1.5 years??? Seriously?!

So let's all wish Riley a happy 18 month birthday today. I can't believe how much my Little One has grown in the past year and a half.

For comparison -

Here's a picture of Riley just moments after she was born.




This is a video of Riley from about a week ago on one of those rides that you see at supermarkets. Riley loves and recognizes horses, so as soon as she saw this horse she wanted to go on it. (Sorry for the horrible quality... I took this video on my cell phone.)





Can you believe how much she's grown??? Yesterday we took Riley for her 18-month checkup. She's about 25 1/2 pounds, which correlates to about the 70th percentile. She's also 33 1/2 inches, which is about the 92nd percentile. I can't remember what the exact measurement of her head circumference was, but she was at about the 60th percentile for that. The doctor was pleased with how she's growing.

Riley's also starting to say a lot more words now. Mostly she's just working on her b-words (bubble, baby, balloon, ball, etc), but she also tries to say things like shoes, toes, chair, mama, dada. It's amazing to see how fast she is developing. I cannot keep up with her! :)

Communication

So, when we went to Riley's 12 month checkup, Riley's pediatrician asked all sorts of stuff about Riley's development. Riley "passed" with flying colors, with the pediatrician only slightly concerned about Riley's communication skills. It seems that Riley had been so focused on developing other areas, that her communication was lagging. At the time, she really didn't say anything (ma-ma; da-da), nor did she point to something she wanted.

We weren't too worried though. As I said, Riley really focused on reaching milestones in other areas. She now has 11 (!) teeth and is walking up a storm... running is not too far behind! Just to see, we looked at this checklist for 12-14 month olds. In the areas of social development, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills, Riley met/exceeded all of the milestones. I say exceeded as well as met, because in the area of gross motor skills (which mainly dealt with walking), Riley had met those skills when she was about 9 months old. It didn't even ask any questions about walking unassisted.

Anyway, the pediatrician asked to work with Riley on having her try to communicate to us what she wants. It's been going pretty well. It sounds like Riley is saying ma-ma, da-da, and hi. She has also started pointing to objects.





Here you can see that she's ready to point to something at all times!


Now she will point to a picture in a book and ask us "That?"(albeit not very clearly). She understands a lot... we can ask her to sit down or to go get her ball and she will. She is also letting us know more and more when she wants us to do something for her, be it putting on her shoes, wanting a snack, etc. We haven't gotten a good video of that yet, but we're working on it! To tide you over, here's a clip of Riley "singing" and dancing, which is super cute. At the end you'll see Riley transferring washcloths into the top of the diaper champ, one of her favorite pasttimes.




So, that's about it. Riley's a little over 22 pounds at this point, and is probably somewhere around 31 inches in height. She's almost 3 feet tall! Yowza!

11 months, oh my!

Can you believe it? Our little girl has hit the parallel lines! She's just one month shy of the big 01!

Riley's doing so many things now a days, it's hard to keep up. Seriously it's hard to keep up... she's always moving, and it tuckers us out! Check out the destruction at the end of one night! (We used to clean up as we went through the day... CAYGO for all you McD's folks... but that took too much effort. So, we spend each night resetting everything for the next day.)



Riley's latest development is learning how to balance, hands-free! It's hard to get a video of it as we never know when she's going to do it. Plus it doesn't last that long. This video is the best one we have so far.



We estimate Riley to weigh somewhere around 20 1/2 pounds and measure somewhere around 29 1/4 inches in length. If you have been keeping up with the "What's Riley eating?" list on the right, you'll see that she's eating like crazy. Usually now I just make one meal for all of us and we eat it as a family. The only problem with that is we now eat dinner around 5:15-5:30pm since Riley usually goes to bed around 6:00-6:15pm. Yeah, we'd like it to be later, but with Riley only taking 2 naps now (one in the morning and one in the early afternoon), she can't stay up any longer.

Riley is still struggling to sleep through the night. She used to be able to do this, but once she started really cruising, she started waking up once or twice a night. We think it has something to do with her using so many new muscles! Riley loves to play games with you, especially peak-a-boo. That always puts the biggest smile on her face! Riley loves to play with her toys, in particular toys that makes noise! Check out Riley pushing her car through the house.



