7 Months Old!

Happy 7 Months baby girl! This past month has flown by despite the sleep deprivation! Riley is a really happy smiley baby, especially when she's being held. She really is a sweetie but a pain at the same time. :) Riley continues to be really grabby. She'll go for anything and it goes straight to her mouth. It's funny to watch. I really have to watch her when I have food or something to drink. She grabbed some of my pancakes on Saturday and tried eating them!

We've tried all the fruits and vegetables. Her favorites are sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, and pears. Her least favorites are beans and prunes. We also gave her a chicken noodle dinner for babies. She only took a few bites. I guess she needs to get used to it. We've given her some ritz crackers and she loved them. She made quite the mess though! I plan on weaning her from nursing after she receives her flu shot and H1N1 vaccine. I'm guessing it'll be around December and she'll be about 9 months. She's not going to like it! Her night-time feeding will be the hardest!

I don't see any signs of crawling yet. I can't imagine having all three of them mobile. I can all ready predict that Mia isn't going to leave her alone. It's going to be a nightmare!

Riley loves her big brother and sister. She loves watching them play, fight, and run around. She gets so excited when there's a lot of activity going on. Riley loves to be right in the middle of everything. She doesn't like to be left alone.

Mia going in for a kiss.

Mia likes to grab Riley's shirt and pull her backwards until she falls over.

Close-up.

Enjoying the weather.

Watching Ethan and Mia take a bath.

Mia the pest.

Riley was in the walker first and Ethan did not like it. He threw a fit and when I didn't take Riley out, he climbed in there with her.

Help me!!

First time sitting in a high-chair.

This is why my paper towels are always so crinkly and wet!

Just getting started.

I thought I'd try out a head band.

Excited! She always moves her feet in circles especially when excited. Mia did this too!

Holding Ethan's puppy.

Dad let the three of them play with play-dough in the house. So that's where that blue spot came from on my carpet!

Great-Grandma Krause and Riley.

Grandpa Krause and Riley.

No Ear Infection Here!

Riley was pulling at her ears on Saturday morning, so I was thinking that she may have an ear infection. Maybe this is why she is waking up all the time? Riley and I went to acute care and spent the entire afternoon there. 2 1/2 hours (all the H1N1 school kids were there) and a five minute exam later, I was told that Riley does not have an ear infection but has separation anxiety from me. :) And how do I fix that?

The doctor gave me the "letting her cry herself to sleep" speech. I'm just not ready to do that. With her personality, I don't really think it would work very well anyhow. We are trying once again to get her to sleep in her room. It's not working very well. I do let her fuss for about 5 minutes before I pick her up in the middle of the night. The second I pick her up, she's quiet and falls asleep. The second I lay her down, she starts screeching.

I don't know what to do about this! It all boils down to her wanting to sleep with me. Mike wants her in her own bed. I told him that he needs to help me get up with her in the middle of the night then. He got up with her once, and she screamed bloody murder until I got up and took her. What to do...

Our Mini Vacation

We decided to take a mini-vacation to Minneapolis. Mike and I went to a Metallica concert on Tuesday with a bunch of friends. I can't say I'm the biggest Metallica fan, but it was a fun time! Our group had a suite, and it was a lot of fun! We stayed at the Radisson for a couple of nights. Our hotel was pretty fancy, maybe a little too fancy for us! :)

We spent an afternoon at the Mall of America. We went to the aquarium, which the kids liked. They especially liked looking at the fish aquariums. Ethan and Mia each got a toy from Toys R Us. Can you believe that's all the shopping we did?

Enjoying the fun car ride!

Quiet for the moment.

Looking at the sharks.

Say "cheese"!

Checking out the salt water aquarium.

Going through the aquarium.

Ethan fell asleep for the majority of our shopping trip.

Their favorite part of the trip.

Happy Birthday, Jude!

I have another niece! Jude Monroe was born on 10/09/09 at 3:46pm. She weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. She's a cutie! Congrats Sarah and Steve!

Night Owl

It has been a miserable month here. Riley has been waking up 5-8 times per night every night. It started as a gradual thing but escalated when we tried putting her in her own room. To keep our sanity, we moved her pack and play back into our room to see if that would help. She will sleep for about an hour in her pack and play and then she wakes up. The second I pick her up, she puts her head on my shoulder and falls immediately back to sleep. That is, unless I try to lay her back down! I give in and lay her next to me. She's pretty restless even when next to me, so I'm wondering if she's going to get teeth soon. She did sleep last night from 10pm to 4am in her pack and play! I hope she continues this!

Got Out of the House

On Friday, I met some good friends of ours at the Washington Pavillion. It's kind of like a science center in Sioux Falls. Mike stayed home with Riley, so it was the twins and me. Mia had a lot of fun! It didn't take her long to start running around and checking things out. Ethan really surprised me. He was very shy. He wanted me to carry him around or he wanted to sit in the stroller. He finally warmed up the last 10 minutes we were there and started running around a little bit. He actually had a scowl on his face for the first part of our little field trip. I always expected it to be the other way around! I'll have to take them when there aren't so many people there. I know Ethan would have a blast playing with all the stuff.

Playing blocks with Rhea.

Playing with blocks in the stroller. He wouldn't get out and sit on the chair.

Funky mirror.

The ball exhibit was their favorite. It sucked up the balls and they went through all these cool little things.

Mia waiting her turn to play with the balls.

Pick me up!

Mia, Rhea, and Ethan

Ethan and his Blankie

Ethan has become really attached to his blanket and puppy in the last couple of weeks. Every time he wakes up, he has to carry it around for at least 30 minutes. If I try and take it away from him to give him breakfast, he has a melt down! He'll also randomly carry it around through out the day. My little softie.

Mia, being the stinker that she is, will purposely take his blanket and run off with it. You can imagine how upset Ethan gets!

He let Riley hold his puppy, but took it away from her almost immediately.

Eating some pringles with his blankie.