The Riley Family

We bought Jack a twin mattress yesterday! He is getting a bed frame with drawers from our friend Ethan, and he is thrilled to have Ethan's bed. He seems to like the new 'big boy bed' and slept in it until 5am, nearly a record for Jack!

Kate, Jack, and Anjie are all getting flu shots this morning. Wish us luck!

Here are some pictures from last week at a Halloween party at church.  Kate went as a cowgirl, Jack in his Dracula costume.  Also here are some with their kitty, skunk and lion costumes.  

Wow, the boys were just one ounce off the same weight at 9 month check up! Height also very similar, with both H, W at 75%.

We are getting excited for Halloween, and hope to take some costume pictures today. The weather has turned fall-ish - cold and rainy, but hopefully will improve for next Friday's Trick or Treat adventure. Kate - Very excited about the upcoming holidays, and is counting the days to Halloween. We are still trying to decide between full and half day kindergarten. Most likely she will be in full day, unless I can find a bunch of families that want half day and we can get a class at our neighborhood school. Jack - Is getting much better at the potty. Perhaps it is due to his new spiderman undies. He seems to really care now if he has an accident, and he almost always wants to wear undies. Still, we are doing A LOT of laundry, but making progress. Will - is 9 months now. He had a doc appointment this week, and luckily only one shot -first half dose of a flu shot. We weighs a bit over 21 lbs already. (Kate didn't quite weigh 20 at 1 year, I'll have to look at Jack...

Here are some pictures from last week , including Paul's birthday celebrated with cake, and Jack's half-birthday - we celebrated by going to feed the ducks! Kate is learning lower case letters, and loves making lists. Jack is talking so much now.  It is fun to hear what he has to say. Will has been getting up crazy early lately, so has been taking and waking up for naps before 6:30!  Hopefully this is a short phase.   We are almost over a cold that has been hanging around the house for a couple of weeks.  

Will is able to stand and balance now, for up to about 30 seconds :). He is letting go of whatever he pulled up on, and will also walk around the room pushing a walking toy.

We registered Jack for the 2009-2010 school year at Wheatland Salem! He is super excited about school, and will go Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

We celebrated Paul's birthday yesterday - the kids loved picking out a cake and making cards. (some pics to follow).

We drove down to the city yesterday to see Paul's office and then hang out with Auntie Chris at the Lincoln Park Zoo.  We had a lot of fun despite the rain.   Here are some pics.

Here are some pics from the weekend , and one pic of Kate on picture day.

Over the past couple of days Will has made it pretty clear that he is done with baby food.  He simply spits it back out.  But, he is eating anything he can get his hands on, like bread, pancakes, squash soup, pizza crust - anything remotely squishy, he wants to eat.  And he loves water all of a sudden too!

Paul and Jack came home the other day with a goldfish! The kids are thrilled, and are trying to decide what to call him - Mr. Fish, Finn, etc.  Mr. Fish has finally started to get to like his new house, and seems pretty happy so far.

Will's 5th tooth is coming in - his top left lateral incisor. Its match on the right will be in soon too. Maybe after these come in he will start sleeping better!

Will loves to crawl around and explore outside, but just like Jack, he loves to eat leaves, grass and dirt!

Kate has picture day at school today. She is excited to pick out her outfit :).