Abigail's Bill Cowher impression

Best of 2007

I've had a great year...

1. Seeing Matt “catch” Abbie as she was being born
2. Visiting Ireland
3. Quitting work and becoming a full-time mom
4. Getting our family portrait taken
5. Jeannie’s wedding
6. The weekend Abigail was baptized
7. Halloween in Wilmore
8. Finishing my first full-load semester with good grades and a lot more confidence
9. Volunteering at Step by Step
10. Holding my new nephew, Samuel
11. Making Abbie’s 1st Christmas ornament with Mom
12. The Focht family reunion
13. Our date to Giuseppe’s
14. Abbie’s first trip to the beach
15. NUMC’s family retreat
16. Not having one period the whole year. That just rocks!
17. Reading What’s So Amazing About Grace? with Matt
18. Thanksgiving in PA
19. Our NJ vacation in August
20. Finally getting our wedding album!

Monster Abbie

So today Abbie learned how to growl. It's pretty hilarious, but kind of scary at the same time, especially when she does it as I'm nursing her!! She and Matt turned it into a game tonight. While he was making dinner Abbie was in the high chair. She would growl, he would look over at her, and she would have a huge grin on her face. It was so cute.

It was also warm enough to bring Abbie to the park this afternoon (without a coat!!). Which strikes me as really weird, considering that half the population in Oklahoma is frozen solid right about now. But anyway we had a fun time. I put her in the baby swing for the first time and she enjoyed herself. I love fun days with her!

Pushing through: one more week

I have four papers due this week. One tomorrow, two on Wednesday, and one on Friday at noon. And 200 more pages to read for a class. No finals, so that's a relief. Needless to say, I'm REALLY looking forward to Friday afternoon! And on Friday night, Matt is taking me on our long awaited date (he's been able to keep it a secret for almost a month! I'm so proud of him).

Oh, and I made raisin-filled cookies yesterday with my secret family recipe. They rock.

Warm house

It snowed today in Wilmore. No, of course I don't mean SNOW snow, but Kentucky snow--a few flurries here and there, but it makes grown adults act like children. And it was FREEZING. When Abbie and I got home from church I think my eyelids froze just walking from the car to the front door. But then I opened the door and.....ahhhhh....the warmth of our home thawed me out right away. I am so thankful for our house.

Here are some videos for your viewing pleasure. The first one is Abbie thinking Christmas decorations are absolutely hillarious (it's amazing what babies will laugh at!), and the second is her meeting Corduroy Bear for the first time. Next to Lucy, Corduroy is Abbie's best friend.

"...Anyone else wiz a comment?"

Of course the title of this post is a quote from one of the best movies of all time, The Three Amigos. If you have not seen this movie, you are to be pitied.

Anyway, I have finally made it possible for ya'll to leave comments! I wasn't holding out because I didn't want to hear what anyone had to say... actually, I didn't realize that enabling comments was something that I actually had to do. So, with all that said...

Start commenting!

:-)

Slightly disappointed

Today is Wilmore's annual Old Fashioned Christmas celebration. It's a day-long event that the whole town looks forward to pretty much all year long. There is a pancake breakfast, craft fairs, plays, a tree lighting ceremony, a chili dinner at a local church, and at night all the shops on Main Street open up and give away cookies, hot cocoa and other goodies. It's very Mayville. Probably my favorite part of the day are the free horse and buggy rides through the town. I love the sound the horses' hooves make on the pavement, the jingle bells on their reigns, and riding through Wilmore at an even slower pace than the posted 25 mph. It makes me feel all Christmassy inside.

Of course, this being Abbie's first Christmas in Wilmore, I was ectatic about bringing her on one of these rides. I couldn't wait to get a family picture--all three of us bundled up in the buggy.

However, my dreams came crashing down as soon as Matt found out that the waiting list was full. At 2:00pm all the slots for all the remining rides until 4:00 were spoken for! I'm so sad that Abbie won't get to hear the hooves and the jingle bells, that we won't get our family picture in the buggy, that we won't get to snuggle and feel Christmassy together. And I am flaming jealous of the families that signed up early enough to go.

So I guess I'm a little more than slightly disappointed. :-(

Such a neat moment

I've heard so many other breastfeeding mothers' woes about being bitten by their babies while nursing. Since Abbie's had teeth she's bitten me a few times, but the instances are few and far between. My plan was to be consistant in my response whenever she bit me--I would yell out to shock her and make her realize that what she'd just done was a no-no. It's worked pretty well and like I said, it hasn't happened very much.

