The Day I Have Been Dreading

Well it's here, in a half hour I can officially say tomorrow I go back to work. I've been dreading this day for sometime but we do live in California and we are in a recession so I must go back to work. It's not that I hate my job, it's quite opposite, I love my job and all of my co-workers are amazing, it's just so amazing being home with Riley, I don't want it to end!

We did a test run at Day Care on Thursday and they said she did great, she had her bottle and then took an hour and a half nap, which she never does for me at home, little stinker! The only problem was, when we got her home she screamed the rest of the day, I don't know if she was over stimulated with all the new toys and other babies or it was coincidence and she's teething (I tested her bar and it's the right length so it's not that). I know the place we are sending her is the right place, the teacher's son had a clubfoot so she's familiar with the bracing protocol and everyone there is so warm and family-like, it just stinks to have to leave her. She does something new every day and I can't bear the thought of missing it. Like yesterday she started to sit and she use her bar to help prop herself up while she reached for a toy. Today she was sitting on my lap and used her bar as a support again to help her balance. She also found her shoes and loves to look at them and feel the leather straps.

Ironically June 1, 2008 I found out that I was pregnant with Riley and June 1, 2009 I go back to work after spending 4 1/2 amazing months home with her! I guess I will just have to learn to savor every moment I have with her! Sniff, sniff!

Stroller Hands...

The last few weeks I've noticed my hands are much darker than my arms and I couldn't figure out why. Then the other day when Riley and I were out on our morning walk, it dawned on me, I have stroller hands! I even have a nice ring tan from my wedding rings. I guess that's the price I have to pay for getting to enjoying the beautiful days out with my girl!

I've Been Tagged!

So my friend Anne tagged me in her blog and since I usually write about Riley, here's a bit about me:



8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. Watching Riley meet her milestones (especially walking!)

2. Throwing away Riley's clubfoot brace (in 5 years!)

3. Getting back on the Scrapbooking train

4. Getting better at PhotoShop so I can make cool things like Anne does

5. Baking and cooking now that Riley can entertain herself for a while

6. Mommy and Me class with Riley

7. Being a Mommy forever

8. A weekend getaway with my husband (either Mexico or Napa)



8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Went to the city to see Jenny

2. Ironically, changed about 8 diapers

3. Gave Riley a bath

4. Went for a walk in the afternoon

5. Had my Peet's of course

6. Successfully navigated out of the city without getting lost

7. Got on the treadmill (for 45 minutes!)

8. Laundry (again!)



8 Things I Would Like to Do:

1. Go back to Hawaii

2. Stay at home full time with Riley

3. Get another dog

4. Stop worrying about Riley's feet all the time

5. Remember every day how lucky I am to have a wonderful husband and a beautiful, healthy daughter

6. Be thankful everyday for my wonderful, supportive friends

7. Go to Australia

8. Lose 10 lbs!!!



8 Shows I watch:

1. 90210

2. General Hospital

3. Two and A Half Men

4. New Adventures of Old Christine

5. Gary Unmarried

6. Southland (it's got Ryan Atwood from the OC)

7. Friends (yes, still)

8. Ugly Betty



8 People I Tag:

1. MaryJo - http://www.maryjomaterazo.typepad.com/

2. Ralsto - http://adamandmichelleshorter.blogspot.com/

3. Woody - http://littlesttreehugger.blogspot.com/
4. Crista - http://islifeaconundrum.blogspot.com/
5. Kristen - http://therampes.blogspot.com/
6. Jo-Ann - http://wherewillthislittlefoottakehim.blogspot.com/
7. Jenn - http://greenwaldgang.blogspot.com/
8. Jocelyn - http://themilewskifamily.blogspot.com/

I guess most of them turned out to be about Riley after all!

Dresses...

I've started putting Riley in dresses lately since it's been getting hot and they are quite easy, but something about them just hasn't looked right to me. Today, I figured it out...it's like seeing Marc in a dress. It's no secret Riley is a spitting image of her father so when I put a dress on her, it just looks like a dude in a dress to me!

So if you ever wondered what Marc would look like in a dress, here ya go!

Memorial Day Weekend!

