Playing in the snow

A few days ago, we got the first real snowfall of the season.  Riley has been asking to play outside and this morning seemed like a great time to let him check it out.

As with everything at this point, it's still a little too early for him to know what's going on but he seemed to enjoy the experience.  Riley loved his new snowsuit even though its a little big - but Chris found out how easy it was to hold him in it!

Addison even came out to join in the fun... and decided it was her job to help keep Riley's cheeks warm with her tongue.

Also, Gabe came in town for New Year's and spent his first day with us.  We loved seeing him and he even got to read his Hanukkah gift to Riley - Goodnight iPad.  Riley loved looking at the pictures and confirmed that he really is a techno baby!

First trip to LA

Last week, we took Riley on his first trip to the West Coast to visit GeeGee!  We had such a great time spending time with GeeGee, entertaining cousins and exploring LA.

Our flights were pretty good and Riley did a great job!  There were a few times where he wasn't super happy but nothing a trip to the back of the plane for some walking couldn't cure. He slept for 2 1/2 hours on the way there and Riley even made friends with a 9 month old baby!

One of the highlights of the trip was taking Riley to the beach.  We went to Santa Monica and Riley put his feet in the sand and in the ocean for the first time!  He liked the sand between his toes and we can tell that he will like playing at the beach when he is older, too!

When we were done playing on the beach, we made our way over to the pier and had a great view of the ocean as the sun was starting to set.

We also had a great time when cousins came over to visit, at the jewelry mart, at Universal CityWalk and just spending time with GeeGee!  We miss being with GeeGee already and can't wait for our next visit!

Happy Hanukkah!

All week we have been celebrating Riley's first Hanukkah!  We have had a great time - parties, family, latkes and gelt - what else can you ask for?  We lit the candles and opened presents every night together.

There was a party at shul on Tuesday where Riley was invited to sit at the Rabbi's table and got to say the blessing cause it was his first Hanukkah (and had a shirt to prove it)!  Everyone came over to check out his shirt and tell us how cute he was.  There was a juggling performance and Riley was thrilled watching the show, taking in the new experience!

Riley loved the candles and helped to light the menorah.  The flames were so bright and pretty!  Maybe next year he will be able to light his own baby menorah!

On the last night, we had a family party and opened the rest of the gifts - ALL of them!  Riley made quite the haul too!   Throughout the nights, he got a picture frame, shoes, great additions to his wardrobe, an iPod shuffle and speakers, toys, books and many, many Mondos!

Happy Hanukkah to all and to all a good night!

3 months

Yesterday marked 3 months for Riley!  So naturally, we had to celebrate!  Nothing like a black-tie event with a cake to mark the 3 month celebration of a baby.  Luckily, our friends Sam and Beth were very cool about sharing their wedding with Riley's 3 month party!

When Riley was born, Sam and Beth gave him a baby tux and invited him to be in the Junior Bridal Party.  Beth said she couldn't wait to take a picture with all of the babies and her dream came true yesterday.  I couldn't believe that 4 babies, all under 4 months old were awake and happy at the same time when their pictures were ready to be taken.  It was ADORABLE!

As you can imagine, taking part in a photo session, ketubbah signing and cocktail hour was exhausting so Riley had to take a few naps throughout the evening.  He was, however, a perfect date during the cocktail hour.  Chris was in the other room with the rest of the bridal party so Riley joined me, sitting on a high-boy table, reeling people in to talk to me.  I have never had so many strangers come up to me to talk about my cute baby!  And who am I to turn away conversation about my son?

Riley was so well behaved most of the night too!  I was really nervous that he would cry during the ceremony but for the first half, he slept in his stroller and the second half, he woke up and stared at the chandeliers.  It was a little challenging to have a sleepy baby at the reception and we didn't get to do too much dancing, but you better believe we didn't leave until I had a dance with both of my boys!  It was a wonderful evening and hopefully there will be more pictures to share soon!

Sleep schedule

Now that we are almost at the 3 month mark, it is time to start figuring out a sleep schedule.  We have been lucky so far to have a baby who sleeps 4+ hours at night and only really gets up once to eat but it seems like we should have a better schedule and start getting more hours at bedtime.

As is always the case with something like this, we have some good days and some bad days.  And we are learning what works and what doesn't.

The book I am reading suggests many naps and long nighttime sleeping so that is what we are looking forward to at the end.  It's going to take some work from everyone but hopefully there is a light at the end of the tunnel - or at least some sleep at the end of that tunnel!

Holiday Lights Trolley

On Saturday night, the family all took a trip downtown to take part in the Holiday Lights Trolley tour - a 2.5 hour tour showing the best of the holiday decorations that downtown Chicago has to offer.  We all boarded the trolley and headed to our first stop, Lincoln Park Zoo.  We were given 30 minutes to explore over 2 million lights, ice carvings and other holiday decorations.  There was even a light-up Mondo Monkey hanging from the tree that we pointed out to Riley, who was in his big-boy stroller (cause there wasn't enough room to schlep a car seat on the trolley).

We then drove down Michigan Avenue to see all of the holiday lights, including the decorated holiday windows at Macy's on State Street.  The next stop was the Christkindlmarket - a recreation of a German holiday market where you can buy crafts, beer and German food.  We had wiener schnitzel, potato pancakes and roasted nuts.  Then back onto the trolley. 