This morning I was nursing her in bed--this has got to be one of the best parts of breastfeeding--I get to do it while I doze. Since I was pretty much asleep I don't know if Abbie was drifting off and just happened to clamp down, or if she did it more on purpose. Either way, she bit me. Hard. Without thinking I yelled out "OW! ABBIE!" This shocked her and she started to cry. Not the normal cry, but one that tells me she's hurting inside. I started to cry because it had hurt so badly. In that moment I decided to show her my face and my tears. I thought, hey, she should know that mommy has emotions too.

And then the coolest thing happened. She stopped crying and sort of half-smiled at me, not because she thought I was being funny, but actually trying to make me smile in return. I shook my head and said, "Abbie, when you bite Mommy, it really hurts me." I was still teary at this point. Then she gave me a look I've never seen before--she furrowed her brows and looked deep into my eyes. And then when I gathered her up in my arms she started to cry again. She GOT IT. She understood my heart in that moment. She understood my tears and why I was hurt! It was so amazing. It had nothing to do with simple behavior modification. It was a mother and a daughter sharing a painful moment together--a real human interaction.

This morning gives me so much hope for my family. It excites me to realize that it's possible to be vulnerable in a family and to share emotions together, and to stand by each other and even grow in love for each other through good AND bad times.

Six Month Birthday

Today is Abigail's six month birthday. It's so hard to believe that half a year has flown by already. I took this picture of Abbie in the leaves yesterday in front of the Asbury administration building. There are more on our flikr site :-) Enjoy, and have a great Thanksgiving!

Things on my mind

Reading my sister's blog has challenged me to open up a little bit more in mine. It's so easy to talk about what Abbie's up to, because it changes every day...and I get a little weirded out because I don't know exactly who's reading this blog--the medium is so strange! But anyway, here goes.

I met with one of my counseling profs last week, actually on the day my new nephew was born, to try to iron out my spring schedule. I started taking classes in 2005, and it really wasn't until this semester that I really decided to commit to finishing the program. But for this reason, I'm pretty far behind in a program that's designed to be 25 months long. I'm feeling stressed about taking the right classes at the right time, and I'm worrying that things I learned in some of the basic classes I took over a year ago aren't sticking with me. One thing I was considering for the spring was beginning my first practicum (I need 600 hours total! How the heck am I ever going to fit THAT into my life?!). but after lots of talking and prayer----yes, against all odds, Matt and I actually prayed about this (we don't pray very much, but that's a whole 'nother blog) I've decided to wait to start the practicum until this summer. Which is a relief. I'm not ready to counsel real people with real problems yet. I have the skills, but personally I need to grow a little more.

So my counseling prof, who's had me in class several times and who knows me really well, actually encouraged me to start considering doctoral work after I finish at Asbury. ! I'm still sort of in a daze from this conversation. The thing is, she's really down-to-earth and since she told me she thinks I could do it, I know she really believes I could. She told me that, for me, it wouldn't be a matter of getting into a program, it would be a matter of finding the time to finish the dissertation. Having worked with doctoral students for so long, I know this is THE struggle students face. Of course the option of pursuing a Ph.D. is on the table...it's just hard to imagine how that would fit into my life, especially if (when) Matt and I have more kids.

Holy crap, I would love to get my Ph.D. I would love the doors that would open up--to teach, to write, who knows what else! I would love my kids to have a mom who went as far as she could possibly go in school. What an awesome example that would be!

I admitted to my prof that what I do in my spare time is research....stuff. Anything. If I'm going to make any decision, you can bet that hours of research is going to be logged before I actually decide. It's so lame and nerdy! But I really can't get enough of it.

I wonder if I'm boring whoever's reading this. But I guess it's my blog so I can be as boring as I want :-)

Our church is having its annual retreat this weekend. I'm so looking forward to being outside, even in the cold--to seeing the trees and to hanging out with church people. It is so awesome to see how much everyone loves Abbie. And she just soaks up the attention. I'm looking forward to sitting by the fire with Matt and Abs, and just being cozy. We went last year, but I was still in my first trimester, so I didn't feel so hot. Hopefully I'll have energy to go on a hike or something this weekend. Toting my 20-lb tubster :-) She is really giving me a work out these days.

A week of firsts

October 31, 2007, 5:30pm

Abbie's first few bites of solid food--homemade rice cereal. (After a week and a half of Abbie waking up two to three times to nurse, we decided she needed to be tanked up with a little extra bulk for the night. It's worked like a charm! Oh, and by the way, I have a new favorite website!!)

October 31, 2007, 6:30pm

Abbie's first Halloween outting, dressed as a chicken. She was so sleepy!

November 1, 2007, 10:00am

Abbie...is SITTING UP!

