I'm Baaack

Wow, between my 30th and Rylie's 1st and several other family birthdays, we have been SUPER busy.  I can't believe so much time has gone by since my last post.  I apologize for the hiatus.  The good news is, with us being so busy lately, I have lots  of new things to post about!

Posts are coming! I will leave you with a family photo from Rylie's party (which was a huge success!)

360 Months

Wow, that sounds too old, I think I would rather just say I am 30 years! Today was my 30th birthday and boy did my husband spoil me!!! This is a recap of my amazing day.....

First I was given two fabulous gifts! A gift card to Easton where I am going to buy myself a whole new after-pregnancy wardrobe.  Second Ryan got me one of these:

which is absolutely beautiful and I am so excited to start adding memory charms to it!

I had to work on my birthday which wasn't a huge deal and while I was there I received these:

They are so beautiful and they are the best smelling roses I have ever had!

When I got home, Ryan gave me a gift certificate to go get a LONG overdue manicure and pedicure.  When I was finished with that, he and Rylie met me at one of my favorite restaurants, PF Changs, for dinner. 

I thought that was all, but then when I arrived home this is what our house looked like:

It is so fun to come home to such a decorated house.  Needless to say, I was totally spoiled and Ryan and Rylie made entering into my thirties a very wonderful experience!!

Life is Good :)

Wordless Wednesday

Look what I found Mommy!!

New 'Baby'

No, I am NOT pregnant....we are not even trying yet.  There IS another baby in our house though.  Rylie found my old baby doll in the closet the other day and has grown quite fond of it.
I always loved babies as a kid, real and pretend. I played with them all.the.time. This one doll in particular I was super attached too and I was never able to get rid of it.  I don't know if it is because it is so creepy real looking, or if it just the one I have the most memories playing with.  Whatever the reason, I had it in Rylie's closet and she crawled in and pulled it out.  She was instantly in love. I got these great shots of her playing with it.  Now if I sit at the end of the hall and have the baby wave to her, she will race over to give it a kiss :)

                                                            

She was so funny with it I had to get a video too.  She just kept talking to it and giving it kisses. Unfortunately, by the time I got the video, she was pretty much done playing. I still think it's cute though. 

Candid Camera

To follow-up my previous post I finally caught Rylie and Ryan's lawn-mowing game on film.  The battery was dying so I got two and in between I switched batteries.  This is the scene in our house every weekend :)

insomnia

no not me...my daughter. Our little bundle of joy has taken to waking in the middle of the night for about an hour at a time.  Not crying, just awake.  She practices her clapping, talks to herself and I can hear her saying "book" over and over which is one of her newest words.  We took the nightlight out of her room in hopes that if she couldn't see things to talk to, then maybe she wouldn't.  It seemed to work pretty well, until the other night.

Rylie went to bed as usual at 7:45, but then all of a sudden at 9:00, as Ryan an I are peacefully enjoying our evening, we hear a knocking on Rylie's wall along with laughing. We let it go for a little bit, but when she really got carried away I went to check and this is what I found:

Thats right, our little stinker was playing so hard and she even took her pants off! Needless to say she was wide awake and not going to bed anytime soon.  We let her just hang in her bed awake with the lights off, but around 11:30 we decided to try and rock her back to sleep.  We did 20 minute shifts and she finally fell asleep at 12:45, almost four hours later!!!!!! I really hope that this doesn't become a habit.  Last night she slept completely through so we will see what tonight brings....

Creativity

With Rylie on the move now, she really isn't happy being in her jumper anymore.  We keep in it the room though for those moments when she needs to be confined for her own safety, like if we have to leave the room for more than a second.  She still isn't much of a fan of being INSIDE.

Now being OUTSIDE of the jumper is another game in itself and Rylie is very excited to walk around the outer edge of the jumper and use the toys.  She also loves to hold onto the bars and shake the jumper while yelling "aaaaaaahhhhhh"!

The other day, Rylie found an even more fun and creative way to use her jumper...

I think a trip to the library is in order

This child cannot get enough of her BOOKS!  Sure, she plays with toys, but she PLAYS with her books.  She will sit and flip them around, look at the pages and stare at them for super long periods of time.It is so fun as a mom to sit just and watch and wonder what is going through her head.





Sometimes she will lay on her stomach and turn the pages, and other times she will sit and just study how the thing works.  She gets sooo excited when she figures out how to get to a new page.


She also will be happy to sit and listen to a story any time and books are the only thing she gets out of her bin and brings over to us.  Whenever she brings one over and 'asks' us to read it, she gets super happy when we realize what her message is and start reading.
At our baby shower, our guests bought us books that they signed instead of greeting cards.  This was the best idea, because now we have quite a library for Rylie to choose from!



These are her favorite books right now:
 
I hope that she never loses her joy for reading!!

Daddy's Girl

Rylie loves her Daddy.  He makes her laugh hysterically All.The.Time.  She has just discovered that she can pull herself up at the storm door to look out the window.  Now when Ryan mows the lawn she stands there laughing and waving, waiting patiently for him to wave back at her.  Whenever he stops to wave back, her face lights up and she gets the biggest smile on her face.  Her mission is accomplished :)

All the things a Little Girl Needs

We took a trip to The Franklin Park Conservatory over the weekend and Rylie loved it.  It had all of her favorites, big leaves to touch, water in every room, and lots of color everywhere.  All the things Rylie needs for a good time!  The only thing that would have made it better for her is if there were books, but that can be a trip for another day :)

Some of the highlights of the trip included the waterfalls in the rainforest

All of the super cool leaves to look at

The desert room

it had only one plant to touch (the rest were cacti and although she wanted to touch those, she didn't)

posing as carnivorous Pitcher Plants

the Koi pond where she waved to all the fish

meeting up with Nana and Papa

Pictures in the little huts

and the colorful Chihuly scultptures everywhere

Spaghetti Night

Rylie has graduated to eating pretty much the same things we eat for dinner every night.  She is starting to show way more of an opinion about what she does and does not like.  One thing that she absolutely will eat any time (besides fruit) is pasta.  She loves it in all shapes and sizes, but especially long noodles that she can swing around.  We had spaghetti night the other night and Rylie went to town!



She is very thoughtful in everything she does, and eating is no exception.  She always studies her food a minute before tasting, and then proceeds full force once she deems it acceptable.

We allow her to have this freedom when she eats, and the dogs are well aware of where the best place for table scraps is after dinner....just look at her lap!

Wordless Wednesday OR What Shall We Do With the Duck Tub??

I think Lincoln has an idea.....

Anything to make my child laugh..

Over the weekend Rylie picked up two new toys.  She got a bouncing horse from her cousins, but she is still a little small for it.  She likes it, mostly to pull herself up on and make it play music.

We also heard about these things

and heard that they might be the next big Christmas item.  So of course Ryan had to run out and stock up (because it would be a waste to miss an opportunity to make some money, he says).  We got four.  Rylie picked the red one.  Even if we don't make any money, it is totally worth it to watch and hear Rylie laugh every time we push the thing's stomach, she loves it!  I wish I had a video of her playing with it...