So busy

We have been some busy little bees around here lately!  Last weekend we went to Mountain View to visit Woody's family.  We helped Madison celebrate her 16th birthday while we were there.  Madison is Woody's niece.  We had a good time, although Riley showed her clingy-est side ever.  She would not let me put her down.  At all.  Nor would she let Woody hold her.  Don't get me wrong, I love holding her.  I love it when she is being bashful and buries her head in my shoulder.  I love it when her little arms and hands grip my neck and shoulders.  I really treasure those times.  But a full 24 hours of it was a bit tiring.  Maybe it was because of teething, or being in an unfamiliar place, or she is realizing that we are two different people and separation anxiety is setting in.  I don't know, but I do know it got a little better when we got home Sunday.

The weekend before was a blast too.  Alex came in for the Georgia-Arkansas game.  Our visits with him are always too short.  We had a great dinner Friday night.  Then Saturday was filled with tailgating and the game.  Riley and I went to the tailgate, but not the game.  It started at 6:45, which is right around her bedtime ritual time.  She was great at the tailgate, but she was very ready for her bed afterwards.  We tried to hang out with Brooke and Millie so that Brooke and I could watch the game together while the girls slept.  But Riley had different plans.  She wanted her own bed and refused to calm down in the pack-n-play.  So we ended up heading home during the first quarter.  I usually love being at the game, but this time I was very content to watch it from my bed.  I had several thoughts of thankfulness as I watched the halftime show from bed, then promptly fell asleep during the 3rd quarter.  Woody didn't get home until 1am.  Uuugh.

Oh, and while we saw both of our families so close together, we took that opportunity to tell them that we are expecting another baby.  Yeppers.  We are pregnant again.  And yeppers, it was planned.  Are we crazy?  The jury is still out on that one.  We are overjoyed that God has so quickly blessed us with another gift.  So often my plans are not His.  And so often He shows me that His timing is perfect, better than I could have planned myself.  But this time, maybe we were on the same page.  I was hoping to have a baby in May or June so Woody could be at home for the impending craziness.  And low and behold, we are due sometime in mid to late May!  We aren't sure what the specific due date is, but does it really matter?  This baby won't be here on that date anyway.  We are still so early-pregnant, so I hesitate to post this. But I think that should something happen (God forbid), there will be that many more people to pray for us.

And now, I shall go eat some chocolate before Riley wakes up from her nap.

This is the life

Last post today, promise.  But this means I probably won't post anything else for another 2 weeks.  I like to put all of Riley's toys in a basket and keep them somewhat contained.  She always just takes out the top 2 or 3 to play with, then moves on to something else.  Yesterday, she sat at the basket and pulled out every toy she owns.  Mind you, she didn't play with any of them. She just pulled them all out, then sat in the middle of the pile and played with the teething rings bag.  Awesome.  She leads such a lovely life.

Morning Cartoons

Yesterday I turned on Sid the Science Kid.  She has never really watched TV before.  She'll glance when there is a tune on or something like that, but only for a moment.  I put her down on the floor after her breakfast and she sat in this position and watched Sid for the full 20-something minutes that the show is on.  Too cute.

Look at that little face.  She is so big!  I don't know if her love for Sid will last for more than one day, but watching her watch him was very sweet.  I hope she learned about weather patterns!  Sid knows them upside down and inside out.  (for those who haven't seen the show, that's part of his "I learned something new today" song)

Side note:  I do not enjoy blogger's new uploading system.  If anyone has any tips for me, send 'em.  I don't like uploaded pictures one at a time.  I find that very inefficient, and since we are wired to find the most efficient way, it bugs me to no end.

Busy busy busy

Here is our busy girl.  She loves crawling and pulling up on anything remotely stable (me included).

Her favorite place to pull up is on the mantle.  I put an old mirror up against the fireplace and she loves talking to the baby she sees there.  Look at those chunky little legs. 

The first two pictures took a while to get.  If I were to pick up the camera at any given moment, this is what I would catch.  She also loves to flip through her books when they are on the mantle.  This makes me a bit nervous, so I try to keep them on the ground so she can flip and not worry about keeping her balance...

For the Love of the Game

I guess all of those baseball games in Bentonville and St. Louis, and watching all of the Cardinals games on TV has led Riley to develop an interest in baseball.  Or maybe it's just that she explores everything in her world with her mouth.  She discovered Woody's collection of baseballs the other day and decided to chew on one.  Lucky for both of us, it was not one that held sentimental value for Woody, as we both would have been in trouble. 

I deserve a metal

While making our bed this morning (Woody never understands why I do this everyday as we just sleep in it again that night, but it makes the house feel clean to me), I killed a spider the size of a quarter. People, I am not exaggerating.  Just writing about it gives me the heebie-jeebies.  I think it was hiding out in the decorate pillows I throw on the floor at night because when I was finished making the bed, he scurried across the bed.  IIIIcccckkkk!

Now I feel the need to have a full body shake, then thoroughly clean the entire house from top to bottom to scare out any other spiders that may be hiding out.  I think I deserve a metal for killing the spider.  Oh, and I should clean the remote control I killed it with (no shoes within arm's reach).

Shower fun

Riley accompanied me to my old workplace, Washington Jr. High, for a baby shower for Jessica and Macy.  I always take my camera to these events and never end up pulling it out to capture any moments.  This could possibly be because of me holding a squirmy 8 month old who's only mission is to get on the floor to crawl around (which just won't happen where 13 year olds have been walking).  Anywho, Molly has a great camera and caught this cute face.  As you can see, we still don't have much hair, forcing us to wear a headband whenever we leave the house. Fortunately, she doesn't try to take it off of her head the whole time, only when she gets tired or bored.

This is what we normally see, Riley with her finger engaged between her gums.  I thought that second tooth would break the surface pretty soon after the first, but I was wrong.  You can even feel the ridges of that tooth under the thin amount of flesh still covering the tooth.  The thought occurred to me the other night as I was lying awake in bed, what happens when she has two full teeth on the bottom and she chews her food?  Do the bottom teeth hurt the top gums?  Does she even chew with those teeth yet?  Will that activity help the top teeth to emerge?  These are the things that keep me awake for hours (not exaggerating) in the middle of the night.