Happy Birthday!

 
Has it been another year already?   It seems like not long ago when we were writing about the first birthday, and now here we are already at number two.  It is hard to believe how much she has changed in between those two dates. 

We had the birthday party over the weekend, and it was an interesting time to say the least.  The birthday girl swung back and forth from happy...to meltdown mode...and back to happy throughout the day, but overall it was a good day.   The hit of the party, and possibly the savior, was the bounce house (thanks Tonise!).   She, along with her friends Olivia, Barrett, and Eva really had a blast bouncing and falling around. When it came time to open gifts, the task was left to us because she was far too focused on the first gift she saw...the play-kitchen.  

 

We also took her to the zoo (Dallas Zoo) for the first time.  As with most places, the main two things she was most interested in at first were the water fountain and steps.  She is obsessed with steps and always has been.  Luckily neither of those two things took up too much time though.  She got to pet the goats in the Children's Zoo, and also see a pony up-close.  The goats seemed to be much more interesting to her than the pony though.  

From there we wandered back to see the tiger (big let down as there was only one visible tiger in a very large habitat), and then back to see the kangaroos and emus...or as she called them "big chickens".   She did enjoy those, running back and forth and sliding leaves under the glass for them to eat.

The hit of the day was seeing the elephants, and especially the giraffes.   Possibly the best $5 ever spent was for a hand full of big lettuce leaves and some kind of crackers to feed the giraffes.  She (and I) loved it.  The first giraffe took all of the lettuce and then took off.   But the second one came over to eat the crackers and even nibbled her shirt.   Definitely worth the price of admission just to do that.

We are now in the final stretch until baby brother Jackson makes his debut in December.  Obviously a lot is going to change, and it will be a huge adjustment for all of us.  She will make a great, though probably very bossy, big sister and once the initial shock of the new baby wears off we think she is going to love it (or at least we hope so).   She will gain a little brother and a best friend...at least until they are old enough to fight like cats and dogs.  

Just a few odds and ends...she FINALLY ate ketchup for the first time a few days ago.  We have tried to get her to try it on fries, chicken nuggets, and fish sticks, but she would have no part of it.   So we had fries with lunch and I dipped mine in and she saw that and wanted to do it too.  Next thing we knew, she was dipping hers in and eating them.  When the fries ran out...she just dipped her finger in the ketchup and ate it.  That may seem like no big deal to some, but in this house that was almost like man walking on the moon.  OK, maybe not quite that big of a deal.   

 
To backtrack just a bit since we have not been very good at posting updates, Halloween was low-key for the most part but still fun.  We met her friend Olivia for a downtown festival.  Unfortunately the lines were far too long for her patience and it was getting chilly in a hurry, so we didn't get to stay for very long.  But one thing she did get to do was stand on one of her favorite things on the planet...a fire truck.  Not too interested in the front, but she was all about standing on the back of it and even made a new friend in the fireman who was there.  I am pretty sure she was flirting, but I can overlook that.  :)

We also took our trip to the Owens Pumpkin Patch over Halloween weekend, but it wasn't a big hit due to her not feeling too well that day.  It was still a good time, and she got to see a few goats, which is always a good thing for her.

With Thanksgiving, Jackson's arrival, and Christmas just around the corner, we are looking at quite a hectic and festive month and a half ahead.   We are looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with Nana and Granddaddy, and then Christmas with Nana and PaPaw.   A lot of memories made, and a lot more to come.

(Finally...after the weather naturally cools off...she decides she wants to play in the water again)

Movin' On Up...

 

...to the east side (of the house)!   Obviously Daddy was a fan of the Jeffersons growing up.  Sadly, Riley will never ever know how great of a show that was, but I suppose she will somehow survive...but I digress.  :)   To prepare for little brother's arrival in December, we had to make a decision on how to re-arrange various rooms. 

We decided a few months ago to move the guest bedroom across the hall to what used to be the office.  We did not want to make that room the new nursery or Riley's new room because it shares a wall with the existing nursery/Riley's original room, and we wanted at least some kind of buffer between those rooms.  

So we re-did the guest room and turned that into Riley's new room, and Monday night was the big night.  The room has been finished for a while, but we had a small problem after all was complete:  too much light!   Even though we bought black-out curtains, there was a gap between the curtain and window that was just letting in too much light at the top.  Considering that she often wakes up extremely early, we didn't need that light coming in, because if that happened she probably would not go back to sleep like she often does.

So after some thinking and a lot of work by Mommy, that problem was finally solved for good (we hope) over the weekend.  We had moved all of her toys and books and clothes into the new room and played with her in there just to get her out of the habit of going to the old room.  Seemed to be working fine until the time came to go to bed.  Once she realized she was not in "her" room, she started to cry and said "Don't want it!", but as I was holding her I was pointing out all of her stuffed animals and toys who had moved with her to the new room, letting her know everything was still the same.  

We played our usual "cow-cow-cow...sheep-sheep-sheep" game where we watch the night-time projector's images on the ceiling, and that got her back into a happy mood.  But when she went to Mommy to be laid down, she was crying again.  Instead of giving her her trusted blankie, she asked if she wanted two (we have several of them) and in drawn-out sad voice she replied "Yeeeahhhh".  So with that we put her down.   When we checked the monitor she had not moved an inch, and was laying there clutching both blankies.  Luckily though she went to sleep fairly easily and had a good night.   Around 2:15am she woke and, though I was sound asleep, Mommy watched her on the monitor as she stood up and looked around the room, trying to see her dolls and various other things.  But after that she laid right back down and went back to sleep.

