Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!

Little Miss Independent on Independence Day

Getting ready to go to "Aunt" Deborah and "Uncle" Jack's annual 4th of July BBQ.

Rylie played hard, swam a lot, and ate like a champ at the BBQ. She was so tired when we got home. I couldn't resist this picture. For those of you who are concerned, I did move her legs back into her crib. Rylie has taken a serious liking to playing with the football.

This is her Heisman Pose.

Rylie is very into "helping." No matter what it is. She especially loves to help moves clothes from the hamper to the washer, the washer to the dryer, and the dryer to the appropriate drawers/ closets. Here she is trying on Daddy's chef hat, preparing to help in the kitchen.

Rylie loves to read to herself, especially when she gets to sit in the glider all by herself. Morning hair!I just think this is too cute. Rylie goes to camp in her bathing suit each day, with a change of clothes packed in her bag. This is her ballerina bathing suit courtesy of Gigi. While I don't think tutus and ballet slippers are in our future, I think this picture is adorable!

Lastly, sending lots of love & good wishes to Jeremy and May Lynn on this special day. And a very Happy Anniversary to Nana and Pa celebrating their 37th anniversary!

Love to everyone...

I won!

So in my life, at least as I can remember, I've only won one contest. The jelly bean guess in the second grade. Ironically enough, as the only Jewish child in my class, I won the Easter contest by guessing closest to the correct number of jelly beans in a plastic Easter bunny container.
Today, I actually got through on the radio and won Carrie Underwood tickets! I am so excited!!! Just had to share. This is much more exciting than jelly beans!

Better late than never...

I am a bit late, but we had a wonderful first Father's Day here in Phoenix.
Sadly in the midst of having breakfast, Adam catching the new Indiana Jones movie, and having my sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew over for a bbq and pool party, we didn't get an official Daddy and Rylie first Father's Day photo. Adam wasn't nearly as sad about this as I was. So I am posting my all time favorite "Daddy and Rylie picture." This is from the morning after we came home from Kaz. Rylie was so happy to see her Daddy again when we finally got home!
Adam is an awesome Daddy. Rylie and I are both so lucky to have him. He loves to take care of her and he is a great "hands on" Daddy. Aside from putting barrettes in her hair, there is not anything that Adam can't or won't do when it comes to taking care of Rylie. And for this, I am so thankful. Their favorite game is hide and seek and it is truly hysterical to watch. Rylie's squeals when she sees Adam chasing her are priceless.

So Happy First Father's Day Adam! Also special happy father's day wishes sent to both coasts to Pa and Saba. We love you all!

As I just mentioned, we had my sister, brother-in-law, and the kids over for a bbq on Father's Day.
Here's Rylie teaching Micah to do the monkey.Rylie, Jordyn, and Micah begging to go back in the pool after dinner.
Rylie's table & chairs has been a favorite hang out for a while now. Rylie especially enjoys eating snack at her table like a big girl. But enough with the pictures, Daddy!
We are trying to keep cool and hoping not to melt. Rylie and I have changed our daily routine a bit. For the past few months, we had been spending our afternoons at our neighborhood park. Given the triple digit temperatures (that will be around for the next 3 months), we've shifted our afternoon activity to the pool. Rylie absolutely loves the water!
We bought her a new bathing suit. We like to call it her "Oompa Loompa Suit." Enough said...
But Rylie does enjoy the new freedom the bathing suit gives her in the pool.


Are you really going to let him take pictures of me in this?Loving the water...Have we mentioned that Rylie loves getting into small spaces? This was one of our dog Lucy's favorite running spots. Apparently Rylie gets enjoyment out of running behind the couch on the patio as well!

Oh yeah- new words include bird, bubbles, my, and mine. Words are always good, but I could have done without the last two. Though I am not sure which is worse- Rylie shrieking at the top of her lungs when someone takes a toy from her, or her screaming "mine!" and grabbing it back. Needless to say, we're working on sharing with our strong willed little princess :-)

Love to everyone....

A Rylie Update...

We've been pretty bad about taking pictures lately, so we figured we'd do a "Rylie Update" with just a few pics at the end....

Rylie is now 14 months old. She is continuing to amaze us with new tricks each and every day.

Some of her favorite activities/ recent accomplishments---

Rylie LOVES "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes." She's got it all down except sometimes she skips shoulders and doesn't quite have the eyes in the second verse.

When asked what a monkey does, Rylie demonstrates with her arms and often includes sound effects.

Rylie "moos" for cows and "baaas" for sheep.

Rylie is a picky eater about everything except for sweets. She has a total sweet tooth and loves chocolate chip cookies! And did we mention she is the SLOWEST eater ever?

New words include: more, done, no (with a vigorous head shake), ya (accompanied by a nod), pool, shoe, up, banana (nanana), "Ra ra" (Rylie), and of course the old favorites- mama, dada, ball, and balloon(baooo.)

Rylie's been blowing kisses for a while. But now, Rylie gives kisses- upon request and also, sometimes just on her own. She has the sound effects too!

Rylie does somersaults at gym class and anywhere else she feels like it.

Rylie loves to "help", though this often results in everything taking a little bit longer :-)

Rylie loves Costco and claps and waives each time we approach a food sample. It is a bit embarrassing, though I have found a few foods that she likes which I might not have otherwise tried.

