Riley was playing with a tomato the other day at Grandma and Grandpa Burch's house and this is what we ended up with...
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Riley At 13 Months
Riley is officially 13 months old (a few days late). She has changed so much over the past month. I can't believe how things seem to be picking up so quickly. She was just starting to really walk a little over a month ago. Now, she seems to run everywhere. She just learned to walk backwards. She'll stop and start concentrating, then slowly move backwards. It's so funny to watch. She also loves soccer! This makes her mommy very happy. We have a nerf soccer ball that she dribbles all around the house. Daddy got it on video, but I don't know how to upload from the video camera.
We had to take her to the doctor this week to get checked out. She had a pretty nasty cough and congestion. Turns out she had a virus and had to get a cortisone shot. She weighed in at 19 pounds, 8 ounces. I thought for sure she'd be in the 20s by now, but all this walking seems to be keeping her weight down. They didn't get a good measurement on her height, but thought it was somewhere around 29 inches. Because Riley's been sick there haven't been a lot going on at Murphy household.
Riley's new skills:
We had to take her to the doctor this week to get checked out. She had a pretty nasty cough and congestion. Turns out she had a virus and had to get a cortisone shot. She weighed in at 19 pounds, 8 ounces. I thought for sure she'd be in the 20s by now, but all this walking seems to be keeping her weight down. They didn't get a good measurement on her height, but thought it was somewhere around 29 inches. Because Riley's been sick there haven't been a lot going on at Murphy household.
Riley's new skills:
- running
- walking backwards
- Dribbling a soccer ball.
- Two more teeth - one of them a molar.
- Being "gentle" with Sam, the cat. After a year with Riley, Sam has finally come to the conclusion that he must allow her to pet him if he wants any attention at all. Now, they are the best of friends for about 3 minutes a day. As soon as we walk in the door Sam is in front of us stretched out on the floor. Sam also becomes very anxious when Riley is up crying at night (like the last five nights! ugh.). We'll hear him meowing downstairs and then 10 seconds later he's walking around Riley's room checking out. We've also noticed him sleeping in her room a lot more these days. He's coming around slowly.
- Stealing any remote in sight and and always finding the power button, volume button, or record button. Never fails.
- Identifying cats, dogs, horses, cows, and sheep.
- Hugging. She loves to hug her bunny (which she now loves to carry everywhere!) and her dollies. She also loves to follow Mommy around everywhere.
- If you are laying on a pillow - move over because Riley is going to join you. She loves to lay down and roll over on pillows.
- "Jumping" onto her ladybug beanbag. Daddy taught her this.
- Running around the house naked at bath time. She runs straight to the tub when you say "bath" and proceeds to try to get in on her own. She loves water!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
New Photos!
I went through and found some more pictures to post. Enjoy!
I love my new beanbag chair!
With Mommy and Daddy at the Iowa State Fair. Notice the hand in the butt pocket in the background. Only at the fair!
I love my new beanbag chair!
With Mommy and Daddy at the Iowa State Fair. Notice the hand in the butt pocket in the background. Only at the fair!Cheese Grin!
My little island girl
At mommy's birthday party. Practicing the number 1!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Riley's New Tricks
It's my turn to brag about my baby. After all, that is the whole point of creating this blog all about Riley.
She learned some new tricks over the weekend. She will finally throw her hands in the air when you ask her "how big is Riley?" This took forever, and out of the blue she learned it in one morning. She will also answer the question "how old is Riley?" by throwing her hands in the air with her fingers pointing in a number one. Really, I think she's just answering what she thinks is the same question as "how big is Riley?" but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt! We are still trying to get this on video as the little genius has let all this go to her head and refused to work on camera! :)
She is also able to point to her nose, tongue, mouth, eye, and head. She gets her ear about 50% of the time.
She has found her nostrils and LOVES sticking he finger up her nose as far as it will go! This is actually what she does when answering "where's your nose?" She's going to love that some day!
She was playing with a toy truck at the lake and out of nowhere she was pushing it and saying "vroom vroom." She must have learned this at daycare with all of the boys around.
She will hug and kiss her dollies.
She answers her phone by holding it up to her ear and saying "hi."
It seems that in the last couple weeks she's been picking up on this so much quicker. She will actually answer questions. She is pointing at everything and saying something like "what's that" or "want that." We can't quite make it out for sure. But she knows that she's getting her point across.
She learned some new tricks over the weekend. She will finally throw her hands in the air when you ask her "how big is Riley?" This took forever, and out of the blue she learned it in one morning. She will also answer the question "how old is Riley?" by throwing her hands in the air with her fingers pointing in a number one. Really, I think she's just answering what she thinks is the same question as "how big is Riley?" but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt! We are still trying to get this on video as the little genius has let all this go to her head and refused to work on camera! :)
She is also able to point to her nose, tongue, mouth, eye, and head. She gets her ear about 50% of the time.
