The Last of February & Most of March

The day after Riley's 6 month check-up, on February 20th, he took a bath in his big boy bathtub for the first time. He has always loved the water, but he was especially excited to kick & splash in the big tub. I am enrolling him in swimming lessons this May & I am so anxious to see how he does in the pool, but if the tub tells anything he will love it!

My little fishy!
Riley got his new Jeep & hasn't slowed down since. He loves this thing!

Riley & I met my mom & sister for lunch one day in downtown Memphis. We met at the Mississippi River because I wanted Riley to see the boats. He loved watching a barge go by & the cars pass over the bridge. It was really sunny that day so he's squinting in most of these pictures.

So I think I mentioned it before, but Riley is now getting 6 teeth at one time. Once he gets these in he will have a grand total of 8! WOW! Anywho, we have tried all kinds of teething rings & medicines to relieve the pain & nothing seems to help very much. A lady at the grocery store told me that she gave her kids a cold carrot with the small end cut off for them to chew on. I gave it a shot & he likes chewing on it much better than the frozen rings I have bought for him in the past. Plus, he's getting some carrot juice at the same time. :0)

As some of you know, my parents have so graciously offered to keep Riley on the days that I work. My mom has been coming to our house to keep him since I started back to work in November last year. Well, on March 3rd I got brave & decided that he could stay the night with Grandma & Grandpa or "MeMaw" & "PePaw" as we like to call them (just because they really don't want to be called that. They say they aren't old enough to be MeMaw & PePaw. :0) We are leaving it up to Riley to 'name' them since he's the 1st grandchild). Sorry, I tend to chase rabbits & get way off the subject. So as I was saying, I figured I would give my mom a break from being away from my dad & driving so much and decided that Riley could stay the night with them. Yes, this is the 1st time he had ever been away from me overnight. And yes, it took me practically 7 months to even think about leaving him overnight. I know he is in great hands with any of our family, it was just hard for me to be away that long. Nighttime especially. But I knew I had to bite the bullet sooner or later. Maybe I could actually rest for a change. After work that day, I took my time getting home. I usually rush home as quickly (and safely ;0)) as possible to see my baby boy's smiling face. I walked into my almost awkwardly quiet house & thought about taking a nap at first, but then I remembered the never ending laundry that needed to be done, the dishes that needed to be washed, the toys that needed to be picked up, the floors that needed to be vacuumed, & the supper that needed to be cooked. Napping was out of the question. After completing all 638 tasks, I remember sitting on the couch with TAG watching TV (a rarity in itself) with my feet propped up in his lap getting a foot massage ;0) & thinking "What on earth did I do with my time before I had a child? If I did things as fast & often as I do them now, I would have had the cleanest house & most well fed husband on the planet!" When bed time rolled around I started getting sad & was missing my Riley man. About that time my mom called to let me tell him goodnight. It helped some just to hear him "talking", but not enough. It felt so weird to not do his bedtime routine & to not have his little hand rubbing my arm as he fell asleep with me holding him. I'll admit it, I broke down. Just for a quick minute though because my husband kept reminding me that it was only for one night & that I would get to see him the next day after work. Those simple thoughts were reassuring & helped a lot too. That night I actually slept great & hard. Very hard. I don't think a dump truck could've woken me up. As bad as I didn't want to leave him overnight, it was good for both me & TAG to have a break & get a good night's rest. Now we try to let him stay at their house one or two nights every couple or 3 weeks. I must say I have gotten better at it, but I still miss the little fella so much on the nights he's gone. Riley, on the other hand seems to do much better than myself. Here he is jamming out with "PePaw" on the drums. He LOVES banging on them!

My dad's birthday was on March 13th. We all loaded up & headed to Oakland to celebrate this one. Once again Riley wanted to help open the presents. He really likes tearing paper!

The day after my dad's birthday one of my best friends (and college roommates), Gina got married. She was such a beautiful bride. Adam (her husband) looked pretty, too! ;0) Haha!

Two of my college roomies & AOII sorority sisters. Gina was my big sister & Brette was my little sister. Love love love these girls!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


We had another birthday in March to celebrate--Aunt Brooke's on March 23rd. We all went to Sekisui to eat & I forgot my camera :0( But we did go to the zoo the day before & I got lots of pics from that day. (That requires a whole 'nother post!)