Happy 1st Birthday to our little Smoochie!

Okay, so maybe he's not that little anymore! But he'll always be our Smoochie!

Here's a few of our favorite shots from his birthday 'smash cake' session today.

He wasn't sure what to do with that #1,but banging on it is always a good default!


Awe...that pouty look! Who could say no to that face?! (Not me or Kelly!)


Those cheeks! He's still got 'em!


And the grand finale!!! Smashed cake! And blue icing! Everywhere!

To be honest, we basically learned everything NOT to do for this smash cake session! The main lesson being - pick the cake up the night before! Not on the way! Because they store it in a walk in freezer overnight, so it's a cold brick!! Riley didn't want anything to do with it, and we couldn't figure out why until Kelly touched it! He was like it's freezing cold! And at this point, Riley was reaching full meltdown mode anyway.

Then it's probably not a good idea to do BLUE icing either! The 3 of us looked like Mamma, PaPa and Baby Smurf when we left the photography place!! Seriously! We had blue fingers and fingernails. Riley had blue everything! Face, fingers, fingernails, stomach, legs, feet, toenails! I called my Mom on the way home asking if there was any trick for getting food coloring out of your skin! She didn't know of any. In our simple minds, we just thought we'd be able to wipe it off with baby wipes! No Siree!

So google is your friend! The 1st result said toothpaste or baking soda! Score! I had toothpaste with baking soda at home! And OMG! It worked like a CHARM! The only challenge was that it made your skin cold, so Riley was looking at his own hands like why do they feel like that?! The he decided he didn't like that feeling (now all over his body) about as much as he didn't like the cold cake! Bless his little heart! I'm guessing he would have decided to opt out of the birthday events if he had known what he was signing up for! Either way, all three of us were 'minty fresh' the rest of the day! :)

At this point, it was time for Riley's lunch and nap! And he was all about getting back to his routine! No more cold cakes, blue icing and toothpaste scrubs for him!

The rest of the day is to be continued.... ( I need to upload pics from my camera 1st. AND I need to get to bed at a decent hour tonight!)

His big birthday party is Saturday, so we are looking forward to that!

Mr; Clean! Mr. Clean!

A mom & wife can dream, can't she?!

Here's Riley helping his Dad load the dishwasher. It's another new 'favorite'. If he notices you have it open, he's over there in a flash to help you! I opened it to add something after I had started it the other day, and he was over there before I got it back closed. Steam coming out doesn't faze him!





Actually, Kelly does A LOT around the house! More than me a lot of times. As he'll tell you, he's the master "straightener upper" - don't open closet doors or look under the bed, but it'll definitely be presentable! The only thing he won't touch is the laundry, and I probably wouldn't let him anyway! Because it gives me anxiety just thinking about how he'd throw everything into the same load! Then leave them sitting in the dryer for days letting the wrinkles set in instead of hanging them up right as they are finished! :)

Speaking of laundry, I better quick blogging and go get some done!!

If You're Happy And You Know It, Clap Your Hands!!

So this is one he'll kill me for later in life!! Posting a video of him in his diaper with his full little belly hanging out right after dinner and just before his bath! But I can't resist. He started clapping a while ago, then the army crawling skill arrived so he sort of stopped clapping. But it's coming back now...

This little frog was a Christmas present from his Great Aunt Shireen, and he's really started to love it more and more lately. He's always loved the clapping songs on it, but now he's interacting with it more. Kelly and I just noticed him doing this all of the sudden, then it took a little hoaxing to get him back into the groove to perform for the camera!

If you watch the video, you'll see him thinking real hard, and flexing his hands, then waving his arms, then he finally puts it all together for a second! Again, I shot this video with my regular camera instead of my video camera so it's a little dark.



By the way, I don't always have random boxes around my house see the background. But that box has been a prime toy this week! See pics below!


Dad put him in it for a ride.


Then he took the box for a ride as he crawled around the house with it in tow.

Erik - You're so right! We do only buy toys because of marketing!! It can't be for the kids! They don't need or want them! I'm a marketers dream, so this is a whole new realm for me! :) The marketing 'people' had exhausted me on all other fronts, but this is a new frontier!

And right now the box has half his toys in it. He's totally in the put something in so he can take it right back out mode lately. Just like he wants to be on the sofa with you, so he can turn around and get right back off the sofa. And he wants you to pick him up, so he can lunge to let you know he wants right back down. All about the opposites right now!

So this is what I've been missing?!

So we took the plunge and turned Riley's car seat around so he's facing forward today! Just another sign that he's growing up WAY TOO FAST!! Kelly and I were all excited thinking Riley would be so happy to finally be able to see where the heck he was going!!

After all our excitement and bringing the camera along for the 1st ride to capture the moment, let's just say it was a little anti-climatic for Riley! He was not very impressed! He literally had this 'Fonzie' cool look on his face, like this is all I've been missing?! Big deal!!

I think Kelly and I are more excited that we can see his sweet little face in the rear view mirror!

