Happy Halloween

I was pretty excited about Halloween this year, and I am usually not a Halloween type of gal. I just hate dressing up (to be clear, I do love the candy aspect of Halloween) so I never got into the whole Halloween thing, I definitely don't want Riley to be a Halloween scrooge like me so I decided to get festive this year. Halloween this year marks the first of a bunch of first holidays for Riley so I am super excited, her first Halloween marks the beginning of the next few months which will all be marked with firsts - first Thanksgiving, first Hanukkah, and then (gasp!) her first birthday! Last night after Riley went to bed we carved our pumpkins, I figured she would like to see it happen but the quick hands of a 9 1/2 month old around lots of small carving knives, not such a good idea. Plus I thought she would try to eat the pumpkin insides and that's just gross. So Marc and I sported for the pumpkin carving kit at Wal-Mart yesterday and I am so glad we did! Riley's pumpkin turned into a ghost pumpkin and ours a goofy face! Much better than we could have ever done freehand!

This morning after Riley woke up we put our little [lady]Bug into her costume and then Riley and I headed to our playgroup's Halloween party, there were a lot more older kids than younger kids there so Riley was wearing her serious face for quite some time. She even at one point crawled over to me and into my arms which is not in Riley's nature so I think she was a bit overwhelmed. After a while we met a little boy who is a day younger than Riley is. Once they saw each other and we put them down together both of their faces lit up, it was so precious. Riley and her new friend had a great time playing together! They played in the ball pit and had a great time crawling around with each other, ignoring all the older kids running around them. After Riley started to get tired, we headed home to get Dadda and we all went out to lunch. Riley even had part of my hamburger for the first time today at lunch, she was quite the fan! Then it was nap time to get ready for her big night!

This evening our neighbors - Alex, Shari and Ryan, and Elisabeth, Ian, and Owen came over for some play and then dinner followed by trick or treating for the kids. We (minus the dads) all go walking together on weekends but we have never had Riley, Ryan and Owen together out of their strollers. It was so much fun to see them together, although they did a lot of independent play! They had fun and so did the adults, thanks to wine and beer, pizza, and lots of laughs! After it got dark we took the kiddos trick or treating, I'm not sure who had more fun, the mommies and daddies or the babies!

Riley makes the boys cry!!! (Riley with Ryan, who is a dalmation)

Owen playing with the music table (he dressed up as Winnie the Pooh later, it was warm today):

Riley and our pumpkins, she fully approves of our carving job even though we didn't consult with her first:

Riley's badunkadunk! If I don't see you, you can't take my picture, I think she learned this one from Homer!

Our little [lady]Bug!

BUGGA!

Halloween is FUN!

Even if Mommy and Daddy steal ALL of my candy!

A picture of the kiddos together in their costumes to come - someone took the battery out of my camera (hmmm, Marc!) so I didn't get any shots of them because I didn't know the battery had been removed! All in all it was a great First Halloween for Riley, she did great trick or treating, teethed on a pack of Sweet Tarts, and didn't get scared at all! I hope all of our first holidays are as wonderful as today was!

Yay For Gymbo!

Riley seems to be feeling much better (we're still changing about 4 times the amount of diapers we usually change) but her spirits are good and her tummy seems to be heading back to normalcy, so after our morning walk with our neighbors and their sons, Marc and I took Riley to Gymboree class. It's been a while since we were there last. I think we took something like a 4 month hiatus but we bought a group of 8 classes and I had to negotiate using them by the end of the year since our Gymboree switched owners. All I have to say is seeing Riley's face and hearing her excitement when class started, our hiatus was way too long! Yeah, it might be a bit of a rip off but Riley has the best time there! She even tried to hold Gymbo's hand while she was on the parachute. The minute class started, Riley started pounding her arms in excitement and talking! She was definitely the most active and vocal baby in the class (not to mention the only girl!). Riley, as usual, was extremely social, crawling up to all of the little boys in our class and trying to play and talk to them and engage them. She also loved the Gymbo picture printed on the mat and kept crawling over to try to "feel" his hat! She was definitely a funny girl. One of the other families was actually in our maternity classes at John Muir, we even sat next to them at one of the classes we took, pretty funny! (She stopped me after the class to tell me how active Riley is!) Here's a video montage of some Riley's day at Gymboree.