An open letter

Dear family and friends,

We are excited to finally have a date set for Abigail’s baptism, October 14th. Since many in our family have differing views of baptism we wanted to take this time to explain what we believe and why we are choosing to have Abbie baptized as an infant.
Grace is a mysterious gift that changes us into the image of God. It is grace that forms our understanding of baptism. We consider baptism to be a sacrament, which means it is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. This means that baptism is something God does in a person. When a person is baptized God is imparting his grace on that person. God’s grace always comes first. He is the Prime Mover in our lives. Baptism is God’s act on the person.
Through baptism Abbie will be initiated into Christ’s body, his holy and universal church; for when one is baptized he or she is baptized into Jesus (Gal 3:26-27). Abbie will be brought up in the church. She will be a part of the church, the body of Christ. This is one of the most important meanings of baptism (1 Cor 12:12-13). Although she is a baby, and cannot intellectually understand grace, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me” (Matt 19:14). Paul said that children do things “in the Lord” (Eph 6:1). Being a part of Christ is not only an intellectual assent; therefore children can enter into a relationship with Christ even before they fully understand that relationship. In fact, in the book of Acts entire families, including children, were baptized together when the head of the household came to faith (Acts 16:15, 33). In the Old Testament babies were circumcised, and so entered into a covenant with God, on the eighth day of life. Baptism has replaced circumcision as the mode of entering into a covenant with God, and we believe children can participate fully in this covenant (Col 2:10-13). Baptism is also linked to the death and resurrection of Jesus (Rom 6:1-4) and signifies forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). Other facets of baptism include dying to sin, being incorporated into God’s mighty acts of salvation (1 Pet 3:18-22), and new birth.
In response to God’s grace on our own lives we desire to have that grace in Abbie’s life. Through baptism we accept that gift of grace given to her. During the service we will, along with the church body, renounce our sins so that we allow the grace of God to flow freely in the church and in our home. As a church we will reaffirm our faith in order to remind ourselves what Abbie is being brought into. We will promise to nurture Abbie in an environment of Christian love so that she will be equipped to grow in God’s grace, just as any adult being baptized would need to do. In the service we will ask the Holy Spirit to bless the water and Abbie so that the water will wash away her sin and clothe her in righteousness so that she will die and rise with Christ and share in his final victory. She will be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19-20) recognizing that God is One and that Christ did not do any work apart from the Father or the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and support us as we take this important step of faith together as a family. We look forward to seeing those of you who can come and appreciate all the prayers that have been offered on Abbie’s behalf.

Love,Matt & Katherine

NOW what will we get her for Christmas???

Now that Abbie has her Two Front Teeth (on the bottom), Matt and I are at a loss for what to get her for Christmas :-) The first tooth appeared on September 26th, and the second started to poke through this afternoon, after much fussing and general unhappiness. Now Abs and I are trying to negotiate around these little razor blades so that we can still nurse comfortably. The adventures never stop!

Abbie's 4 month update

Abigail had her 4 month doctor's appointment this morning and I am happy to report that she has more than doubled her birth weight! She weighs 17 lbs and 9 ozs, and is 17.5 inches long now, which puts her in the 95th percentile for both weight and length.

(beaming) :-) :-) :-)

I'm proud of Abbie and myself for feeding her so well. Dr. Coburn told us that I can exclusively breastfeed her until she's 9 months old! That's the longest I've heard from a doctor, which makes me really happy. The longer I can fill her up with breastmilk, the better! Of course, when she starts waking up in the middle of the night to eat, we may start her on solid food at least before bed. Matt and I have REALLY been enjoying our 8 hours of completely undisturbed sleep, and I don't think we're going to give that up easily.

We also began her immunizations today, after LOTS of research, taking with each other, taking with other parents, and praying. We got the Hib vaccine and PCV because both those diseases are hard to treat, easily communicable, and can lead to meningitis, and also the Polio vaccine. There are some studies that have linked the DTaP vaccine with SIDS in 2-4 month olds, so we are waiting to start that one until she is 6 months old. Unfortunately, we can't get those three vaccines separate without spending lots of money. Since Hepatitis is so rare in infants and the Roto Virus is virtually harmless (leading only to diarrhea that,at worst, leads to dehydration requiring hospitalization), we decided to forgo both of those. The real issue will come in a few months when we need to make a decision about the MMR vaccine. Measles, mumps, and rubella are all pretty bad illnesses, but they are treatable and very very rarely (if ever) life-threatening. The real problem is that the vaccine itself has been and continues to be tested and developed on aborted human fetal tissue (as is the chickenpox vaccine). So, in an indirect way, getting the MMR is supporting not only abortion, but also government funding for stem cell research. It will really suck if Abbie gets any of these illnesses, but I can't get around my conscience, especially now that I can't claim ignorance. Most people think that children have to get the MMR to attend public school, but this isn't the case. Parents can get religious exemptions for any or all of the vaccines and those exemptions must be honored by the government. It's such a relief to know that we as parents can make those decisions and do what we think is best!

