Ithaca

So, we went this past weekend to Chris's colleague Lynette's wedding in Ithaca, NY. It was a LONG drive out there, but we had a good time. Little Miss Riley stayed with Grandma and Grandpa in Windham and was on her best behavior. We arrived in Ithaca Friday afternoon and were invited to the Rehearsal Dinner Party at a local winery. The wedding on Saturday was at a tiny stone church next to an inn with a sprawling lawn about 30 minutes outside of the city. After the ceremony, the bride and groom led the wedding guests on this little trail to the inn for the reception party. It was a tough hike in my heels, but I figured that if the bride could do it in her dress I could suck it up. I needed new black dress shoes anyway! On Sunday we arrived back to Windham just in time for a huge storm that kept us stuck at the house for awhile, but finally made it home just in time for Riley's bedtime.

With a week of afternoon storms and sunny days along with us not being around, our yard was in desperate need of some TLC. Chris mowed today and I started to weed - my least favorite thing about gardening. I got through two of my gardens and have four more to do maybe tomorrow. The big ones were done today and I even have a few dahlias with buds on them. It's a little strange since they aren't as tall as they're supposed to be yet but I'm still excited about having some blooms in a few days.

Congratulations Lynette & Kevin 6/28/08
Happy Birthday Lindsay 6/30
and (in case I forget tomorrow)
Happy Anniversary Molly & Jake 7/1/06

So Strong

Riley has really been working on her leg strength lately and even held herself up the other day long enough for me to take this picture of her.










We returned home this afternoon after two night in Maine. Yesterday was a beautiful day at the beach. The water was a nice 61 degrees and Riley enjoyed putting her feet in. The beach was too noisy for her to nap at though so we headed home.

After a nice nap, Riley enjoyed playing with her new Taggie ball that Nana picked up downtown. Later Chris and I went out for dinner and a walk around town while Nana and Grampy babysat.
After a nice walk to the cove this morning to get a far off view of the new boat Tuuli, we headed home with a tuckered out baby in the backseat.

School's Out!!

Phew! School is out. The last two weeks seemed to stretch on forever even though I only had two classes per day once my seniors were gone. Perhaps they stretched because I only had half days. Anyway, we don't actually have much planned this summer which is nice and everything that we do have going on is going on in the next two weeks. Summer school starts on the 7th of July, but is only two hours per day so it won't take up too much time. Hopefully I'll be able to arrange it with my students that we stay longer Monday through Thursday and take Fridays off. That will help all of with gas and would be generally nice to have the shortened week.

Riley is enjoying her new rolling over skill, but hasn't figured out how to roll back yet. The thrilled "look what I did" face stays for a few minutes only to be replace with the "what do I do now?" cry until one of us comes over and fixes the situation. Then she calms down, rolls over again and the whole thing repeats itself. Also, as you saw in a previous post, Riley loves all bottles and thinks they belong to her. (She also thinks the remote belongs to her.) So, she tried to get Chris's beer bottle the other night. (Note that she didn't actually get anything - we're not giving our 5 month old beer! She just tried to get the rim.)

I'm eagerly awaiting my dahlias, but know I have quite awhile before I see any blooms. I have two mystery dahlias that I threw in the back garden to see if they would come up and I transplanted them to the front garden to take over spots vacated by tubers the cat killed. I can't wait to see what comes up. So far it looks like their foliage is lighter green which tells me that they won't be red. The peonies are almost done, though I do seem to have a late season bloomer which is just offering up its sole bloom and should be fully open tomorrow.

Roly Poly

Here's a rolling Riley!

Happy Father's Day!

So, we had tried a few weeks ago to give Riley her first solids. We tried with rice cereal and she really wasn't interested. I can't blame her - I tried some and it was not good. She also did not like butternut squash by itself. Upon the advice of Erin, we tried mixing the cereal with sweet potatoes. Well, that worked. Now she's excited about seeing the spoon and bowl instead of frightened by it and eats more every time we feed her.

