Last Post of 2009!

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year! It's been a crazy, whirlwind of a year for us in 2009.

The high for us was definitely welcoming Riley into our family in January, it feels like she's always been a part of our family and we love every minute we get to spend with her. The low was saying good-bye to our sweet Homer, even though we have Riley to keep us on our toes I still miss him like crazy.

We hope 2010 brings much happiness, health, and prosperity for all of our friends and family! I'm sure we'll have many shenanigans to write about in 2010!

See you in 2010!

Love

Allie, Marc, and Riley

Family City Fun

Yesterday Marc, Riley and I drove into the city to meet up with Jenny and Jake for lunch and some shopping (poor Josh had to work, so we missed him) but we had a great time with the two J's! We haven't seen Jake in about a month and he's changed so much, he's sitting up like a big boy now and has grown 2 teeth! Riley's certainly jealous, since she's still toothless! And he is officially bigger than Riley, and 5 months younger, which good thing because Riley likes big, strong men! It was so cute watching them together, they both got so excited sitting next to each other and were talking to each other, most likely about being each other's prom dates! :) We exchanged holiday gifts, as you can see, Riley finally got a Sophie the giraffe and super cute ladybug pajamas! We had some lunch at the Westfield shopping center food court, probably the best food court around, and then walked around the mall there since it was a little cold and wet out. Since Riley has been eating solid foods, I have been sharing whatever I eat with her. I must say, it has been a good diet since I usually order something somewhat healthy so that she eats healthy and she is increasingly eating more and more which leaves me eating smaller portions. Yesterday she ate nearly half of my turkey burger, I was actually still a little hungry after lunch! After lunch we walked around and checked out some of the stores. I found the cutest ladybug ball at babyGap and when I tried to take it away from her to put it back, she pitched a major fit and since it was so cute, I broke down and bought her an early birthday present!

Here's Jake and Marc hanging out while Jenny went to get her lunch:

Mr. Jake!

Riley clapping at lunch:

Riley hugging her new ladybug ball:

That Was Then, This is Now

Here's a picture of Riley after her first bath at home, she was 10 days old...

This is Riley today, at just about 11 1/2 months, after her bath this morning...

CRAZY!!!

Bath Time is Fun!

Riley has always loved her bath but lately her zeal for the bath has grown. I think because running facets are pretty cool in her mind, Marc was getting her bath ready this morning and he couldn't get it prepared fast enough!

Amazing Girl!

Riley never ceases to amaze me. I remember last year at this time everything seemed like a big question mark. From labor and delivery to what clubfeet would mean to us and Riley's future. So many questions and so many worries. I am starting to get nostalgic since Riley's birthday is exactly three weeks from today. Last night we were looking at pictures of Riley from when she was a newborn and we can't believe how far she has come, from our 4lbs of Fury to the social, curious little girl she is today. She's been a little challenging the past few days (see Hurricane Riley post), she's definitely testing our limits and her independence and she throws the occasional temper tantrum but just when we are about to lose it, she does something so amazing or so sweet. Tonight I witnessed Riley walking with her push toy in her brace for the first time. Marc's seen her walk with it on a bunch but this was the first time I had seen it. This is a little girl who I was so worried about walking and developing and here she is, "walking" with her brace on. She had a couple of better runs but you get a sampling of her walking in her brace from this clip! After the video was over I was clapping and telling her what a great job she did and she started clapping for herself too, it was too cute!

After the initial scare and sadness of having a baby with a birth defect wore off I decided that I never wanted Riley to be defined or limited by her clubfeet, and I think from this video that you can see how truly determined Riley is, nothing stands in her way and nothing holds her down. I hope she always stays so tenacious. Sometimes I think she is so determined because of her clubfeet, she's always had to learn how to do things two ways, with her brace and without her brace. And I really think being around so many Drs since she was a newborn has helped make her so sociable. There is still a whole lot of worry (which will probably never go away!) and still some unanswered questions but in many ways maybe clubfeet has benefited her and us, after all, we've learned a ton in the last year as well. Or maybe Riley would have been just as determined if she didn't have clubfeet. Who knows! All I know, is we couldn't be more proud of our Little Bug and everything she achieves is just that much sweeter for us! And I loved watching her "walk" around the living room with her brace on like it was nothing!