We had a fun but tiring weekend! The weekend started out great, Riley hit yet another milestone right on time. I went into her room to get her since she was crying and there was my little girl on her belly! She rolled herself over for the first time without me bribing her, she's been close in the mornings when she wakes up and kicks her legs but she's never done it without me bribing her with her Laugh and Learn Puppy. Let's just say she was not a big fan of her new trick so I'm not expecting to find her like that too often. She was laying in her crib with her back arched, rocking like a beached whale. Cute and pathetic all in one!



Friday started another week long shutdown for Marc and since it was a holiday weekend they released them all early so he was home when I got home from shopping with my friend Kelly. Then we packed up our bag and Saturday morning we headed to San Diego. What a difference 6 weeks makes in the life of Riley! She was so good on the flight that I even said I was ready to fly with her alone. She took her bottle at take-off, fussed a bit and then fell asleep on Daddy for the entire flight, including landing. The flight was empty so we got to bring our car seat on the plane with us and Riley only woke up when I put her in it. Once we were in San Diego we got some lunch, rented a car and then headed downtown to meet up with my "daughter" from my sorority. Jen and her husband were in town from Boston for the weekend so we met up since we haven't seen each other in like 5 years!


Riley and her "sister" Jen:

"Mommy" and "Daughter"

Then we met my parents for dinner and of course Riley had a meltdown. She's started this new thing where she screams whenever she sees me eatting something, I'm not sure if that means she's ready for food or if she just doesn't like that I'm not giving her my 100% attention. I'm hoping for the former!

Sunday we headed down to downtown San Diego (again, I never go downtown) for breakfast with Uncle Michael and Aunt Sandy and Cousin Ben. We went to Richard Walker's Pancake House which is really famous in San Diego. My friend Anne ate there the weekend of my wedding and I've wanted to try it since (yes, for 2 years, like I said we never go downtown!). Let me tell you it was awesome! They have baked pancakes that Aunt Sandy and I shared and they were amazing. We had their signature Apple one (by mistake) and then the cinnamon pecan one and they were both to die for!

Riley meeting her Cousin Ben:

Then we went back to my parents place and one of my oldest friends, Shannon, came over with her husband Jonathan and their very adorable daughter, Sophie. Sophie is almost 7 months old and it was so fun to watch her play, I can't wait for Riley to be at that stage, she's getting there but it just looks like soooo much fun! Riley had fun playing with her first girl friend! Here are the girls together:

After Riley conked Sophie a few times with her bar we decided to let her play with Sophie without her bar since she hadn't been out of it that day at all. Riley loved it! Here she is standing like a big girl!

This feels weird!

Friends holding hands!

That night we had a wedding on Coronado Island. My dogs are still barking from wearing heels since it's been months since I've worn them!

Monday was Memorial Day and Riley met a bunch of Nanna and Pepe's friends. My mom held an Open House at their place so their friends could meet Riley. Riley met tons of people, including her other friend, Tyler, who's exactly almost a month older than Riley.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

Lori, Tyler, Me and Riley:

Visitors!

Aunt Lauren and Uncle Ed came to visit yesterday! My brother and sister-in-law are in town over the weekend and since we are leaving for San Diego tomorrow (where they live) they came up yesterday afternoon to meet their niece! Unfortunately Riley was a bit of a cranky pants, she was just waking up from a nap so I thought "Great she will want to play and smile." Wrong! She was so cranky, I felt horrible, I hope she's not going through a "I only want to be with Mommy" stage because that will make day care next week that much harder. I think some of it is the fact that she is teething and that's made her a little more volatile (yeah, not looking forward to that plane tomorrow). Despite her mood, they had fun playing with Riley and meeting her, my brother works for the San Diego Opera and since his season ended Wednesday night, yesterday was his first day off and he decided it was time to meet his niece. So nice! My brother just loved holding his niece and spent most of the afternoon walking her around the house to keep her from crying. Riley even christened his shirt by spitting up on him. :) We all walked down the street for dinner and Riley behaved during dinner, mostly because she sat on one of our laps the whole time. Riley finally warmed up to her aunt and uncle during dinner and loved sitting on their laps and laughing at them. They get home to San Diego Monday afternoon and since we leave Tuesday we get to see them again!

Love It

While I was pregnant with Riley I blogged about how my favorite time of the day was early in the morning when she would start to move around. Well I now have a new favorite time of the day, this is what I have to look forward to each morning, I absolutely love the greeting I get every morning. (Notice that she's facing the wrong way, her head is where her feet should be, that's how she rolls these days. She's also been feeling something on her gums that last 2 days that I think might be her first tooth!)

