Starting to say goodbye

With the big move looming, there are lots of "lasts" and "goodbyes" that we are working on.  One of those things is Gymboree.  For the past 6 months, we have been going to play and music classes and Riley has really loved them - and this week marks our last visit.

We got to say goodbye to a few of the friends that we have made over the months and luckily, Riley didn't seem to mind that he won't see these friends again.  He is excited, however, to be making new friends at the JCC!

The shul had a going-away lunch this afternoon for Chris and Riley and I were invited to join and say goodbye.  After lunch, Riley helped Chris make sure he had everything and checked to make sure the phone was still working for whoever takes the job next.

Hawks win!

As of last night, the Chicago Blackhawks are Stanley Cup Champions!  Riley is a true fan and wore his new jersey proudly.  Although he wasn't able to stay awake for the entirety of each game, he watched as much as he could with the family before bedtime.

I thought Riley was going to be woken up with the volume of cheering coming from downstairs but he slept through the night and celebrated in the morning!

So long, farewell!

This weekend, we had a few friends over so we could start saying our goodbye's.  It's sad to leave our friends and family here but we are looking forward to the next chapter in our lives.

We also got to say goodbye to a lot of our friends at the shul when we went to the annual Dinner Dance on Sunday evening.  The rabbi is retiring so the event was honoring him with an evening of dressing up, a great dinner and socializing.

On a completely different note - check out Riley's new toy!  Our neighbor put the toy out to share so we bought it home, put it through the car wash and gave it a whirl!

Chris' 1st Fathers Day

Today, Chris got to celebrate his first Father's Day - and it turned out to be a pretty great day. We started out the morning with a walk to Dunkin Donuts for coffee and breakfast.  Next on the schedule, Chris, Claude and Simon went out in the beautiful weather and played a round of golf.

While the boys were out golfing, Riley, Linda and I suited up and headed to the local pool.  We had such a fun time in the baby pool just relaxing, playing with the fountains, making new friends and playing with our pool toys.

After an afternoon nap, everyone reconvened for dinner - a steak and potato schmorgasbord - followed by pie with ice cream.  Honestly, does life get any better?

The evening ended by opening presents and spending time with the family.  We had such a great day and Chris said he had a wonderful Father's Day!

Riding the eL

One of the things that we wanted to do with Riley before we left Chicago was to take him for a ride on the train - and today we had the chance.

Every year, Evanston has the Custer Street Art Fair and we made that our excursion of the weekend.  We hit the road, enjoyed the train ride and then had fun walking around looking at crafts and people watching.

Riley had a great time on the train and his favorite part was looking out the window.  He also had fun smiling at other riders and making lots of new friends.

9 month check-up

This morning, Riley had his 9 month check-up.  The doctor came in and told me how adorable Riley was (which I know) and the exam went quickly.  

Riley is now 18 pounds and 27 3/4 inches tall!  He is at about the 30th percentile for both height and weight but the doctor says that he looks perfect.

We can now start making the switch over from formula to whole milk and Riley can start drinking juice, too!  He has to dilute it down with water, though, just like Granddaddy!

Besides having to get one shot, everything went well and Riley was happy by the time his clothes were back on.

9 months old

Believe it or not, Riley is 9 months old today!  And because we've marked every other month with a celebration of some kind or another, we had to find another exciting new activity to do today - so we went bowling!

Patricia, James, Claude, Simon and I taught Riley the fundamentals of bowling.  He was passed along from person to person as it was each of our turn to bowl and Riley had a great time people watching.

Towards the end of the game, it was getting close to nap time and Riley was getting a little fussy.  The only thing that made him happy was to have me hold him so thats how I got to bowl my last 2 frames.  

My score wasn't so great but we celebrated each pin that we hit down as a team and had a great time doing in!

The very hungry caterpillar

Riley is a growing boy - a very hungry and demanding growing boy.  When its mealtime, he lets us know, and the longer it takes you to get his food ready, the louder he gets.

Over the past few days, his appetite seems to have decreased a little - maybe he's still getting over his fever - but we are anticipating a full recovery very soon.  And when he's back to normal, our very hungry caterpillar will be ready to eat!

For those of you wondering what $75 worth of baby food looks like - see above.  Hopefully this will last us the last 3 weeks we have in Chicago and leave us a little to take on the road with us to start our Pittsburgh stockpile.

Peaches anyone?

Dining out

Although its more difficult to take Riley to restaurants because he's not quite and still like he used to be when he was 3 months old, we now pull him up to the table in a high chair and let him join in and try new foods.  Yesterday, he tried black beans at Chipotle and liked them.  He also loved throwing them on the floor and I felt bad with what a mess we made.

Then this morning, we visited Dunkin Donuts for Free Donut Day!  Riley wanted the 'sprink smidge for lunatics' but decided that it was good enough to try some of mommy and daddy's donuts instead.  What a great way to start the day - donuts in your jammies! 

He's also been to Noodles where he tasted Thai Noodle soup and our local sushi restaurant where he ate some sticky rice.  Believe me - they don't call it 'sticky rice' for nothing!

Riley's palate is certainly expanding and he seems to have a great time trying out new foods!