What’s Riley up to these days?

Riley turned 17 months old on January 13th & I really have no idea where the time is going. He is doing so much now that I can barely keep up with all the new stuff. There is seriously something new everyday. A few things that come to mind are:

Mimicking Mama & Dada: Every minute in our house is literally a game of Monkey-See, Monkey-Do. Riley’s little brain is a sponge right now & is soaking up EV.ER.Y.THING! A couple weeks ago, I was doing my bathroom routine after I had gotten out of the shower & of course Riley was right under my feet the whole time watching me. When I put my moisturizer on, he started rubbing his face…so cute. Then I put my deodorant on & he lifted his shirt with one hand & started rubbing under his arm with the other…priceless. I so wish I could have a video camera permanently glued to my hand so I could catch little things like that.

I did catch him typing away on the computer the other day. He thinks he’s so big when he types like Mama & Dada. :0)

Wearing our shoes: He especially loves Dada’s shoes. (Which I guess is a good thing considering he is a boy! Haha!) He will go back to his closet & pull a pair out. I know it has to be hard, but somehow he manages to walk in TAG’s size 15 shoes! (Bigfoot, yes I know!) This is a horrible picture because I took it with my phone but you get the idea.

Pop Tarts: I know this is not the most nutritious of all snacks, but the kid loves them & it’s almost all he will eat right now. He calls them "Op Chee". When it’s time for a snack he will run to the pantry saying “Mmmmmmm mmmmmm” wanting us to pick him up & let him choose something. After he picks something out I will ask him if this is what he wants for his snack & he’ll nod his head while saying “Nak nak nak” over & over. Riley has also started to dip some foods in others. He picked this up watching us eat chips & dip. His favorite thing to dip is chicken nuggets in ketchup. He’s actually not too messy with it either! Speaking of messes, he usually eats oatmeal in the mornings for breakfast & since he is learning to feed himself with a spoon it can get pretty messy at times. He apparently doesn’t like the stickiness of the oatmeal on his hands & can hardly wait for me to get a wash cloth to get it off when he is done eating. He will hold his hands out & say “eeeeeeewwww” while waiting on me to get it off. This really cracks me up!

Other favorite foods are:

I’ve also included what he calls it just for the record.

Grapes: “Jeese”

Apples: “Aabul” (He really loves them with a little peanut butter.)

Bananas: “Nana”

Crackers: “Cheep”

Chicken nuggets: “Chick chick”

Mini corn dogs: “Dot dog”

Oatmeal: “O mia”

Raisins: “Rany”

Craisins: “Rany”

Goldfish: “Tish”

Cheese: “Chis” or “Cheeeeeese”

V8 juice: “Jooce”

Bread: "Beh"

Corn, okra & fried green beans: Hasn’t really called them anything yet.

The picture (another horrible one taken with my phone) is of him eating an apple, or aaabul, as he calls them with peanut butter all over his mouth.

Bep beps: These are actually called Little People & are made by Fisher Price. I think he got the name from the bus some of them came with. It plays music & says beep beep. They have recently become his favorite toys. They are nothing special. Just small, simple toys but he gets the biggest kick out of moving them all around the house & arranging them in different orders. We always seem to be missing a couple of them though. Riley will walk around calling them, looking under the couches & everywhere for them saying “bep bep! bep beppp!”

Still loves bath time & practically drags us to the bathroom when it’s time for a bath. He can’t wait to get in! For about a month now, he has been putting his whole face in the water & blowing bubbles! I am so glad he's not afraid to get his face wet. I used to teach swimming lessons & had so many big kids that were terrified to even attempt blowing bubbles.

Hams it up for the camera: I’m sure y’all have noticed in recent pictures how big Riley is smiling for the camera nowadays. If he even sees it out he will start saying “cheeeese” until I take his picture. Then he wants to look at it & says "Awwwww". I'm beginning to think I have a slightly vain child! :0)

Riley has mastered straws...almost. He sometimes blows instead of sucking but he's catching on slowly. I think he just likes to bite on them mainly!

He is definitely a mama’s boy & doesn’t like to have me out of his sight if I am home. He does fine during the days when I’m at work, but if he knows I’m there & not right beside him he breaks out in a frenzy (not all the time of course, but lots). I had to put this picture up to make my point here. I set him on the couch to put his shoes on, which were on the opposite side of the room & when I went to get them I guess he thought I was just going to leave him perched up there & take off without him! Rotten, I know.

Riley loves to dance & will dance to any type of music he hears. I really need to post a video of his “2 step” as we call it on here. It is hilarious!

