Happy Belated Birthday,

to my HUSBAND!  I know, bad wifey not posting a birthday post sooner but I was waiting for pictures and I've gotten sucked into my scrapbooking.  But we had a great birthday celebration.  Marc was able to get home early so he was home around 5:00 for some celebrations.  Riley was super excited about Marc's birthday and requested cupcakes (cause clearly it's about her), she also wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate but we had to draw the line somewhere.  So happy BELATED birthday darling!  I can't wait to finish our celebrations in Las Vegas this weekend!  Love you!

Peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate glaze, yum!

Singing Happy Birthday to Daddy

Mmmm, cupcakes

Bringing daddy his presents

Helping Daddy read his card

Oh Dear!

Riley had her second swim lesson on Friday after Dr H and her teacher had Marc put her under water.  I could not watch it.  Now, we aren't super over-protective of Riley, in fact, we probably parent her more like a second child, we let her take risks (within reason) and let her learn the consequences, even if it means a few bumps and bruises, how else is she going to learn.  But I get really nervous with her around water, especially because she has no fear.  I was really worried that she didn't get the concept of holding her breath, but she did really well and LOVED being under water. 

Little ham had to make sure that I was watching

Kicking!

Practicing her kicks

Trying to figure out how to float on her back

Mani/Pedi's

Last Wednesday I had to keep Riley home from day care with me because Marc needed the car for work.  So after her nap I asked her if she wanted her nails painted like Mommy.  Of course she did so I strapped her into her high chair and painted away.  She was way better than I thought and didn't touch the wet paint and was fairly patient with the process.  The next day at day care she showed EVERYONE her nails, she was very proud!

Painted piggies

Painted nails



Checking out my handy work



GOOOOOALLLLLL!!!!

Yesterday at soccer they were practicing goals and Riley did great!  As awful as she was last week at soccer she was that great yesterday.  I wish I had kept filming because she started to run down the field with her hands up cheering for herself.  I almost expected to her to rip off her shirt like Brandi Chastain did!  Do we have the next Mia Hamm  (who also had clubfeet) on our hands?

First Night

How happy does this girl look?

Well, that's because last night was our first brace free night, in fact it was really the first night since Riley was 10 days old that she hasn't slept with a cast or a brace.  We had our 4 month check-up with Dr. H yesterday afternoon and he felt that she was fully corrected and didn't require the brace any more.  I've been expecting this day since January when he wanted us to stop but we kept going since I had just bought another brace so I was not surprised when after he said she looked perfect that he recommended us stopping.  So I think it's safe to say "peace out clubfoot!"  It's been real, it's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun!  (Seriously, we recognize that it could have been a lot worse but it wasn't always an easy task to overcome)

Of course, I am neurotic so I made him agree to letting me come monthly for a while so if something does start to go wrong we can catch it early so we go back the end of May for another check-up.  As Dr. H explained the correction process and how it all is theoretically supposed to work he used my foot as an example and sadly (or fortunately) Riley seems to have better dorsiflexion than her Mommy!  So we are relieved, nervous, excited.  We're watching her closely for 2 weeks and if we don't like what we see we will throw the brace back on and head into Dr. H.  Of course Beverly was ecstatic to see Riley and spoiled her with a Dora sticker and 3 lollipops.  We also met two women whose kids see Dr H and one of the ladies daughter's had a clubfoot and is now 9, it was SO nice meeting another clubfoot family and talking to them.  She saw us walk in with Riley's brace and asked if Riley had clubfeet.  When we went into the room, Dr H told us the she told him that Riley's feet looked amazing.  She told us later after we started talking to them some that Riley's feet looked fantastic also, so nice to hear that from an experienced outsider. 

So now Riley's brace is at the top of the closet hanging out in case a rainy day decides to come our way but I am cautiously optimistic that all is going to end well.  Riley was hilarious last night, she's been trying to convince me for weeks that bedtime was really a nap because she doesn't wear her brace for naps so last night when we put her to bed she sort of had a look on her face like she thought she was getting away with something.  To celebrate the occasion, Riley got to sleep in her footy pjs which she usually only gets to wear when she is sick.  We all slept so much better without hearing the brace hit the crib over and over again and it may be a coincidence but she's been in a great mood today and is listening better than she has in weeks.  So fingers crossed that all continues to go well with my million dollar feet!  And Perhaps now her feet will grown!  Now Marc and I just need to learn how to put a kid to bed without a medical device of some sort on her feet!

You mean, I get to wear my Elmo's to bed???

A Day In the City

My good friend from college was in town over the weekend from New Jersey with her husband and their daughter Madison.  Madison is about 12 hours older than Riley and Jenn and I were sorority sisters.  We always see them when we are in New Jersey so we were excited to have them on this side of the country.  We braved BART and met them in Union Square for lunch.  It took the girls a few minutes to warm up to each other but once they did, it was like they see each other every day and not once a year.  They were so cute together, they sat next to each other and copied each other and even sang a few songs together for us.

