Five Months

It is so fun to see Riley grow! I feel like we come to know more of her personality every day!

Matching! Black Stretchy Pants Day

Ever since she was a few days old, this girl has been ready to sit up! Before she could hold up her head she would tighten her little ab muscles and grunt, trying to get in the upright position. But now that she is an unsupported sitter, she has decided it isn't all it is cracked up to be. So whenever she is sitting up these days, she'll slowly begin to droop to either side or backwards, feeling if there is something to lean on.

If there is something there that is even halfway solid, she immediately commits and goes limp into that position.

Whether it is comfortable...

or not...

is of no concern.

She is a total lounger :)

We'll have to have a talk about posture one of these days before scoliosis sets in. But until then...

We stopped on our road trip for some Taco Bell so this disgruntled girl could get out and stretch. We sat her up on this little wall, but she immediately started feeling around. When she realized my leg was behind her, she completely relaxed into this position and let us feed her. Ok then...

We have had the opportunity to go on walks regularly (California weather is spoiling me!). Riley has begun to enjoy them (as long as they aren't too long). After awhile she always seems to get into this position:
Left foot in her mouth
Right foot hanging over the side

This girl still loves food. She has tried everything we put in front of her.
Favorites: Mangos and bananas with rice cereal
Least favorite: apples and peaches

Although she has some foods that she obviously likes more than others, she will keep eating whatever it is we give her, and she hasn't intentionally spit out food out of distaste. She has gotten really good at eating baby food, and other adult tastes of food she enjoys 'chomping' on-she really gets her jaw into it!

She has a thing about water bottles. She can spot them across the room (funny, because sometimes she doesn't pay attention to us when we are super close to her, as if she can't see us. Hmm....) and as soon as she sees it, she WANTS SOME! She's even gotten pretty skilled at drinking out of a cup rather than a bottle! Water is her favorite, and if she could have someone dribble water into her mouth from a water bottle all day and fan her with palm fronds, I am sure she wouldn't object.

She has been expanding her noise inventory lately. She has scared herself by squealing with delight for bathtime. She does another noise that is hard to explain and duplicate, but I recorded it on my phone and when I play it back for her, she mimics it :)

My favorite is what we are calling the Black Lung Cough (inspired from Zoolander), where she has this very non-convincing cough that I think is more for getting our attention than anything else.

Despite daily reading session, Riley is still not an avid reader. She can barely sit still long enough to get halfway through a board book. If she can't put it in her mouth, she has no interest in looking at something for any length of time, thank you very much! But she has been more patient about looking at it if she is allowed to turn the pages. This makes for a new adventurous, albeit disjointed, story every single time :)

Family Scripture Study

This girl also has a keen curiosity coupled with about zero focus ability. The result is euphoric fascination in a new toy that lasts approximately 2.5 seconds before it is considered boring and tossed to the side. There is always a pile of discarded toys in her wake.

She still loves looking at The Baby in the Mirror

She still loves staring at her uncle Ben

We take daily walks to the nearby park and play in the grass and the sand. I love her little explorative foot :)

We just love this girl!

Sleep

It is amazing how much you can take something as routine as sleep for granted your entire life.

This month has been the craziest roller coaster of sleeping! The month before, we blamed the transition to the Pak N Play from the swing as the culprit for less sleep. This month, we have yet to find a sufficient culprit, but sleep has regressed considerably. So much so, that for a solid week she was getting up at 2am and deciding it was party time. For HOURS. Yes, of course a 4 month old would consider a large, darkened houses an exhilarating location... (?!?), but hours of partying with absolutely no one, you would think would be a slight let down, right?

Wrong.

The first few days I assumed some part of her daily routine was having a negative effect on her sleeping routine. It was brutal changing little things here and there, to no avail. But once I realized that no matter what we did, the results were the same, I was able to accept it as a phase and life was much better! She even got some extra tummy time in, and maybe there is magic in the air at that time of day (I wouldn't know, because I'm usually ASLEEP) because Riley was getting as close as she has ever gotten to getting up on all fours!

But thank goodness, by definition, 'phase' is a temporary thing.

This month also marks a breakthrough in good sleeping habits. It was one of those nights that she just wouldn't go down, and we were reading in our baby book that you should put down a baby when they first show signs of tiredness-eye rubbing, a tad fussy, etc-rather than waiting until they get overly tired. We were skeptical at best, but desperation is a good motivator. We decided to try it. We thought that at the very least, it would be a good habit for Riley in the long run, even if the transition was rocky. Sunday after church, we put her in her bed, told her we loved her, and left.

She was asleep in a matter of minutes, and she didn't even cry...!!!

It felt like we had discovered an answer to the biggest mystery in the universe, and it was AWESOME! It felt like we were floating on air as we cued the hallelujah chorus.
Since then, we are still delightfully surprised every time it happens, because honestly, it is way too easy to work so often!

On a normal day, she is typically up for two hours, then sleeps for about an hour and a half.  It is nice to be home with her constantly to recognize this pattern. When she was younger it seemed more sporadic, but it may have been more about both of us working and not being with her consistently to recognize a routine.

Passionate Ponderings

On Saturday afternoon, Chris and I were treated to dinner in return for Chris' website assistance. During this meal, the conversation turned to our passions. Chris had talked a fair amount about animation, and our friend had gone into detail about her many passions which fill her time. Naturally, eyes turned to me next to share what I am passionate about.

This has been a reoccurring prick in my conscience for some years now. I had thought about it here and there as I answered the constant questions as a youth of which school subject was my favorite, but the full scale problem probably emerged for the first time when I was in college and was urged to choose a major. I put it off as long as I could, but eventually a decision needs to be  made in order to obtain a degree.