Our last stop was at the Hancock Tower where we got our hot chocolate and brownies and saw a great holiday train display.  I don't know who liked it better - Chris or Riley... I think Chris did this year!

We really lucked out with the weather too!  It was almost 50 degrees that evening and felt wonderful to be walking outside with just a light jacket and no need to bundle up every time we stepped off the trolley.  We all had a wonderful time and are now thoroughly in the holiday spirit!

Playing the Lottery

Like everyone else in America, we played the lottery last night.  How can you not try your luck when the payout is $550 MILLION!

I even had to stand in line for 5 minutes to buy the tickets!  As you can see from Riley's reaction, not even his numbers won...

Guess we're gonna have to find another way to finance college...

Loving the library

Since Friday, Riley has had a little bit of a cold.  He doesn't seem to be too phased by the illness and the only symptoms he really has is being a little more tired than usual and coughing like a pack-a-day smoker.  Besides that, he's still in good spirits and nothing can hold back that smile.  According to Bibi, babies don't know that they're sick so they don't mope around.

After staying in all weekend and trying to recover, we got a little stir crazy and decided it would be ok to bundle up and run some errands.  Our first and most interesting stop was the library!  According to Zee, no grandson of his should have waited this long for his first library visit (only 11 weeks), but we just had so much going on!

Unfortunately, as is often the case, Riley slept through our adventure.  But he did smile when we went into the book store!   We picked up our very own copy of Love You Forever, Fairytales from Hans Christian Anderson, The Stinky Cheese Man and Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblin to add to our growing book collection at home. 

In other milestone news, Riley is very close to giggling and he held his own bottle for 10 seconds today!

Riley's first Thanksgiving

This week, we got to celebrate Chris' 29th birthday and Riley's first Thanksgiving!

The whole family, including Uncle Aubrey, Aunt Arlene and Bubbie came in on Wednesday to begin the celebrations with a birthday dinner.

On Thursday, we got dressed for the day in our festive onesie and started the celebration with the traditional Thanksgiving breakfast, walk and parade.  We ate all day, enjoying the relaxation, the cooking and each others company.

Everyone had a great time getting to spend time together, especially having the opportunity to meet Riley and spend so much time with him.  He was so happy being passed around, meeting new family members. 

Even without eating turkey, Thanksgiving is exhausting!

Sleeping beauty

Guess who had a great night?

Riley took a bunch of naps during the day yesterday so I was nervous that he wasn't going to sleep well at night.  But we got him ready for bed as usual and he fell asleep at 11:15 pm.  I was prepared to wake up with him in the middle of the night but he slept until 5 AM!!!

Keep your fingers crossed that we start having more nights like these!

Riley's first flight

Riley is now a frequent flyer!  We took our first trip to Pittsburgh this weekend and had an awesome time!  I was a little nervous to fly with him alone but he was a champ and we had an excellent experience.  I think we scared all of the people on the plane when they saw such a little baby - but besides a few squeaks and a minute of crying, you would never even know there was a 2 month old on the plane.

Everyone was incredibly helpful seeing that I was traveling alone and so many people were willing to help me out.  Riley now has his wings (which he wore on the flight) and they are now on display in his room so he can show them off.

Next flight... LA!

Voting Day!

For weeks now, we have been looking forward to voting day.  We explained the process to Riley and he was ready to cast his ballot.  We went to the polls and in all of his excitement, Riley fell asleep and missed the whole thing... but did come out with a sticker proving he served his civic duty.

Later in the day, he was a little more animated and ready to show his excitement for the votes to start being announced!

Now, we are enjoying watching all of the results come in together.

Mall madness

 

 

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon at the outlet malls in Kenosha.  We loaded up the car, grabbed everything we needed and hit the road.  Unfortunately, Chris and I each thought the other put the stroller in the trunk so when we got there, we realized we were strollerless.  Knowing we couldn't schelp Riley around in the carrier all day, we went to Customer Service and rented a stroller for the day.

 

 

We shopped and shopped, and in one store, Riley found something that he wanted.  We checked it out, said how cute it was and just couldn't take his eyes off it.  Turns out, it was himself in a mirror!  So we said he could keep it!

 

 
After hours and hours, shops, dressing rooms, meals and clothes, we were all worn out and headed home with our new purchases! 

Twas the week of Halloween

Happy Halloween!  Boy, did we have an exciting week!  We had a great time getting ready for the Halloween celebration and when the day finally arrived, we were ready! We started our prep on Sunday by carving our pumpkin (see below).  I picked out the design, Chris was the expert carver and Riley supervised the operation - but not before posing with the pumpkins a little! 

Then, when Halloween finally arrived, we had so many themed outfits that we had to get in all in one day!  We got a onesie from an AJ client that fit Riley perfectly and Halloween bibs from Grammy and Grandy that Riley made sure to use for their intended purpose!

We got all ready for trick-or-treating and donned the costume!  How did Riley decide that he wanted to be a giraffe, you may ask?  Well, it was the only costume that came in his size.  But I think it looks pretty darn cute!

After our family photo session, we rounded up the troops and started our trick-or-treating.  Patricia, James and Simon joined us and we went around the neighborhood for about an hour.  We decided we had the best decorated house and the most adorable baby, by far!  Everyone loved opening their doors to see the cute baby and Riley got more candy than he knows what to do with.  He has been encouraging me to eat more and more candy so he can have some chocolate milk tonight.

I have to say, we had a very successful first Halloween!