A Sneak Peek

Here's our little kitty in action at the Link Costume Party.  She had a blast and loved her very first sucker!!  I'm not good at editing pictures...really I have no idea how...so sorry for my lame effort to protect the identities of the other little kiddos!

Riley Carves Her Jack -O-Lantern

We decided that we were close enough to Halloween to go ahead and carve our pumpkin.  We decided that we would do a cat since Riley will be dressing up as a (super cute) cat this year.  Everything went great until the glowing reveal.  Let me show you in pictures...

First we drew the face on the pumpkin.  Everything a-okay.

We took out the guts...ate a few guts...still a-okay.

The finished project..."oooohhhh"

Reaction to the glowing Jack-O-Lantern.  Everything Not A-Okay!!!

Riley did recover.  She eventually went back to liking her other pumpkins.  As far as I know we didn't have any scary jack-o-lantern dreams.  So that is good. She was back to normal by morning...

"No Mom, I won't smile for you. Are you nuts, it's 7:20am!?!"

Riley Picks A Pumpkin

We took Riley to the pumpkin patch on Sunday.  It was a beautiful, sunny, and WINDY day to pick pumpkins.  As you all have heard Riley loves animals and pumpkins so this was the perfect place for Riley.  Riley loved watching the goats, touching every pumpkin in site, riding on the hay ride, running through the corn maze, and picking her very own pumpkin out of the patch.  We heard many "OOOOHHH"s throughout the day!  We were only able to get a few good pictures because of the wind, but Brett did get a lot of good video of the day.  Here are a few pictures from the patch. 

Riley Nicole at 14 months

Riley turns 14 months old today.  Another month past and tons of new tricks for Miss Riley.  Here is a glimpse into her little budding personality:

• She still loves to hug.  Hugging in Riley's head means leaning her head against you.
• Giving slobbery open mouthed kisses.  I always ask for kisses and she comes running over.  It's so cute.
• Throwing "temper tantrums."  They are hardly a tantrum, but if she doesn't get something she wants she will scrunch up her face (which is the cutest thing ever!) and start to fake cry.  It is so funny that I laugh every time.  I feel a little bad for laughing at her, but she doesn't seem to mind and usually starts smiling back and laughing.
• She can't help but touch every outlet in site - which drives Daddy and me nuts!  Every time we say "no, no" or "no touch, Riley" she stops and walks over to you and hugs your leg.  Not sure if she's apologizing or trying to "get out of trouble."  Haven't quite figured that one out yet.
• A new found obsession with PUMPKINS!  She loves pumpkins.  She carries her pumpkin bucket all around the house.  Some things you might find inside her bucket: shoes, socks, toys, milk, pacis.  She throws everything in to the bucket!
• She understands almost everything you say to her.  This amazes Brett and I so we are constantly asking her to do things just to see if she understands.  A few examples: Riley, go put mommy's shoe in the closet...Riley, go jump on your bug (her ladybug beanbag)...Riley, kick your ball...Riley, take Daddy his phone. 
• She knows most of the motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider.
• She loves to play ring around the rosy...by herself as we sing the song.  She spins and spins and spins until we make her fall down.  It's so cute.  She laughs the whole way through it.  She always starts by turning her head first...like this makes the rest of her body turn too.
• She loves to be upside down.  Help her do a somersault once and you will be somersaulting for the next 10 minutes.  She can put her head down to the ground and then needs help to flip over.
• She has 8 teeth.  Four top front, three bottom front and one molar.  She has a second molar coming in which has NOT been fun!
• She is still in size 12 month clothing.  I think she'll be in it for a while unless she surprises us with a growth spurt.
• She has decided that she doesn't like to eat as much as she used to.  She still likes the same food.  We have the best luck with green veggies.  I know, it's weird but she loves them all.  Put something green on her plate and it's the first thing to go.  She has to have a fork.  She'll point it at you until you help her get food on it.  She mostly uses it as a toy, but she's starting to get the idea!
• She shakes her head yes and no in one fast jerk.  She usually answers no to everything.
• Some words that she says....hi, bye, dada, mama, SSS (snack), cat, juice (anything liquid). There are more, but my mind is drawing a blank. She hasn't really started talking much more than last month, just seems to understand everything that is being said.
• She loves anything "pretty."  She started leaving her headbands on because I started saying "oh, you look so PRETTY!"  She loves looking pretty.  She also loves to wear bracelets...which are just all of her linking rings.
• Her hair is finally starting to grow.  She has some really long pieces in the back and it is starting to curl a little around her ears.  Yay!  It's still pretty short in the front and almost never shows up in pictures.  I keep looking at her and trying to picture what she will look like when she finally has hair.

So, as you can see she is full of personality.  She is so much fun and we love every minute with her.  Daddy is home with her today because our poor daycare provider is sick.  I don't think Daddy is complaining too much about a day home with his little girl!

Dear Weather Man...

Really, the snow can wait!  It's only October 12th, and I want to play outside and have fun on Halloween before the ground is white and the air is freezing.  I plan to be a cat.  I look really cute in my costume!  But, I guess if you really want the snow to fall in October I'll be ready.  My mommy and daddy bought me my very first winter coat and snow pants! I have some room to grow.  But I look cute, don't I?

Love, Riley

EXACTLY, How Tall IS Riley??

I've been having this internal debate on how tall Riley really is since I wrote my last entry.  I keep thinking how can the nurse be off by 5-6 inches for the past couple months?  How could she only have grown 3 inches since she was born at 18 1/2 inches?  I started looking at the tags on 12 months clothes and sure enough 1 year olds should be quite a bit taller than 21 inches!  So, Brett and I broke out the old trusted measuring tape over the weekend and made Riley stand still against the wall (not an easy task with a 1 year old!).  Sure enough she measured 28 inches!  So, Riley IS 28 inches tall, EXACTLY!

Steri Strip

I took Riley to the doctor yesterday afternoon to get her flu shot and we ended up leaving with a steri-strip next to her eye!  It was our worst trip to the doctor's office yet.  She cried bawled and clung to me from the minute we were in the room and she saw the nurse until we were actually leaving.  She had made it through the shot and was dressed and ready to go when she fell.  She was patting the little round stools and turned to walk toward me, lost her balance, and hit her eye, cheek bone, and nose on the edge of the step up to the table. Of course, this started the whole bawling thing all over again.  I felt horrible and her poor little head hurt.  She had a small cut in the crease next to her right eye.  Dr. Fred thought that he should put a steri-strip on it to make sure that it heals properly.  So, I guess at least we were in the right spot for Riley to fall and cut herself, but I felt like a horrible parent.

I also noticed that Riley really hasn't gained any weight in the last two months. She was at 19 lb 10 oz, then 19 lb 8 oz, and yesterday she was at 19 lb 14 oz.  I asked the doc what he thought and he looked at her growth chart and felt that the first weight (from her 1 year appt) was probably off.  He did say to not give her any juice because this can mask her hunger.  Really she only gets like 3 ounces of half juice half water a day - if that.  But, hopefully this will help her gain some weight!  Also, she measured at 21 inches.  I was looking back at some of my older entries to see what her weights were and noticed that I had written that she was 26 and 29 inches.  Seriously, either that was a typo or I was delirious! So, overall, Riley is doing well.  Here are some pictures of her with her steri-strip.