A fun new toy ...

This is called a mommy toy ...

Just checking to see if the slideshow is working on the blog.

(These are just pictures I took of the Gloria Dei Courtyard ... if it works you can bet they'll be slideshows of the kids real soon ... ha ha)

High and Dry!!

Well, maybe not so much high ... but we are dry! After 8 or 9 inches of rain in less than 24 hours, Our house became river-front property but we somehow stayed dry!! Unfortunately, not all of our neighbors had the same luck. It's kind of strange to drive by houses and see carpet from the basements sitting out on the curbs. The water did, however, finish my tomato plants for the year ... I couldn't get out to pick the tomatoes off and with all the extra rain they took on a growth spurt and ended up splitting open. Oh well, if that's the extent of our worries, I'm not complaining!!

Riley enjoyed getting out last night and playing with Wyatt, the neighbor boy. They rode bikes up and down the sidewalk ... and for quite a while they had an audience watching from the front window. Miss Paige has discovered there is a whole new world out the windows and doors. She gets quite the giggles when they actually acknowledge that she's there too.

Another "Awwwww" moment this morning ... we were trying to get Riley up so we laid Paige on top of him in bed. He smiled, wrapped her up and they snuggled for a few minutes.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from last night ...

Watching brother ...




Riley riding bike with Wyatt ....



All worn out and ready for bed .... (too bad she only slept for an hour and then was up for almost 2.5 hours.)



And a couple from Paige's bath the night before ...

Naked baby butt ...




Brother "helping" her play ....


Clean baby ...

Open Can ... Dump Contents ... Heat ... DONE!

I consider myself to be an okay cook. I love trying new recipes and try to introduce new foods every once in a while. And while Ryan has recently expressed desire for a few more "meat and potato" meals, I think he's surviving quite well.

Last fall sometime I made homemade chicken noodle soup. It's not as good as my moms but it's still mighty tasty. I had heard both Shelly and Riley mention that they'd had chicken noodle soup for lunches at daycare so I thought this would be a "safe" meal that Riley would eat without much fuss.

I was wrong. We sat down at the table and Riley looked into his bowl ... at which point he told me, "I don't like this." I reminded him that it was chicken noodle soup ... and that he eats it all the time at Shelley's house. Riley, as serious as he could be, replies with, "But Shelley makes the real stuff." The "real" stuff is made by Campbell's, I guess, as that's what Shelley uses.

Well, last night I made up another pot of homemade chicken noodle soup to have for dinner tonight. As Ryan and Riley were having a conversation about the "real" soup, Riley excitedly and very seriously said, "Shelley makes the BEST food!"

I think my 3 year old is either asking that I make more Kraft Mac and Cheese, Campbell's Soups and frozen chicken nuggets or is suggesting I take some cooking lessons.

PS ~ And Shelley ... if you're reading this, I hope you realize (and think you do) that this is no slam on YOUR cooking skills ... instead it's more of a "Riley moment" to remember! :)

Knudson Peanut ... Version II

Paige had her 9 month well child doctors appointment on Monday. Evidentially she's taking after her brother.

17 lb 3 oz ~ 13 percentile
27 inches long ~ 31 percentile
Head circumference ... don't remember exactly but I know it was in the 60th percentile.

She gained pounds (was 15 something at 6 months) but dropped in overall percentile. The doctor didn't seem too worried based on the fact that Riley is such a skinny kid (at one point he'd dropped to the 4th percentile for weight). In fact, if she keeps gaining at the rate she is now I think she'll be at the exact same point Riley was at his one year check up.

And yes, she must have a big head. :) But I had to laugh when the nurse was trying to measure ... she made some kind of comment about needing to make sure the "crown" fit correctly ... yes, even others think she's a princess! Ha ha!

