Christmas Joy

Riley decided to celebrate Christmas Eve by staying up almost all night long. He kept waking us up every hour and a half all night long. I'd like to think it was because he was just too excited about his first Christmas. But when morning finally rolled around, he was so tired that he slept through most of the fun.
It was still a great Christmas!

Riley Clause and the Women

Merry Christmas everyone! Here's a little Santa suit that we bought for Riley this Christmas. He's sitting beside his girlfriend, Mrs. Clause. Whoever designed Riley's costume obviously doesn't understand babies and the tendency they have to put everything within reach in their mouth. By the end of the night, the little white cottony ball on his costume was so wet that you could wring the spit out of it. Oh well. All I have to do is dip that thing in a little bit of sugar and he'll be happy for hours.

This is Riley and all his many girlfriends at church. There's only one other little boy and about nine girls in our ward. After we laid all the babies down on the blanket to take the picture, Riley started trying to hit the babies on either side of him. For those of you who are thinking, "Oh No! Riley's turning into a bully," don't worry. I'm pretty sure the hitting was unintentional. He still has almost no control over what his hands do. The other day he was waving his hands around and he stuck one finger straight up his nose. It went in amazingly far. He was pretty mad, and looked at me like he somehow thought it was my fault or something.

Holy Parabola!!!

Riley had his four-month check-up today, so I thought I'd update everyone. He weighs 15 lbs 5 oz and is 26 1/4 inches tall. I know, I know. In a just a few more months, he's going to be as tall as me. That's going to cause all kinds of problems.

Catching Up

It's been forever since I've had a chance to post. Sorry guys! Here's a photo of Riley after a hard day at the office. He works in a factory that produces dirty diapers. He's a four-time employee of the month. The pay sure is lousy though.

Don't we all wish we were this flexible? I miss the days when I used to be able to suck on my toes.

Riley, I apologize in advance for posting a photo of your naked behind on the internet. But I thought I'd better do it before you got too big to be REALLY embarrassed. This blanket is Riley's new favorite toy. My grandma made it for him, and it's really satiny. He loves to play on it wearing just his diaper.

Who needs toys when you have blankets to play with?

Another photo of Riley in his little suit. This is a pretty impractical baby outfit. He ends up chewing on the tie. But it was so cute, I couldn't resist getting it for him.

Random Pics

Here's a picture of Riley with our friends little girl, Kaitlyn. I know, I know. He's turing into quite the little butterball, isn't he? Isn't it funny how babies (especially toddlers) are so fascinated with other babies. This little 2-year-old girl at a party we went to kept kissing Riley and trying to sit on his lap. It was pretty funny.

Riley's new favorite trick is blowing spit bubbles. He spits all over everything and everyone. Usually, he has this little white spit beard dangling from his chin. On the plus side, we can dress him in a Santa Suit and we'll have our own jolly little holiday decoration (complete with beard).

Riley's addicted to chapstick, just like his mom.

Riley with his Grandma Morrill or Grandma Therena. We haven't figured out what she's going to be called yet. I think Gereena is a good name (Grandma + Therena =Gereena)

Our baby is now officially obsessed with his thumb. It's good that he finally figured out how to get it into his mouth. Before, he would just poke himself in the eye with it. It must be so frustrating to have a total lack of control over what your hand is doing.

Free stuff is great

Here's a little family photo that we had my brother take of us down by the Provo River walkway (thanks Dustin!). Since I so stupidly paid a lot of money to get Riley's baby photos taken, we decided not to do a professional family photo. But I thought this photo turned out great. Have you noticed that I'm slyly begin to post more photos of myself on the blog? They also have Riley in them for now, just to make the transition easier for all of you. But from now on, I'll just be posting pics of myself. I can't handle all the attention Riley's getting. Just Kidding!! I know seeing baby photos is the only reason you guys all check this anyway.

Hooray for Halloween!

