Tee Ball Pictures

I didn't have time to post these last week but how cute are Riley's very first tee ball pictures!?!

Through the Years

Marc came across Riley's first class picture and we matched it up with Jacob's first class picture.  They are just about the same age and I find it funny that they are sitting in almost the same spot in the picture!  I also see a very strong resembelance!  

Time with the Big Man

Sunday Marc took Riley to her friend Bella's house to give me a break.  I just feel like I am always disciplining her and chasing after Jacob and I just needed some down time.  I actually thought about sending Jacob too and going to get a pedi but with Jacob being sick I decided just to hang at home with him (especially after a chilly morning at the pumpkin patch).  He napped an hour while they were gone and then he woke up and we had some fun together. He's a funny little man who REALLY wants to stand on his own!

My handsome pants and I!  Those blue eyes get me every time!

Sitting himself down, the squats are probably good for his chubby little thighs! :)

Look ma, no hands!

So proud of himself!  And yes, these days we always have to have a toy in our hand!

Pumpkin Patch

Sunday we made our way to our favorite pumpkin patch, Joan's Farm and Pumpkin Patch in Livermore.  We've been going since Riley's first Halloween and this year did not disappoint.  It was super packed but we still scored some good pumpkins, Riley worked fast and within the first 5 minutes that we were there she picked the perfect pumpkins for herself and Jacob then the search began for our big family pumpkin. 

So excited to be at the Pumpkin Patch

Heading to the patch

Riley's and Jacob's pumpkins

Getting so big she can "almost touch the sky"

Marc wants to know if she will still take this picture with him when she's 20!

Jacob getting in on the tradition

We found our favorite "boo" sign!

Jacob's turn, first trip to the pumpkin patch!

Not so sure about these round orange things

Brother sister love

Jacob approves of the pumpkins that Riley picked out

More brother sister love

A view of the farm

It was quite chilly and windy on Sunday so we let Riley choose one ride to go on since I didn't want Jacob outside  for that long, plus Riley has had a cold for a couple of weeks now too.  Instead of the pony ride she chose to ride the choo choo train!

Waiting for the choo choo

All aboard!!!

My girl is all grown up!

That's a wrap!

Successful day at the pumpkin patch!

Another Pinterest Idea

So when ever the kids go on amoxicillian I can never remember how many days or when they have had their medication, seriously twice a day for 10 days is a long time in the life of a family with 2 small children.  I got this idea off of Pinterest, seriously, how smart is this?  And how come I never thought of this???

For the First Time

I watched Riley running the bases at tee ball on Saturday and for the first time in probably ever, I was happy with how her left foot looked!  I was in shock at what I was seeing, I didn't get a video or pictures because Jacob was all over the place but as she ran her feet looked near perfect.  Her left foot did turn in every so often, maybe twice in her entire lap around the bases, but the majority of the time it was straight and even looked like it was still over corrected at some points.  I had to keep checking to make sure I was really looking at the left foot and not the right one!

Hooray for small victories!!!

10 Months, how did that happen?

Yesterday was little man's 10 month birthday, I can't believe how fast this year has gone by.  Poor guy did not celebrate another month in style.  I picked him up Thursday from day care and he was wheezing really bad, the Associate Director and then another mom that I am friends with both thought I should take him in so I called his Dr who of course was closed for the day because it was 5:30.  The Dr wanted me to take him down to Urgent Care in Fremont, at 5:30 in rush horror traffic, with the flow of traffic, with his sister, alone.  Yeah they got a big fat no on that one.  When I got home I was really woried, his breathing was very heavy and his wheezing super loud.  I decided to take him to the Urgent Care near our house (the one in Fremont has a peditrician on call there) but I figured any Urgent Care was better than no Urgent Care at this point.  I took him in and they were able to see me right away, Riley was super good, they Dr checked him out and determined he had an Upper Respiratory Infection, most likely viral so he sent us home to do the nebulizer to clear up his lungs and motrin or tylenol for his fever.  Apparently, if there are red dots on an infants tongue or in their mouth it means they have a fever, which Jacob did.  So we did the breathing treatment that night and it really cleared up his lungs, I gave him motrin and he slept through the night. 

Friday, his 10 month birthday he stayed home with me, let's just say I didn't get much done all day with a super active, into everything 10 month old but I did get some good Jacob time which I've been craving.  We went to his Dr and she checked him out again, turns out he developed an ear infection as well, his first, so that meant his first antibiotic as well, not exactly the firsts I had in mind on his 10 month birthday but he was a good sport.  We go back Tuesday to check his lungs to make sure they are going the the right direction, which the are, his wheezing is already better, and also to check his ear to make sure that it is clearing up.

