In case you didn't already know

In my last post "our" bath tub is in reference to mine & TAG's...just FYI Riley has been taking baths in his tub for a long time now. Mommy & Daddy's tub was the treat. :0)

Splish Splash

Riley got to take his first bath in our tub last night. He was pretty excited about it & did not want to get out.

He looked so tiny in that big tub!

Please notice the water splashed all over the walls…

The aftermath of the fun…super wrinkly fingers & toes.

And a very happy, very clean little boy.

Father’s Day

Dada, You are a wonderful Dad in so many ways. Always putting God & your family first. You love, provide & give unconditionally. You work long days so that Mommy can stay home part time with me. You help Mommy when you get home from work, even though you are worn out from your long day. You want the best for our family & literally won't settle for anything less. You sing to me when I am upset or just tired. It really helps me relax. You let me drool, smear food, & climb all over you & never complain about all the stains I have made on your clothes or how many times you have to change your shirt in one day. I know you will teach me how to be the best man I can be when I grow up. Happy 1st Father’s Day!

I love you,

Riley

The 3 most important men in my life!!!

Dad, Thank you for everything that you have done for me & that you still do. I would never be where I am today if it weren’t for you & all of your advice along the way. You have always been my hero & always will be. I couldn’t ask for a better Daddy! Happy Father’s Day!

I love you,

Jessica

For Sale by Owner

Wow, I don't think I have ever blogged after midnight! Usually I am far away in dreamland by now, but I have so many things running through my mind that I can't sleep. So what better to do than blog! We recently decided to try & sell our house to buy something bigger with more land for Riley (and any other kids we have in the future) to play. I have been in touch with a real estate agent to see what we need to do to get going. She emailed me some listings of houses that are in our price range and of course I fell in love with a couple of them already. TAG & I even drove out & looked at some this afternoon. I emailed her back this evening to see about scheduling a walk-through of our house to find out what it appraises for, but when I laid in bed a while ago I got to thinking. Our actual price range all depends on how much we get for our house since we will use that money towards a down payment. The agent gets 6% of our selling price, which can be a pretty big chunk of money. So what's keeping me from sleeping is the fact that we could have that 6% to add to our down payment on a new home if we tried the "For Sale by Owner" route. Granted, the house probably won't sell as fast due to the lack of the agent spreading the word, but realistically we aren't in that big of a hurry to move. Our back yard is still huge in Riley's eyes & has plenty of room for him right now. (But our dog Zeke is another story! He needs more room to run ASAP!!) Anyway, after almost 'sleeping on it' I think I may have to email the agent again to tell her we need to slow things down a bit. Is that totally ugly of me??? Since we never actually did a walk-through or even met in person, I don't feel as bad about backing out on her. If anyone reading is a real estate agent, please don't take offense! Agents are wonderful and if we needed to sell quicker, I would definitely use one. I guess we will just throw a price out there based on what some comp homes in our neighborhood sold for recently & what some are priced at for sale now & see what we can do.

I know this whole post was just a bunch of rambling. Sorry for that. If it matters to anyone, my head seems a little clearer now after spelling it all out. :0) Well, I'm going to make attempt #2 to get some sleep. Good night!

10 Months Old

My little boy turned 10 months old on Saturday. I seriously cannot believe that in just 2 months he will be turning a year old! I listed several new things Riley is doing these days in this post, but just to recap here is a little bit of what is going on with my 10 month old!

*Wants to share his food with us & tries to feed us.

*Points at what he wants or where he wants to go.

*Drinks water from our glasses & says "Ahhhh" afterwards. Sometimes he gets a little carried away with the noises though! It's so funny!

*Claps when we say "Yay" & is so proud of himself when we do.

*Throws his ball to us & tries to catch it--not so great at that part yet, though. ;0)

*Smacks his lips to give us sugar.

*Waves bye-bye.

*Brings his toys, my phone, remotes, anything he can grab to us & *tries* to say thank you. It comes out more like "To-to".

*Other "words" (more like noises) he says now: Dada, Mama, Ba (ball), Oof (barking like a dog). Below is a video of barking like a dog. One thing is for sure, he knows what a dog is & "what it says".

*Walks!! He has been taking a few steps here & there for the last week or so, but Saturday he really started moving! I cannot believe my child is walking!!!

*I haven't weighed or measured him since his 9 month check-up, but I'm guessing he is probably about 21 lbs & 30 1/2 or 31 in tall.

*He has been eating more & more table foods lately, but doesn't care for foods with any sort of mushy texture, like noodles, diced carrots, whole peas, or bananas. But he will eat any type of bread or meat. We just have to squish the fruits & veggies into smaller pieces.

