First Halloween

Riley missed the baby Halloween party last Saturday at Nate's house, but enjoyed a party today at daycare, where he sported his peapod costume.













Diane took a picture of the kids today..Harrison (the Pirate), Jack (Puff the Magic Dragon), Kylie (the Wizard), Sophia (the Princess), and Kathryn (Piglet).










Sophia takes special care of Riley and always has a kiss for me when I arrive. Diane said she had a hard time getting this picture taken as all the older kids were out-of-sorts. Riley was the easy one, I guess.

I was disappointed that only about 25 kids come by the house this evening since this was the first Halloween in which we'd lived in a neighborhood full of kids. Maybe next year...

Shelby

a trip to seattle

Last week we made a trip to Seattle for a Browning family gathering at Shelby’s brother Dave’s house. Normally these gatherings are done at Christmas, but Shelby’s brother Brian and his family were in the US from New Zealand. So for the first time since our wedding the entire Browning clan was in one place together. It was also, of course, the debut for the newest member of the family…Riley. Aside from the unpleasant 4 am wake-up the trip to Seattle was uneventful. Riley tends to be a good traveler. The difference in time zones and presence of energetic young cousins made for interesting sleep times for him all week though. Even so it was a good week overall and our boy fit into the family well and was loved by everyone. Here are a few pictures:

Riley and Poppa

Grammy’s shoulder makes a fine place to sleep

Riley and Uncle Dave

Riley and Aunt Kristyn

Riley and Cousin Erika

Riley and Cousin Jenna

Riley and Cousin Daron

Riley, Momma and Cousins Thomas and James

The men watching sports

Riley and Momma have fun at the playground

A great shot at the pumpkin patch

Ooooh! I love that toy!

Riley going incognito

Daddy also got to have some fun on Tuesday with one of his fellow BOMB mountain bike ministry leaders. I got to ride one of the biggest hot spots in mountain biking, the North Shore of Vancouver. For more on that click here. Here’s a picture:

Jonathan at the entrance to ‘Corkscrew’

It was a good visit and a fun week. As usual though, we are glad to be home. The trip home on the plane was a little more of an event than the trip out. Riley started crying at a time when we figured he couldn’t be hungry. We were wrong (we fortunately finally found out.) The problem after that was that he wasn’t hungry for descent, and of course wouldn’t take his bink either. We felt kind of helpless seeing our boy grabbing his ear and crying as the pressure changed. Finally he took a few short drinks from his bottle and his ears cleared and he was OK. We’ll have to work on that timing I guess…

It was great to get to spend so much time with our boy. Now it’s back to the working world.

Jonathan

Riley is (almost) five months old!

Riley will be five months on Tuesday, 23^rd and since we’re heading to the west coast in the morning, we thought we’d get this one up before we left. He is taller than his pooh-bear now and looking more mature, especially when you compare this photo to last month's photo. This time around, taking his picture was much easier as he didn't fall over or slide down, necessitating multiple shots to get it right.

He's modeling his new “2007 Drool Sessions” shirt with the rock & roll drums-

This was him at four months...what a difference!

So, here’s the run-down:

Ø *He’s 26 in tall and 14 lb 12 oz. Our efforts to put more weight on him are paying off. He’s eating between 30-35 ounces a day with about ½ of that from formula. And, we're using more Oxi-clean on his clothes, if ya know what I mean. Blowouts were rare before formula -- now they're a weekly occurance. On a sad note, my milk supplies are diminishing by the week, so I suspect I’ll involuntarily have him weaned by 6 months. I’ve done all the things that you’re supposed to do to increase your supply, but my bod is just not responding. So, while I’m disappointed, I’m accepting what I can’t change.

He’s started tasting solids, so far he’s tried yogurt, carrots, brussel sprouts, applesauce, sweet potato and pear. I think he’ll do just fine when we go full speed ahead around Thanksgiving.

Ø *He still sleeps well from 7p to 6a, but we’ve had issues with him waking up about 30-60 min earlier in the morning. It's off and on. Putting him to bed earlier or later didn’t make a difference; I think he just doesn’t know how to soothe himself back to sleep, so we have to help him from time to time. This week was great – if he woke up, he just laid in there until I came in to get him. Here’s hoping that continues…

His daytime sleep is organized into two naps – one at 7:30 that lasts for about 90 min and another at noon that lasts for about 2 hours.

