STILL Obsessed

...with those pacifiers.

That's one in the mouth and two in each hand.

She's supposed to leave them in her crib, but this particular morning, she refused. And since it's such a cute quirk, it's a battle we chose not to fight.

So yeah, we're pacifists...

A Conversation with Riley/Communication Breakdown

Me: Riley, where's your eye?

Riley: [points to eye]

Me: Yep! Where's your toe?

Riley: [points to toe]

Me: Good job. Now, where's your chin?

Riley: [points to chin]

Me: Yeah! Where's your elbow?

Riley: [points to diaper]

Me: No...elBOW, not ElMO!

Full disclosure: photo borrowed from Flickr

Say (Cottage) Cheese!

These photos have no significance whatsoever except that last night, while Riley ate her bedtime snack, she pointed at the camera and yelled until I took snapped some pics.

Here are the results. I hope you enjoy them as much as she enjoyed her cottage cheese!

My Name's Matt, and I'm a Workaholic

Here's Matt at his mobile-making shop.


Yesterday, he worked from 8:30 a.m. until 10:45 p.m., with a short dinner break thrown in.

That's what happens when, oh, five commissions are due within a two-week timeframe.

Riley and I missed him, but we figure the return of his workaholic ways is one more sign that he's really, truly better.

note: my good camera is getting repaired, so you'll have to deal with second-rate photos for awhile. so sorry!

Bye Bye Baby Bach

If you've followed this blog longer than three days, you're probably familiar with Riley's energetic (read: wild) ways.

Few things cause her to STOP. And OBSERVE.

But something yesterday actually caught her undivided attention.

Was it a bird?

Or a plane?

No, it was Tom Petty performing on PBS.

And, by the way, she shimmied her shoulders. A lot.

(p.s.: no cable=slim pickins)

The Recipe

I swear, when I did that cookie posting, I scoured the Martha Stewart Web site for 20 minutes looking for a link to the recipe. Couldn't find it!

So I've typed it out. Here you go. Trust me (and Riley and the ex-co-workers): it's good.

OATMEAL-RAISIN CHOCOLATE-CHIP COOKIES

makes about 32 * Prep time: 20 min * Total time: 40 min

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) butter (unsalted) at room temperature
3/4 cup light-brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups raisins
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. With an electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.

2. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Add dry ingredients; beat just until combined. Add oats, raisins, and chocolate chips; beat just until combined.

3. Drop heaping tablespoons of batter onto baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies have spread and are golden brown but still soft to the touch, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on sheets; transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

4. Devour.

A word of caution: share with children at your own risk.

Chip Off the Old Block

Here's a shocker: I've got the world's worst sweet tooth.

I'd hoped I wouldn't pass it to Riley by :

1. (Somewhat) limiting my sweets consumption during pregnancy. (Assuming peanut m&m's don't count as sweets...)
2. Keeping all sweets from her until her first birthday.
3. Offering her stuff like clementines and cottage cheese more than cookies and chocolate.

Another shocker: It's not working.

Case in point: Sunday afternoon,* Riley & I made oatmeal raisin chocolate-chip cookies. The same cookies that, back in my days as a working stiff, always made my co-workers pretty darn happy. They made Riley pretty darn happy, too.

And then they made her CRAZY,** especially when I limited her to two spoonfuls of dough and three cookies.***

Uh yeah, the girl likes her sugar.

*Yes, I wear pajama bottoms on Sunday afternoons.
**By crazy I mean whiny, demanding, and generally cranky.
***C'mon, that's not overly strict, is it?

Can You Say, "Verbosity"?

Before our Christmas trip, Riley's vocabulary pretty much consisted of: daddy, uh-oh, ouch...and an occasionally mommy.

But then she was surrounded by five other little people, four of whom could speak.

Not to be totally upstaged, she suddenly whipped all these new words out of nowhere:

• night night (with accompanying wave)
• bye bye (also with a wave)
• doggy
• Elmo
• grandma
• ashes (as in, "we all fall...")
• down

Nothing like a little peer pressure to expedite those milestones! (Thanks Shea, Alex, Cody, and Will!)

Thought bubble: "How do I say the name of that annoying red guy whose face is on my stroller?"

On Wednesday, she ate through...

After 10 days of a flu-induced diet of saltines and Pedialyte, Riley's appetite has returned.

Here's what she ate today:

half a tub of cottage cheese (a 32-ounce tub...)
a bowl of applesauce
a strip of fruit leather
3 bowls of chili
a bag of Trader Joe's freeze-dried pineapples
two handfuls of dried fruit
a few bites of salad
a small plate of pasta
a few pretzels
2 clementines
a granola bar

After dinner, all she wanted (besides that granola bar) was to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

How appropriate.

Lucky You!

So technically, I only committed to a year of this blog thing.

But it's kinda morphed from a update for grandparents into my main way of keeping in touch with, uh, practically everybody.

So I guess I'll do it another year. Or maybe two.

But that means I need a new blog name. Suggestions?