With all of the open space we were able to get a great video of Riley crawling, she has gotten quite fast these days and has pretty much found all of the rooms in our house (plus you get a great view of the cute pig on her butt!). She went crazy with all of the open space, it was like we uncaged a wild animal! The bubbles were also a huge hit today as was the parachute! It was hard to keep her still but I am definitely looking forward to our next class since she seemed to have enjoyed it so much!

Favorite Books?

I am pretty excited for Riley's first Hanukkah! It's my favorite holiday so I've already bought 7 nights of presents already and for the last night I wanted to get Riley some books (and maybe a puzzle) but I'm at a loss for some great books that aren't very well known, we have a lot of the basics but I want some good books for her, she loves her books! So mommies and daddies, what are some of your or your kids favorite books? Or what books did you love growing up that you think Riley would like? Leave a comment with your fav books! (Books for her to grow into are ok also!)

Thanks in advance for your ideas! :)

Sick Girl

Well I ended up not going to Chicago this week and what good thing because Riley was a very sick girl! She had massive diarrhea which resulted in the worst diaper rash ever! I was pretty close to having a meltdown over day care. It's not their fault but she has definitely been sick more than she's been healthy since she started day care and I'm just so sick (no pun intended) of having a sick baby! I finally called the Doctor on Thursday (it started Monday evening) after 9, yes 9, poopy diapers and three outfits on Wednesday and they wanted me to bring her in to make sure she wasn't dehydrated. For a girl who has a ton of clothes, I've pretty much burned through most of her outfits. Luckily she was not dehydrated but the Doctor did say they were seeing a lot of the diarrhea (a couple of other kids in her day care class also seem to have it) and that it was probably a viral infection so there was pretty much nothing we could do other than give her bananas, oatmeal, cheese, etc to help bind her and let it run it's course. If she was still sick on Monday she wants me to call and bring her back in for tests. Poor girl has been miserable. I kept her home Thursday and Friday and worked at home and got her to take two 2 hour naps both days and this afternoon she seemed much better, last night she slept through the night for the first time all week, though we paid the price with her diaper in the morning. Her diaper rash seems to be clearing up and her tummy seems to be on the mend. She's been drinking a lot of water out of her sippy cup so that makes me feel better about her hydration even though she hasn't been too into eating the last two days. We also got a weight on her yesterday and she was up to 15 1/2 lbs, up 1/2 a pound from last week even with all of the diarrhea. Marc did say that he's glad I didn't go away, he might have had a nervous breakdown dealing with this on his own, I can't say I blame him, this was almost worse than when she had that bad fever a few months back. Other than putting lots of diaper cream on her there is not much we can do which I absolutely hate! Her cries have been pure pain and it breaks my heart into a million pieces.

The only good thing about the sickness is she has been extra cuddly and clingy. I love when she needs her momma, I knew something was up when she fell asleep on my lap. I also have had to rock her to sleep the last three nights, something she hasn't wanted in months! I must say I love the feeling of her digging her head into my shoulder and tucking it into my neck. She also spent much of today laying next to me on the couch with her head on or up against my lap. Usually she is so independent but I just loved her cuddliness, of course I hate to see her sick but if she has to be, I'll take the extra cuddles!

Riley has started to check out her little walker lion, here she is getting ready to take Puppy for a ride. She made it maybe a step before she fell down but she took that step so that's all that matters!

