Weekend with Mommy

This weekend, Riley and I had plenty of quality time together while Chris was at a USY convention Thursday - Sunday.  We were lucky enough to have some beautiful weather that we were sure to take advantage of as you never know when it's going to disappear.

We had Saturday lunch out on the patio and Riley enjoyed eating while listening to the birds chirping and the wind chimes singing.

We had to take the dogs out for their walks and you should have seen us with Riley in his pouch and the 2 dogs walking in front of us.  Three people stopped me telling me that I certainly had my hands full.

And to show off Riley's new trick... standing!!!  I can stand him up and he balances while holding onto a table.  He can stand for up to two whole minutes if he feels like it!  I , like others, wouldn't be surprised if he does try to walk before he masters crawling.

Almost spring-like weather

Yesterday, it warmed up and almost felt like it was April - so we took advantage of the sun being out and took a family walk.  There is a park just a few blocks from us and when we got there, Riley got to play on the swings again!

This weekend, it is supposed to be going to be in the 70's!  Chris is going to be out of town so Riley and I will enjoy the warm weather on our own.

Then, this morning, we found out what really makes Riley laugh!  I was watering the plants and squirt Sheffield with the water bottle (which he loves) and Riley just thought it was the best thing ever!  

I was laughing so hard I was crying.  Looks like Sheffield is going to be squirt in the face pretty often! 

Playing upstairs

On Thursday, we had hours and hours of storms which ended up flooding our basement leaving 6 inches of water to deal with.  We knew that the storm was coming so luckily we had moved a lot of stuff to higher grounds - but when the water came in, all we could to was pump it out and wait for the ground to soak up the rain.

Since our living area is in the basement, we have been displaced and now have all of our playtime upstairs.  It doesn't seem to bother Riley though!

We are making the most of it and just have to keep reminding ourselves that this is all temporary.  I think it will actually make us enjoy the new house even more (if that's even possible)!

Age old question

Riley is such a hungry hippo that he's always wondering what's for lunch.  He is eating so many foods now which is really nice - plus, I'm sure he likes the variety too.  We have a pantry full of fruits, vegetables, baby meals, and we share our food with him sometimes too!

This weekend, we spent most of the day on Saturday inside because it was still pretty cold so we made our own fun.  Turns out, the perfect item to contain a squirmy baby is a laundry basket.  Riley turned it into his Man Cave and had a great time playing in there with his toys for a while.  We also found out that Riley loves to play with just about anything - including rubber bands.  

Riley is still minutes away from crawling and props himself up, readies himself to move and then gets frustrated as he wiggles backwards.  We are still encouraging him and maybe if we get enough cheerleaders, he will be motivated to show off.  All the moms at Gymboree tell me to enjoy his immobility while it lasts, but I know how much he wants to crawl so I will do all I can to get him there soon.

My little Egg McMuffin

This week's new food is eggs!  We tried feeding them to Riley but figured the best way to get used to them was to let him explore and figure it out on his own.  Not many of them made it to his mouth - here's where they did end up:

     10% in his mouth
     10% on his face
       5% in his ears
     25% in the abyss of his highchair
     10% on the floor
     25% on his tray
     10% on his bib
       5% in the folds of his neck

We're gonna keep working on this...

Follow up on new tub

So the other day, I mentioned that we have a new tub for Riley that he can sit up in that he really wasn't so sure about.  The first day he screamed and cried so we decided to let him spend some time in it during the day.

First, we filled it up with toys and let him spend some time in it in the bathroom.  Then, I pushed him around his room riding in it like a little boat.  Finally, we sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" a few times and he was finally convinced that the new tub was approved.

Now, the problem is getting him out of it...  He loves it so much and just settles in like he's in a jacuzzi and loves bath time again.  

I think he looks like a chicken who's a little too big for its pot!

Day of new experiences

When you're a baby, every day is filled with new experiences - but today, Riley had some very exciting new activities!

This afternoon, Riley had his first taste of baby beef.  Any by that, I mean beef made for babies, not beef made of babies...  He seemed to like it when I gave it to him at lunch but wasn't so sure about it when Chris was feeding him dinner.

After lunch, we took the car to have an oil change, and while we waited, I took Riley on a walk to enjoy the beautiful weather.  It was bright and sunny and we found a nearby park to spend some time in.  Riley had a great time on the swings but I think he was trying to figure out how he was flying on his own.  I also went down the slides with him and he seemed to like that too!

Then at bath time, we have a new inflatable mini tub that goes in the big tub for Riley to sit in.  He sat on Chris' lap as it was inflated but the second we put him in there, he freaked out and started crying.  There is a cute seal on it but we think he is afraid of it.  Needless to say, tonight's bath was the fastest one he's ever had!  Hopefully we can get him to get used to it a little more over the next few days and bath time will go back to being happy, splashy time!

Passover in Pittsburgh

This past week, we were lucky to spend most of Passover in Pittsburgh!  We had such a great time with everyone and now that we are back in Chicago, we really miss everyone! 

Riley is getting to be quite the traveler and he already knows that when we get on the plane, its time to warm up our wings and get ready to flap.  Now that he is older, he is super wiggly and just wants to check out everything.  That means its harder for us to control him but he likes to make friends in the row behind us and everyone likes to say hi.

We had such lovely seders and it was so nice to be surrounded by friends and family.  Riley was present for the 4 questions and promises to work on them for the next years.  Our favorite part was playing with the plagues!

Later in the week, we got to just spend time with family and partake in our own "Take your grandson to work day"!  Riley had so much fun spending time with Bibi and Zee and their office friends!

Since we were out of town and missing our regular Gymboree class, we got to join the pittsburgh class and make new friends.  Bibi even joined us and her favorite part was bubble time.  She was trying to catch the sugar bubbles on her tongue - we were trying to pretend that we didn't know who the crazy lady was!

And what trip to the grandparents house would be complete without a sink bath?  This one is  the result of an attack from a spoonful of peanut butter!  Something else that made RIley happy at home?  Playing peek-a-boo with GeeGee!

Riley is now minutes away from crawling!  He gets up on all fours and looks prepared to pounce.  So far, he is still scooting, but we know that any day now, he will figure out how all of his limbs work together and will be on the move.  Click on the link to see how he's getting a little help: Bibi and Zee teach Riley to crawl

We had such a good time visiting everyone and can't wait till our next family get together!