We have all 4 front teeth!

Wow! Conley literally popped all 4 front teeth in almost 4 sequential days! Friday the 13th, bottom right, Saturday the 14th top left, then by Tues he had the other 2! I haven't successfully gotten a picture of any of them yet though...stay tuned for that!

This N That!

Just a real quick post so I don't get too far behind again!

GiGi and I got all the preparations for Riley's birthday done last weekend, so I can relax for a couple of weeks before I'm sure I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off again for the final preparations! I know! I know! Riley doesn't know, care and won't remember! But I WILL! :) Of course the theme is none other than BASKETBALL! I mean! What did you expect?!?!

I'm a little nervous the party may be too much or too long for Riley, but we'll see! It's difficult to plan when all our friends' and family's children that will be attending range in age from 8 months to 10 years old to find something accommodating for everyone! Including Riley! We're having it at Pump It Up which is an inflatable bounce house wonderland INSIDE, so it's climate controlled! Very important for a July 31st birthday party!

We went to my friend's little boys 2nd birthday party yesterday. All went well until the birthday cake and singing of the song - then Riley just started crying as everyone was singing Happy Birthday! It totally reminded me of when he used to cry when I would play the little Kindermusik harmonica for him, but then he still wanted me to keep doing it! We joked that someone must have been out of tune by his standards! I hope that's not a sign of how well his birthday party is going to go!

So as of this week - Riley's new "filler word" meaning the word he says for everything whether he doesn't know the word, or he would normally just be saying ummmm, while he's thinking of the word is Mommy! My dream come true! ha! But it's Kelly's nightmare! I went to see the Beauty and the Beast musical (LOVED IT!!!!!) with my girl friends this week, and Kelly said all he heard the ENTIRE night was Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! I thought he was exaggerating until the next morning started out the SAME way! And it's been like that ever since! Careful what you wish for! But it has to be music to a Mommy's ears! :) However, it's a little weird b/c it's almost like he's taken 2 steps forward and 1 back on his vocabulary. Maybe this is the calm before the toddler talking storm! Oh and by the way, every day on my drive home after picking up Riley all I get to hear is DaDa, DaddYYYYY, DaDaDaddY, all the way home until the garage opens and there is full on squealing until Kelly opens the garage door to greet us! The days when Kelly isn't home before us aren't fun! I try to warn Riley that Daddy will be home later, but there's always a little bit of a let down if Daddy doesn't come to the door!

Riley LOVES pancakes! He'll eat them up like the last supper! We've been having them on the weekends, and watch your fingers b/c he's coming through!! :)

He loves the play area at McDonald's too. That's our go to indoor play area lately because it's been raining so much and preventing him from going outside at school or in the evenings.

Man! Do I ever wish his last 4 molars would just COME IN ALREADY!!! We've digressed to him waking up with them about 5 days out of the week for the last 4 weeks! And Kelly and I are out of practice on the lack of sleep front!!! It's NO fun!

OH yes! A milestone today! He FINALLY blew a bubble by himself!!! Yippee! He and I sat out on our patio for over an hour practicing..and then he finally got it!! And they were cute little baby bubbles!! Just his size! Of course it took 2 bottle of bubbles before he blew any successfully! He would get so distracted trying to blow the bubble..he'd just pour the bubbles out of the bottle in his other hand! And he was so excited! He said Yea!!! When he did it too!

Okay...that'll have to do for now! I've got to get to bed in case tonight is another sleepless night!

Playing catch up once again!

Wow! It's been soooooo long I'm not even sure where to begin to try to catch up with this post! My work life has been sooooo crazy that only people in the tech field can begin to understand the crazy stress and hours I've been having to put in lately! We're talking 20ish hour days - literally I was working with a team from Brazil until 6am almost every day for a couple of weeks straight, a couple of 40 - yes - you read that correctly 40 straight hour days! I wan't working all 40 hours, but I was awake all of them! The good news in all of this is that we only do a project this complex once a decade! And we pulled it off! We delivered the project without having to rollback to the old system! And to be honest, with minimal issues. We had some craziness last weekend, but hopefully that won't happen again! And my life will probably be a little unpredictible for the next couple of months until everyone gets accustomed to the new system and it stabilizes. Needless to say, that's why I haven't even had a chance to blog in my head lately...much less actually blog!

I'll just do a brain dump of all the things I can recall from the last month or so:

• Riley's still only taking a few steps at a time, and sometimes a few days apart. The funny thing is that he does it the hardest way possible. He'll be walking on his knees, then stand up in the middle of the floor (which is HARD) without the assistance of any furniture or anything. Take a few steps. Then we get excited and he realizes what he's doing and plops down! I keep thinking any day now, but I've been thinking that for a while! It's all good though! Kelly and I literally have to RUN after him because he crawls so fast - I can't imagine what it'll be like once he gets walking/running down!
  
• He can also do full squats! Seriously...like REAL squats without assistance! And sometimes like 3-5 in a row before he loses his balance.
  
• He STILL dances! OMG! It's so funny! And he'll dance to me snapping my fingers and Kelly beat boxing! It doesn't even have to be "real" music!
  
• He still has these favorite songs on his Kindermusik cd's, and when they come on in the car - he gets the BIGGEST smile on his face as if he's saying OMG! It's my favorite song! And I mean EVERY time! Like even if I just replay the song immediately again - still the same smile as if it's the 1st time he's heard it in a long time.
  
