Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Riley loved the St. Patrick's Day celebration in downtown Rock Hill this year.  This is a wig that he borrowed from Blake and Delaney who were with us watching the Irish dancers on stage.  A similar picture of Riley appeared on the Herald's online picture gallery.  He's pretty much a local celebrity now! :)                                                                                                                  A few weeks later, we welcomed Spring Break! Daddy celebrated by running a marathon on Sunday, April 1st in Knoxville, TN.  Riley and I made posters and though Riley didn't go along for the actual trip, he was cheering him on in spirit, along with Chris' parents (who had come for a visit several days beforehand).  We are so proud of his accomplishment and diligence in sticking with a goal and finishing it! What an amazing feat!

 

 Towards the end of our Spring Break, we took Riley to Discovery Place Kids in Huntersville, NC.  This is the best children's amusement place we have ever been to! Riley absolutely LOVED all the different stations and play areas.  Here are just a few of his favorites (which include riding the tractor, playing drums on the skillets, getting wet at the water table, and test-driving a boat).  He also got to dye and Easter egg, slide down mats in the toddler area, pick red "apples" which were really plastic balls from an apple tree, play doctor, dance on stage, steer a pirate ship, and ride a ladybug scooter. I highly recommend this place to any one with little ones! We'll definitely be going back.

 

Happy Easter! 

Today is Easter Sunday, such a special day as we remember how Christ died, was buried, and on the 3rd day he rose again defeating death and giving us everlasting life! Riley is still a tad young to really understand much about today.  He did enjoy the toys left by the Easter bunny though and certainly looked very handsome dressed up.  We went to Rodger and Melissa's house for lunch after church and enjoyed quite a delicious feast of ham, green beans, veggie casserole, strawberry pretzel salad, pasta salad, deviled eggs, and angel food cake with icrecream and fresh fruit for dessert.  Yummy! Riley got an extra Easter basket filled with goodies as a gift from Dylan and Brooke and an Elmo book and toolbox kit from Grandmama and Papa.  After nap, Riley had a grand time hunting for Easter eggs and shaking every one that he found to determine if it indeed had candy inside.  He was especially fond of the ones with Smarties and jellybeans! It's these special times with family that really make me thankful for the loved ones that I am blessed to be surrounded by! 

I can't end without giving a little update to Riley's latest accomplishments.  I'm so proud of his progress and all that he is learning and doing.  In fact, on Tuesday, he'll be officially dismissed from BabyNet services because his scores with gross, fine motor, and language skills are all in the average to above average range.  This has been such a wonderful program and has given Riley the extra boost and attention he needed to catch up physically.  Cognitively, Riley is continuing to amaze us! In addition to knowing all his basic colors like "yeah-yow", "bue", "geen", and red, he also knows brown, pink, and black.  Just this week, we heard him count to thirteen by himself, although I do have to note he started counting from four not one. :)  Most of the time, he can count to ten with little to no prompting and gets so excited about numbers seven and ten.  He's talking in almost sentences now and starting to put together pronouns like "my daddy" and "me".  He is using his fork and spoon quite well now and enjoys telling us exactly what he wants to eat.  Some of his favorite foods right now are cereal bars for breakfast, pizza, grapes, "berries" (blueberries), and of course, he still loves chicken (so we've learned to refer to most meats regardless of what kind it is as chicken in hopes that he'll try it and like it).  This has been such an exciting time and everyday brings something new.  What fun!!

1st "Semi-Big" Boo-Boo

Well, the first (of hopefully not many) trips to the doctor for an injury occurred today with Riley.  I received a call about 9:30 this morning at school that Riley had fallen while outside at daycare and hit his head.  The secretary said he may need stitches and thought I'd better just go ahead and leave and she would take care of finding me a sub.  My heart dropped into my stomach, even though I knew it was nothing life-threatening, it's hard to hear that your baby got hurt.  I couldn't really think straight to make plans, so luckily my dear colleagues came to the rescue.  My class would be dispersed once they returned from Related Arts until the sub arrived and Stephanie, my fabulous co-worker next door to me, would see about the plans for the rest of the day.

