officially walking - week two

here is some video we took of Riley today. her walking skills are already improving.

Nothing much new at the dojo.

The wheels just keep on turning at the Dojo. Riley gets just a little bit better at walking every day. It's more common for her now to choose walking over crawling for her inter-livingroom travels. Crawling is still the preferred method for long distance trips like the kichen and office. As time goes on we also notice that she seems to be pretty independant, if there's a football game on and she doesn't seem that interested she will wonder over to her toy box and play by herself for a bit. However, when the Ducks were playing CAL I was watching on the computer and she sat in my lap the entire 1st half and stared intently at the screen (true story). She is even getting pretty used to my yelling at the TV/Computer. Although there was less yelling and more cheering since the Ducks decided to actually play football this weekend. She seems to be coming along very well and she seems to be a pretty well rounded happy babus. Here are some random pics and a video from this weekend to keep the grand parents simmered down.

Krista was able to catch Riley doing some babbling, something she's doing more and more. It is common for her to see me and say "AAAAAHHHHH,, DAAAAA!!" As if to say, "Yes, my daddy's awake. Someone on my intelectual level." When I went out to mow the lawn today she began giving her mother a hard time, if Krista said "no" Riley would respond with an abrupt "Dah! Duh! Nana!" As if to say "hey lady, off my back." Of course when I say no it's gonna be a cry fest for about 4 minutes.



Riley still enjoys a good rough housing. She loves to crawl around on the couch and dive into the pillows. When she falls over I'll throw all the pillows on her so she has to crawl out...nothing but smiles.

the walkus of the babus

Riley was a little tired, but you get the idea.

Week 1 of the NFL Football Season

Football season is upon us which changes things greatly. Here is some new news.

1 - Riley is officially a season ticket holder of Vanderbilt Football. We thought we wouldn't have to get her a ticket until she was 2 years old but apparently the SEC has changed their rules so everyone, regardless of age, is required to have a ticket. Since this happened in the off season The Commodores have comp'd Riley's 1st year. So not only is she a season ticket holder, she is great at finding good deals.

2 - Riley, seen below, absoltutely loves to rough house on the couch. She bounces around and loves to fling herself off the couch so that I can catch her. I think some day she will be the 1st woman to complete level 1 on ninja warrior.

3 - Riley is almost walking. With her walker toy she is a maniac, back and forth across the living room with lightening speed. Without the walker she is still pretty unstable and she's averaging about 3 steps per attempt walking between mommy and daddy. We'll sit about 5 feet from each other and let her hol 1 finger, when she seems distracted we let go and see what she can do. She does fine until she realizes we are no longer holding on. The she falls.

4 - Her absolute goal in life is to get the remote control. Dispite the number of times we say 'no' to her. And, when we do say no the neighbors probably think we are using some kind of torture device on her as she screams bloody murder. (gets that from her mom)

5 - Riley is now giving kisses. If you say 'kiss' she eans in with her mouth as wide as can be. She also seems to give unprompted kisses that coincide with her mouth being full of baby food.

3 day weekend for some, 6 day weekend for the dojo

Here at the dojo we, from time to time, enjoy a little suburban couch crawling. Preparing for a performance on ninja warrior one day. What you don't see in this video are the cat like spotting reflexing of the dojo master, which scares the heck out of the mommy.

Disclaimer : No babus's were actually harmed in the making of this film.

The 6 day weekend started on Wednesday when daddy stayed home from work, went to the doctor and bromfidus and sinus infleption. I don't know what that is! Something to do with daddy's lungs. Then I stayed home on Friday with a double ear infleption. I don't know what that is either but it makes me crankus.

Here are some random pics of my playing with my puppies, chewing on stuff and causing a general ruckus in the living room area.

riley and the puppies

Riley has always had a fun relationship with the puppies. With her new acquired skill of standing, Riley has started to enjoy standing at the windows, hitting the glass, and yelling at the puppies, then laughing. They just look, mostly annoyed at her.

Recently we have noticed the three distinct puppy reactions:

Riku - the baby is annoying, but sometimes she's good to smell, and drops snacks.

Raimo - the baby is scary. anytime she moves, I must flee the area. she makes me very nervous.

Mikka - the baby is the most wonderful thing in the whole world. If I could follow her around and lick her all day, I would.