Favorite Part of the Day Revisited

All of you diligent readers might remember when I was pregnant and I blogged about my favorite part of the day. Basically, my old favorite time of the day was at about 3:00AM when the house was quiet and Riley would start moving around, I would just lay, sometimes for over an hour feeling her squirm, kick, and flip, wondering what that precious little girl would be like when she was born. Now that she is here I have a new favorite part of the day, the hour and a half to two hours I get with her after work. I let the bottles from the day sit in the sink and I put off dinner usually until Marc gets home and I just sit on the ground and play with Riley. We throw in bathes and dinner but for the most part we play house, tea, read books and practice walking and there is no where else in the world I would rather be. Yesterday we had an exceptionally awesome evening and all I could think is, "It doesn't get much better than this!" Couple of cute stories.

I usually put on Riley's brace around 6:00, she kind of knows it's wind-down time at that point. After they are on she usually stands at the coffee table looking at her books so yesterday I got down there and was reading with her. She climbed up on me folded her arms around my neck and rested her head on my shoulder, I could feel her contentedness as she sat there in my arms. I wanted time to freeze.

After our cuddle time she decided to go exploring, because let's face it, Riley doesn't really sit still for too long these days. In her brace, she crawled herself to the back door and stood up on the sliding glass door. It had just rained so she was fascinated by the rain drops on the screen and the puddle of water out back. I was standing next to her because sometimes she looses her balance in her brace and slips and slides and I didn't want her bonking her head on the glass. She reached up for my hand, took it, gave it a slight tug as if she was telling me she wanted me to kneel down with her. I did and she stood there for 5 minutes holding my hand and looking out into the backyard while I explained all about the rain and why there was suddenly a big puddle in the backyard.

Final story, Marc broke the cardinal rule of our house, don't wake a sleeping baby. Last night on his way to bed he checked on Riley and noticed it smelled in her room, she usually has her poopy diapers in the morning so this was rare, he came in to wake me up (not happy about that!) to ask me what to do, I told him to do whatever he wanted but to remember if he wakes it he buys it (our other cardinal rule). Well he woke it but he didn't buy it. He put Riley back down after a diaper and pajama change (good thing he got her up since her diaper leaked!) and she was absolutely hysterical. Now we are the parents that let their baby cry it out (I know controversial but it works for us and Riley, I know her hurt, scared and sick cry from her I'm just tired and fussy cry at this point so I go in if I have to) and self soothe but she was just too worked up (hysterical cry). I went into her room to find her standing in her crib bawling her eyes out. I got her out and went and sat in the rocking chair and there we rocked for about a half hour with her arms draped around my neck as she drifted back to sleep. We hadn't done that in months and it was the most amazing feeling to have her head tucked into my neck and to feel her little breath go from hysterical to calm and sleeping while I held her in my arms and rubbed her back.

I've been traveling a lot lately for work, I've had a trip a month since I've been back from maternity leave. I leave again tomorrow and have another one next month, to say I am bitter and unhappy about it is an understatement! The thought of missing three days of my favorite time of day is just too upsetting. I hate leaving my family. I know Marc can handle being alone with Riley, he is an amazing father and he loves that little girl more than anything, I just hate missing the little things and not holding that sweet little hand every day or getting my evening hugs from her, or seeing her face light up when I get her from day care. I know I have the rest of my life to enjoy her and be with her but she is only this age once and it is all going by too fast, I want as many favorite times of the day as I can possibly get.

9 Month Check Up

Marc and I took Riley to her 9 Month well-check today, which is ironic because she has another nasty cough and cold (I just love day care!). We really thought Riley had hit a massive growth spurt so we were excited to see how much she weighs and how tall she has gotten. We were even making official guesses last night, kind of like we did in the delivery room when I was getting ready to push. We both thought Riley was 17lbs since I just transitioned her to her 6-9 month clothes and they aren't huge on her (they are a little long but she is not swimming in them), they start at 16.5lbs so I figured she was a little above.