He also had his 1st taste of "big boy" milk today! He didn't reject it, but he definitely wasn't gulping it down like he does the formula. He kept raising his eye brows at me so as to let me know that even though he was drinking it - I hadn't pulled a fast one over on him!


So this is what all the fuss is about?! How lame!

Look at those chunky little legs!! It's so hard not to gnaw on them!!

My Little Man All Grows Up! :(

I know that's improper English...it's a quote from the movie Old School! And it's so fitting! I keep finding myself reminiscing about how far we've come in the last year! It's the most amazing thing to witness and be a part of! I remember Kelly and I looking at each other in the hospital and saying 'We're parents! How WEIRD is that?!' And how I finally knew what my friend Tony Winston was describing to me when he said 'You'll learn what it feels like to have your heart outside your own body with arms and legs!' Oh how true that is! You feel like you know your capacity for love, then you look into the eyes of this perfect and innocent little child that is completely dependent on you - and you learn about an entire new level of unconditional love. It almost brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it!!

Dang! It did bring tears to my eyes!!

Okay - anyway! As I keep brainstorming about things I need to do for Riley's 1st Birthday party - I just keep thinking about all the milestones we've met in the 1st year! I can't fathom being able to learn and master so many new skills in such a short period of time. Kelly and I saw on this show Brink we watch last week that they are actually trying to build robots that learn in the same way and speed that an infant learns in the first years of life! Can you imagine?! Sort of freaks me out! I can't imagine all the things that will be possible in Riley's lifetime!

We met another new milestone this week - we've pretty much completed the transition to solid foods! It's a little overwhelming for Mom though! It's pretty easy when you can just grab a jar or mix some rice cereal up! Now I'm having to get creative. And I'm still trying to stick with almost all organic and non-processed foods so that makes it a little more work too! But I figure it's totally worth it! I know there are conflicting studies out there on whether organic is actually better for you, but if nothing else I know there are less hormones and pesticides in it and it tastes A LOT better! I'm so over getting tomatoes that don't even taste like tomatoes!! I was lucky in that my PawPaw almost always had a garden when we were growing up, so I literally would eat tomatoes off the vine with a salt shaker in hand! I remember my sister and I sitting in front of the tv watching cartoons and handing the salt shaker back and forth for our tomatoes and eating them up like they were Little Debbie Snack Cakes! Those were special treats we only got every once in a while!

Anyway - my stance is that - yes, our parents got away with a lot of stuff when we were younger, we stood up in the back seat fighting over standing on the 'hump', and they smoked around us - yuck! This one still grosses me out! But at least it kept me from EVER taking one puff off a cigarette! But now we know 'better' than to do all that. Every visit to the pediatrician you are asked the same 2 questions - is he in a car seat everytime he's in the car? Yes! And do you make sure no one smokes around him or even wears clothes around him that contain smoke? Yes!

So I figure it's just a matter of time before they make it official that organics should be the standard for little developing babies. And the fact that I 'know' there are studies out there that state things like "Children's immature and developing organs, brains, and detoxification and immune systems, plus their larger intake of food per kilo of body weight, combine to make them even more susceptible to toxins than adults. American toddlers eating mostly organic food have been found to have less than one sixth the pesticide residues in their urine compared to children eating conventional foods, lowering their exposure from above to below recognized safety levels." means that I too know better now so how could I not try to do everything I can to give Riley the best nourishment. I've done that from the time he was conceived by cutting out caffeine and only eating organic food myself - why on earth would I stop now?!

However, my point in justifying all of this is that you have to be a little more creative. And you have to put a little more effort into making things for him that are healthy. And the most obvious piece is that I have to spend a little more money too. But I firmly believe everyone can afford organic food. All they have to do is cut out the cost of junk food or going out to eat all the time or those little vices like cigarettes, alcohol or the infamous Starbucks coffee!

Kelly's been on his Jack LaLanne Power Juicer kick lately, so we've been juicing it up! ha! It is so yummy though! And naturally sweet!

Another kick I've been on is watching what kind of lotion and body wash I use on Riley. Afterall, our skin is our largest organ, so if I'm lathering Riley up 2 or 3 times a day with potentially harmful lotion and wash - that's sort of negating the benefits of the organic food! I'm a member of an Environmental Working Group, and they have a Cosmetics Database where you can look up products and their hazard content rating. They have a Parent's Guide for Baby Products too. Man, this was an eye opener to me! Some of the products I had already been paying more for because I thought they were 'better' were some of the worst offenders - Mustela was one! It's funny when you start to look though - taking it back old school - Vaseline 100% petroleum jelly has zero toxins. So sometimes we just need to stick with the original items before everything became mass produced after the industrial age.

Once again, now that I am a little more informed - I can't ignore it!! So I've started making changes in Riley's products as we run out of them, but I haven't even begun to look at my own! I'm sure they are ALL bad!! And to think so much of this stuff we put on our bodies EVERY day! Sometimes multiple times!

Anyway...the main message is my little man is all growing up on me! Eating whole foods now! No more baby food for him! Before I know it he'll be asking for the keys to the car and for me to drop him off a couple of blocks from school so he doesn't have to be seen with me! Now that day will really bring tears to my eyes!!