When I arrived at CPA, Riley was snacking on Fruit Loops in the front office with Ms. Lori and acting fine.  He came running up to me and gave me a hug. She told me how he had been pushing a red scooter on the concrete and had lost his balance and when he fell, he hit his head on the corner of the building.  The cut had stopped bleeding, but we weren't sure exactly how deep it was, so I went ahead and took him to see the pediatrician.  I was so impressed with how fast they were able to get us into a waiting room and seen by a doctor (it took only 1-2 minutes before they called us back and only 3-4 minutes after the nurse left us for Dr. Alexander to examine him). 

Luckily, Riley's injury wasn't bad at all.  The doctor cleaned him up, shaved part of his head, and applied glue to close up the wound.  Riley was a trooper! He squirmed a good bit and cried a little during the 5 minute procedure, but overall he was calm and cheerful the rest of the time.  And absolutely LOVED the red lollipop he received on the way out the door.

I'm so thankful our little boy is okay!  There are a lot of worse things that could have happened and I'm just so glad we had such great people taking care of us! I've told Riley that he's met his quota for the year, and he's not allowed to get hurt again.  Let's just hope he lives up to his side of the bargain!

Few More Favorite Moments from my Little Sponge

So my silly boy is up to even more funny stuff.  He's like a little sponge at age 21 months because everything that he sees or hears now, he soaks in and then will start repeating.  Here are just a few my favorite highlights from these past 3 months:

• Riley LOVES Sesame Street now and is becoming very proficient with his knowledge of the TV remote features.  He will ask for his favorite characters by name (it used to be Elmo and then Ernie, but it is now Grover or as he says "Grev-er").  He will then bring you the remote and wants you to fast forward through the other parts of the show to get to the part he wants to see.  When he was in his "Ernie stage", he would carry around his phone that Aunt Penny gave him for Christmas and would call Ernie  who would then say hello and do his characteristic "he he he" laugh.  Riley thought this was great and for the next few minutes, he would keep dialing Ernie and mimic his laugh.  Now whenever we say Ernie, he makes the connection to the laugh and does it on his own.   His other hilarious habit that he has picked up from watching Sesame Street is that he adores the Count and his "Ah, Ah, Ah" voice that he does after counting objects.  Riley will copy this now whenever he is counting.  It is so stinking cute! 
• It's amazing how much he is picking up from school now.  Besides being able to do the motions to the songs and fingerplays such as "Wheels on the Bus", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes", he has also learned how to dip his chicken into sauce like ketchup (we didn't even know he knew how to do this until last night at Olive Garden) and he loves running now.  He loves to talk about his friends names as he gets ready for school (like Abby, Flynn-ie, Maddox, Mason, Banks, and his teachers-Miss Haley and Miss Elaina).  We're still working on his colors though.  His class focuses on one color for a whole month and so far they have covered purple and orange with this new curriculum.  However, these days whenever you ask Riley what color something is, he always responds in a very confident upbeat voice that it is YELLOW! When the object we're referring to is not yellow we let him know that and his very next guess is GREEN! Those are his 2 colors that he answers every question with in regards to color.  He'll repeat the other colors like "bue" for blue and "ed" for red, but he doesn't really believe they exist right now.  Every morning on the way to school, Riley waves to Blake and Delaney's house and tells them "bye".  Unfortunately, they moved out of the neighborhood this past weekend, but they'll still be close by for us to get together and play with. Each afternoon when I pick Riley up from school, I ask Riley about his day.  Here's a typical conversation:

Me: Riley, how was your day?
Riley: Day.
Me: Did you have fun?
Riley: Fun.
Me: Did you go outside?
Riley: Side.   (Sometimes he'll add the word "bus" to let me know he climbed on the toy bus on the playground).
Me: Did you sing any songs?
Riley: Songs  (Sometimes he'll put his fingers together like Itsy Bitsy Spider).

