Happy New Year!

Woooo, almost 2008! It's crazy how fast time flies when you're knee deep in bottles, strained peas (yes, Riley still eats baby food!) and onesies!

The holidays were good to us...we're both very lucky as our parents still treat us like 10-year olds on Christmas, getting us whatever is on our Xmas lists! Thanks! I made out like a bandit in gift cards and lotions and potions and whatnot...and Jim got tons of 'puter parts and otherwise good stuff! Riley got a bunch of new toys and some cool clothes...which is good b/c he's growing like crazy! Luckily, he's thinning out and growing taller these days, although he still has a nice round belly that he loves to punch and squeeze! He also likes to do the same to our bellies...which is um, not so gratifying for us, ha ha.

It's back to work for me on Wednesday (Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!) and after more than a week off, I'm still not ready to go back! ha ha. Jim has had off for most of the week too, which has been nice but of course, it was still a "busy" week at home chasing the litle guy around! Tonight, for New Year's Eve, we're making some yummy eats (pics to follow tomorrow!) and then tomorrow, we're heading over to the Pierces for a New Year's Day Potluck Brunch- should be fun, and I can't wait to hold Gibson in my arms again, b/c that little guy is adorable!

So, what's the skivvy on Riley these days, you ask?

1. He LOVES to dance and spin until he falls down...last night, he "stole" the tv remote and put on some Latin music and was going to town with his dance moves. He's a much better dancer than either of his parents, but that's not sayin' much, I suppose!

2. He's been eating up a storm- he will try ANYTHING! We went to a Spanish Restaurant on X-mas Eve and he pretty much ate anything and everything that anyone gave him- chorizo, celery, langostinos, shrimp, scallops, etc.

3. He's been saying a bunch of new words, but I doubt he knows the meaning of most of them- Belly (comes out like baby), NOOooo! (he does know the meaning of No!), Yes, Yay!, baba (knows that one too), puppy, Daddy, Mommy! Last night, we were watching the Sprout "Good Night" show and he walked around saying "Nina", which is one of the hosts, for about 10 minutes.

4. We haven't caught it on tape yet, but Riley LOVES Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline"...we sing it and he does the "Bah bah bah"...but of course, whenever we have a video (be it from our phones or the camcorder), the kid goes all Michigan J. Frog on us!

5. Laundry basket "rides" is totally the new horsey. He loves it.

6. Oh, and we seem to be through the looking glass with Riley's sleep issues...we've only had one night (he woke up and I guess was scared b/c he did this weird hypervenilating cry that he only does every once in a blue moon) where he slept with us in bed and he's been going through the night until about 6:30am! Yay, us!

Anyway, pics to follow in the next few days! Have a good New Year's Eve!

Some of my fave Xmas pics....

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve everybody...hope the holiday treats you well! Xoxo, Jim, Alison, and Riley too!

Pics of the Xmas mayhem to follow soon!

Giggles make everything alright

If these don't make you smile after watching them (turn up the sound!) then the Grinch has nothing on you.

The Great Sleep Experiment

So, as mentioned before, Riley has been a really bad sleeper lately...not sure if its his molars or what., but man, we've been feeling like it's the first month all over again! So, this week, we've entered into a new sleep experiment:

1. we gave him a blanket (I think he's old enough and our fears of something awful to be done with the blankie are "eh" at this point)

2. No more bottles after 6 pm...and even then, he's only getting about 2 oz. of milk during his "chill out" period

3. if he wakes up at night, we change him and just put him back in his crib and deal with the wailing (this is by far, the toughest part)! We made the mistake of getting him used to being held and cuddled to go back to sleep when he wakes up with a wet diaper...b/c when he was sick (and he's been sick a LOT this autumn), we would do this b/c, well, how could you not?

1st Night? 1.5 HOURS, that's right, hours of screaming. It sucked and Jim eventually went in and scooped him up and slept with him on the couch, so score one for Riley that night!

2nd night? I changed him, chucked him back in the crib and he only cried for about 20 mins!

3rd night? One little peep and he slept until 5:30am!

4th night? well, the little bugger is still sleeping and onlty made a little peep at 4:30. In fact, as I type he is snuggling with his blankie. Too cute for words.

Jim read online somewhere that there's a "2 night" lull...meaning he might be back to the same ol' same ol' tonight...but man, even with a cold (I'm sick), I feel like a brand new woman! And Jim has a little a spring in his step this morning too!

....Ah, I hear a little fussing from Riley's room! He's up and I'm off to work!

Riley's getting Dog Food for Xmas...

Yup! Forget toys, I'm just going to wrap up a bunch of dog toys and treats.

