Trip

I took Riley this week to see my Poppa with my parents.  I was a little worried about flying with her without Marc pregnant but Riley did SO well!  She really embraced her big-girl status and listened well and followed directions.  She had a few slight meltdowns on the way there but they were nothing major and she was distracted very easily by the next target, and considering that I had to wake her up at 3:30AM to catch our 6AM 51/2 hour flight, she did pretty darn well!  I got her to cooperate with promised of going swimming a lot so of course as soon as we got to the hotel and she spotted the pool we had to go down there.  She started to undress before I even had the bags unpacks.  Luckily we got in around 3:00PM so we were able to do a post-dinner swim and she was hooked from there!  After we came up from the pool, I was getting her ready for bed and she said "The pool is so fun in there!"  It was so adorable.  The first words out of her mouth each day was "I want to go swimming."  It was a great bargaining tool at the dinner table when she was misbehaving!

Tuesday we went to see Poppa Jack and spent some time with him in the morning.  We went to our favorite bagel place, the Bagel Snack and everyone just fawned over Riley.  She proceeded to tell everyone that her "baby sister is in mommy's tummy," I guess we still have some work to do on her acceptance of her baby brother.  But she was so sweet, she loves old people and they love her!  After our super yummy brunch, and my family's amazement over the amount of food I can no intake (no 4lbs of Fury this time!) we headed back for a nap and then what else?  A swim!  After we got cleaned up from the pool we headed to teppanyaki for dinner with 2 of my cousins, Poppa Jack of course, and my Aunt and Uncle.  Marc and I have often talked about taking Riley to teppanyaki but since she's generally not great at dinner we've not ventured out to do it.  Riley was in awe of the whole even and better yet, she actually ate, and ate, and ate!  I can't wait to weigh her when she wakes up because that girl ate more this week than I have ever seen her eat in my life. 

With Poppa Jack and Cousin Jason

Hanging with Poppa Jack

Happy Camper at her  first teppanyaki

All smiles because she has leftovers!

So Sweet

Riley FINALLY accepted that she's having a baby brother instead of a baby sister.  Tonight at dinner I let her eat on the couch since she hasn't been feeling great and I honestly didn't want to battle her at the dinner table.  I was sitting next to her and she decided that her brother wanted some of her dinner so she lifted up my shirt and started shoving green beans into my belly button, I tried to explain the whole concept of an umbilical cord and that what I eat, the baby eats.  It went right over her head and she insisted on putting more green beans in my belly button and then of course he needed some milk so her sippy cup ended up in my belly button too.  After baby brother was done eating she says "Oh I just love my baby brother!" leaned over, gave my belly and "big" hug and a kiss.  So incredibly sweet and I nearly cried (which could be the hormones!).  I think someone is going to be a great big sister after all!

Drumroll Please...

We had our monthly ultrasound check today and we found out lots of good stuff!  Like he's a BOY (and not shy about it either!  Early on in the ultrasound right after we found out he was a boy he reached down and put his hand on his stuff!  Oh boy, do I have my work cut out for me!)  Our little guy has has perfectly straight feet, no signs of clubfeet on this little one.  There's always a chance that at 20 weeks it will have formed but the Dr said she would be very surprised if in a month they had turned in.  He's also measuring right on track with his due date, he's is about 6oz right now which is perfect for his gestational age.  His spine looks good as do his brain, organs, and heart!  Phew!  He's a very active little guy and while he was not shy about showing us that he is a boy, he would not hold still long enough for us to get a good look at his left foot.  The right foot we could see right away that it was perfectly aligned but he kept hiding his left foot (which ironically, the left foot on Riley is the bane of my existence) but we finally got a good shot of both feet and all is good.  Hopefully this means this is going to be a drama-free pregnancy!

I started progesterone shots today which I will take weekly until I'm about 36 weeks to keep this little guy baking until he's full term.

We are so happy, mostly that he's healthy but we're also excited that we will have a boy and a girl.  Riley was pretty convinced that he was a baby sister and we've tried to tell her that she's having a brother and not a sister and she's pretty much ignored us.  I think she's in denial! 

Over lunch Marc and I were so excited about all of the good news that we said to each other "Wow, so this is what everyone else feels like after their ultrasounds!?!"  We've come to expect bad news in ultrasounds so what a breath of fresh air to leave with great news. 

So here are some pictures of our little guy!  I'll spare him the embarrassment later in life of putting his stuff up on the blog but take my word for it, it's definitely a boy, the Dr even said it's safe to get rid of all of Riley's old girl clothes!

Profile of our Baby Boy!

How straight is that foot!?!

Of course Marc thinks he looks like him.

