Silence Surprises

Silence is rare around this house. Okay, let's be honest silence is non-existent. Poor T.G. married a wife who never shuts up and wants to talk to him and at him all the time. Then in a 50-50 gene pool toss up he got a daughter who talks nearly as much as her Mommy, but much, much LOUDER.

The sweet girl has tons to say so she is never silent, she's either babbling, laughing, shrieking, talking, or crying. So, imagine my surprise when after listening and watching her play in the living room with her baby doll as I cooked from the kitchen suddenly I heard -----------------.

I leaned forward and peered down the open length of our first floor and spied the reason for the silence.

Surprise 1, she has crawled up on to the couch BY HERSELF (the couch is Double D's last safe haven in the house, god help them now).



Surprise 2, she can open the laptop.





Surprise 3, she knows exactly how to TURN ON the laptop.



What a difference a year makes! Now, if only I could teach her how to pay our bills online, answer work e-mails and update her own blog.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Either it's spring fever or craft fever, but either way I'm feeling creative again so I'm updating the blog layout. Please excuse our "dust" as I upload and change the look of R.B.'s site.

**********************************************************

Also, I'd like to ask you again to please keep baby Stellan in your prayers. His little heart is battling and continues to tolerate the SVT, but they really want to see his heart respond to the medication and break out of it into a regular rhythm. Please also pray for his mother who has without fail been by his side, sleeping in hospital conference rooms for a week now, comforting her son and fighting for what he needs. I can't imagine having to watch Riley go through what she has had to watch her poor baby go through.

Stair Climber

***Please keep praying for baby Stellan. The little man is a fighter and has battled through some scary moments. His heart continues to remain in SVT for the most part, but they have had some periods of normal rhythm.***

Riley LOVES climbing the stairs! For a long time she could only go up, but lately she has been teaching herself how to get down. She has two methods for getting down the steps...

Method 1: SCOOT. Scooting entails sliding down each step slowly and landing on her bottom with a loud giggle.

Scoot step 1.


Scoot step 2.


Scoot step 3. YAY!


Method 2: Walk! She grabs the railing for safety and tries to step/hop down each step. This one scares Mommy, but she wants to be a big girl so badly!

Steady now.


Easy does it!


Then we rest.

BO!

Stellan Update: Please continue to pray for baby Stellan. He remains in SVT (super high heartrate) and is refusing to eat because of all the stress. The last update from his Mama via Twitter was that the Dr. was being paged due to some concerning heart patterns.

**********************************************************
Riley has learned a few new words...

"Shoooosh" - juice
"heeek - eeeee" - Mickey
"BO!" - no

She doesn't use no correctly 100% of the time, but she does use it only in response to a question so I guess we're halfway there. We have fun playing 20 questions with her just to hear her sweet voice emphatically telling us "BO!". Here's a video of her tonight in full on BO! glory, we laughed to death at the end when we asked her if she could name all 50 states. Of course she said "BO!", but then she did some baby babble that sounded a heck of a lot of like "well maybe just Texas". (NOTE: Please feel free to send me the link to this blog post when she's 2 and telling me NO in response to me telling her to get dressed, eat her dinner, play nicely, etc.)

My Best Workout Partner

isn't really in need of working out. She's just a 14 month old bundle of energy who willingly joins her Mommy, who is in much need of working out.



This weekend we finally found and purchased a bike trailer for Riley. We've been on the lookout for a used one for a while and got a great deal on this at a consignment sale. The amazing T.G. took it to a bike shop on Saturday and had them check it for safety and properly set it up for me. Our area is surrounded by awesome bike trails and walking paths that take you all over town and I've been itching to add bike riding to my workout regimen.

Riley has happily let me push her on long walks in her stroller so of course she was more than happy for me to tow her in her carriage. Today we made the trip to her favorite park about 3 miles away. To top it off we were the only ones there (that rarely happens!) and we were able to enjoy it all by ourselves.

We came...




We climbed...






We chuckled...






We conquered...

Please Pray

Most of you that follow my blog know that I am a follower of MckMama. She is a mother of four and her most recent child, Stellan is well known among mommy bloggers as the miracle baby. Long story, (but so worth reading) made short, Stellan was diagnosed by doctors in the womb with severe heart complications and they gave him "no chance of survival". His mother was strongly urged to terminate the pregnancy, but chose to carry him to term. Through God's grace Stellan was born 4 months ago completely healthy and has been a thriving member of their family ever since.

Unfortunately, Stellan came down with the "ick" over the weekend and after being admitted to the hospital for a fever and respiratory problems was administered a drug that sent him into tachycardia. So far his heart has been unable to stabilize itself. Please pray for this little baby and for his family.

Craft Fever, Take 2

I just can't resist $1 ribbon and a mini glue gun.

I Pledge Allegiance to Caffeine

I LOVE my jobs. I really have the best of both worlds. This year I was fortunate enough, with the support of my amazing T.G., to take a part time teaching job. I spend my mornings with 13 adorable, smart and very funny 5-6 year olds and I spend the rest of my day with our sweet R.B. I feel like the year is flying by and I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can because in this economy it probably won't be likely I'll be able to do this again.


Of course afternoons with Riley are always a hoot. She's really becoming a big girl and constantly has me chuckling. However, today I had one of those just had to share kid quotes from my class of kindergarteners.


Our star of the week (in non teacher speak the child in the class who gets to feel extra special that week) was having share time and was doing a mini show and tell of 3 items that give us insight into who she is. She does tae kwon do and brought in this:



Teachers are almost ALWAYS in teacher mode, even outside of the school day so of course I couldn't pass up the chance to brush up on our social studies skills. I pointed to the flag on the left and asked my little sweeties, "What country's flag is this?" "United States," they all chorused at once without missing a beat.

