Yesterday, the 22nd, was Eric's D-day. I wasn't going to put anything on the Blog about this since I am keeping this blog for Riley when she gets older and didn't want to put anything sad on here. However, Eric made all of us so happy when he was here. Riley's uncle Eric was so special and I know if he were here they would have a very special relationship, a lot like him and I did. It's important that Riley has some knowledge of him and that I share some of my special memories with her. I was ten when Eric was born and he was the best "gift" I could have ever received. I couldn't wait to get home from school to see him. I would run as fast as I could across the field to "finally" get to see him. He was so cute and funny - a real rolly-polly in his infant days! He used to love to run through the sprinklers naked in the yard and his favorite song to dance to was Footloose. He would pull himself up on the living room table and bee-bop with a silly grin on his face. He 'hated' feet. Why? I don't know! It was hilarious. You even said the word "feet" and he would cry. His favorite movie, when he was just a toddler, was Spaceballs. We had to tape the edited version of it, especially when he said the words "major ---hole!" (I hope no family members get offended by this, but this is MY story and MY memories!) Not a good word for a little toddler to be saying. He had every word to that movie memorized. Whenever Eric and I would go to a restaurant we would share our meals - we loved to eat together. I loved to cook for him. He loved my french toast and would eat like six pieces. (Mind you, he was only like six years old!) I used to make Reeses cups for us and we would practically eat the whole thing until we were sick! Ohhh, good memories. Eric and I, I guess because I was ten years older, had a different relationship than most brothers and sisters. He would sit in the back of the bus with me and he was quite popular with my friends. He was our comedy act on the way to school! Eric always got along better with older kids versus children his own age. He just had a real hard time fitting in with children his own age. When I started going to college I would drive home for the weekend and he would actually get off the bus and run to hug me when he saw me!! Now, how about that for a young man? Not to care about being embarrased what his friends thought. I loved it. Eric was very talented and would write very 'unique' short stories. He was very routine in his daily activities.
My favorite memories though of Eric is Christmas Eve nights. We would stay awake as late as we could and tell eachother stories. Eric really loved the stories; I just loved the closeness. Eric was very creative, imaginative, quirky, thoughtful and loving. I wish he would have been able to see how wonderful he was and just ride out the difficult times that he was going through. I used to hate the fact that I had red hair in school. When you're young and in school it's hard to believe someday that your differences will make you "unique" as you get older. Eric could only look at his differences as a handicap and that he just couldn't fit into the world. I loved him so much for all his differences. I wish you could have met him, Riley.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Camping Trip
Riley's aunt Sue was my hero on the camping trip. I assured her that, no, Riley won't fall asleep in a stroller. Sue decided to give it a shot anyway since Riley was so exhausted. Sue sang songs to her, such as the ABCs, and brough Riley back to camp passed out! It was wonderful as I had an evening without chasing Riley around and was able to take a break. Oh, it was great! Thanks, Sue. 
Special Cousins
Brayden was such a great helper while we made banana boats. What a great cook he is! However, he was getting a little annoyed that his cousin, the little red head on the other side there, was eating all the marshmellows! He was so funny.
Cheyenne is a bundle of energy and loves the pool! She is usually a blur as she keeps very busy, just don't let ants get too close to her. She "hates" ants. She pointed one out to me and actually trembled - a real tremble. I actually saw goose bumps on her arms. Poor thing!
Cousin Campout
We had a nice time at the cousin campout. It was great seeing so many people. Riley's cousins, Cheyenne and Brayden, have grown up and changed so much, getting sweeter every day. They were both so gentle and cute with Riley. It was a seven hour drive for us so Riley was a bit tired. We forgot to bring her travel crib so she wouldn't sleep at all during the day. Oh, boy, you can probably imagine that one! Just the weekend before we had driven to Spokane to finish up some transcript work I had. Poor girl. She was a real trooper though!