• Last week at school, Riley had Spirit Week.  Here's a picture of his Wacky Hair day (see the Crazy Sock day picture above).  I think Riley had as much fun with it as we had dressing him up! Even though his spiked hair deflated less than an hour later. 
• Riley's new sport is basketball.  His Nan and Pappy got him a kid-sized basketball goal for Christmas and Riley loves putting the "bas-et-ball" "IN" the hoop.  He's getting better and better with his 2 point shots, but we still have a little ways to go on the 3 pointers.  Although, Riley does back himself up against the wall which is as far away from the basketball goal as he can possibly get, and then try and throw the ball "up".  He has 2 basketballs, but the smaller Nerf one is his and other one is for Momma or Daddy.  He's very particular about this.
• One of our most precious times together as a family is at night as we are preparing for bedtime.  We play and then read books (Daddy is a favorite reader because he does all kinds of funny animal noises that Mommy can't do), and then around 7:00, we tell Riley to give us a kiss.  He leans in and makes a smacking noise with his lips and then kisses Daddy first and Momma second.  Next, he turns out the light and we "fix our hands" to pray.  We say a simple prayer thanking God for our day and for our family and then we end with "Amen" which Riley promptly repeats in a loud voice before diving into his crib and cuddling up to Wally (the whale), Ruff (the PillowPet dog), or George (the Curious George Monkey).  It's absolutely the sweetest little routine in our day and I love every precious minute of it.

Fuzzy Toes Makes for Funny Pose

Here's Riley posed with his latest obsession--picking fuzz from between his toes! It absolutely cracks us up! He thinks he has to check between his toes each time his socks come off to see about the "fuss" that might be hiding in the cracks.  Then he'll use his little pincer grasp (Ms. Rachel, his Occupational Therapist, would be so proud) to clean them out. This new habit of his has helped make diaper changing quite an acrobatic adventure! Can't help but smile though.

Cherishing Christmas Togetherness

Christmas is such a wonderful season for so very many special reasons! Of course, taking time to honor the birth of Christ is definitely one of those.  Thanks to my mom for getting us this manger scene to share with Riley.  I'm also thankful for the extended time off from work and opportunities to spend time with family and friends.  The week before Christmas, we took a trip just the 3 of us to McAddenville (aka Christmastown, USA) to see the beautiful lights and listen to the church bells as they rang out familiar songs.  Riley celebrated the joy of giving with his class at CPA with their Christmas exchange and abundance of holiday snacks.  Chris and I were able to enjoy lunch together at some of our favorite restaurants (RuSan's and Meskerem Ethiopian Cuisine).  We also celebrated Edward's 30th birthday down in Charleston with his pirate-themed pARRRty! 

 On Christmas Eve we attended our church's kid-friendly 4 pm service that used the Nativity scene and hymns to retell the Christmas story.  Riley enjoyed the music and would clap after every song.  Afterwards, we ate Chinese at Lui Lui's in Fort Mill before heading out to "see the lights" (one of my favorite traditions as a child).  We found a great neighborhood in Rock Hill that went all out for a friendly competition and the top houses were quite a scene! Too bad Riles fell asleep halfway through our trip around down. Oh well, there's always next year! We put our tired boy to bed after putting out some cookies and milk for Santa.
The next morning, of course, was Christmas day! Riley noticed the toys under the tree right away, but chose to finish his milk before waking up enough to go and explore them.  We opened our stockings and then ate breakfast casserole and candy cane-shaped pastry.   Next, we curled up on the couch as a family and Chris read "the Christmas story" as Riley helped turn the pages in the book.  Finally, we took our time leisurely opening our gifts to each other under the tree.  In addition to the gifts from Santa (the Tonka trucks and Elmo doll), Riley received an animal sounds puzzle, outfit, Nerf ball set, and a few other little toys; but his favorite toy of all that he ended up spending the most time playing with was the Elmo sippy cups we got him! Go figure!