Riley finally managed to score a morsel of Maggie's food today. I thought I got it out of his mouth but he socked away a little juicy nugget to munch on..the little turd even clamped his jaw down when I realized he still had a piece in his mouth! That's one of his new tricks!- locking down his jaw as tight as possible when you're trying to get a peek at all his crazy new teeth or trying to rescue something he shouldn't be eating, like, um DOG FOOD??

Anyway, things are good, although as hectic as I guess it should be with 2 parents working and the holidays quickly approaching. I already realize this week will be a blur since I have a gazillion things to do at school to get prepared to be "paper-grading free" for my winter break...plus, I need to wrap presents, do my last minute shopping, bake cookies, AND address Xmas cards! eek. Well, getting back to Riley...he's doing good, a bit on the crazy side lately with his sleeping but realized this weekend that he has the "upper hand" so, we're going to slowly try and curb his whole getting up in the middle of the night (sometimes even before midnight!) NOT going back to sleep unless he's on top of one of us. He's running around like madman, loves being chased, loves to take our gloves, hats, and scarves out of our winter bin. He also has a particular penchant for two of my "evening" bags that are housed with our winter wear...which we think is hilarious b/c he walks around the house with one of my Mommom's sequined bags with such grace! He's been learning lots of new words but mostly he is just saying them as "repeats" not with much real meaning or direction yet. He does do YEAH! and OH NO...pretty good though!

Hmmm, Christmas should be interesting this year, I don't think he's gonna "get it" but I know he'll have a blast. Until then...hopefully, we'll get some pics up soon!

PS- Riley has apparently inherited his parent's "foodie" gene. He LOVES lobster ravioli, Brussels Sprouts, penne with vodka sauce. Oh yeah Boo loves the Ling too!

Happy Belated Birthday Dad!

My mom sucks....(well, she's sometimes a little slow on the uptake!) Anyway, Happy Birthday Daddy! We think you're the BOMB. Lovies, RILEY and Mommy

There's Gold in them Hills

Yes, Riley has discovered his nostrils. He sure knows how to make a dad proud.

First haircut!

Thanks Shalena!

Riley had his first haircut tonight, so for now, his mullet-y rattail (Jim likes to call it "hockey hair") is GONE! He was a total champ too, barely fussed at all!

Sir Pukes-A-Lot

Yup, Jim and I have inherited (or, I guess, produced?) THAT kid...ya know, the one that rides the vomit comet without warning? We've been puked on so many times at this point that what happened on Friday night ended up being just another day in the life of the Cook Crew. What happened, might you wonder? Well, Riley decided to unleash a fury of belly chud all over me in Target...that's right, I was covered from neck to toe in Riley's unwanted stomach contents. Needless to say, it was AWESOME...awesome in the sense that people around us just shuddered and gave us the "oh god, your life is sucking pretty hard, right about now, huh?" face. We were mid-checkout when the puke-fest began and when it happened, Jim just stood there with complete panic on his face and asked me what to do?...My response, well, he's not crying so let's just checkout and we'll take it from there. I mean Cmon', time is of the essence with me back to work and we might as well buy all of the crap we came in here for...even if Riley and I are covered in puke at the moment! So, after a very quick checkout and few heartfelt (and mortified) apologies to the Target Crew..I stripped down to what I could legally (and comfortably, since it was mighty cold out that night) get away with and then Jim whisked us and our bulging Target cart into the bathroom where we wiped down and changed Riley. I changed in to Jim's thermal while Riley got a new blanket of Jim's sweatshirt so, in true family fashion, the Dad guy is the one who gets the short end of the stick! Jim put all the pukey clothes in a target baggie AND gave up all his warm clothes so he could walk to the car in 40 degree weather in a thin t-shirt. I shudder to think how I would have dealt with this happening without Jim there- seriously, who's going to help a woman covered in vomit holding a kid who's covered in vomit and likely to spew forth like Mt. Vesuvius any minute again? After all was said and done, Jim and I just laughed...what else can you do?..and then realized that hey, he didn't puke in the car nor did he unleash the belly beast at home, so the minimal clean-up was nice change of pace.

Anyway, turns out Riley wasn't sick (a shocking change of events since he's been privy to every single cold/flu out there it seems lately!) as he passed out in the car and after a short night of a low-grade fever, he woke up ready to party on Saturday morning! He even let us sleep until 6:30...which for us, felt like we slept until noon! Good weekend...he played with his cousins in Nutley on Saturday and spent some time with Grandma and Granpda Cook and his aunt and uncles! Sunday, we just chilled out at home and Poppy came over to pick something up and take us out to lunch! Riley had his first sip of Manhattan Clam Chowder and loved it!

