Jess, not sure what happened, but while you were at work, Riley managed to walk over to the computer, log onto her own blog, and post this video. She's such a tricky little love...Rams

A Trip to the Zoo and more...

This week Riley and I went on a trip to the San Francisco Zoo with our buddies Marcia and Gigi. It made me appreciate things in a new way and really gave me one of those "aha" moments in which I realized I am "livin the dream", as my husband would say. First of all, it was a free museum day, which occurs at all San Francisco museums once monthly and allows people like me to check out museums with Riley without paying for it...a handy thing for a mom with an unpredictable little one who my not be "into" the zoo on any given day! Second, it was one of those clear, sunny San Francisco days when I couldn't believe this was my city...blue skies, sunny, 80 degrees out, ocean view. Finally, it was a weekday, when nothing but moms were at the zoo, and Marcia and I fit right in with our little ones, just happy to spend the afternoon strolling them around and pointing out the sights. So, it was at the end of that day that I realized I have it pretty good if I get to spend my days like this with such a cool little kid on my hip!

Riley has been thriving as usual, shooting up like a bean stalk and yapping away at everyone in sight. She has mastered the art of putting everything into her mouth, continues to drool like a champ, and has of late begun to spook herself at night by rolling over in her crib from back to front or to the side! She absolutely LOVES to stand while we hold her little hands and I think she likes music a lot...we've made morning music and singing a part of our daily wake up call! She is still eating well and althoug

h some of her friends in our birth class are starting to eat solid foods, I'm holding off while I can as long as she is getting enough and I"m conveniently her food source! Most importantly, Riley has begun to really establish a bedtime routine...we bath her nightly (which she loves so much that she growls and coos the entire time...all the way through the lotion massage and pj time), followed by a book and a bottle with Daddy, and a goodnight kiss from us both. Randomly we decided to put her down hours earlier one day and found it to help her sleep through the night like nothing else. How counter-intuitive...put them to bed earlier and they sleep LATER??? Yes, she is sleeping a total of about 12 hours at night, only waking up once to eat. WE LOVE OUR LITTLE SLEEPER!!!

So, things are great here and we are just bouncing, singing, laughing, growling, and occasionally yawning through our busy days as Riley approaches 5 months of age...unbelievable.