Hurricane Riley

Hurricane Riley hit Dublin, CA with great force today, generating about 30 cruising steps per minute using anything and everything to help walk through the path of destruction. Nothing was safe in the path of Hurricane Riley which cause great destruction in the living room. There were several casualties - a page from Momma's planner, a book, and a Fisher Price Little People chair was missing but was later found underneath the Bumbo chair safe and sound and returned with the rest of the set.

The first round of dinner was also a lost, luckily there were reserves and helped calm the Hurricane for several minutes. Adult residents are now recovering with a giant glass of wine and an extra early bedtime.

The Peeps Have Spoken

and the iPhone has been ordered (the 2 "No" votes were indeed Marc). I should be receiving my wonderful new iPhone (which turned out to be a birthday present from Marc) within a week!

Thanks for all of your votes!

Hanukkah Party

Well Hanukkah is over. :( I had so much fun sharing my favorite holiday with Riley this year, she really figured out after a few nights that not only did she get to rip the wrapping paper without it getting taken away from her but that there was usually a pretty cool new toy underneath that magical paper. She really racked up a bunch of new toys. I think at her birthday next month I am going to have to put a lot of the toys away and take them out throughout the year for her so that she gets some new stuff in a few months, one of the disadvantages of having a January birthday, no more presents for the rest of the year!



Even though Hanukkah ended on Friday we had a Hanukkah party for her playgroup at our house. We had about 10 people over and I made latkes and sufganiyot (jelly filled donuts). I also had dreidels for everyone to play with and for the older kids we made marshmallow dreidels. It was a bit chaotic over with some of the older kids but Riley had a great time.


The Marshmallow Dreidel making table:


















A Marshmallow Dreidel:



















My sufganiyot (the latkes were still cooking):

Riley drinking her milk before the party starts - she just looks so "grown up" to me here!

Playing at the party!





















Now that Hanukkah is over, it's time to start planning Riley's 1st birthday party!

Arts and Crafts

This is Riley's first arts and craft that she made in school! They do arts and crafts nearly every day in the toddler class so I am sure it will lose it's excitement after a while but tonight we were both very excited to see the creation she brought home!

Riley was pretty proud of her art work too, she didn't even try to eat it!

And we put her creation on the refrigerator!!!

Our Big Girl

Ok, I'm going to warn you, this is a major brag post but I just had to share. Yesterday day care tested Riley in the Toddler class (ages 1-2) and she did FANTASTIC! Which was exactly what I needed after a rough morning. They told me they originally planned for her to be there for an hour but she was there from about 9:30 - 3:00! She ate lunch with the big kids (even had a tuna sandwich, which Marc was not happy about since he hates tuna, and tomato soup!), sitting in a real chair, not a high chair, and even napped on a cot, yes a cot, with all of the big kids! Two of the boys from her class that she plays with just moved up there and there are two other kids that moved up a few months ago so she had some playmates that she knew over there, not that Riley cares, she'll go up to anyone! But they said she had so much fun and did great, her only area of improvement was nap time, big shock there, Riley is not a great napper. They said she had a hard time staying in one place but nothing too bad for a baby who has never slept anywhere other than a crib and eventually caught on and napped for almost an hour! I personally think she will do better there because they all nap at the same time so she won't be distracted by other kids playing which is what's happening in her infant class. The toddler class is very scheduled so I think she's going to thrive over there! Today they even asked me to start bringing her in shoes from now on since she will be going over there!

Our girl is so grown up now!

