The Riley Family

Ok, so these are from November 2006, but have been sitting in my inbox forever and I just had to put them up because Kate and Noah are so cute. Fast forward 13 years and they would be perfect Homecoming pictures.

Yesterday we started a new chore chart for Kate, and it is going very well so far. For each task that she completes every day, she gets a sticker, and each sticker is worth 5 cents. Her daily tasks are making her bed, brushing teeth, cleaning up her room, getting dressed, putting clothes in the laundry, and listening/following directions. It has been a good way to get her motivated to accomplish tasks that she should be doing on a daily basis. I didn't know that she knew how to make her bed, but she has been doing it the past two days and it looks pretty good!

Paul's cousin Adam and his wife Taraleigh welcomed their first child on Friday. Their son, Kilian Mackenzie Mason, arrived Friday 6/22, at 4:15 PM. He has red hair and is 20 and 1/2 inches long and weighs 7 pound 15 ounces.

Anjie's cousin Becky is just about to have a baby girl, and everyone is anxiously waiting her arrival. More info soon!

We went to our first Naperville Library picnic on the Riverwalk this week. It is a lot like the regular story time, with songs, books and puppets, but it is held at the Riverwalk Amphitheatre. We went with Jake and Luke (and of course mom, Cheryl) and really enjoyed it. It was quite busy, so next week we will try to get there a bit earlier to sit closer. Afterwards we walked around downtown Naperville with Mia, Noah and Jake. Pics at Picasa .

Our new neighbors moved in a few weeks ago, and we have been having fun getting to know them! Jake will be 3 next month, and Luke is 5 months old. It is great having more kids in the neighborhood.

Of course right after we start a Thomas collection they have a massive recall! We only have a few trains, but need to ship our James train back. If you have little ones who might chew on your trains, make sure you take a look and see if you have trains that are being recalled.

Tomorrow is Auntie Chris' birthday, but we got to celebrate early on Friday. Chris, Jason and Grandpa Bill all came up to hang out with us to celebrate with cake :). Happy Birthday!

Paul and I are very happy to announce that we are expecting a baby 1/24/08! The posts below are in chronological order, latest news at the bottom. I am trying to journal at least once a week. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5/15/07, Monday My eyes were so dry today. That was the first symptom I had with both Kate and Jack. Paul asked me this morning if I was pregnant :). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5/16/07, Tuesday I had planned to wait until Saturday to test. Then I decided to try Thursday (4 weeks) but after looking at the dates again, and having such dry eyes again, I just had to test. Positive!!! We are pregnant, and due 1/24/08. Wow!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5/29/07, Tuesday 5 weeks, 5 days. I am such a slacker on this journal already! Paul took a few days off over Memorial Day, so we were busy, busy this past week. I dusted off my old pregnancy books and brought them back upstairs. Funny how I can read the same material over and over. Paul and I have been ...

Kate started her new session of gymnastics class on Friday. She now has Coach Stacy, the same coach her taught her ballet class. Right now there are 2 other kids in class, Ian and Ella. Since the kids have all already taken a session or 2, they are moving ahead perfecting form and learning new skills. Pics at Picasa .

Wow, Jack is getting a lot of teeth at once. His first molars on the top both came in, now the 2 bottom are on their way, plus all 4 canines are getting close to the surface. So, Jack has been very grumpy. He hasn't been sleeping well at all, waking up at night, and napping poorly during the day. Hopefully this will pass soon!

Jack turned 14 months old last week! He continues to learn more things every day, and is really becoming his own person. He and Kate fight a lot more over toys, but we are hoping to get the sharing thing down :). Jack's very favorite thing is water - he loves to play with the hose, and with all these 90+ days, we have had the sprinkler/hose/baby pool out a lot!

We are planning a big Riley family trip to Disney World this October, so I thought we could use this site as a way to plan out our trip and get input from everyone. Some things to consider... where do we want to go on what days? What parks should we visit? Does anyone have their flights booked yet? Of course this is a work in progress! Things to do/reservations to make: play & dine with little Einsteins at MGM, bibbidi salon at the Marketplace for Kate 10/9, Tuesday Flights/drive to town 10/10, Wednesday Happy Birthday, Paul! 9:45 am breakfast for all (need to remember where) Dinner for P & A 8:00pm @ Blue Zoo 10/11, Thursday 10/12, Friday Dinner for P & A 8:00pm @ California Grill 10/13, Saturday 10/14, Sunday 10/15, Monday 10/16, Tuesday

We took Kate, Ben and Elena to the Brookfield Zoo on Friday (and little brothers, of course). The kids liked the animals, but just loved all the animal statues to climb on. We haven't seen any of the 17-year cicadas out here in Naper, but they were everywhere at the zoo. The noise was amazing! Pics at Picasa .

Jack has started taking much longer naps recently, 1 1/2 - 2 hours! It has been so wonderful! I can get some projects done, and Kate and I can have time together. Of course the timing is all over the board, sometimes he goes down at 10, sometimes 1!

Here are some pics from the baby pool last week at Picasa . We did go to the Ashbury pool yesterday, and had a good time. Jack drank a bit of pool water, but never cried. He is rather fearless about the water, where Kate insists on wearing her goggles.

We are going to try to go to the Ashbury pool this afternoon, we will see how it works! Hopefully the kids will all be easy to watch. We are going with Mia, Noah, and Jake, so it should be fun. It is supposed to be 92 today, so we have already filled up the baby pool too! The neighborhood pool doesn't open until 4pm because school is still in session. I will post pics soon - have some from the baby pool last week too.

Just like his older sister, Jack is very independent all of a sudden. He wants to do his own thing and is so animated about everything! He understands a lot, but doesn't always listen, that is for sure! So far he doesn't have very many words, but is using the grunt/yell approach to get what he wants. He does have words for Scout, Bella, daddy, mommy. He also will look at the right person if you ask him where someone is. The biggest problem we are having right now is that he will bite Kate if he gets mad at her. She still has a bruise from a bite on Saturday!

J has a bunch of new teeth coming in right now. It looks like his top canines and first molars are all coming in together. He has been grumpy lately! His top right first molar is in (6/4) and we will watch for others!

Kate had her first piano class today! She seemed to like it. Her first step is to learn her finger numbers (thumbs 1, pinkies 5) because they start learning to play by number, and then later learn the notes.