Now and Then

Marc captured some photos of Riley in the tub this morning and I couldn't believe how big she looked...

Here's a photo of her taking a bath a few days after getting her casts off (almost 3 months ago)...

And today...

And just because I think her expression is adorable in this photo:

Forgot to Post this...

I forgot to post this picture on my Father's Day post. I must say I can't take any credit for the idea, I got it from my friend Anne (who said I could steal it) who does this every year for her husband, Doug (Doug, if you read this I hope you are feeling better, he just had surgery on his collar bone, which he broke) with their two boys. But I did get a 4 1/2 month old to hold wood letters without eating them (for the most part) so I'm going to give mad myself props for that.

So I just gave Marc this yesterday, better late than never. Mostly because my Photoshop decided to break right before Father's Day so I couldn't put the pictures together. Marc in his first of three weeks off from work somehow rebuilt my janky computer so that I didn't have to buy a new one and he could get his other Father's Day present (the driving motivation I'm sure). We also just found a frame we liked on Friday. The picture is looking snazzy in his new shiney frame and is all set to go on his desk at work! The plan is to do this every Father's Day for him! Thanks for the fantastic idea, Anne, Marc absolutely loved it!

Happy Father's Day

Today we celebrated Marc's first Father's Day by heading into the city for a SF Giants game, I know big shocker right? :) We had a great time with great weather, great seats and the Giants even managed to win! Marc has declared Father's Day his new favorite holiday. We woke up, got Riley dressed and fed and put her down for a nap while we got ready to hit the road for a day in the city. Riley took a great, hour long nap, mostly because her friend Lou Seal hung out with her (we made Riley Lou Seal at the Build A Bear Workshop at the Stadium at her first game - in the last few weeks she has become quite a big fan of Lou Seal. I always let her play with him after her bath when I am trying to put her brace on and he keeps her quite entertained.)

After her bottle Riley wanted Daddy to have the card she picked out for him:

Riley hung in her Bumbo and entertained herself while we packed up the car. Go Giants!

Thank goodness for Sundays because we got a sweet parking spot and it was free (Marc's favorite kind). Then we walked down to AT&T Park to get there early so Marc could get a Giant's Father's Day tie. After we entered the park and got our ties (yes, I ended up with one as well) we went into the Acme Chophouse for a few beers before the game. Riley had so much fun looking around and getting kisses from Daddy!

Daddy got the torch today by getting Riley to take a nap while we finished up our drinks. She slept a good hour in our arms before the game which bought us most of the game with a happy, well rested Riley.

Sleepy girl:

At game time we headed to our seats, which were great, they were in the shade, a total added bonus since Riley is still too young for sunscreen, so we didn't have to worry about the amount of sun she was getting. The woman who had the end seats traded with us so that we could have easy access to the walkway if Riley got too fussy, which was so nice of her. So we settled into our seats with a still sleeping Riley. A few minutes in she woke up and was just in awe of everything around her. She was great the entire game, she had one slight meltdown in the 7th inning but fell asleep for her fourth nap of the day (a big deal for her since she is a horrible napper) and slept until the top of the 9th! It was a great day with great weather, great seats and a great game!

Family photo:

Now for the story of the day: Marc was eating his sandwich and I was entertaining Riley (plastic keys are the secret!) and one of the vendors walks up our aisle touting his special on team cards, the message being something to the effect of the cards being $2 and they are normally $10. So Marc is like "Sweet, a smoking deal, I'll take one." Marc gets out his $2, gives it to the guy and is handed his cards. He sits down and I immediately start cracking up, the cards are the 2007 team cards, no wonder they are $2! Without a word, Marc pops up and returns his baseball cards by telling the guy he already has them and the guy's response "That's why they are $2." I was hysterical.

It was a great day! Happy Father's Day Marc!

Agendas

Marc and I are dog sitting for Jill and Edwin this week. We both agreed with different agendas in mind, obviously in addition to helping family out. Marc agreed as a way to convince me that we are not ready to have another dog yet and I agreed to prove to Marc that we can handle a dog with the intent to ask for a new one in January (happy birthday to Riley and I!). Well today we were talking about how much harder it is looking after a dog in addition to Riley and I told him my agenda when agreeing to watch Mort, who by the way is a fairly low maintenance dog, at least compared to Homer, though Homer would potty outback and Morty requires a walk, anyway, I digress. Marc admitted to his agenda and we both had a good laugh at the trickery involved in this agreement. Well, Marc won this one, I agreed it's too much having a baby and a dog. Husband 1, Wife 0

We've have agreed that we will wait until our youngest baby is 2 years old before we get another dog. So there is another dog in our cards, just a few years down the road!

Solid Foods!