On a side note, last night when I was putting her to bed she threw her arms around my neck and put her head on my shoulder and squeezed me, she hugged me for several minutes, looking up every so often at my face and then nuzzling back down. I didn't want to put her in her crib! It was too sweet!

All Grown Up!

Wow, I can hardly believe Riley is 11 months old today. We were in Babies R Us together on Thursday and passed the preemie clothes rack. It's so hard to believe that those clothes were once big on her and that she wore preemie clothes for months and now they look so little next to her!

First Hanukkah

Tonight was the first night of Hanukkah and after a great checkup we were all in the mood for a Hanukkah celebration. I've been cooking for two days, I made brisket and green bean casserole yesterday and latkes tonight. We lit the Menorah for Riley and she loved looking at the candles (totally my girl, that's my favorite part of Hanukkah) and then opened presents. Riley picked up on the whole presents thing after a couple (she got to open a bunch from other people tonight). She was a little more interested in the paper than the actual gifts, finally paper I will let her rip! Then we had a huge feast, I think the Hanukkah flavors were a bit over developed for her pallate. She ended up eating cheese, yogurt melts, puffs and apple sauce. Oh well, maybe next year she will be into the latkes and brisket! But I was so happy to share my favorite holiday with Riley!


Riley opening her first Hanukkah present:

Riley and her new Menorah:

Riley is more interested in the paper than what's inside (but she definitely liked her new Hippo books once she saw them!)

It's a Hippo book!!!

Cautiously checking out Hanukkah dinner:

I'm not so sure about this Momma!

Playing with her Little People Hanukkah set!

Successful Day

I took yesterday and today off, I have a ton of vacation and personal days off and work has been kind of slow for me so I figured I should take a few days off and not worry about having to work on my days off. I had planned to take today off for a while since Riley had a checkup at Dr. H. It just so happened that after months of stalking her pediatricians website they were also having an H1N1 vaccine clinic that Riley was finally eligible for! So at 11:30 I headed down there and got in line for the 12-4 clinic, we were done by 11:45 and with only a few tears. I was shocked at how fast the line moved and Riley was a total trooper.

After her shot we headed to get my parents at the airport before heading to Dr. H for a checkup. I always get a little stressed out about her feet the week of her checkups because I just worry so much about her. I knew they were excited to see Riley because Dr. H's assistant called this morning to see if we could come later and told me she was excited to see Riley, she absolutely loves Riley and used to rock her when Riley was hysterical during her casting phase. We walked in and all of the ladies were at the front of the office and pretty much jumped up and down when they saw Riley. Dr. H's assistant walked her back to the exam room like she was royalty. Then Dr. H came in and Riley was standing there looking all cute and he came in and said she looked like a little princess. After saying hi to her and getting her comfortable (he is really a great Dr!) he examined her feet and she passed with flying colors. Her left is still a little tighter than the right but he said it could end up being her better foot down the line but that the crease on the bottom of her left is working itself out. Great news! He continued to say that she's right where they would want her to be and that he doesn't foresee any problems or relapses down the road...he thinks were good! Best news! Riley's been crawling with the soles of her feet flat on the ground, almost like she's walking on her hands and feet, he said that as far as she's probably concerned, she's walking even though she's not upright. He did say he can't wait to see her walk for real and I told him I couldn't wait either because I would feel much better, he said, no you will still worry. Ha! He knows me too well. So funny story, Marc got Riley up a few days ago and one of her straps was undone, he asked if I could have missed securing it when I put it on the night before. I looked at him like, are you kidding me? Do you know I am the shoe enforcer. I check the shoes three times after I put them on. So I told Dr. H this story and he basically said "Oh no he didn't!" Apparently I have a reputation as the shoe enforcer that even he knows about. Anyway I really think Riley did undo her middle strap, she undid my belt last night which is the same mechanism as her shoes. We're in trouble now, I thought we had at least a year before she attempted to take them off! But back to our appointment, it was great, she's doing great and we don't have to go back until March! I am so glad he's our Dr.!

