9 Month Update

It’s official, Riley is 9 months old! It feels like yesterday he was a newborn, and now he’s into everything!! He continues to enjoy the weekdays at school.  As soon as I pull the stroller up in front of the classroom Riley begins smiling, laughing, and kicking his legs with excitement to go play with his friends.  It’s almost embarrassing when I go pick him up at the end of the day because most children are beyond thrilled to see their parents while my child sees me and darts for the toy box to get a few more minutes of play time in! Riley is certainly “speed crawling” these days, and his favorite thing to go after is the dog water bowl.  The second he realizes the laundry room door is open and the bowl is free reign, he takes off and I can barely catch those two little hind legs in time before he dumps it over.  This also goes for attempting to dart out the dog door, pulling DirectTV boxes off the entertainment center…etc…etc… He certainly keeps us on our toes, but we are loving every single exciting second of it! The other new “trick” is pulling up to a standing position on everything in sight.  We bought Riley a push cart (like a mini lawn mower) that he pulls up on and WALKS across the room! He is walking slowly these days, but I’m afraid it’s only a matter of days before he’s walking without any support… Lord help us! We’ve also had to move the video monitor off of the side of the crib because that has also been a new discovery, and we’ve spent numerous evenings keeled over laughing as we check the monitor only to see 2 little nostrils and a pacifier smashed up against the camera.  Riley did so well at his 9 month doctors appointment (a finger prick and a shot and no tears!), and here are the big boy’s stats:

Weight: 21 lbs 6 oz – 60% percentile

Height: 31.25 inches – 99% percentile

We have one tall dude on our hands!! Happy 9 months Big Boy!!

Heading outside to play - he's been upgraded to the back of the buggy! Gettin' chilly!

Riley's teachers have to "wedge" him up to the table for snack because he manages to push back from the table and hop his chair around the room with those long legs.  Silly boy!

Excuse me, Mom, but I'm trying to play and you are interrupting me!

Redskins

Riley, how are the Redskins doing in their game today?

TERRIBLE!!!

Well, we'll keep cheering.... win or lose!

First Lifetouch School Pictures

Riley had his first Lifetouch school pictures the other day. Brings back memories!! Ignore the glare.. I tried taking a picture of the proofs. We are still trying to figure out which ones to buy considering 3 sheets = almost $40! How can you resist that face, though?

Matt calls this his "copier salesman" headshot

Here's the class picture. I said "Ms. Stephanie, your eyes are closed!".  Truth be told, Mr. Riley kept crawling off to play with his toys so she was looking down to make sure he didn't leave the picture... he's too busy for school pictures!!

New CEO @ JCP

We have a new CEO at JCPenney, and he started his first day by treating the Home Office Associates to beer, wine, margaritas, and popcorn outside on the company lawn while he gave an extremely motivational and inspiring speech.  Ron Johnson worked with Steve Jobs at Apple as his right hand man before coming to JCP, and was instrumental in Target’s transformation prior to his time at Apple.  We are all excited about the good things ahead for JCP… and, in the meantime, enjoyed our afternoon happy hour at work. J

Pebble Brook Halloween Party

Last weekend was full of festivities, and they concluded on Sunday with the Pebble Brook Halloween Party.  My parents live in Pebble Brook, and have thrown the Halloween party for the past several years in their neighborhood.  They always said that their Grandchildren would attend one day, and this was the day!! However, Riley was so busy playing all day that he fell asleep as soon as we arrived at the party (I think the chicken costume must be pretty cozy...).  Either way, we had fun, and we know that Riley will love all of the activities when he is older. Great job Grandma & Grandpa on another successful Halloween party!

Riley and Aunty Lib prior to the festivities

Lib's boyfriend Kyle was able to join the party right before he flew back to Denver

He's like OK enough photos already, let's get goin!

The hostests with the mostests

We realized that we forgot the stroller prior to the party, so Dad-to-the-rescue zipped up to Target and got this gem.

 Grandma wanted to show off her cute chick grandbaby... but he couldn't hang

Wow, this $20 stroller is very comfy!

Baby Shower for the Loeffler's

We hosted a baby shower for the Loeffler's upcoming arrival of baby Reese Abigail.  It was a couples shower, and we had a great turnout! We are counting the days till we get to meet the sweet little bundle in December!!

The sweet Loeffler family & Nana

 

Kelly and "GaGa" :)

We had plenty of drinks

Good Food

Gifts and Cake (thanks to Chelsee for getting the adorable cake and balloons!!)

Me and the beautiful mommy-of-two-to-be

Griffin and Grant joined us for the festivities.

And so did sweet Peyton (I think this was post-cake)!

Chels and Kelly - two of my close friends!

Riley was at Grandma & Grandpa's house during the party, and joined the party (to his surprise) after a nap in the car. What are all these people doing in my house?!

We got the girls matching pettirompers & ostrich feather clips... here is Caroline trying hers on the following day - adorable! She is going to be a great big sister!!

JCPenney Pumpkin Parade

My company has the "JCPenney Pumpkin Parade" every year at the Home Office.  I have loved this event every year, and have always gone to see all of the cute kids and costumes.  It was even more fun participating in the event this year with Riley! My mom and her friend (Aunt Lisa) joined us for the fun too!

We tried to get him together with his friends for a picture before the parade...

 Jamie (the little monkey) couldn't see where she was going and fell on her friends... obviously, there were tears!

Luckily, Daddy was there to pick Riley up and save the day!

And they're off on the parade route!

We noticed people pointing and "oooing" and "ahhing" at one point, and then realized that Riley was asleep on Matt's head.  Poor Matt had a puddle of drool on his head after the fact.

We took a little break from the festivities to catch some quick zzz's

Awake, just in time for some visitors

My friend Amy has twins, Greyson and Bryson.  They were pooh and tigger... adorable boys!

My coworker Carolyn also paid us a visit... a.k.a. "Cookie"

The fun never stops here... on to Mommy's desk chair!!