Two straight feet! :)

Girly Girl

So any one who knows me, knows that I was a tomboy growing up.  I didn't even really paint my nails until post college, so to have a girly girl on my hands is quite foreign to me.  Don't get me wrong, Riley can be sporty and hang with the boys but she can also be extremely girly.  As Dr H puts it, she definitely read the book on being a girl.  She absolutely loves shoes and it's no surprise Riley LOVES to get her nails painted and begs to go with me to get her nails painted at the nail spa.  So today I took her with me to get our nails done, she did very well, other than routinely touching her fingers and smearing two nails beyond repair before we even left!  (We are now minus two painted nails but she's very proud of her nails!)  She sat all by herself at the manicure table and got her toes and fingers painted while I got my toes done.  She looked like such a big girl!  She got a little insecure at the end when the lady kept scolding her for moving her fingers around but she was getting tired and she is only 2 1/2!

Big girl getting her nails done!

2 1/2 Already!

I can hardly believe that Riley is 2 1/2 already, I know I say that each month but truly, how is it possible my 4lbs of fury is 2 1/2 years old (going on 13!).  Ri actually hit the 2 1/2 mark last Tuesday but I was at the height of my stomach flu so I didn't get a picture done until this weekend.  She is a total crack up these days, she's speaking in full sentences, we had our first poopy on the potty at day care on Friday, and she's been a great helper at school lately, especially when it's clean up time.  I've noticed her starting to color in the lines more instead of scribbling and she's all around a great time.  She's definitely my little buddy and wants to match me all of the time.  If I wear flip flops, she wears flip flops, if I am sitting in the arm chair, she pulls up her chair and is sure to say "Mommy, we're matching!"  And of course Riley is so excited about her "baby sister!"  She even told a perfect stranger that her "baby sister was in mommy's tummy" food shopping on Sunday.  (And no, we don't know the baby's gender yet!)

So here's her monthly trend photo:

And for fun, I did a 6 month growth trend  from birth to 2 1/2, hard to believe it's the same girl!

Gymnastics!

I have Riley in gymnastics again after a brief hiatus this spring for soccer.  Well as bad as Riley is at soccer (not that she doesn't have the skills, she just shows absolutely no interest and doesn't listen or follow directions), she is that good at gymnastics.  I kid you not, it's like two different kids between the two sports.  I'm trying to figure out what it is about soccer that makes her so, well, 2!  But at "nastics" she's amazing, she listens to Coach Lindsay all of the time (ok, almost all of the time), follows directions, completes 98% of the activities (we kind of lose her on the floor but all of the kids kind of go hog wild on the floor) and she's actually really good at gymnastics!  Marc went with us this weekend so I was able to bring my SLR and actually capture some of her mad skills in action.  Last session, Riley couldn't jump, she's now a jumping fool who jumps off of everything with almost no fear at all.  She does the bear crawl on the bars, and she freely tries to do flips on the parallel bars.  We very well might have ourselves a little gymnast on our hands.  And I love what all of the stretching and bouncing does for her feet.  Unfortunately while she was running during the floor activity I saw her left foot turning in while she ran but we go to Dr H next month so we'll deal with that then (she's still in her brace at night) and right now I am going to relish in all of the awesome improvements Riley has made, both from a fundamentals/skills standpoint and from a listening/maturity standpoint.  I really am so proud of the way she follows directions and listens to her coach.  So here are some captures of her vastly improved gymnastics skills.  2024 Olympics anyone!?! ;)

Finally the confidence to do the beam without holding someones finger!

Learning to vault!

Check out the air on this jump!

Naturally, every rocking jump deserves a "TaDa!"

Finally jumping over the cones, she used to just pick them up and move them or just run over them

Bear crawl on the bars!  She climbs up by herself and bear crawls right across!

Swinging on the rope!

Daddy sneaking a kiss!

Actually participating in the floor activity

Getting ready to jump into the foam pit.  The foam pit is definitely everybody's favorite (it's actually pretty fun!)

Mid jump!  Check out that hair!  A few weeks ago, Riley would only jump in if she was holding your fingers!  Now she can't get enough of it! 

Daddy giving Riley a lift out of the pit, it's hard work getting out!

And of course it all ends with a stamp on each foot and each hand.  Riley talks about the stamps all week!

I Scream, You Scream

we all scream for ice cream!  So Marc and I got an ice cream maker for our wedding, I think the Goines' actually gave it to us, and it's been sitting in our guest room closet for the past oh 4+ years.  A few weekends ago when it was like 104 out I decided it would be a fun thing for Riley and I to do together, to make homemade ice cream.  So we fished it out of the guest room closet where it has been residing for WAY too long.  Of course I didn't realize how long it needed to be in the freezer before you could actually make ice cream so we never got to it that weekend but last weekend after our picnic I thought it would be a fun late afternoon activity for Riley and I while Daddy watched baseball.  So we mixed our ingredients and got it going!  It was actually quite tasty!

Hello ice cream making friend, it's been TOO long!

Doin' it's thang!

