Riley's 6 months old!! Another Week of Firsts! Some we don't wish to repeat!

My 6 month old!!!


Those cheeks!!


I can't believe he's already 6 months old!!!

Wow! Where to start?! It seems like so long ago that I actually posted something! I guess because it was! We've had a very busy week!

It was another successful week with Ms. Emily. Riley just loves her and her boys Rowan & Camden. The days Kelly has to work late, Emily takes Riley home with her for a while to be there when her boys get home from school. Seriously though, things could not be better with Emily! I'm so thankful EVERY day this all worked out! I told Kelly we may have to have our next baby sooner so we can keep Ms. Emily on payroll! ;)

So we had another week of firsts! Riley had his 1st cereal! OMG! It was so funny! Now he has an entire new repertoire of faces to make! They are HILARIOUS! He did finish the entire bowl though!


Aunt Court giving Riley his 1st taste of cereal!


Told you they were HILARIOUS!


Mom?! What are you doing to me?!


I think this is when it totally jumped shark for him! :)

He also woke up one day and decided he was OVER being swaddled! We knew this day was coming, but I think it was more difficult for us than him! You should see him all sprawled out in bed now! I walk in there and just crack up sometimes! I halfway expect to catch him sleeping in a handstand one night!

These 2 things all of the sudden happened in the same 24 hour period prompting Kelly to look at me and say "What the hell?! He grew up overnight on us!"


Aunt Court & Riley

We had another first this week - one which NONE of us cares to repeat! At 1st we thought Riley was having an allergic reaction to the cereal because he had 5 blow outs (REALLY bad dirty diapers) and threw up for the 1st time. He actually threw up while I was at dinner with my girlfriend Courtney. She came down for the 2nd time since Riley was born to visit us this past weekend. You should have heard Kelly's description of it! I text'd home to see how things were going and Kelly said 'Great! Except for a major blow out and a 7" volcanic vomit'. I was like 'What?!' I felt bad that I wasn't home when it happened and that Kelly had to handle it all on his own! But it didn't phase him a bit!

Anyway, we thought this was all due to the rice cereal because this was on Saturday and the 1st day Riley had ever had it! Then Sunday he had a few blowouts again and he just didn't seem like himself so we skipped the rice cereal. He was also being really quiet and not really himself. We noticed this mainly when Talana's family-Gary, Suzanne, Cole & Kyla - came by to visit him while they were in town from Lubbock. I was almost thinking he was just acting shy, but as soon as they left - another blow out - and you could tell he immediately felt better.

Well fast forward to Sunday night at 1am - Kelly wakes up with what we think is food poisoning - you know what that means! Praying to the porcelin God....it was NOT good! Just when we think we have Kelly somewhat settled - it hits ME at 3am! We were both is such bad shape, I found myself PRAYING that Riley wouldn't wake up before Emily got here because I didn't think Kelly or I would be able to physically get him! And he didn't! Again, divine intervention! Emily made it here before he even woke up. Then I called my Mom - it was her 1st day off and usually the day she gets to sleep in so I felt BAD! But I knew in the state we were in, there was NO WAY we were going to be able to take very good care of Riley! Once again, GiGi to the rescue. She got here before Emily had to leave for the day so she could help us out! She came armed with Gatorade, Chicken Noodle Soup and other goodies to help nurse us back to health! I felt a lot better Monday night, but not great! And at this point, Kelly and I hadn't eaten in 24 hours so we were both extremely weak. I was still thinking it was food poisoning too since we both got it and had eaten the same dinner. THEN Riley ends up getting sick again Monday night and throwing up so it finally dawned on me that we ALL had a stomach bug!!

Then we ended up having a couple of ice days here due to the weather, so we were lucky in that respect because it gave Kelly and I a couple more days to recover. Finally by Wednesday or Thursday Riley was back to his normal self too! That solidified our theory that we had had a stomach bug! Wowzer! My friend Tony warned me that these crazy kid bugs would take Kelly and I out like we've never been taken out before! Man, he wasn't lying!! Kelly and I neither get ill very much, so both of us being hit at the same time was OVERWHELMING! Hopefully that won't happen again!

Riley also turned 6 months old this Thursday - the 29th! I cannot believe my son is already half a year old!! OMG! Time FLIES!! At this appointment, he jumped up a percentile in both height - 28" in the 90-95% and weight 18lbs in the 50-75%.


Riley & GiGi on his 6 month birthday!

We tried cereal again this am, and Riley cried the entire time! We'll see how it goes this evening, but I'm thinking we may just skip straight to sweet potatoes!


I'm sorry...this is a random shot of THAT HAIR! OMG! He definitely has my hair! Mine stood up JUST like this! Luckily he's a boy, so we just sweep it into a faux hawk and he's stylin! LOL!