This was probably the only time that they were sitting still :)

Classic toddler "cheese" face



Friends hug!



4 Glorious Years

Today Marc and I are celebrating 4 glorious years of marriage, it's hard to believe that our wedding was 4 years ago, so much has changed but I can't imagine taking this journey without Marc!  Happy Anniversary Darling!  I love you!

Little Mermaid

So seriously, Riley has quite the social life these days.  I bought a Groupon a few weeks ago for swim lessons.  We had to push them back a week because of our friend (NOT) the ear infection but Friday Riley started her swim lessons and the girl had an smile plastered on her face from ear to ear the entire time.  Is there anything that girl doesn't love (well, besides her night night shoes)?  So now, Little Miss Social has swim Friday nights, our weekly walks with the neighbors on Saturday mornings and soccer Saturday nights.  Phew, I can hardly keep up with her.  Swimming went, well swimmingly, the director even came up to me and said she was doing great, and was excited to see her willing to go to the instructor so that he could show her how to do some things.

Getting into the water

Getting ready to jump in!

A little help jumping in

Oh and I should mention that Marc wanted me to take her to swim but I insisted he go for at least the first class since I wanted to check out what sort of bathing suits moms wore in the pool with their kids, that and I am in no condition to be walking around in a bathing suit, I have some serious work to do for the summer.  Well I am so glad I insisted on Marc getting home early and taking Riley because there were ZERO moms in the pool with their kids!

Back on the Wagon

Whlep, so far my time off has done wonders for my scrapbooking, I am officially back on the wagon and have completed several pages, I am not past Riley's first month of life, hey, don't judge!  Now granted most of these layouts had been pre-constructed at MaryJo's workshops and just needed pictures but still, it's a start and they helped getting the creative juices flowing and are contributing to filling up Riley's scrapbook so that's all that matters! 

I definitely need some punches and other supplies, perhaps a trip to Berkeley is in order to visit Scrapbook Territory.

I Can't Believe

for the first time in the history of Riley that I forgot to take her monthly chair picture on her actual month birthday!  I think I just got wrapped up in leaving my job and finishing up projects and it totally slipped my mind.  So I took these 3 days later, on the 15th,hopefully she didn't change much except for the fact that the past few days she's been in a massive terrible 2 mode!  Not listening, doing her own thing, being defiant, yep, it's pretty awesome! (I even got a dirty look on BART today because she was having a meltdown on the train and I refused to give into her plea for a pacifier).  But that aside, Riley is a TON of fun as usual, she's talking up a storm and knows everything.  Since I've been off, we've been taking Marc to his train in the morning before bringing her to day care so that I can have a car during the day (bye bye Impala!) and she LOVES going to the train station.  She tells everyone that Daddy goes to work on the choo choo train and that the train is too loud.  On Friday we walked down to Peet's for breakfast and the poor guy sitting next to us had to listen to her tell him about the choo choo train and Daddy at work, and the train being too loud.  He was a certainly a sport about it!  Airplane (yes Part Deux) is still a huge hit and Riley loves feeding him and watching him eat.  Riley absolutely HATES her night night shoes and makes up stories about how they hurt and tries everything in her power to get out of wearing them.  We go on Friday for a check-up and my gut tells me that her wish is going to come true and that we're going to be released from the brace.  I have mixed feelings about it, that's a blog for another day.  Back to her 27 month update, I took her to the Dr when she had an ear infection and she's actually up to 24lbs!  We might actually hit 2T clothes while she's still 2, my little squirt with the HUGE personality!  Getting a picture this month was a little more challenging!

First we had YaYa's blankets in the photo



Then YaYa needed to take her picture, my guess is, YaYa won't look that much different next month! :)



Then she wanted to put Dora Stickers on her back

This one was semi-decent

Then we started with this and it was all downhill from here

So we landed on the semi-decent picture and so here is her growth trend

The Old Switcheroo

Well after only having "Airplane" in our possession for less than a week we noticed that something was not right with him.  I noticed Friday that he was lethargic and was acting weird, I even texted Marc that I thought he was dead, and on Saturday Marc noticed that he was getting gill rot so he called PetSmart to see if we should treat it ourselves or bring him back.  They told us to bring him back and that they would isolate him and treat him and then sell him to someone else (isn't that person lucky???  That poor sucker! He's going to have to pull the old switcheroo too!).  So Saturday after soccer practice we pulled the old switcheroo on Riley.  I distracted her with a bunch of doggies that were out front and hoping to be adopted, then we went and looked at the kitty cats inside, and then we watched some doggies getting haircuts, then back outside to say hi to the adoptable doggies again, all while Marc picked out an "Airplane" look alike.  We safely smuggled the new "Airplane" back in the house and told Riley that we were moving him to a bigger house (which we did, we put the new Airplane in a bigger bowl).  I'm sure someday she will read this and be more than pissed that we deceived her but how do you explain to a 2 year old that her fishy is super sick???  So we became those parents that tricked their kid, not our idea of perfect parenting but sometimes you have to do what's necessary to protect your kid I guess.  Meet the new "Airplane," Airplane Part Deux! :)