All in all, we have just the happiest and sweetest baby girl two parents could ever hope for. We are so incredibly blessed. We love you Riley!

Where's Riley?

One of the cutest things to watch is how Riley has taken the initiative in playing games. One such game is one we call, "Where's Riley?" We started this early on by putting her blanket ("Fluff") on her head, and asking her "Where's Riley?" Then Riley would pull the blanket off.

This morning, Riley initiated a spin-off of this game. She bent down "behind" our coffee table, "waited" until we said "Where's Riley?" and then popped up, giggling, laughing, and smiling away. I put the words behind and waited in quotes because Riley would sometimes either bend down where we could see her or get so excited that she would pop up immediately after she bent down!

You might also note while watching the video that Riley says something which is very close to the word, "Hi!" We're not a 100% positive if this should be counted as her first word, but really can you ever be? It sure sounds like it AND she's saying it at a time where it makes sense to say it (after we say, "Hi Riley!" she says "Hi!"). So who knows, huh? (On a related note, when she claps it sounds very much like she is saying "Yay!" which would make sense since we always modeled saying "Yay!" when we clapped.)

Double digits

Yep, that's right. We're into double digits months now... Riley is 10 months old today! So many things have happened in the last month it's hard to keep track. Here are some highlights -

1. Riley has begun to gesture toward something she wants. It's not quite pointing, but more like a waiter carrying a tray (minus the tray of course). We're trying to get a good picture of it to show you, but until then the waiter analogy will suffice.

2. Crawling rapidly is still a work in progress (thankfully!), but Riley has definitely figured out how to get to something she wants. She's even starting to crawl in the more traditional way... check out the video below. This is a relatively new phenomenon.



3. Sitting up from lying down is now not a problem, which then makes standing up from lying down easy as well. It was crazy the first couple of times we went to check on Riley in her crib and found her either sitting or standing up! Good thing we moved that mattress down!

4. I absolutely adore watching Riley play, as she now plays with her toys as opposed to just eating them. Check out this video (yep, it's a double video day in honor of the double digit month) of Riley playing with her xylophone. It was taken about a week ago. She has gotten even more coordinated since then!



5. Throwing things out of the crib is fun apparently. For right now it just appears to be pacifiers, but I know more things are to come! :)

3/4

Wow! We're at 75% of a year! Crazy!

Riley had her 9-month checkup today, and as expected, "passed" with flying colors. (Where did that expression come from anyway? What are flying colors? Maybe a kite? Anyhoo... I digress.) Riley is 28 inches long (63rd percentile), while her head circumference is 17.5 inches (64th %). Riley's official weight was 18 lbs 14 oz (49th %), although I am disputing that (not officially - only to myself and, well, you all). The way the doctor's office staff weighed her was to put her on a scale and watch the weight fluctuate from 18 lbs 13 oz to 19 lbs 4 oz, and then just stated a number that Riley seemed to be at the longest. Very inexact. I guess the exact weight isn't that big a deal, as they are looking for a range, but still...

Riley had no shots today (woo-hoo!), although Cam and I got our flu shots. Cam said it was good practice at not showing your child that you don't like something. I guess...

(Edit by Cam: I'm not sure scrunching your entire face up in one gigantic wince counts as "not showing"...)

All in all, it was a pretty uneventful doctor's visit, the kind we like! Riley is right on track developmentally for everything. The doctor said that pointing at things and clapping were stuff they expect to see starting to happen around 12 months. Good stuff.

Below are some Christmas pictures...

Gobble, Gobble!

For Thanksgiving this year, we all went to Vancouver B.C. to visit family. Riley did outstanding on the long car trip (it was about 7 1/2 hours one way). She rarely let out a whimper of frustration for being in the carseat for long chunks of time, instead happily playing with toys and books, eating, and napping.

Below are some still shots from our time at Auntie Barb's house. Thanks so much for hosting Auntie Barb! We had a great time!

Here is Riley enchanting cousins Cathy and Tana.


On her hands and knees!!! This is a new development. I wish I would have gotten a good video of this, with Riley rocking back and forth. Any day now!