The problem is, I'm not sure I have a 'passion.' It all depends on how the word is defined, but when I think of someone being passionate about something, I think about someone who talks about a given subject whenever possible, something you have strong feelings for and giving priority to that activity/thing over many other endeavors. I have loved many things-ceramics, fencing, drumline, jiu jitsu, tennis, running, creating comics, writing goofy stories, listening, to name a few-but can I call that being passionate about these things? I am mediocre at these things at best, and they have come and gone in the pastimes of my life. I've hardly strived to excel in any of these areas, and I definitely wasn't unusually talented at any of them. They were just fun to learn. Hardly anything I would consider myself to be passionate about.

As I have thought about majors, then onto possible careers, and even hobbies, this idea of 'doing what you are passionate about' has continued to plague my mind. There are many jobs and subjects that interest me. But I have become increasingly aware that I haven't been able to 'narrow down' these options into something I could viably put my heart and soul into and title it with something as intense as the word 'passion' infers.

Despite being a sore spot for conversation, not 'having a passion' doesn't seem to be that bad. I feel very happy in my life. I love the church I belong to, the family I have and feel satisfaction and joy from my day to day life of being a mother.

So what is the deal about having a passion?
Is it worth pursuing?
Is my potential being undermined by not finding a passion?
Am I simply assigning an incorrect definition to something I already have?

I guess what also bothered me was that I knew this person taking us to lunch would never accept 'being a mom' as a passion. She would consider it something that takes up your time, which detracts from finding your own true desires.
But if truth be told, if I had to say I had any passion, it would be becoming a mother. It has been the one constant dream I have looked forward to my entire life. At one point in my life I wasn't sure if I would have a family of my own, and that has caused some of the deepest heartache. If anything has caused deep, intense feelings in my life, it has surrounded being a wife and a mother.

I don't know if everyone would accept that as an answer. But that is the best answer I have for myself right now.

Star Wars Date

One perk to working at Lucasfilm is the films they play in their local theater. Employees and their families are welcome to come to free screenings of specific movies every week. We signed up to go to Star Wars Episode 7 even though we had already seen it. I mean, who would pass up seeing STAR WARS where STAR WARS was CREATED?! Not us!

So on Friday, I made sure Riley was happily settled with her gracious grandparents before heading down to San Fransisco. The drive was thankfully a cinch (basically stay on one freeway the entire way) and my favorite part was going across the Golden Gate bridge in the fog. I didn't realize I was on the bridge until all of a sudden the huge tower loomed out of the fog right ahead of me! So tempted to take a picture, but staying alive to watch Star Wars thankfully won out in the mental debate to take out my phone. 

I met up with my cute husband and we braved the rainy streets San Fransisco to peruse restaurants for dinner. We settled on Mediterranean food (the schwarma from Utah has bolstered our opinion of greek food tremendously) and enjoyed catching up with each other as we stuff ourselves silly with lamb and unexpected free dessert (the owner was being particularly gregarious that night). We waddled back to the theater while Chris explained the different statues and trails across the beautiful LucasFilm territory. 

Waiting in the lobby for the theater to open up

We were joined by David M., a long time family friend, and now a coworker of Chris, and also the screenwriter of the TV show Chris is now working on. Very neat! 

I was suspecting that since many of these people had at least had a hand in developing this film, it would be an enthusiastic crowd, laughing boisterously at the too familiar jokes and whooping when a shot they created flitted across the screen. 

But I was wrong. 

Almost completely opposite of what I was thinking, the audience was unusually quiet and polite as the beginning title scrolled, all the way until the credits rolled. Everyone stayed in their seats until the very last credit left the screen, and everyone clapped politely every time Lucasfilm was mentioned in the credits. 

Pretty cool.

The theater was great-there were no bad seats, it was nice and comfortable. But my favorite part was the sound-whoo! It was LOUD and it felt like you were RIGHT THERE amidst the characters! Loved that.

After the movie, we chattered consistently about new insights and speculated about future plots as we winded our way home on the non-trafficy roads (so nice!). 

We got home to find Riley had been  sound asleep since 8pm! Maybe leaving her with grandparents should be a regular routine... :) 

All in all, I'm glad we took the time for a date. I love spending time with Christopher, and this date was long overdue.

Rebel Legos

Chris having direct access to the Lucasfilm store, and an employee discount to boot, could be a problem...

He came home with a lego set the other day.

It is a spaceship from the Star Wars Rebels TV show, and it is awesome...!

It had six packets of Legos, separated in order to make the task of completing it more manageable. Ben, Chris and I each manned two of the packets as we took turns putting this bad boy together.

Here is the finished product-complete with moving wings, a trapdoor, a firing turret, a place to hang up the weapons, access to the bridge and a spring-loaded shooting laser (that just so happens to be a big piece of plastic, but still cool anyway ;) )

Have I mentioned that Chris' internship rocks?

Saturdays

Saturdays have easily become our favorite day of the week. Saturday used to mean all day work for me, but now it is a day that Riley and I get to play with Dad all day long!

We decided to go on a long walk, and we tried out Riley in forward position to see if she enjoyed it more than in her car seat. I don't know if she preferred either way, but she sure looked cute sitting there like a big kid.

Thinking Juices

The great thing about pacing around the house with a very awake baby at 4am is that it is a great time to get a talk together.

Talk for Sunday: check!

Now the tricky part will be getting enough sleep so I don't fall asleep on the pulpit...