GiGi is coming back tonight to watch Riley tomorrow. Kelly's Pittsburg Steelers are in the Super Bowl, so we are flying down to Austin to go to our friend's annual Super Bowl party. This is the same friend who has a Super Bowl party every year, and last time the Steelers won we were at his house so Kelly's says we can't risk jinxing them! Ha! It's just another quick 24hr trip for us.

I think I'm doing well! This is my 2nd overnight trip in a month, so I'm doing good at not being too clingy or overprotective! Now....my Mom is probably the ONLY person in the world I'd leave Riley with overnight but at least I'm doing it! Plus, Riley LOVES his GiGi! And Riley's the new man in her life! :)

I know a lot of my friends aren't fortunate enough to have family near like we do, so I'm very thankful! It allows Kelly and I to spend time together to remember that our love for each other is what made Riley possible! That's why he's so perfect!! ;)

So I think that's all for the last week or so! Oh yeah, I entered my favorite picture of Riley - the crooked drool picture in Regis and Kelly's Beautiful Baby Photo contest too! I may be soliciting votes here soon!

A Week of Firsts!

So this was Riley's 1st week with Ms. Emily, and so far so good! Emily is awesome with Riley! She text messaged me the 2nd day she kept him saying every Mom should be given BabyWise before the leave the hospital! I'm telling you! I'm a firm believer now too!

It was also my 1st full week back at work (without working from home or having days off for holidays), and it was good! I was totally focused and able to kick some booty and take some names! It's amazing! Now that Riley is with Emily, I don't even fret about it! I can go to work and focus, then I'm ready to unplug from work and be Mommy come 5pm! No more of these 7-8pm work days for me!

Emily had a great idea of a communication log for us to have so she could keep us informed on Riley's daily going ons and we could tell her things as well. It's awesome because she fills me in on what he's done all day with her, so I don't feel like I'm missing it all! Of course, she probably gets tired of my novels but you gotta take the good with the bad!!

This past Saturday was my & Kelly's 1st overnight trip away from Riley too! Thank goodness Riley was staying with Emily all week. That made it easier to leave on the weekend, but to be honest it wasn't hard to leave him at all. His GiGi (my Mom) came to stay with him, and she's spent so much time here with us all Riley halfway thinks she lives with us already! So when she comes to keep him, it's a seamless transition. Plus, she's a BabyWise convert now too! So I know she'll maintain and respect the schedule while we're gone! Actually, Riley pretty much does it on his own now so I don't have to worry too much! But she's the only person I could leave Riley with overnight right now and not worry while I'm gone! Like I said, she pretty much functions as if she lives here when she's here so that makes it a lot easier!

The reason for the overnight trip was to go to visit our Lubbock Family - Talana's family - for Cole's Wedding Reception. Kelly and I call Gary & Suzanne our Lubbock Parents! And man does Suzanne spoil us (especially Kelly) while we're there. Ever since our 1st trip there, she always has Snickerdoodles baked for him! It was sooooooooo funny the 1st time because Kelly called them EVERY name, but Snickerdoodle! The left a lasting impression though, so now he has the name down! We also had homemade elk chili, tamales, beans and brownies along with the staple Snickerdoodles this time for lunch when we got to Lubbock. Yummy!! We went to the reception in the evening, and it was really nice. We didn't know a lot of people there, so we sat and visited with some of Talana's college friends we usually see every year when we go for Kelly's Spring Fling volleyball tournament. We've also decide that'll be Riley's 1st airplane trip in April of this year. It's only about an hour flight, so it'll be a good 'practice' run before we take any longer flights. Plus, when he's this young it's still a lot to take on! He hasn't started solid foods, so taking and pumping breastmilk along with his supplemental poison (formula) is a lot to try to coordinate for a plane ride! And that doesn't even take into account a car seat, stroller and place to sleep! All of which Suzanne and Gary have already too!

When we got back Sunday at lunch, my Mom said Riley didn't sleep well Saturday night and that he woke up almost every hour. We figured out last night it's because he's finally going through his 1st painful teething experience. He's been teething for a while, but it hasn't bothered him. And you wouldn't really know except he's chewing on his thumb all the time and drools like a mad dog! It's so hard to see your baby in pain! :( And it's so hard to see him cry when he NEVER really cries! We finally broke down and gave him Tylenol and he went right to sleep, but he woke up every 4 hours last night as soon as the Tylenol would wear off. Bless his little heart! I'm hoping that tooth breaks through soon, or he gets over this hump and it doesn't bother him this much through the entire process of teething! They say they get better after the 1st ones because they get used to the way it feels. The thought of something breaking through my gums sounds really painful to me!

