Riley Does The Zoo

We took Riley to the Blank Park Zoo this past weekend. We had a perfect day with lots of sunshine. Perfect days means a packed zoo. We lathered Riley up with sunscreen, strapped her sun hat on and made our way through every exhibit. We went through the discover center where we encountered the Red Pandas. They were exactly as their species says: Red. Nothing too exciting. Riley liked looking at the fish swimming in the discovery center. Next, the Petting Zoo. No longer are the days when herds of smelly animals are roaming around aimlessly sniffing every person for food. All of the animals were pinned up. We fed the llamas food pellets and an ice cream cone (without ice cream) and stood in front of the big bull. Riley enjoyed touching the llama's nose.

Riley loved watching the penguins swim and wouldn't turn her eye away for a picture with Daddy.

She also loved the zebras. They came and ate right in front of where we were standing and she wouldn't take her eyes off of them. Riley's favorite animal of the day: Monkeys! The Monkeys are always my favorite too so we spent most of our time watching them. Several of them came and stood directly in front of us and Riley would just stare at them. Brett liked taking pictures of their red butts. He swears that he was taking a picture of the monkey behind the red butt. Hmmm. Lastly, Riley loved watching the otters swim up to the glass underwater.

Mom and Dad's favorite moment of the day: Watching the woman disregard the "stay on the path" sign in the Australian Exhibit. She and her son (maybe two years old) followed an emu (huge scary bird) all the way through the grass to the back fence. 15 minutes later we saw the same woman pulling her son back from the stream running through the Australian Exhibit. He was a foot away from joining the swans!

All in all, it was a great day at the zoo. We are taking Riley to the Omaha Zoo in July with her cousins. Hopefully she will love it then as much as she did this weekend!

What Teeth Are Made For...Right?

This is one of Riley's new tricks...

This is what happens when Mommy doesn't pay attention to Riley's new trick...

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a Memorial Day Weekend filled with family, illness, home improvements, and relaxation! It was so nice to have a three day weekend and to spend extra time with Riley. This was really my first "vacation" since my maternity leave. I'm counting down the days until July 1st when I'll have vacation days again.

Brett took last Thursday and Friday off to do some things around the house. Our downstairs bathroom is finally completely finished. Brett put in the trim and quarter round and it really looks nice. He also put the quarter round down in the two bathrooms upstairs. It was the final touches since we laid the new flooring upstairs. Brett also did some yard work which I'm sure our neighbors were very happy to see. We finally bought a weed eater! I was starting to get embarrassed at all of the grass that was growing up around our trees and walkways! Brett took up the miniature spiral trees (name??) that were out front and planted them around our deck in the back. They really look nice back there. He then planted some Day Lillies and Bee Balm (??). We've never heard of the Bee Balm, but they looked nice so we thought we'd try them out. Hopefully they fill out nicely. Next, we have to pull out the stumps from the bushes that we cut down last fall, plant new bushes, and move the rock.

On Friday we went to dinner for our friend Ali Coppola's birthday. Her husband surprised (kind of) her with a night out and dinner with friends. It was really a lot of fun. After dinner we met up with Libby, David, Grandpa Denny, Grandma Kathy, and the Neumann's for a drink downtown. When we went to pickup Riley from Grandma and Grandpa Burch's she had started sounding pretty congested.

Saturday, Brett enjoyed a round of golf (his first in a very long time) while I stayed home with Riley. By Saturday morning she was really feeling miserable! No smiles, not eating, not playing. We called Dr. Fred and he suggested to keep offering her other things to drink, like Pedialite. Grandma Burch came over for a while and brought Riley some pedialite and cute dresses. Saturday night was Uncle John's graduation from Roosevelt. We tried to make it, but Riley just wasn't feeling up to it. :(

Sunday was a day of relaxation. Riley was feeling a bit better, but Brett was beginning to feel sick. We took a trip to Costco. Did you know that you can get the biggest cup of frozen yogurt for only a $1.35 at Costco? Yep, only $1.35 for 16 oz of frozen yogurt. It was delicious. Sunday night Riley experienced her second dinner at Ohana's and truly enjoyed it. She loved eating the zucchini, rice, and chicken. We said Good-Bye to Libby and David after dinner and were lounging around the house by 9pm.

Monday was another day of relaxation. Brett wasn't feeling well and Riley had a horrible cough. I was a bit bummed that we weren't able to enjoy the weekend outside, but it was nice to just be home with the family!

Here is something new that Riley began doing over the weekend:

Hey, whatcha doin Mom??Lastly, here's my little lady. She's always sitting like this so I had to take a picture!

