Can I keep up with this now? Doubtful, but here we go!!...

So, yet again I get a big FAIL for keeping up with the blog... Let's try again, shall we? :)

What's the latest? Well, our BABY is now a walkin' and talkin' LITTLE BOY (insert "how can this be" sob here)... here is the proof!


He also loves to play with all his different balls... bouncy balls, baseballs, squishy nerf balls... you name it, if he can throw it, it's awesome. He likes carrying around his bat, too... and yep, my old cell phone is probably his favorite toy. Per the previous videos! HA!

He still doesn't care much for naptime or bedtime, but we're improving! I got a video monitor which helps us to decide whether he needs help falling back to sleep, or if he's got it in the bag himself... :)

Not too much else new going on! I think we're going to attempt some gym classes for Riley in the near future... if that's the case I'll upload some pictures of that fun! And we're also going to offer to pay for Mahin (our childcare provider) to take Riley to the Rec Center up the street starting in March, for toddler music classes on Wednesdays mid-morning. We wish we could take him, but since we can't, and he's the only child she has right now, why not send them?! So that'll be fun for him this spring!

We got a new camera for Christmas and have taken some fabulous pics... so I will pull some pictures off of that and post them to this blog and to shutterfly later this week. I will FORCE myself to sit down and spend 15 minutes blogging once or twice a week. Good grief, you'd think this was hard! HA! Maybe I'll set a reminder on my phone... that'd be smart. Hold on, I'll do that now... there: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:15-8:45... grab a glass of wine and update your blog. :) HA! Excellent.

I hope everyone is doing as well as we are!
Best, The 3 Ws.

Crawling and Babbling and Standing, OH MY!

Well well well... look who decided to blog. DOH! I am SO sorry that I haven't posted anything in over 2 months! Bad Mummy!!!

Well, let's see... so Riley is 10 months now, and in the last 2 months lots has happened! Our little baby is now a little boy, I swear it. He has 6 teeth (with more coming!), he's been truly crawling since August 10th, and he's been pulling himself up and furniture surfing since about August 15th, and he's also efficiently pushing walker toys, chairs, etc... I think he'll be walking before he's a year!!??! He's going up stairs very well, and downstairs too, but a lot less gracefully. HA! He babbles a lot, has LOTS to say (not sure where he gets that from... heh heh) and often times he says "Da Da" and "Maaaama", but we're not sure he associates those sounds with us yet or not. Sometimes I think so, but others, not so much. He LOVES to clap... if you say "yayyy", he claps! And we're working on waving and high-fives... those need some work. Although, this past weekend, he started high-fiving a lot more readily! He also "fetches"... ha! Thanks Ryan. :)

He's still not sleeping through the night... or even close, really. He wakes up at least once per night, but usually, twice. Argh. I'm sure it's mostly my fault, since though I should be weaning him from night feedings, it's hard when I'm a zombie too, to deal with an upset baby, when I can basically nurse him in my sleep while rocking in the chair, and he generally falls back asleep that way too. So, this month, that's my challenge. Wean nighttime feedings. Eek!

So, a few pictures...
This summer we went to LOTS of softball games/tournaments...


Early in August, my parents (Grammy & Granda) and the McKennas came out for a visit, and Riley summitted his first 14er, Mt Evans!


We met up with Madison & Haley at Monkey Bizness, and despite catching other kids' germies and getting sick, Riley had an AWESOME time... SO FUN! :)


And we also visited the Chatfield pumpkin patch on October 15th!... This is the pumpkin we bought... Rilers picked it out :)


Riley LOVES other kids... here he's made a friend at the Let it Fly 4v4 Flag Football tournament! This other little boy's name was Riley, too!!


Tonight we went up to watch Ryan play softball and it was COLD! So I decided to put Riley's halloween costume to good use since it's size 12 mos and big enough to fit lots of layers underneath... here's our tubby little dinosaur :) More pictures to come after this weekend's ACTUAL Halloween festivities!


I'll try to be better about updates, but this busy mumma promises nothing. :)

IOU...

