Evening Fun!

Riley is feeling much better today, I kept her home yesterday for her 24 hour post-fever isolation and we had some good Mommy/Riley bonding time (I definitely miss being with her all day but since my computer didn't get delivered until late morning we were able to go on our Peet's walk - I love that quiet alone time with her) sans the massive meltdown we had in the evening, probably the biggest meltdown to date which resulted in skipping the bedtime bottle (fortunately she still slept through the night). This is the end result of the meltdown, tricky part, reattaching bar on sleeping baby, at least I got the shoes on (on a side note, whoever invented these braces for clubfeet probably never had to put a squirrely 6 1/2 month old into them, it has become quite the challenge trying to get her to stay still and on her back these days long enough to put the shoes back on!):

Excuse the non-matching socks, I put on socks that would match the outfit she was going to wear the next day! :)


























Riley was in a much better mood today when I picked her up. I tried to get her to nap for 20 minutes when we got home so she would be in a good mood when Marc got home but Riley won that battle. Silly mommy, Riley doesn't need a nap when Daddy is coming home to play with her because we were just starting to eat our pears when daddy walked in and Riley's entire face lit up and she grinned her big gummy grin from ear to ear. Daddy came home early from work today to play with Riley and she was as happy as could be. So after polishing off her pears (I think she would have eaten the whole container if I hadn't put half in with her cereal for tomorrow) it was hard core play time until bedtime. She was sooo happy having us both there playing with her, she would look up from her toy at both of us and just light up and smile. She definitely is her happiest when the three of us are together, it makes my heart completely melt! We tried to show her how to walk, unfortunately when we stand her up her legs stay in the angle they are in in her brace, hopefully she figures out to pull them in a bit, but she had fun doing the walking motion while I sang "These boots were made for walking, and that's just what they'll do, one of these days, these boots are going to walk all over you." Then we played some on the floor with her new music table:






















Then we went outside for a bit to get our daily dose of Vitamin D (of course Puppy came to play too). Riley touched grass for the first time and had fun with Puppy who is as big as she is while she watched Daddy water our garden and grape vine:




















And then we had a little fun in the Exersaucer - Riley has always been obsessed with that flower and the bug and now that she's grown into her Exersaucer a bit she rips it out and holds it while she plays with the rest of the toys on the Exersaucer:






















And true to form as soon as we busted out the camera she was hamming it up. I hope that phase never ends, though my friends with kids warn me it will. But alas, all good things must come to an end and it was time for the very happy Bugga to go to sleep. Having daddy come home early from work is FUN! Somtimes I really do wish there was a way to freeze time!

Sick Girl

Riley has her first real sickness, complete with fever. She's had a runny nose for a couple of weeks now and in the past few days she's developed a cough, got to love day care. Thursday I dropped her at day care and as we were putting her bottles and cereal in the fridge, she coughed and the projectile vomitted everywhere. It was awesome! Fortunately she did not hit me in the projectile so I didn't have to go home to change, though she loves to hold my car keys for me and those did fall victim to the incident . She didn't have a fever (I would not have brought her in if she did) so the director said she could stay and they would just watch her. When I picked her up that afternoon, got off early because I had to send my laptop in to get replaced, she was napping and they said her cheeks were a little rosey all day but other than that she had a pretty good day, she was cheerful and eatting well and they kept feeling her and she didn't seem to have a fever. I brought her home all excited because I had Friday off and I had all these awesome plans for us, play group, a walk with our neighbor and her son who we went with almost every day when I was on maternity leave, wine tasting and a bbq with a family from our play group. As the night wore on she was not acting herself, she wasn't really wanting to try to crawl again and when I felt her she was warm so I took her temperature and it was 99.6. To be on the safe side I canceled play group and watched her. She had a rough night, up almost every few hours. When I got her up she didn't look great at all but I figured it was because she didn't sleep well but she smiled at me and seemed cooler so I did our morning routine and then ran out to the Carter's store with her to get some more sleepers for her (they are pretty much the only brand that makes footless sleepers). When I got her home she felt warm again so I took her temp and it was 100.1 and she was looking pretty lethargic, I decided to call the Dr (I still have a few free new-mommy cards up my sleeve) since it was Friday. While I was waiting for them to call back I took her temperature again and it had spike to 101. They called right after the new temp reading while I was debating giving her Tylenol or waiting to hear from them and said I should bring her in since it was Friday just to make sure she didn't have an ear infection or anything. So I loaded her in her stroller and headed down. She had a 101 temp there too (so I'm not crazy!) but the Dr thinks it's just an old fashioned cold and didn't seem to think she needs antibitiotics. They did comment that she really must not feel well since she wasn't playing in their paper. :) I got Riley home and let her sleep in her crib without her shoes on since she really needed a nap and we were in her 4 hour window. I'm sorry to say she had a great nap, though she seemed to sleep ok with her bar on last night. Her fever went down last night and she seemed a little more perky, she was trying to crawl again, was talkative (yesterday was pretty much our quietest day since she found her voice), and was super interested in her new music table I took out for her, but she was still looking pretty pathetic and sickly. I tried to caputure her patheticness on film but of course she saw the camera and posed! Such a silly girl!