So we took her in and did her stats, she was 26inches (up from 24 1/4 at her 6 month) and she was a mere 15lbs! We were shocked, I thought she was just under 14lbs at 6 months but it turns out she was 13lbs 5.5oz, but still we were way off! Her car seat goes to 32lbs, she might still be in it at 5! That put her for the first time at a higher percentile on height (about 9th) than weight (about 4th!), the Doctor has absolutely no concerns at all, it was really me that was concerned. Riley's growth is following a trend line, albeit a small trend line, it's a trend line, and she attributes the lower weight gain to the fact that Riley is so active. The girl doesn't sit still these days, which the Doctor saw first hand, Riley was very interested in all of her tools, we might have a future Doctor on our hands! We got the green light to transition off of pureed food and onto table food and she even told us to get Riley some dark meat chicken to get her a few extra calories if we were really concerned. The Doctor checked for teeth and she saw indentations where her teeth are coming in but there are none directly at the surface of the gums so she thinks we have about another month of teething! Makes sense since I didn't get my first tooth until 9 months and Marc got his at 10 months, I'm hoping by her 1st birthday she'll have some teeth! She also checked Riley's flexibility on her feet and confirmed that her left foot was tighter than her right foot but did say she still had good range of motion, like in the normal range (Jo-Ann looks like her right might be really flexible!). I definitely feel better! It's nice to get two Doctor's perspectives, she doesn't pretend to be an expert on clubfeet and generally asks us questions to ask Dr. H about Riley's feet but I figure she knows about range of motion since it's a part of a typical exam. (Not that I am still worried about her left foot!) :)

We also decided to give her the seasonal flu shot (I was really hoping she could have a Dr visit without shots so she could have a positive experience) because she is in day care and because she's been getting sick so frequently and I must say she shocked us with her reaction. She started to cry and Marc was holding her and started to make some funny noises and I clapped and said "Yay for big girls" and that was it, no more crying. We have to go back in a month for another shot and they will weigh her again for our peace of mind. When we made the follow-up appointment the lady at the front desk didn't believe us that she had gotten a shot, she was so smiley and watching everyone. We had to answer some developmental questions and the only one we answered "No" to was the one about cruising, which I am not worried about since she's still young to be walking. So all in all it was a great appointment and our girl continues to do great and thrive! Right now she is sleeping soundly and peacefully with a dose of Tylenol to prevent any side effects from her shot, resting up for a fun weekend with her Momma and Dada!

I Heart Columbus

I heart Columbus this year because in honor of him Riley's day care is closed today and so I have been forced (yes, twist my arm) to take the day off. I have been working on my days off lately and my boss has been begging me to take a day off and not work so today I vowed to not work, and so far, so good. I haven't even checked my email all day! I did do a bit of work yesterday but have sworn off of it for the day and am enjoying my day off with my favorite Bugga! We had a great weekend, going to the pumpkin patch, Marc telling me I am crazy (uh duh) after hearing my play by play of our appointment with Dr. Hoffinger (I'll get into that in a minute) and just watching Riley thrive. And today is her 9 Month birthday, I can hardly believe that she is 3/4 of a year old. We had a great time today (Riley has been napping for the last hour), we went for our walk and made a stop at the park and hit up the swing before heading to do some shopping at Safeway. The weather has turned quite chilly and we are expecting our first big storm of the season so I figured tonight would be a good night to make a big pot of soup! We put away all of Riley's 3-6 month clothes (sniff sniff) and pulled out her 6-9 and 6-12 month clothes so she has lots of fun, cute, new fall outfits. Riley enjoyed the swing as much this time as she did her first time - even all bundled up (I bought her this hat last year thinking she would wear it last winter, it's still a little big on her):

These past 9 months have just flown by and Riley continues to be such a joy. She is doing so wonderful, saying "Dada," "Momma," and "Hi." She's crawling up a storm and standing up on everything. Her new favorite skill is waving and we have a super fun night time routine where Marc and I take turns taking her up to bed while the other one stands at the bottom of the stairs waving goodbye to Riley for the night. She loves it and waves at us and follows the person at the bottom of the stairs as long as she possibly can. Riley has even started taking a few steps in between her music table and her toy bucket. So with that in mind and after recounting the play by play of Riley's appointment, I have vowed to stop the chain of worry in my family and not stress about Riley's left foot. It's always been our trouble foot but it also sits nice and low in her brace and has never slipped out. I am doing everything I am supposed to do and even have her in her brace most days more than the recommended time but never less so therefore what happens, happens and her feet are going to be beautiful and perfect and she's going to be running on the playground in no time just like any other kid. I have faith in our Dr and everything that we have done. There, worry be gone! This Friday we go for Riley's 9 Month well-check. I am excited to see how tall she has gotten and how much she weighs.