A family photo.

Two-thirds

Yes that's right... our LO is 8 months old (as you may or may not have been able to discern from the title). Wow, time moves fast.

Riley has more than doubled her birth weight now, weighing in at just under 18 pounds. She now has 5 teeth (all incisors ... 2 bottom front, 2 top front, and 1 to the left of the top front OR numbers 8, 9, 10, 24, and 25 for all you dental nerds). She's currently working on another one (top, incisor, to the right of the front 2 OR number 7).

Eating-wise, Riley's still drinking breast milk, anywhere from about 20-25 ounces a day. She also eats about 2-3 "solid" food meals a day. Generally she gets fruit in the morning and meat/vegetables for dinner. Lunchtime is the toss-up, as it hasn't been incorporated as a permanent meal time yet. Yesterday we had her try gumming small pieces of bananas. Cam and I didn't like the look on her face when she swallowed (it seemed like she was gagging) so we mashed up the bananas with a fork and let her have at it. We think she liked it, although we're not sure. It wasn't so much the taste, but the texture was much more lumpy than usual (she usually gets her foods pureed). What she was able to do really well was grab at the food, as Riley's getting really good at the pincer grasp.

Riley loves to look at pictures of faces. She goes nuts when she sees anyone in a mirror, especially herself! She smiles from ear to ear at all the family photos we have included in her "Who Loves Baby?" book. Speaking of books, Riles loves it when we read to her. Well, mostly she loves the smooth feel of the board books, not to mention the fact that they're fun to chew. But she definitely loves it when we read to her. Her face especially brightens up when she sees the picture of the dog in her "Baby Animals" book. It seems like she'll be a dog person... yay!

We're currently working on clapping and waving "Hi!" and "Bye!" While she hasn't done any of these on her own yet, Riley is absolutely fascinated with all of these motions, especially waving. At times it seems like she starts to make a motion to wave, but so far those moments are fleeting. I think she'll catch on pretty quickly.

No out and out crawling yet, but when put on her tummy, she definitely moves forward (albeit VERY slowly). A lot of times she'll just roll to get something (again, though, usually doing this very slowly). In general, Riley's not too happy on her tummy. Now standing, on the other hand, that she'll do for hours. Take a look at the video below. This was taken yesterday morning. Riley pulled herself up in to that position, stayed like that for a good long while, and then managed to get herself back down on the ground without smashing her face in to the ground! Keep an eye out for the feet movement... this is a new development.

And the angels sang....

"Hallelujah!" At just about 7 1/2 months old, she did it! She went to sleep at 6pm last night (by herself I might add... no rocking, bouncing, or "ssshhing" from us), and didn't wake up until 5:45am this morning! Woo-hoo! We did hear her stirring in the middle of the night, but only every now and then and she always went right back to sleep. Of course, I still woke up to pump, but that wasn't until about 3am! Aaahh... we feel rested. Of course Cam and I are under no allusions that this will happen again tonight, but it's sure nice to know that it can happen. :-)

Next up on Riley's agenda? Mastering the pincer grasp! This was Riley's first experience eating cottage cheese, and the jury is still out about the acceptability of this food.

6 months and international already

Riley turned 6 months a few weeks ago, but due to delays in getting our insurance and a hectic schedule (both us and the doctor's office), we weren't able to get Riley in to her 6 month well-check visit until today. Lo and behold, the prognosis from Riley's new pediatrician was the same as her old one... she's perfect! Okay, she didn't say those exact words, but that was definitely the sentiment.

Riley is 50th percentile in weight (16 lbs 7.2 oz), 75th percentile in height (26 3/4 inches), and 70th percentile in head circumference (43.4 cm). As you all know by the videos and pictures we've posted, Riley's started solids, and the doctor says to keep doing what we're doing. The nurse commented that having Riley as the last patient of the day was the perfect way to end her day (and those were her exact words) because Riley was so good for her.

Since I try not to make a post without sharing either a video clip or photo, I thought I'd share one which will follow Riley around for the next little while... Riley's passport photo. Yep, that's right. Riley's getting a passport. Apparently, even babies are required to have a passport, even if they are only going across the border to Canada. They are good for 5 years, which seems absolutely ridiculous to me since she won't look like this next month, let alone 5 years from now!