Where Do I Live?

It is currently 27 degrees outside! Riley is clearly a Cali girl and wanted nothing to do with her puffer jacket (to her defense she does look like the Pillsbury doughboy in it and can't move and removes her hat whenever I look away). I'm decked out in my scarf, gloves and winter coat! Someone remind me again where we live? This is crazy talk, fortunately we have our pipes insulated so we had no frozen pipes but I am having flashbacks of my good times at IU - unfortunately on cold days like today, I typically skipped class (...ssshh don't tell my mom), which is not an option when you are an adult!

More Fun at Gymboee

We made our weekly trip to Gymboree and as usual, Riley had a blast! She loves bubbles, parachutes and most of all Gymbo!!!















We worked on walking today in class and Riley loved every minute of it!

Look Momma, One Hand...

Riley's new trick is the one handed bottle hold...

Happy Turkey Day!

Marc got in late Wednesday night so I picked him up at the airport. We started out Thanksgiving by heading over to my friend Erika's new condo. She just bought it a few months ago in the Hillcrest area of San Diego and I must say it is probably one of the coolest condos I have ever seen. Erika's sister, Jennifer, was in town from Chicago and she came over and we had pomegranate mimosa's and hung out and caught up, we all went to high school together so it was great to hang out and catch up on life. After hanging out for a while we headed back to my parents house, but first we had to stop at Windmill Farms. We love Windmill Farms, it's a grocery store near my old high school that clearly caters towards the elderly crowd. Every thing is pre-packaged and it is all cheap! They have the best licorice, spice drops, gummis, etc. So we always stop and stock up every time we are down in San Diego. My mom's friend Mona came over to see Riley and then it was nap time for Riley. Of course she put up a fight and Marc got the torch by getting her to fall asleep in his arms and then got her to nap for a bit before company came over. Ed, Lauren, Lauren's mom and step-dad, and Marc's Aunt and Uncle all came over for a delicious Thanksgiving feast. Riley absolutely LOVES her uncle and had a great time with him, she crawled all over him and had a blast being the center of attention.


Riley had a great first Thanksgiving, she was so well behaved, ate dinner with everyone and enjoyed all of the delicious food - she devoured all of my appetizers and ate turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, broccoli, and beets. It was a great first Thanksgiving for Riley. We truly are so thankful the wonderful little girl that we have. We are thankful that it is just clubfeet and that she continues to thrive and makes us laugh every day. We are amazed and thankful every day over how lucky we are to have such a great girl.


My brother, Marc, Lauren, Riley and I:





















Uncle Michael carving the turkey:























Four of the ladies at dinner, aren't Riley's thighs great!?!




















Riley enjoying her first Thanksgiving dinner!





















Me and my girl!!!




















Today was a good day...

"You Belong in the Zoo, the San Diego Zoo"

I remember this as the San Diego Zoo jingle when I was growing up. I haven't been to the San Diego Zoo in probably about 8-10 years so Wednesday morning I woke up really excited to take Riley to the zoo! They opened at 9:00 so the plan was to head over there first thing in the morning, San Diego was having Santa Ana's (weather where it is very warm during the day (80s) and very cold at night (probably 40s) with winds coming in from the desert, it is always always very dry during Santa Anas) so it was a gorgeous day to visit the zoo. My brother and Lauren decided to come too so we met at their house since they live super close to the zoo. We got to the zoo a little after 10:00 and Riley "talked" my brother into carrying her so she could see the animals better. She wasn't quite sure what to make of the zoo at first, we all kept pointing to the animals but she didn't quite get it. The camels were her first realization that there were things in the enclosure. After this really cool bird, call the Secretary Bird, Riley finally figured out there were some pretty cool things behind the enclosures. I wish I had gotten this bird on video, it was so beautiful and almost looked dinosaur-like the way it walked and flew at the same time. It reminded me of something out of Jurassic Park.


