Riley posing for her 9 month photo - it was a lot harder this month than any other month:

We have a lot of photos that look like this this month:

Riley's growth trend photo!

Such our happy girl! Happy 9 month birthday baby! I loved spending the day with you!

Picking Pumpkins

Today we had a Zimmerman shenanigan sort of day. Poor Riley is beat! Our morning started by leaving the house at 8:40 (10 minutes behind schedule) and headed to a vineyard to get some "How to Make Wine" videos from Marc. The couple who owns the vineyard grow grapes for Mitchell Katz's (the winery we are members at in Livermore) Sangiovese and are very nice, we were talking to them a couple of weeks ago at the latest release party and they told Marc he could borrow some videos from them. It was actually very cool, the let us see their vines, they have 19 rows of vines and are getting ready to pick the grapes this weekend. It was pretty cool. After that we headed to Joan's Farm and Pumpkin Patch to meet our play group and pick out pumpkins of course! I was super excited to get some adorable pictures of Riley with pumpkins. I had taken her to Safeway last week after work one day and they had their pumpkins out and she was obsessed with them. We got there and the set up was pretty cool, they have tons of great pumpkins, pony rides, corn maze, petting zoo. Riley was a bit young for all of the stuff but we got some great shots of Riley with pumpkins. She was a bit overwhelmed (I'm not sure if she wasn't feeling great today, she was sleeping a lot, or is just getting to that age where she's a little more cautious) by everything but she eventually warmed up to the pumpkins and started talking to them.

Marc picked a couple of small pumpkins and we let Riley "choose" which one she wanted

This is the one Momma!

Riley checking out both of our pumpkins:

Riley in the pumpkin patch:

So many orange friends!

After the pumpkin patch I was in desperate need of a coffee (I hadn't had one yet!) but Marc's car was leaking oil (or so he thought) so we went to the GMC dealer to get it looked at since he had it serviced there yesterday. They were closed so we were sent to the Chevy dealer. They said they could look at it, so we fed Riley her breakfast there while they cleaned up his car. Then to Starbucks for a coffee and the bank. At 12:00 I had a hair cut so we headed down to Pleasanton for my hair cut, of course Riley needed a diaper change so we squeezed that in before my hair cut. Got my hair cut and then we grabbed lunch. At 2:15 we went to my friend Lori's daughter's birthday party (Happy Birthday Tay!). Riley loved watching all of the big kids playing (Tay turned 5!) and Taylor just loves "baby Riley." After the party we went to Blockbuster to exchange our daily movie only to find out our Blockbuster is closing! We are completely bummed! Then into Safeway, all depressed about Blockbuster, to grab some wine and dinner. We got home just in time to give Riley dinner, get her changed, put her brace on (I did foot stretches throughout the day), let her play for about an hour and then she was off to bed. Marc and I cooked some shrimp, steak, and mashed potatoes for dinner after she went to bed. We haven't cooked like that since the night my water broke! So I guess we rocked it old school Shenanigan style! I'm exhausted!

Not Quite Sure How I Feel...