He is quite the little lover & will give kisses to *almost* anyone on command. Many times without command. Sometimes he will run back & forth from me to TAG smacking his lips, wanting to give us kisses. Bedtime is especially sweet. When we announce that it’s time to go Night Night, he runs up to TAG & gives him sugar then runs to me to take him to his room-waving, blowing kisses & saying “nih nih” to Dada the until he is out of sight. Riley insists that I be the one to put him to bed every night. TAG has tried & tried to give me a break, but Riley just calls for “Mama” the whole time. Yep, Mama’s boy. I don’t mind doing it every night though. Putting him to bed is one of my favorite parts of the day. I love to read him a book & then lay beside him until he falls asleep. Every night we will grab my arm & wrap it around his little belly. We usually sing a little song (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star & Jesus Loves Me are his favorites). Sometimes he’ll start singing & humming before me. It just makes me melt!

He is starting to recognize the ABC’s. When he sees “ABC” written on something or in a book he will start singing the ABC song. Granted, the only letter he gets right is “A”. Then the rest is just the tune…somewhat along with jibber jabber. But it is recognizable even to someone who has never heard him do it before.

He knows where all of his main body parts are & has been pointing them out for a while now. He knows head, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, tongue, teeth, hands, fingers, cheeks, arms (still kinda learning this one), belly, legs, feet, & toes.

He loves to talk on the phone, or "Wo" as he calls it. When there is not actually anybody on the other line he jabbers away, but if someone is there he just holds the phone to his ear & listens most of the time. He has been actually talking to Bubba, my dad, for a little while now but no one else really. And the conversation is mainly him saying “Wo? (hello) Bubba Bubbbbbaaaa Bubba wo? Bubba” over & over again.

I think he finally has a name for my mom! We wanted to let him come up with it but he never would call her anything. A few nights ago he started calling her ViVi & I love it. Her name is Vickie so it fits. He still gets confused some & doesn't always call her that, but I think that's going to be THE name!

Speaking of names, Saturday he said his name! He has been trying for a while & could only get "Raa" out but he finally did it! He was so proud too. He said "Rah-vey, Rah-vey, Rah-vey for about 5 minutes straight.

Riley is becoming more & more interested in the potty these days. I will tell him that I need to go pee pee & he will repeat "pee pee" while running to the bathroom & will stand in front of the toilet. I've put him on it several times just to see what he would do, but he just laughs & then wants off.

We dog sat for my parents last weekend when they went out of town. Riley loves Ginny & Bobo! They love him too but I think he makes them a little nervous at times. They mainly stayed on this bench in our Breakfast area hiding out the whole time. Riley walked around the whole house calling them several times “Bobo! Gin Gin!” I think he even dreamed about them one night because I heard him say “Gin Gin” over the monitor in the middle of the night.

A lot of people have asked what he thinks about being a big brother soon & the answer to that is he really has no idea what is going on. Poor little guy’s world is about to be turned upside down in about 6 weeks. He does love babies & says “baaay beee” when he sees one & wants to go get a closer look at them when possible. I just hope he is still as enthusiastic about this baby once she is around 24/7. I’m afraid that may not be the case because he loves to have my full attention. I guess we’ll just have to wait & see with that one. I’m praying it ends up being easier than I’m anticipating.

Did he really just do that?

I just changed Riley's diaper & as soon as I got his pants back on, he jumped down, grabbed the diaper & ran to the trash can. He pushed the button to open the lid, threw it in & closed the lid again. He had no idea that I followed him in the kitchen to watch & he was so proud of himself. I laughed so hard I was in tears. Maybe we can get him to take the trash out next! ;0)

32 Week Update

Monday was my 32 week mark. Time is still just flying with this pregnancy. It is definitely not slowing down for anything! I had a dr appointment on the 11th. Everything looked good. She said I didn’t gain any weight since the last appointment, which is good buuuut I have already gained 39 lbs this time. I gained a total of 40 with Riley. I still have 7 weeks left so I’m pretty nervous about that, but not letting it get me down. I know all pregnancies are different, even with the same woman. Hopefully though I won’t gain much in these last few weeks!

