Riley Hears a Who!

Hey everyone -

so i realize i have been quite the slacker with this whole blog thing lately . . . i really do love it. but it seems last on my list of priorities and i am sadly averaging about 1 a month for the past few months. i wish i could say that was going to change in the upcoming months . . .but i kind of doubt it. we have been battling the respiratory flu from hell for the past month, david is still on an inhaler, riley still using breathing treatments, and i am still exhausted!!! now with less than a month to go for the newest addition to our family, we decided that some much needed family fun away from the house was not only needed, but deserved. so we took riley to go see Horton hears a Who yesterday, and she loved it. not only did she love it and sit mesmerized thru the entire movie, it was actually entertaining for david and i as well. it was really nice to get out, and now with easter next week, i feel as if we are on crunch time as well to get a few more things done. david has been great with everything though, despite all of my hormonal roller coasters lately, but i think we are all beginning to feel the strain. riley's once peaking interest in using the potty has now disappeared to god knows where, she hasn't gone on the big girl potty in days. so we decided it wasn't worth the effort until after baby. she also really wants to lay down in the crib on occasion and tries to convince us that she need her binky for more than just bedtime . . . when we explain to her it's only for bedtime the negotiations start . . . " how 'bout blue binky?" "how 'bout pink binky?" how 'bout orange binky?" "how 'bout blue m&m's ?" i think you can see where i am going with this. we were hoping by gradually getting baby stuff out and reading lots of books about baby on the way would help, and it is, but i find myself wondering how she will react when baby is actually here. she is at that age where she is trying to test the waters, discover her limits, and her own sense of self, and i swear she is trying to figure out where baby will fall along with all of that. speaking of sense of self, she started the really funny thing the last few weeks. we have been teaching her mommy's name, daddy's name, her name, etc. and she really took it to heart. you can ask her "are you sad?" "are you hungry?" "are you enzo?" " are you a baby?" any question at all that begins with are you? and you will get a strong steady response of "no, i'm not (fill in blank), i'm RILEY!" as she pounds her hands on her chest. oh, to be 2 and realize that none of these things, and yet all of these things describe you, but no matter what, you are who you are. what a great sense of identity, if only we could all be so sure of ourselves.

Dodgeball Champions

hey everyone -

sorry . . . once again, long time no blog :) amidst david's crazy work schedule, crappy colds, and life my blog has definitely taken a back seat. also, our blog was kind of screwy, and i am not what you would call computer savvy, but kristin came to the rescue over the phone and helped me fix it. i'm sure you are all dying to know, what is this about dodgeball champions?? well a month or so ago our good friend lisa decided that we all needed to get out and do more things together as friends . . . so she chose a dodgeball tournament as our first event. two weeks ago lisa, dyson, kyle, sara, cam, and david ( hi, i'm 8 months pregnant, so no i did not play :) ) saddled up and made up a team of six for a fundraising dodgeball tournament to donate money to the red cross held at augustana. i of course came along and proved to be a great cheerleader for the Funkmasters, (we'll forgive you that team name lisa) along with dyson's parents, lisa's family, and cam's dad. we were soon dubbed the geriatric team considering we were the only 30 something team amidst a bunch of 20 year olds. man, are we getting old or what?? it was double elimination and while we started out looking really really good, we soon became winded and lost to the first team we played in a round of 3 games. after a brief rest the team was ready to fight their way back thru the loser's bracket, and fight their way back they did . . . along with crawling, diving, falling, wheezing, catching, throwing, and putting on a helluva good show all the while. everyone did great, but of course i have to brag about my husband who was soon named "the matrix" by one of the opposing teams for his amazing ability to dodge several balls being thrown at him at once. i particularly liked his dive roll move later on in the day, which saved him from being eliminated in the game, but took him a few seconds to recover from :) like i said, everyone did amazing, coming up with key throws and catches at crunch times to come back, after 20 games of dodgeball mind you, and WIN IT ALL!!! the funkmasters are the official dodgeball tournament champions of 2008 at augustana!!! we were all thrilled, it was so much fun to watch, and everyone had a great time playing, so kudos to lisa for coming up with the brilliant idea and following thru on it!! i can't wait to see what she comes up with for us to do next. after words, we all went out to celebrate the big win, cheerleaders and all, and by the end of our celebration, the champs could barely move, and we all had to get back to our kids/families and relieve our sitters, while those less than aged dodgeball losers i'm sure were all discussing where to go out and get wasted, we were discussing potty training, preschools, marriage, and all the finer important things in life. so in closing here's to being thirty something and still kicking ass!!!!