Bears!

It has been quite a while since I have posted, and so much has happened!  This summer was fantastic - got to see Aunt Laura, the Brown family in Minnesota, and enjoy some beautiful weather.  Riley is now climbing all over the place, and loves the stairs.  Good thing we have a door that completely blocks them when we need to.

He really likes animal sounds, especially the sound a bear makes - which is fitting, considering Justin is raising him to be a die-hard Bears fan.  Here's a quick video of his imitation of a bear this morning, and also of him climbing the stairs.

Love,
HB

Dog Days of Summer

We are not quite to those dog days yet, but it has been so nice this past week I can already feel my summer speeding by at light speed.  Riley is growing so fast, he's starting to scoot around on his little booty, so we can't leave him alone in the living room and expect him to be good while we get dressed in the mornings.

His first official word was "kitty" - by official I mean that he looked at one of the kitties as she was trotting by, followed her with his eyes and said "kitty" to identify her.  He has been babbling "mama" and "dada" for quite some time, but kitty was an intentional effort.  Riley will be one year in a month and two days, and I can't believe how time flies!  For his birthday, we will be having a small family party the day/weekend of.  Then, together with the Kinks, we will have a joint birthday party for Lenna and Riley on July 6th, and celebrate with our friends/drink lots of good beer.

My wonderful husband, Justin, bought me a Cannon Rebel for my birthday, and below are some of the first pictures I have snapped with it.  A couple at the local park, some at the zoo, and some the very day I opened my present!  I returned the favour and bought Justin's birthday present several months early - a brand new golf bag and an iron to go with it.

My next post I can give some pictures of our newly landscaped front yard - we installed some raised flower beds this past weekend, and what a difference they make to our curb appeal!  We have already planted an Azalea on the north side of the front steps, where there is very little sun and almost all shade.  Home Depot is our destination this Memorial Day weekend to try and find some other plans that will fill our new south bed.  Also on the agenda are some tomato plans, and various herbs and vegetables.

Summer plans are still up in the air.  We are hoping to visit with the Brown family in Minnesota from August 12 - 18th, but those dates are still up in the air.  I'm going to visit my friend Kate in Minnesota from June 28th through the 30th.  At some point we want to visit the Guidas in DC, and that sounds like it will be sometime mid-July.

More to come soon, much love to you all!

HB

Movie Star

About two months ago, Justin and I took Riley into work to help film for an informational video that will be distributed to CareerBuilder expectant fathers. The goal of the video is to remind all dads (who do not have wives also working at CB) to enroll their children in benefits before the the window of 31 days expires.

That video is finally finished, and you can view it below.  The video goes in this order:

1. Riley - 7 months
2. Will Johnson (my co-worker that went on leave the day I returned)- 4 months
3. Fiona Swanson  - 11 months
4. Will Fordenwalt - 18 months
5. Zoe Matos (daughter of one of my team members) - 15 months

As you can see, the HR team at CareerBuilder has been busy with lots of children.

In other news, we finally bit the bullet and paid for a new front and rear storm door, and a new garage door.  The difference is amazing, I can't wait to pain the faded awning in the front, and refinish the fiberglass door behind the storm for a total transformation.  Our new garage door opens all the way now, and is much safer for Riley, and our neighbor's dogs.

Right now we are trying to plan some Summer travels.  We would love to visit the Brown family up in Minnesota again, this time before the legendary State Fair is over.  A trip to DC would also be welcome, or perhaps to Pittsburgh to visit some friends.  We have a wedding to attend in St. Thomas in August, so that will be Riley's first airplane experience, which I am already bracing for.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.  Riley is getting close to 10 months - how time flies!


HB

The Bison Prairie

We were lucky to have an impromptu visit from Mimi earlier in the month of February.  There is a tall-grass prairie in southern Illinois that was in need of her services; all to prepare the land for some bison they will be accepting in the near future.  Who knew?