She has found her nostrils and LOVES sticking he finger up her nose as far as it will go! This is actually what she does when answering "where's your nose?" She's going to love that some day!
She was playing with a toy truck at the lake and out of nowhere she was pushing it and saying "vroom vroom." She must have learned this at daycare with all of the boys around.
She will hug and kiss her dollies.
She answers her phone by holding it up to her ear and saying "hi."
It seems that in the last couple weeks she's been picking up on this so much quicker. She will actually answer questions. She is pointing at everything and saying something like "what's that" or "want that." We can't quite make it out for sure. But she knows that she's getting her point across.
Riley Goes to Lake Okoboji
The Murphy's were finally able to enjoy a weekend away for some much needed relaxation. We headed up to Spirit Lake for Labor Day weekend. Brett's aunt and uncle rent a lake house, The House That Jack Built, for a couple months each summer and we gladly took the opportunity to get out of town for a few days. We were joined by Brett's aunt, Marilyn, Grandma Murphy, and Uncle John. Friday night we enjoyed the place to ourselves. We checked out the beach, ate lasagna, and I beat Brett at a LONG game of rummy. We staked out a good place, Tweeters, to watch the Iowa Game on Saturday. There were plenty of Iowa fans to help us cheer them on. We left before all hell broke loose and Iowa had to block two field goals. Riley loved playing in the sand and floating in the water. The water was pretty choppy (and freezing) so we made her wear her life jacket. Sunday night was the most eventful night of the weekend. We put Riley to sleep and then enjoyed a little bonfire on the beach. Around 1:30am Riley was stirring and obviously a uncomfortable. Brett was holding her trying to get her to calm down and the chunks came flying. For those of you who know Brett he was mortified! Brett and Riley showered as I did a load of laundry. Needless to say, we were ready to get home when we woke up on Monday morning. overall, it was a great trip. Here are some pictures and a video to enjoy!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Home Improvements
I've been meaning to write something about all of the home improvements that we've taken on over the summer. I know, not Riley related, but I'll have a post on her coming soon. It will be a long one to include her very first parade, new shoes, and Lake Okoboji!. By the way, she is practically running, turning in circles everywhere, "talking" on the phone, chasing boys at daycare, and the list goes on.
Anyway, our list of home improvements is quite long and we are very impressed with our skillz. I really felt inspired to write this blog after last nights episode of Renovation Realities. I like to call it Renovation Real-idiots because the people they find for this show are so stupid that Brett and I laugh through the entire half hour show. It airs on DIY network and I have no idea at what time because we always seem to watch it at different times. So last night we watched as two middle-aged women tried to renovate a room into an Art Gallery, all the while wearing bike helmets as hard harts. Really? Really. Seriously...funniest thing ever. Then to top of their ridiculousness, they couldn't even cut a piece of wood. We watched as they attempted to cut a two by four 72 in. in length. It was in inch short the first time. They went back to cut it again and came back with a board that was 12 inches too short! If these women could complete their renovation, we look like master builders. Here's a list (and a few pictures) of our home improvements.
Anyway, our list of home improvements is quite long and we are very impressed with our skillz. I really felt inspired to write this blog after last nights episode of Renovation Realities. I like to call it Renovation Real-idiots because the people they find for this show are so stupid that Brett and I laugh through the entire half hour show. It airs on DIY network and I have no idea at what time because we always seem to watch it at different times. So last night we watched as two middle-aged women tried to renovate a room into an Art Gallery, all the while wearing bike helmets as hard harts. Really? Really. Seriously...funniest thing ever. Then to top of their ridiculousness, they couldn't even cut a piece of wood. We watched as they attempted to cut a two by four 72 in. in length. It was in inch short the first time. They went back to cut it again and came back with a board that was 12 inches too short! If these women could complete their renovation, we look like master builders. Here's a list (and a few pictures) of our home improvements.
- Finally got rid of all the dead branches that we cut from the trees last year. put down grass seed to re-grow all of the grass that we killed from being procrastinators.
- Replaced all of our outdoor lighting with brand spankin' new fixtures. Looks quite nice. Although, Brett bought the brightest lights for our motion lights on the garage so now we light the entire street. I'm sure our neighbors love us for that one.
- Painted our door black and hung new door knocker. We are no longer the Lindamin's who live in a house with a PURPLE door!
- Landscaped our entire front and back yard. This was our HUGE project and Brett hopes he never has to pull a stump ever again. This was hard work. First we transplanted our spiral mini trees (real name??) and put them around our deck in back. Then we planted all new lillies bee balms leading up to the house, and put down new mulch. Then, we planted spireas in the back with the spiral trees. Then we removed umpteen hundred pounds of rock from in front of the house. Removed 4 dead stumps. Planted 14 new plants. Put down all new mulch.
- Hung a mirror in the dining room.
- Hung a spread of pictures in the front room.
- Painted all of our woodwork in the master bathroom white. It is so refreshing and feels good to get some of the last filth from the previous owners taken care of!
*******Pictures to be posted later******
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