Here Lately

We've been back from the beach for a week now and once the post-vacation blues passed, we've really hit the ground running on settling in as a family of four.  Being back home I have really been able to whip Riley into a schedule that works very well for us.  She's eating about every three hours, she's staying up and playing with us a lot during the day, she takes a good long nap in the afternoon, she gets a bath before her evening feeding, and then she sleeps for about six hours at night.  We even had a nine hour night one night! Of course, mamas don't rest as well as babies when they are checking on them every few minutes, do they?  She was scaring me!

Alli has decided she'd like to pick up taekwondo in her efforts to be a real live Ninja Turtle.  Ryan was a second degree black belt and my dad was a first degree, so I guess she comes by it naturally.  If you had told me ten years ago I'd be excitedly attending soccer games and taekwondo lessons for my little girl, I would have told you no way.  But here I am embracing who she is and not who I want her to be.    Thank goodness she likes horseback riding lessons.

We tried out a school on Wedington on Tuesday night.  It was a little fast-paced and a lot of song and dance for me, but I defaulted to Ryan.  He agreed and on the recommendation of a former high school classmate who runs a school in Dallas, we tried out Randy Edwards's school on Township.  Ryan really liked the structure better, and the girl who taught Alli's private lesson actually used to ride horses out at our barn!  Small world!

Alli walked in to the kitchen the next morning dressed like this:

 We're not excited or anything, are we?

This week I also decided that with only five weeks of Alli's summer left and six weeks of my maternity leave left, it was time to stop holing up in our house all day every day and time to start getting out more.  It's so easy with a newborn to just hunker down, but that's not much fun for an almost-third grader, is it?  So this week we hit the skating rink and invited two of Alli's friends to come swim at our neighborhood pool for the afternoon.  And Ryan took the girls by himself to the bowling alley on Friday while I was out.  Alli had a great time and Riley was a trooper.

Skating rink excitement

Alli also had her weekly riding lesson, where she cantered alone for the first time and continued to improve her jumping skills.  I cannot believe how far she has come.  And there's nothing I like more than a morning at the barn.

Friday night, our neighbor Valerie invited me to go with some of her girlfriends to dinner at Bordinos and then to Painting with a Twist.  I hadn't ever been to PWAT before, so I was extremely excited to try it.

I had a great time meeting some new women, getting to know Valerie better, and being out of the house for a while.  Ryan was super dad all night, sending me pictures so I wouldn't miss them too much, but assuring me that he was handling everything just fine without me.  Plus I created this masterpiece.

Saturday morning, we got to hang in as a family.  After almost a month of being in Little Rock and on vacation, we really relished some down time in our own house.  Plus, this little chicken has taken to smiling a lot.  Melt. My. Heart.

And Saturday afternoon, we had our ordering session with the photographer who took Riley's newborn pictures.  I can't wait to share them all with you, and I am so excited that we FINALLY ordered a canvas of the four of us to go in that gaping hole over the fireplace.  Woohoo!!  A bonus of working with the very talented Lisa of Lisa Mac Photography is that your baby's photo gets displayed at The Baby's Room in Rogers.  How wonderful is that?  On the way home, we had to stop in and see it.  And she was there, at the very top, in black and white.

Of course I browsed while we were in there, and I happened across this sweet little footie pajama set by Zutano.  Non-cowgirl ponies on girl clothes?  I'll take ten.