Riley ... is ... CRAWLING!

I still can't believe it. My little baby is CRAWLING! We're not talking army-type-crawling where she drags her belly across the floor with the amazing power of her arms. She's been doing that for a few weeks. I am talking 'real' crawling - up on all fours and moving.

We knew it was coming for a few days now, but today she gave Kevin the greatest Father's Day gift of all as she crawled right in front of him, towards the big basket of dog toys! Hey - whatever it takes, right?

So now we have a crawler ... and I am nervous! Who knows what this means! No more "potted plant" stage, as my friend Meagen calls it. No more putting her down in one place where she'll smile and play and remain. Our world is about to get ROCKED ...

Happy Father's Day!!

What a wonderful day. Just another day that reminds Kevin and I how absolutely blessed we are. It was Kevin's first Father's Day. The only "first" father's day he will ever have. And I think it was absolutely perfect. I hope that Kevin would agree.

It all started with breakfast in bed. Riley tried to steal Kevin's food a few times, but decided to stick with a bottle instead of breakfast cups.

After breakfast, Riley and I gave Kevin his Father's Day gifts. You must first understand how much Kevin likes to grill. He lives for it in the summer. If it can be grilled, he'll grill it. And if it can't be grilled, he'll still try. So it was very appropriate to go with some sort of grilling theme for him. But I didn't want it to just be grilling gifts - they had to be personalized somehow to make him remember Father's Day ... and to make it really seem as though it was from Riley.

About three weeks ago, Riley, Mom and I headed

to Spirit of Clay. Kevin never seems to have a large enough platter to carry his burgers or steaks or what have you to and from the grill. I had seen an adorable painting on a plate at the mall a few days prior, so I had a good idea of what I wanted to paint on his platter.

Start to finish it took 4.5 hours to paint. You'd never think that looking at the finished product, but that whole process is time consuming! Mom watched Riley the entire time and I was so thankful for her. At the end we finished it off by painting Riley's hand and foot and putting her prints on the back of the plate along with her name and the year.

Along with the plate I decided to order Kevin a personalized apron to wear while grilling. We had taken an adorable picture of Riley a month or so ago ... she made this hilarious face while staring at her food one night. But for the apron I removed the food from her picture and replaced it with a huge hamburger instead. I added the caption "My Daddy is the Bestest Cook" (also on the plate) and voila ... we had a personalized apron!

Then we had a chefs hat that we (I say this as though Riley really helped; She was there in spirit) ironed letters onto to spell out "Chef Dad". We threw in some grilling sauces, a grill basket, and a Berenstein Bears "Papa's Special Day" and there you had it - Kevin's gift!

We had a cookout at his parent's house today as well and Kevin was in charge of the grill. He wore the entire get-up and it was ADORABLE!!

We topped the day off with a stop at the playground where Riley got to swing on her daddy's lap and even go down the "big kid" slide!!! On daddy's lap, of course!

One more HUGE thing to add ... but it deserves a post of its own. So ... read on ....

Riley is 6 Months Old!

Wow, has time ever flown. Riley is six months old today. As I do on the 5th of every month, I've been looking at the clock periodically through the day, thinking back to exactly what was going on at this time six months ago. As I write this it is 5:13pm. Around this time six months ago, I was happy with my epidural, but getting close to show time. I believe I was progressing nicely and even beginning to throw up, which was seen as a good sign.

Poor Riley got to celebrate her half birthday with early morning shots today. We had her 6-month well check at 8:20am! First off, the excellent news that Dr. K is moving to University Hospital and to a campus here in Mentor! We are very excited and as long as our insurance is accepted there, we'll be following him and seeing him again in 3 months for her 9-month appointment!

Riley tipped the scales at 16lb 10oz today! My guess going in was 15lb 12oz, so I was shocked! That puts her at the 50th percentile for weight. She is 26 inches long, putting her at the 75th percentile, and her head is now in the 75th percentile! We have head growth - yay!!