Oh, and Rylie has a boyfriend. Here is the background.... About a month ago, I went to pick Rylie up at school. I get there when she is just waking up from her nap. On this particular day, she was still asleep. The children in her classroom range from 12 months to just over 2. They sleep on these little mats with sheets on top. Rylie had rolled off of her mat and was completely on the mat of this little boy next to her. The teacher and I joked about how it was a little early for this kind of behavior. Fast forward now to this past Thursday. I went to pick Rylie up, and again, she was still asleep. A little boy (the same one who Rylie decided to share a mat with last month) ran over to Rylie, who was still asleep on her mat, looked at me at told me "Lylie night night." I thanked him for the information. He kept hovering over sleeping Rylie (or Lylie to him.) The teacher told me that the two had been playing together for a while, but for the past few days, they hug each other constantly.

Her first boyfriend.... I will say this, he is a very cute little boy, and according to the teachers, he comes from a nice family :-)

Oh, and our newest acquisition- an ergo baby carrier. I'm not sure who loves it more- Rylie or me, but we both LOVE it! How and why did we live without this for so long!!!

Here are a few pictures. We have been spending a ton of time in our pool. Rylie is a complete water baby and loves the pool. Rylie tries to blow bubbles, but it is more like her kissing the water. Her only complaint is that we don't give her more freedom in the pool. She continuously pushes our hands and says "off."

Rylie modeling her bikini. (The sticking out of the tongue was something we saw a lot of in Kazakhstan and right when we came home. We haven't seen it frequently until she began doing it a few weeks ago. Now it is constant!)

The rear viewSwimming with Daddy.Newest toy in our backyard- a WATER TABLE!!!! Rylie loves playing at the water table at school, so we weren't too surprised that she loves it at home too!And of course, bubbles!So that's the update from here.
We want to wish everyone who is going to Kazapalooza a wonderful time! We cannot wait to see pictures from the weekend! We wish we could come this year, but we're definitely planning on joining all of you next year.

And we also wanted to wish all of you Dads, new Dads, and Dads-to-be, a very Happy Father's Day!

Love to everyone-

An Extra Special Weekend...

So many wonderful things in one weekend! Any one of them would have made for a special weekend, but the combination made for an unbelievably special weekend.

We went to California to visit Adam's parents for the long weekend. We had a wonderful time and they hosted a lovely party on Sunday for Rylie to meet many more special people.

Pictures from the party...

Rylie dancing (this now involves twirling and hand movements) as she waits for her guests to arrive-

A family picture overlooking the beach-We discovered that Rylie loves humus and pita- she even dips it!Sunday was also our 5th anniversary! During our visit to Ventura, we had a chance to take Rylie for her first trip to the beach. She seemed to love playing in the sand, though it was way too cold to go in the water. The "I'm about to do something I know I'm not supposed to do" look...

We know that over the years, Rylie will have friends from different aspects of her life. But there is a small group of other children with whom she will forever share a very special bond. As you may recall from our days in Astana, we shared our time there with a few other families as we all journeyed through the unforgettable process of bringing our children home. This weekend, we got to visit with two of these special families. We are so grateful for their friendships, and we hope we will continue to be a part of each other's lives for many years to come.

On Saturday, we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo with Rylie's good buddy Pema and her parents, Kate & Scott. After spending time together in Astana, we last saw them when we landed in Frankfurt after the first leg of our trip home. They sure are not the same two girls we had on that plane ride! We had a wonderful time visiting together and catching up on the past 5 months. We captured some great shots of the two girls- we were just so sad the day went by so quickly!

Pema & Rylie- check out those 4 cheeks!

All smiles!

Pema enjoying the animals!

One of Rylie's all time favorite books is Dear Zoo. Pema seemed to love it too!
Our little monkey!

On Monday, when we got back to Phoenix, we had a very special visit with Rylie's dear friend, Aitugan, and her Mommy & Daddy. After much time spent together in Astana- including our memorable Thanksgiving dinner, it was wonderful to see Kjersten, Steve & Aitugan again! We had a wonderful time at the park and splash fountain and confirmed what we all had suspected- Rylie & Aitugan are very similar indeed. Suffice it to say, I don't believe there will be any tutus or ballet slippers in either of our families! We ended the day with dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant with some great food and some duck feeding. We had a fabulous visit together and were so sad to see them go at the end of the evening. Sadly, we didn't get any fabulous shots of the two girls, but luckily most of you know where to find some better ones!

Adam reading to Rylie & Aitugan.

Water babies!
Aitugan examining the splash fountain.Two tired girls on the way back from the splash fountain.

So that was our truly wonderful, extra-special weekend.

Otherwise, life is good and Rylie is getting ready for the start of summer camp this week. We are continuing to just enjoy life with our happy, little girl.

Love to everyone...

Our First Mother's Day Together and more...

We had a wonderful first Mother's Day together. On Friday, Rylie and I started out the weekend at her school's Mother's Day celebration. It was a lovely morning and the most perfect way to start the weekend. Here we are on Sunday morning with the art project Rylie and I did together on Friday morning (picture frame with her adorable school picture), and the adorable handprint/ footprint gift Rylie made for me. With my most favorite little gift...
Weekend outfits are important in my world. I've started to introduce Rylie to the world of weekend outfits. Here is her early summer weekend outfit. Seriously, how cute!?!Of course with her purse!Important Rule: When going for a naked walk with your baby, make sure to bring your evening bag.

Rylie loves to carry her lunch pail to and from school. Very grown up!
Hanging out in the playroom before leaving for school. Rylie loves her new table and chairs set from Nana & Pa. She sits there reads books- it is truly adorable. She enjoys coloring too, but after eating 1/2 of a red crayon earlier this week, we've put the crayons away for a while.

Our pool is warm enough! In true Rylie fashion, she sat on the steps for a few moments getting used to the water, and then jumped right in. It is a good thing I was sitting right next to her!
Until next time, love to everyone....