The Riley Family

Here are some pictures from the past few days.

Jack has his first gymnastics class today! His class is at the same time as Kate's class. We have introduced Jack to coach Stacey a couple of times, so hopefully we will be ok with going in to the gym.  Jack wasn't thrilled to leave me for class, but started to warm up a little.  No pics this week of gymnastics, hopefully next time.

We have moved Will to size 2 diapers! I would have done it earlier, but didn't want to waste the 1s we had already!

Kate is 4!! We had an excellent time celebrating Kate's 4th birthday on Wednesday. Paul stayed home from work to make it extra special. We went out for donuts, picked up her cake at the bakery, had dino class, played outside, made cookies, and then had some friends over in the afternoon (after elem. school got out). Then on Thursday Kate was snack girl at school and got to celebrate a second time! Here are the pictures !

Lots going on this past week, and of course tomorrow is Kate's 4th birthday!  Kate had a spring concert  at school last Thursday. They sang 6 songs and seemed to really enjoy performing for the parents.  See links for pics at Picasa.  Easter was a lot of fun. We colored eggs (and hands) went on an Easter egg hunt in our neighborhood, and simply relaxed with our family and friends on Sunday. Will's appointment went well yesterday, despite all 4 shots and the rotavirus. He was grumpy yesterday though! He is about 1/2 pound lighter than Jack was at this time, weighing in at 13 lbs 12 oz. His weight is around 90-95% on the growth charts :). His next appointment is at 4 months, and after that he can start eating rice cereal.

We just posted some new pics to Picasa .  We are slowly getting over our colds.  Hopefully we will be 100% by the end of the week.   Will's 2 month birthday is Saturday!  Hard to believe he is already 8 weeks today.  His 2-month checkup (with tons of shots) is scheduled for Monday.   Any bets on his weight?? We are getting excited for Easter!  Unfortunately the weather doesn't look great for our neighborhood egg hunt on Saturday.  It has been raining and 40 the past couple of days, and even snowed yesterday!   Kate's birthday is just 1 week away, and she is thrilled.  We bought party favors today :). Jack has picked out construction hats (like Bob the Builder) for his party next month.  Jack is very proud of himself - he tells everyone that asks that he is going to be 2!

Kate - we had her preschool conference on Thursday and it went well. Mrs. Engel had plenty of good things to say about Kate, and even described her as sunshine in the classroom. She did not have specific things to work on but encouraged us to continue making writing/letters/numbers fun. Kate fell on the sidewalk on Thursday, so now has big scapes on her forehead, belly and hand. She is a tough girl - she didn't want to go wash off the scrapes but instead stayed out to play more. Jack - he is increasing his vocabulary. Some new words include Amy (our neighbor) and Stacey (his gymnastics coach starting in 2 weeks). We are working on colors too. Will - barely fits in any 0-3 clothes or size 1 diapers. We got out and washed all our 3-6 things yesterday! We continues to smile a lot and will giggle now and again.

Here are a bunch of pics from yesterday and the past few days.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Mike. Hope you had a great day yesterday!

We just can't seem to shake this cold! Maybe it was partly the flu - it is hard to tell. Even Paul was sick and stayed home from work one day! Now we seem to be down to a cough, and hopefully it won't linger much longer. Kate skipped gymnastics for the second week in a row yesterday!

Scout is now 1! We bought him a new collar for his birthday, along with a couple of new chewies. He has really calmed down in the past couple of months. He even gets to sleep upstairs at night now! He still loves to give kisses, which drives Paul crazy. He is a good watch dog and is great with K & J. They love helping take care of him.

It has been spring-like the past two days.  More pics and updates soon!

Let's see, what is new... Well, everyone has a bit of a cold this week. Kate skipped gymnastics on Friday as she had a slight fever and the sniffles. Of course now her brothers have it too. Will isn't too bad, but a bit congested, so he has been having a hard time sleeping and eating today. And there isn't much else that a 7 week old does! He is awake a lot more now, and loves to smile :). Jack has been talking a lot more lately. He can name some of the characters from the movie Cars, and he finally learned how to say please! He is really into doing everything himself, including getting in the car, getting into his car seat, then buckling his seat belt. He is also really working on getting dressed by himself. Kate is thinking about starting to go to the children's liturgy at church, but is still a bit scared to walk away from us and go with the kids. Hopefully we will see her friends next time and she will be a bit less frightened. Only 2 weeks until Kate'...

Here are the latest pictures from this week.

Here's the answer from our church bulletin. I thought this was fascinating... Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar. Based on the above information, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22); that is rare. Here's the interesting information. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! Here are the facts: 1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!). 2) The next time it will be a day...

Well, I thought that I wanted to move Will out of our bedroom so I could get more sleep since he is such a loud sleeper. We moved Kate at 12 weeks and Jack at 10. Will is only 6 weeks, and it was not a good idea to try to move him! We gets up every 2 hours - namely 1o, 12, 2, 4 and 6 last night :(. When he is in our room, and especially when he is sleeping next to me, I barely notice, but it was a lot harder when I had to walk to his room. Maybe we will try again in a few more weeks!

I think we are going to take the ultimate suburban living step and get a minivan this spring. Right now our top choice is a Honda Odyssey, and I take the kids to the dealer every month or so to climb around in one. I know the sales people love us :). Does anyone have any recommendations for/against a minivan or the Odyssey in particular? Thanks!

So right now Will looks like a little old man with his hair starting way at the back, but it is actually starting to come in already at the front! He has little fuzzies all over his head :). Right now it looks like it will be blond like K & J. All three had light brown hair will born. Will's is actually a bit curly! We will see what it looks like when it all comes in.

Does anyone have an espresso machine that is gathering dust on their counter or in a cabinet? Let me know and I'd be happy to buy it from you!

I am trying to upload new pics, but of course now that I am doing it, the Picasa site is down! Hopefully I will have them up soon. Finally - here are the latest pics .

Will has started outgrowing his 0-3 clothes this past week. We have moved him to 3-6 pajamas and pants. Most of his shirts and onesies still fit. It is amazing how fast these little ones grow!

Kate had a haircut last week, and got about 2 1/2 inches off. It still looks quite long, but is a bit more manageable. Perhaps we will go even shorter this summer, but probably not to 'short.'

What's new at the Riley house this week... well, it sure isn't spring yet! Another week of 30 degrees for a high, and snow forecast every day. We will see if we actually get any accumulation. Kate will be 4 this month, and she is practically counting down the days. She is just thrilled to be turning 4! Mrs. E, her preschool teacher, was out all last week, and K really missed her. Kate made her 3 different cards. Kate's ABCs have really improved lately, and she enjoys writing words out. We are working on phonics and sounding out words/letters, but that will take time. Jack is as daring and adventurous as ever. He has been climbing a lot more lately, especially into the bathtub, sinks, and going outside by himself. The funniest thing is that he will go get mittens and then go outside in footy jammies. Like a pair of mittens are going to keep him warm when it is 20! Happy 6 weeks to Will. He is getting bigger every day :). He has started smiling, which is great to s...