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Our first weekend away

2/27/2011

And by "our" I mean, "me, Mark, and Riley", not "me and Mark." Just to be clear.

Anyway, the three of us made the 4 hour drive up north to go and visit some of Mark's family. His grandma is turning 91 in just a week or so, and she has never met Riley! So we decided that it was about time we went to visit her. Just for the record, I never realized how much stuff you need to pack when going away for a weekend with a baby. Our car was literally PACKED! And we were gone for one night! Anyway, I was pretty nervous about this trip because I knew Riley's schedule was definitely going to be disrupted, and I wasn't sure how she would deal. I wasn't sure how she'd sleep somewhere other than in her crib. Or how she'd do with 4 hours in the car each way. Or all the strangers wanting to hold her. But you know what? It couldn't have gone any better. I'm the proud owner of an angel baby. She was pretty much perfect the entire time.

We decided to leave Saturday morning at 8:30 since she's usually down for her first nap by 9. We figured we'd do her "pre-nap routine" (basically nurse and story) and then put her in the car instead of in bed. Well, she was asleep by 9:00, and slept for 45 minutes. Now, that's only half her usual nap time, but she then played happily in the car for the next hour and a half. We made a stop so she could get out, and then continued on our way until we arrived at Mark's nana's house. And Riley took only about 30 seconds to warm up to her, and then she was all smiles. I LOVE this photo.

Riley somehow managed to stay awake for 5 hours in a row without getting too fussy, until she was practically rubbing her eyes out she was so tired, so we decided we needed to check in to our hotel so she could have a nap. She took a few minutes to adjust to her new sleeping arrangement, but then took a 2 hour nap, and was ready for more relative-bonding time! We had dinner with a few more of Mark's side of the fam, and Riley was the center of attention, of course.

Riley was absolutely enamored with her 6 year old "cousin" Mishani (I think she's a cousin once-removed? I always get confused). Riley followed her all around, stared at her, tried to pull up onto her lap, watched her every single move, laughed and smiled at her non-stop... she was kind of obsessed. And she thought her great-Nana was pretty neat too.

"Helping" her great-Nana open her 91st birthday present!

And Mark's nana was soooo happy to see Buggy. She constantly wanted to hold her and play with her. It made me really really glad that we made the effort to go and see her, it clearly meant a lot to her.

Riley was even able to stay up that night until 8:45! She has been fast asleep at 6:45 pretty much every night, so 8:45 is LATE for her, but we were with the family until 8:20ish and then we had to get her back to the hotel and bathed and nursed, and she was literally out as soon as I put her in the pack n play!

Oh, AND... while we were at her house, we found a picture of Mark as a baby right about Riley's age.... (yes, this is a picture of a picture)

Why hello there, baby boy version of Riley...

Right?

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday

2/27/2011

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I haven't participated in a few weeks, but I'm back! This week's words were: Capture the Sky, Everyday, Furry, Life and Blurred. Here are my interpretations!

Capture the Sky

I took a whole bunch of the sky on our way home from our weekend adventure, but they were all kind of... unoriginal? Boring? Not sure, nothing too exciting. Don't get me wrong, the sky looked beautiful, but I just felt kind of blah about all of them. That is, until I was staring out the window and saw the sky in the rearview mirror, and thought, hmm, now that's a bit different... So I went with it!

Everyday

Every day we let Riley play/roll/crawl around naked. We started doing it to help with her diaper rash, but she apparently loves being naked, so we just go with it. Every day. Oh yeah and? This is the little face I get to play with and smooch all day long. Every. single. day. I am so lucky.

Furry

I take a photo of Riley on her rocking chair with her Ellie every month. And it gets harder and harder to get a good picture of her. She loves sucking on her furry little friend!

Life

This weekend we drove 4 hours north so Riley could meet her great grandma for the very first time. She turns 91 years old next week. 9-1!! That is a whole lot of life! And she was absolutely smitten with Riley, and I just love this photo.

Blurry

She loves to walk, and she is FAST! Fast = blurry legs!

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Project 365- Week 8

2/26/2011

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My photos from this week!

Here's a little recap:
Feb 21: swim lessons in the cutest little yellow suit you've ever seen!
Feb 25: We took a little road trip this weekend to visit Mark's 91 year old grandma (and a few other family members). I entertained myself by taking pictures while he drove. :)
Feb 23: Riley is obsessed with crawling under the dining table, but she's even more obsessed with remotes, which I used to bribe her back out!
Feb 20: Yum yum yum. This is what happens when Mark feeds Riley. Huge. Mess.
Feb 19: I just love her baby blues!
Feb 22: Riley's first bath in the duck tub, and she LOVED it!
Feb 23: I bought Riley this new car (used) and she loves it! The best part is that she can't fall off because it has those little side rail things, so I don't have to hold her on while pushing her around.