*He takes about 4, 3-4 oz bottles a day. Sometimes his 1st & last bottles are 6 oz. How much he eats really varies from day to day.

*I have been trying to begin weaning him off of the bottle by putting his milk in a sippy cup at least once a day. I have been doing it with his afternoon bottle so that he doesn't get as frustrated with it as he probably would at bedtime. He has done ok, but only takes a few sips & then I end up pouring it in a bottle for him to finish.

*He is still super attached to me & still has a fit if I leave the room, but will let Daddy occupy him with less fuss now.

*He loves to cuddle & lay his head on my chest when he is tired.

*Such a sweet heart & is very social! He waves to cars as they drive down our street when we are on a walk or going to the mailbox.

The last 10 months have been the best of my life! I love my little Riley man more than words can describe. Happy 10 Months, angel baby!

Swim Dates & Birthdays Galore

Just going to go ahead & warn ya…there’s a ton of pictures in this post, but you know me… :0) We had a lot going on this past week or so. My birthday, 2 swim dates, a friend's birthday & then my mom's birthday. Lots of celebrating & swimming!

First swim date with Lucy at her house.

Riley’s 1st time in a big pool. And he LOVED it!

Yes, that is a Colonel Reb tiled in their pool. TAG says we should Photoshop that out! ;0) (HUGE Mississippi State fan!)

Second swim date with Addison.

How cute are those sunglasses?!

Alyssa's 1st Birthday party.

The Birthday girl & her mama.

Dada had a little trouble getting the swimmer diapers on. :0)

Riley with some of the little ladies in the pool.

Alyssa eating her Birthday cake!

Last night we ate at Bonefish Grill for my mom’s Birthday with my parents & my sister. The food was wonderful & we had a great time. Although, Riley wasn’t exactly on his best behavior at the restaurant. His afternoon nap was cut short & it showed. Big time. I’m sure the people sitting around us were glad when we finally left! Oh well…what can ya do?

Riley's present to my mom. His feet prints on a plate. It says Happy Birthday Love Riley but you may have to click on the picture to make it bigger to see it.

Riley refused to look at the camera. He was ready to go home.

Finally asleep. Worn out from all the swimming & partying!

Faux Hawk

Look at how my little man’s hair was styled when he woke up the other morning…

Happy Tuesday & Happy Birthday Mom! We love you!

Riley's 8/9 Month Photo Session

Click HERE to see the pictures. As I mentioned before, these were supposed to be Riley's 8 month pictures, but he was actually almost 9 months by the time we had them done because we kept having to reschedule. Jody Herndon is our photographer & I have always loved his work. My family has used him for everything from senior pictures to engagements & weddings and now maternity & baby pictures.

Once you are HERE, just create your own login info to view the pictures. I'm having a hard time picking a favorite, but if I had to choose one, I'm leaning towards #214, or maybe #237...or #245. Oh, I don't know!!

Riley 3 is the most recent session, but feel free to look at the others to see how much my little boy has grown & changed! It's unbelievable!

Ahhhhh

Riley is loving him some water these days & really loves to drink it out of our big glasses. He actually prefers them over his sippy cup which, as you can imagine, creates quite the mess! My mom has taught him to say "Ahhhh" after he takes a sip & now he does it constantly. It doesn't even matter if he is choking, he still tries to say it! My child seriously cracks me up these days! I wanted to share a video of him doing this with y'all.

Please ignore my super high pitched voice. I tend to talk to him at least 2 octaves higher than normal sometimes. :0)

Also, here is just a few more new things that Riley is doing now:



*WALKING!!!! He took 9 steps to me last night! We got it on video, but it's on my other video camera that I can't figure out how to upload videos from (you have to install some program or something...I don't know).
*Feeds his cracker or whatever he is eating to us. I'm hoping this means he will like to share once he understands that concept. Crossing my fingers anyway. Here he is trying to feed my sister some flowers that he picked off of that hanging plant. ;0)

*Points at things to let us know exactly what he wants. A couple days ago he got into the cabinet where we keep his Baby Einstein DVDs, grabbed one, drug it with him as he crawled over to me,
then turned & pointed at the TV. True story.

*Leading off of that last point, he recently started bringing random things to us also. I guess he is showing us his treasures he finds.
*He recently discovered the moon, well not literally, I guess noticed would be a better choice of words there! Anyway it is so cute because he points at it & tries to grab it out of the sky.

Oh how I love my little man!

Blueberries are good

                                         REALLY GOOD!!!

He may kill me when he’s older for this picture because it looks like lipstick, but it’s just too cute not to post!