The road to Riley...

We're a little late to the blog scene. I guess we're not one of the cool kids. So here's a little background on how we got to this point...

We met in March of 2005, both still relatively new to Dallas having moved here in 2004. We finally went out for the first time in May (depending on who you ask I was either stood up the first time or it was a miscommunication...but I digress). From there it was not only life in the fast lane, but life in the HOV lane. We were engaged 4 months later in September, although that was in question at first because in order to get the ring Melissa had to complete a scavenger hunt with clues leading her to the places we had gone on dates...and finally ending up in the rose garden of the Ft Worth Botanical Gardens...

Luckily, she remembered the places we had been. :) Otherwise, I guess I would have just had to give the ring to the first cute girl who wandered up that day. We were married a year later on October 7, 2006 in Ft. Worth under a picture-perfect sky...

Our honeymoon was spent on the beautiful island of St. Lucia. I'm still wondering why we didn't stay permanently. Maybe it had something to do with a nasty dust-up between Melissa and Spanky, the baddest horse in all of St. Lucia. In the end there wasn't enough room on the island for the two of them, so we decided to return home...

During all that time we've moved from our first apartment in Grand Prairie...directly in one of the departure and arrival flight paths for DFW airport (Whatever noise you're imagining, it's probably close to how it actually was)...to a larger place in Dallas...and then finally moved on up to the east side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky...oh wait, I'm thinking of George and Weezie Jefferson...we actually moved into our first and current house on September 21, 2007.


Almost 6 months later, on March 9, 2008, we learned the great news that Melissa was pregnant. We high fived and boozed it up Mardi-Gras style to celebrate the big news. Ok, not really. But what an exciting moment. I can still remember her running into the office/computer room crying with the pregnancy test thing..stick?...whatever it is...in her hand and the two lines indicating "positive". We...or more appropriately, she...took another one the next day just to be sure, and it was positive again. Score!


The next nine months were a lot of fun. Seeing the sonogram pictures for the first time...hearing her heart beat...incredible moments I will never forget. Especially the ones where she was so active in there that the nurse had a very hard time capturing the data she needed. Apparently the womb is like an olympic-sized pool because this baby was doing laps from one end to the other, and rarely taking a break. But those moments were not nearly as exciting as when Melissa started to grow and we could really feel...and better yet see...the movements ourselves. Once the movements started it was as if they never stopped. She was one heck of an active baby, kicking and stretching almost constantly. There were nights and days where this was much more entertaining to watch than anything on television.


I suppose most, or at least many, pregnancies don't come without at least one scary moment. Ours was on August 11, when Melissa slipped and fell down a flight of wet steps at work. We spent most of that day in the hospital with her strapped up and them monitoring the baby's heartbeat and other things. Luckily she had landed on her butt, and as a result all ended up A-OK, but I don't think I will ever forget that day either. The nurse that day was very nice, and made sure Melissa was comfy and well taken care of during our brief visit. Little did we know our paths would cross again, sort of, a few months later.

On November 10, we went to what would certainly be her final doctor appointment to get measurements on the baby and check her signs again. Everything checked out fine, but the doctor was slightly concerned about a low fluid level, so we heard the news we knew would be coming, but still shocked us for some reason..."You'll have your baby at noon tomorrow". The next hours were spent calling family and friends, and preparing for what would be the biggest day of our lives. I, at least, was relieved that we knew the time it was going to happen, so no worries about traffic or me being at work when the moment arrived. It was a night filled with anxiety (in a good way), and nervous/excited feelings...oh yeah, and a thunderstorm...so forget stealing one last good night's sleep before the baby arrives.

Finally...yeah I know it took a while to get here...at 12:18pm on November 11, 2008, Riley came into the world. Luckily I had decided at the last minute...actually last second...that I did want to see her first moment...so I stood up and peeked over the curtain just in time. She opened one eye just barely to look around and then let out a beautiful cry. :) Once cleaned up I held her for the first time...the first time I'd ever held a newborn...and that was by design. I'd always wanted that to be the first time I held one, and that's exactly how it was. And she was a perfect fit.

Mommy finally got to hold her for the first time about 45 minutes or so later.



As it turned out, the nurse who took care of her in August was giving birth to her baby in the same hospital at almost the same moment as Melissa.

So that's the beginning at least, of course plenty of details left out along the way, but enough to get us up to speed to where we are now...proud parents of a beautiful 5 month old little girl who is quite the little character.