Reilly Boone

(Could not get enough of the tent!)
We made it through our first camping extravaganza this weekend, and by extravaganza I mean one whole night, but for now.. it's all we need! Oh.. and by we, I mean Reilly and I, Jeff sat this one out, how nice for him. It cracks me up the amount of stuff required to take this kid anywhere, let alone camping..where one should be rugged and live off the land.. out of just a backpack, you know straight up Annie Oakley style. No! In tow on our one night camping trip was a playpen, two blankets, two stuffed animals, pajamas, set of tomorrow clothes, dex baby sound sleeper, sleep sac, toys, books, bjorn.. and then of course the diaper bag and all of it's usual suspects. However, I will say that my Dad brought their playpen so we didn't use ours, the sound sleepers batteries were dead, so we didn't use that, Reilly slept in the same shirt he wore up and sweatpants, did use the blankets but not the stuffed animals, so it's probably safe to say he could have roughed it.

(that little right hand corner is mine, the rest would be my high maintenance son.)


We were supposed to leave at 4:15 from my Mom's house, with Amy and Karen, but as usual, Amy was about an hour late and I had kept Reilly up through his second nap in hopes that he would sleep on the two hour drive, but now it was 5:15 and almost dinner time so he had to eat while we drove and stayed awake the entire time, then proceeded to stay awake until 10:00pm! In his defense, I did let him eat a marshmallow, which.. you try eating a ball of sugar the size of your hand and see if you can sleep! Not happening. And I didn't quite know how to put him to sleep in a different setting (my kid is ocd about his sleep.. CRIB only, no cuddling, no sleeping in my bed.. just his crib.) and how to put him down without disturbing the rest of the campers trying to enjoy some peace and nature (although, baby crying is natural!), so I just let him decide when he wanted to fall asleep and he decided around 9:45, making it the record for the longest period of time he has been awake, nearly 10 hours, 4 hours is his present max, but generally 3. Next morning he was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:45am, and didn't nap until nearly 1pm.. let's just say we got home on Sunday and now Wednesday he is finally getting back to his regular schedule. On the bright side.. he did have to sleep with me in the tent! Yay!

Not that you ever wanted to know so many details about him sleeping, but.. now you do. Aside from all of that, the kid LOVED camping! Loved every single part, loved standing in the playpen watching everything, loved the fire, the lanterns, the food.. everything. It was so hilarious to witness... definitely plan on doing this again in the next month or so. We went on a hike down to the river and he got to put his feet in.. loved that also, and played with sand for the first time. So much fun.. couldn't have had a better first camping experience. I'm pretty sure he was smiling the entire 20 hours (yes..extravaganza) that we were there, which made it easier on me as you can imagine how trying to camp with an 11 month old could weigh heavily on ones nerves, but it didn't, obviously.

Boys will be boys!

So I have to type fast, cleaning to do, Reilly is napping.. time is of the essence! Anyway.. Reilly.. TOTAL BOY! Holy cow! I grew up in a household of girls and only knew that CHILDREN acted a certain way.. no no.. girls act one way, what Reilly is doing is scaring the crap out of me. When he was really tiny I started reading "Bringing Up Boys", and quickly stopped, mostly because it was boring.. but the first few chapters emphasized that boys and girls act differently. For the most part, you don't see girls running around playing cops/burglars/cowboys/anything else you want to call shooting games, you don't see them covered in mud, you know.. gross boy stuff. Granted, yeah.. with my cousins I climbed a tree or two, played hockey and football.. but would I have rather been setting up an entire house for my barbies, and changing their clothes multiple times a day, or.. you know.. pouring food down my Baby Alive's butt to watch it come out her mouth (I guess that one isn't that girly), pulling tiny kittens out of a bigger kittens stomach..DEFINITELY! I also thought some of it was learned.. not that he would just.. BE this crazy! But I'm telling you.. he is crazy, and he is a boy through and through!