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8 months

2/25/2011

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Another month has passed, and our baby bug is now EIGHT months old. And she is just as cute as ever (if not cuter...) WARNING: This post is really long with lots of pictures, but SO much has changed since last month!!!

What she's up to these days:

crawling everywhere. She started crawling just after turning 7 months, and has gotten faster and faster, and now there's no stopping her.
Around 7.5 months, she started pulling up onto her knees. Then with a little help she pulled up to stand. Then, like 2 days later, she pulled up to stand all by herself. Now all she wants to do is stand holding on to something! She crawls over to me and pulls herself up all day long. She still needs a little help to get all the up most of the time, but it won't be long before she's doing it totally on her own.
Speaking of standing, she has stood up all by herself, not holding on to anything a few times for about 5 or 6 seconds.
She wants to walk holding on to our fingers all around the house. And she is f-a-s-t!

Sleeping: sleeps through the night about half the time (7pm-6am-ish), the other nights she wakes once to nurse around 3am. She has stopped waking up at the 5am hour, and even sometimes sleeps until 6:45 or 7!
Naps: we're on 2 naps a day, around 9am and 2pm, they usually last 1.5-2 hours! LOVING this new schedule.
LOVES to play in her crib. She crawls all around, sits up, lies down, rolls around, goes from one end to the other, plays with stuffed animals, laughs at the little crib soother/toy she's got in there, chews on her silk blankie, whines a little, cries sometimes, and then eventually goes to sleep. But she mostly goes to sleep without crying at all now, which is so amazing.

(Taking pictures of Riley is getting harder and harder since she's constantly on the move!!)

food: doing sooo much better with solids, we're on 3 meals a day (although the amount she eats at each meal is totally variable), and she loves trying to feed herself (and making a HUGE mess). We also pretty much give her whatever we are eating for dinner (except nuts, citrus, and honey), so she's had a whole bunch of different foods with different textures.
foods she has tried so far (foods she liked in bold): rice cereal, apple, sweet potato, banana, pear, blueberry, strawberry, guava, oatmeal, yogurt, cheese, toast, vegemite, avocado, potato, kumara, sweet potato, peas, broccoli, green beans, pumpkin, pasta bolognese, eggs, hamburger, french toast, chicken, carrots, cucumber, apricot, peach, parsnip, cottage cheese, vanilla custard, lamb, mango, chocolate custard, red bell pepper, homemade (healthy) pizza, watermelon, baby mum mums, rice crackers, cream cheese. There's probably more I've forgotten to include too. Now some of these she only liked because they were mixed in with other things, but I think that still counts. I'd say her FAVE is still pear, sweet potato and yogurt (not together). Basically she will eat anything as long as it's mixed with sweet potato.
Still hasn't tasted formula, and is doing better with taking a bottle, although she only gets one maaaaybe once a week.
Has a weird fascination with the rug/dining room table. She is constantly crawling in there and trying to get under the table. It's the weirdest thing.

(This is my view for quite a lot of the day. Buggy crawling away from me to get under the table. But I bribe her back with the remotes...)

Loves to throw toys. If we put her in the high chair, she picks up toys/spoons/bowls, and throws them over the side. She also loves to bang them on her high chair tray.
is obsessed with TV remotes. And car keys. And my computer.
Babbles alllll day long. Loudly. She says mama pretty clearly, and just a few weeks ago she started with bababababa, dadadada, gagaga, rarara, shhhh, and a few other miscellaneous sounds.
She has one tooth, but I swear the second one is coming any day now. Aaaaaany day.

Has discovered the art of a tantrum. She's become OBSESSED with books lately, and throws a huge fit after we finish reading one because she wants more more more. We're using this to work on our signs for "more" and "book." Hopefully she learns those sooner rather than later, because uhh, the meltdown is epic...
When we read books she purposefully turns the pages or opens the flaps of the "peek-a-boo" books
Has this new face she makes, and I haven't been able to really capture it on camera, but I am trying! She basically scrunches up her nose in excitement, and breathes heavily through her nose as she crawls to get something. I die every time she does it.