Dr. MacLaughlin also wasn't too worried about her weight because Miss Paige will literally eat anything that is put in front of her. She's basically off baby food and loves to feed herself. Some of her menu items at this time include .... asparagus, pasta, steamed veggies (carrots, celery, potato, peas and green beans), black beans, bread with hummus, banana (and she especially loves it when I'll let her bite off the banana that's still half covered with the peel), cheese, nectarines ... the list could go on and on because she seriously will eat ANYTHING!!

We also impressed Dr. M with her accomplishments developmentally. Paige drinks water out of a sippy cup at meal time, is feeding herself at meal times 99% of the time, is holding her own bottle all of the time, is pulling up and beginning to take a couple of steps around furniture and says "ma ma". Paige calmly sat there while Dr. M looked in her ears and then opened her mouth when Dr. M wanted to look in. Ha ha ... it was the funniest thing ... I'm sure it was a coincidence but we all had a good chuckle about it. And then, as if we hadn't "amazed" them all enough, Paige flinched when the nurse gave the shot in her leg ... but did not cry at all. This from the girl who was crying so hard at her 3 month shots that the nurses stopped in the middle so I could calm her down.

So yes, I'm quite proud of my little girl. Now if I could just figure out how to stop her from growing up ......

Riley-speak

Below are common terms Riley uses ...

Lifesaver = Lightsaber (he's picked up a thing for Star Wars from somewhere)

Dinner = Any meal he may have already eaten during the day or any meal he may be eating soon.

Peanuts = Well, we've already covered this one! :)

Thank you for coming over! = Thanks for letting me come over. (Since he's been able to talk he's told Shelley every single day, "Thank you for coming over," as we're walking out her door at night. Someday when he gets it right we're all going to be shocked as all get out!)

Update ...

This is strictly an update post ... no pictures! :)

Riley Arthur
Riley has learned that there is a difference between boys and girls. We hear routinely about "peanuts" (we've tried to correct the way he says it but it still comes out as peanuts) and how mommy and sister don't have one. He proudly announced this new knowledge at daycare one morning last week when we were dropping him off. He seriously is NOT this old is he?

Riley is also learning what it really means to have a little sister who puts things in his mouth. This weekend him and dad went through the toy box upstairs to take out all the toys that are too small for Paige. He seemed fine with it but we shall see what happens in the future when he wants to bring something upstairs from the toy room (where all the small stuff ended up!).

Paige Caroline
Miss Paige is a girl on the move. She's still army crawling, however she gets up on her hands and knees and acts like she's ready to take off at any moment. She's also pulling herself up to her knees and has even made all the way to a standing position a few times. I was commenting to Ryan last night that she's growing up WAY too fast. It makes me sad that my "baby" will be 9 months this week. I feel like it was yesterday that big brother Riley came up to the hospital to meet her for the first time.

She's all girl though. I pulled out a little doll that she had received as a gift and let her play with it yesterday. She sat contently and played/chewed on it for a good 15 minutes while I was prepping dinner ... and then picked it up randomly throughout the rest of the day.


Swimming
Last Friday both Ryan and I were done with work early so we took the kids swimming at a pool in Rochester. The swimming lessons we had Riley in did wonders for him as he's now just a FISH! His favorite thing to do is to jump off the side of the pool to dad who is waiting to catch him. Ryan keeps going further and further out to see how far Riley can jump ... and I must say, the kid does pretty well! Miss Paige LOVES the water as well. After being in the big pool for a while she was shivering because it had gotten cloudy so I took her out and wrapped her up in a towel. Well, she didn't want that, she wanted to be in the water!! She loves splashing (and trying to drink) the water.

A little off topic ...

I had the pleasure of snapping some photos of the daughter of our daycare provider. Jordyn is a soon to be 8th grader in Byron and certainly has her "modeling face" down. She was such a trooper ... climbing down rocks, laying down in the grass and she even got in the river for me. Not necessarly "mommy" related ... but I still wanted to share just a sampling of these pictures with Jordyn and her mom. This is only a select few of what I have ...

Thanks again Jordyn!

And while I'm sharing pictures .... here is a "storyboard" that I made of pictures I took in the courtyard at work ...