We got a weight on him since we were at the Dr, he's up to 19lbs 12oz which puts him at the 40th percentile (up from 32nd at 9 months).  He now has 6 teeth (the dr on Friday even made a comment that he was a hot mess with being sick and teething)!  He still loves to eat, thus the jump in percentiles.  :)  His favorite song is Itsy Bitsy Spider and that's how I can get him to sit through his breathing treatments.  As of today he has started signing when he's all done eating.  And he has started cruising more. 

Here's my big man, as happy as can be even though he's sick.

Cul de Sac Fun

It's been quite warm here again so after school on Tuesday I let the kids play out front.  My conundrum has been what to do with Jacob while Riley is riding her bike, he's really getting too heavy to hold but I don't necessarily want him crawling around outside!  So I busted out Riley's old push toy, our faithful lion and he LOVED it! 

I'm so not ready for my little man to be walking but day care keeps telling me that he wants to be a toddler and I can really see him light up when he's keeping up to his big sister so I'll let him have this one!  I also put him in Riley's pink Cozy Coupe car which he initially tried to climb out of, poor kid, the curse of having a big sister, everything is pink!  But once I started pushing him around while Riley was riding her bike and he was cruising next to her, he was more than content!

And Little Miss Riley has mastered her big girl bike, I don't know if she's finally tall enough, weighs enough, or her feet/ankles are finally strong enough (maybe another clubfoot delay, who knows) but she has it down!  I'm so proud of her, she's been trying for so long to be able to ride it. 

Quite the Weekend of Auntie Love

We had quite the weekend, Riley had her tball game at 9:00 and then we headed up to Napa to meet up with Marc's sister, Jill.  Jill was in town with Marc's sister Jaclyn who was taping a show for Food Network at Beringer (she seriously has the coolest job ever and I am SO jealous!).  Riley was beside herself with excitement about seeing Jill and couldn't wait to get up there.  The hour car ride was just too long for her!  Jill met us in the parking lot and Riley ran to her with pure excitement.  I love seeing Riley love her Aunts, I was talking to my mom the other day and I was telling her how much I loved it, that I hoped one day when Riley was older that, if God forbid she felt like couldn't come to me to talk that she could go to one of her Aunts and seeing the love that her Aunts have for her is so satisfying to Marc and I.  They truly love and care for Riley in a relationship that is like no other.  So anyway, I digress, Riley was a bit disappointed that there was no cousin Max on this trip but she quickly got over it and ate up all of the time she got with Aunt Jill.  This was also Jill's first time meeting Jacob and he warmed right up to her!  We went to a yummy lunch at Cindy Pawlcyn's where of course Riley barely ate, Jacob ate part of Riley's lunch, some of my cheeseburger (I keep telling people that I ordered it so he could have some but it was delicious) and about 4 pieces of bread, seriously don't know where the kid puts it.  I've decided Jacob is great to eat out with as soon as the food comes, Riley, not so much.  Then we went to a winery for a quick tasting before heading back to Jill's hotel to hang a little bit before saying "see you to later."  Riley was devastated to say good bye and refused to hug and kiss Jill good bye because she didn't want to.  It was so heartbreaking.  We kept telling her we're going to be on vacation with them in a few weeks and she will have tons of time with her but she just lives in the moment and at that moment she was not ready to say goodbye.  As soon as we hit the car both kids were out for the drive home.  When Riley woke up she started crying that she had so much fun with Aunt Jill and didn't want say goodbye.  :(

Brothers and sisters :)

Loving time with Aunt Jill

Kisses from Aunt Jill

Sunday we got to see Aunt Jaclyn before her flight back to NY since she was busy working on Saturday.  We met them at the Stanford Mall and walked around and had lunch at PF Chang's, where again, Riley barely touched her food and Jacob at all of his plus some of her food! :) The had so much fun with Aunt Jaclyn and Riley was again super sad to say goodbye to her Aunt.  Aunt Jaclyn also left us with a homemade Ho-Ho from Bouchon.  OMG!  Delicious!  It was a super fun weekend filled with Auntie love!!!

More Auntie love!

Riley wanted to take a picture with the "Yo Ho Mateys" :)

Cheese!

Proud Boy

I gave Jacob his veggie/fruit pouch for the first time on Monday to see if he could feed himself with it.  Well Mr Man was very proud that he had his very own pouch and control over it as well!

Morning Laugh

Last night I jinxed myself for this morning by telling Marc that  I was going to let the kids sleep in.  Let's just say that it was a good thing that I got up at my normal 4:45 to pump and work out because Riley came in at 5 to 6:00 not wanting to sleep anymore.  Good bye alone time!  My boy, Jacob, well he had a super rough cranky day at day care yesterday so he was sound asleep and continued to sleep until 7:30 when I finally woke him up so Riley wouldn't miss breakfast at school.  That left me with a good hour and a half with Riley.  She sat on my lap while I did some early work and as we were sitting there she turned to me and said:

"Momma, I sure do never stop talking."

I couldn't help but crack up, finally something that Riley and I agree on!