Anyway, I thought this was too hilarious not to share. Doesn't she remind you of E.T. a little bit? Gotta love the open mouth and drool coming out.

An assortment

Here are a bunch of pictures from the past few weeks.

Here's Riley on Cam's favorite chair in the house. I love the outfit; it's so soft. The only problem is that everyone kept commenting on what a beautiful son I had. :)


Here we are on our way to Granny and Grandpa M.'s house. If you can't tell, Riley was out cold.


This is just a beautiful shot of Riley, don't you think?


Not a good picture of me (what else is new?), but Riley was super snuggly that day.


Here's Riley hanging out in our lovely, lovely outside space.


Riley playing in her room, with the very first stuffed animal she ever received (thanks Grams and Jareds!)


Riley and Uncle Keith getting a few laughs from the "Brevity" (it's a comic strip) calendar.


Riley and Aunt Tricia. I think Riley's enchanted with the earrings... they're so shiny!


Riley (in her future math major onesie) and Cam in Cam's new office.


Here she is sucking on her first "mom-"sicle in her own room... she loved the "mom-"sicle, BTW.


Fast friends!


Since she's been rejecting the bottle, we've taken to teaching her to drink from a cup. Here we are introducing the straw for the very first time. Although she did start to figure it out at the end, mostly she just ended up chewing on it.


To paraphrase a famous saying, "Like father, like daughter." Gotta love the arm!


Okay, that's it. Hope you enjoyed 'em!

Happy 5 months!

In case you didn't notice the ticker to the right, today is Riley's 5 month birthday!!! Here she is in her crib (bought with love by Grams and Grandpa K.) wearing her first pair of shoes and showing her Canadian roots. You should know that this shoes are truly Canadian, as they were bought just north of the border when Granny and Grandpa M. were visiting Auntie Barb. Oh, Canada!

Riley's Growth

As an update, we plotted Riley's weight growth ... specifically days old versus total weight. Notice the nice "linear" growth. Riley sure is the daughter of two mathematicians to have growth like this!

Also because we are getting close to moving and thus packing up everything we own, we thought we'd post a bunch of cute pictures just in case we can't post for a little while.

4-month update

Well, technically Riley's not 4 months yet (she's exactly 3 1/2 months today). However, since we are moving soon, we wanted to make sure we got to see our pediatrician here in Tucson one more time before we left. So, here's the lowdown...

1. Riley weighs 13 lbs 12.5 oz, approximately. Riley was kicking around a bunch, and the scale kept fluctuating between 13 lb 12.5oz and 13 lb 13 oz. Either way you cut it, Riley's put on over 2 lbs in just a matter of 6 weeks, landing her once again in the 75th percentile.

2. Riley measures out at 25 1/2 inches long - a whopping 97th percentile. She's long, that's for sure. We've all about stopped using onesies with her, opting to just have her in diapers and a t-shirt.

3. Riley's head circumference is 41.5 cm, bumping her up from the 50th percentile that she was at her 2-month checkup to the 75th percentile.

4. Riley was so adorable playing with her blanket at the doctor's office. I wish we had a video camera with us. After examining her and playing with her for a little while, the doctor said that Riley is a very social and content baby. We, of course, knew this already, but it's always nice to hear a professional say it. :-)

Below is a really short video, taken when Riley was about 6 weeks old, and it's just hysterical. [You need to watch her left eyebrow ... it goes by quickly, so don't blink or you'll miss it.] We have a ton of new videos that we took this past weekend, but it's taking us a while to sort through them. Hopefully this video will tide some of you over until we can post the new ones. Enjoy!

Look how big!

Claim: Our little girl is growing up so fast!

Proof:
1. Now some of you know this already, but since birth, Riley has absolutely loved to be swaddled. In fact she couldn't go to sleep without it. She'd be all fussy, we'd swaddle her, and BOOM! Instant relaxation. Crazy! However, just recently Riley's become increasingly adept at using her hands, thus her need to have them free. The solution? The graduation to the half-swaddle! This solution has been a huge success. Riley sleeps really well (yay us!) and also has access to her hands (yay Riley!). Alas, soon there will be no swaddle at all, and we'll reminisce about the days when our little one would instantly calm down at being bound up like a mummy.