Back at the beginning of my pregnancy my doctor told me that I had the choice to either deliver this baby or opt for another C-Section since I had one previously. TAG & I have talked it over numerous times & I have gone back & forth in thought & prayer about it as well. The whole time TAG told me the final decision is up to me, but he would feel better with me having another section. We have both heard that the risk of uterine rupture is higher with back to back pregnancies in women who choose VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). If that happened I would end up having to have an emergency section & possibly being put all the way under. No thanks. My pregnancies are by no means back to back (Riley was about 9-10 months when I got pregnant this time), but they are fairly close. We asked my doctor about it & she assured us that my uterus would be fully healed & I shouldn’t have any complications like that…but of course no one can predict the future. After much thought & prayer, we decided that another C-Section would be best for us. I told my doctor last Monday that we have decided to go ahead & schedule the section. She said that they can’t actually schedule it with the hospital until 3 weeks before time, but that it will either be on March 8th or the 10th!

Since the surgery went so well last time for me with the section, I am excited that it (hopefully) will be easy again this time. However, deep down inside I am a little upset that I will probably never get to experience labor. Some people totally get this. Others think I’m crazy for wanting to go through it. I would just like to see what it’s like to experience giving birth…I think. This was another reason why the decision was so hard for me. With Riley I didn’t have a choice because he was breech. When they initially told me I would have to have a C-Section I was scared to death. I had never had any kind of surgery whatsoever. I pass out getting blood drawn. Basically, I’m a wuss when it comes to needles or anything medical like that. But when the time came I did much better than I thought I would. I came very close to passing out, but made it through once the nurse put some extra fluids in my IV. Also, I am hypoglycemic so it wasn’t helping that it was lunch time & I hadn’t eaten in 18+ hours. By the time I got my Spinal I was shaking so hard I couldn’t control it! But once the Anesthesiologist gave me the numbing shot, it was all down hill. The rest was a piece of cake. I am praying this section goes that well or better!

Miss Averly is doing great too. I think she is just as ready to be out as I am for her! The doctor hasn’t checked, but I swear this baby is transverse in there. I only feel her in the middle section of my belly by my hips. By this time Riley’s head was up in my ribs & I could distinctively tell how he was laying. If I’m right with Averly, her head & upper body is at my left hip bone & her feet are at my right hip bone. If I lay on my left side she squirms & kicks as if to say I am squishing her, but if I roll onto my right side she is fine & settles down. I can also tell a big difference in how I am carrying her vs Riley. My belly with him stuck out more in the front but was narrower. Basically if you looked at me from behind you couldn’t tell I was pregnant. With this one, my belly doesn’t sick out in front of me as much but I am way wider.

She was breech at the last ultrasound I had, but I know she had (& still has) plenty of time to flip all the way if she’s going to. My doctor laughs because I am so tall, yet my babies can’t find the room they need to flip in there! You would think they would have plenty of room to tumble all day. Who knows!

She has the hiccups almost every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. I love feeling her move, but it sure is hard to sleep when she's hiccupping at night!

I am feeling pretty good these days. I have been a little nauseous in the last week or so. Nothing major. I've also had heartburn just about every night for the past few weeks. My fear ever since this post. I don’t sleep & that’s what I need most right now. There is several different factors that come into play here. 1) I CANNOT get comfortable. My back is killing me & it’s just a constant nagging pain. 2) I get up to pee an abnormally high number of times per night. Now I know when you are pregnant you go to the bathroom more than normal, but I am not kidding when I say I get up LITERALLY every 10-15 minutes to pee for a few stretches of time at night. This did not happen with my first pregnancy. Maybe just 3 or 4 times a night. I really think it’s due to the way she is laying on my bladder. It’s like there is a kink in it & will only let out a little at a time but at the same time she is kicking & squishing it making me feel like I have to go right at that very minute. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. 3) My mind is racing through all the things that I could be doing or that need to be done instead of sleeping. Worrying about financial things, wedding showers I’m hosting, and then just laying there listening for Riley to wake up. He usually sleeps pretty well but I think he may have another ear infection that is bothering him. It’s either that or a belly ache. We go to the doctor tomorrow to find out.

TAG is just as excited as I am about this new little one that will be coming soon. He comes home every night & rubs my back & feet for me. It’s really the only bit of relief I can get right now & I am so thankful that he does it unprompted!

I recently discovered de-caffeinated sweet tea & it has been a life saver. Well I guess I always knew about it, but just recently thought to try it. I am not a caffeine addict, so having that omitted hasn't bothered me. I just love me some sweet tea! Hahaha! I still try to drink mainly water but it just gets old after several glasses. As with my last pregnancy I haven't had any real food cravings even up to now. I have been eating chocolate chip cookies like they are going out of style though. Not really craving them, but if they are around they are going to be eaten! Could possibly be why I've gained so much weight this time! ;0)

So here’s the belly pic for now. It was actually taken at 31 weeks & 3 days. Yes, I am wearing TAG's clothes here. My pajamas don't fit anymore & I refuse to buy maternity pjs!