Riley and I headed up to Dr. H today for her clubfeet checkup appointment and I'm not quite sure how I feel about the outcome. I will first say that they absolutely adore Riley there, especially his office manager, Beverly. When you walk into Children's satellite office there is the main receptionist who is there for some of the other specialists and then you go through a door to orthopedics. When we walked in, the main receptionist said Beverly had been waiting all day for us. Beverly used to take Riley during her castings when I couldn't get her to stop crying and would walk her around the office, cuddle her and give me a chance to gather myself. To say she loves Riley is an understatement and she really helped me out in those early days during casting. Last appointment she was on vacation so she didn't see Riley, Dr H even commented that she would be crushed that she missed Riley and told us at Riley's surgery that he hasn't seen Beverly like this over a baby in years. We walked through the door and she jumped out of her seat and scooped Riley out of my arms. Riley was a little shy today, I think because she was tired and had just woken up from a nap in the car, she didn't cry but she definitely had her "serious" face on. Anyway, Beverly couldn't believe how big the Bug got and told me she almost emailed me a few months back for some pictures of Riley. And of course she walked her around the office and showed her off to everyone there, a few of the other Drs couldn't beleive she was the little clubfoot baby from January. I overheard another woman who was new tell another Riley fan that Riley was really cute and she replied very proudly "She's one of our clubfoot babies and we've been seeing her since she was a week old." No one could believe how big she got and they were so happy to see Riley, I think Riley was a little overwhelmed by all of the attention at first but warmed up in no time and even gave Beverly big goodbye waves.

Now for the appointment - Dr H came in and Riley was thinking about standing up but got distracted when he came in, he was shocked she was standing already but very happy. He checked out her flexibility and kind of shrugged his shoulders like that's it, content with what he saw. Asked how the brace was going and I told him once it was on, we were fine, it was just getting her to sit still long enough to get it on that was the struggle. Then we started talking because she sleeps in this funky position sometimes where she is all twisted around and we've wondered if it's bad for her hips and back, he said no and let a sleeping baby sleep, they won't put themselves in a position that is bad for them. I then confirmed again that she looked good. He said yep, she looks good, her left foot is a little tighter than her right but she looks good. If I hadn't asked again I don't think he would have told me her left is tighter than her right, it's still pretty flexible just not as much as her right. I also saw her tensing her foot when he tried to flex her. So I guess this is good news, he wants to continue the path we are going and didn't seem too concerned with the tightness, she's not slipping from her brace and her heel is still way down and back in the brace so he said until her foot slips from the brace there is nothing to worry about. He said he made a note of it but he just had an 18 month old boy in with a similar situation way back when he was Riley's age and now he can't ever remember which the problem foot is, he had to ask his mom and then check his chart, they are both perfect feet. Her left foot has always been a little tighter and more difficult. He wasn't worried, but, being the neurotic, crazy mom that I am, downloaded some stretches from the yahoo group and hope that those help her out. So I guess I am happy with the outcome...I guess I will just start some of those stretches and keep an eye on it. We go back December 11 because he thinks she will be due for a bar lengthening then and we're going to order some new shoes since we've met our deductible on her this year, that way insurance can pay for them and not us! I am glad we are going in 2 months, I'd rather go every month and know that she's being watched. I know I am crazy! I know I should be happy that she is healthy, developing and that the expert isn't worried!

Swing!

Riley went on her first swing at her friend's birthday party today. It was a huge hit! (Sorry that it's sideways, I keep forgetting you can't flip movies taken from the camera.)

Here's some stills of Riley swinging, this one cracks me up, it's like a bad toupee flapping in the wind!

A little boy at the party wanted to push her on the swing too! That's our Riley, making friends where ever she goes!

It was chilly out there but that didn't make Riley want to get off of that swing, we finally had to cut her off! I think we're going to have to start heading down to the park more often!

Nap Time Shenanigans

Yes, Riley is a true Zimmerman, she was up to all sorts of shenanigans this weekend when she should have been napping, one of her favorites is to pull her bumper down slightly and sit on it, apparently her mattress is too hard for her little tooshy so she creates a cushion with her bumper. We've also seen her pull it down and use it as a pillow.

A new shenanigan of the week, peaking through the corner of the crib and waiting for me to come in, "Hello, Momma, where have you been???"

Her other latest trick, standing in her crib!

I Heart Fall

Actually, I heart cool weather and it has finally cooled off here! (For now at least) I am taking full advantage of the cooler weather, I love getting cozied up, I love warm drinks, comfort food, cozy sweaters, and I love dressing Riley in adorable little jeans and cute little shoes. And I am excited about her first Halloween this month! I already bought her costume and can't wait to see her in her costume, she's going to be adorable! Here's Riley's first real fall outfit and I think she might actually be outgrowing her 3-6 month clothes (excuse the drool, I hope that's a sign that some teeth are coming soon).