Ø He talks all the time now… We’ve been trying to catch it on video, but he gets distracted by the camera and stares at it. No wonder he’s outgoing, with J and I as parents. No reserved folks in this house, that’s for sure.

Ø His favorite game is “munch my belly and make me laugh”. The kid practically goes into convulsions when we do this. The neck is a good spot as well. We’ll try and get video of this one of these days. We're having “issues” with the video program for our handycam. Another move guaranteed to get him smiling is swaying your head right and left as you talk, sing or make funny noises. He loves it.

Ø He’s had a cold and possibly conjunctivitis now that he’s getting exposed to all those daycare germs. He takes it like a man and based on his mood, you’d never even know he was sick. Acts like his normal, happy self, just a little snottier…

Ø He still doesn’t like tummy time, but he can do it for longer periods now (meaning, more than 5 minutes). He prefers to play on the boppy, play in his jumper or stand on our laps. Who knows, he may be one of those kids that skips the crawling stage and goes straight to walking. He also loves to be outside; whether he’s in the stroller or the baby bjorn, he’s extra happy.

Ø He got his first haircut a couple of weeks back -- the back side needed a little trimming. We'll see if he has the fast-growing hair mama has.

Ø He’s got a favorite blankie now… a small white one I received from my best friend Kathy which was handmade in Berea, KY (lots of appalachian folk art there). It’s the perfect size and weight for sleeptime. Once I put it on him he either a) grabs it and pulls it up to his face or b) rolls over to his side, puts his fingers in his mouth and goes to sleep. Thanks Kath!

It’s getting harder to imagine life without Riley, it just seems like he’s always been here. Though it’s hard to juggle everything with work, family, home, church, etc…we wouldn’t trade this wonderful, crazy life for anything.

Shelby

fun at work with daddy

Childcare is a challenging thing at best. I don’t really like leaving my kid with someone who isn’t family, and I hate to see all that money go out the door (fortunately Diane’s is a good place and Riley is happy and safe there.) We faced a new challenge today though: Diane was sick and couldn’t work.

I got a call from Shelby while I was at my business networking meeting this morning. Since I knew that she was going to the doctor to have Riley’s “eye boogers” checked out (he’s on an antibiotic eye cream now and may have had conjunctivitis for the last week) I ran out to get the phone call. The good news: his eye will no longer be contagious as of tomorrow. The bad news: we had to figure out what we were going to do with our boy since Thursday is Shelby’s busiest day of the workweek.

It was an easy decision for me, since I don’t get to see Riley at all on a normal Thursday. He was coming to spend the day at the office with Daddy! The day was looking up. So I drove down to Danvers to meet Shelby and pick up my boy.

We had a great time today. He sat in his Bumbo seat and watched me adjust patients, we played (when I normally would have been getting office work done), I got to show him off at the hair salon next door, I changed a poopy diaper of biblical proportions (see description from Ghostbusters) and Riley got a couple of decent naps in. One of the funniest parts of the day was when I put him on a fleece blanket on the floor to play while I worked on patients. He became “High Energy Boy” kicking and waving his arms and talking up a storm. I wish I had a camera to take some video. His performance was enjoyed by all. We ended the father and son day with some quiet cuddle time just before Momma came to pick him up and take him home.

Thursday is generally my slowest day, so it was easy to care for my boy. This shows us that in a pinch I can take Riley to work and still function in my job (at least until he becomes more mobile, that is.) The most important thing though, (for Daddy) was:

This was my most fun Thursday at work ever!

I love my boy!

Jonathan

veggie boy

In our continuing adventures of trying solids, I gave him his first taste of veggies this afternoon. Did I choose something user friendly like um, carrots? No, I tried nobody’s favorite – brussel sprouts. I mixed it in with a little plain yogurt to help it go down. He made his usual face when tasting something new and opened wide for the subsequent bites. That's my healthy-eatin' boy!!

His face at the end of the "tasting session". If you click on the pic, you can see the eye boogers that we're dealing with right now:

Do I dare dream that my kid will eat steamed veggies with us every night? A mama can only hope.

