Random Naps

We're back to hardly ever getting naps out of Riley. One day this week she did actually sleep, but this is how I found her. One of her new favorite buddies is my old Santa Bear who is normally dressed as an aviator, but Riley prefers him as her white "Lew Lew" bear...she re-named him too. I guess all those pleather clothes he was wearing weren't very snuggly.

Christmas/St. Nick?

This year, we celebrated Christmas on St. Nicholas Day with the Schusters. Normally, we do Christmas Day with them...and I think we still will, but Auntie Jess is a Vet and she is on-call to work on Christmas so we wanted to celebrate with them just in case she can't make it. We had a very nice night at their house complete with Great Aunt Pammy's games (one for Roo and a few for the big kids!) Riley opened her gifts from Jessie and Cory and Pam and Pat and she is now officially hooked on her new leapfrog toy and her growing collection of snow globes! As always, we're overly stuffed and the fridge is overflowing with leftovers too:) Pammy, please don't kill me for the hat picture. That was your nephew's fault! The hat belongs to Linda...one of those silly grandma things I guess...she found it in an antique shop in Anoka and it has ostrich feathers on it. Grandma Linda loves her feathers!!!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

P.S. Dad, Riley loved her book! I think she may have slept with it tonight;)

Cousin's and the Pizza Party

Saturday was the third annual Cousin's Thanksgiving/Christmas Pizza Party. I didn't get many good pictures of the event for two reasons: 1. The batteries that I JUST replaced in my camera died...crappy batteries! and 2. My kid was not what you might call an angel at the party and I spent some of the time in tantrum time-out mode. No fun! Plus, normally, Josh would have been there to help me take pictures, but he woke up that morning sick. I am stealing one pic from Meg's blog of all the kids on the couch. Left to right: Zacky, Adrienne, Ryan, Kiley, Colvin, Roo. The other pics are the only two I got that turned out. If you want to see more, check Meg's blog (Trackin' the Treds) and maybe later this week or so check my cousin Dan's page (the non-chicago cousins one.)

Overall, we had a great time at the party. I love spending time with my cousins and catching up and it is so much fun to watch all 6 kiddos play together (it will be 8 kiddos under 4 years old by Feb. this year!) Thanks a bunch to Dan and Sharis for hosting and to Great Grandma and Great Grandpa for paying for the pizza. I am so happy my kids have great grandparents in their lives!

TIGF

Hmmmm...Some weeks I have a hard time coming up with things to be thankful for, not because I don't have countless things for which to be grateful, but because often I feel like I'm repeating myself...family, friends, healthy kid, etc. So this week, in an effort to be less repetitive I really had to think about it. But not too long:)

I'm thankful for our active life and the ability to bring Riley to a lot of different activities that keep her entertained, educated and excited about things. Today we have a play date with a former college roomie and her son,earlier this week my mom and sisters and I took the kids downtown and next week I'm taking her to her first live play (wish me luck!). It's great to have sisters and friends who are home with their kids or who nanny other people's kids so we can explore the world together. I hope for my sake and for Riley's that when we have this second kiddo to bring with us, we are still able to go places and get out of the house! WE both get a little stir crazy staying at home:)

Target Field

This post of for my out of town and baseball loving friends(ie. Kristine, thought you might get a kick out of this one). When I parked in the wrong garage downtown yesterday, it gave me the opportunity to take pictures from a few angles of the new Twins Stadium. Let me just say that if I ever make it to a Twins game at Target Field next year, I REALLY hope we have "good" seats. For someone afraid of heights, this stadium might scare the living crap out of me in certain spots. It's a beautiful park, but I really wish it had a retractable roof. I do like that the gates to get into the park are numbered with retired players numbers: Gate 34, Gate 3, etc. There's a lot of thought going into the history and community involved. GO TWINS!

Skating Lesson #3

Ok, I know you are going to think I'm crazy about the pictures from skating. They all look the same: same jacket, same snow pants, same helmet, etc. Basically the same pictures...but note these pictures are missing one important piece of equipment. In just three short weeks, Riley is able to skate without the help of the walker. They still use them for part of the lesson, but she did really well without holding on. She even did some starting and stopping and starting again without falling. She did have a few spills, but even without the walker, she had fewer falls than last week!

What an Elf Adventure!

Today we (my mom, sisters and I) took the kids: Zack, Riley, Adrienne and Kiley, to see the Elf show on 8th floor Daytons (no, it's still not Macy's in my world). The kids liked it, despite the fact that it was the first time in the history of the 8th floor show that it was a repeat from last year. The singing trees are still my favorite part. And the sugar cookies at the end:) Riley chose a gingerbread cookie because she has a stuffed gingerbread boy (not man, not guy...it has to be boy) at home. Then we headed to lunch before going home. I asked Riley what her favorite part was about downtown. She said the Elfs, so I think she liked it!

Why was it an adventure, you ask? Well, you have Mom, Katie and two pregnant moms who are waddling along next to three strollers. Toddlers wanting to switch strollers or walk in a crowded downtown setting. Lots of elevator buttons that need to be pushed by small fingers, not grown-ups...Not to mention before all that, I was distracted when I was getting off on my ramp to park in my "normal" ramp downtown and ended up father from my destination (remember the waddling? I'm not too bad yet, but I'm certainly a slow-moving vehicle). The ramp was also a pre-pay which I've never done before so I wasn't sure how that worked. Figured that out ok. But when we went back to find the car I couldn't remember where we parked so it took a few minutes...Riley was very patient, thankfully! And on top of that, one of the exits to get out of the ramp was closed and they had re-routed you down and "up" lane to get out, but it took me a few times around to believe that they would send me down the wrong way to get out. I am far too much a creature of habit. Back to MY ramp next time:)