Nana, Grampy, and Uncle Peter came down this afternoon for lunch and to visit with the tot. She was very excited to see them and went down for an exhausted nap right after they left. It's a crummy and cold day out today and it seems bizarre that only a few days ago it was so hot and humid. That's new England weather for you I guess. My garden is coming along; all of my peonies are in bloom right now so I took a few pictures to add to the side.

An additional Father's Day treat: Riley rolled over tonight for the first time right before her shower! She went back to front, and apparently she has to be completely naked to do it, but she went once before the shower and three times after. Yay!

Marshmallows

I'm counting down the days. My seniors are officially done, so I only have class the first two blocks of the day and am done with students at 1045. Hopefully I'll finish all of my work soon and can start preparing for summer school or next year.

The heat has finally broken. Riley spent two and a half days in just her diaper. The temperature has finally come down to a comfortable sleeping temp today. We finally got Cesky to stand still long enough today for Riley to take her first "horsey" ride on him. He's shedding horribly right now, so every time she tries to "pet" him she grabs huge chucks of hair. We also have larger than normal hairballs floating around the kitchen/dining room. I don't know what we're going to do about the hair once she becomes mobile. We still have time though.

My dahlias are coming along. I have had a few that have succumbed to rot. I'm a little worried since I had this problem on a large scale last year. My peonies are in bloom right now and I'm thinking they may be my favorite after dahlias. Their blooms are so pretty and they smell so nice.

Oh, and my laugh until I cry moment of the week: I overheard a student confess to believing that marshmallows grew on a bush and that they were then sent somewhere to be puffed up.














A hot baby on Tuesday.

So Hot

We are in an early June hot spot here in NH. It was in the 90s yesterday and today and feeling pretty yucky here on the pond. Riley doesn't really get it because she hasn't experienced hot weather yet and is generally uncomfortable and sticky. Right now she is trying to take a nap with only her diaper on, but having a hard time since we just put a fan in her room and it makes the green monsters in her mobile spin around. That it certainly more interesting to watch. Earlier today we took her down to the landing and went for a dip in the pond. She was wearing her new bathing suit which I accidentally bought a size too big, but it didn't matter. It was actually probably a good thing. It was hard to get the suit on her anyway - it would have been so much harder if it were the right size! She didn't seem to mind the water too much at all and really liked how it glistened in the sun. I didn't go in all the way since the water seemed cold, but now that I'm home and in my regular clothes again, I wish I had. Since the in-laws are out on the pond somewhere fishing, I don't have the luxury Riley does of hanging out in my underwear.

On Friday Chris took Riley out to Manchester to visit friend Jen and her new daughter Addison who is 6 weeks old. Next to Addison, Riley looks like a GIANT!

Five Months Old

Riley is five months old today! I noticed a big difference today when attempting to take her 5 month picture and I'm sure you can see the difference too. At 3 months she simply sat there with the sign in front of her. At 4 months she still basically sat there and fingered the sign. Today - she tried to eat the sign. I also wanted to do something different then the normal prop her up on the couch thing. She can sometimes prop herself up for a minute so I tried that, but by the time I had the camera turned on and the sign in front of her she was almost all the way over. Then I propped her in my lap and she tried to eat the sign. I couldn't get just the shot I wanted so I had to stop because the piece of paper was starting to fall apart from her spit and I didn't feel like going to make a new sign. Not that paper and markers is a big deal or anything!

New Hat

Nana sent Riley a new hat today for protection in the sun. The hat is big and protects her entire face. Yay for big hats!

Happy June!

Happy June everyone! June is a great month because it's when school gets out. I'm looking forward to having a little free time to spend at home with Riley playing in the yard and such. Of course I'll be teaching summer school again this year, but that's only two hours per day for the month of July. We'll be doing a lot of staying home due to the ever rising gas prices.

It was a nice calm weekend. I chaperoned the Milford prom last night and, unless I missed something, it was uneventful. I even had a bit of time today to do a little weeding in the garden. Unfortunately, I missed the mosquito that attached itself to my eyelid before it managed to bite me a leave a nice welt. It looks AWESOME!