Loves the car and the stroller. In fact, she loves them both so much, she will play or sit quietly and if we are anywhere near her nap time, she will usually go right to sleep.
Is no longer afraid of strangers. At swim lessons I often ask the instructors to hold her for a minute or two and she is happy as can be. She smiles at everyone. She also loves Mark's parents now!
Speaking of swim lessons- she's still loving them, and she "swam" (was dunked) under water for the very first time. She sputtered a little, but then was back to splashing and playing in no time!
Wears cloth diapers during the day, and disposables during the night so we can save some money. This was working really well for us until she got her very first diaper rash, and I'm thinking it's from the cloth diapers. Great. I'm not giving up on cloth yet, but that would sure be annoying if she got a diaper rash every time we use them!
wears 9-12 month clothes, size 3 diapers, and if I had to guess, I'd say she weighs almost 18 pounds. I'll weight her tomorrow and see.
Has a new fave toy (that I bought for $10... best $10 I ever spent)

baby signs we're using with her: more, milk, eat, drink, ball, all done, sleep, up, help, mama, dada. So far she's only signed milk, and only once, but it's a start. She definitely is getting the hang of it though!
LOVES to drink water. She's pretty decent with a sippy cup, bnd we've discovered she love love loves to drink from a powerade bottle. Our little athlete-in-training!

Is still the cutest little buggy we've ever seen. And I just cannot stop taking pictures!

What was I doing to get her to smile so big? Either (1) saying cheeeeese which is apparently SO funny, or (2) playing peek-a-boo behind the camera. Works every time.

And of course, we took her monthly chair photo, although I don't spend much time on these photos because (1) the lighting is horrible in there (2) Riley will not sit still and (3) I need Mark to help me otherwise she goes flying off the chair. But I feel like I've done it every month so far so I might as well just keep going until she's 1!

First attempt. Uhhh.... yum?

Second attempt. This was .2 seconds before she attempted to fling herself off the chair. Mark saved the day.

Final attempt. She's sitting up. She's looking at the camera (or in the general direction). She's not eating her Ellie. Success. Done. Call it a day.

Happy 8 months baby bug!!

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Wordless Wednesday

2/23/2011

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Is it weird that I always post my wordless Wednesday posts on US time, so it's actually already Thursday NZ time? Eh...

Naked babies!! I took both babies "swimming" in our baby pool yesterday (with the help of my wonderful husband who was home early from work). I didn't get any pictures because it was rather hands on, so this one of them waiting for me to fill up the pool will have to do.

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The duck tub.

2/21/2011

5 Comments

Riley got this ducky tub for Christmas, and I can't believe we haven't used it until just now. See, Mark usually gives Riley a bath every night, and he gets in with her and they play and it is seriously her favorite part of the day. But tonight, he wasn't home for bath time, and as much as I love my baby, it's a bit tricky to take a bath with her, then get out, dry her, dry myself, get us both dressed, etc etc. At least when Mark gives her a bath, I'm there to help get her out and dried and dressed. But since I was flying solo tonight, I decided it was time for the duck tub. And let me tell you... it is AMAZING (aside from the fact that I almost passed out from blowing it up too fast).

She can sit up and lean over and splash around, and I'm not at all worried about her falling over.

I don't have to hold on to her at all, I can just sit down and watch her play.

And she looks amazingly cute in it.

AND I DO NOT HAVE TO GET IN THE TUB WITH HER!!

This tub rules. She likes it almost as much as those silly little finger puppets (notice how there's one in her hand/mouth in every single picture??)

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Earthquake

2/21/2011

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Most people who do not live in New Zealand are not familiar with New Zealand geography (understandably). Luckily, we live in Wellington, which is on the north island, and the huge earthquake was down in Christchurch, which is on the south island. Apparently you could feel it here in Wellington, but I most definitely did not. Instead, I watched the news for hours and hours, and thanked God that I do not live in Christchurch, and that my husband and baby are safe here in Wellington. In case you are not up with the news (not sure how much of this would be shown in the US anyway), there was a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, and there have been at least 65 confirmed dead so far. It's bad. Really bad. You can read about it here.

Central Christchurch in ruins after the earthquake. Source: Seraphim Realm.

Collapsed Building. Source: Seraphim Realm.

A crushed bus. Source: Getty Images

Extensive damage. Source: Getty Images.

So please keep your thoughts and prayers with all the people in Christchurch, New Zealand. And I will continue to be extremely thankful that my family is safe and sound in Wellington.

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Swim lessons!

