Look Momma, One Hand...

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

Happy Turkey Day!

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


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


My brother, Marc, Lauren, Riley and I:





















Uncle Michael carving the turkey:























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




















Riley enjoying her first Thanksgiving dinner!





















Me and my girl!!!




















Today was a good day...

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

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


























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


























This lion was gorgeous...





























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


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




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

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

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

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

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

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

Vacation...

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

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

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

The most wonderful thing...

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

"Momma!"

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

What a wonderful way to start a week of vacation!

Cruising

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



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






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

Riley's really cruising around these days!

Visitor!

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

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



















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




















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



















View from the entrance of Artesa:



















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


















Riley, Amy and I at Artesa:


















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

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

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

Dancing!

The Wizard of Oz was on TBS tonight so we turned it on so Riley could watch and she loved it. She especially loved all the music and we caught her dancing to it on more than one occassion. She gets her moves from her daddy!

Time Flies...

When you're having fun!!!!

I can hardly believe that Riley is 10 Months old today! Where on earth has the time gone???

The last few months have just been a blast with Riley, her personality is really coming through and she is just such a crack-up. We like to say what Riley lacks in size she makes up for in personality.

So here's what Riley is up to these days: Riley still plays so well independently, which is nice when you need to get stuff done around the house or cook dinner, but she also lights up when you sit down and play with her and she absolutely LOVES having both Marc and I together with her, I really think she is the happiest when it's the three of us together, even if it is just laying on the bed before bedtime with her, she just loves having her Momma and Dada with her! She has taken to trying to climb over things and loves to find obstacle courses to climb over, her favorite is crawling under our coffee table and over the support bar, all with her brace on! She also discovered the staircase recently and I can see the wheels turning on how to try to get up it, fortunately she has short legs and has not been able to get a leg up on the first stair, but I know it's only a matter of time, once those wheels start turning, watch out! Riley is definitely a character and is into them these days and in the last couple of weeks has taken an interest in stuffed animals and of course Sesame Street. We heart Sesame Street in the Zimmerman house because we can put Riley on our laps and she will sit still long enough to put her brace on. Riley loves to wave hello and bye-bye and last night she clapped, to what you might ask? Sesame Street of course! She loves Murray, Elmo, Big Bird, Zoey, Abby Cadabra, Barkley, we're learning all of the characters, or relearning them. I must say, I actually enjoy watching Sesame Street with her, we learn new things, they have great celebrities on (today was Jack Black), and she loves when we can sing songs together. Riley has also taken to dancing which we think is like the cutest thing ever, she bobs her legs and waves one arm in the air. It's so cute! She also tried to stand independently the other night while we were dancing. We're officially on teeth watch at our house, at this point I just hope she cuts one by her first birthday! Her lack of teeth has not prevented her from eating table food though, we transitioned her over after her 9 month well-check and I feel like she has just hit a growth spurt and she absolutely loves to feed herself! In fact, if you try to feed her these days she spits the food out and throws a fit, other than yogurt, which she loves and still lets us feed to her. Though she loves to squish it through her fingers. And better yet, less and less food ends up on the floor and in her high chair everyday. Unfortunately she has started throwing temper tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants (particularly our cell phones) but Marc and I can't help but just laugh because she looks so ridiculous throwing a temper tantrum. Wow, I just realized what a busy, busy girl she really is! Riley still remains a very happy, very active, very social little girl. Day care told me the other day that they think she will do great in the 1-2 year old class so I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to move her up at her 1 year birthday or just before. Time really does fly by when you're having fun (and have a very busy girl)!

Here's her growth photo for the month, they are getting harder and harder to do, especially since she learned how to climb off of her chair this time!

Opportunity

I am very excited to announce that I am embarking on a new opportunity as a Creative Memories consultant. I am still going to work full time at ConAgra but have decided to also pursue this other opportunity, I'm a little stressed about how I am going to manage everything but I think I will be able to work it all out. I am very excited to start a new venture in something that I absolutely love to do and am really excited to share all of my products with my friends! I just started training and just got my consultant kit last night but as I get into the full swing of things I will be posting updates on here (and probably Facebook) as my business moves forward. For now stay tuned but I wanted to let everyone know I am here for all of your scrapbooking needs, both traditional and digital!

Happy scrapbooking!

Jake Came to Play!

