The last 6 months with Riley

It's hard to believe we have a one and a half year old.  It seems like Riley's birthday was mere weeks ago, not months.  It has been so much fun to watch him learn and grow the last six months. 

Here's a look back on the last 6 months of LITERALLY the happiest kiddo I know...

 In September, Riley helped me celebrate my birthday.  He makes every day happier.

In October, we had a yard sale with Mimi and Papa.  We had to make sure everyone knew Riley wasn't for sale...but believe me, we still got quite a few offers.

The first "real" Halloween we got to share with Riley was a BLAST.  His first, we spent in quarantine since we had only been out of the NICU for 3 weeks.  2014 we got to dress up and go Trunk or Treating at CMA.  Riley LOVED being around all the other kids.

Riley has been working with a feeding therapist for the last 4 months.  It is very common for preemies to have oral aversion since they had so many tubes shoved down their throats for the first several weeks of life.  Riley, despite being a year and a half is still on a strained food diet because solids cause him to gag and throw up.  However, you eat a cookie within arms reach of him the next thing you know, you're not longer eating a cookie, but he is!

November brought about some less than fun times in the Knopf house.  Both Dan and Riley were sick.  You'd never know it from this picture, but they were both feeling really under the weather.  Riley was better after a few days, but Dan was sick clear through 'til Christmas.

These two pictures are by far two of my most favorite!

In December we spent some time with my mom's family.  We learned just how much Riley loves eggnog.  An eggnog mustache eventually turned into an eggnog goatee.

Can you imagine how fun New Year's Day was spent snuggled up with this happy kiddo?

Orange Cheetos puffs may be tasty, but we now know why his feeding therapist uses the white cheddar ones.

It may be my most favorite time of day.  Riley LOVES to be wrapped up in his towel after bath time.  He can get rather feisty when it's time to dry off and get dressed, but he's crazy cute when he snuggles himself up.

Riley is the most observant child I've ever met.  The fact that he actually fell asleep in the car, during the day, was a notable one for sure.  But we learned after 15 minutes in the car he is under the impression that his nap quota has been met for the day and the rest of it he insists on staying up to play.

 A few weeks ago we took a 4 generations trip to the park.  He HATED swinging by himself, but tolerated it when he got to swing with Mimi.  He wasn't really a big fan of the slide either, but he did enjoy playing with the wood chip ground cover.  Such a funny boy.

Riley, you are an energetic, fun, S U P E R happy little boy who loves to snuggle with anything soft, will snatch cookies from just about anyone, has yet to figure out what an "indoor voice" is, will insist we put on your shoes or slippers if you see them, and is happy to give kisses to just about anyone who asks.  We love you so much and have enjoyed just about every minute watching you grow...we could do with a little less projectile vomiting, but you'll get there.

A Monster Party to Remember

Riley turned one.  The reality of that statement just doesn't seem like it could possibly be true in any way, shape, or form and yet...he's is.  From 2 lbs 13 oz to 21 lbs, it just doesn't seem like we could have reached this point in his life yet, but we are rapidly blazing our way on into toddlerdom. 

With such a momentous year behind us it was a given that we would celebrate and what better way to celebrate our little monster than with a MONSTER BASH!!  Thanks to Pinterest there were a lot of fun ideas to glean from and some that inspired my own spark of creativity.  Here's how we celebrated our little guy, Monster Style!!

First off, no monster party would be complete if it weren't started off right with a couple of monster greeters.

 I found a Hawaiian luau lantern garland at Party City, cut off all the flowers, and turned the lanterns into monsters.  It was pretty much a fun day in my craft room with a couple packs of Dollar Tree googly eyes and pipe cleaner.  Doesn't get much better than that!

These lanterns were another Party City find and despite my failed attempts to turn them into individual giant monster eyeballs, this turned out to be a pretty cute alternative.

This was one of my favorite Pinspirations, monster watermelon + lime eyes + edible eye candies and you got yourself a fun way to serve a monster fruit salad.

I wish I could take credit for this stroke of geniusness too.  Harry, as he came to be known, was a brilliant idea that had my fingers all kinds of orange after an evening of cheese puff toothpick spearing.

This ranch cheese ball was by far the biggest hit of the afternoon.  It was mighty tasty and paired perfectly with the Ritz crackers. The monster candy body parts of orange slices and Red Vines were another fun way to serve some tasty treats in a monstrous way.

The macaroni salad was another new pinspiration that I tried.  Bacon Avocado Macaroni Salad with Lemon Tyme Dressing.  It really wasn't all that monster-like but it was a tasty addition to the monster palate.

Ice tea and Orange Punch (which was just orange-mango juice, 7up, and vanilla orange sherbert) were monster-fied with more googly eyes served in googly cups that guests marked as theirs by creating the rest of the monster instead of writing their names. 

 

Riley's NICU friend Luna was able to come to celebrate with us.  Due just 4 days apart, but both born in August 2 weeks apart, these two have known each other nearly their whole lives.  Luna brought her mommy Nicole, and grandpa Leroy, with her to celebrate with her NICU buddy.  Once on the floor, Riley wasted no time getting up close and personal which Luna didn't really know what to do with such an invasion of her personal space.

He kinda looks a bit confused when she needed to step back for a little bit of breathing room.

But after a while she warmed up to his touchy feely approach to friendship.

Riley had some fun presents to open, although he wasn't quite sure what to do with the tissue paper or too keen on the idea of tearing the wrapping paper, but BOY, he certainly enjoyed chewing on the tags and envelopes--turned his lips green from the ink on one of them.

And some of the gifts dad wanted to enjoy too....

A Radio Flyer for our little monster.  Someone is going to have a lot of fun...and if he's lucky Riley will get to play with it too.

Mimi was kind enough to make him a monster romper for the occasion.  

 

Grammie and Grandpa Knopf and Great Aunt Karen came to celebrate with us and Riley received a special gift from his grandparents.  Grandpa spent some time creating a paternal family tree going back to Riley's 3xs great grandparents.  We've been wanting to do some research and now, thanks to grandpa, we have a great place to start.

Then it was time for dessert.  These were a fun spin on another pinterest find.  Monster cupcakes were relatively easy, but took all afternoon to make.  In the end, they were a big hit! Despite some of the "eyes" not wanting to stay upright, I was informed despite their leaning tendencies, they were definitely not a Pinterest fail.

And then it was time for Riley's "cake"...and by cake I mean a pile of Cool Whip topped with Cherrios.  When you have a baby who really struggles with any new food texture, introducing cake and frosting seemed a bit cruel.  His stoic expression was brought about by a combination of things.  1). there was a strange pile of goo on his tray that he didn't really want to touch, let alone put in his mouth. and 2). a mass group of people gathered around singing a funny song was more than a bit strange. This was just not the time for giggles, apparently.

You would think he'd get excited about something sweet but he really wasn't a fan of getting his hands dirty or the way it made his Cherrios taste.  

It was great afternoon and we couldn't be more excited to have shared this last year with this little bundle of boy.  Happy Birthday to our little monster!!