So here's hoping for more good nights ahead as she adjusts to her new digs.   We still have a few more things to add, as the wall behind her bed is still a bit bare, and we plan to add a dress-up area for her in the closet.  The big test will be what happens in a few months when she sees a new baby in her old room.  :)

First Beach Trip...

We recently made our first trip to the beach as a fam.  It was Riley's first ever, and first time for any of us in quite a while (not counting our honeymoon to St Lucia), so it was definitely nice to be back along the coast...any coast!  For this trip we had originally planned to go to Destin, FL.  However with the oil spill giving us second thoughts, we cancelled and then decided to go to Galveston instead.  Closer and cheaper, both of which are very good things in our book.   As luck would have it, a tropical storm warning was in effect for Destin while we were in Galveston, so in the end we definitely made the right call!  

 (In this picture, she is seeing her elephant...or "elphanant" as she called it.  What it really was was a gray plumbing tube under the sink...but to her it was an elephant's trunk...so she visited him often and said goodbye when we left)

The place we stayed was great.  Clear, close view of the beach and ocean, and plenty of room for all of us.  We will definitely be going back.

Our arrival day was not without its stress though.  We had originally planned to take her crib...yes the entire crib...due to A. Her not sleeping in a pack-n-play at night and B.  Crib rentals running $150 (the price we bought her first crib for).   However at the last minute (literally), plans changed and we decided to go with the crib rental after all.  Only problem was that the place we were referred to was out of cribs when we called the night before leaving.  So at 8:00am on the day we left, we found another rental location and lucked out.  

 Which one is Riley?  :)

Riley's first steps on the beach were uncertain for sure.  She was not quite sure what to think of all the sand and water in front of her.  One thing she did not like was the wet sand shifting under her feet as the waves rolled in and back out.   After a few minutes though she was ready to walk on the sand...the dry part...but even then she was stepping very cautiously and still was not sure what to think about it all.

 

The second day on the beach, and really all of them after that, was a mixture of her having fun at times and not so much at others.  Part of that was undoubtedly due to yet another ear infection she was just getting over.   When she wanted to be down (as in not being held by Mommy), she had a great time.  She got right down in the sand and got dirty, played with her shovel and bucket, and a few times even walked out into the water without us coaxing her to do so.  

 

I carried her out to the point where the water is waist deep on me so that she could have a better look at the fish which kept flying out of the water, and she really enjoyed that.  One thing we both enjoyed for a while was letting the waves crash on us.  Not that they were big waves, but they were enough to do the trick.   I would hold her back to the wave and try to catch it just as it was breaking so that it broke on us and splashed up.  She absolutely loved it.  

 

Another thing she loved was when Mommy had her down in the water and was letting the rolling waves which had not yet broken come past them.  We had to keep an eye out for jellyfish though, as one floated right past us at one point.  Definitely didn't need that experience.  :)

  

 (Playing with a friend she met)

One of the days we saw some horses on the beach, and she has never seen a live horse up-close.  We stood on the balcony and watched them for a while when it hit me that I should take her down to see them.  But of course as soon as we got ready to do it they horses left.  So much for that!  

 

One of the funniest things (to us at least) was her elevator experience.  Each time we took the elevator it was like she had done this a million times.  She'd stand and wait patiently for the doors to open, and when they did she'd hop in and then do the same until they opened again on the ground floor.  She had a blast in the pool as well.  In fact she probably had more fun there than on the beach.  The pool had quite a large wading area/first step that she could play on, and eventually she started leaping from that step into Mommy's arms. 

 (Waiting patiently)

 (Daddy...look!)

We made a trip to the aquarium at Moody Garden's on the next-to-last day and it was a pretty good time.  She was more into running around and seeing all of the other people there more than anything else, but she did enjoy it.  One of the best parts was watching a huge seal swimming circles around his tank.  Each time he came by the glass she would step back thinking he was coming at her.  

 

 

Toward the end, she found a room that was likely her version of Heaven:  a room filled with nothing but stairs.  It was an auditorium/viewing room for the largest part of the aquarium, so the seats were basically stadium seating.  I am pretty sure we could have spent hours in that one room and she would never have gotten tired of it.  But unfortunately (or was it?) we had to depart from this room and head back to the condo.

 

(Heaven on Earth)

 

 Yes...that's her.  She was having fun though  :)

Uncle Greg and Aunt Jenny came down with Maddie to see us on the last day there.  Of course Riley loved that.  She is crazy about her cousin Maddie, and babies in general...at least until Mommy starts to hold them, at which point the jealousy definitely kicks in.  Should be interesting in December!  But let's hope not.  We all went down to the beach for a little while but it was very hot, so we didn't get to spend too much time out with Maddie.  

On a personal note, I got to do something I had not done in a very long time (at least a decade):  Look for shark's teeth!  Probably not a big deal to most, but I grew up doing that with my Grandmother (and Mom and Dad too) at Myrtle Beach, so doing that always brings back memories for me...especially when I actually find some.  :)

 

So that's our first family vacation.  All in all it was a blast, and we hope to go back next year.  That's if the baby-not-yet-named is a better traveler than Riley was as an infant.  :)  If not, well then it might be 2012 before we're back...but let's hope not.   Too much fun!