Since her temperature was normal five hours after having Tylenol we were optimistic that it was a quick virus thing but this morning when I took her temperature it was back up to 100. My poor girl! I didn't even get half a smile from Riley this morning. :( She's back asleep so hopefully that along with some more Tylenol will help bring my happy, fun girl back!

This one captures her patheticness a little better:

Then Marc tried to capture how bad she looked while I was holding her and she saw the camera and smiled and posed again!

On the Go...

Tonight I was putting some of Riley's clothes away after her bath. I turned around and found her doing what I guess I would classify as her first real attempt at crawling, I wouldn't say 100% that she's crawling but she's close enough that it got me really excited. She's been scooting for sometime now but tonight she did a good job of getting up on her hands and knees. She still looks pretty awkward and cumbersome doing it but she's doing it and that's all that matters! You'll have to excuse my excitement, I really didn't expect for her to be this close to crawling so early, especially because up until Friday she was really spending all of her time in her brace, and she pretty much still is, spending between 20-22 hours a day in her brace. Take that clubfeet!!!

I guess Marc and I have some serious baby proofing to do this weekend!

My Little Ham

Riley has become quite the ham lately, whenever we bust out the camera she poses and smiles. Tonight Marc was at a late work meeting so Ri-bug and I were flying solo. Somehow she made her way over to her Anywhere Chair, I'm not quite sure how she got there, she also found her way over to our Wii and got her first scolding for trying to touch it. Anyway, she was over at her chair reaching for it and she was getting cranky so I figured I'd let her try sitting in it with her sippy cup since she seems to only be able to drink out of it if she's in a chair or laying down. I put her in there and she was still being a little cranky but looked so cute with her little feet out of their brace so I decided to grab the camera and viola, no more cranky Riley. She was working her poses! Here's a few photos from the mamarazzi's photo shoot!