I'm still here...just very busy!

I know it's been forever since I've posted anything, but I promise I'm still here! The nesting stage has fully set in & kept me so busy lately that it has left me no time to blog. I may not be getting much accomplished in the blog world right now, but I am definitely getting things done around the house!

On top of that, Riley has come down with a cold the past few days. Nothing too major, just a runny nose & cough. I'm hoping it's just because of the change in weather. (It has been so nice here the last couple of days after all that extreme cold.) But he has been pretty needy as well...not that I'm complaining about that. :0)

I do have a lot to catch up on & I promise I will very soon! Hope y'all are having a great weekend!

Snow Day???

Wednesday of last week all the schools & churches around the area started closing & everyone made a mad dash to the grocery store & gas stations to fill up. From what it sounded like (and from what I've heard from people that live just west of us), The Great Blizzard of 2010 was coming! I made plans to stay at home & show Riley how much fun the snow would be. It only snowed once last winter & he was too little to get out in it, so technically it would be his first time to see snow.

Wednesday night was when they were calling for it all to come in & I couldn't wait to wake up Thursday with white everywhere! It was so cold last week too. We had single digit temperatures with wind chills anywhere from 0 to -5. (I know I have some Northern readers who are probably laughing right now, but it never gets that cold here! Us Southerners think we are going to freeze when it drops below 50!)

Well, Thursday when we woke up, I went to the window to check it out & it looked like dust on the ground! We got maybe 1/8 of an inch if even that! Talk about disappointing! But the schools were all still closed Thursday & Friday. I think the news said it was actually due to the cold temperatures because the roads were fine in most places.

I bundled Riley up & we played in it, what little there was, as long as we could stand the cold. We still had fun even though there wasn't much snow.

Oh, and our pipes froze! Luckily they didn't burst before we noticed. It was just the hot water in the kitchen & I discovered it when I tried to start the dishwasher. We don't have any space heaters, so I propped my hair dryer up under the sink & after about 30 minutes or so they were defrosted again. How in the world do you Northerners keep your pipes from freezing all winter?!

Do I have a cheese monkey or what?!?!

Riley found a hat that someone had given me for Averly & I guess he thought he looked extra cute in it! Can't say that I disagree though. :0)

Down with Riley’s Crib, Up with Averly’s Crib

This past weekend we did a little more work on the baby's room...actually to both kids' rooms.

Riley has not actually slept in his crib since we was about 13 or 14 months old. We got a hand-me-down twin size bed that was my grandfather's & I think my dad slept on it when he was young, too. Anyway we got it way back in June & have had it up in Riley's room ever since. We changed our nightly routine to be done while sitting in his big boy bed. We read a book, say our prayers, then I lay down beside him until he falls asleep. For a long time we would move him to the crib once he was asleep, but then he started waking up & not wanting to be in it so we figured it would be easier just to leave him in the bed. We got one of those rail things to keep him from rolling off but he has actually done really well with the transition on his own. He has slept solely in the big bed for a month or more but I just haven't been able to take his crib down. I feel like it's the last piece of "baby" left in him & it makes me so sad that he's growing up so fast. So the crib stayed. Unoccupied for the longest. Just taking up space. Until this weekend. With all the toys Riley got for Christmas, we were either going to have to add on to our house or make room with what we've got. We do have a bonus room upstairs, which is what I have always intended on being the playroom, but Josh is staying in that room for now soooo....I decided it was finally time to take his crib down. Plus, since we put up Averly's (yes, we decided on Averly Brooke in case anyone was wondering!) crib, it was perfect timing. We used Riley's mattress so we didn't have to buy another one.

Of course I had to document the bittersweet occurrence with pictures.

Last time my baby boy will be in his crib. :0(

As hard as it was for me to see Riley's crib being taken down, I am very excited about all the extra space we have in his room now. He actually has room to play in there!

Then we put up sister's bed in what is currently the guest room. I guess TAG's "man room" will be the new guest room! I'll definitely have to put some feminine touches in it soon. :0) I also got Averly's closet organized & some of her clothes hung yesterday too. That was a big job & I'm so glad it's done!

Riley thought her crib was a jungle gym for him I think! Next step: move that queen size bed out & we will be close to finished with her room. Finally!

No baby sister yet, but I did hit 30 weeks today! We are definitely getting closer & closer!

I know I'm a few days late, but I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years! We all stayed in watching Tennessee get killed in the Chick-fil-a bowl & I think we were in bed by 10:30 or so! That's fine by me though. We needed the rest for sure!