2/20/2011

3 Comments

First of all, I survived the half marathon. It actually wasn't as impossibly hard as I thought it would be, probably because we didn't go all that fast. But my goal was just to finish the race, and we did it, and I'm proud of myself for that! IF (and that's a big IF) I ever decide to do another one, I think it might be a good idea to actually train for it. Running 6 times after not running for about 10 months is NOT a good way to go about preparing for a half marathon. Not at all.

Anyway, now that the weekend is over, we are back into our usual routine, which means we had swim lessons today! Riley tried out her new swimsuit...

These photos were taken right after she peed on me. Cloth swim diapers don't hold pee in, FYI.

And these ones were actually taken yesterday. After we got back from our half marathon, we put Riley in her baby pool in the yard since it was a nice warm day. She loved it.

Oh yeah, and? Today at swim lessons, Riley went "swimming" underwater, and she didn't even cry. She sputtered a little bit, but recovered quickly and was back splashing around in no time. She loves the water!

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P365 Week 7

2/19/2011

10 Comments

Another week, another set of pictures.

Feb 12- It's rare for me to get any pictures of Riley laying on her back anymore. She's either (1) crawling (2) sitting or (3) on her tummy trying to eat the rug
Feb 13- A little Valentine's day photo of me and my muchkin
Feb 14- Mark's apron says "Hi my name's Mark and I'm Sizzling hot and cooking up a storm." Love it.
Feb 18- A day trip to the beach with my two favorite people
Feb 16- Riley's newest favorite thing to do- eat the rug. I have no idea why, but she is constantly eating/sucking on the rug. Definitely inspires me to vacuum more often...
Feb 17- Not sure what happened, but after Riley at lunch one day she got this red rash all around her mouth. I immediately thought food allergy, but she hadn't eaten anything new, so I'm not sure what happened.
Feb 15- Sigh. As if one paci isn't enough. Silly baby.

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A day in the life

2/18/2011

1 Comment

Riley is getting tooth #2. It's close to popping through. As a result, I had one very whiny baby all day yesterday. She was tough work to entertain! Usually when we play, I try to only bring out one bin of toys at a time so she's not totally overwhelmed with toys.

But that kept her happy for about .2 seconds, so we brought out the big guns. Every. single. toy. we own.

Do you like our new alphabet floor tiles? Riley sure does! They are all colorful and textured, and apparently delicious. Half the letters are full of Riley's teeth marks from her one and only tooth.

Then when she got bored, we moved on to play with her new pink baby "laptop," which she loves, except for the fact that she slams it shut and then can't get it back open. Sigh.

So after we played with every single toy in the house, sang all the songs I know, hung out in every room in the house to give her a change of scenery, and watched "The Wiggles" on TV, we anxiously waited for Mark to get home so we could get out of the house and occupy Riley until dinner/bath/bedtime. So, at 4:30, we packed a bag, jumped in the car, and headed for the beach.

It was a warm sunny day, the water was cold, and the baby? She loved it. Every minute of it.

Seriously, Mark had to hold her back, she wanted IN.

And you know what she loved even more than the ocean? The sand. She love love loved the sand. In fact, we had to keep that paci in her mouth otherwise she probably would've eaten half the beach.

She would play and play, and dig and squish her fingers in the sand, and then get all serious and look off into the distance, as if contemplating her tiny little life.

And we just got to sit back and watch her take it all in. (And the socks? you might be wondering... her feet were freeeeeezing after playing in the ocean, so on went the socks. I'm only a paranoid mommy sometimes, I promise)

She took a break from playing to pose for me (and in the process get sand all up in her ear. nice.)

Yup, these hands, in that ear.

But she was having so much fun, she didn't whine or cry the entire time we were there. Mission accomplished.

But of course, all good things must come to an end, so we packed up, tried to brush at least some of the sand off, and drove home. And we found ourselves with a little time remaining after dinner, but before bedtime, so naturally, we stripped Riley down and she played naked (mostly because we were out of diapers, except for the one we needed for bedtime... oops). Apparently, this child loves to be naked.

Remember what I said about the teeth marks in the letters? Yup.... she chomps on everything.

And the tooth, in all its (teeny tiny) glory. Hopefully the last picture of her with only one tooth!

So we played and played and played, until she was too sleepy to play anymore, and into the bath she went. She fell asleep very shortly thereafter, and slept from 7 to 5, nursed, and then went back to sleep until 7:15. I think we should take her to the beach every day.

Happy weekend, my friends!

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