Happy Bithday, Riley Nicole!

The much awaited 1st birthday has come and gone. It was a great day, great party, and Riley seemed to enjoy all of her guests! She is a lucky girl to have so many people who love her and wanted to help her (and her mom and dad) celebrate this special milestone! I must point out that Riley gave her mommy and daddy a birthday gift: She is walking everywhere. We are hoping that it jump starts our workout and weight loss program because she's a quick little thing. She didn't crawl once this weekend; and loved chasing her friend, Carter, around the house. I think she'll be running any day now!

Saturday we welcomed family and friends to the house to celebrate the big day. Brett and I had been preparing for this party for weeks so we were excited that the day was finally here. We had a menu of pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, potato salad, mixed fruit, veggies, and cake. Brett designed the cake. He even created a drawing on the computer complete with color! It turned out great and pretty darn close to the drawing. We picked up a small "smash" cake just for Riley.

I have to say that Riley looked adorable in her little green polka dot dress. And boy did she LOVE all of the attention. She is a true Leo! She opened up her gifts with as much attention as a one year old can. She really received a ton of great gifts. She loves all of the toys and doesn't know what to do with so many to play with! I'm excited to dress her in all of her cute clothes and shoes.

After presents we decided to strip Riley down and let her dig into her cake. She started off slow, but it didn't take long for her dig in. Every time someone laughed she laughed with them. She was so funny and had the cutest pink face in town! After two baths she still had some pink cheeks!

Overall, it was worth all of the hassle and it was the best 1st birthday party ever!

Riley's Birthday Week

OK, so I've been so excited for Riley's birthday on Saturday and busy planning the best party ever that I've kind of been overlooking my own. I'm going to be 27 on Wednesday! I'm sure this is how it will be for the rest of my life! :) Anyway, thanks to my mom and husband for trying to make it special. We are having a BBQ on Wednesday and Brett is trying to plan a night out for the two of us. So, Riley will truly be having a week full of birthday fun!

Saturday we started her Birthday Week off with some one year pictures at Portrait Innovations. Like always we walked out of there with 7 poses and way too many pictures. Riley decided to hit herself in the eye on Friday so in some of them she has a black eye. Overall, we were happy with how they turned out. In her jeans outfit she looks so tiny! She is wearing 12 month jeans. I tried them on her inside of Target and said "oh these fit perfectly!" Saturday morning Brett thought I was nuts because they are clearly way too big! They still turned out cute.

Sunday after weathering the storm and finishing nearly all of our landscaping projects we went to visit grandma and Grandpa Burch. Grandma just had to give Riley one her presents while we were there - her very first baby doll! She loves it! Last night we were playing before bed and I told her to go find her baby. She stood up and walked right over to her (yes, that's right - walked!), grabbed her, and gave her a "kiss." Here's Grandma, Riley, and Baby Doll!

One Year Ago

...I wrote this on my babysite...

"SWOLLEN

8/1/09

I thought that I was going to get through most of this pregnancy without swelling up like a balloon...I was wrong. The heat we've had the past few days has not been kind to my body! My hands, wrists, ankles, feet, and face are so swollen. It's almost painful to bend my fingers because of the swelling. We only have seven weeks left of this pregnancy and then we'll get to finally meet Riley!"

So, reading this really made me think about life back then. And oh my, the swelling, was not a joke! I'll find some pictures that were taken a couple days before Riley was born and post them. But in the meantime, check out this one!

A couple days later I wrote this:

"9th Appointment...We're Nearing the End!

8/8/08

We went back to the doctor on Wednesday for our 33/34 week checkup. Everything went fine. I had a list of questions, and of course, everything that I'm feeling is normal. :) Riley's heartbeat was at 140 which is good. The doctor didn't seem to think that my swelling was too bad - so maybe I'm just a wuss! We go back to the doctor on the 21st to get checked again to see if I've begun to dilate and take the strep b test.

I called the doctor's office yesterday because I had a couple concerns. They informed me that they thought that with everything I was experiencing that I would be going into labor in the next few weeks. Hopefully Riley will wait it out so that we can get settled into our new house!

I haven't been able to feel Riley move as much lately because she's "dropped." The nurse assured me that this is all normal. Thanks to some good friends we've been listening to Riley's heartbeat at home with a fetal monitor.

I'll be sure to keep you all posted if anything changes before our next appointment. It's hard to believe that we're going to have an addition to our family in less than 6 weeks!"

As you know, the nurse was right...I had Riley 7 days later! We didn't make it to our next appointment, we didn't get settled into our new house, and just barely made it out of our townhouse in time! It's funny looking back on these old journals and remembering how our life was then - chaotic. Here's what I looked like back then (notice how my backside grew as much as my belly...not cool):

Spaghetti at the Murphy's

Jackpot

Looked what Riley stumbled upon.



She finally found where all of her toys are stored in the family room. She crawls to the cupboard every night now and pulls out 3/4 of the toys. How much fun!

From That to This

I wanted to post the video that I promised. The first one is of Riley pre 7-10 steps at a time. Listen to her jabber, not mine. So cute! These two videos were only shot about 2-3 days apart.

Now here is Riley actually walking! Once again, focus on the smiling, laughing, WALKING baby and not my dumb comments! She still has some perfecting to do, but this isn't too shabby after only a few days! I think she's up to 10 steps in a row!

Go, Baby, Go!

Ladies and Gentlemen: We have a walker! Yep, you read that right. Miss Riley Nicole took seven whole steps in a row completely on her own. No couches, no mommy, no daddy, nothing but air! We have been waiting for this to happen. Monday night we watched her take two steps and then plop down and she's been cruising around all of the furniture. Yesterday I was at Hedy's picking her up and I watched her take 3 whole steps! She gave me a big cheesy grin afterward. Like she was saying "look at me Mom! I'm a big girl! Hedy said that she had been walking all day long and had taken seven steps in a row. We were so excited to tell and show Daddy when we got home. Low and behold she walked seven steps in a row again! It's so funny to watch her because she gets going so fast and her momentum takes her down face first. I haven't been able to capture her steps on video yet, but will post it as soon as I do.

We have one slight problem with this walking thing: shoes. She has the skinniest, tiniest feet possible. Everything she tries on is too big and too wide. Do they even make narrow baby shoes? If not, they should! Right now she has two pairs (which only one actually stays on her foot) to wear. Even though I love to dot com shop, I hate to purchase anything off the Internet because 9 times out of 10 they won't fit! My hunt for the perfect shoe continues.

Hedy also said that Riley has learned to climb up the kiddie slide, turn around on her tummy, and slide down all by herself! She is growing so fast and each day she reminds me more and more of a toddler!