Brown Dog is famous!

Brown is in one of Riley's books! How exciting for Brown! We hope she doesn't let the fame go to her head.

The Baby just keeps growing

Riley has been quite an active little girl lately. That's putting it mildly! She is all over the place. It is impossible to keep up with her! We can't take our eyes off her for more than a second or else she is dumping something out, pulling something over, or emptying something that she shouldn't. She is very determined and can usually find a way to get what she wants.

Riley is now completely off of baby food and that has got to be the most challenging thing right now. Some days she is a good eater and is willing to try new things. Other days she spits everything out and/or simply throws it as far as she can. We have found a few things that she will eat at any given time and sometimes we have to just scrap whatever it is that we are trying to convince her to eat and make her some eggs. We have gotten pretty creative at finding ways to trick her into eating. Singing to her and watching Teletubbies works the best. Although, Dave isn't very fond of the singing part. He isn't willing to give that a shot. I'll pretty much do whatever it takes. All my pride is gone.

The baby can now tell you where your nose, eyes and mouth are. We are so proud of her. She is learning so much! Little heads up though, brace yourself when you ask her where your eyes are. She feels it necessary to dig her sharp nail into your eyelid. That's the only way to clearly point out where your eye is...or was.

We also just got back from visiting Grandad and Mimi (My Dad and Stepmom) in Dallas. It was great to get to spend the weekend with family. She also met her Aunt Lenzie and Uncle Curt this last weekend. She still has one more Aunt to met, Aunt Lerin, and then she'll be caught up. Thanks to Grandad and Mimi for putting us up this weekend. We were so glad Riley finally got to spend some time with them. Even though, she was quite a handful the whole time. She did discover how dog food tastes while she was there. At least we got that out of the way.

Daddy and the Baby

I don't know why but I love this picture! I just love seeing Daddy walking with Riley holding her hand. It just seems so sweet to me. Anyone recognize the background? This was the trip to Metro North Mall that we attempted to see Santa. The line was cut off when we got there so we walked around for a few minutes. It was a sad, sad place to be. It's hard to take Riley places right now because she wants to walk and we can't let her walk too much when we are in stores. There's too much for her to knock over, get into, and break. Plus, she still does some nose dives occasionally and it doesn't go over well when she wipes out in public. It is really cool seeing her walk around by herself. She no longer resembles a baby. She is officially a toddler. So why do we keep calling her baby, you ask? We can't stop. I guess it's her nickname now. She may always be called Baby. It may be a little embarrassing for her when she's 16, but our job will be to embarrass her at that age anyway.

New Years Eve

Dave and I went to our friends' Stewart and Marta's house for New Years. We had a great time just hanging out and playing games. We prefer to keep it rather tame (and safe) and stay in for New Years. Since I very rarely ever put anything on here about anyone but the Baby, here is a shot of Mommy and Daddy having fun with adults.

Walking is EASY!

Here's a video of Riley carrying her ball around.

Marathon Walker

Riley is walking like a pro. She already prefers to walk rather than crawl. She can stand up in the middle of the room on her own. Up until now she has had to hold onto something to pull herself up. Is there anything she can't do? It has been great spending a lot of time with her these last two weeks. With the holidays we have spent more time at home and less time at work (I would like to keep it that way). It has been exciting watching all that Riley can learn in one day. She is also getting more into her toys. She is showing an active interest in playing with the toys and pointing out things in her books. She is really good at taking things apart and putting them back together. She also has a new favorite game. She likes to take clothes, shoes, bottles...really anything and pile them up on boxes or tables and then take them off one at a time. She does this over and over for as long as she can physically stand it. Her focus and determination is quite impressive.