Oh yeah! Our last 1st was that Riley had his 1st picture published! It's just in the local Irving Parent magazine, but still! My favorite picture of him I posted last week was chosen to be on a page where parents send pictures of their kids in! It's really a 'Bloopers' page, so that's why I sent the crooked drool bubbles picture in! But he was chosen! He didn't win grand prize, but still!

Speaking of...I need to take some new pics of him! We've slowed down a lot on the picture taking now that I'm back at work! Plus, he's more mobile so he doesn't necessarily just lie there for you to take his picture like he used to! I'm guessing that's only going to become more and more challenging!

Divine Intervention!!! You gotta believe!!!

Okay...so I'm sure most of you know based on my previous whining in posts that today was set to be Riley's 1st day of day care! A very sad day in the Sterne household! I had even been thinking about doing a post last night called 'Preparing for Day Care' to chronicle how I was having to go shopping to double everything, label everything I was taking, the usual stuff. But also how I had cleaned Riley's room and our house procrastinating on doing the 'actual' preparing because I didn't want to! I was acting like I used to in college where I'd have to clean my entire apartment before I could study or work on a paper! ;) Just a more 'functional' version of a dysfunctional habit called procrastination! Like I've said before, I can rationalize ANYTHING if you give me enough time!

But my procrastination is not the point of this post! So I messaged my work husband Jason (It's fine! Kelly knows and loves him too!) early yesterday asking him to ask his wife, Emily, if she had any pointers for me on day care because today was Riley's 1st day! At 6pm, I'm making my run to Babies R Us to stock up on the things I needed! OMG! Sorry 2 second tangent here - that's another thing! Babies R Us is now my new Wal-Mart & Target! You know how you run to Wal-Mart or Target for ONE or TWO things, then you NEVER leave there without spending $100 bucks! Then as you're driving out of the parking lot you remember 2 things you were supposed to get, but forgot to put them on your ever-so-thoughtful list?! Well Babies R Us has taken the place of Wal-Mart and Target for me in that regard! ugh!

Anyway, while I was at Babies R Us Jason texts me back saying Emily said to label EVERYTHING - socks, paci, clothes, bottles, blankets, etc. And to call as often as I needed to in order to see how he's doing, and write down his schedule if he has one - you all know the answer to that one! ;) To write down what he likes/doesn't like/etc. And that I could call her anytime because she knows the ins and outs. Which was why I messaged in the 1st place - Emily has worked at a different Primrose location (where Riley was going) for a year and a half, another day care for a while before that, AND she was a Montessori school teacher, AND she's studied child development to be a teacher, AND she was one of the people that told me to read Baby Wise and just do it! when I got pregnant, AND ...... you get the picture and understand why I was asking her advice!

Then Jason's next message says AND she says she'll be your personal nanny and infant teacher and could even run some errands, etc. I replied telling him not to kid with me right now because I'd probably pay her double what I was going to pay Primrose to keep from having to drop Riley off with strangers tomorrow! And that I had already had 3 meltdowns about this in the past week, so I was not mentally or emotionally stable enough for him to be kidding with me about this! He said she was serious, but he didn't want to be the middle man so I needed to call her to discuss it. I said I'd call her as soon as I got home from the grocery store.

You can probably see where this is going now....I literally called Emily at 8:45pm last night to seriously discuss this alternative and if it would work for both of us! And it DID!!!!!! She came and started this am so I never even had to take Riley to day care!!! Can you believe that?! I'm sorry, but the ONLY explanation I can accept is divine intervention on this one!!! I've been praying for God to give me the strength to not be a total basket case when Kelly and I took Riley, and I guess he decided that wasn't possible so he'd give me a different answer, but not without making me sweat until the last possible moment! I swear I can't tell you how many times I looked at Kelly last week and said - I don't know how I'm going to do it!!!

My load has been lifted!! I was actually able to work and not stress about him being with strangers or ignored!! AND I didn't have to take him out in the freezing rain this morning and evening!!! AND he didn't have to get exposed to mutant day care germs!! AND did I mention he didn't have to be dropped off with strangers and be 1 of 4 infants a person has to attend to?!?! Considering he's been getting 2 or 3 to 1 attention from me, Kelly and my Mom since he was born! So going from 2/3 to 1 to 1 to 4 would have been a BIG adjustment! Let alone the fact that- have I mentioned this - they would be strangers!

So as you can see....my day/week/month/year/life have been made by this 11th hour luck text message I sent asking Jason to ask Emily for advice!! Just goes to show...there's no stupid question...and you never know where a life blessing like this will come from! You just gotta have faith!!