On the camping trip we took a walk down to the beach, took Riley to the playground area and ate entirely way too much food! Riley enjoyed sitting in the pool and blowing bubbles. Isn't it funny how she puffs her cheaks out trying to get those bubbles out! Unfortunately we received some bad news while camping; Jason's grandpa, while fishing in Alaska, had some heart problems. In the beginning we were told he had only a short time to live and nothing could be done to help him, but then found out from Daniel and Brent that, while it was very serious, he had some choices on what avenues he could take and it looked positive. So hopefully he can start feeling better and get back on his feet soon. We will sure be thinking about him and wishing him well. He is a very sweet, gentle man who definately leaves an impression!
This last pic is our tent hooked up to the jeep. It was pretty funny to see people stop their cars driving by to look at it. Probably wondering what in the world we had done! Crazy campers.
RILEY'S PROFILE FOR JUNE 2006
Favorite Color: Red! She came home from daycare with red paint yesterday as she was fingerpainting. Her hands looked so funny. This morning she colored her colorbook page all red so I am assume she must be partial to this color!
Favorite Food: Peas, Peas, Peas!!! She runs around the house yelling "P-P-P." This is not to be confused with having to use the potty since she is not yet potty-trained.
Favorite Dessert: Any fruit. She loves it. I bought her frozen blueberries for teething and it's one of her faves. She also loves Jello.
Favorite Song: "The wheels on the bus" We sing this in the car all the time and will put a cow, kitty, dog, et cetera on the bus and do their sounds and she thinks it's hilarious. I love hearing Riley do sounds of different animals. She likes to mimic a dog, kitty, bear, tiger and cow. It's very funny. "You are my Sunshine" is her other favorite song. It makes her very sleepy as it is a song she hears right before bedtime.
Favorite Read: "Snuggle Puppy" and "Pajama Time" by Sandra Boynton. These are the cutest books and she has so much fun with them. She loves any books that has animals in them.
Hobbies: Chasing Chloe around the house. She is "constantly" chasing her. She will go up to chloe and lay her head down on her. Chloe is not too crazy about this! Right now Riley loves so many things. She is really good at putting puzzles together and loves them. She loves coloring. Her favorite thing to do right now is standing on objects and then running down. She will do it over and over and over. Last week she stood up on the couch and jumped! It scared me so much because I had never seen her do anything like that before. It looked like it hurt. She pitched the biggest fit when I wouldn't let her do it anymore. It's so crazy how children this age have no fear. Terrifying actually.
Pet Peeves: Anything that requires confinement, i.e., diaper changing, clothes changing, et cetera. It actually takes two people sometimes to hold her down. Her favorite words are "No-no-no." (She is in daycare with a two year old you see)
New Words Riley is Saying: Kitty, dog, pea, "vroom" whenever she sees a car, "whadda" (what's that?) She always says, "Oh, no," when she drops something or something isn't working right for her. It's funny because she tries repeating words you say now so it's hard to do this list, but this is a list of her favorite words, the ones she says the most.
New Accomplishments: (or maybe I should say activities) Where to begin... Riley has changed so much from twelve months to fifteen months. It's pretty spectacular how much they change in those months. She doesn't walk, she runs -- everywhere. She doesn't want help doing anything. When I try to help her she pushes my hand away and says, "No!" She feeds herself well with a fork or spoon. She is able to climb up on just about anything.
Funny Moments: While camping one of the children took a toy that Riley wanted. Riley had been around cousins and was ready to fight for the toys she wanted! As a complete surprise to us she all of a sudden put her hands up, open handed, and went rooooaaar! (the sound that we always do for a bear!) It was so funny and we are not quite sure why she did that. I can only surmise that from playing at home and doing the "scary bear" she thought perhaps this would scare her cousing into giving her the toy.
We were in the post office two days ago and she saw a bear (those pink breast cancer bears) hangin up for sale. There were about fifteen people behind us in line and when she saw the bear she turned around to the line of people and, again, did the hands up and the "rooooaaar" Everybody thought that was pretty funny.
That same day (never a dull moment) I was in a hurry to get to the post office as I had to have some work out that day. I gathered Riley up not realizing she had somehow gotten a hold of a bite-size Reeses cup that we had taken camping. I put her in her car seat and when I went to get her out of the car at the post office, low-and-behold, she was a chocolate mess! I was shocked at first then realized what had happened. I wonder what the people in the post office thought of a little toddler with chocolate all over her face and clothes roaring at them?!