Then we saw the elephants which really got her attention...


























This lion was gorgeous...





























Then we went to see the hippos, Riley absolutely LOVED the hippos. She threw her hands in the air and squealed with delight at the hippos and proceeded to talk to them, look at my brother, talk some more and then looked back at the hippos. They were the hit of the day and seeing her excitement was super cute.


My brother and I both remembered having frozen lemonades so my dad bought us some, perfect for a hot, Santa Ana day. Ed (my brother) was holding Riley so his wife, Lauren was giving him spoonfuls of frozen lemonade. She left the spoon in the cup and Riley grabbed it and fed my brother some lemonade, it was the cutest thing ever. After the hippo we headed over to the monkey exhibit, we saw chimps, gorillas, and orangutans. Riley loved them all as well, she stood at the glass with her hands on it talking to the monkeys, she even caused two of them to walk away because she stared them down. The best part was when we were at the gorilla exhibit, my brother had her up against the glass and she yelled "dada!" really loud, so I responded, "yeah baby they look just like dada huh?" There were a bunch of people around and they all laughed, my brother responded "To be clear, I'm the uncle, not the dada."




Riley looks like she's in the cage with the orangutan...

After we got our monkey fix we decided to leave and go get lunch, plus Riley was pretty tired. On the way out we stopped in the gift shop, after all, Riley needed a souvenir of her first trip to the San Diego Zoo. Uncle Ed and Aunt Lauren got her a stuffed Hippo as a reminder of her favorite animal of the day...

A tired but very happy Riley with her new friend Hippy...

After lunch we went over to Uncle Ed and Aunt Lauren's house so Riley could meet their dogs, Dagget and Sassy. She has been all about dogs lately so I was excited to see how she did with them, they of course were thrilled to have her, they love kids and showered her with a ton of kisses. At first she liked the kisses and then she got a little upset with them, after a while she got brave and tried to pet them. Sassy laid down on the couch next to her with her back to Riley and when Sassy wasn't looking, Riley reached out her hand to pet Sassy. I was surprised how gentle she was with the puppies, in the past she has grabbed handfuls of dog but she barely touched Sassy and Dagget.

After playing with her new puppy friends, we decided to head home for a bit before going to our friend's house so Riley could play with her little boy, Tyler. Tyler is about a month older than Riley and may be Riley's match. We've been told by day care that Riley is a bit aggressive, makes the boys cry and is usually the toy stealer. She doesn't do it to be mean, she just gets excited around her friends and a lot of them don't stand up to her. Well Tyler was equally as excited and did not back down when Riley got excited. In fact when we put them down together, they had a pretty decent conversation before playing. Riley had so much fun playing with Tyler, his older sister, Lexi, and his older cousin's Mackenzie and Zachary, that she pitched a massive fit when we left and cried hysterically the entire way back to my parents' house. Here are Riley and Tyler checking out Riley's present from Tyler's grandma!

What a great day, we will definitely be going back the the San Diego Zoo with Riley as soon as we can! Riley slept great Wednesday night in preparation for her first Thanksgiving!

Vacation...

I have been waiting for this week for quite some time, this was my first real vacation in almost 6 months since I have been back at work. I took the entire week off and let me tell you it's going to be really hard to go back to work on Monday, especially since I have to go on a business trip Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday we relived my maternity leave, worked out, went for a walk, played, went to the mall, and Riley took two great, long naps. Monday night I went to see "New Moon" with some moms from our playgroup. Tuesday Marc dropped Riley and I at the airport and we headed down to San Diego for Thanksgiving. Marc was originally set to go with us but his shutdowns got cancelled, which is really a good thing, so I figured Riley and I would still head down early and spend some extra time with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law. I've been wanting to take Riley to the San Diego Zoo for a while now, probably even before she was born, I have a ton of great childhood memories there so I wanted to start her love of animals early. Wednesday was a perfect day for the Zoo.