Oh yeah! And Emily taught baby signing at Primrose, so we're gonna do that too!! Yippee! You know me...I'm all about communication!! So stay tuned to see how things workout with our new child care situation!!! I'm SOOOOOO happy in case you couldn't tell! I had looked into the option of a Nanny, but they all wanted us to commit to a minimum number of hours per week, and we didn't want to have to do that since Kelly gets off pretty early some days. We had already come up with a strategy on how we could minimize Riley's hours at day care each day, so now it's all come together with Emily!! She was the missing piece to our puzzle all along!

For 1 millisecond I felt bad about calling Primrose the morning that Riley was supposed to arrive, but the director actually said they get this call a lot on the 1st day or after the 1st couple of days or weeks! That's why they make you give a deposit ahead of time to cover a few days just in case. That's a deposit I will gladly donate at this point! Plus, I had been on the waiting list since last MARCH! So I don't think they'll have any issue filling the position! Hopefully, it helped another family out that was having to make temporary alternative arrangements!

I'll just say one more time divine intervention! Thank you God!

Okay, so this is absolutely my FAVORITE picture of Riley, and I realized I haven't included it on the blog so I thought I would today. This is from the photo session where my friend Doug came to our house to take pictures. I think that's the reason it totally captures the Smoochie Kelly and I hang out with every day because Doug was at our house so Riley was in his own element! These funny faces he makes and how he looks into your soul and makes your heart smile! See.....how on earth could I possibly leave this baby with strangers right now?!


Our Smoochie....bubbles and all! OMG! I seriously could not love this boy 1 iota more!! Just in case you were wondering! :)

I'm Sorry!

I had to at least post a quick apology to all my loyal blog followers! I know you're out there because it surprises me all the time how many different people tell me they read the blog all the time when I see them in person! I'm hoping that you all have been just as busy as we have with the holidays, so you haven't really noticed that I've been slacking!

First, I have to make a quick comment on my last post - can you tell Kelly dressed Riley that day? OMG! Those knee length white socks with a onesie! I had visions of the things I may pick Riley up wearing at day care if there's ever a morning that Kelly gets him ready alone! Kelly himself thinks all shade of green match no matter what, so I can only imagine what 'baby rules' on matching he can come up with! I on the other hand get frustrated trying to match bibs to outfits for those that don't come with matching bibs!

My December return to work went ok. It wasn't too difficult to leave Riley because he was with my Mom or Kelly so it was more like leaving him for a day of rule breaking with GiGi or Dad. And since they've both spent so much time with Riley and adhering to Mommy's scheduling - it's pretty seemless! Plus, it was slow at work because so many people take the remainder of their vacation in December so that helped with me trying to transition back into the grind.

However, I called the day care last week, and they finally said Riley can start next Monday, January 5th. I seriously had a panic attack when the director said that. She even asked 'Is that date going to work for you?'. I finally swallowed the lump in my throat and muttled a 'Yes'. Then I immediately called Kelly and told him I'm not sure I can do it!! I compared the feeling to having a child - you can't imagine having a child right now, but you can't imagine your life without a child down the line. So I can't fathom how I'm going to drop Riley off at day care next Monday, but I can't really see me being a stay at home Mom either! I know once he's a little older and has friends there - it'll hopefully get a little easier! I've decided Kelly is going to have drop off duty! I just can't do it yet! We'll go together the 1st few days because of course I don't trust Kelly to remember every anal retentive detail I'm sure I'll wear them out with, but after that Daddy is gonna have to drop off until Mommy adjusts! I figure picking up will be easier especially in the coming months when he'll be happy to see us! But we've already decided Kelly will pick him up when he gets off because he gets off pretty early most days so as to limit the time he has to spend there. Right now he takes 2 2 hour naps a day, so I've already rationalized that he'll be sleeping 4 hours of his stay there.

Okay, so as you can probably tell - this is the predominant thing on my mind these days! I even had a meltdown just looking at all the paperwork I have to fill out to take on his 1st day! We just have to get over this initial hump then it may not get any easier, but I'll adjust! I do dread the "clingy" stage when he actually begs you not to leave him - that'll be another time when Kelly has to take over drop offs!

Obviously, the other big thing in the last couple of weeks was Riley's 1st Christmas. I'll try to do a quick post on that later this week if I can. Right now I have to stop blogging and clean my house! It looks like a 5 month old lives here!! Actually, it looks like about 5 5 month olds live here! And 2 lazy adults that are trying to spend every moment with their 5 month old before he becomes a big boy and goes to school next week! :(

Oh yeah - Happy New Year to you and yours!! I remember thinking how cool it would be when it was 1999!! I can't believe that was already 10 years and a lifetime ago!!