..This week, we're off to Florida on Thanksgiving for a short visit with my bros and my mom! Should be fun...especially since the weather is supposed to be in the 80's and my mom has a pool! Yeah! Pics of the fun (well, you can bet your sweet ass that any bathing suit pics of me will NOT be posted, tee hee) upon our return!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING in the meantime...

A few more recent pics for ya'll!

Playdate with DD! Aunt Karen visited last weekend and the boys had a blast eating oatmeal cookies and generally being crazy little guys.






This is a funny pic...simply b/c we were playing pre-bedtime and I mentioned to Jim that Riley was going to learn how to get in his toy box soon and within mere seconds of me saying it, this picture was taken.

Better Late Than Never....

Pics from Halloween!

Update, Schmupdate

Needless to say, The Cook Crew has been very busy...me with work, and Jim with picking up my parenting slack. Riley has also been busy REALLY learning to walk- he's getting good! We'll try and post some video of his steppin' later! He enjoyed his second Halloween despite the fact that Jim and I didn't decorate this year- didn't even have time to carve our pumpkin! I know, I know, what happened to my favorite Holiday? Well, 85 14-15 year olds happened with me going back to work, and an administration that "doesn't require" you to do anything extra-curricular which is exactly why I'm the new co-advisor to Student Council. Ugh. Plus, I was in Boston last weekend on my FIRST Non-Riley mini-vacation! See, it's NOT all work, work, work!

A few congrats are in order....BLAKE PETER CATALANO was born last week (Well, almost 2 weeks ago at this point) and he's adorable! GO TEAM CATALANO! We can't wait to meet him in person!

Somewhat quiet weekend this weekend, which is nice since we've either been dealing with a sick baby for the past several weekends or with a packed schedule! We did have a semi-surprise visit from Aunt Karen and Deville yesterday, which was great! I'll try and post some pics of the debauchery later! Those two are going to be the next generation of WWE fighters of they keep it up!

Later Skaters...

Vampire Chicken

as a follow up to Monday's post, people are not the only victims of Chompers McGee

Chompers McGee

Every day, we get a little log of Riley's day at daycare- usually, they jokingly make fun of his predilection for being shoeless, sockless, and pantless. (*he is quite the little Chippendale at daycare, although he almost always keeps his pants on at home) Any good guesses on his future stage name?

Anyway, he's been interested in (read: biting the living crap out of Jim and I) testing out his teeth lately, especially NOW since he's cutting all four molars at ONCE! Today's comment made both Jim and I laugh (of course, with embarrassment):

"Riley seemed very happy to be back, however, he did make several attempts to bite his friends today!".

Great, we have THAT kid. ha ha ha ha

Happy Birthday Dylan!

So, October, is a BIG month for our friends, family and their babies! So, we had (yet another) birthday party to attend yesterday! It was awesome (thanks for inviting us Dylan!) as it was at a farm in PA and we got to pick pumpkins, go on a hayride, meet a 3 week old calf, and eat the most delicious homemade ice cream we've had in a long time!

Anyway, here's a few pics from the day yesterday (of course, 3 year olds are pretty elusive so for some reason, we have no actual pics of the birthday boy, poop!):

Fun with Poppy

So, My family does this thing where they bang their index fingers on a table to make this crazy loud tapppity tappity tappity tappity sound. I believe it all started when we used to play cards (SCAT, for any of you who have heard of it) and to "annoy" my grandmother, everyone would do this on the table. Well, poppy is getting Riley started early...and they both LOVE every minute of it.

Another day, another earache

Yup, Riley's had another tough week/weekend. He has been awfully sick again with an earache. Luckily, this time I was the only recipient of a lap full of puke. Poor little dude. He does seem to be on the mend this morning though, since he was fever free for the last 12 hours, actually wanted to eat something and even shot us a few smiles/giggles! Wooo hooooo!

Anyway, as promised, here's a few of our favorite shots from Riley's birthday bash last weekend!


Birthday hats are for suckers!


Pinata TIME!!



Dinosaur Friends!


Mmmmm, CAKE!





It was a great day...although, both Jim and I felt like we barely saw/talked with anyone!

Houston, we have walking!

Well, the Bday weekend went well- pics of the party to be posted soon! However, Riley hit upon a major milestone this afternoon (mind you, this was after an exhausting, but fun morning in Avon walking for the juvenile diabetes foundation!)...he took his first steps! That's right people, he's on the move and he's taking charge! The greatest part of it all was that my Mom (Grandma Jan) was here to see it as well as his Uncle Woobs (Greg)...I guess he couldn't bear them going back home (Grandma to FL and Unc to Philly) without a proper send-off.