Inaugural bowl of ice cream!

First bite!

Bowl licking good!

Oh no!  It's all gone!

Beautiful Weekend = Picnic Time!

I'm a little behind on blogging, I got hit with a stomach flu this week that pretty much wiped me out for the week.  Let's just say that the stomach flu plus pregnancy pretty much equals misery.  I think there was one point in the middle of the night one night where I literally said out loud, "Someone please put me out of my misery!"  But I am pretty much on the mend, I still don't have much of an appetite, which is unfortunate because I was really enjoying housing everything in sight but hopefully I'll get there.

Last weekend was BEAUTIFUL!  (I can't say the same for this weekend which has brought fog and very cool, think low 60s, temperatures, yes in July, it's crazy talk).  But last weekend was low 80s, sunny and gorgeous so we headed to our fav winery in Livermore, Mitchell Katz for a picnic with Riley's friend Bella and her parents who are also club members at MK.  Riley's been going to MK since she was about 3 weeks old, no joke, the first time she went there she was in a sling and they weren't sure if there was a puppy in there or a baby, so she's no stranger to MK.  MK has an awesome front lawn, away from the road, with a ton of room to run around.  So we brought some balls and lunch and had some fun in the sun with Bella and her parents!   It was a super fun time, even for the sober girl, and will definitely be a repeat activity!

Busy Busy Busy

It's been a busy few weeks and I am way behind on blogging about the latest birthday party that Riley attended.  She went to her friend Vikram's, from day care, party at this awesome place called Super Franks.  They had an awesome private room that was geared to toddlers so all of the kids could run freely and it was a safe controlled environment.  We might just have to look at Super Franks for Riley's next birthday party!  Of course Riley had a blast.  Vikram's mom actually told me that when she went into the classroom to put the invites on the kids' clipboards that Riley saw her hanging up the invitations and yelled "I want to go to a party!"  She said it was so cute, yep, our Riley loves a good party.  It's so adorable to see all of the kids together outside of day care, they get SO super excited to see each other.  Riley's new little buddy is Mitchell and she has to sit next to him for breakfast every day.  Here are some pictures from Vikram's fun!

Ready to party!

A slide, all Riley ever wanted in life!

Sitting next to Mitchell for lunch!

We've been busy with daily life too!  We attempted potty training last weekend, let's just say Riley is back in pull-ups.  The more I had her in panties the more she peed them and by the second day she wouldn't put them on.  She got annoyed very quickly with me asking her if she had to go potty and 2 seconds after I would ask her she would say "Oh no mommy, I pee peed myself!"  Grrrr!  After we put pull-ups back on she did an awesome job of pottying on the toilet.  We were all pretty frustrated so we're putting it on hold for a few weeks and we will try again with the goal to have her potty trained before the baby comes.

I've been feeling good, I had my 14 week appointment yesterday and so far everything looks good.  My Dr wants me to do progesterone shots starting at 16 weeks so I will start those the same week that we have our next ultrasound.  I will get them weekly for the rest of the pregnancy since Riley was premature.  My Dr thinks I was in active labor for some time since at 36 weeks I was already 3cm and 70% effaced so better safe than sorry!  So our next appointment is July 22 to check for clubfeet for the first time and we're hoping to find out the gender too!

Well little miss is up from her nap so more later!

Visitor in the City

Riley's Aunt Jaclyn was in the city this week for work so we got to go into the city Saturday after gymnastics and spend some time with her.  We met her at her hotel in Union Square and Riley took to her Auntie immediately.  She wanted to hold her hand and walk everywhere with her.  We were hanging out in the lobby and there was a couple sitting my the fireplace and Riley walked right over with Jaclyn following and said "This is my Aunt Jaclyn!"  It was so cute! 

Riley and Aunt Jaclyn at lunch

Making wishes in the fountain at Aunt Jaclyn's hotel!

Since we were in the city, we decided to make a day of it and walk around Union Square and go shopping.  Marc and I love to spend a day in the city and then head back out to suburbia, our darling daughter?  Couldn't get enough of the city and threw a massive fit as we put her in her car seat, yelling, "I want more city, I want more city!"

Holiday Fun!

We celebrated the 4th of July with 2 of my favorite national pastimes, shopping and Chinese food (followed by Sprinkle cupcakes).  We BBQ on Saturday and Sunday so we were all a little BBQ out so instead we headed down to Palo Alto for the day for some shopping.  We headed back late in the afternoon so that Ri could have some water time. Marc was hosing off her house when she of course decided that she wanted to slide, she learned real quick how fun a water slide was! 

Riley also did her horsey impression for us!

Remember...

these guys???  Well they are back!  Yep, Hal and Spooky are back in Dublin.  We've seen them for about 2 weeks not too far from their original spot. 

Hal hanging out

Spooky was a little shy so the picture isn't so great but they are both there!