Rooooooooar

Wait….what am I supposed to do?  

Hey, there you are!!

Choooooo Choooooo!

What’s my name??

Ohhhh, that’s right!

Davis Play Date Update

I totally forgot the video:

and this gem of a story…..we go into the kitchen for snack and Finn climbs up into his booster seat and Davis goes to sit in a regular chair (we only have one booster seat) and Davis says “Why is Finn sitting in a baby chair”!  GAH!!  NOOOOOOO!  “No Davis, that is Finn’s big boy chair”, “No, its a baby chair”.  OMG, I was dying.  Thankfully Finn didn’t blink an eye and still hasn’t mentioned it. 

Hug with my arms

When I tuck Finn into bed, he always lays down on his belly, I cover him up (making sure that grandma is tucked in too) and then lean in, give him one last hug and kiss on the head.  Lately he has been sitting up asking “I want to hug with my arms”.  Kills me every time.  I could not possibly love this little man more.

Perfectly Ordinary Days

The blog has been slow lately as I haven’t had much to write about.  Basically we’ve just been having perfectly ordinary days lately and it has been wonderful!

Swing Time

So, Riley is 1.5 pounds away from the weight limit on our swing and we don’t really even put him in it anymore.  But the last 2 or 3 days he has needed it in the afternoon, sleepy, cranky, but won’t take a nap and only wants to be held.  So I’ve used the swing.  And noticed that he has started holding on to the bar above his head.  Its really weird, but he thinks its hilarious.

 

Davis Playdate

We had a playdate with Finn’s good buddy Davis!  Finn and Davis play so well together, they are so sweet together and have so much FUN!  As an added bonus, it was Davis’ 3rd birthday!!!  Happy Birthday Davis!  We had so much FUN spending the day with you!

Cheez-its!

They just started holding hands during snack-time!  Gah!

I’m so cool, I brought in a tattoo artist!

 

Hey, what are you guys doing up there?

Spaghetti!!!

So of course, literally the day after I posted about Riley’s eating issues, HE EATS!!!  We were out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant when Todd was feeding Riley he decided on a whim to try to give him some refried beans.  He.ate.them.up!  and he ate up the Mexican rice too!  Next day we gave him some of the risoto we had at dinner.  And then he ate half a can of Campbell’s Chunky Beef Vegetable soup!  So evidently he likes food, he just didn’t like the fruits and veggies I was trying to feed him!  So…we also tried spaghetti since I looked back at the blog for when Finn was 10 months old and we were giving him spaghetti!  And here is what happened!

 

Our Song

Todd and I have a long standing dispute about “our song”.  The song “Sweet Thing” by Van Morrison is what I consider our song, although Todd wasn’t even present when that became “our song”.  I was visiting Todd in Atlanta during the summer we first met and he was out on a beer run for the Virginia Highland Fest that day and I was hanging out when his roommate started playing music while cleaning for the party and that song came on and it was the first time I had heard it and it just hit me, the melody, all of the instruments clashing together, something struck a chord in me.  And so naturally any time I hear that song, I can remember that summer and the beginning of our relationship.

When it came time for us to pick a song for our first dance at our wedding, we had a list of 12 songs that we couldn’t decide on.  We eventually settled on another Van Morrison song, “Crazy Love”.

But, there is a new song out by Dave Matthews Band (still my all time favorite band) that we can both safely say is definitely “our song”!

Snow Day 1.08.10

We had snow here in Atlanta!  It was only like a half inch, but it was enough to play in!  When Finn woke up in the morning, I went in to his room and picked him up and gave him a big hug and told him I had a surprise for him.  I carried him to the front door so he could look out and as soon as he did he said “Ooooohhhhh, snooooooow!”  So precious!  I put Finn’s rain boots on over his jammies, put on his big coat and then put on some of those stretch gloves.  I bundled Riley up in his hat and coat and in that awesome fleecey Bundle Me stroller cover thing and put him in the stroller on the porch so he could watch us play.  Finn tried to make snowballs but after he saw the one I made, he decided it was more FUN to have me make them and give them to him to throw back at me!  He even got me in the face once!  ouch!  Now it isn’t a lot of snow….but it is FREEZING cold outside!  So after about 15 minutes Finn all of a sudden started screaming that his hands hurt!  Poor little dude!  I tried to get us inside as fast as I could and get him warmed up.  He kept crying that “hands hurt momma!!!”. 

 

Riley’s 1st Haircut!

Riley had his first haircut yesterday!  Finn’s hair was getting a little long and so I was taking him in and noticed that Riley had a party going on in the back, all business up front.  So, we bit the bullet!  He had a BLAST!  He thought that the race car was the coolest thing.  He thought Ms. Lisa combing her hair was the funniest thing.  And he just laughed the whole time!

A before photo:

Ready to go!

   

And the finished product!  Such a handsome little guy!

And that is the last picture taken because at that moment he tried to stand straight up in the chair and then sat back down, held onto the steering wheel and began to shake the car violently and squeal at the top of his lungs.  Ms. Lisa looked at me and said “you’ve got your hands full with this one”.  hahahahahahaha  yes m’am I do!

Riley is 11 Months Old!!!

