Swimming And Christmas Parties

Dear Riley,
Some annoying little virus has invaded your cute little body, causing some occasional crankiness and some lovely discharge coming out of your nose. We took you to your first Christmas party last night, where we attempted to leave you with some babysitters in a separate part of the house and hang out with some adults, and you lasted a little over a half hour before the baby sitter came running down into the house with you in her arms and you had huge crocodile tears running down your face and you reached out for Daddy like you'd never see him again. So, you got to stay and play with the adults whom you seemed to enjoy much more than the kids. Dave and Tanya had a stainless steel trash can which you figured out that you could see yourself in and were soon in love with. You are a funny little critter, Miss Riley. You also had your last swimming lesson for this session yesterday and for once you didn't seem to mind "jumping" off the wall. You still won't blow bubbles, but laugh at Daddy whenever he does it. You are such a terror to all the other kids but you can't help it you just like to play with them! It's funny to see you go after kids who are bigger than you and they start crying.
Love you as big as the air that Shaun White got in the Grand Prix finals at Copper today,
Momma

Baby In The Mirror

Dear Riley,
Your most recent discovery is mirrors, and more specifically the fact that YOU are in fact, the baby in the mirror smiling back at yourself. It's horribly amusing to watch you as I think you forget it from time to time when you are away from a mirror but once brought back to it, it takes you a few minutes to remember that it's you you're looking at. You stare around for a second and then try to grab at yourself- Daddy and I are always commenting on your seeming lack of depth perception sometimes. Although you have discovered wheel barrowing yourself off the couch and enjoy it way too much! You continue to amaze us. We were talking this morning about how funny you are in the mornings, just laying around for awhile, staring off, as if you are contemplating what monumental things you should try to scratch off your to-do list today. Today I left the living room to go to the bathroom and didn't take you with me (not usually a great idea), but you seemed to be happy and fine with it at the time so off I went. I came back to find you halfway across the living room and almost to the kitchen, searching frantically everywhere you went as if you thought I had left you alone in the entire condo by yourself. As if.
Love you as big as The Horse Shoe,
Momma

Crank In Your Pants

Dear Riley,
If I could find the person who put the crank in your pants after about 4 o'clock today, I would promptly take them and smack them upside the head and then probably take them out back and flog them. Or let them listen to the Mexican neighbors we have who insist on blaring their music at all hours of the day. When you are older, I will let you listen to some of the oompa oompa music that could become part of the soundtrack of the first year of your life. To say you were unpleasant is putting it nicely. We had an awesome morning, complete with you eating your first full meal in your highchair in our house, which was more than slightly amusing. You are a smart cookie, kid, you figured out faster than Daddy or I thought you would that if you picked up the food we put in front of you it could go straight in your mouth and be CONSUMED, rather than just chewed on and soaked like everything else we put in front of you. We watched some football, because before you were born your completely sane parents decided that they needed to purchase a huge flat screen TV because we wouldn't be going out to bars to watch games. Just for the record, we have also changed cable companies and added on about 300 bucks in sports packages so that you could watch us scream and yell at the tv on Saturdays AND Sundays in the comfort of your own home. We love you kiddo. We are getting ready for your first Christmas, (as are your grandparents). You love to tear ornaments off the tree at Grandma Sharon's house and have managed to break three at last count, but the Christmas season is still young. Your latest trick today was waving at Daddy- he said hi to you and waved at you and you didn't even look at your hand but you picked it up and just held it out and waved at him for a few minutes, and we were both so proud and amazed that your teeny little brain had figured that out that we were both crying! I gave birth to you 7 months ago and maintain that my emotions have been out of control ever since, but I don't know what Daddy's excuse is. You are sleeping peacefully in your bed as of now, surrounded by the two frogs and the red dog and hopefully we won't see or hear from you anymore until 6 AM when you will squak but not open your eyes and expect to be brought into the bed with us to take over more room than a 7 month old should in a king size bed.
Love you to the moon and back,

Momma

Changing the Layout!

So, since my brain goes about 40023439 miles per minute- and that, unfortunately, is not a gross understatement, I've decided I want to change the way we have written this website- I'm going to start writing this in the form of letters to Riley- Ken and I want her to be able to have this one day so she'll be able to look back and see how insane her parents and her first year of life truly were, and I think that will enable her to have a better grasp! So from here on out, letters to Riley it will be!

The US Snowboard Team

So Ken told me earlier this week that the US Snowboard team was doing an autograph signing at the Cage at Copper on Saturday and did I think it would be cool if we got Riley a Woodward shirt and had them sign it- I was totally in! So we trekked up to Copper after swimming lessons today and bought her a Woodward shirt then waited in line with a bunch of ski school kiddos but finally made it up to the table- Gretchen Bleiler and Hannah Teter thought she was adorable and loved that her initials were RAD, and Louie Vito(who was on the past season's Dancing With The Stars and is a buckeye!!) and Mason Aguirre were commenting on how they wished they had a velour suit like hers. Kelly Clark took a picture holding her, and we got Shaun White to take a picture with her too! So awesome. Ken and I were both super excited afterwards- totally awesome. Here are the pics- we are going to frame the shirt and put the pictures in it for her. Kelly Clark and Shaun White are both Olympic Gold Medalists- not many 7 month olds can say they've got pictures with 2 olympic snowboarders!