Pure heaven!

Four Month...

Today I took Riley for her four month check-up. I am happy to say that she checked out perfect and she is a long way from that 4lb 14oz, 17 inch baby she was 4 months ago. Riley weighed in at 10lbs 13oz and 22 1/2 inches long! I must say we find new rolls on her every day, it's super cute. She might even fit into her summer clothes, I was afraid she would never make it to her 3-6 and 6 month clothes this summer. She's still in the 5th percentile on everything but the Dr. said she is following the growth trend line perfectly so since she was early and small she is not concerned one bit. She's also developing perfectly and doing everything she should which is a huge relief. I was a little concerned because she wasn't rolling over but her Dr assured me a lot of babies don't roll over at 4 months but more like 5 or 6 months. But yesterday Riley was showing tons of interest in flipping over but her stinking brace kept pulling her back to onto her back so to motivate her I put her Puppytunes next to her just out of reach and sure enough she turned herself right on over. Of course she screamed bloody murder once on her belly but she did it none-the-less. So today she checked out great, the Dr checked her flexibility in her feet and said her feet are super flexible! Yay! (Flexibility is usually a big concern in clubfeet so the fact that she is flexible is a good thing). Riley also hates tummy time and will put her face on the mat and just scream bloody murder at home. So the Dr puts her on her tummy and I warned her what Riley usually does, what does Riley do? She puts her arms out, lifts herself at a 90 degree angle and smiles. Little stinker!!! Of course the meltdown ensued after that and I couldn't get her brace back on because she was screaming and straightening her leg, the nurse had to help me, I was mortified! All of this was before her vaccines so you can imagine how that went over! We can also try letting Riley put herself back to sleep at 2AM instead of giving her a bottle if she's not screaming but she wants us to hold out on cereal until at least 5 months since she doesn't seem interested in what we are eating (we always eat while she's sleeping). All in all it was a great visit, her Dr told me I was doing a great job with her and most importantly Riley is perfectly happy, healthy, and developing just as she should be!





In other news, we transitioned Riley to her "big girl" seat and she absolutely loves it! She loves looking around and watched the world go by her and observes everything. I've been continuing our walks to Peets down the street from our house and I've been giving her a bottle there and then reading for an hour or so everyday and Riley just loves to sit on my lap and watch everything going on around her. I'm sure she also loves all of the attention she gets. :) One lady told me yesterday that she was so cute she should be in baby ads (I had to get one brag in there). I'm thinking Gap and Pottery Barn Kids ads since those are our favorite places to shop. :)

L'Chaim!

Last year we planted a Cabernet vine in our backyard, it was part of Marc's 30th birthday present, I told him I would get him some vines and a barrel so he could play around making his own wine. The vine had leaves last year and looked pretty healthy but we never saw any grapes. Last night Marc was outback with a flashlight, don't quite know why, but he noticed that there were a ton of grape clusters all over the vine. We noticed it had started to grow leaves a few weeks back, I think while we were in Florida it came out of hibernation but we never thought to look at it because they told us it would be a few years before it would even start producing grapes but sure enough last night we found at least a half dozen grape clusters. It's only a matter of time before we're clinking glasses with some homemade wine! L'chaim!

Mother's Day

I can hardly believe today was my first Mother's Day. Riley kicked it off by sleeping through the night. We had a heck of a time trying to get her to fall asleep but once she did, she slept from about 8:30PM - 7:00AM! Happy Mother's Day to me! Marc gave me my cards in bed this morning while I was feeding Riley. I was reading my card from Riley out loud and she smiled the whole time I was reading it out loud, as if she knew it was from her. I thanked her for making me a mommy and I got a huge smile for that one. She's so funny!