Well! Sorry for the lapse in posts! Busy Busy Mumma! IOU some good updates! However, today is Ryan's birthday, so I'm going to take him out to lunch and mini-golfing, so I will post more about our visit with Grammy & Granda Edwards and Kevin & Nancy McKenna another time... lots of great pictures from that visit! Including Riley's "1st 14er"!! Mt. Evans! So I will get on that post shortly... however, for now I have a couple of cutie flip-videos to share of Riley. (Also, from now on, I'm going to add flip videos to our Shutterfly site on a new tab called: "Riley Videos"... some will be duplicates of what's here, but I'll also post others.)

Here he is gnawing on Berkie's tail (one of his favorite activities, and oddly enough, Berkie just sits there purring... weirdo cat):


And here's another of Riley crawling around and tackling Berkie WWE-style (his other favorite activity... seriously, weird cat.):


Say some prayers for Ryan and the Williams' family (especially Grandma Ethel), as his Grandfather, Warren Sterling Williams passed away yesterday morning in his sleep. He was 89 years young and was in home hospice care as of last Thursday. All my love to my husband and his family as they remember a wonderful man's life.

Love to all,
Alli

As promised...

... more pictures!

Susannah sent us a CD with all the photos she snapped of Riley at 6 months, so I posted them on our Shutterfly site. Take a look!! Here is the album specifically: http://ryanandalli.shutterfly.com/1747

I also created a new tab on our Shutterfly page for Riley's Videos :) I'll try to keep that up to date with all his movin' and groovin'.

Tonight was a rough night... Day 1 of Sleep Training using "The Baby Sleep Solution" by Suzy Giordano. She has you use the limited crying method, where you put him to bed awake, and then leave him, if he cries, you return in 3-5 mins (I did 3 mins), soothe him until he calms a bit, then leave... wash, rinse, repeat... I did this for about an hour and then he finally fell asleep. It was traumatic for both of us, I think. He was SO upset!! There were boogars EVERYWHERE. :( But, that little boy has been SOOOO tired lately, his eyes looked like 2 piss-holes in the snow. :( No little one should look THAT tired. So he needed our help to learn how to self soothe and we had to show him some tough love to get him to sleep. Now it's anybody's guess how long he'll sleep and when I'll get to re-live that limited crying method tonight... I just keep telling myself it's for his health, and mine. :)

Wish us luck!

My parents and our dear family friends, Nancy & Kevin McKenna, are flying out tomorrow to visit for a week! They'll be staying at the condo and we have many fun activities planned :) Can't WAIT to see them all!!!!

Well, time to get some shut-eye while the little man is sleeping!
Dream Sweet...
~Alli

Crawling is Immanent...

Uh-oh... :)



This is one VERY effective inchworm!!!

Riley's 6 Month Stats!!!!

Wow! Can you believe it?! Riley is SIX MONTHS OLD?!?! Good grief, where did the time go?! I feel like I was still pregnant not that long ago, and yet, I now have a rolly-poley-tooth-baring-sitting-up-to-eat-solids-squealy-chuckling little 6 month old boy!?! Sheesh.

So yesterday was Riley's official half-birthday, and we had my old college and rugby friend Susannah come down from Longmont to take pictures of him for us... as soon as she posts them on a share site for us, I'll be sure to post that site here for ya'all to view :) We had a wonderful time with Susannah, and Riley was SUCH a ham for her, I cannot wait to see the pictures. Here is ONE that she posted to her blog this morning...



This morning Riley had his 6 month doctor appointment, which means yes, he had more vaccinations today, poor little fella... ouch! But he was SUCH a good boy, he cried when she stabbed him 3 times (wouldn't you?!), but then recovered very quickly and conked out. Here's to hoping his reaction to these vaccinations mimics those at 2 months as opposed to 4 months (he was just sleeping and a little fussy at 2 months, but was wicked fussy at 4 months, pobrecito). The good news is no more vaccinations (other than a flu shot in the fall) until his 1 year appointment! Woo hoo!