6 Month Checkup

Friday Marc and I took Riley for her 6 month well check. I still can't believe she is 6 months old! It's crazy how time has flown by. I'm happy to say Riley checked out 100% healthy and our Doctor told us what a great job we are doing with her. She weighed in at 13lbs 5.5oz and is 24 1/4 inches long (which puts her at about the 11th percentile for weight and about the 7th for height, my little chunky monkey :) ). The Doctor is extremely happy with her development, especially since Riley still spends most of her time in her brace. She's sitting up like she should be and is rolling every where and is starting to scoot and be interested in crawling. Just in the past day or so she's even started to get up on her hands in knees. I think it's time to baby proof our house. The Doctor even commented on how social Riley is and was extremely happy with how she engages everyone and gives everyone smiles. Riley spent most of her time at the Doctor, pulling on and wrapping herself in the paper on the exam table. I think we actually owe her Doctor's office some money due to the amount of paper Riley went through. The Doctor was cracking up at her obsession with paper and said we should have brought our video camera. Riley also got her shots and went through that relatively easy (even still I am glad Marc was there, I hate doing it alone!). She cried after the first shot and then screamed through the second and third but once we picked her up she stopped. In fact she was over it by the time we left the exam room. Riley has been interested in our drinks for some time, particularly if we have an iced Starbucks or Peets drink, she grabs for the cup and then pulls it down to her level and puts her mouth around the straw. We told the Doctor this so she told us to start introducing a sippy cup, so yesterday we took out a few two handle cups since her hands are still too small to even hold her bottle. She also told us we can start giving Riley water so we've given her a few sippy cups full of water, she knows to put it in her mouth and she loves being about to hold it but I don't think she's really gotten any water out yet. Friday was also a big day because we started reducing Riley's brace wear! Riley absolutely loves being out of her brace and it breaks my heart to put it back on her. I'm torn in two directions because part of me is so nervous to even take it off but the other part of me sees how happy she is out of it and I hate putting it back on! As you can see by the picture, her exciting Friday wore her out! Marc brought her in from the car and put her down to play and I was going to set up her pool and I walked in and she was out cold! Lots of exciting stuff for a little girl! Riley's new thing is to also look to Marc for approval. For example she will make her doggy sing and then try to get Marc's attention, when he responds, she squeals in delight or smiles back and goes back to whatever it was she was doing. She does it with me every so often but she definitely does it more with her daddy, she idolizes him like crazy! It is so adorable!

Here's Riley showing off her mad sippy cup skills, hopefully she'll figure out how to get liquid out of it soon!

Riley with Courtney at Greg and Lyndsay's surprise baby shower (baby #2 is due August 20th!)

Happy girl before the bbq (the little ham loves posing for pictures):

San Diego...

I've been meaning to do this post all week. It's been a crazy one, being a working mom is hard stuff!

Last Friday Riley and I took our first solo excursion together. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by how it all went down. Riley was a rockstar. The hardest part was really getting through security and boarding the plane. Security because of her bar and the added screening and then having to gather all of her stuff and then boarding because again of all the stuff. But we had a great time in San Diego and Riley was great on the airplane. Pepe picked us up and we grabbed some dinner from my favorite Thai place. My mom had eye surgery last Thursday so she stayed home. We got to my parents, tucked Riley in and had some yummy Thai food. Riley slept great despite not being in her own crib, Mr Sea Horsey made the trip with us and kept her company in bed and it worked out great.

Saturday we had lots of visitors; my friend's mom Sherry came over, then family friend's Sheila and Richie along with their daughter Lori and her family (her son Tyler is a month older than Riley). Then my friend Shannon came over with her daughter Sophie and her mom and Sophie and Riley played for a few hours.

Riley with Sheila:

Riley and Sophie:

Shannon and the girls:

Then Uncle Ed and Aunt Lauren came over to see Riley and they brought some yummy pizza!

Uncle Ed and Riley:

Whew, what a busy day! Then it was to bed early after a tiring day and Sunday was my big girl's 1/2 birthday! I can hardly believe Riley is 6 months old already, I know I keep saying it but the time has just flown by. She's all personality these days. I can't remember if I mentioned before but she's a total ham so when she sees or hears the camera she looks up and smiles. It seems the mommyrazzi has gotten to her!

My big girl on her 1/2 birthday!

Before heading to the airport we stopped at our family friend's house. Their son, Jon, who I grew up with (he's actually a day younger than I am) was in town with his wife and their new daughter, Charlie, from New York so we wanted to meet her. What a cutie! Our other preschool and family friend Dayna came with her son, Jack, so I got to meet him too.

