Teaching the Teacher

While playing with all our new toys from the birthday party (thanks everyone!) Ridley showed me that she's paying attention to me. We were singing "patty cake" and Ridley grabbed my hands and showed me how to patty cake (as I had done for her a few times)! Since I laughed so much about this, it's become her new favorite activity. She'll smile and laugh and grab my hands making me do another round of "patty cake."
One of her new books about Curious George visiting the zoo is filled with "touch me" textures (a a patch of a penguin's wing that is actual fur, a section of a rhino that is actual leather, etc). While reading it, we landed on the page with the giraffe. Ridley was missing the soft fur of the giraffe, so I took her hand and showed her. From then on, (and we have read this book a zillion times just yesterday) every time we get the the giraffe page, Ridley takes my hand and shows me the soft texture of the giraffe.
Amazing. This kid is amazing, right?

Sugar and Spice

Ridley's first birthday was great! We held it at Hugh McRae Park here in Wilmington and the weather was great (a little windy, but otherwise perfect). Aunt Tammi came over to the house early to help entertain and watch Ridley while Phil and I set up for the party. I had spent a lot of time prior to Saturday prepping for the day and Phil took care of packing everything up and taking it over to the picnic shelter. Unfortunately, the banner that I had made was all tangled when Phil went to hang it up. Poor man spent over an hour trying to detangle it! He ended up having to cut it up and retape it! But it turned out great. Just a little snag.
Then Grandma Pam and Aunt Taylor came to help set up and by 3:27pm (Ridley's EXACT birthday and time the party started) everything was set up and looked great.


Ridley arrived shortly after with Aunt Tammi in her cute color coordinated outfit. She had such a good time running around with all her friends and getting dirty. And wow, did she get dirty! It was a great time and a great celebration of Ridley.




For prosperity's sake, I'll repeat my facebook status on Ridley's birthday: "Happy Birthday, Ridley! Flip my whole life upside down why don'tcha?! Pinch-your-cheeks love ya!! Celebrating you and your 1 year old awesomeness and our feat of getting through the first year. ::love::"
And of course the post-party status: "Birthday party, year one: check. Clean-up?...tomorrow. Feet propped up on the couch after getting lil' one to bed: check! Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate and those of you who sent your love!"

Almost a Year and Walking Better Every Day

(Video taken a few days ago).

Today Phil and I brought Ridley along with us to a friend's wedding. I was originally going to get a babysitter, but after not being able to find one, we decided to bring her with us instead of not attending. I was nervous about it, but she did really well. The wedding was outside in their backyard overlooking the sound. Ridley loved seeing all the people, listening to the music and being able to show off her walking skills. I think she gained speed after tonight! She saw a dog at one point and really went running after it while yelling, "D'oh! D'oh!" [Translation: "Dog! Dog!"]

I hope she has that much fun at her birthday party. It's only 2 weeks away!

A New Way to Apply Diaper Cream

One day a couple of weeks ago, I walked into Ridley's nursery to find Phil applying some diaper cream during a diaper change. His method had me in stitches on the floor. He squeezed the tube directly onto her little butt and then squeezed her butt checks together repeatedly to spread the cream around.

I dropped to the floor laughing. Ridley didn't know what was going on and Phil insisted it wasn't that funny. He claimed he didn't want to touch her because the diaper rash was so bad he didn't want to hurt her. That may well be true, but it didn't make it any less funny to me (her diaper rash has since gone away).

Walking Around

Here's a video of Ridley walking around the kitchen. I took this about a week ago. She's getting a little more steady and can walk pretty long distances now. And she really is into everything!

On Her Feet!

Ridley took a few steps by herself today!!! She only gets to 3 or 4 steps before she starts to loose her balance, but it's very exciting! For Ridley too! She gets very excited and laughs while clapping her hands. Our excitement rubs off, I'm sure, but I also think she's really having fun learning to walk on her own. It won't be much longer now and she'll be Miss Independent.
Phil and I have recorded her walking a little back and forth between the two of us. I'll post it soon!

Familyfest!

This past month has been filled with family! What could be better? Aunt Christy and Cousin Titus came on their annual visit from CO for three weeks! We had fun on the beach and in the pool. Towards the end of their trip, we traveled to N. Wilkesboro to visit more family. AND THEN, after returning, our cousins Jessica, Amanda, Sydney and Alyssa came to visit the following weekend.

Ridley LOVED all the attention and commotion. She followed all the bigger kids around and learned all about cuddle-puddles!
Ridley is still learning to walk. She will sometimes walk while only holding on to one of my hands, but most of the time she wants the reassurance of both hands while she cruises. Her vocabulary has increased over the past month to: "bye-bye, dada, hey, hi, dog (sounds more like "d'oh"), duck ("d'uh") and NO!" Notice any important word missing from the list? haha She's not yet interested in saying "mama." Of course I'm usually always around and respond to "uh, uh uh!" so why bother with formalities?

I'm very excited for her first birthday party and I'm already brainstorming ideas for the day. Since her birthday falls on a Saturday, we get to celebrate on the day! I think I may even set the start of the party to 3:27pm.