to him again and sure enough-a good solid laugh. The next day, I wiggled his stomach and he did it again. I don't think anything lights up the day like Riley laughing. We've yet to catch it on video but when we do-we'll try to post it so you can hear. ( I know..aren't you just sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation!) :)
So Christmas finally came and it was a lot of fun. We went to my parent's house Christmas Eve for Prime Rib and played their new Wii. My sister and niece were there and we had a wonderful evening. Lots of games and presents and good food. Christmas morning was spent at Dave's parents house and Riley slept through most of it. Then the Olsen family brunch was at his parent's house also and Riley slept through most of it...Dave's sister and her husband and kids flew in Christmas Day and it was really cool to have almost all the family and all their kids in one place. The evening brought Christmas soup at Grandma's house and guess what? Riley DIDN'T sleep through most of that! It was a wonderful day. And it didn't end there. The next day we opened presents with Kel and Dal oh and you know what? Riley slept through most of that too! But he woke up for the end of it and we got some great pictures of Riley with his cousins. Of course the best ending of all happened to top off Christmas-Sushi for dinner Wednesday night!

Since 2007 was such a HUGE year for Dave and I, we have high hopes that 2008 will bring on a whole lot of nothing what so ever...and we can't wait!

I leave you with one final picture. Riley has developed quite the personality and lets just say he wants what he wants or else this is what you get...

Dave would like to add that this is also the face he makes when someone gives him a Shark's onesie-NATE!