Food Snob

I've been slacking on the blog this week. Usually I'm inspired to write something based off of the pictures that I take throughout the week. Well, our memory stick for the camera is completely full! I've hated not having a camera because Riley is now pulling herself up and crawling directly to anything with buttons, fur, or electricity! Agenda for this weekend includes putting the videos and pictures on a CD so that I can delete them from the memory stick. So here is a story without pictures:

As you all know, Brett and I make all of Riley's food. Early on we tried giving her jarred meats to make sure that she wasn't allergic. We thought that would be better then cooking a whole piece of meat and pureeing it only to find out if she might not be able to eat it. Well, Wednesday we forgot to send lunch for Riley (I know, we're great parents) and Hedy had to give her some of the jarred food that she had on hand. Turns out Riley tried Green Beans with Rice and proceeded to spit it out and gag (like really gag) over every spoonful. I laughed when hearing this and thought "maybe it's the green beans" because Riley really doesn't care for them when we give them to her at home. That day she ended up with 1/2 banana for lunch. So that night I decided to try some of the Stage 3 "dinners" that Gerber makes thinking it would be easy to have some on hand when we didn't have something made. Little stinker wouldn't eat the Chicken and Noodles either! She did the same thing: gag, "how could you do this to me, Mom" look, and pushing it out. She also added in the "no, no" head shake with a sourpuss face. Ladies and Gentleman, we have created our very own FOOD SNOB! So last night, we mixed together sweet potato, squash, pork, spinach, pasta and something else...she ate it like a champ. Seriously, who really likes that over chicken and noodles?? Oh well, looks like we will continue to make Riley's food.

She has started trying more table foods. Things she likes: string cheese, bite sized pieces of chicken (grilled please...snob), Mexican rice, deli meat, bread, pasta. Things she doesn't like: green beans, plain yogurt, Mommy not sharing.

We are looking forward to the weekend. Brett's sister (Libby) and her fiancee (David) are coming to stay with us. Plus, we have John's (Brett's brother) graduation on Sunday. Hopefully I'll have some pictures of the weekend.

9 Month Pictures

Riley Nicole At 9 Months Old

Today Riley is 9 months old. She seems to be growing so fast and learning new things faster than I can write down! She is so much fun and life wouldn't be the same without her sweet giggle. Here's a glimpse into what she's doing and some of her favorite things:

• Crawling, crawling, crawling. I love to watch her little diaper butt crawl away and and then sit and turn around to smile at me.
• Fishy Kisses. Every hour I can count on hearing the little popping noise of her fishy kisses. I'm not sure where she picked this up, but it is so cute...for now.
• The Mirror. Riley loves looking at herself in the mirror. She could be throwing a fit and stop and smile at just the sight of herself in a mirror.
• Mickey Mouse. Last night we tried seeing what she would do when Mickey Mouse came on. She stopped crawling, sat down, and turned to look at the TV. She then turned around and intently watched Mickey Mouse. She loves it and knows it by sound. When we get to Hedy's in the morning the first thing she looks for is Mickey on TV.
• Hot Dog Dance. She loves to do the hot dog dance at the end of every Mickey Mouse show. Hopefully she has more rhythm than her mommy and daddy.
• Fingers. Riley constantly has her fingers in her mouth.
• Puffs! She loves em all.
• She is now sleeping on her side most of the nights. Brett and I are still the worry parents and if she rolls on to her tummy we roll her back. So far she deals with it.
• Sippy. Riley loves to drink her juice and water from her sippy. She loves to spit out the juice or water and smile at Mommy and Daddy.
• Riley has learned the sign for "milk." She has yet used it to ask for her bottle, but she is able to sign milk when she sees a bottle or hears the word bottle.
• She is soooo strong. Try keeping her from rolling away during a diaper change....nearly impossible! We call her bam-bam because she is always holding her big heavy toys above her head.
• Riley loves to walk...with help obviously. We're working on not walking like we're on a balance beam. So far she thinks walking means putting one foot directly in front of the other.
• Upside down. She loves to hang upside down. Do it once and plan to spend the next 5 minutes turning her little body upside down!
• Cats, dogs, any animal. Riley loves Sam. She still loves to pet Sam every morning and night. We are working on petting "softly" and not grabbing his soft fur and pulling.
• If you're older than 1 Riley wants to know what you are doing. She loves kids and loves to see what they are all doing.
• "wheels on the bus" Riley loves this song. If she is upset or squirming during a diaper change this song will usually calm her down and bring a smile to her face. Riley first learned this song at Waterbabies class and LOVES it!
• Teeth. She's obsessed with everybody's teeth. She doesn't care if it's not her mouth she's sticking her fingers in your mouth to check out your pearly whites. Someday, Riley, you will have your very own set!

Stay tuned for 9 month pictures!

Fishy Kisses

Riley's newest thing...Fishy Kisses... (check out Brett's pride and joy in the background...our garden)

We had to take the bathroom mirror down to texture and paint some spots. Riley was so excited and LOVED being able to get right up to the mirror for some face time. Here are some more Fishy Kisses from Riley Nicole!