children's museum

matt and i went to the children's museum over the weekend. they have this great toddlers' room where riley has a blast. the first picture is her going too quickly down the slide (which she loved and i hated). the second picture is her in the "non walkers" area. it's a huge, padded pen filled w different shaped balls. you can see a little boy, sam, behind her in one of the pictures. riley had just stolen his ball and quickly crawled away.

the last two pictures are riley and a walker. i was afraid she'd fall and break one of her 5+ teeth, but matt told me i'm too nervous.

favorite book

every day, riley and i read this book: "Eight Silly Monkeys." you know this book--eight silly monkeys jumping on the bed/one fell off and bumped his head/momma called the doctor and the doctor said/"no more monkeys jumpin' on the bed!"

riley pulls it off her bookshelf herself (it is the largest book on the bottom shelf, so it may simply be a coincidence). she turns the pages (never at the right time and never one page at a time), and she pokes at those monkeys very intently.

generations

kathy convinced me to spend my day off attending the st. antoine's nursing home craft fair. nannie eunice is a resident there, and we tried to get a picture of the four generations: great-grandma eunice, nana kathy, daddy matt, and riley.

waterbabies

swim lessons, part 2.
we decided to sign riley up for a second session of waterbabies at the ymca. it isn't so much that she didn't learn a darn thing for the first six weeks of lessons (sometimes she appears to notice that she's in the water), but it's also great daddy-riley bonding time. here she is, on the slide. our goal for these six weeks is for riley to kick once in a while . . .

boo!

happy halloween! riley was a chicken or a duck or something . . . we paraded her all around the neighborhood.

if anyone needs a 6-12 month chicken suit, we have one that was worn for a total of 30 minutes!

tagged

this is my first time being tagged (thanks, lisa), and i'm going to honor it. i'm supposed to post 8 random things about riley . . . i'm going to steal some things from owen, though, since they are only 1 day apart in age, and they are similar in many ways!

1. riley is the happiest baby on the block--until you cross her. then forget it. for example, if you pick her up when she doesn't want to be touched, she arches her back and screams. she turns bright red and howls. this almost always happens when i try to change her diaper.
2. riley LOVES solid foods. she takes almost no milk now, much to my dismay. when i'm with her, she gets force-breastfed (picture milk squirting everywhere and riley shrieking between gulps). at almost any time during the day, someone is trying to squirt a sip of milk into her mouth from the bottle or sippy cup, too.
3. riley has eaten everything--from a taco to ice cream to onions. you can't stop her.
4. riley has gotten formal pictures taken every month of her life, for a total of 10 formal shoots.
5. riley's favorite game is "chase." she crawls away from you, stops, turns around, and waves. then she crawls off as fast as she can, giggling the whole time. you're supposed to chase after her.
6. riley can stand independently now, but she'd rather prop herself up by resting her big belly on the edge of something. that way she has her hands free but is still stable.
7. riley gets a bath every night. i don't think we've missed a day. it's part of the bedtime ritual, which starts at 5pm: dinner, bath, book, milk, bed.
8. once again, riley is NOT sleeping through the night. for the past 2 weeks, she's been up at least 2-3 times per night. sometimes more. she seems unphased. she rarely naps for more than 45 minutes per day, too.

ridiculous jacket

riley is TEN MONTHS OLD! yup.

here she is at ten months, modeling her corky's jacket. i bought this jacket directly from the factory in fall river, massachusetts. it was quite the experience--similar to a filene's basement sale except instead of crazed brides it was frantic, more savvy mommies. i waited in line for two hours for this jacket, so the only appropriate response is that it is the most incredible winter coat you've ever seen.

at ten months, riley is more independent every day. she has taken to screaming every time she is restrained in any way: car seat, changing table, high chair, my arms . . . but she is certainly more dextrous every day as well. she pulls herself to standing and then forgets to hold on, she crawls everywhere (including up stairs), she eats everything, she plays with her toys. she's taken to mimicking now, too, which is quite cute. she's working on "oh-oh" and "bababababa" (i think that may become dada, but i'm not sure). she waves and does "itsy bitsy spider" and claps and puts her arms over her head when you ask her how big she is.

where's riley?

riley has discovered that she is mobile. she's testing out her environment. here we are, playing in her room, and she decides that she's going to tour the rest of the house . . .

she stops at the doorway to make sure she's not being followed. she usually waves bye-bye, but i couldn't catch it on camera.

after that quick glimpse over her shoulder, she's off . . .

she makes it across the kitchen and immediately goes for the catfood in a matter of seconds. yup. we're not ready for this.

destined to be a sports fanatic???

this is matt teaching riley how to do the "touchdown" sign . . . sigh.

NINE MONTHS OLD

riley has been out of the womb now for longer than she was inside . . . she is officially 9 months old.

the little girl now
-crawls EVERYWHERE
-pulls herself to standing EVERYWHERE
-cruises
-has two-finger pincer grasp and eats finger foods. she is not picky. she'll eat anything.
-has three teeth
-babbles. no "mama" or "dadda" yet, though. i think she may be trying to say, "cat." it sounds like "kkkkk" and ends in a little squeal everytime one of the furballs strolls by.
-stranger anxiety has started, but she warms up quickly

we had to set up her room for some serious playing now that she is mobile.

Can you pick out the REAL doll?

ok, ok. so i bought four of this doll. riley can't tell them apart (yet), and so now i can wash them or lose them or forget them without having a panic attack. don't judge me.

i found out that the doll's name is sydney, and she is a middleton doll.

sometimes riley sleeps with all four, and she'll have two tucked under her arms and the other two somewhere touching her body. it must take her all night to configure them. luckily that pincer grasp is coming along. sometimes riley will crawl with one of the dolls in her mouth. she must've learned that trick from the cats.

Go Sox!

riley celebrated the red sox securing their spot in the play-offs. she was not as pleased about their sunday loss (coupled with the yankees' win) . . .

swim lessons

riley had another successful waterbabies swim lesson this weekend! we measure success by the fact that she didn't cry. here she is pretending to kick. she would rather lean back and relax while her daddy moves her legs for her.

Little Red Wagon

riley received this wagon for a shower gift from aunt may, and she's finally old enough to use it. we pulled her throughout the neighborhood, and she was treated like a celebrity by the neighbors! it was like a parade.