Last night we started Riley on solid foods. We were going to wait until she was 6 months but the last few weeks she has been very interested in what we are eating and not so interested in her bottle. In fact on Monday Marc met my friend Lori and I for lunch and Riley was staring me down so she told me to try to give her my spoon and sure enough she put it in her mouth like she knew what to do with it. I was still going to wait a bit because Riley's Dr. told me at least 5 months at her last appointment but lately she's been only eating like 3 out of the 5 ounces in her bottle and then playing with the nipple (chewing on it and moving it around with her tongue). So I pulled a first time mom card and called yesterday and she said to go ahead try foods. So last night we started Riley on some rice cereal. She did fairly well for her first time, it was pretty late so in retrospect it was probably not the best time to try it since she was tired but here's the video from her first go at foods:

I gave her some more today at about 4:00 and she just loved it, she was smiling and just having a great time eating like a big girl. In fact she ate her whole bowl and probably would have kept going, she got the whole tongue motion down and everything. My big girl!

She wears her cereal well:

All smiles eating like a big girl!

I was also wondering how much she weighed these days since it really looks like she hit a growth spurt in the last week or so and based on my calculation I think she's about 12 1/2 lbs. (I weighed myself and then weighed myself again holding her and took the difference as her weight, she had her brace on so I subtracted about a pound for that and got to 12lbs 8oz - so she might even weight more now!)

Look At How I've Grown!

Wow, I can hardly believe that today, my miss Riley Madison, is 5 MONTHS OLD! Seriously, where has the time gone! It really has flown by, my 4lb 14oz baby girl is just a distant memory at this point. In fact we went to see baby Jake last weekend and we had a hard time believing that Riley was ever that small (and he was almost 2lbs bigger than Riley was as a newborn!)

Everyday it seems like Riley is just growing and maturing and it's amazing to see her doing new things everyday. Yesterday, for example, I was playing with her after work (I could hardly tear myself away from her to change) and she was on her back and she put her arms up as if she wanted to be pulled up, so I gave her my thumbs and she pulled herself into a standing position! I yelled "Big girl!" like I always do and she squealed in delight, they laid back down to do it again. Last week she had no idea how to do that and her legs were all jelly when I would pull her into a standing position. Last Friday when we were at Dr. H, Riley was sitting on my lap while I read a magazine and waited for Dr. H and I noticed her looking at, examining, and reaching out for the pictures (as well as drooling all over them - poor person who read the magazine after me!) in the magazine so now we are into picture books which she wasn't a few weeks ago. She's starting to move objects from one hand to the other with fluidity and when she wants to put something in her mouth, which is about every 30 seconds, she does it so skillfully now, she even put a spoon in her mouth by herself. Last night she rolled from back to tummy in order to go after a toy and we found her trying to pull up onto her knees in order to scoot for the toy. She has found her shoes and will lift her legs in the air and look at her shoes and grab for and hang onto the straps. I looked at her last night and realized how long she suddenly seemed, so it's time to retire her 0-3 month clothes. I always get sad retiring clothes, which is really silly since she is 5 months and wearing 3 month clothes but they all look like capri and 3/4 lengths on her so I guess it's time to let go of my newborn and embrace my infant. I guess it makes me realize how really fast it is going and I just want to hold onto every minute of her life.

We seem to be adjusting to me being back at work, though I get very antsy at the end of the day and want to rush home to her. It made me realize that the last 4 1/2 months (give or take the first 8-10 weeks) were the best 4 1/2 months of my life. Being home with her everyday was truly amazing! I hope one day I get the opportunity to be at home with her full-time but in the meantime we just cherish every moment we have together and try to have as much fun as we possibly can.

I leave for a business trip on Sunday and I just can't imagine being away from her through Wednesday. Daddy is going to be on full-time duty so hopefully Riley goes easy on him! He already has plans to take Riley to a Giants game for a Daddy/Daughter outting so I can't wait to see pictures of their first Daddy/Daughter outting! We'll be leaving her behind in August as well when we go to Mexico for 5 days. My team won a sales incentive trip so we're going down to Cabo with my co-workers and decided to leave Riley with Nanna and Pepe so that we could fully enjoy the resort vacation, it will be hard to leave her but I know that she is really too young to take on that sort of vacation still.

But here it is, Riley's growth trend (can you tell I analyze data for a living). :) It was a little harder to take the picture this month since Riley wants to be involved in everything, I even had to give her a toy to hold onto to keep her focused. My big girl!

How I Measure My Life

This morning I just RSVP'd for a friends party mid-July and I realized I thought to myself, "Wow, Riley will be out of her braces full time when we go to their party, that's pretty cool." And then it dawned on me, I've stopped measuring my life in terms of normal people benchmarks but more in terms of how old or what Riley will be doing. I think it started somewhere in my pregnancy, like when that holiday happens Riley should be the size of a cantaloupe and should start blinking her eyes, or when we go to Florida Riley will just be out of her casts, you get the point. Another great example Marc and I were trying to figure out how old Riley was when she went to her first Giants game and I knew it was April 18 because on April 17 Riley came out of her casts and went into her shoes. I didn't remember because our 2 year anniversary was on the 21st, oh no, I benchmarked it off of one of Riley's milestones! Everyone told me a baby would change my life, I just never realized it would make for a new benchmarking system!