Baby Hulk & His Path of Destruction!

Literally, Riley sat here pushing and pulling this table around for 10 minutes! He was doing it for a good 5 minute before I even thought to video it! Then I had to stop videoing so I could grab the picture frames he was knocking around off of it before they fell on his head!



I should have posted this video with the last one, but here it is. This is the end of his 10 minute path of destruction around our house! It only ended because he eventually bumped his head on the chair. You can see how he starts to turn green and get mad when he can't manhandle anything in his path!

Here & There & Everywhere!

OMG! I think I did a post earlier about what a busy little boy Riley has become! Well I have the photographic evidence to prove it!! And I SWEAR! I don't know why we buy toys!! He's so much more amused with simple everyday things like magazines, tables, shoe laces, pantry shelves and cords!


Tearing up one of Mom's magazines! One of his favorite pastimes!





Kelly and I put this table here temporarily, and Riley is OBSESSED with it! Every time we turn around he's pulling it, pushing it, climbing through it!

Take notice starting here - all the same clothes because all these pictures were literally taken in a 10 minute period-no exaggeration!

1st - He LOVES Dad's shoe laces! I mean like pull them off of him if he could loves them! Will follow him around to play with them!


See how he had his little book, then the shoe laces caught his eye!


Cool! Got Dad out of them! Even better!


Onto his favorite table, but he bit off more than he could chew this time and lost his balance trying to pull the table around. (Wait until you see the video I'm going to post of Riley & the table!)


Onto the wine rack! This was his favorite for a day or 2.


To his favorite shelf in the pantry door and his favorite box to dump out there. Notice how directly behind the door is an entire play area of toys! Who needs those?!


Over to push the kitchen chair around for a while. And that's not staged photography, he actually crawled PAST all his toys to go push the chair around.

***** Finally! The end of that 10 minute segment! It only ended because he sat up and hit his head on the bottom of the chair!


Another day...another pantry shelf emptying session....

Riley's 1st Swim

We had Josh & Nancy over for dinner last weekend, and we planned to take the boys for a swim. Ethan LOVES it, and we wanted to take Riley for his 1st outing! I tried to sign up for swimming lessons this summer, but our city doesn't offer them for anyone under 2 and I didn't want to have to get up on Saturday mornings and drive even farther than we already do for Kindermusik.

I wouldn't say he hated it, but he was a little indifferent too. He was more excited to crawl around the shallow part and splash than anything else.


Ethan, Josh, Riley & Kelly

Riley checking out the fountain.


Swimming around with Dad.


Riley & Dad

Riley's 1st 'Summer' Haircut

Riley's already had a couple of haircuts, but it was time to take the plunge and REALLY get him a haircut! I knew it was a risk considering his 1st birthday is coming up! But it was one that had to be taken!


Before


After
So it's a little shorter on top than I wanted, but it'll grow out fast enough! Poor kid! All these pics in his high chair are like mug shots! But I swear that's the only time I can get them anymore! He's a boy on the M-O-V-E these days!

Riley Loves Tennis

Seriously, he doesn't notice anything else on tv, but if there's tennis on - he crawls right up to watch it! Kelly and I SWORE he was cheering Roddick on at one point!

(No! That's not pee-pee on the back of his outfit! I don't know what it is, but I remember when I took the picture I thought people are going to think that's pee, but it's xyz. I just can't remember what xyz was now!) I have almost this SAME picture of him watching the French Open except it was before he could crawl, so he was just lying there! No time to go searching for that photo now though!

Play Date with Ethan

I watched Ethan for Josh & Nancy one night, so Riley and Ethan got to have a play date. You can definitely tell Riley has learned a lot more about playing with others this summer since he's been around Rowan and Camden. He notices you're there now and wants to interact. Ethan is about to be a big brother in September, and he's going to be a great one! He wanted to help me feed Riley, he was giving him hugs and showing him all the things his toys can do! It was cute!


Ethan giving 'Baby Riley' a hug. I think Riley will be 'Baby Riley' even when he's 6 ft 3 like his Dad! :) That's what Ethan called him in my belly, then when he came to the hospital to meet Riley he was like 'He's out of your belly?!'


Ethan showing Riley what all this toy can really do!

Playing Catch Up!

So I'm playing catch up tonight! Sunday night has become my defacto blog night, and we had Josh, Nancy & Ethan over for dinner last Sunday so I missed my chance! I'll get as many as I can out of my head and posted, but no promises!!

We've graduated boot camp!!

Well...if moving from army crawling to standard crawling counts! Riley has pretty much moved on, but there are still those times when you can see on his face that he says "Forget about this!" And immediately reverts back to his old faithful army crawl!

All of the sudden this weekend, he's hard to handle!! He is Mr. Busy Body- gotta be doing something or figuring out my next target ALL THE TIME! Literally, you can see his mind working in overdrive sometimes...he's like OMG! All these toys...all these pieces of furniture...all these cords...and so little time! What will I grab and throw around or bang on next!