ONE!

riley is one. i can't believe it.

today was her real birthday, and tomorrow will be her big family party. we'll have our friend party in a few weeks. essentially, it's the month of riley (as if it hasn't been the year of riley).

today we had cake and presents with nana and grandpa plante. riley is still a tiny bit fussy from the ear infection, but she's much more herself . . .

. . . except when i tried to put her in her party dress. this is the famed dress that cousin kelly gave riley last year BEFORE SHE WAS BORN. it has been featured in her holiday card. i love it. today, riley disagrees. she kept pulling at the dress and crying.

well, that problem was easily remedied. riley was stripped down to her birthday suit (how appropriate!), and then she had a great time opening presents.

later we put her in her pajamas so that she would be warmer while she had her cake. riley is a superstar when it comes to eating sweets. she finished the entire piece of cake.

next came the "sugar high" . . .

and the day ended, as does every day, with riley having a warm bath, milk, and then bed. you'll note in this tubbie time picture that riley's hair is sticking out on the left. that is from a mixture of frosting and ear drops.

First Christmas

riley was sick. she cried through the whole holiday. she has her first ear infection (and i assume it's the first of many). we won't forget her first christmas!

santa, take 1

santa visited great-nannie's nursing home this year . . .

we thought it would be great fun for riley to meet the jolly ole' guy in this non-threatening environment. let me set the scene: we drove through heavy snow for a half hour with riley screaming in the car. note that santa did not arrive until the early evening, which is riley's bedtime (yes, she is usually asleep by 6pm!). and also note that riley has a little cold, which probably doesn't help her mood.

this is the first picture. we should've stopped. it's not terrible, although i wish i'd gotten dressed up. i never considered that i would end up in all of the photos! but because no one was looking at the camera, we thought we'd try to get more pictures . . .

then riley decided that she wanted to get away from this strange guy. here she is hitting my face repeatedly.

in this next pic, i'm able to pull it together enough to smile, but riley disagrees with that plan. great-nannie is ready to bolt, too. she does not like it when riley cries.

next we decide to eliminate the santa altogether and to add in the rest of the family. matt gets paged during this photo shoot.

we considered airbrushing matt back into this picture, but no one is really paying attention at this point.

we did manage one picture with everyone (except santa). we'll take what we can get.

later, riley warmed up a little. this is the closest she got to the man in red.

happy holidays!

we've taken better pictures

well, so we're not looking our best here. but we're all in the picture, and that was an accomplishment. here is tammie (visiting from holland), her 9-week baby isabella, elee (visiting from philly), and me and riley. it had been a long day. the kiddos had been crying on and off and sometimes in sync. elee may be very afraid of having children now.

but another holiday season is here, and it was nostalgic. since we've known each other, we've all graduated from college. elee got her phd. tammie her mba. donnah her md. we've all gotten married. two of us have babies. all three of us are now homeowners. we've laughed, cried, argued, laughed again. we have so much to be thankful for.

one more messy mealtime picture

i couldn't resist posting another picture of riley eating. she's truly a disaster. but a cute disaster. she completely refuses to wear a bib, and although you may think that i'm the mommy and therefore should be able to force her to wear it, well, you'll just have to see in person what happens when there is a battle of the wills. for this particular meal, riley has confiscated the yogurt container, and she has gone through many spoons (you can't see the ones on the floor). argh. we should buy stock in the floor cleaner.

snow day

i didn't take any pictures of the snow or riley in it yet, but this is riley on the day of her first big snowstorm. you can see that she is not pleased. this is why:
it took me 2 hours to pick her up from daycare and then 1 1/2 hours to get home with her. i traveled approximately 7 miles total, although i'm not completely sure because i took a crazy route.

essentially, 10 inches of snow fell in a few hours, and everyone in the state of rhode island decided to be on the road simultaneously. rhode islanders are not good drivers. people were stuck on hills, intersections were blocked, there was no way a plow could get through (never mind emergency vehicles).

i am not proud to say that to get home with my screaming baby i resorted to driving through someone's yard, passing cars by driving on the sidewalk, and--yes--getting out of my car to yell at someone(s) who was blocking the intersection. i followed a hummer for awhile, too, which brought us the wrong way down a one-way street . . .

it was worth it.

christmas tree

riley, matt and i picked out riley's first christmas tree.

i edited out the pictures of the tree toppling over because matt and i forgot part of the tree stand . . .

please notice that riley is wearing her santa pants for me and her patriots' jersey for matt!

our little spelunker

riley met a friend at the children's museum, who showed her how to hide in the cave. it took riley a little while to warm up, but once she did, she crawled into the cave herself and peeked her head out the window! too cute.