My Morning

I swear we woke up yesterday morning and we were suddenly the parents of a toddler. No more baby. I had breakfast with this little mess this morning. And she was up to maximum cuteness this morning. I guess it was the messy hair.

she cracks me up

Happy Tuesday!

The One Year Old

It is wonderful to have a good friend who happens to enjoy photography as her hobby. A couple weeks ago our friend Christy took these photos of Ryleigh. I figured it was about time for me to post them.

one of my favorites

daddy's girl

she kills me

this is the face mommy gets when she takes ryleigh's cupcake away

I mean, I know I'm her mom and everything, but this is one seriously cute kid. And these are some fantastic photos. Thank you again, Christy, so so much!!

Birthday Girl!

Oh my goodness, we have a one year old!
(Yes, I am more than a week late with this post!)

Isn't she the sweetest?

A few stats from her one year check-up:

- 25 pounds 9 ounces

- 29.25 inches

She has six teeth. She's getting oh so close to saying a few words. Actually, she does if you count mommy & daddy translation. (ba = ball). She points at everything. She is so inquisitive and curious. If you say, "Are you ready to...?" She says, "yeah!" No matter what, she's ready. It's hilarious.

Oh yeah, and we had a little birthday party. 

A little annoyed with the birthday party paparazzi, perhaps?

Trying out a little birthday cupcake.

my sweet girl

present time

Super cute owl hat from Ryleigh's new BFF Olivia (made by O's mommy, Carin)

She started to get the hang of the whole wrapping paper thing

The look on her face cracks me up. Loving her new blocks.

Another funny one, she's so excited about these new sippy cups

Mimi and Pop visited for the weekend. We didn't do a good job of getting any photos with them. Oops! Apparently Pop was concerned that Ryleigh had too many stuffed tigers and no wildcat. When he and Mimi went to Toys R Us, he was on a mission. I'd say he hit it out of the park:

That's a pretty little girl

Look at that face! Good work, Pop!

Kisses!

We had a great weekend with our birthday girl. Looking forward to many more fun birthdays.

Another Milestone

One year ago, our sweet, tiny little 10 day-old daughter got a terrible haircut and headed into the operating room for the second time in her short life. This second surgery was quicker and "easier" than her first, but just as important. Placing her VP shunt.

Awesome haircut. At the time I didn't take a lot of photos of her 'do and the horseshoe  incision on her head.

Cuddles with daddy a day or two post-surgery

Even with the best surgeon, shunts have a fairly high incidence of failure or infection. We don't really like to talk about it, for fear of "jinxing" it. But one year, no problems, no infections and still going strong.

So, happy shuntiversary. And thank you little shunt for doing your job so well.

Five

Five years ago I went on a date with a guy. Kind of a lot had happened since then. But I think we still like each other...most of the time.