Mommy's bday

Standing on her little chair to get a boost up to the couch armrest to get my cell phone. She has made phone calls and sent blank texts, so if you get a mysterious message from my number, its probably Riley.

The girls in their sunglasses

Seamus gets a workout by jumping up and down park benches and tables

Daddy swinging his little girl (as you can tell by the puddle we've been getting lots of rain). We're lucky to have a nice little park just a 10 minute walk from our house.

No longer content with the tupperware drawer, she now pulls out all our pots and plans from the cabinets.

In her UC Davis Medical Center scrubs. That's right, our little surgeon is already on staff at the hospital!

I had a very nice, low-key birthday. So low-key I guess we didn't take any pictures that day. Chad grilled some delicious salmon and took me on a shopping trip (new spring purse!) during which he gave me fashion opinions AND entertained Riley. He's impressive! We had some fantastic family time, which is my favorite way to spend the day. We are headed to Tahoe this weekend to continue the birthday week celebration, and I'm really looking forward to that. Thanks for all the b-day wishes!

Riley is everywhere and in to everything! She's been moving fast for a while, but now it is very directed, usually towards trouble. I think she can sense when the gate blocking the stairs isn't firmly locked and she heads right for it and goes up as many stairs as possible before we catch her. Needless to say, we always double check the gate now. She loves to pull CDs out of our CD rack, pull folded towels out of drawers, and just in general create disasters.

She has also started climbing on things which I find very scary. She tries (sometimes with success) to climb on top of tables, toys, anything that is higher off the ground. Riley has also figured out how to use other things to get a boost up which give her access to even more furniture. I'm both amazed at her ingenuity and exhausted from all the chasing.

A little story that to me is a sign that we are in for years of trouble. She loves to play with Seamus's water bowl. She knows its not allowed and responds to our "No!" by stopping and going back to her toys. But lately when we see her head for it and tell her no, instead of stopping, she veers along a different course and looks at us like, "What? I wasn't going for the dog bowl. I wanted this, um, toy right here near the bowl. But I wasn't getting in to any trouble." I told this story to a friend who said it sounds like she picked up some traits from Aunt Amy. Terrifying thought, but that sounds right to me!