8 on 8...

On this day, the 8th of February, our little Rylie is 8 now months old!!  We can't believe how much time has flown by already!  Her first birthday will be here before we know it (yikes - better start planning!!).  Since her 6 month visit, we don't have another doctor's appointment until she turns 9 months, so there aren't any new stats to share...I just wanted to post quickly to mark this occasion :-)

Rylie and I met with lots of friends at a play date this morning.  Perhaps one of these days she will figure out how to crawl by observing the other kids!  But, I guess there really aren't too many crawlers in the group...Rylie is one of the oldest of the "younger" kids, and the older kids are already running around!  She has been on the verge of crawling for just over a month now.  She just doesn't seem overly curious; is quite content just sitting in one place with whatever toy is near her...so I can't even bribe her to try to move (she just gets frustrated).  It'll come with time... she does LOVE to stand beside the couch, with us supporting her.  Perhaps she will skip crawling all together and prefer to cruise the couch cushions??  We shall see...

This afternoon, I took advantage of her desire to snuggle and decided to take a nap with her.  A 2 hour nap!  Didn't quite expect that, because in the past few days she has decided that she just needs 30 minute power naps.  But she settled right in on my shoulder and took a long snooze while I rocked a bit in the glider.  I usually end up not being able to sleep when she does this...instead, I check Facebook and e-mails... but today I was super tired and ended up snoozing quite well.  We both must have needed the rest!

Well, that's all I've got for now... I'm afraid if I blink, I'll be sitting here again writing a post about her first birthday party (and including pictures!).  Slow down, time...slow down!!

More {MAMA}razzi Adventures Today!

Well aren't you lucky?!  I don't pick up my camera for about a week...and today I get 2 photo-ops to share with you all!  After an awesome mid-day nap (for Rylie), we decided to call up Auntie Jenn to see if she and Cousin Jack would like to go to the park!  We met at Phillips Park...it was somewhere different for all of us.  Rylie and Jack got to try out the bucket swings for the first time!  And yes...it's FEBRUARY... in CHICAGO!  I'm not complaining, but where did Winter go?!  Take a look:

The last week of being a 6 month old...

I've been sitting on this post for a few days because DIY projects have taken over my life recently {more on those in another post}.  Here are just a few pictures and highlights from Rylie's last week as a 6 month old.

Here she is playing with her first pony.  He {or she} does not yet have a name, but I figured we can get to that later {I wonder what funny names Rylie could come up with around 2 or 3 years old or so}.  I do know this, though...we will try to keep her interested in this pony for as loooooooong as possible because it is certainly a lot cheaper and easier to clean up after than a real one!  A teenager could probably fit on this thing, right?!?!  :-)

Last Friday, Rylie and I had a playdate at our house with several of our friends.  Ha, the weather has been so nice lately that we probably could have organized this playdate at a nearby park or something {yes, a park in January!}.  I made some delicious Chocolate and Peanut Butter Filled Crescent Rolls and a Ham, Cheese, and Pepperoni Stromboli and a friend brought over some yummy chocolate cupcakes {Chris is still enjoying those!}.  Here are some photos from that playdate:

DuPage Children's Museum...

One of my Mommy Groups had a Meetup playdate at the DuPage Children's Museum in Naperville yesterday.  It is definitely somewhere we will be able to take Rylie for many years, as there is a ton of "big kid" stuff to do.  One day, we will look in to getting an annual membership so that we can go as often as we'd like.  But for now, we went to hang out in the "Young Explorers" sections of the museums and fended off the bigger kids (why do big kids never want to play with baby toys unless a baby is interested in it?!).  We also didn't realize that the Naperville schools are still out on vacation, so it was a little more crowded than usual.  Here are a few pics:

Rylie's friend Brextyn:

Rylie's friend Ava:

 Here are a few random photos of Rylie playing at home recently:

 Wish I had got her whole body in the picture above...she gets all the way up on her hands and feet into plank position.  Crawling is soon!

 Mouse loves this toy, too!  

 And one last thing.  My latest addiction is Pinterest.com.  If you haven't checked it out yet, you should do so asap!  It is basically like an online bookmarking site, but way better than simply categorizing a list of websites by their title, and only being able to access it on your home computer (like a Favorites tab).  On Pinterest, you all find a bunch of pictures that have to do with any topic you can think of (ie. Outdoor living space, kid's crafts, recipes, fitness motivation, etc).  These pictures then lead you to the corresponding website that contains the thing you are interested in.  It's cool. check it out :-)  I have made a ton of recipes lately that I found on Pinterest, and several crafts.  My latest Pinterest project (found a cool DIY site on there) is to make a headboard for our spare bedroom.  It certainly won't be anything fancy, just a couple of 2 x 4's pretty much...but hopefully it'll save us a little money and I'll love it that much more because I made it!  Right now, I'm just staining the wood.  Hopefully I'll be able to show you the finished project by this weekend!