Meltdown City Photos

To understand the story behind these photos read my previous post, Meltdown City!

The calm before the storm...

Pre-Meltdown #1...

Meltdown #1 consolation ride

Pre-Meltdown #2...

Meltdown City

We had major meltdown #1 and  major meltdown #2 all in the span of two days this weekend.  Yes, Riley has had temper tantrums, but never something so horrid that it went on for more than 10 minutes with screaming, arching of the back, and "how dare you" looks.  Meltdown #1 took place at the Tanger outlet mall in Williamsburg.  We decided to take a nice little Saturday drive to find some deals on a few things.  (Can I just say that Children's Place and Carters are my favorite stores there.  Where can you find pants, shirts, and coats for $1.99 and $2.99?? At the Children's Place outlet)  Anyway, back to meltdown #1.  Brett took Riley down to sit on the Mickey Mouse ride while I checked out the Oshkosh store.  After awhile I met them down by the rides.  Brett took Riley off of the Mickey ride so that she could try out the Lion King ride.  All was fine and dandy until another daddy and little girl decided to test out the Mickey ride. Riley nearly flung herself off of the Lion King ride and Meltdown #1 began.  We tried walking away.  Still meltdown city.  We tried the whole "let's go to McDonald's and get a toy."  This held her off for a few minutes until we got to our car and she realized that we weren't heading back to Mickey.  It took a good 5 minutes to get her into her carseat because of the arching back and screaming.  She's a tough little thing!  Meltdown #1 didn't end at McDonald's either.  She cried and twisted and turned while I tried to change her diaper.  She cried until we sat down and ate.  It was not fun!  At least she ate well!  After 45 minutes passed she forgot about Mickey and settled with a ride on an airplane.  Whew!  This is the very first time that Riley has shown any problems with not wanting to share.  She's always been the helper and toy distributor, but I'm starting to sense a bit of change...Other than Meltdown #1 we really did have a nice day in Williamsburg.  The weather was nice and the deals were hoppin!

On to meltdown #2.  Sunday, Brett and I decided to take Riley to church. We haven't been in a long time and decided to try and go regularly now.  Let me preface with Riley was an angel during church.  She sat quietly and only made a couple elephant and lion noises while Daddy was reading books to her.  Truly, an angel.  Now fast-forward 5 hours.  We're back at home and Riley's just woken up from her nap.  Brett and I had been down working in the basement and decided to put together her trike that she got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Murphy.  It was a hit.  She's not quite tall enough to use the peddles, but was able to push herself backward and forward.  After 20 minutes we decided that it was time to go upstairs and start dinner.  This is where meltdown #2 begins.  Twice I tried to get Riley to get off the trike, but gave her "just 5 more minutes."  Finally I decided enough is enough and drug my clinging child away from her brand new trike!  My screaming, wet noodle of a baby off of her brand new trike.  You would have thought the world was ending!  Oh, and how dare her daddy try to touch her brand new "soc ba" (soccer ball)!  We drug her upstairs and waited out the storm by sitting in our chair and talking about anything and everything to get her mind off of the trike.  Finally 5 or 6 minutes later she had moved on.  I seriously hope this isn't a look at what we have in store for the next couple years!  Meltdowns get my blood pumping and I don't like sweating unless I'm working out!

PS...I have some very cute pre-meltdown pictures to share tomorrow!

Crazy Hair

I have been praying for Riley to grow hair FAST so that she won't be mistaken for a little boy any longer.  I didn't realize that this is what we may be dealing with for awhile...

Now, this pictures shows Miss Riley with a little TONS of static, but really this is what her hair looks like just about every morning!

Wii Fun

Surprise! Uncle Nick Turns 30!

Saturday night I helped my sister-in-law surprise my brother with a 30th birthday party.  He turned 30 on February 24th!  It was a lot of fun and I think he was genuinely surprised, until he saw everyone's cars lining the street. 

Meanwhile, Riley had her very first overnight at Grandma and Grandpa Burch's with her cousins.  Grandma wasn't sure what she was getting herself into, but said that the girls were all very well behaved and had such a good time.  They had fun playing, going to Village Inn for "breakfast for supper", and taking a bath at Grandma's.  I guess Riley didn't really care much for the cramped bathtub, but otherwise loved being with her cousins.  When we came to pick her up she was running around smiling from ear to ear.  I think I remember Grandma Sheryl saying that she'd like to have all the grandkids spend the night together once a month ! Right? ;) Ok, maybe I made that last bit up!

A Visit From Aunt Libby

Grandma Kathy's birthday was last weekend and we were lucky enough to have all of the Murphy family (minus David) home to celebrate. 

Riley loved playing with Uncle "John John."

It took her a little while to open up to Aunt Libby, but they had a ton of fun together!

The Saga continues...

***First, we've been on a bit of a hiatus lately.  First Riley was sick last week, now I'm sick this week.  Hopefully Brett's not sick next week!  So, I have a ton of pictures on my camera that would make for some great posts, but they'll have to wait a couple of days.  Sorry.

But, I did want to post more about my terrible experience with Sears.  I finally got the call that my pictures were ready to pick up.  So, Friday after work I stopped in to get them.  After 20 minutes in the store I ended up leaving with only half of the pictures I ordered.  The one pose that I loved most was blury in every picture! 

Their solution, re-shoot "the pose" or I could pick out one of the other poses to have printed and ready for me to pick up on March 5th. I asked to be refunded for the pictures that didn't turn out, but that was out of the picture since I ordered a "collection." After explaining in a nice way that there was no way in hell we were going to "re-shoot the pose" because it was a terrible experience, I picked out some pictures from the other poses.  I'm so disappointed.  To be honest, the only picture that I'm satisfied with is one we had printed in black and white.  The other color photos were such poor quality.  Ugh!  So please PLEASE never go to Sears to get photos taken.  Worst.Experience.Ever!!!