For instance.. he burps sometimes, all babies do it, he can't control it yet.. however, I've never seen anything laugh after their burp.. and then follow it up with fake burps.. also laughing. Ew! And until recently, if Jeff burped in front of him I would seriously have a knock-down, drag out fight with him about how it wasn't appropriate and I wasn't going to be embarrassed by a burping child.. but, now he does it, and he has only seen Jeff once or twice doing it, but never has he seen Jeff laugh. So.. I had to apologize to Jeff for that one.

Next up: Growling. Yes.. he growls. It's weird.. and cute, super funny to watch him and Jeff chase each other around growling. However, the other night I was rocking him and he would seem like he was sleeping peacefully on my chest, until he POPPED up and growled at me. WHAT! THE! HECK! And once again.. he thought it was funny and continued to do so over.. and over, he doesn't get bored easily-so.. it entertained him for quite some time, while I just sat there completely astonished wondering how soon I should get him exorcised.

A few days later we had his birthday lunch with his friends, two other boys and a baby girl. I was definitely comforted by hearing the other two mom's-of-boys talking about the babies tearing through their house, making messes, screaming, going nuts.. and then the mom-o-baby-girl talking about her little girl doesn't do those things and is mostly just..pleasant. Totally gave me a "phew.. it's not just my child" moment!

First Birthday - Vegas Style!

(getting them to look at the camera.. not happening!)
Now I know Reilly's birthday isn't for a couple more weeks, and I'm definitely not in any hurry to get there (although I'm definitely more excited than I thought I'd be!), but Rei had his first celebration with his little baby friends this weekend, and it was way too cute!

When Reilly was six weeks old I started taking him to the new mommy mixer at the Barbara Greenspun Woman's Center, near the St. Rose San Martin hospital. There were met quite a few people, four of which we have continued to hang out with for the past year about, going to gymboree, holiday events, libraries, etc. Two of the four are moving away next week though, Reilly will just have to get used to that living in such a transient city. Since all of their birthdays fall within two weeks of each other, in June, we decided they needed to have a little birthday celebration together, as they will be missing each others birthday parties! On Saturday, we had a birthday lunch for them at Rainforest Cafe at the MGM.. only in Vegas is that a 1st birthday lunch! But it was the best location because all of the animals kept the babies entertained throughout the meal, which for anyone who has ever tried to sit through a restaurant meal with a kid in a high chair.. not a fun time; each time there was a rainstorm all four of them started dancing or wiggling in some fashion and looking around at all of the effects! It was perfect!

The babies all had the opportunity to exchange birthday gifts, get a Happy Birthday from the restaurant staff, and even eat cupcakes! Thank you so much Valeria for bring the everything-free (gluten, dairy, eggs.. all that stuff!) cupcakes! They actually weren't bad, and for babies who had never had a cupcake, nor anything to compare it to, it was great! Reilly picked at the frosting for a few minutes, then went straight in and held the entire cupcake up to his mouth!

(saying goodbye to his friend, Dylan)
At the end of lunch, they said there goodbyes, which... although come 10 years from now Reilly won't remember it, it still broke my heart. Especially saying goodbye to Dylan.. Reilly has just gotten so excited to see him the last couple of times we got together, as opposed to in the past where he didn't know one kid from any other, he actually knew who he was and got so happy around him. It was definitely a bittersweet celebration, but we hope that Davis and Dylan both enjoy the places they're going, and we will definitely miss them! We are so happy that they got to have such fun memories together in their first year of life!



(one last goodbye while waiting in valet)

Child Dedication.

On Mother's Day, we dedicated Reilly at our church, The Crossing. It was something that we had been waiting a long time to do, especially considering it is only done there twice a year... Mother's Day and the Sunday after Thanksgiving. For Jeff and I, it was an important promise to make to our child, raising him in a Christian home and teaching him such values and instilling Christian morals into the way we parent and teach our children. So without getting too preachy.. it was something that we really wanted and felt we needed to do, and we did this Sunday!