First Soccer Practice

It's hard to be believe that almost exactly 2 years ago we were embarking on Riley's brace wear.  We we suffered through the stares of strangers passing by as people noticed her brace, we dealt with a cranky infant trying to figure out why she could no longer move her legs independently but Saturday she had her very first soccer practice.  As I watched her running on the field and kicking the soccer ball, just like all of the other kids on the field, I got a little choked up, what a proud moment to see a happy, healthy, and perfect little girl running around having the time of her life on that field.  I was pretty impressed with how well she did, aside from having to work on her listening skills (which tonight I cracked down on), Riley did so well.  She picked up on kicking the ball and running and kicked the ball several times consecutively.  It was a great afternoon for us!

Excited for her first soccer practice

Her field - They just built a gorgeous sport park facility up the street from us

Checking out the older kids's game

Running "drills" with Daddy

Her soccer class - her buddy Ryan is in her class

We're #1!

Learning how to dribble

Getting the coordination down

My cool chick

I LOVE this picture, how cute are these two!?!

Work from Home Day,

for all of us!   Thursday I had a test done so Marc and I both worked at home.  Since Riley had a fever the day before, she was home with us.  Marc and I were both working at the table so Riley decided she had some work to do.  This little character was definitely feeling better. 

Feeling better and all smiles, and I would be smiling like that too if my clubfeet looked so darn perfect! :)

Sick Day

Monday I got our first ever call from day care saying that Riley had a fever and needed to be picked up.  I was already on my way so it was no big deal but this doozy of a virus hit her hard and fast.  Monday morning she was chipper and feeling great (which is rare Monday mornings because Riley is NOT a morning person and not a Monday person either).  I went into her classroom and she was laying on a cot in the corner, she barely lifted her head to great me, so NOT Riley.  I usually get plowed over by her running and jumping into my arms with her yelling "my mommy's here!" so I knew she was feeling pretty crummy.  Sign number 2, she didn't want to stop by the baby room to say hi to the babies her her infant teacher "Miss Karen" and she passed up the crackers on the way out.  By the time I got her home and bathed her fever was 102 and climbing.  Her teachers told me that they noticed her rubbing her ear after they noticed her fever so I pretty much knew we had an ear infection on our hands so I called the Dr on the way home.  Sign 3 she was in bad shape, she sat on my lap for over a 1/2 hour cuddling and watching a Tinkerbell movie, it was the sitting still for an extended period of time that was a give away, not the interest in Tinkerbell (she's a total girly girl these days).  So Tuesday morning I took her to the Dr and sure enough, ear infection, so much for tubes!  This one threw me off because there was no drainage like the ones in the past have had since the tubes.  Sign 4 she was in bad shape, when we got home from the Dr she went straight to the couch and fell asleep, she NEVER does that!  Sign 5 she was in bad shape, she was very clingy, needy, agreeable, and there were no "Riley do it's" in her vocabulary.

Asleep on the couch.  She never does this

Riley spent the majority of the day on the couch with no interest in her toys.  By Tuesday evening her fever spiked to a little over 104 and I freaked out and called the Dr, fortunately with the help of our friends Motrin and Tylenol she didn't really wake up throughout the night so we still got some sleep.  Wednesday Marc stayed home and Riley was on the mend but still had a fever so no day care on Thursday either. 

Thursday was fever free the whole day and Marc and I both needed to go to the office so Friday Riley was back to day care.  They said she was definitely not herself, very cranky and not very active but she didn't have a fever so they didn't call.  Poor kid got hit hard!  We seem to be on the mend now, though we had to postpone swim lessons a week thanks to the ear infection.  Hopefully we'll have the all clear to start next week!

Meet...

"Airplane!"  Yep, Riley got her very first pet.  I was in major spring cleaning mode last weekend and found some fish tanks in the cabinet and took them out with the intention of moving them to the garage.  Marc saw them and asked if we could take Riley to the pet store to get her a fish.  I gave in, I hate changing fish water, but I thought it would be fun for her to have a pet.  We took her to PetSmart and let her pick out her very own fish and name him.  "Airplane" was her first choice and then she switched to "Doggy" but we were able to convince her that "Doggy" was a silly name for a fish so now we're back to "Airplane."  On the way to school Monday Riley said "Airplane friend Riley." (Translation, "Airplane is Riley's friend")  It was very sweet and very cute and she's very excited about "Airplane."  She loves feeding him in the morning with Marc and says hi to him every day after school.  This may bring us one step closer to a dog...

Home from the pet store and getting his bowl ready