Curious George

Going Fishin'

Edward

Christmas!!!

Riley first thing in the morning. At this point he still doesn't get the whole "presents thing".

Sara with the complete works of Jane Austin.

Lovin' those trains.

Get a load of those fleece pants!

Riley woke up at a leisurely 8:00am this morning which was nice, since he usually wakes up at 7:00. (We hear however, that this will probably be our last Christmas to sleep in). We both remember waking up at the crack of dawn, literally, to wake our parents up to open gifts. Oh, good times!!! :) Anyway, we got out of bed and had a nice Christmas breakfast and then it was on to presents. Riley had no idea what was going on, but let us tell you, he was in heaven. He had so much fun opening his presents and loved all of his trains and books and games!!! Thank you so much everybody for making this Christmas so fun for Riley and hence fun for us. Merry Christmas!!!

Happy Christmas Eve!!!

Happy Christmas Eve!!! We just got back from our friend's house, The Alders, from up the street for a Christmas Eve get-together and we had a lot of fun...and a lot of really yummy food too. This photo was one of many attempts at a Christmas Eve 2006 family picture...Riley?!?!

Well, we thought we would tell you all about our day here...very interesting. So, I wrote the program this year for our Sacrament Meeting and was pretty nervous about it. I woke up absolutely exhausted and was worried that I was going to make some stupid mistake that would ruin the program.

The first number was sung by our ward choir. I had a friend make a copy of the music for me this morning so that I could put it in my binder for easier page turns. All seemed to be going well when all of a sudden I was on my last page of music, but the choir still had one page left to sing?!?! I panicked and started feeling around with my left hand for the music while my right hand continued on, hoping beyond all hope that I had it on the piano and that I could get it open with one hand and up on the stand before the choir got to that point in the song. All of you pianists out there are feeling my stress right now I know! :) Well, I managed to get the music up in just the nick of time with hardly anyone noticing what was going on. There was definitely divine intervention on that one. So, there is one crisis averted.

Now, on to crisis number 2. The grand piano in our chapel stopped working on me. Don't ask me how but all the notes from middle C down to an F in the bass clef just stopped working and all I got was this sound like there was a wrapper somewhere in the strings. I found out later that this particular piano needs water in a reservoir to work properly. WATER?!?! What the heck kind of piano needs water to work? That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of.


We of course will blog more tomorrow on Riley's first Christmas where he might actually get it. Love to all!!!

Thomas, Percy, where are you?

That is what we heard most of the time at the Train Museum, along with Mavis, Gordon, Edward and others. We went to a little trolley museum that Riley could have cared less about. The only redeeming factor was that there was a huuuuge train table that Riley had a lot of fun with. As with every other place that we take him, we had to drag him out screaming bloody murder, him not us...although the thought did cross our minds.

Visit to the Train Museum

Riley had a great time running laps around the trains. It was freezing but he didn't care. He just wasn't so happy when it was time to go.

p.s. don't mind the waddling cow in the background...(i.e. ME). I must have been really hurting that day to be walking so crazy-like?!? All I can say is that I can't wait to get rid of this 35-lbs and counting that I've so recently packed on!! :)

Can you say Quasi Moto? :)

"Prosty the Deadman"

Here is Riley...the soon-to-be famous singer. This is his rendition of the ever popular Christmas song "Frosty the Snowman." Being the musical genius that he is however, her has very tastefully changed the words to "Prosty the Deadman". Some of you may be thinking of a snowman dead on the ground with a prosthetic limb, but we think it is quite catchy and will be the next big hit. :)

Bottle Update

Well...the bottle is officially gone. We didn't think we could do it...we thought it would be WWIII at our house, but it was surprisingly easy. (Who would have thunk?!?!) We gathered up all of Riley's bottles, with his help, and put them in a garbage bag and put them under the tree. We told him that the elves were taking the bottles to the babies...and then we realized that we are having a baby in a couple of weeks and didn't want him to associate his bottles going bye-bye with the new baby, that could be bad, so from then on we just told him that they went bye-bye. Anyway, he went down for a nap...very reluctantly...and when he woke up there was a garbage bag under the Christmas tree with a Percy train in it (from the Thomas the Tank Engine series). For days he held onto that Percy like his life depended on it. :)

He has done amazingly well!!! He doesn't even cry at night when he has to go to bed. We give him a train, his blanket (my old "Blue Blankie"), and a sippie cup with water and he is great. He sleeps through most nights and if he does wake up we just go lay him back down and say "night-night" and he falls right back asleep. It is GREAT!!!

So, the big question is...Why didn't we do this sooner?!?! :)

Riley's 2-year stats

Riley and I went to his 2-year doctor appt. today and here are his stats...cause I know some of you will find this interesting :)

Height: 36 inches-87th percentile
Weight: 33 lbs-93rd percentile
Head: 20.1 inches-100th percentile

So, we have a big kid!!! Riley did great today and only cried for a second when he got his two shots. He was flirting with the nurse, playing peek-a-boo with the PA, and closing his eyes with the doctor...hey, can you blame him?!?! Doctors are a bit scary.

Riley's doctor got mad at me that Riley still takes a bottle before bed and told me in no uncertain terms that TONIGHT has to be the night that he stops taking a bottle. Well...I'm not so sure about that. I just don't think Riley is ready for that yet and I want him to keep sleeping. So, I told the doctor I would definitely take the bottle away...I just didn't say it would be tonight. I just don't think I can handle taking the poor kid's bottle away from him when he wouldn't understand why. He also got a little perturbed that the only meat Riley eats is chicken nuggets. Well, all I can say is that I try!!! :)