Today our friends, Jenny, Josh and their baby Jake came over to play! It was the first time the kids really got to interact together and they both got soooo excited! Jake is almost exactly 5 months younger than Riley and yes, he is the same size, he was all smiles and giggles today! The adults had fun catching up over some hot dogs and hamburgers (and very yummy cupcakes) while the kids made us laugh!

Riley and Jake saying hi to each other:

A video of Riley and Jake together, Jake decided Riley's hands looked yummier than his own hands:

Mr. Smiley Jake:

Riley having fun at her play date (and enjoying her Cheerios!)

More fun at Gymboree

Marc and I took Riley back to Gymboree today, she had a lot of fun as usual and of course she loved all of the other kids there. Again, she was the only girl in the class, do girls not go to Gymboree? I'm starting to wonder. To say Riley is not shy is an understatement, in addition to personally greeting all of the other babies in her class, she crawled right up to the instructor and sat there and looked at her with pure joy as she sang songs. She needed to have a front row seat. One of the dad's there told us jokingly, "Don't worry she'll get over her shyness." Riley also clapped for the second time, she clapped two days ago in the bath tub but I thought she was trying to get the water so I didn't count it! But today she for sure clapped with excitement as Gymbo sang to her! Yay for Riley! I've been working with her on clapping, she waves like a pro but the only developmental item we had to check "no" to at her 9 month was clapping but I am happy to say she is now a clapper! Her Dr. didn't even say anything about it and I knew she would eventually, we just needed to give it a little more focus!

Marc wanted me to post another video of Riley crawling at Gymboree today, notice her stop and look at Gymbo on the mats, she is a fan of Gymbo! (Ignore the massive amount of drool coming from her mouth, she goes through at least 3 bibs a day).

Riley also has started dancing, it's the cutest thing. I first noticed it a couple of days ago, we were watching Sesame Street (my new trick for getting her to sit still to put her brace on). I left Sesame Street on while I cooked dinner and Riley played. When "Murray Had A Little Lamb" came on, she stood at her music table and bobbed her legs dancing. Then Elmo's World came on and she stopped what she was doing and danced again to the Elmo's World theme song. I had Mommy's Night out last night and Marc said that he had Sirius radio on and Riley stood at the coffee table dancing. She also danced at Gymboree, so cute! I tried to get her dancing but she stopped every time I took the camera out. Here's a little example of her dancing, sorry it's sideways, one of these days I am going to remember that I can only film horizontal on our camera.

Riley has also been talking up a storm, most of it is gibberish but she now says "Dada," "Momma," and "Hi." The other night she was playing and it sounded like she said a whole sentence, only she knows what she said but Marc and I thought it sounded like a sentence. Here's a video of her talking. She also mastered her sippy cup last week! She still only gets water in it, I think I will start trying to transition her from her bottle to a cup in the next month or so.

Finally, Riley has started to do this new thing where her tongue is always sideways, I think it's a talent she got from me. The lucky girl got all of the most awesome things from me, crooked pinkies, being a morning person, attention to all of the details, and the rocking ability to make her tongue go sideways. She pretty much always has it sideways these days, so much so that her teachers at day care said they have been trying to do it too and can not. Her tongue abilities are the talk of her day care center. Here's an example of her sideways tongue, I thought maybe she was feeling a tooth, but nope, still no teeth!

Riley walking at Gymboree

Dancing with her new friends at Gymboree:

Old Emails

I was going through some old emails looking for a website when I came across an email from my friend, Amber, from my Yahoo Clubfoot group. It was the very first email she ever sent me. I had sent an email to the group when I found out about the group, introducing myself and telling a little bit about our experience and asking for Dr. advice. Amber responded introducing herself, her son was just a few months old at this point. I forwarded it to her today and she emailed me back right away saying "Look at the date! It's from a year ago yesterday!" So crazy! We've been emailing at least once a day everyday since that first email she sent me, her adorable little boy, Brody, has a clubfoot and we've been supporting each other through the process this whole time. Amber has been a great "virtual" friend this past year and we hopefully get to meet in person in April when Marc, Riley, and I are out on the East Coast for my cousin's Bat Mitzvah! I can't wait to meet her and Brody!

There are many other moms out there too (I read many of their blogs too) and I wanted to say thank you to all of you wonderful mommies! Even though we have never "met" in person all of your experience and encouragement has made Riley's treatment so much easier! I'm so glad we all found each other!

Just a little nostalgia for the day!

I should have...

given Riley her bath after Baked Ziti night!!!

Dinner tonight was a huge hit!