Riley says "I love to stand! Check out my new kicks!"

How cute is my little Bug!?! I love her shoes, those are the first pair of shoes I ever bought her after her brace wear hours got reduced. Well her feet are really starting to grow because a couple of weeks ago (at her naming) they were so big she could not wear them and today she wore them all day and day care said she did great in them, she was standing really well. I think her feet are coming along really well, I always start to get a little paranoid at this point in between appointments, we go see Dr. Hoffinger for a checkup next Friday and haven't been for about three months. But her feet seem flexible, her heels don't appear to be riding up, and her feet sit really low and back in her brace and don't appear to be slipping out (good signs, right cf moms??? see I'm getting neurotic!) They are really taking a nice shape too, losing their puffy, boxy shape and are really starting to look like "normal" feet. Riley's getting so confident with her standing, she is really starting to master standing up and is pulling up on surfaces that don't necessarily have a ledge to offer support (like the outside of her pack and play) and then bending down to get something and then standing back up, many times while still holding the object she bent down to get:

This was a crazy week, we both took off Monday for Yom Kippur (I was not a nice person late in the afternoon after fasting all day) and we had a good time spending the day with Riley, she went to day care while we went to services and then we got her on the way home. I got picked up at 4AM Tuesday (yes, in the AM, that's not a typo) for the airport for a quick trip to Chicago for a meeting. I came back Wednesday night after a 2 1/2 hour delay at O'Hare (yes, Cancun ladies, I got delayed!). It took Riley a good 1/2 hour on Thursday to realize that it really was me and not a dream and after she realized it was truly me she got a huge grin on her face and yelled "HOOHA!" all morning, we're not sure where she got that from because we don't say it but she was clearly happy mommy was home (although daddy took great care of her and I know they had fun because while I was getting her dressed Thursday morning, Marc came in to say good morning to her and she lit up with delight and grabbed his face to kiss him). Riley and I were in Peet's getting a coffee on the way to day care that morning and she yelled it again and then grabbed my face, pulled it towards hers and squealed in delight. Everyone there thought it was adorable and when I explained I had just returned from a business trip they thought it was even more cute and sweet. I will say this business trip was much hard than my last one, which was longer and my third week back to work from maternity leave, so I don't know. I think because Riley is more aware of things now and really recognizes Marc and I. I have a few more trips planned already so I'm not looking forward to those.

Riley is all about the table food this week and she had waffles for breakfast and chicken and tortillas for lunch yesterday and cheese sandwich and green beans for lunch today. I really need to go to the supermarket this weekend and load up on frozen veggies that I can heat up for her for dinner, she's all about feeding herself and is getting really good at actually getting it in her mouth, 99% of the food makes it in with only a small percentage falling on the floor and the rest ends up in her lap and hair mostly. You can't have a canister of Gerber Puffs within 5 feet of her without her knowing and demanding Puffs (think full on screaming). Our only problem is she is no longer interested in a bottle and hasn't quite gotten the sippy cup down so I'm concerned she is not getting enough formula. We go in 2 weeks for her 9 month checkup so we'll find out then. Today Marc and I picked her up at day care and she was playing with a little boy and she looked so grown up the way she was sitting there playing and interacting with the little boy. It's crazy to think in just 3 very short, quick months she'll be a year old. After a quick dinner tonight we took Marc to the airport for a trip down to see his Aunt and Uncle in San Diego for the weekend. Riley and I are going to have the first of many girl's weekends and while we will miss daddy we're looking forward to some good girl time together! I told her when she's a little older we'll go for mani/pedi's together and have lunch at Nordstrom Cafe! :)

Wow that turned into quite the update, keep your fingers crossed for us for a good report next week at Dr. Hoffinger's!

Riley say "Goodbye and have a great weekend!"