Gymboree

Yesterday we took Riley to Gymboree class. We originally signed her up for the 0-6 class but they called and said since she was 5 months we could take her to the 6-10 month class, plus there were no kids in the 0-6 class. So we took and while she was a bit young she had a really good time. She even spent half the class staring at one of the little boys (she was the only girl in the class and by far the youngest, the rest of the babies were all crawling). She had so much fun listening to all the music sounds and songs and absolutely loved when they blew a million bubbles. We were even able to experience with meltdown free, which I was worried how that would go since we had

Playing airplane:

Playing the drums with Daddy:

Playing with Mommy:

Looking cute!

Here's a video of Riley bouncing in class, notice her staring at the little boy next to her!

Here's another video of Riley dancing with Gymbo:

Survived!

Well we survived the first week of work/day care. I still feel super guilty leaving her in the morning but all of the afternoons I have gone to pick Riley up and she has been awake she has been on the floor with the teacher smiling and laughing so that makes me feel a little less guilty. The teacher even commented on how she lights up when she sees me come in the room. Ah, melt my heart! She also gets more one on one time because the teacher monitors her more because she thrashes around with her brace and she wants to make sure she doesn't conk any of the other babies, who are all crawling. They love her there, they told me she gives smiles and they look forward to seeing her again in July. Riley doesn't have to go to day care for the next four weeks, Marc's company is shutting down for 2 weeks the end of June so he is taking some of his Paid Family Leave to fill in and is going to watch Riley the last three weeks. Next week I was supposed to travel for work but that got pushed back, but my mom is coming up anyway to watch Riley for us, so Riley gets to spend all next week with Nanna. The only hiccup is Riley seems to have caught a cold, I knew she would get sick more in day care but 4 days, that was a bit sooner than I expected. But like everything she seems to be taking it in stride!

Work is going ok, they definitely have forgotten that I have been off for 4 1/2 months and have started my work load in full swing. I'm trying to work a 6:30AM - 3:30PM schedule which is a bit rough, the 5AM wake-ups are going to take some getting used to. I get up at 5:00, shower, get dressed and then get Riley up and change her and give her her bottle and then Daddy drops her off at day care. Two days a week I try to go to the gym and the other days I hope to get off early enough to go for a walk with Riley and spend some quality time with her. I miss that the most, on leave I would walk down to Peets with her every day and sit there for a couple of hours with her on my lap while I read, then we would walk back, usually by then Riley was napping and then we would have a bottle and play. It was great. I wish I had savored it a bit more because I sure do miss it now.

And now for the most exciting news of all! We went to see Dr. H today for Riley's monthly check-up and her feet look fantastic. In fact, he said he doesn't need to see her for 2 months! And now the really exciting news...drum roll, please! On July 17 we get to reduce Riley's brace wear to 12 hours! I can not wait! Not that the braces are soo horrible, they really aren't terrible, they are just cumbersome and I feel like some of the time they prevent Riley from doing what she wants to do mentally. It will also be nice for people not to feel sorry for Riley when we are out, many time people stop me and ask about it and then feel sorry for her. Don't feel sorry for my daughter, she is stronger because of it and she is doing everything she should be inspite of it! It will be so nice to take them off after she wakes up and send her to day care in her cute little Trumpette socks and NO metal bar. Marc and I are just thrilled and Riley continues to amaze us everyday. She has taken this clubfoot thing with such grace and strength. I know you are probably thinking that she doesn't know any better but I have heard of some kids who just fight it every step of the way and Riley has just adapted so well to everything, from the casts at 11 days, to her surgery at 2 1/2 months, to her brace at 3 months, she has just adapted so well, I can't get over it. Marc and I always say to each other what a good girl we have and how lucky we are. And we truly are, she scared us a bit during the pregnancy, but we are soooo lucky to have her.

And the other big news, our good friends Jenny and Josh had there son very early this morning and we can't wait to meet Baby Jake! We hope to go into the city on Sunday to meet him!

We Survived and Rolling

Well we survived our first day at work and day care. I got into work at about 6:30 and left around 3:45 to get Riley. I decided to work out 2 days a week during the work week and then Saturday and Sunday on the treadmill to get my workouts in and to maximize my Riley time. So I picked Riley up a little before 4:00 and they said she did great, took her bottles, cat napped like normal. When I got there I looked through the glass and her teacher was playing with her and Riley was smiling up at her, that made me feel really good and then even better when I went in and Riley gave me her big grin and got excited. The teacher told me she put her on her belly and Riley rolled right over so I tested it when we got home (since she usually screams bloody murder on her stomach)...

First with her bar:

Then because the teacher thought maybe the bar helped her, without...

That's my girl!