Dr. K was very pleased with her milestone progress and how well she is developing. He asked how her nights were and when I told him that she typically gets up once a night, he said that at this point it is out of habit, not hunger, and we need to stop feeding her in the night. He said we can be as aggressive as we want and to do what we're comfortable with, but that it could take about 5 nights for Riley to get the signal loud and clear and start sleeping through the night. So my eye is on the prize to have a full night of sleep by next Wednesday!

Riley has done well today following the shots. She cried in the office, but came home and took a nice, two-hour nap in her crib, followed by a little 30 minute nap this afternoon. She is a bit off schedule today due to the appointment, but I think we'll get right back on track with bedtime tonight.

Right now she is bouncing and smiling in her jumperoo, right next to me, pausing every once in a while to make a raspberry sound at me, which I return back to her. These past six months have been the best months of my life and I love my Rye Pie with all my heart. Here's to the next six months.

The Skype Hype

I've been hearing about Skype more and more lately, but honestly had no idea what it was. For all I knew, it was just one more social networking site to keep up with. Then Oprah started talking about it and I realized it is a site that allows you to video conference with people ... for FREE. That was great, but I still didn't check it out.

Then last week my mom made the tough decision to temporarily return to work. It is very short term - only lasting from June 8 through the end of September, but it obviously means that she won't be babysitting Riley on a weekly basis for the next four months, which is really hard on her.

So today I ran to Target and bought her a basic webcam for her laptop. Then I came home and installed it for her, along with Skype. Then I installed Skype on my own laptop and we worked together to figure out how the whole thing works. She left this afternoon (which was very sad) and just minutes ago we 'skyped' for the very first time. It's awesome. Our conversation was just like one we'd normally have on the phone, but I saw her. And I saw my dad. I even saw their dog, Mattie. It was like I could reach out and touch her, albeit a very grainy, about 2-second delayed version of her, but I could see her nonetheless. I'm sold. Obviously, the main motivation here is Riley. If my mom and dad don't get to see Riley in person over the next several months (of course we'll have weekend visits here and there), then I wanted the next best thing for them - virtual Riley.

She is in bed right now, but tomorrow, after her 6-month well check, she is going to Skype Grandma and Grandpa. I can't wait!!

Six months? Really? Are you serious?

I cannot believe my baby girl is going to be 6 months old this Friday. Where does time go? Kevin laughs at me because his stance has always been the same on this topic: time always passes at the same rate - never faster or slower. He has clearly never gone through nine long months of pregnancy followed by six speed-of-light months of a newborn. Unreal.

She is changing so quickly, it just blows my mind. She loves to stand up. I stand her up in her playpen and she holds on to the sides to hold herself up. She is ready to take off in regards to crawling. She's done the airplane move on her belly and now she is rocking back and forth on hands and knees. She woke up at 1:15am last night. Mom was taking her through the night and came into her room to find Riley on all fours, smiling and rocking back and forth. Oh, and she decided to turn on her rainforest crib mobile as well to watch it while she waited on Grandma. What a ham.

In my usual fashion, I have her six-month well check scheduled for ... you guessed it ... Friday. I want these appointments as close to the actual milestone as possible! I am very excited for it (except the shots) because I want to hear about Riley's growth, let Dr. Kannensohn see her progress, and hear about what new things she can start trying! This will be our last appointment with Dr. K and that is sad. We received a letter last week stating that as of July 1st he'll no longer be with Cleveland Clinic. We're hoping that he is starting a private practice that we can follow him to. I'll be asking on Friday.

I also have Riley's 6-month pictures scheduled for Sunday at 1pm. I am hoping she sticks to what seems to be her more consistent nap schedule. If she does, we should have a very happy 6-month old come picture time. Now I just need the studio to be on schedule!

I'll save my listing of all of her milestones this past month for this coming Friday's post. I have a feeling I'll have a LOT to write!