Here is the preschool bunch with their babies, Dayna and Jack (7 1/2 months), me and Riley (6 months), and Jon and Charlie (7 weeks):

The three babies:

Then we were off back home. The flight home went off without a hitch, San Diego TSA agents are way nicer than Oakland, I know big surprise right? When they saw I was traveling alone and needed to get patted down and checked two agents gathered my stuff and brought it over to the screening area, they then proceeded to open our stroller and snap our car seat onto it! So nice and very much appreciated!

I am definitely encouraged to do more flights with Riley alone, especially because tomorrow we can start reducing Riley's hours in the brace. Woohoo! We're going to kick it off with a trip to the peditrician for her 6 months check-up. :)

Big Girl!

Here's this month's growth trend...




















I still can't believe she's the same baby in that 10 day old photo!

Time Sure Does Fly!

Wow, I logged onto my blog this morning to check out if any friends had updated their blogs and it really hit me that my baby is officially 6 months old! Where has the time gone!?! It feels like yesterday I was holding my little 4lbs of fury in the hospital but also a lifetime ago at the same time. I got nostalgic the other day and was looking a birth pictures of Riley and just couldn't believe the same little baby was on the floor across the room from me scooting every which way (and starting to get dangerously close to our Wii!). It's amazing how much she's changed and I wish it didn't have to go so fast! I'm so proud of everything she accomplishes, particularly the scooting and moving in general, because it just takes that much more for her with the brace on.

I'll update more later, we're in San Diego and I'm happy to say that our flight down her went off pretty smoothly, she screamed a little at take off. I think because we had skipped Level 2 nipples and went to Level 3 and she was not happy plus she choked on take-off (needless to say I went out and bought Level 2s yesterday!). After that slight meltdown she was golden! The only real issue with flying with her alone is all the stuff! I think next time I would check her car seat and just gate check her Maclaren stroller. But all in all it was a positive experience and she's had a ton of fun with Nanna and Pepe! She's been napping for almost an hour and a half right now and slept a full 11 hours last night so I am optimistic that our flight home will go great and I know she will be happy to see Daddy!

Happy 1/2 birthday my beautiful, happy girl! Mommy and Daddy love you!

Picture of her 6 month growth and our trip to San Diego to come!

Smiles

Riley is all smiles these days, I never get sick of looking at her cute smiling face. Even day care has told me this week that it is so easy to get her to smile. Something about Riley has changed in the past few days, for the better of course, I think she was pretty great to begin with but every day with her gets better and better. I'm not sure if it's a growth spurt or a development spurt but she definitely seems different, I wish I could put my finger on it. The past two nights after day care we've had lots of fun playing, she's starting to sit very well and we've been eatting our veggies at night. Riley has now had green beans, sweet potatoes and squash. So far sweet potatoes and squash are her favorite. We've started giving her a full hour out of her braces to get us (okay me and my crazy self) used to her being out of them for more time and I have to say she just loves it! The minute she gets out of her shoes she flexes her feet, ankles, toes and for the next hour her legs and feet don't stop! We also busted through our first pair of Mitchell shoes, her strap snapped in half while I was putting them on the other day so we have a new left shoe on order. Here are some photos I snapped over the last two nights of my Smiley Riley!

Ok, so I went a bit crazy with the photos, I just couldn't decide on a few, there's a ton more where these came from too. As you can see she loves "Puppy," here's a video I took of her playing with "Puppy" last night, she was way more into before I started videotaping her but then I took out the camera and she was way more interested in the silver box in front of mommy's face so her talking to "Puppy" sort of died down but she was really into and was making crawling motions toward him.

Friday Bugga and I leave for San Diego for the weekend, with the big 6 month birthday on Sunday and her 6 month appointment next Friday (I took her in to get her eye looked at on Monday and she weighed 13lbs 6oz so I will be interested to see what her official 6 month weight and length is. Her eye is fine, she scratched it and it was nasty looking so we pulled a first time parent card and went in).

5th Ball Game!