Let me tell you.. this weekend was nuts! But I was expecting it to be, and just the same as it seems like every weekend lately, had everything ready to go by Friday! Saturday was Jeff's Birthday so Reilly treated him to Sesame Street Live, which they both LOVED and although we only made it through the first half, Reilly definitely lasted much longer than we had expected and got way more into it, dancing and clapping, and watching every minute, so cute! Saturday night we left the little dude behind and went out to celebrate Jeff's Birthday adult style, with a little sushi and Steel Panthers! Needless to say we didn't get home until after 1 in the morning, and had to be at the church by 9:30, so Mother's Day didn't come with sleeping in or breakfast in bed this year, in fact I woke up an hour earlier than both Jeff and Reilly to get ready and get the house/food ready for guests.. but hey, would it be Mother's Day if I weren't mothering?

The church had a sweet little breakfast before the service for the families and children being dedicated. Afterward we took our seats in the service, which- holy ready to leave Reilly in the nursery! His good friend Ava taught him the joy of jumping on the chairs yelling to the people in the rows behind us, but hey.. let them be little right? I thought it was adorable! During the dedication, all of the families stood on the stage for about 15 minutes, of course Reilly found his Uncle Tim, John, and Nick in the audience making faces to him, so he was making faces back, wanting to get off the stage to them, waving, pointing at them.. real nice guys! At least he kept people entertained I suppose.. little showman! We didn't make it through the rest of the service without Jeff and I dividing then meeting back up in the family room. After the service, we had some family and friends back to the house for a quick reception/lunch, and then took a much needed two hour nap!

I guess this year, Mother's Day for me wasn't about being pampered and adored (which Jeff.. you better believe you're making up for it next year!), but for me it was about something much better, and making a promise about what kind of mom I would be to my tiny guy, and I couldn't have asked for my first M-Day to have gone any differently!

First Dentist Appointment.

I know I'm like 8 years behind, once again, but.. figured the dentist wouldn't really take any time or effort to write, so.. voici!

Reilly had his first dentist appointment today! It was kind of fun.. he got the same treatment I get when I go, but on a tiny scale. We went to Adventure Dental on Flamingo and 215, just based on reviews we read online, and loved it! Dr. Richardson is the practicing dentist there, and is such a nice guy. He is really upbeat and fun, kind of what you would expect from a male pediatric dentist I suppose. The office is so nice also, I seriously want to decorate my bathroom like the one in the waiting room! Unfortunately the diaper bag was left at home so I didn't have my camera, or you know I'd have pictures of it.. ha. Lame. They also have a "Fast Check In", self check in on the computer, so I didn't have to fill out any paperwork, which was nice because I had just met Reilly there with his uncle after work and he was antttssssy to nurse, so was mauling me while I was trying to type in the information!

We got called back to the exam room immediately, which was very kid friendly. Colorful, yet modern also, with a TV screen playing movies over the exam chair for the kids to focus on. The hygienist asked me routine questions, then Dr. Richardson came in and examined Rei's four tiny teeth. Told me to get Reilly off of nursing pretty soon, which I'm totally motivated to do (believe me!), but easier said than done. (We are waiting until his 12 month appointment with the pediatrician to ask what he thinks would be the best source of nutrition once we wean him.. as far as milks go..). Rei wasn't a huge fan of the exam, but.. he had two strangers in his mouth and his mom holding his hands down, what person of any age would like that? However, it was less than 15 seconds. Then the hygienist brushed his teeth with a fun light flashing toothbrush, which Reilly loves having done, painted on some fluoride.. slapped a sticker on him (which I had to take off as soon as we were out of the office because he is allergic to the adhesive), made our next appointment, and we were on our way! So fast, so painless.. really great! Each appointment they take a picture, not sure why.. to see the kids' teeth? So a copy was printed out for us, and Reilly definitely liked picking a toy out of the treasure box at the end; by picking I mean me handing him to most unlikely choking hazard option.

So.. that was that, we enjoyed the experience. I definitely recommend Dr. Richardson and Adventure Dental!! And we'll be back there in 6 months!