Everyday there is a funny story. Riley is a character. This is such a fun age for parents because they are changing so much and really starting to have their own independent ideas on EVERYTHING! I love it - well, most of the time.
Favorite Color: Red! She came home from daycare with red paint yesterday as she was fingerpainting. Her hands looked so funny. This morning she colored her colorbook page all red so I am assume she must be partial to this color!
Favorite Food: Peas, Peas, Peas!!! She runs around the house yelling "P-P-P." This is not to be confused with having to use the potty since she is not yet potty-trained.
Favorite Dessert: Any fruit. She loves it. I bought her frozen blueberries for teething and it's one of her faves. She also loves Jello.
Favorite Song: "The wheels on the bus" We sing this in the car all the time and will put a cow, kitty, dog, et cetera on the bus and do their sounds and she thinks it's hilarious. I love hearing Riley do sounds of different animals. She likes to mimic a dog, kitty, bear, tiger and cow. It's very funny. "You are my Sunshine" is her other favorite song. It makes her very sleepy as it is a song she hears right before bedtime.
Favorite Read: "Snuggle Puppy" and "Pajama Time" by Sandra Boynton. These are the cutest books and she has so much fun with them. She loves any books that has animals in them.
Hobbies: Chasing Chloe around the house. She is "constantly" chasing her. She will go up to chloe and lay her head down on her. Chloe is not too crazy about this! Right now Riley loves so many things. She is really good at putting puzzles together and loves them. She loves coloring. Her favorite thing to do right now is standing on objects and then running down. She will do it over and over and over. Last week she stood up on the couch and jumped! It scared me so much because I had never seen her do anything like that before. It looked like it hurt. She pitched the biggest fit when I wouldn't let her do it anymore. It's so crazy how children this age have no fear. Terrifying actually.
Pet Peeves: Anything that requires confinement, i.e., diaper changing, clothes changing, et cetera. It actually takes two people sometimes to hold her down. Her favorite words are "No-no-no." (She is in daycare with a two year old you see)
New Words Riley is Saying: Kitty, dog, pea, "vroom" whenever she sees a car, "whadda" (what's that?) She always says, "Oh, no," when she drops something or something isn't working right for her. It's funny because she tries repeating words you say now so it's hard to do this list, but this is a list of her favorite words, the ones she says the most.
New Accomplishments: (or maybe I should say activities) Where to begin... Riley has changed so much from twelve months to fifteen months. It's pretty spectacular how much they change in those months. She doesn't walk, she runs -- everywhere. She doesn't want help doing anything. When I try to help her she pushes my hand away and says, "No!" She feeds herself well with a fork or spoon. She is able to climb up on just about anything.
Funny Moments: While camping one of the children took a toy that Riley wanted. Riley had been around cousins and was ready to fight for the toys she wanted! As a complete surprise to us she all of a sudden put her hands up, open handed, and went rooooaaar! (the sound that we always do for a bear!) It was so funny and we are not quite sure why she did that. I can only surmise that from playing at home and doing the "scary bear" she thought perhaps this would scare her cousing into giving her the toy.
We were in the post office two days ago and she saw a bear (those pink breast cancer bears) hangin up for sale. There were about fifteen people behind us in line and when she saw the bear she turned around to the line of people and, again, did the hands up and the "rooooaaar" Everybody thought that was pretty funny.
That same day (never a dull moment) I was in a hurry to get to the post office as I had to have some work out that day. I gathered Riley up not realizing she had somehow gotten a hold of a bite-size Reeses cup that we had taken camping. I put her in her car seat and when I went to get her out of the car at the post office, low-and-behold, she was a chocolate mess! I was shocked at first then realized what had happened. I wonder what the people in the post office thought of a little toddler with chocolate all over her face and clothes roaring at them?!
Everyday there is a funny story. Riley is a character. This is such a fun age for parents because they are changing so much and really starting to have their own independent ideas on EVERYTHING! I love it - well, most of the time.
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