Today I accompanied Marc and Riley to Riley's 5th baseball game! It's funny because every time we go people ask us if it's Riley's first game and now when we say no, it's her 5th, all of the hard core Giants fans get super excited. Today was free t-shirt day so we got there extra early (Marc's special request) to get our shirts and then hung out at the Acme Steakhouse for a bit before the game. The game was pretty empty today so we were able to spread out in a row all to ourselves which was nice, especially during Riley's meltdown. After a quick nap and a nice bottle, Riley was ready to go and was one happy camper. Today's game was super chilly but we had a lot of fun despite the cold weather and the Giants loss to the Astros. We actually had unseasonably cool weather the past couple days, not that I'm complaining, I'll take it over 100+ degree weather any day!

Marc and Riley on our way to the stadium:

Riley is always interested in whatever we have to eat or drink these days. When I have an iced drink from Peet's or Starbucks she grabs at the cup and tried to put her mouth around the straw, my beer was no exception to this new trick of hers (don't worry, she didn't have any!):

Me and my Bugga!

Happy Independence Day

Happy 4th of July everyone!

I want to start this post by wishing Homer a happy birthday! My love-bug would have been with me 7 years today. He may be gone but he was definitely in our thoughts all day. For the last 7 years the 4th of July meant a special hamburger made just for Homer. I love this photo of him, I snapped it two years ago on his birthday. I was preparing for my father and mother-in-law, and Marc's step-sister, brother and Jill and Edwin to come over for a 4th of July BBQ and I turned around and Homer was sound asleep on his bed, I had to check to make sure he was alive and when I saw he was breathing I just had to snap some photos of him. It's 100% the Homer I used to know and love, and looking back at this photo I know he is somewhere up in Doggy Heaven sleeping the same way and munching on his very own hamburger. Today I had a burger in his memory, his favorite birthday meal, and we lit a candle to remember him. We miss you buddy!

Despite being a little sad that today was Homer's birthday, we had a pretty fun day. We started the morning with a walk to Peet's Coffee. The weather was the best it's been in years, warm but not too warm! We had Jill and Edwin over as well as one of our neighbors and had a lunch BBQ so as not to interfere with bedtime! (My how times have changed!) Riley has been a great napper this weekend so after she woke up she joined everyone for lunch and then we went swimming! Yes, ladies and gentlemen we have found our new favorite past time for when we are allowed out of our bar. Daddy blew up her pool last night and we filled it with some water and toys and we had one happy Bugga on our hands! Tonight we walked down to exchange our movie (we let Riley stay up a little late) and walked through the park to check out the fireworks a little. In Dublin fireworks are legal, not sure why because they aren't in any of the towns around us, but they allow them here so they set up "safe" spots in the park near our house so we checked some out. They didn't seem to bother Riley too much so I think next year we will try to check out a real show, it was pretty chilly out tonight, like pants and sweatshirt weather, so we headed home and got her tucked away into bed, sleeping soundly. Tomorrow we're off to the Giants game and then it's back to work on Monday. :( I wish every Friday could be a holiday, I truly loved spending the extra day with my Bug!

Riley with her Auntie Jill and Uncle Edwin:

Ri-Bug playing in her pool, we have a water bug on our hands!

Summer Time Fun!

Yesterday, I had the day off so we scheduled a play date with our friend Lyndsay, and her 18 month old son Xavier (I actually went into labor about 2 hours after getting home from his 1st birthday party, it was so much fun, Riley decided she would rather be on this side of the world!). We went over to Xavier's Grandma and Grandpa's house for a swim play date. I wasn't sure how well it was going to go over because we still bathe Riley on her infant sling in her infant bath tub since she's still not sitting up 100%. We had them swim in the kiddie pool which I figured was safer because it wasn't full immersion into the water, plus Riley weighs only 12 1/2 lbs and swim diapers start at 16lbs so anyone with a kid knows there could be potential problems there! I did not have high expectations but she absolutely loved it! She stayed in the water for about 20 minutes and then started to fuss, I think mostly because she was getting hungry. Xavier, as always is a super cutie pie and said "baby" almost every time he saw her and gave Riley kisses a few times. I called Marc on the way home and told him what a good time she had and that I was going to stop at Target and get her one. Since he was already across the street from Target he ran in and got her one for our backyard!