 

1.  He’s clapping!!!  YAY!!!  I have a hang up with clapping, let me just get that out there.  We did a nanny share with Finn with a little boy who was the exact same age as Finn and HE started clapping at 6 months and Finn didn’t start clapping until 10.5 months.  I mean, I didn’t take it as something was wrong but I just wanted him to clap damn it, because it is cute.  So I just assumed the same was going to happen with Riley.  And sure enough.  We were in Toddlercize class and this 6 month old boy started clapping and I was like DAMN IT!!!  But YAY, he is finally clapping!  He started clapping on Christmas Eve, a little early present for momma!!!  And it is impossible to get on camera but it is the cutest thing ever!

2.  He got his first ear infection on Christmas Day!  Merry Christmas, here’s an ear infection, and a SCREAMING WAILING baby who will not sleep.  YAY!  But when we went in to the doctor, porky pig weighed in at 23 lbs and 8 ounces, a full pound heavier than Finn was at his 1 YEAR check up!  Oh My!

3.  Speaking of Christmas, Riley celebrated his first Christmas!  And it was really a lot of FUN!  He actually played with all of his toys and was having a blast with everything!

4.  Speaking of toys, he plays independently now.  He just roams through the house finding toys and he also plays a game of “hand soccer” where he will bat a ball around the house and chase after it.  He will do this FOREVER.  He also likes to play with Finn, although all he is really doing is driving Finn CRAZY.  “No baby, don’t touch my….(insert any toy in the house because every toy in the house is Finn’s toy….according to Finn)”.  Joy.

5.  When you lay him down to sleep he immediately sticks his thumb in his mouth and rolls over to his right side.

6.  He had his first modeling gig this month!  A friend sent me info that this toy company was redoing their packaging and needed some new babies.  So we submitted our info/pictures and we were invited in for the casting call.  So we go in and the first question they ask is “Who is your agent?”  Say what?  Needless to say we were the only ones there without an agent and this was not anyone else’s first casting call.  But the best part - all the babies, same age, are sitting in their white onesies playing and Riley looked like he was going to eat them all for lunch.  He’s huge!  When it came to picture time, he was too big for the baby carrier (which he outgrew at 4 months old) and he was too big for the exersaucer, so they ended up putting him on the floor with a toy.  Needless to say we did not get a call back.  LOL!  But they took some REALLY cute pictures!

7.  He’s cruising!  I posted a video not too long ago of him pushing a push toy around the living room.  He will cruise around with that thing all day long.  He’ll walk all over the place holding onto my hands.  He will even just stand right up all on his own in the middle of the room not holding on to anything and just stand there and look around like “hey!  check me out!” 

8.  When he’s eating he will rub his right arm over his mouth during the entire meal and the right arm of all of his shirts are forever stained.

9.  Speaking of eating.  That’s not going very well.  He’s still on Stage 2’s and any attempts at Stage 3’s is met with a very violent response.  He will eat cheerios and crackers but he will not eat any of the other random foods we have tried to give him.  He did gnaw on a pizza crust once.  le sigh

10. He is SO strong!  I mean seriously strong.  He will beat you to death when he gets really excited.  And its totally spontaneous so you never see it coming.  I’ll leave the house, come home, see him, get a big smile and go in close for a kiss/hug and get a right hook in response.  And I mean, it brings tears to my eyes, it hurts that much.

11.  He loves to be sung to.  Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels On the Bus, Old McDonald, any random crap that I just make up on the fly.  You name it, he loves it!

Bonus pictures!

A Bittersweet Farewell

 

Dear Nursing Tanks,

I’ve been wearing one of the three of you every single day since February 8th, 2009, the day we came home from the hospital after Riley was born.  While I appreciate everything about you (your stretchiness, quick release, comfort, support and versatility), I have to say I look forward to not wearing you for quite some time. 

It is bittersweet to put you away though.  I am sad that I wasn’t able to wear you until February 4th, 2010.  I’m sad that my baby is growing up and I’ll miss those precious moments with Riley all to myself.  And I’ll be honest, you are more comfortable than a real bra!  But I will be very happy to not have to purchase/wear shirts that will fit over you.  That I can purchase/wear shirts without having to make sure I can access “the goods” easily.  I’m also happy that I can actually get away from Riley/the house/my pump any time of day and that I don’t have to live my life in three hour increments anymore!

I will put you away for now, add you to my storage bin marked “maternity clothes”, knowing, god willing, that I will see you again someday.  So, rest easy knowing you served me well and be on the ready for your next tour of duty.

good bye dear friends!

 

Hemangioma

We were looking through some old pictures recently and found pictures of Finn when he was a baby.  We found this picture (8 months old):

and I said “Finn, do you know who this is?  Its baby Finn”  He looked at the picture and said “He bumped his head”.  It made me a little teary eyed.  We used to get that comment alot. 

Finn was born with a small little brownish-red spot on his forehead that we all thought was either a “stork bite” or maybe a mole.

 

It quickly turned bright red, became raised and was jelly-like.  Turns out it was a hemangioma.

As the saying goes, love is blind.  I honestly hardly ever noticed it myself, but strangers would often say something along the lines of “oh he bumped his head”.  Our pediatrician immediately told us it was nothing to worry about and would be gone by his 2nd birthday.  She acted like it was no big deal at all and I think that rubbed off on us because that was how we felt about it.  And by his first birthday it was barely noticeable.

And now it is completely gone!

But when I looked back at his “babysite” and this blog I realized that I had never mentioned it before, and since he brought it up, I thought I would.