Vacation in Oregon May 23, 2010

The highlights and lowlights of the trip.

1.  River’s first plane ride with no crying.

2.  Riv tripped on the moving walkway in the airport and it ripped one of her finger nails off.

3.  Riv’s first trip to the ocean.

4.  It rains ALL the time in Oregon.

5.  We got to see Rob, Nicole, and Holly.

6.  We got to see lots of plants and tree which we don’t have in Colorado.

7.  All three of us were sick and Riv got an ear infection.

8.  We got to cook and eat dinner with all our friends just like we did in Madison.

The ocean is soooo big!

Oregon is bursting with life

At Nicole’s house in Eugene

Worn out with a fever and ear infection after the trip

Sleep Breakthrough April 26, 2010

I have lots of other things that I’ve been meaning to post, including birthday pictures, but for now I’ll just share this adorable picture:

I’m sure many of you are aware that River has not been the greatest sleeper in the world. There were months at a time when she would wake 5-10 times every night, and we were all exhausted. She never slept in her crib, and for a long time she wouldn’t even sleep in a room by herself. We have had some improvement over the last several months, but she still fought sleep and woke frequently. About a week ago, whatever developmental switch controls sleep suddenly and mysteriously got flipped. Since then, she has been taking two-hour naps by herself in her own bed without waking up (which she never did before) and sleeping 8-9 hour stretches most nights (which she also never did before).

I’m sure we’ll have occasional bad nights and setbacks, but I think we’ve finally turned a corner. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all this extra energy and time, but I can’t tell you how happy I am to have it!

Random cuteness April 6, 2010

The weather here has been very nice lately, so River and I have been doing some gardening. Well, it’s more like I’ve been doing some gardening, while she sits in the shade and supervises. Her brown sunhat is too small now, but she wore it once more just for the sake of pure adorableness.

River’s silly dad put his huge SpongeBob slippers on her hands, and she had lots of fun waving them around in the air.

“PLEASE can I play with the camera? Please? Pretty pretty please? With sugar on top?”

Happy Easter! April 4, 2010

River had fun this morning investigating her Easter basket. This isn’t really her first Easter, but since she was only two days old on Easter last year, the Easter Bunny didn’t put anything in her basket. However, her Nanny (my mom) gave her a beautiful Longaberger Easter basket, so she was all ready for the Easter Bunny this year.

“Look, Dad! There’s a bunch of stuff in here, and it’s all for ME!”

“Well, I GUESS I have enough hair now to need a cute brush and comb.”

“This new sunhat is pretty cool, but I don’t think I need to wear it inside, Mama.”

“Thanks for the new dress, it really is nice, but honestly I just can’t wait to try out the toothbrushes.”

This child certainly enjoys her food March 27, 2010

We continue to be amazed by what a wide variety of foods River likes to eat. She doesn’t always eat large amounts; she’s still an enthusiastic little nurser and gets a lot of nutrition from breastmilk. But she is happy to eat a surprising selection of solid foods as well. Broccoli, carrots, and peppers are favorites, as well as fried rice, Thai coconut milk curry, veggie and bean soups, whole grain bread, squash, tofu, blueberries, and tangerines. The other day I looked over at her and saw this:

She had easily consumed almost all of the lentils, veggies, and brown rice on her tray and was busy gnawing on part of a very strongly flavored blackstrap gingersnap. Her table manners may not be the best yet (hey, what do you expect, she can’t even use a spoon yet!), but she has quite a sophisticated palate for an 11-month-old.

Awwww March 26, 2010

This picture makes my heart feel all big and warm.

Poor little leg

A few days ago, I wanted to write a big post about how good River is getting at walking but I didn’t get around to it. Now, unfortunately, River isn’t walking at all, because she broke her leg. We’re not quite sure how she did it (I was only ten feet away but was looking in the other direction), but the leading theory is that she was climbing on one of the kitchen chairs and fell. It’s not a bad break and should heal very nicely.

As you can see from the picture, she’s doing just fine, but she does have a huge blue cast on her leg. She can crawl in a very awkward-looking fashion, but she’ll have to take a short hiatus in her walking practice until the cast comes off in four weeks.

First Steps February 23, 2010

Riv took ’em I few hours ago.

And some more new skills! February 14, 2010

This kid is learning and developing so quickly these days. Just today, River figured out how to point. She’s already pointing to things she wants so we’ll get them for her. I’m so excited about all the new communication that will be possible!

After learning to suck liquid out of her sippy cup earlier this week, she has now expanded that skill set to include sucking water out of my water bottle. This is more impressive than it probably sounds, since she has to bite on the mouthpiece and then suck at the same time in order to get water out. I really didn’t expect her to figure it out for a long, long time, but she’s full of surprises. Unfortunately, she doesn’t really swallow much of the water. She ends up with a very wet shirt instead.

Another new development is that she’s getting very curious about the bathroom. She figured out how to unroll the toilet paper, making it even more important for us grownups to remember to keep the bathroom door shut at all times. Some of us don’t remember to close it, which has resulted in others of us discovering that River sneaked into the bathroom and was playing elbow-deep in the toilet. I really enjoy her curiosity, but I suspect that there will be many other occasions where it causes her to investigate things that I’d rather she left alone. 🙂

Doing new things February 13, 2010

Here are some new things Riv is up to:
1. Standing on her own for up to 15 seconds.
2. Playing catch with a plastic ball on the floor.
3. Walking while holding on to the chair.
4. Getting really good at feeding herself.
5. Making music in the bathtub.

Standing!

Its Blue Steel!

Christmas with the Neubauers.