This is the best picture of all three of us

Mimi flew in on a Saturday morning, spent the weekend with us, and drove out to work for the week.  Then she returned on Friday night and flew out on Sunday morning.  We had a great time, went out to dinner at Niksons, one of our favourite food joints, and in general enjoyed her company.

In other news, Riley is getting so big!  His surgery is a thing of the past, and he is a thriving little boy.  At 21.5 lbs and over 27 inches, he shows no signs of stopping.  He now has two little teeth and rocks a hairstyle that makes other people wonder why we let him play by the electrical outlets.  People are, in general, obsessed with his hair

Speaking of hair, I brought Riley into work to do some filming for a benefit awareness video my department is making for our newly minted fathers.  Since basically the entire HR department has had a baby in the past two years, and there are still more to come, we fill our baby quota with just the ladies from HR!

I love my baths	Rawr!
I like to watch cars out the window	What are you doing, mom?

My hair is awesome today

Riley is big enough to ride in the shopping cart, so this is what we will do from now on.

 

Here are a couple of videos of Riley being cute.

 

We now need to find something to do for St. Patrick's day.  Love you everyone!

Hayley

Over the river and through the woods...

...to Riley's successful surgery we go!  This Tuesday, January 29th, Riley went in for a scheduled surgery to fix an under-developed urethra.  While Riley could have lived a perfectly normal life without undergoing this procedure, there would have been an increased chance of UTI infections the older he got, which can be very dangerous for young boys and men. With this information, and with the knowledge that infants tolerate surgery very well, Justin and I decided to schedule the procedure for Riley at 7 months.

He was a trooper.  He couldn't eat past midnight of the evening before, and he was not allowed to have any formula or water 4 hours before the surgery.  After some minimal fussing, he played with dad's half-empty OJ bottle and watched the news with us for an hour, until the members of the medical team came to our ready-room to go through all the details of the surgery, and to get consent forms signed.

They all commented on how relaxed and happy he was, considering he had not had anything to eat or drink in at least 12 hours.  He then proceeded to roll on his back, eat his feet and gurgle like Chewbacca, winning the hearts of all the doctors in short order.  Here are a couple of pictures of him in his pint sized hospital gown.

And here is a picture of him recovering in my arms after the surgery.  We brought a blanket from home, and as soon as he was wrapped in it, he stopped crying.

The nurse gave me a small bottle of Pedealyte to see if he would tolerate it well, before she would allow us to give him his bottle.  She turned away, and then turned back around - the bottle was almost already gone.  So yes, he tolerated it very well and was HUNGRY, so we gave him a bottle of formula and sat cosily together for about 45 minutes.  They took his dressing off, took out his IV, and sent us home.

I'm happy to say Riley doesn't to let on that he even went through surgery, with the exception that he sleeps a lot.  The pain medication prescribed to him is good stuff, but his temperament is such that only something really uncomfortable would get in the way of him eating everything in sight and having a jolly good time in general.  We are glad the ordeal is over, the healing has begun, and we can move forward to other exciting things, like teething!

Hayley

Merry Christmas - Part 2

As promised, here are some pictures of the family from Christmas.  There is also a super cute video of Riley's new face, which he just started doing a couple of days ago.

In other news, Riley is sleeping through the night!  There have been a couple of nights where he cried for a bit, but he has been great otherwise.  The new year has been very busy for us so far - Justin got a promotion to be manager of the Sales Incentive team at CareerBuilder.  He's doing a great job and Riley and I are so proud of him!

We are chugging along, enjoying all the small milestones Riley is hitting, and having a great time being parents.  In another post I will put up the string of pictures I have been taking of Riley every month.  They really portray an exciting picture of how much he has grown, it is so fun to see!

Happy New Year everyone!

Eating paper is more interesting than clothes

A talking book from Grandma!

More clothes

Bath Toys

Elise, Grandma and Riley

Riley's new face is to scrunch his nose and eyes and smile.  It is so funny when he does it.

HB