Happy Birthday Riley!  What a fun day we had, only fitting for a three year-old princess!

*Warning – lots of pictures below!*

The day started off with Riley’s favorite breakfast…Daddy’s yummy pancakes and of course strawberries on top!  After that, Mommy and Riley were off to the salon.  Yes, you heard that right…I took my three year-old to the salon!  She loves to have her nails painted so I thought this would be a nice birthday treat, and boy did she love it!  She was very quiet throughout the process, just soaking it all in!  After she picked out her colors (pink for the fingernails and purple for the toes, with glitter on top, of course!) she sat so still in the pedicure chair and watched Ms. Lisa’s every move! 

Once we were done at the salon, we picked up lunch and headed home for a nap.  Later in the evening, we had some friends and family over for a little celebration.  The biggest surprise of all was Riley’s new Dora big wheel and pink helmet!  The look on her face was pretty priceless when she saw Josh wheel it inside. 

Can you see the joy here?

She also got this really neat vanity set from her Granny & Papa, which she loves!

After dinner, we had another fabulous cake by Patty!

Riley went back to school this week and is loving it!  She is back at the church MDO program that she attended last year, and we are so excited for the year to come.  Her teacher seems wonderful, and the “curriculum” is fantastic.  She’ll have Spanish, computer, art and music each once a week.  We went to meet her new teachers on Tuesday, and then she had her first day on Wednesday.

I didn’t get a lot of pictures either day…she was way too excited to slow down and pause for pics!

She was quick to check out her new room and within minutes was asking her new teacher where the babies were!   

When she found this phone, she promptly picked it up and had a conversation that went something like this: “Hello, Aunt Paige!  Yeah, I’m at school in my new room with friends and Mrs. Karen and there’s no babies yet.  Okay, bye!”.

Needless to say, when we woke up Wednesday morning, she was ready to go!  In fact, she was actually dragging me out the door, when usually it’s quite the opposite in this house.  I did my best to get some pictures when we arrived at school but she wasn’t very cooperative.  She was ready.to.go. 

We made a pit stop into her old classroom to give Mrs. Krystal a hug and then we were on our way.

Upon arrival at her new classroom, we put her backpack into her cubby and quickly proceeded to wash our hands.  She then sat at the table to do some play dough, turned to me and said, “Mommy, I’m not going to cry”.  So I guess that was my cue to leave.  I hung around in the hallway peeking in on her for a bit, but it really wasn’t necessary because she was fine.  It’s going to be a great year back at UUMC!

That number probably makes no sense to anyone that may be reading this, but it is of huge significance to me!  I delivered Riley when I was 35 weeks and 4 days pregnant.  Although she was perfectly healthy when she was born, it was still a worry for me to have this baby early as I know that things can always go wrong and I wanted to be able to get further along this time around. 

So today I am 35 weeks and 4 days pregnant and proud to say that this baby is safe inside!  We had an appointment today and things are looking good.  According to the growth sonogram, his estimated weight is 6 lbs, 8 oz…big boy!  Riley weighed in at 5 lbs, 4 oz on her birthday!

Now although I am wanting him to grow more and stay put, I am definitely starting to feel the uncomfortableness of the end of pregnancy.  My ankles and hands are starting to swell.  In fact, I’ve taken the wedding rings off in fear of them getting stuck.  My feet hurt all.the.time.  I feel HUGE and want to eat all.the.time.  I’m having braxton hicks contractions pretty regularly now, and just today have started having some real contractions.  Okay, enough complaining!  I really am grateful that I am still pregnant!

The last picture I have of my pregnancy with Riley was taken just over a week before she arrived, at my grandmother’s funeral.  It’s not a great picture and it’s hard to see the belly.

Here I am now…

Wow.

We were invited to Isabella’s 7th birthday party, which was a “girls only” spa party and sleepover. In reality, we were invited over early in the evening for Riley to participate in some of the girly action before the actual party began. She loved every minute of it! Christine’s friend was in charge of dolling the girls up, and I’ve never seen Riley sit so still while she had her fingers and toes painted as well as hair and a touch of make-up!

Christine & Isabella, thanks for letting us join in on the fun!

No nap today

+

Dance class

=

I tried to wake her up for dinner and she wasn’t having it.  Took her upstairs and she immediately cuddled up in bed.  Let’s just hope she sleeps through the night.

We celebrated Riley’s 3rd birthday a week early with family and friends today. With it being way too hot here to have anything outside (plus momma being 35 weeks pregnant), we chose to have the party at a local play place with a Dora theme. She had so much fun playing with her friends and really enjoyed the excitement of it all.

Bubbles!

The AMAZING Dora & Boots cake (cupcakes) made by Patty!

She had been talking about blowing out the candles on her cake forever! As soon as we were done singing Happy Birthday (which of course she sang along), she jumped up and blew them out so fast!

More to come as we count down to the big THREE! We will be having a little get together on her actual birthday next week.

Riley had her first dance class today, and I’m not sure who was more excited…Mommy or Riley! She’s in a combo dance class with a mix of tap, ballet & tumbling. There were six other girls her age in class with her, and she absolutely loved it! We were a little worried that she might be shy and not want to participate, but not my girl! She was quick to try everything the teacher showed her, and was often the first in line for learning something new. She also loved the full wall mirror and kept checking herself out while dancing!

Here’s my little dancer dressed and ready at Granny’s house before class:

In between tap and ballet, just hanging out against the mural wall:

When we went back to Granny’s house to get my car after class, Granny remembered that she had one of my old tumbling mats. Riley thought that was the neatest thing, and once we got home, she spent the next hour in “teacher mode”, teaching all of her babies everything she learned.

It’s going to be a fun year of dance!!

We’ve really been struggling with Riley’s bedtime routine lately. Although we try to start the process earlier and earlier, it still ends up taking up to two hours to actually get her to sleep. I used to brag about how easy bedtime was, and it has come back to haunt me!

Last night she didn’t actually fall asleep until about 10:30 and we were at our wits end! So we talked about cutting out her nap and seeing what that would do. It wasn’t actually too difficult to keep her from napping, because a lot of times, that is a struggle as well. So we played all day and kept her very active, ate dinner and hit the bath. As soon as she climbed into Josh’s chair to drink her milk, it didn’t take long.

It’s not even 8:00 yet!

*sigh*...I think our nap days are numbered...

• According to our growth ultrasound yesterday, he is weighing in at 4 lbs, 10 oz (approximation of course) - up from 3 lbs, 5 oz just three weeks ago!
• The sonographer told us to bring a brush to the hospital because he has a full head of hair! It's so amazing that they can see those things via ultrasound.
• He was very active during yesterday's appointment, so we got lots of great pictures. We watched in amazement as he was drinking fluid and sticking his tongue out! After he had a little "snack", he started chomping on his little fingers.
• I've been feeling pretty good lately, despite the over 100 degree temps we've been having here every day. This baby, however, sits a lot higher than Riley ever did so I find that I get out of breath easier and cannot sit for long periods of time without having to get up for a breather.
• This baby has been moving a ton lately! I feel like he is so much more active than Riley was, and of course it's always reassuring feeling him move.
• Today marked my 16th weekly progesterone shot (taken to prevent pre-term labor). When I started these at 16 weeks and was told I would be given 20 total, it seemed as though it would be forever before reaching that number 20 (at 36 weeks). Now there are only 4 left!!
• Baby boy's room is finally painted (no more lavender) and the bedding is all set up! I just need to find some decorative pieces to fill the room.


• Oh, and baby boy now has an official name...Braden Edward!!