I beamed with pride and then I pointed to the flag on the left and asked, "Does anyone know what country's flag this is?" Several seconds of thoughtful silence ensued before one of my more outspoken little cuties confidently raised his hand and said.....



"Oh I KNOW IT! I KNOW IT! PEPSI!"




Somewhere out there the Pepsi marketing department is cheering for successful advertising dollars spent.

Then and Now

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Just wanted to share pictures of St. Patrick's Day from March 17, 2008 and March 17, 2009.

Then...





Now...






Shamrock kisses and hugs to you all!

Not Me! Monday

I almost did NOT post NMM this week and I should NOT be doing this since I have a million other things to do this week, but a short NMM could NOT hurt right?? Of course if you want to procrastinate on your chores, errands, working out have fun too then head on over to MckMama's place and get the skinny on how it's done or just enjoy reading the 400+ other NMM confessions via Mr. Linky.

I did NOT get a craft fever attack again this week. I most certainly do NOT have the time in my day to sit around with my glue gun and $1 Target ribbon to create these adorable bows!

I am NOT secretly lusting after these shoes. I have NOT already added them to my Old Navy account cart and do not keep visiting the site to look at them. I do NOT keep trying to justify to myself why just one pair of spring sandals won't hurt me. I am NOT so concerned over the economy and employment that I can't even bring myself to spend $20 on a pair of shoes!

I do NOT keep checking weather.com in hopes of seeing the return of my delightful spring weather. This darn winter weather is NOT derailing my plans of walking at least 2.5 miles with R.B. everyday. I do NOT only have 19 weeks now until Hawaii and therefore efforts must be doubled. I did NOT shriek with glee when I went to weather.com today and saw this!

And I do NOT have another minute to spare on this. If you have suffered through my NM's this week and you do NMM leave me a comment so I can visit and enjoy reading yours! (HELLO! TATA!!!) Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

$7 Cute

My sister and I have played this shopping game for a LONG time. Long before our country was in the economic shambles it's in now. But if there were a time that it truly pertained that would be now (and the next four years). So, what's the game you ask?

Say you're out shopping and you spy this...

It's cute, but how cute is it? In monetary terms I mean, $40 cute? Probably not, keep walking. $15 cute? Heck yes and home to your closet it goes.

Now the tutorial is over and you're wondering what the heck is she rambling about how does this apply and where oh where are the cute baby pictures? Hold your horses, literally...

Today we visited another consignment sale in the area. While I shopped fought the insane crowds to snag my bargains Tall Guy entertained the princess by letting her try out all the toys for sale. While we were driving home Tall Guy decided to tell me about the "White Knight" (as seen above). Typical male, wait until we're on our way home before he tells me all about it and how much our princess loved it. Of course after an hour of perusing 100's of things playing "How Cute?" in my mind I had to ask...

Me: "Well just how cute was it?"
TG: "Pretty cute, she didn't want to get off of it." (I'm sad to say that after almost 5 years of marriage he still doesn't get the game.)
Me: "Focus. $5 cute? $10?'
TG: "It was $7."

I decided I had to see for myself and after dropping them off at home drove the 5 minutes back to check it out. Now, truth be told, after inspection of "White Knight", I decided that it was only $5 cute, but I forked over the extra $2 anyway.

Turns out TG was right, it was definitely $7 cute...

once we added 30 pounds that is. :)

Some Spring and a Swing

Spotted...SPRING!

From March 09

I'm a teacher so I'm well aware that we are a few days away from the official changing of the season, March 20th by the way. However, I'm a teacher so if it's not going to get me another snow day I'm ready to give Winter and it's rain, wind, and freezing temps the old heave ho.

We were seriously spoiled last weekend with gorgeous spring like weather and seriously saddened this week by more dreary and cold winter weather. Spring may have been just a tease, but we took shameless advantage of her anyway and got pictures to prove it.

We went to the first cookout of the year at our friends and watched our toddlers have fun together as we ate delicious hamburgers and grilled veggies.

From March 09

From March 09

We visited Dinosaur Park and after fighting off hiding behind my pregnant friend trying to scare away some very "aggressive" squirrels we enjoyed the unique experience of Dino Park all to ourselves.

We ran bottomless around the house and made a big mess of ourselves with bubbles, potting soil, and barbecued chicken without wasting any of our sunny hours to clean it up.

And after some much needed *ahem poop scooping* we visited our backyard to swing wild and free once again and regale the neighborhood with some sweet 13 month old shrieks and giggles.

From March 09

From March 09

Not Me! Monday

f I did NOT post my "Not Me!" Monday last week, but I'm raring and ready to go this week. If you want in on the fun head over to MckMama's place to read up on how it's done. Thanks for reading mine and if you posted some Not Me's this week leave me a comment so I can visit you! I'm NOT ready for Monday this week and I'm so sad to see this warm weekend go! I do NOT have spring fever already because we have 4 long weeks to go until spring break!Riley did NOT want to oblige me with a smiling picture of her in this very adorable outfit that was a gift from Gigi and Papa. (Also she did NOT want to put down her pepper mill for one second either)
I did NOT proceed to stalk her around the house in an attempt to get a smiling picture only to get a lot of pictures that look like this... (I was serious about the pepper mill)


I am so sad that I will NOT be able to go on the MckMama Cruise, but that is because in 20 short weeks I will be here...

Looking out at this...

I am NOT in a battle against time to lose weight before I will be on the beaches of our beloved Hawaii! 20 weeks does NOT seem so long when faced with the knowledge that 95% of our time there is spent in swim suits!What have you NOT been up to this week? (that means you Tata get in on the Not Me Monday fun so I can read yours!)