I came across this picture of my nephew Thomas from 2001…he’s sitting in the same bouncy seat that Riley has.

I don’t know why, but thought that was kinda cool. We’re looking forward to seeing Thomas and the rest of my family this coming weekend – no one but my mom has met Riley. Can’t wait!

Shelby

trying out solid foods

We’ve started to give Riley some small tastes of “solid” food lately. Not really feeding him, but more just to get him acquainted with some of the new tastes. We’ve given him tastes of several fruits, usually with a tiny bit on a fingertip (he’s not crazy about pears) as well as plain yogurt. The video below is of Shelby feeding him a pureed mix of yogurt and sweet potato, which he enjoyed immensely. I have to say that as much as it was fun to feed him (I had my turn) I’m really glad that he’s still on milk / formula which takes much less time and effort…

Life is full of fun with our boy.

Jonathan

Acadia…pt 2

We hit the park with the Maine cousins for our 8^th anniversary trip. We look forward to this every year…the slow pace, beautiful colors, lack of tourists & hiking / biking / kayaking with Jon, Julie & Erica.

I was reflecting on having been here every year since my cousins and I moved to Maine and decided to put together a retrospective of our trips each year:

2000:

I didn’t actually go with the cousins that first year, but rather with a church singles group since I was new to town and looking to make friends. I met my friend Cathy (flute player in our wedding) on that trip and started my love affair with Acadia.

2001:

I have a distinct memory of 3yr old Erica asleep in the bike seat and head falling forward as we biked downhill. The kid never woke up. I did get one good photo of the Bass Harbor Light:

2002:

It was cold that year and Jules and I got up at 5am to catch the “sunrise” on Cadillac Mtn. We couldn’t see much due to the fog. I think with high winds that the wind chill was about 20 below. We left our car just long enough to take a picture and run back.

Thunder Hole was awesome that year…

Erica at Sand Beach

2003:

It was particularly warm - 75 at least. I remember it being the first year that I wore shorts and had no need of a coat at the top of the mountain. I caught a blurry pic of the cuzins as well as a shot of our favorite place off-the-beaten-path, Hunter’s Beach.

2004:

Jonathan and I met this year and were engaged by the time Oct rolled around, so he’s now in front of the camera and behind it, taking much better pictures than I could.

I like this pic of Jon and Erica a lot:

2005:

Our friends Ken & Lisa joined us on this year’s trip; unfortunately for them, it was the cold and rainy all weekend. The waterfalls and rainbows were beautiful, but that was about the only nice thing I could

say about the elements. J and I decided to drive 2.5 hours north to take a picture of the West Quoddy headlight, located in the easternmost point of the US:

Jonathan at the top of Bubble Rock:

Ken, Lisa & Jon:

2006:

Back to warm temps, clear skies …

Erica

2007:

The trip was quite different this year with Riley – didn’t bike, kayak or do as many hikes, but did just about every other thing we enjoy. But we have so much fun with him, it really didn’t matter. Working outside of the home makes both of us appreciate spending a whole day with our boy even more.

The weather was great on Friday through Sunday so we walked the shore path, had tea & popovers at Jordans Pond House, ate b’fast at Café This Way (a cool, artistic, restaurant that doesn’t skimp on quality simply because it’s located in a tourist destination), took Riley on his first hike and walked the carriage trails with my cousins and my aunt & uncle who joined us this year.

along the shore path

enjoying his bumbo seat

On the lawn at Jordan Pond House

Lunch in the cabin

mama and boy

Getting to know great-aunt Marilyn














Hangin' with Cousin Erica










Family shot at Hunter's Beach

We had a great time. I'm looking forward to next year when we can bring the bike trailer and Kelty backpak carrier and do even more with Riley-boy.

Shelby

acadia – pt. 1

Columbus Day Weekend is when we take our annual Acadia trip. As usual we had a good time, although it was different with our baby boy. We'll give more details on our trip later, but here are a few pictures to get things started:

Riley and Mom on the South Bubble

Riley's First Summit










Riley's View











Riley and Mom on Hunter's Beach










A different way to hike...











Jonathan