8 months have come and gone...

Yesterday, Nov. 2, marked Riley's 8 month birthday. I made the mistake of telling Chandler that it was Riley's "birthday" and she got really upset and exclaimed, "But MY birthday is 1st, then Riley's!!" I had to then explain that it wasn't really Riley's birthday, but she was now 8 months old.

I know you've all been waiting for it... here's the 8 month picture.

Sure, she looks happy and smiley, but here's what we got when we tried to take pictures earlier this morning...

This was about the 10th picture. When I saw it I decided that she had had enough and we would try again later.

After some food and a good 3 hour nap she was in much better spirits, but we still had to work for these pictures. Most every other month it has been pretty easy. She smiles and I take the pictures, but this month Brandon had to keep her happy while I shot the photos.

Ahhh, the magic toy that made it all possible...

Riley did not have a doctor's appointment this month, but I know she is growing! She easily finishes off a 4oz. stage 2 jar, an 8oz. bottle and a few puffs at each meal.
Her new favorites are Cinnamon flavored Applesauce, Sweet Corn Casserole Baby food, Apple Juice, and stuffing her face full of puffs.


Here are a few other pictures from this past month's adventures:
We had a family date night at Logan's. Chandler ordered a salad with her meal. It made me laugh, but that's what she wanted. Basically she picked off the things she liked and left the rest. Here's Riley enjoying our night out...

She spent most of the meal scarfing puffs and tugging on Brandon's shirt.

A few weeks ago Chandler, Riley and I were at the mall. We were passing Claire's and I asked Chandler if she would like to get her ears pierced. She was very interested in the process of ear piercing... especially the part that might be painful. I told her about when I got mine pierced and when Aunt Erin got her ears pierced. We ran into one of the girls from the church and Chandler asked her about it. She decided after all of her "research" that she was not ready, but probably would be when she is 5 years old (in January).

We headed to the car (after some other purchases) and she asked me, "Mom? What does it feel like to get earrings?" I told her again that it hurts a little, but it goes away after a while. Then I told her that we weren't going to talk about it any more (I was growing weary of the topic already). I told her that I wasn't going to bring it up again and that when she is ready she will have to tell me and I'll take her to get them pierced.

I loaded Riley into the car, folded up the stroller and got it into the car (not an easy task!), and got Chandler into the car. As I was in the middle of buckling her seat belt she looks at me and says, "I'm ready." My response, "We can't go anywhere until I get you buckled in."
"No mom. I'm ready to get earrings."

Ok, at this point it is already after 5:00. I KNOW that Brandon will be home any second and be wondering where we are, BUT I did tell her that when she was ready we would do it. I unloaded EVERYONE and EVERYTHING and we headed back into the mall. I asked several times if she was SURE she wanted to do this and she assured me that she did in fact want her ears pierced.

We headed into Claire's (I had already made sure they could do both ears at the same time.) and she walked right up to the lady and said, "I changed my mind. I want red January earrings because my birthday is January 7." The lady looked at me and said, "Ok. Let's do it!"

After much squirming and lots of tears Chandler came home with her red January earrings and here's the proof....

It's not the world's best picture, but it was the best I could do. She was terrified that I was going to touch them!