Here's some pictures from yesterday, why can't every Friday be a holiday!?!

Riley working her swimsuit:

Playing in the pool:

Drying off after playing in the pool:

Trying to get a 6 month old and an 18 month old to both pose for a photo, not easy! Here's the best we could get!

Wow!

Thank you everyone for your kind words! They were all very overwhelming, in a good way. That was by far my worst meltdown yet, I feel much better today, how could I not when I get to stare at this face everyday...Marc's on daddy daycare since he's been on shutdown this week and I got to come into work and find this beautiful face in my inbox:

It just overwhelmed me that people I have never met (Julie - I would love to read up about you and your journey into motherhood but I am apparently technologically impaired and can't seem to figure out how to email you on blogger so maybe Crista can send you my email), and people who I am only connected to because we share a clubfoot baby in common. All of you were so supportive and sympathetic of my feelings, no judgement, just sincere thoughts and feelings, thank you. And of course the ones I have know for years, you know I love you and the best decision I ever made was to go to IU because it lead me down the path to meeting you all (even you Anne who didn't go to IU, but because without IU, there would have not been a University Directories, and we would have never met in NC at training and would not have our deep friendship). Wow, the support is just amazing! Even Marc turned to me tonight and said "You realize you have great friends, you're very lucky." And I am! You all helped lift me out of my "funk!" I think part of me will always be sad to see Riley have to wear a brace, and be sad that I can't be home with her all day, and be sad that I have to search high and low for sleepers that don't have feet on them and worry non-stop until she walks and then turns 6 and outgrows the risk of relapsing. But yes, it could be a lot worse and yes, I am so fortunate that despite all the scares we had during the pregnancy I have a healthy, happy, vibrant baby girl who just has clubfeet and who spreads so much joy and continues to amaze her parents and all of her doctors with her development and personality. (And I know deep down her feet are in great hands with Dr. H., I've never doubted any of the work he's done on her and I don't have a reason to now, I just want her to grow up and have a normal life so every so often I just get a little overwhelmed with worry) Clubfeet is one of the many parts that makes Riley who she is and I couldn't love the girl more.

Thank you everyone for your kind words and reaching out to me so I didn't feel so alone yesterday!

Vent

I guess I'm sort of having a bad day, I'm tired, work has been crazy, I hate waking up at 5AM to work until 3:30 so that I can come home and spend time with Riley only to be harassed at work about leaving early. Maybe I am just in a bad mood because I am working at home for the first time since Homer died and Marc is at the ball game with Riley and I am just lonely. Maybe it's because as usual I am worried about Riley's feet, nothing in particular has me worried, it's just a constant nagging thought in the back of my head and I just need to vent!

I want to stop worrying about her feet, I want her to be a "normal" baby like all my other friends have with no stupid metal brace holding her legs together, I want to be able to go shopping for her and buy her whatever I want and not have to think about whether or not I can change her with her bar on, I want her clubfeet to disappear so that when we go out people can ooh and ahh over how cute she is (ok maybe I am biased) instead of looking horrified over the contraption on her feet, I want to give her a bath without obsessing over her feet (is that bump supposed to be there, according to Marc, yes, it's just her ankle - see what I mean!). I want to be able to make play dates for Riley and not have to worry about her hitting another kid with her brace or meeting new friends and having to explain clubfoot to everyone (I swear I have my 30 second clubfoot elevator speech down pat). I don't want her to be defined by her clubfoot or limited by it. I want to stop feeling guilty for her having clubfeet. Sometimes I just don't want to be strong anymore! I want to cry because of all the stress and worry that is building up! Don't get the wrong idea, I love Riley with all of my heart, maybe that's why I have all these feelings, if I could take her clubfoot and make it mine, I would in a heartbeat.

Whew, I've never said all these thoughts outloud! Ok, I feel better now!