• He FINALLY mastered putting a ball in the "rain spout" on his play house, and he turns to us claps and dances every time he does it! This one took a while! He'd try to put the ball in every slot exept the one that was big enough. But once he finally figured it out, GAME ON!
  
• His FAVORITE pasttime currently is emptying out the cabinets, drawers and pantry door shelves in the kitchen. There will be plastic bowls, his own sippy cups and our protein bars lying all over our floor at any given moment! Kelly joked the other day - like who runs this place?! Obviously not us anymore!
  
• He LOVES books! It started out with me reading his nighttime books mainly, and we progessed to him "closing the book" at the end, then him turning each page as we read it. And now he has a book in his crib he "reads" on his own when he wakes up in the am, and he has books out on the coffee table that he "reads" often throughout the day. I brought a new Halloween book home last Monday - Five Little Pumpkins - and it's already WORN out! He LOVES that book! It was ALL he played with for 2 days! And if you say "Five Little Pumpkins", he'll run to it and start turning the pages. I know it by heart now after reading it so many times, so if I say what's on one of the pages - he'll open it to that page.
• He's still a little HOSS! He pushes all sorts of things all over our house! Around and around and around the kitchen island. His push car, boxes, a dump truck he has, a music table, plastic bowls and lids around and around, a Little People airplane - whatever he can find.
  
• He's the opposite of me. He has a puzzle Josh, Nancy & Ethan got him for his birthday. I'll put the pieces in the puzzle...and it will bother him until he gets them all out! He HATES for them to be in the puzzle! Same thing with these wooden blocks Gigi got him. I'll put them all in their little holder, and he will grab it and dump them out! Cracks me up!
  
• Riley's 1st weekend trip to Gigi's went well. She kept him while Kelly and I went to Pittsburgh for the Steelers game. He didn't even miss us until the last night when my Mom brought him back to our house. It was so cute one night when Kelly and I called. I could hear my Mom, sister and Grandmother laughing so hard at him their stomachs were hurting. My thought as I heard that was - that's how it's supposed to be! Children are supposed to bring joy into everyone's life that they touch! It was so sweet! He got to see my Grandpa, Aunts and Uncles that weekend as well as his Grandpa. Actually..I'm not sure I know what my Dad wants to be called. I guess I need to ask him that! Some of them hadn't seen him since his birthday....I can't imagine how different he seems when you go that long! Kelly and I could tell he had changed and grown just over the 3 days we were gone!
  
• He's definitely got the baby sign for "milk" down, and he lets you know when he wants some while you're feeding him or at bed time. Emily and I KNOW the other signs are in there...just don't know when he'll break them out and start using them! I guess when he needs them.
  
• Emily said as of last week when she takes a toy away from him because it's lunch or nap time, he starts screaming! I believe it! That boy has some LUNGS! OMG! Sometimes I know dogs walking outside are just dropping left and right when he gets going exercising those lungs! It's PAINFUL!
• He can climb on the sofa in 2 steps. Hasn't quite mastered getting off the sofa though!
  
• He started this thing where he chews his food up then spits it out...YUCK! But I think that was like a week long phase that appears to be over now. The only time he does it now is when he's "all done" and he usually waves his arms back and forth at the same time to indicate he's all done.
• He's been cutting his back molars the last month, so that's no fun! At least he can strategically place his own fingers in there as teethers now, so that helps a little.
  
• One of his FAVORITE games is "I'm gonna get you". He loves for you to say you're gonna get him (tickle him), and he'll scream and move like he's trying to get away even though he's not going anywhere. Or he'll crawl away from you as fast as he can! He plays it even when you don't mean to play it!! If Kelly or I are walking up/down the stairs with him, and the other one of us is behind - Riley will almost "run" out of your arms thinking the other person is going to "get him". The other day the dr was trying to put her stethoscope to his back and he was trying to get away from her and screaming like we were playing that game. I don't think she She didn't know what to think about that.
  
• Speaking of Dr....that one deserves it's own post, so I'll do that next!
  

Wow! I'm worn out! I think that's at least the highlights of the last month! Hopefully I can get back on my regular blog schedule now!

Tooth #2 is peeking through!

BUT it's probably not the one you're thinking! It's NOT his other bottom tooth! It's the top tooth on the same side as the one his bottom tooth has broken through on! You can just feel the rough edges as of today, so we'll see how long it takes for it to break all the way through! This teething thing has totally perplexed me! I just assumed the bottom teeth would break through together, then the top but once again Riley's choosing to do things HIS way! Not by the book! And if you know me...you KNOW I've read the book! ha!

Other than that, it was a good week! My friend Tim (Rosy Cheeks from a previous post) and his Mom in town visiting from England stopped by to meet Riley on Tuesday night. He was his usual charming self of course! ;)

GiGi's coming to town this weekend, and we're planning on going to the Ft. Worth Zoo either tomorrow or Sunday - weather permitting - so stay tuned for notes from that adventure!! I SWEAR Riley said GiGi today! Multiple times! It was more like GaGa, but STILL! I was telling him that GiGi was coming to see him this weekend, and it was like he echoed it back! He better not say GiGi before he says Mama and Dada (and knows what he's saying!).

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!