ONE MONTH

It's hard to believe it's already been a month. Time flies! For some reason, I thought having a second child would be like riding a bike. I've done it before, so it should be that much easier, right? Oh no. It's as if the moment Riley was born, all my "how-to" baby memories disappeared. I constantly find myself thinking, "how did I do this with Connor?" Plus, these boys are completely different. It was a struggle getting Connor to eat. It still is. Like clockwork, Riley eats at least every 3 hours - sometimes more. He's gonna be a big boy. I will say the two boys have one thing in common . . . Riley is such a happy easygoing baby, just as Connor was before him. I think they get it from me. Definitely.

The Next American Idol

Connor loves to sing, and loves me to sing to him. Especially when tucking him into bed at night. He does not, however, like an audience. And if he sees the camera come out to try to catch it on film, he becomes a mute. Surprisingly, while in Texas we were in for a real treat. Not only was Connor willing to sing to us, but he actually wanted to perform for the camera as well. And so I give you the following:

False Start

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

ABC’s

Days of the Week (a/k/a The Song With No End)

Five Little Monkeys

Roley Poley (which morphs into the more commonly known Hokey Pokey)

Sharing the Love

I am continually amazed at how well Connor is adjusting to being a big brother. He's so gentle with Riley and wants to constantly give him love and attention. And it appears Riley is enamored by his big brother. Of course this is a BIG bonus for us, since it appears just by getting some attention from big brother, Riley will stop mid-fuss to stare and coo at Connor.

On the Road Again

Daddy had to take some annual leave, and since I was still on maternity leave, we decided to utilize our time off and make a trek down to Texas. It was Riley's first road trip, and he did fabulous (depending on who you ask). I think he did great, considering the fact he's not even a month old yet, plus the time it takes to drive down there. Knowing we would be in town for the weekend, Aunt Judy had the brilliant idea to drive in from Fort Worth as well. So not only did we get to spend time with Nanny, Rea, Uncle Butch, and Arba, but also Granddad, Uncle Mark, Aunt Judy, and Kiery. Score! It was great that Granddad got to meet his new namesake, but unfortunately we missed out on a photo op of the two of them together.

Nanny bought a few goodies to keep Connor entertained while we were visiting, including water guns. Honestly, I think Daddy had just as much fun as Connor did. It sometimes took Connor a while to manage to "shoot" the gun and many times had operator error problems, which gave Daddy an unfair advantage. Besides that, Daddy has MUCH more experience with guns, plus he also doubled up against Connor. No fair! Nanny's next door neighbors bought a gift for Connor as well - a Soggy Doggy. He squealed every time he ran through it.

Monkey

When I saw Riley snuggling with Daddy, an image of a marmoset or spider monkey came to mind - just an iddy biddy baby, balled up and clinging to him. And so a nickname is born. Riley is our Monkey. Plus, look at all that hair!

Mother's Day

Connor made a project for me at daycare, and was so excited about it that he gave it to me as soon as he came home on Friday instead of waiting until today. However, I still got a surprise. Daddy surprised me with a box of strawberry cream filled chocolates (anyone who knows me should know how fast I snarfed those puppies up). As usual, my request for my special day was to just keep it low key and to go for a walk.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
For dinner, we gathered at Grandma and Grandpa's with the rest of the family. When getting ready to go, I went to put on the necklace I was given on Mother's Day last year. However, it was not where it was supposed to be. I started freaking out. It had been a few weeks since I've worn any jewelry whatsoever. I tried to remember the last time I had worn it, but my brain is fried. Childbirth will do that. Temporarily, at least. I really didn't want to have to tell Daddy that the necklace was missing, especially since he still gives me flack for a necklace that was stolen while I was Mexico 5 years ago. When I mentioned it to him, however, he didn't freak out like I thought he might. Instead, he asked when I last wore it, then said we needed to get going and he would help me look for it when we got home. After we ate dinner, we sat around in the family room opening presents. Just when I thought we were done with the festivities, Daddy got up and with the help of Connor, brought a huge bouquet of flowers to me, along with a little velvet box. You can imagine my surprise when I opened that box and found my necklace in it. He had Riley's birthstone (a diamond) added to it. So sneaky! While at Grandma's, we thought it would be fun to get a picture of Riley with his older cousin, Lexi (older by almost 4 months). Lexi didn't agree.

Going Home

After being in the hospital for 4 days, I was ready to go home. The nurses started asking us the second day we were in here if we were ready to go home. Although I was sore, I felt relatively good. Also, the food wasn't all that great, so the thought of going home to one of Nanny's meals was very tempting. However, I wanted to utilize every minute our insurance covered to "rest." I use that term loosely only because the door to our room may as well have been a revolving door. Regardless of the time of day - or night - the medical staff were coming and going on a regular basis. I haven't really had much good, sound sleep since Riley was born. Surprisingly, the nurses were shocked when I would ask them to take Riley to the nursery at night so I could sleep. Seriously. They were shocked that I wanted to try to get some sleep before bringing a newborn home? I was shocked that they were shocked. Looking back, I'm thinking I probably would have had more sleep if I had gone home, but hindsight is always 20/20. Daddy got our little boy dressed in his "going home" outfit while I packed up all my stuff. I had barely zipped up my bag when a nurse showed up with a wheelchair to whisk me out to the car that Daddy had pulled up to the valet drive. We loaded everything up, and away we went . . . back to reality.