Balloons

Riley and Jacob got to take home balloons from party #2 of the weekend!  I forgot how fascinating balloons are for the infant crowd until Jacob got his hands on them!  He squealed with excitement when we walked into the party room and he saw them and then he continued to be obsessed with them at home!

Getting brave with the balloon

Bad mommy tried to untangle the string and cause the balloon to deflate

Not the same as helium but still fun!

Riley's still had helium, look, no hands, one is holding the balloon, the other his cup

And still not quite balanced enough to stand, notice he's still holding his balloon AND cup, that's mad skills!

RIP Airplane

Today we say good-bye to our friend Airplane Part Deux

I came home from work early today to work at home.  For some reason I felt the need to go into Riley's room where I noticed Airplane at the bottom of his bowl laying on his side.  I knew the minute I saw him he was gone.  Now comes to hard part of trying to figure out how to tell her that her first pet and "friend" Airplane is gone.  :(  Sometimes being a parent is no fun!!!

Now I was originally opposed to getting him, I personally don't like fish, I hate cleaning there bowls, they are boring and they die quickly but I have to admit, I am pretty darn sad right now.  I did grow to like him but I am really sad that I have to tell Riley.  I hope she takes it ok.

We had a good 18 months with him and she's been talking a lot about Homer so hopefully I can spin it that he's in Pet Heaven with Homer. 

We'll have a proper toilet funeral for him once Marc gets home. 

Rest in Peace Airplane!  We'll miss you!

Pretend

Monday the kids' school was closed for Columbus Day so I took the day off and pretended I was a stay-at-home mom.  Let's just say I started the day off with extremely LOW expectations on how much fun the kids, ok let's just get it out there Riley, would allow us to have.  She's continued her difficult streak and I was pretty convinced that by the time Marc got home from work that I would be in a drunken stupor just to be able to deal with her or I would be on the verge of killing her and had already warned Marc that I would be going upstairs alone when he got home and getting on the treadmill.

The morning started out rocky, we had a crazy busy weekend with t-ball Saturday morning, then a birthday party, and then another birthday party on Sunday coupled with Jacob's early wake ups (thanks to tooth #5, yes, he now has 5 teeth, coming through) so she was exhausted because she still semi-refuses to sleep.  I promised her a trip to the park so after hacking me all morning about going, like she was ready to go at 8AM, we finally headed down around 10:30 after Jacob's nap.  All morning I had been texting with her friend Joey's mom (not the little boy who tells her she beautiful, this is Joey A, her "best friend") and coordinating meeting up with them there.  I loaded up lots of snacks, a picnic blanket and we headed down to the park.  I made a quick stop on the way there at Peet's for a cup of coffee and told her that Joey and his brother Alex were going to be at the park.  She was SO excited!  She popped out of the stroller as soon as we hit the playground and rushed right over to Joey and Alex.  We ended up spending like 2 1/2 - 3 hours out of the house at the park.  It was such a good time, all of the kids got along great!  We headed home close to 1 for a quick lunch and then nap time.  Mr Jacob took a 2+ hour nap and little Miss "I don't want to sleep" even napped for over an hour!  I got a good 2 hour break to get some cooking and cleaning done.  After naps we played a little bit and then Riley asked to go to Target so she could "buy" something.  She grabbed her purse and we headed out to Target because of course I needed some stuff despite the fact that we went Saturday night while Marc was at the Giant's game.  Then home for baths and some dinner and more fun before wrapping up the day. 

It really was an awesome day!  It made me realize how awesome my kids are in their own ways and I feel so much more connected to Jacob again.  I feel like I know Riley really well because she's up until like 8:30/9:00 after Jacob goes to bed at 7:00 but Jacob I feel like I only get maybe 2 hours a day with him during the week and that's with Riley's distractions.  I feel like I got some great Jacob time this whole weekend and really got to learn his personality.  As sweet as I always say he is, I think he's got a little devilish streak in him.  He can be a little stinker, as in he's a biter and he knows what he's not allowed to do but he does it anyway with a devilish grin on his face.  He also talks up a storm at home but in public he's much more reserved and apprehensive.  He's saying "ba" for ball when he picks up a ball and he says "baba" when he's hungry.  Day care has confirmed these "words" as well so it's not just us knowing what he wants.  Monday really made me realize what I miss every day when I am at work.  It made me very sad Tuesday morning to drop them at school, even Riley, who was little miss helper on Monday when it was just the three of us.  I could seriously get used to being home with the kids, I had a ton more activities to do with the kids that we just didn't get to!

Here's some pictures of our trip to the park!

First touch of the sand

I let him keep his binx so the sand did not go in his mouth!

Riley and Joey building castles

Alex getting involved

The little guys swinging

The big kids swinging

Group shot!

Repeat

Last week's calzone night was such a hit that Riley was requesting it all week so Friday we did a repeat, equally as yum as the week before!