A few weeks ago we went...

strawberry picking in the morning with Peter

then met Elizabeth at Hovander Park to look at animals and play in the park

this was the outfit of choice in the morning:


then we quickly moved to this, before taking doc for a walk:


lunch HAD to be outside, chair on top of blanket, boots on & hood up:


post-lunch quickly turned into this:


then ended w/tackling mommy like this:




as you can see, living with riley is a daily decision as to which battles you are going to pick. i suppose that is how it goes with most toddlers. but oh dear, this one keeps me working from the moment i wake up until we convince her to fall asleep at night! i did not know somebody so small could have an idea and opinion about absolutely everything that happens during the day. but what pure joy she is!

Ten on Ten (6/10)

a paleo friendly breakfast

riley reading to her babies & animals

a random, totally off-schedule snooze

homemade mac n'cheese for riley

yogurt & berry popsicles

reading books with a friend

working very hard

daddy got home just in time for a book before bed

oatmeal/choc chip cookies for a friend

end of the day

sat/sun/mon

on saturday: dinner with brett & lindsay and 7-week-old baby jack

on sunday: a quick hello from mitzi and ninabelle

and on monday: an amazing find from the consignment shop ($10 land of nod crib bumper!)

on friday martha, henry, riley & myself took a ferry boat ride to bainbridge island. we went to check out the indie craft fair that my friend mitzi was participating in. mitzi and i went to high school together and she was one of my first new friends freshmen year. we met in gym class, shared lots of laughs and became fast friends. she is an amazing artist, so be sure to check out her etsy shop here. i bought some awesome earrings from her, and i love them!

we walked on the ferry and had ourselves quite the adventure getting over there. it involved driving in circles looking for parking, running to catch the ferry with a baby on the back and pushing one in the stroller ~ only to miss the ferry. it was literally pulling away as we got to the ticket window. oh well, we hung out in the lobby for the next 50 minutes and i spent a good portion of the time letting riley play in the drinking fountain and then convincing her that we were all done with it. the kiddos loved riding on the boat and spent their time looking out the window and pretending to go night-night on the seat.

once over there we had fun walking a few blocks through downtown bainbridge and arrived at the craft fair in time to check out all the booths and hang out with mitzi, her little one joleen and our friend carrie. we picked up pizza on the walk back to the ferry and had a nice ride back home, devouring our pizza. it was such a nice day! again, be sure to check out mitzi's shop here.

18 months

this one turned 18 months old on 5/11/09

her head measured in the 95%

she weighed 24.4 lbs, in the 50%

and her body is 34" long, in the 90%

she is full of: life, words, sweetness & humor

we love you riley!

see ya baby!

we are back from st. louis, settling back into our routine and catching up on laundry and housework. these bright and sunny days have really exposed my D-I-R-T-Y house. the windows, shelves, picture frames, baseboards and just about everything else need a good clean. hmmm...wonder when i'll get around to doing that. in case you want to know, i absolutely despise housework. i'm really bad at it too. i've even done a few of the things you're suppose to do to make it easier: put all your cleaning products in a tote to easily carry around the house and assign one little chore to each day of the week. i even made all of our cleaning products and only use rags rather than paper towels. i still can't manage to get myself to clean. maybe someday that magical house cleaner will appear and my house will be sparkly and free of dog hair. ha!

anyway, we had a lovely time in the great city of st. louis and were very glad to spend time with andrew and lindsay. riley is a trooper, let me tell you! she did amazing on both plane rides and managed to keep herself busy and entertained in a very non-childproof home with only the toys/books i could pack in my purse. andrew's counts and energy were low, so i kid you not when i say we did not do anything! we went to the park twice and went to the grocery store a few times - otherwise we went from backyard, to kitchen, to couch to bed. riley and andrew really bonded and the way she says his name is priceless! she even rejected me when i was trying to read her books and said, "NO! Druuu!" and got off my lap and ran to him. so cute.

we asked to be seated next to an empty seat and our wish was granted both ways. this made a huge difference!

a lot of time was spent playing in uncle drew's truck

lindsay, riley & andrew at the park

saying goodbye at the airport

we also shared lots of laughs and jokes, something my family is quite good at, but i think the best laugh of the weekend was every time somebody left, riley would shout, "see ya baby!" i don't know where this girl comes up with her stuff, but it is good!