After taking our time getting dressed, Riley treated me to an hour massage, it was delightful and I am so relaxed! While I was getting my massage, Riley and Marc picked out this beautiful lily plant for me. Then we headed to the mall for a few errands (aka shenanigans) plus I scored a few pairs of pants for work on major sale at Gap and Banana Republic. After shopping we headed to lunch at BW3s (I swear I picked the place, I was jonesing for some wings). Riley started to get cranky so we came home, it turned out all she wanted to do was play so we played a bit on her mat and then I took her bar off and she played in her Exersaucer. I thought she would be in there for 5 minutes like she has been the last few days but she was in there for like a half hour! We think she's hit a major developmental/growth spurt in the past few days. She's been majorly cranky and sleeping a lot and clothes that fit her last week didn't this week. I spent Friday packing up her Newborn clothes and she is officially in 3 Month and 0-3Month. She also was a lot more willing to try to reach toys in her Exersaucer that she was interested in. Earlier in the week she got frustrated and cried but today she found a way to grab at a few toys. I could also tell that her pushing the buttons was more calculated and not just her pounding on the buttons. If she slipped away from her toys she adjusted the way she was sitting so that she was back in position to play with the toy she was interested in. She's still not entirely steady sitting up but she was much more so today than she was even on Friday. It was so much fun to watch her play, I definitely played a less active role in her playing today. All in all it was a great day today!

Our first Mother's Day together! (She was more interested in all of the TVs at BWs so it was hard to get a good picture with her!)

Mission Accomplished!

My mission yesterday was to assemble Riley's ExerSaucer, she has shown an incredible amount of interest in playing lately, like she will fall asleep playing if I let her skip a nap, so I figured that would be a fun thing to get going for her. Well, I didn't realize the ExerSaucer comes in like 100 pieces, so 4 1/2 hours and 2 naps (for Riley) later, it was complete. I put Riley in it and I don't think she quite knew what to make of it, I actually think she was over stimulated by it. She did like that she could punch the buttons on one particular section and it played music, usually I have to help we pull stuff to make it play, so she got excited and pounded all of the buttons. She's a bit small for it, so I had to stuff the seat with blankets and it's kind of a pain to get her out of it. I take her bar off to get her in and then snap it back on when she's in the seat but the bar is hard to remove once she's in the seat. Like all things with this clubfoot thing, I am sure we will adapt, and figure out a good method. Here's Riley in her ExerSaucer for the first time, she looks a bit confused, I put her in this morning again and she gave me a huge smile but then got frustrated because she was too short to reach the flower she wanted to touch.

Not quite sure what to make of all these toys!

Riley looking a little confused!

A cute Riley story: Riley has this super, duper mobile that plays music, rotates animals and projects images onto the canopy. It's the Fisher Price Precious Planet mobile for anyone familiar with kids goods. This morning Riley was in her crib, after a great night of sleep, might I add, and I heard her babbling at about 9AM. I let her go a little, it's so nice not to have to rush to her crib with a bottle these days. At about 9:15, I noticed the babbling getting louder and more passionate so I went to check on her. She was laying in her crib staring at her mobile talking to it. I said "good morning" to her and she looked at me, got a huge grin and then looked up at the mobile as if to say "mommy, turn it on for me." So I turned it on and she got so excited, she started pounding her bar (yes her new trick) and would shift her gaze between me and the mobile and was just laughing and "talking" away. It was the cutest thing, the girl's got quite the personality for a little squirt!

Growing!

Wow, I can hardly believe Riley is 4 months old (16 weeks today!). I have no idea where the time has gone, all I know is I have about 3 weeks left on Maternity Leave, and that makes me very sad! I love being home with Riley and seeing her daily changes and I know I am going to miss a lot when I go back to work. But I know I have to go back so I am going to try to savior the next three weeks and hopefully they won't go by too fast.

I'm trying something new this month, instead of posting 5 different pictures, I've made a composite of her growth in Photoshop. This is her first month out of casts so that changes the dynamic a bit but she's sitting up so much better and of course we have captured the famous Riley smile! We go next Thursday for Riley's 4 month check-up, for some reason I was trying to calculate when her next casting would fall so I made it for next week, I guess it didn't occur to me she would be out of casts by 4 months! I'm looking forward to seeing how much she weighs and how long she is, we haven't gotten a length measurement since birth since they couldn't do it while she was in casts.

More to Come...

Riley's Gramsie and Popsie came to visit from New Jersey this weekend so we have been having fun with them and I will update the blog tomorrow or the next day on the weekend's activities but Marc captured this photo of Riley while we were playing tonight and it is so cute (at least we think so) so he wanted me to post it immediately (if not sooner). She just loves that Bumbo so much.