Marc dropped Riley and I off at the airport on his way to work. I was pretty nervous about traveling with Riley alone since she has become so mobile. This is one of the happier moments, when Riley was cuddling with Puppy. Getting through security was a piece of cake this time because Riley didn't have to wear her brace, it was a whole different ball game. The airport was pretty quiet, I randomly ran into an old friend in line at Southwest which was fun. Unfortunately it went downhill from here, Riley refused to sit in her stroller while we were waiting for our flight, pitched a fit when I tried to change her diaper, refused to nap and then cried for 80% of the flight (thank goodness it was only an hour flight). I stood in the aisle of the plane for most of the flight with the "I'm so sorry face" on. She finally fell asleep on my chest and I was fortunately able to strap her into the Bjorn without waking her. That didn't last long since she woke up while we waited for her stroller at the gate. I got a lot of "I feel for you looks" while we stood there and one lady even patted me on the arm and told me I handled it quite well. Needless to say I had a couple nice glasses of wine that evening.

My mom met us at the airport and we headed home to try to get Riley to take a nap. No such luck and this ended up being a trend for the remainder of the week. Tuesday we just sort of hung out and got Riley to bed early. It was a restless night for Riley but considering she was in a Pack and Play and had no mobile she did quite well. Wednesday was zoo day!

The most wonderful thing...

happened to me when I picked Riley up from day care today. I walked in and she was standing up playing, she looked up, got a huge grin on her face, and said....

"Momma!"

The teachers and I looked at each other in shock, all I could say was "that's the first time she did that!" I nearly cried right there in the classroom in front of all of the other kids and her teachers. Riley, of course, saw our excitement and was grinning from ear to ear and laughing with pure joy!

What a wonderful way to start a week of vacation!

Cruising

I was home with Riley again today because she's somehow managed to get that same nasty stomach virus she had a few weeks ago. Her poor little hiney is on fire, last night it hurt her so bad she was shaking. Luckily her warm bath seemed to soothe her tooshy and her and she was in better spirits after we got her in her comfy, cozy PJs. We were up with her at midnight and about 3:30Am for diaper changes and then rocking her back to sleep (we haven't been up with her in the night since she was probably about 4 months old, we're not fans!), needless to say we are all tired. Fortunately, I have a super great boss who doesn't mind when I work at home because Riley is sick. I feel so bad that I've been working at home so much but the poor thing's immune system is just shot. She is benefiting today from some nice naps, got in over 2 hour naps in the morning and afternoon. I'm hoping that her being out of day care next week for Thanksgiving gives her little body a much needed rest and allows her to finally recuperate. In the meantime I've giving her lots of love, lots of bananas and oatmeal because that seems to be the only thing that doesn't make her go to the bathroom, warm baths and slathering her in diaper cream.



On the plus side, since I've been home with her, I've gotten to see her playtime in action. She's really cruising these days. I was able to bribe her with an "US Weekly" magazine to walk down the couch and then back, what can I say, the girl loves her celebrity gossip just like her momma!






Here she is walking her lion. Notice the wardrobe change, that is a result of her stomach virus! Excuse the mess, she thought it was really cool that I let her take all of her toys out of her toy bin, anything to keep her occupied while I worked!

Riley's really cruising around these days!

Visitor!

This weekend my good friend from college, Amy, came out to visit from Cincinnati. She wanted to meet Riley so she was super kind enough to fly out. It was a great weekend! I picked Amy up on Friday and her flight was early so I knew it was destined to be a great weekend, because after all, how often are flights on time, let alone early to SFO! Marc stayed home with Riley because we figured she would be more fun if she got to bed at her bed time versus meeting Amy Friday night. We had pizza and watched "UP" (great movie!) Friday night and then went to bed to rest up for a fun filled day on Saturday. Riley woke up Saturday morning to meet Amy and Riley just loved Amy from the get go, she was all smiles and went right to Amy.