2. There once was a time, not so long ago, when Riley had no control over her neck mucles. Now, as you've seen in previous videos, she has mastered the art of holding up her head. Next up is sitting, and we've been working on it. Riley can sit up with assistance, whether it be one of Cam or I, or an outside support, like a chair, which makes her look so small!



3. So let's see. Riley is now 11 weeks, 4 days old. At birth, she weighed exactly 8 lbs, 13 oz. Now she weighs a whopping 12 lbs, 3 oz. (The number in the scale is misleading because she was wearing an outfit and an (apparently) very wet diaper.) That's a gain of 3 lbs, 6 oz in less than 3 months. The pediatrician said that they like it when babies are putting on at least 1 lb a month. Yep, Riley's doing that!



Man, time sure does fly by when you're having fun... and Riley's the most fun, so you can imagine just how quickly everything is happening. Riley is growing up so fast.

QED

Update

We took Riley to her 2-month checkup today. She weighs 11 lbs 10 oz (75th percentile) and measures a whopping 24 3/4 inches (97th percentile!). No wonder Riley is just barely fitting into outfits designed for 3-6 month olds! Anyhoo, the doctor said that she is beautiful and growing really well. Hmmph. As if we didn't already know that... :-)

Here's a video that we took this past weekend. As you can see, she loves to look at people and then try to mimic their facial expressions. In fact, the doctor today had a great time interacting with Riley. She smiled at Riley, and Riley gave her the biggest smile back! So precious!

Two months

Can you believe it? Our little baby girl is 2 months old today! Everyone said it and they were right - she's growing up so fast. So, instead of trying to post something that I perceive to be clever, I thought I would update you with how Riley is developing.

1. As of her last doctor's visit, which was about 2 weeks ago, she weighed 10 lbs 14 oz and measured 23 inches in length. Her next visit is Wednesday where we estimate she will be somewhere between 11 lb 8 oz and 12 lbs 2 oz.

2. Her sleeping is amazing! After her baths (which are currently being given ever other day), she will sleep for about 7 hours straight. For example, last night she ate around 7:30pm and went to bed around 8:15pm. She then woke up around 3:15am for her next feeding! On non-bath days, she probably sleeps for about 5 hours straight. Her daytime napping habits have also improved. Usually she gets 3 naps a day... each varying in length (although I would say the average is 45 minutes). She still loves to be swaddled and generally needs her pacifier to go to sleep, but both Cam and I are extremely happy with her sleeping habits.

3. She is smiling and cooing a lot! She loves experimenting with different sounds. Below is a video where she is making a variety of noises and you'll see her smile at the beginning.

4. In the video you'll also see that she is shaking a rattle. She doesn't yet grab for it too much (although she's, I think, accidentally clasped on to it once or twice), but if we give it to her, she'll hold on to it for quite a long while (I once clocked her at about 15 minutes). She does occasionally hit herself in the head, but she doesn't seem to be hurt by it. :-)

5. She is becoming more interested in studying things. Of current interest are her mobile and her hands. She is also becoming more adept at using her hands. While she can't quite grab her pacifier to put it in her mouth, she certainly uses her hands to keep it there.

6. Her neck strength is awesome. We can now carry her from room to room while she is in a sit-up position (her chest facing my chest), and she can hold her head up the entire way (with only the occasional head-butt to my face/chest).

Okay, that's all I can think of right now. As you can see, she is learning so much and she is endlessly fascinating to both Cam and I. It's a wonder I was able to get work done yesterday (which I did - quite a lot actually!)

Below is that video I mentioned earlier. It was taken yesterday.

The fourth dimension

Man, this one is a trickster. When you want it to go quickly, it doesn't (oh, say, I don't know ... during a nursing session in the middle of the night). Then, when you want it to slow down, it says, "Uh, uh... I'm gonna keep ticking." I cannot believe that my child is over a month old already. Is it possible that this little one...



is now this little one?



Crazy!