Happy Birthday!

11 months in the life of riley...


Brings us to a happy one year birthday!



And what 1 year old's birthday would be complete without chocolate cake?

And when I wake up, I'll be 1!

One year goes fast. Good night buddy.

He's a Real Live Boy!

So, last week (well, the last couple of weeks) we were all sick...of course, Riley had it the worst with an additive ear infection that wrecked his sleep schedule (lots of sleepless nights unless he was on the daddy/mommy mattress)and also, made him vomit. Anyway, having your "baby" (hey, I still have 5 more days to call him a baby, right?) throw up like a real big kid was awful and surreal. I kept joking (yes, Jim and I even joke around about our lives when covered in puke!) that he's now a real live boy like Pinocchio....I don't know why, but the fact that he upchucked just made everything all the more "real" again, for some weird reason. Anyway, after a weekend of constant attention and Tylenol suppositories (Thanks Mark for the good advice on that unfortunate event), Riley's fever went down and he was back on the solids! yay!

Oh, and a quick funny story about last weekend-

After Jim got puked on my Sir Sicky McSick, we called the pediatrician (we had been to see her that afternoon for his fever and learned he had a bad right ear along with the cold/fever)since he needed to take two oral medications plus Tylenol. Anyway, we learned that he would need to get his Tylenol suppository style, so Jim was off to the drugstore after a quick change of clothes. Well, he didn't change his shirt. In line while he was waiting to pay, there was a little girl behind him that kept yelling to her Mom at the top of her lungs, "I SMELL PUKE!!, I SMELL PUKE"...ha ha ha. Jim looked down and realized that his shirt was wet and he just stood there cringing. tee hee.

Hmmm, what else? Well, next week is Riley's birthday! We can't believe it's been a year already! He's not walking yet but is still feeling out the whole standing up thing without support so I guess it's just a matter of time, really. He can say "baby" and apparently points to two babies at his daycare when he says it, but Jim nor I have seen him do that yet. He just learned to say "beep beep" which is pretty funny b/c he does it at a real high pitch. He's been big into sorting items lately...the circle is his favorite as he apparently believes it's not hip to be square, triangle or starry. Jim and Riley play ball and he actually "gets" the whole "i throw it, you throw it back" game- which is kinda cool. I guess that's about it for now. No new pics as we've all been on the outs with this virus/cold thingy but I should post some soon as today we are going to Auntie Heather's baby shower and then next week is Riley's Dinosaur Birthday Extravaganza!

An update

NO witty title today, my brain is hurty. It's been a busy couple of weeks with me going back to work and all and Jim has been a peach in doing a few updates where he can but he's the quiet one one in the 'fam so I'll give you all healthy update on what's been going on in Cook Central.

Riley got his first shiner this week- after a good romp with Jim at The Little Gym, Jim dropped him off at school and no sooner did he pull outta the parking lot he got a call that Riley slipped and cracked his cheek/eye on a bookshelf. Poor kid...he's getting brave and trying to walk but is still a bit cautious. (apparently, not cautious enough, ha ha)

See my black eye? (well, it's more yellow gray at this point)



Riley is doing great at daycare- they love him and he seems to really enjoy it. Although, I did drop him off on Thursday (*I had off from school for Rosh Ha-sha-nah nah nah) for a few hours so I could get some work done and he had a total hypervenilating meltdown. It sucked, to say the least, and I stayed around for a few minutes to calm him down but his caregivers and I decided that it was best for me to leave. They were right- he stopped crying a few minutes after I left.

Deville turned ONE last week...wooo hoooo! Jim was teaching Riley all week to point his index finger to the question, "Guess who's turning one" for Deville's party and he did it umpteenth times only to turn into Michigan J. Frog once again. Riley sure is one independent little guy- he won't do anything on command if he doesn't feel like it. Or maybe it's just stage fright?

Deville and his cool new table and chompin' his cookie:


Dylan (my favorite picture):


Auntie Karen & Riley at the party:


Auntie Erika & the birthday boy!


Up next in the batter's box for first birthdays is Sir Riley...wow, time really did fly by quicker than I don't know what!

In bigger and better news...Riley has a new BFF to hang with! Mr. Gibson Pierce made his way into the world last Friday afternoon and he is an absolute cutie. Hip hip hooray to the new and improved Pierce Family! Liz made us smuggle Riley into the hospital room so Riley got to meet his new little buddy (He poked him in the nose).



This is Riley after a solid day or bday partyin' and hospital visitin':