Abbie did great, though, getting the three shots. I breastfed her the whole time and although she cried out momentarily while getting each of the shots, she went right back to eating each time and calmed down right away. After the nurse left the room, we heard her bragging about how well Abbie did to one of the other nurses in the hallway :-) It's times like this morning that I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad we decided to breastfeed Abbie. It's not just food...it's comfort PLUS food!

That's all for now :-) Have a great day!

Photo of the week award

We went to Boyd Orchard yesterday to enjoy the fall weather. There are more cute pictures on our Flickr site, but this one definitely takes the cake!! :-)

Belly Laughs

I took this video of Matt and Abbie on Saturday the 22nd. It's the first time we've heard her belly laugh like this! It's so much fun to see how much she's interacting with people now, and especially how much she's smiling. Our friends Jeff and Carrie had their son baptized yesterday and at the lunch afterwards, while Sam was sleeping, Abbie was stealing the show! Unfortunately, her show-stopping routine included a poop blow-out all over Carrie's mom! Matt and I think it was just a ploy to snatch one of Sam's onesies--swiping the boyfriend's clothes already!!

Back up and running!

I can hardly believe that the last time I posted Abbie wasn't here yet. Needless to say, it's been an eventful summer! Abbie turned three months yesterday, and reached a major developmental milestone--rolling over! I was playing with her on her back, then rolled her over to her tummy so that maybe she would get the idea, and she did! She rolled from belly to back a bunch of times, both to the left and the right. It was SO AWESOME! I can hardly believe that my little girl is growing up so fast. Everyone said the time would fly by--who would have thought that it actually would??

In other news, Matt interviewed for a position at our church last night. The job title is Program Director, and Matt is hoping that it'll be a visionary as well as secretarial job. The job description is really involved, but his interviewers cleared up some of the vaugeness last night. And they requested that he return for a follow-up interview with the whole committee tonight!! We are really excited. He's itching to get into a ministry position, and since we've been attending the church for three years, we think he would be perfect for the job. So we'll be waiting on the committee's decision after the meeting tonight.

I'll be starting my 9-credit load in two weeks. I'm excited to get back into the swing of school, but nervous too--it will be a challenge to figure out homework time with staying home with Abbie full-time as well. But our new laptop arrived (obviously--that's why I'm able to post here again!) so I'm set up with wireless in our house, which will help. It's sad to realize the summer is almost over. I've absolutely LOVED the time with Abbie. I'm wondering if I can pull off a three-month babymoon for each of our kids!

Check out our Flickr site for new pictures--and more to be added soon!

37 weeks: Waiting

Matt left the words of this hymn, written by Charles Wesley, on my desk this afternoon while I was out proctoring an exam. Charles wrote it before his wife gave birth to one of their children... the words are very applicable for me as I wait!!

Who so near the birth hast brought,

(Since I on Thee rely)

Tell me, Saviour, wilt thou not

Thy further help supply?

Whisper to my list'ning soul

Wilt though not my strength renew,

Nature's fears and pangs control,

And bring Thy handmaid through?

36.5 Weeks: Closer...

Today is Matt's and my 5-year dating anniversary. It's crazy to think we've been together for five years--through college, living in different countries for an entire school year, 13 months of being engaged, getting married, moving to Kentucky, 2 wedding anniversaries, and now looking forward to our first baby. We have certainly been through a lot, and I'm glad he's still my boyfriend :-)

We had an interesting visit with our midwife this past Tuesday. Last week my belly measured 35cm (I was 35 weeks along), and this week I measured 40cm! Nancy (our midwife) thinks it's simply due to fluid retention and not a massive growth spurt. We'll see next week as she's ordered an ultrasound to check it out. Also, I've been aware of having contractions since she brought attention to the fact that I was having one during our visit. My belly gets really hard (and hurts!) when I stand up especially.

So, don't get your hopes up (we're trying not to), but we might get our present a little earlier than expected :-)

Needless to say, we've kicked our baby preparations into high gear. The nursery is finally cleaned out and looks pretty good. The ladies at work threw a shower for me and among other very nice gifts, they all chipped in to buy the Pack-n-Play we registered for!!! That was the last big thing we really needed!!! So now we get to set up the living room and make sure everything is ready. It will be a busy weekend.

Also, Matt went to the Nicholasville fire department to get the car seat base installed properly. It is SO WEIRD to have a car seat in my car!!!

So, we're getting closer...

Welcome

Hello everyone! Welcome to the new Riley Family Blog! I plan to post about once a week (but perhaps less frequently until the baby comes), so check back often!

Family are the sweetness of a song

Unaware they are helping me along

Every day the simplicity of same
Speaks the truth, and the faithfullness of name

~Bill & Cathy Schrull, "Family Song"