12 Months Old aka 1 Year!

Our little girl is ONE!! We have so enjoyed our first year with this sweet, cuddly, silly, smart and adorable little girl, and look forward to what the next year brings. She has developed quite the personality, and always knows how to make us laugh. Below are some highlights about the birthday girl and her talents:

• weighs approx. 18 lbs, 7 oz
• now has 4 teeth
• loves her push toy and ride-on toys
• pretends to go night night
• puts the phone to her ear and says "hello"
• gives "big hugs" and kisses, blows kisses
• loves Ski kisses (leans in for them)
• loves to imitate sounds and gestures
• loves to eat, especially grapes and black beans
• is learning to put herself to sleep and stay asleep longer at night
• loves to walk from place to place
• absolutely loves the water/bath
• dances/bounces to music
• raids the kitchen drawers and cabinets and likes to pull everything out of them
• climbs up and down the stairs
• loves to sit on the stair landing and throw her toys down the stairs
• is constantly babbling and can say a few words - Mama, Dada, Dog, Hello

And just for fun, since we did the first 6 months on her 6 month birthday, here is a month-by-month guide to how much she has changed in the last half of a year:

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

12 Months!!

Riley's Birthday! / Aunt Lizard comes to town

Riley's new year started off with a "messy" party for cousin Levi's second birthday! Although she wasn't quite into the messy activities, she did enjoy hanging with a bunch of her favorites, and chowing down on the Sloppy Joe sliders, pb&j pizza, and other party food. The following week she went with Mom and Dad to the car show in Virginia Beach, and while there met up with Nene and Papa and had dinner with them afterwards too! To Dad's disgust, she enthusiastically chowed down on a pickle Nene had given her. :) She has also been practicing her walking, and all of a sudden started wanting to do it all the time!

These couple weeks have led up to a huge event: Aunt Lizard moving to town to live with Riles for a while! The day before Riley's birthday she arrived, and Riles was very happy to be reunited with her awesome aunt. The next day was Riley's big day as she turned one whole year old! After spending the morning with her friends at daycare, she came home for a nap. Later on, the fun began as she met Dad at the YMCA pool for some swimming and splashing time. Afterwards, Aunt Gigi came over to give Riley her birthday gift, and they all had some yummy Chipotle for dinner (Riley's favorite - she eats the whole kids meal consisting of a quesadilla, beans and rice!). She LOVED her new chair from Gigi, and kept climbing up onto it and then back down. Then she got a special surprise when she got to Skype with her Nana in NY. Nana watched as Riles (sitting in her new chair of course!) opened Nana's gifts and played with all the paper. She also impressed with some of her dancing skills.

 

 

 

Unfortunately for Riley (and her parents!), it became apparent on the night of her birthday that she wasn't feeling too well. She had a pretty high fever and a really rough night of sleep, waking often and crying a lot as she couldn't seem to get comfortable. The next day Mom stayed home from work to take care of her, and they tried to wait it out to see if the fever would go away. But Riles seemed to be getting worse, and didn't want to eat or drink much, so the day after that they headed to the doctor. She was diagnosed with Hand Foot & Mouth disease, a (contagious) virus that causes fever, loss of appetite and a rash breaking out all over the body. It also causes sores in the mouth which contributed to her wanting to eat but not being able to because it hurt so much. Mom & Dad made a last minute decision to postpone her birthday party that was scheduled for that Saturday. We hope that in 2 weeks she'll actually be able to enjoy her birthday party much more than she would have this week!

That Saturday she had actually improved quite a bit and with a dose of Motrin for the pain was able to eat normally again, and take some good naps. After she went to bed, Mom & Dad decided to sneak out for a date night, and Liz stayed home and took care of the sick girl when she woke up a couple times needing some comfort. Today she has been doing very well again, so we think she's on the mend. Aunt Michelle stopped by with her birthday gift and once again she thoroughly enjoyed pulling apart the tissue paper to see what was inside. She also gave Michelle some snuggles while she was here! She then joined Mom, Dad, Joey & Leah for some brunch before returning home for a much needed nap.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

December has gone by so quickly! The week after Nana left, Gigi came over to hang with Riles while Mom and Dad went to a holiday party. She had a great time with Gigi - maybe too great of a time, because she wanted to stay up and party all night too!. A few days later, Mom had some Xmas shopping to finish up, so Riles opted to join Dad at an ODU basketball game. The next day at daycare was her Christmas get-together, and she exchanged small gifts with the other babies. Someone made deviled eggs for the occasion, and we discovered that those are definitely one of her favorites! Then on Saturday the 21st it was gorgeous out, so she walked to the park with Dad, Mom and Ski and played for a bit. That evening, they joined the Kletz' and Hobbs out for dinner to celebrate her Dad's 31st birthday. The next day was the Packers vs. Steelers game, and she again joined everyone out to watch it at Dirty Buffalo (unfortunately for Mom, wearing her Steelers gear.) That Monday was Dad's birthday, and he had the day off to spend with her. They went out to breakfast, went swimming at the Y, and even ran some errands together. After Mom got home, they went out to No Frill (Dad's favorite!) for dinner, and then picked up some ice cream sundae supplies. Later that night, Kari arrived from NY, although Riles didn't get to say hi until the next morning.

 

 

With Kari here, the Xmas festivities kicked into gear. Riley took to Kari right away, and they became the best of buds. On Xmas Eve, Mom had taken off work so Kari, Mom and Riles went out to get some breakfast. Later that night, they joined Dad, Michelle, Josh, Colton, Levi, and Gigi to go see the Xmas lights at the beach (although Riley wasn't too interested in them this year). Afterwards, Nene and Papa joined them all for some dinner at Burton's. Then, it was finally Christmas! Riles woke up early and immediately started opening some presents. She really liked to tear the paper, and even got this serious (and very funny!) look on her face while she was doing it. She enjoyed taking everything out of her stocking one by one, and had fun with Dad throwing her new balls back and forth. After stockings, she took a break from unwrapping and napped for a bit. When she woke up, it was time for Xmas Day brunch, and all of the Kletz' and Hobbs had come to her house to eat. After that, Colton and Levi helped her open a few more gifts. That night, Riley ate Chinese food with Mom, Dad and Kari.

 

The day after Xmas, Mom was off work again so she, Riles and Kari all went to lunch at Moe's. The following day Mom had to go in to work, and Riley got to stay home and play with Kari! Of course, Kari had Riley chugging Mountain Dew and raiding the liquor cabinet while we were gone - but ultimately she made it through the day in one piece. :-) Riles really loves going up and down the stairs, and unfortunately got her first black eye from it. One of the times she was turning around to go back down, she came down a little sideways on the stair and ended up rolling down a couple. Her eye was instantly puffy with a small scratch underneath, but she was such a trooper about it (plus, we got to tell fun stories about how she got the black eye). There was no time for sitting around though, because for New Years they had rented a house in Sandbridge with a bunch of friends and their kids. They spent the night there on the 30th and 31st, and Riles had a great time playing with the other kids and hanging out with some of her favorite people, plus meeting new ones! I'd say Riles has had a pretty spectacular 2013, and we are looking forward to watching her change and grow some more in the new year.