Our cleaners came Saturday morning so Amy and I took Riley to Gymboree to get out of their way. I moved her up to the Level 3 class which is 10-16 months, and while she was the youngest, she did great! It was more focused on moving than developmental skills so she had a blast, there were only 2 babies that were walking so she did just fine. Amy and I looked a bit like the gay couple from "Modern Family." There's a scene where the couple takes their newly adopted daughter to a Gymboree-type class. It's a pretty funny show! Riley had a great time with the older kids.



















After Gymboree class we headed to Walnut Creek to walk around but we first stopped at Max's for lunch. Riley had her first Matzo Ball and like a good Jewish girl, she loved it!!! She ate about a 1/4 of my Matzo Ball, I must say, Riley being on table food is a great diet for me because I usually order something she will eat and share with her, which results in less food intake for me and generally healthier food choices.




















Sunday it was off to Napa to visit two wineries that Marc and I had never been to - Artesa and Domaine Carneros - and then to the Napa Outlets. It was a beautiful day in Napa. The grapes have all been harvested but the leaves are still on all of the vines and are turning colors with the cool weather we have recently been having. Our first stop was Artesa, we had never been there and our neighbors told Marc about it. He also saw an ad in his "Wine Spectator" magazine, so we decided to check it out. We are so glad we did, not only is the place architecturally amazing but the wines were muy bueno! I loved the Chardonnay. And most of all, the guy pouring us wine was so nice, I almost forgot we were in Napa! Artesa is built into a hillside, you walk up a bunch of stairs and there is a beautiful open grass area with fountains and the winery is built into the hillside, I'm not doing it justice. If you are ever in Napa, I highly recommend paying it a visit. Spectacular scenery and yummy wine, what more could you ask for in life? Here's the entrance to the winery:



















View from the entrance of Artesa:



















Amy and Riley at Artesa (Riley has just enough hair to start sporting a bow):


















Riley, Amy and I at Artesa:


















After Artesa, we headed to Domaine Carneros. Marc and I have passed it many times and talked about stopping but it's always been the end of the day so we never have. It's this big castle looking building that specializes in sparkling wine but they have other wines, our neighbors also recommended it. Yesterday we decided to make it a point of stopping. We are so glad we did. It was a nice day out so they had the tasting set up on the patio, we picked a table and sat down and selected at Cheese Sampler to munch on. I had the sparkling wine sampler, and it was delish. Riley was quite the sport at both wineries but she was starting to get fidgety at Domaine Carneros so we decided to go get some lunch. Our waiter at Domaine Carneros recommended the Boon Fly Cafe for lunch so we headed there. Afterwards we made our way to the Napa Outlets for a little shopping, we struck out big time on this department. But it was a fun-filled, beautiful day in Napa!

Riley and I took Amy to the airport this morning and I took the day off to spend with Riley, naturally she has diarrhea again, so I have spent my day off changing lots of diapers. I am so over Riley being sick. Her personality is totally fine but after her last bout with diarrhea, I do not want to risk the diaper rash. And on a happier note, it is 100% official that Riley is now a cruiser. She spent this weekend and today cruising any chance she can, ironically, she is too small for Pampers Cruisers diapers which start at Size 3 and Riley is still in Size 2s! But I love the fact that she has proved all of the Doctors who told us she would be very delayed, due to her being premature and due to her clubfeet, WRONG! She does have a bit of her momma in her after all! I've been waiting for the day where we walk into Dr. Hoffinger's office together and I think that day may be coming very soon! Probably not her December visit but definitely the visit after that. She is also trying to stand up without holding onto anything, she definitely hit a developmental growth spurt in the last few days, between clapping, cruising, and trying to stand on her own, she's seeming quite grown up these days!

Thanks for coming to visit Amy, we had a great time!