That afternoon, we headed over to Grandma and Papa's where we feasted on prime rib, strawberry pretzel salad, asparagus, twice-baked potatoes, and 7-layer coconut cake (and that's only after we had already nibbled on cheese straws, ham rolls, date balls, rum balls, peanut brittle, pepper jelly with cream cheese spread, and a host of other delicious treats and sweets)! I went with Kelly, Joel, and dad to see Mission Impossible at the theater.  On Monday, Edward, Amanda, Tripp, and Liam arrived for Round 2 of Christmas gift-giving. Papa diligently passed out gifts in the best order he could manage, while Grandma snapped pictures and made sure each gift was intact. Kelly and I had fun playing on our iPods, while Liam and Riley zoomed cars down the giant racetrack Uncle Edward bought us.  Meanwhile, Joel and his girlfriend RJ took the chaos in stride and narrated the events with funny antidotes. Tripp loved opening every gift and supervising what toys the younger 2 boys were getting.  Chris racked up with running wear, while Edward collected Polo shirts in every color of the rainbow!

We began the next phase of our vacation the next day by traveling to Indiana and spending a few nights with Nan and Pap before heading to Ohio.  We were able to meet up with Anderson and have him stay with us in Yorktown for a day.  Grandma and Grandpa Condra, Charla and Chelsea, and even Ben, Brandy, Lucy and Alice were able to drop by for a visit on Thursday to see all the kiddies. Highlights included hearing Grandpa's stories about his childhood, the cousins' bathtime, pork tenderloin sandwiches, Arlo being constantly harrassed by 2 little boys, and enjoying time together.  The following day, we made our way to Toledo for the official Fisher Christmas exchange.  Once we had everyone together on Saturday, we had a wonderful time opening gifts again.  Riley loved his keyboard; Chris loved his new hat; and I loved my Zumba Wii game. As the night came to a close, we were able to ring in the new year with games, fancy hats, and a champagne toast.  

Christmas 2011 was full of wonderful memories that will be cherished for many years to come!

Random Moments I Still Want to Remember

 Here is our little man all dressed up for church on a recent Sunday morning.  (He doesn't pause very much anymore for a picture, so this was a walking action shot in the kitchen.) Riley really enjoys going to the nursery there and playing with some of the other boys and girls.  The nursery workers always say he is well-behaved and just last week the one lady who works for a preschool full-time was really impressed with his ball-throwing skills.  Maybe we'll have an athlete on our hands! You never know!

 Here's my little Tiger all-dressed up with me in our Clemson gear for the USC/Clemson game! We are a house-divided when it comes to college football and Riley is actually wearing a USC t-shirt underneath this beautiful Clemson jersey (just to please Daddy).  We all went to David and Brandy's house to watch the game and Riley had a blast playing with Callie and his football helmet.  Speaking of football, Riley has a little red and yellow Nerf football that he absolutely adores playing with right now.  It's one of his favorite things to get out of his toy box and toss around.  He hikes it back to about his ear and says something like "Three, Go" before he releases it to the nearest person or target. 

 Another one of Riley's recent games includes going to his toy box or basket of books and collecting a handful of objects to go and give to one of us.  He'll want you to hold the wide array of objects before he ultimately decides he has given you enough items and is ready to escort them all the way across the room and put them on top of his toy box.  Then the little game begins all over again and continues for usually 2 or 3 more rounds before he decides to go on to something else.  Here's a picture taken just yesterday of Riley loading up Daddy with his latest precious cargo!

So, just to keep you posted, we still do have contact with Riley's birthparents.  Kristin e-mails me about once every few months.  Her last e-mail on Nov. 28th said she just wanted to say hey and let us know that they had moved to a small town outside of Olympia, WA and that she also had a new e-mail address because her other one had a virus and was full of Spam.  I replied back with a few pictures of Riley attached from Thanksgiving and let her know that I was thankful for the new address and wanted to send them a Christmas card and some pictures we had taken at Portrait Innovations (see pic to the left).  She just wrote me this week in an e-mail to say they got our card and his picture and love it.  They can't believe how much Riley has grown. Lily and Lex are excited for Santa and keep asking "How many more sleeps until he comes?".  Kristin said they are finished unpacking and like the new town and all it's history, but she hasn't even had a chance to thinking about Christmas shopping yet. It's nice to know that she still cares and wants to stay in touch.  I know that will be important for Riley to know as well!

