Riley Riley Riley

I am happy to report that Riley is ALL better and my life is no longer consumed with poop! The virus lasted 24 hours and then it was on it's way to someone else I'm sure...too bad for them!

Riley has been a great baby and has made us look good as parents...we are blessed! It is fun to see her personality start to develop which means that she is learning more and more what she likes and doesn't like and is getting better at expressing these emotions. She has nailed shaking her head "No" and does it quite often...sometimes she means it and sometimes she's being silly!

Let me tell you a little story that happened two nights ago...

Once upon a time there was this super cute little girl who was rather delightful...from birth she had two sides...super happy or super mad! Luckily her parents experienced the super happy side most all of the time...every now and then that super mad side would rear it's ugly head! There was really no middle for this little girl and as she got older she got better at expressing her super mad state! Most of the time she would get mad if a toy was taken away perhaps because it was not really a toy and could endanger her or perhaps because it was time to leave...whatever the case may be this little girl had a hard time letting go of things! There was a period in this little girl's life where she was waking up in the middle of the night in shear terror...her mom and dad did not know what to do...these events showed an entirely new side of this little girl...she was unconsolable. Her parents would make sure all her needs were met but would have to just let her cry it out and that was VERY hard for them. After a few nights this little girl seemed to overcome her fears and she was sleeping soundly again. Her parents thought they would not see this unconsolable side of their precious little girl for quite some time, but her mom got a nice taste of it just a few nights ago. This precious little girl and her mom had come home and played, skyped with daddy on the computer, eaten dinner, and gotten a bath. While all of this was going on her mom was baking and had a bag of marshmallows on the kitchen counter...right before bedtime this smart precious little girl noticed the marshmallows and obviously wanted to partake and her mother sweetly obliged. However, the two of them had different ideas on how many marshmallows should be consumed and this precious little girl lost the battle and became unconsolable! Her mother assumed she would battle through and just decided it was time for bed...so she put her in her crib. The precious little girl was not giving up and her mother was not quite sure what the real problem was so she went in to rescue the unconsolable little girl to try and determine what the problem was...she followed as this precious little girl pointed and directed her through the house trying to tell her mom what was wrong...meanwhile the little girl was still COMPLETELY unconsolable, flailing everywhere, and rejecting even the binkie! Lo and behold the mother and daughter walked into the kitchen and the little girl became COMPLETELY quiet as she pointed to the bag of marshmallows and signed "Please"...WHAT?

I hope you enjoyed that story about a precious little girl named Riley...oh my goodness! This girl has some spunk...she was literally in a state of screaming that I had not seen since we were dealing with her middle of the night "terrors" or whatever they were. All of that for a marshmallow? I did what any good parent would do and gave her just one more thinking that might help but as soon as I said "That's all" the entire ordeal started all over so I just gave up and put her in her crib and endured 23 minutes of pure screaming...it was awful! Even after she finally gave up she was sniffling in her sleep...just made my heart break but I have to draw the line somewhere! After she had been soundly sleeping for a while I had to go in and pick her up and rock her...I'm sure all kids go through this at some point...it's tough on us momma's! I'm going to keep the marshmallows safely tucked away in the pantry for a little while!

Other than this marshmallow tantrum we have had a great week! The ladies at Riley's school have been doing all the little girls hair and they can get the most perfect pigtails...it's amazing! I have to pull all kinds of stunts to get pigtails in Riley's hair but they claim she sits still while they do her hair...hmmmm! One day I went to pick her up and she had 3 pigtails...so fun!

This is what her hair looked like when I took the pigtails out...CRAZY!

Tonight Riley and I had our first mother daughter dinner date at none other than Zaxby's! It was rather impromptu as I had left work a few minutes early to try and get home to get all packed up for our trip to Atlanta...on my way to pick Riley up I received a call that someone wanted to show our house from 5-6 so we had to find something to do...dinner it was! This has to be the least nutritious meal I have ever fed Riley...chicken fingers, toast, and french fries! I usually keep her food pretty healthy with a veggie, a fruit, and a protein, but tonight we went for a mostly carb meal...gotta love it! We came home and shared a pear and that made it all better, right? We had a lot of fun!

Tomorrow is the big day...early flight with a one year old! I got her a few new toys to keep her occupied and I think it will go great! Atlanta here we come!

We can't wait to see Jason!