Now for his stats...
Height: 25.5 inches, 19th percentile
Weight: 16 pounds, 23rd percentile
Head Circ: 17 inches, 34th percentile

Hefty Hefty Hef-ty! heh heh heh... :)

And he scored very well on his development questionnaire, too! He's sitting up, rolling over, grabbing things with one hand and passing them to the other, putting everything he can get his little paws on into his mouth, having conversations with us, mimicking our sounds, and he's even starting to show signs of stranger-danger and separation anxiety... all right on track for his age! Such a good little man.

Happy Half-Birthday, Riley! We love you bunches!
Love,
Mummy & Daddy

Pictures to come when Susannah is done editing! Promise!
xo

Our First "Family Vacation"!!!

Whewf! We made it! To AND fro! The "fro" was the tough part because our little man is teething like crazy so he was in a LOT of pain Sunday and Monday, so Monday's travel-day was a toughie for the poor guy, but he did GREAT all the same :) He has recently gotten his 2 lower incisors... Granda is SO proud :) The pearly-whites aren't all the way in, but they've cut through the gums, so here he is brushing his teeth...


So anyways, back to VACATION!!!! We had a BLAST in Florida! It was SO nice to get away and spend some time as a family, bonding, just enjoying one another and some downtime without chores or day-to-day mumbo-jumbo. *Sigh*, I miss it already.

The first few days we were there we spent in St. Pete's Beach near Tampa where Ryan's mom's family lives, so Riley was able to meet his Great Grammy May, his Great Grandpa Bob, and his Great Uncle Ray, and to see his Great Aunt Peggy again :) It was wonderful for Grammy & Grandpa to meet their great grandson, Grammy just doted on him the whole time she was with him. She kept talking about how when Ryan was Riley's age (6 months or so), they took him back to Ireland to meet her family... ha!

Here's Riley meeting the Great Acker Grands...



And here he is with Great Aunt Peggy & Uncle Bud... (unfortunately I don't have any with Great Uncle Ray, perhaps Peg does?)


So after spending Tuesday through Thursday on St. Pete's Beach with the extended family, we packed up all our gear and headed south 2 1/2 hours to Sanibel Island. Wow, what a GORGEOUS little part of the world THAT is. Have you ever been there? If not, add it to your list. FABULOUS. Truly wonderful. Very quaint and relaxing, and just beautiful beaches. We cannot wait to go back! There were plenty of things we would like to do when Riley gets a little bigger (for example, they had first-come-first-serve bikes that you can take around the islands on their extensive bike-paths!). We stayed at the Sanibel Inn and had a wonderful view of the gulf through some palm trees (very tropical) from the screened-in patio in our room.


Riley did SO well all in all... he did a-ok on the planes, I mean, sure he had some fuss-time, but hello, he's a BABY... of course he did. A teething baby at that. HA! But really, he did well!! And then I think he actually slept BETTER in the hotel cribs than in his own... perhaps there's something to having him sleep in the same room as us? We may experiment with putting his pack-n-play in our bedroom and seeing how he sleeps. Maybe he likes hearing us breathe... hmm. :) Anyways, he's a champion. Such a good little fella.

And he seemed to like the beach and love the pools... he was very interested in the sand, didn't seem to mind it at all - except the time that he toppled over and ended up looking like a sugar donut (heh, turns out that fine sand sticks really well to Baby SPF 55... HAHAHA!)... and he LOVED floating around in his car raft from Peggy!

Here are a few snapshots from our trip, but if you want the whole shazam, then hit up our album on Shutterfly...

Riley kickin' it in the sand:

Digging moats with Daddy:

Cruising in the pool with Mommy:

Phew... vacationing is EXHAUSTING (sleeping in the rental carseat with my brand new blue giraffe):


So there you have it! Our first Family Vaction was wonderful... great family time and extended family time, along with Riley's first trip to the beach... SO fun! We can't wait for the next time.

Can you believe Riley will be 6 months old this Sunday? WOW!!!
More to come then!
Love,
The Willies