You Know You Are A Mom When...

When you find toy pieces in the garbage...

When you find a brush in your toilet...

When you find your jewelry box invaded...

On a sad note, we had to lower Riley's crib today. We did this due to the scary thing that sent my heart through the roof! Riley decided to try and reach for the lamp near her crib and the side of her crib is much lower than the front. When she reached for it, she actually flipped almost all the way upside down and started screaming bloody murder. I came barging in her room and found her legs in the air (barely hooked on the railing), her fingers squeezing the railing for dear life, and her head upside down staring at the floor. I about had a heart attack and was able to capture her right before she took a tumble to the floor. Ugh so awful!

We didn't think she was ready for the bed to be lowered because she shows no signs of climbing out at all! Bob and I just didn't realize that she was trying to reach out for the lamp and that's when she almost took the spill. Unfortunately, I think I will always have that horrific image of Riley hanging almost all the way upside down as she tried to maintain balance over the railing.

On a different note, here is a picture of her crib lowered:

Summer day with a red jeep and slurpee...perfect!

So this weekend Bob got to borrow this really beautiful and FUN red jeep while his blazer was temporarily disabled. A 2009, $36,000 vehicle! A dream car to be sure but something Bob and I probably wouldn't buy even if we had that much money. On Saturday we decided to all take a family ride to 7-11 for slurpees because I was dying to go for a ride in that thing and also of course, because we are slurpee nuts in this family.

We put Riley's carseat in the back and Elmo got hooked up next to her. We then put ALL the windows down, including the roof! I think the best thing BY FAR was when we started driving down Mark Twain and the wind started blowing on Riley. I have never heard anything cuter in my life! She started giggling and waving her hands frantically and when I turned around her little blond hair looked like it was in a wind storm! The wind was BILLOWING on her and she was having an absolute BALL, ha-ha! It was so adorable! And of course, Elmo was hanging out the window too and his little whiskers and hair were blowing like crazy as well. Too cute!

Okay, now onto slurpees! When we got to 7-11, Riley had a ball because she got to play with the colorful neon straws, the lids and the cups! The funniest part was that after we filled our cups, I decided to give her a couple of slurps from my slurpee through the straw and then that was it!! She wanted the entire thing and got SOOOO frustrated when I took it away from her. She was like, "Mommy PU-LEAZE let me have some more slurpee!" All I have to say is that cherry coke slurpees and riding in a gorgeous red jeep with the windows down on a hot summer day is one of the best combos in the world!

New Nikes!

Yesterday Grandma came over and said, "It's time to buy Riley her first pair of solid tennis shoes that she can walk in." I was all for it! So she then said that when Riley went down for her nap, she would do the initial searching and run to Target, Sketchers, Children's Place and Carters. She was specifically looking for size wide as Riley has pudgy lil feet :-) When she went to each place though, most didn't have size wide or didn't have tennis shoes that were sturdy. Finally someone tipped her off that she should look in RackRoom shoes. So she went there and found the perfect pair.

Later, when Riley got up, we all went back to RackRoom and it was definitely an adventure. Riley did NOT want to try any shoes on as she was much more content to run around the store. We had to put socks on her (which she is not used to wearing) and we tried on a few different Nikes. Let me just say, they were ALL adorable! We settled on some pink, silver and white ones with a small pink Nike swoosh on the side...size 6 wide! The employee that works there said that they actually sell more size wide in children's shoes than they do in size medium and usually they have to restock their size wide selection quite often. So Riley is not alone! :-)

She looked like such a big girl when she was walking in her shoes and I was loving it. There are some pictures of her trying on the shoes and the one of her in the car is her waving her new socks. She got some bright colored ankle socks because all of the socks she currently has are from last winter! Oh yes, Grandma also purchased some Tinkerbell sandals that light up since Riley's white ones are getting a bit tight and rather dirty.

Should I keep the little Nike box that the tennis shoes came in? Hmmmmm.....not sure!

Riley loves minestrone soup!

Hey there Jen! I know you are waiting for me to add my next blog, which I have been HORRIBLE about, so I'm going to add one right now before I do another thing!

Let's see, I had a few ideas of things to add for yesterday so I'll start there! First, we went to the gym for the first time in like 3 weeks and it was unique because it was the first time Riley had been there since she started walking! Usually when we get there, the first thing she does is start crying right away and then cling to me for dear life. However yesterday when I walked in, I set her down on the ground and she immediately started walking forward to this little girl. She clapped her hands and laughed and I was so shocked that I just stared at her! Of course, all of the employees hadn't seen her in a while so they were so happy to see her and doubly excited that she was walking. I was just plain thrilled that she wasn't screaming so I just stared at her for a minute because I was SO HAPPY she wasn't crying and then I realized, "Hello Erica! Run while she isn't looking!" So then I turned and made a beeline for the door, ha-ha. Apparently she was GREAT the entire time so I was THRILLED! This was the first time Riley was actually happy at the gym...whew!

The second thing I thought I'd blog about from yesterday is that Riley LOVES minestrone soup. Bob's mom gave us the idea so we tried it yesterday and WOW was it a hit! She devoured the kidney beans, pasta and peas in the soup and I was so impressed! The bad part came when I rinsed her off, set her down and turned my back for a minute. I was at the sink and she apparently walked back to her high chair to grab her sippy cup off of it. When she went to grab her cup, she either purposefully or accidentally knocked the entire bowl off with the rest of the soup. As a result, red sauce sprayed across the floor that I JUST MOPPED, the glass table and back splattered all over the white wall behind the high chair. Elmo was THRILLED of course and started licking soup up EVERYWHERE...including his dog bowl. I was NOT happy, put the gate up and locked them both out of the kitchen. This resulted in Elmo whining at the gate and Riley crying because she couldn't get in the kitchen. At that point I was like, "Stay CALM Erica...stay calm." Ha-ha :-) I can laugh now, but NOT yesterday boy!

Finally, today we tried Olive Garden with Bob's mom and again, Riley LOVED the soup with beans in it! I think it was the pasta fajole (sp?) soup. She ate all of the beans in it and loved it! She also liked the bread sticks. Definitely mommy's girl, hee-hee :-)

Tonight Andrea called me to see what I was doing and I told her nothing because Bob was going to be home late tonight. So she invited me over after Riley ate dinner. At 5:30 Elmo, Riley and I went over there and sat outside in their backyard and I honestly think it was Riley's first time walking through grass and not being afraid of it. She has never really played in grass before so she wasn't too thrilled, but she managed. She did get dirty though and I definitely had a hard time dealing with that. I don't know why, but the sight of dirt on her hands, face and knees (from falling several times) made me cringe! After a while, I couldn't handle it and she went straight home to the bathtub. Elmo is still dirty but I am now too tired to wash him.

Until next time!