We are enjoying our first full week of Christmas vacation.  Riley had his Christmas party at his daycare today and Chris and I were busy finishing shopping, wrapping gifts, and catching up on household chores.  But we did manage to get in a nice lunch at Rusan's suishi buffet and hope to take Riley to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant tonight if he's in a good mood (it's been a little hit or miss with eating out lately).  We're planning on taking him back to the Children's Museum and for a haircut on Friday before we start all the Christmas festivities (church service, gifts, seeing my family on Christmas and the day after, traveling to Indiana Tues. night and then going to Ohio for the Fisher Christmas/New Year's gathering).  Should be a busy, yet delightful next few weeks!

My Little "Turkey" says "It's Beginning to Look A Lot like Christmas"

   

Here's our little "turkey" trying to eat his bubbles (a.k.a. daddoos)! He loves to pop them with his mouth and nose and then run to the couch and wipe them off. 

We spent Thanksgiving in Union at Mommaw and Poppaw's house surrounded by some of the best home-cooking in the entire Southeast! Our delicious feast consisted of both turkey and ham, green beans and green bean casserole as well as a huge assortment of other fixin's: creamed corn, sweet potato casserole, collards, dressing and gravy, squash with onions, strawberry pretzel salad, macaroni and cheese, and dinner rolls.  And let's not forget the desserts--pecan pie, chocolate pie, chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin bars. Everything was absolutely wonderful and of course, Riley loved all the attention he received being the only "baby" in the house.  In addition to Mommaw and Poppaw, he entertained Grandma, Papa, Kelly,  Joel, Eliza, Rod, Tommy, Ann Marie, and Anna Caroline (who ended up being his most favorite  playmate).  As we let our food digest, we browsed the Black Friday ads (where stores actually opened earlier than ever before...Toys R Us at 9 p.m., Wal-mart at 10, and many others at midnight).  I was particularly excited to be able to accomplish most of my Christmas shopping online this year and still take advantage of the great Early Bird deals.

 

Once we recovered from our turkey-induced coma and headed home, we decided to get a head-start on Christmas this year.  So on Friday, we climbed into dad's truck and headed to Penland Christmas Tree Farm for our annual tradition of cutting down our own tree.  Riley loved walking between the rows of bright, sweet-smelling evergreens, but the uneven ground did have him landing on the ground quite a bit.  We stopped by the chicken coup as we dragged our "just-right" 8-foot tree back to the main building.  From there, we went for hayride pulled by one of Riley's favorite vehicles...a tractor! In fact, he was sorely disappointed when he found out he had to ride in the wagon part and couldn't climb up behind the wheel! Chris and I guzzled some hot chocolate as we tried to keep a hand on our adventurous toddler when we returned and then loaded up all our precious cargo! 

 Once home, I began to unpack some of the many musical decorations that Nan has supplied us with over the years and Riley had a blast pushing the on buttons for all of them and making them sing at all the same time.  I think he might make a fine conductor one day!  We waited until Riley was down for the night to put up all the decorations, and the final result looked something like this:

 We plugged it in the next morning and showed it to Riley and he immediately went and checked out the lights and ornaments.  Within just a few minutes, he had discovered a "football" ornament, "dog" ornament, "ball", and "dat" (pointing to a golf cart).  It is so neat to see how well he can communicate now and that he is taking such pleasure in identifying different objects.  One of our favorite words that Riley has learned recently is his name.  We have a special ornament with Riley's picture on it and whenever we ask him "Who is that?", he'll reply "I-ley".  It is so stinking cute! He can't pronounce the "r" sound at all, so he just leaves it off altogether. I have a feeling this Christmas is going to be even more full of wonder and joy than ever before!