Big Birthday Bash

Riley has spent the last few weeks improving upon her newfound skills of crawling around and pulling up on things. We finally had to start baby-proofing the house - put up a babygate on the stairs, covers on the outlets, and bolted the new bookcases to the walls. She loves to follow Baxter and Mommy around, and watch out the front and back doors. She is also sleeping in her own room now, and doing pretty well with it. A few times this past week she has gotten up more often, but between teething and allergies I guess the fussiness is to be expected. Overall, she is sleeping through the night most of the time.

Last weekend we got our first professional family photos taken. Got them done at Portrait Innovations and were very happy with the results. Click on the "Family Photo" link to the right to see them all, I posted a few below. Riley cooperated long enough to get some real good ones taken!

This weekend (Memorial Day weekend) we had friends in town, and enjoyed a huge celebration on Saturday. Had quite the house (and back yard) full of people to join in celebrating Riley's 1st birthday. Pam's mom made an awesome cake, and Riley was very spoiled with presents. Thank you to everyone that came out! We also went to our pool on Sunday, Riley's first visit to the neighborhood pool. She did pretty well with the whole experience until her feet hit the water. She didn't seem to like the water, we are thinking it was the cold temperature. Other than that, she didn't mind the sun and all the people. I'm sure she'll get used to it as the summer goes on...

The awesome cake and cupcakes Pam's mom made.

Riley being very timid about eating her cupcake...

Riley playing with her big brother Baxter.

Unplugged and Mobile

Riley's had a big week. I think in the past 10 days or so she has grown about 3 months! Last week I think I mentioned she had started "army-crawling", moving around on her stomach pulling forward with her arms. She'll start out on all fours, then fall over onto her stomach to get moving. Then on Wednesday she actually started moving on all fours crawling for real. Now she's moving all over the place! Guess it's time to get a baby-gate and baby-proof the house. We're so excited that she hit this milestone before she turned 1. Now just hoping she can walk before baby #2 arrives in November

The other big news of the week came on Friday. Got the call back from Dr. Riva and Riley passed her 2nd sleep study! This means that for the first time since she was born, she is no longer on oxygen at night, and not plugged into a monitor. It's come just in time too, since she's all but outgrown the bassinet. Head-to-toe, I don't think she has more than another few inches before she's hitting both ends. The challenge now will be to wean her out of our room and into her crib at night - I think Riley will take to it fine, it's Pam that will have the harder time adjusting (haha).

Pam had her check-up with the OB this week too, and at 11 weeks she's still doing great. Baby is about 1.5" big, and heart rate was 170bpm (almost identical to Riley at that point). 9 days post-op for me now, and starting to get around pretty good (drastically better than I was in the photo below). Ditched the crutches by Wednesday, and slowly getting back to 100%. Have physical therapy once a week for the next 5 weeks, and by then hopefully will be back on the softball field.

Here's a short video of Riley showing off her new-found skill. She's getting faster and more coordinated every day!

Riley and me resting after knee surgery...

Riley and big brother Baxter

Riley standing in her crib...whining because she can't figure out how to sit back down

Riley crawling!

Happy Mother's Day!

It was this time last year (May 11th, the day after Mother's Day), that Pam's water unexpectedly broke at 24 weeks and this whirlwind adventure took off.  It's hard to believe it has been that long, and yet at the same time it does feel like it was forever ago.  We have been through so much over the past 12 months.  Although it's not something we wished for or would want to go through again, I am forever grateful to have someone as great as Pam to have had by my side throughout this.  She is an amazingly strong person, and has proven to be a wonderful mother to Riley.  Happy Mother's Day to Pam and all the other Mothers out there who don't always get the recognition they deserve.

We spent a weekend in Manhattan with my family, attending the KSU Open House and celebrating birthdays (Nikki, Eric, Landon, and Makena's are all within a month of each other).  We didn't end up making it to K-State's Spring Football Game, but had a blast hanging out at Nikki's instead.  We also got to spend some time with Pam's family a few times in April, as her brother John was home from Korea for a few weeks.  They took a trip to Botanica and had a nice photo shoot with Riley, Benjamin, and the rest of the family.

These past few days have been a little more hectic around here.  I had my knee surgery on Friday and have been laid up on the couch since then.  I know this isn't how Pam was wanting to spend her first official Mother's Day, waiting on me hand and foot, and for that I am even more grateful.  I've done my best to help watch Riley while she gets other tasks done, but unfortunately I can't help with much. 

Tonight my family will be coming over to celebrate Mother's Day.  We will get to break in the new BBQ grill, but I guess I'll have to let someone else do the cooking.  Pam's mom and sister have been out of town, so will have to celebrate with them later. 

Riley is really growing up lately.  She is a super-happy baby and loves to smile and laugh - especially at Baxter.  She is sitting up on her own very well, and has even started army crawling!  We are holding out hope she'll get a real crawl or two in before her birthday at the end of the month.  She is eating much better now, and loves to "gum" on cookies, carrots, and anything else we give her.  We have been working on waving "bye-bye" and clapping to "patty-cake" as well.  She seems to be getting the hang of it, and usually gets a giggle or two in when we play.  We should find out in the next few weeks if we can discontinue the night-time oxygen and unplug the monitor.  We will probably have to do another sleep study first, which should get scheduled sometime soon.  Her weight is holding steady at about 14lb 6oz.  Even though she is eating much better, she is also a lot more active and therefore burning more calories.  We will likely have to switch her to formula soon since Pam's milk supply is depleting from this new pregnancy.  Those hundreds of bottles of milk in the deep-freeze are surprisingly disappearing pretty fast.

With her birthday coming up in just a few weeks, we are working to finalize the plans for her party.  Looks like we'll have it Saturday, May 29th from 2pm-4pm, followed by our annual "Skach-a-Palooza" summer bash.  Everyone is welcome to attend, so please contact Pam if you can make it.

Here are a few photos from the past few weeks.  Again, click on the links to the right to see many more pictures.