We had a great Halloween. We were going to take Riley trick-or-treating, but we figured everyone would be suspicious that we were just trying to keep the candy for ourselves, what with him having no teeth and all. But we did end up going to a couple of Halloween parties. The first one was on Friday night. It was adults only, so Sam and I left Riley with a babysitter (other than family) for the first time. I worried a little about how both he and I would do, but everything ended up fine. On Saturday, we dressed Riley up in his little pumpkin costume and went to another party. It was fun...Sam and I got to carve a jack-o-lantern for the first time in many years.

Lousy Coupons

Here is a photo of Riley that we had taken at Sears a couple of weeks ago. There is also an awesome black and white close up of his face that we bought, but I couldn't get the dang thing to post for some reason. I thought the photos turned out pretty good, except he refused to smile.
I had this great coupon that said I wouldn't have to pay a sitting fee and I could get like 30 photos for $3.99. Sounds like a great deal, right? The only problem was my "mommy brain" kicked in again. I took Riley to Sears and they said they would look at the coupon and give us the discount after they'd taken all the photos. So, when we were all done I handed the cashier my coupon. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "Um....this is a coupon for J.C. Pennys. You're at Sears." I told her I thought it would be a good game if we pretended like we were at J.C. Pennys for a little bit and she could go ahead and give me the discount. She didn't seem to think that would be very fun.
I felt pretty stupid. Obviously, i'm well aware of the fact that J.C. Pennys and Sears are two very different stores. And I had looked at that coupon about a hundred times. Anyway, I ended up paying significantly more for photos of Riley than I had been planning on. So enjoy, cause they were dang expensive!!

This photo shows off Riley's newly balding head quite nicely. He had just gotten out of the bath, which he loves now. He kicks around and pushes his legs against the sink which usually results in him banging his head. I think he's ready to start bathing in the bathtub...but I'm not ready to stay in a stooped position forever so I can hold him up. So I guess that means he'll keep getting baths in the kitchen sink.


This is Riley staring at his mobile, which he is in love with. I think he likes it more than his parents. He laughs at it and talks to it all the time.




Riley's going through a phase where he sticks his tongue out all the time. I think he likes the taste of the air. Remember when Kathryn went through that phase too?

So Young to Be Bald

Hi All
Sorry it's been so long since we've updated the blog. I'll plan on putting some new photos of Riley up later this week. He's doing great. I packed away most of his 0 to 3 month clothes today because they are all too little. It was kind of sad.
He's blowing spit bubbles and drooling all over the place now. He's also lost a lot of hair. It was crazy...one week he had a full head of hair and the next he was almost bald. It looks kinda funny because his new hair is growing in under his already existing long, baby hair. There's a bunch of little stubs poking out all over the place. People keep asking us if we gave him a haircut. But no worries. We talked to the pediatrician about it and he gave us a perscription for infant Rogaine :)
Sam and I got new callings for Church. We are...drumroll please.....the ward librarians. It's a great calling to have with a baby. We both sit in there the whole time, so one of us can take care of Riley if he starts fussing. Sam's favorite part about the calling is that we miss sunday school every other week.
Other than that, nothing too exciting is going on. I did read a great book though, if anyone's interested. It's called "The Posionwood Bible." It's the story of a baptist family sent on a mission to the Congo in the 1950s. The story is narrated by the family's four daughters. The author is amazing. Her writing style is very lyrical, and her descriptions are great.
Basically, the plot is that the preacher kind of turns out to be a jerk. He's very domineering and he fails to see the beauty in the African people. He thinks they are all heathens and is determined to convert them at any cost. It's kind of a "Heart of Darkness" type book. There is also a lot of historical fiction going on. The author talks about the fall of the Congolese government and U.S. attempts to get their foot in the door because there's so many great natural resources in the Congo.
It's a great book...but you don't have to take my word for it!!! Everyone sing with me now "Take a look, it's in a book, a reading rainbow!" Anyway, if any of you decide to read it, let me know what you think. I'd love to have a discussion about it.

Check Up

Riley had his two-month check up today. I thought I'd just let everyone in on how he's doing. He now weighs 12 lbs 6 oz and he's 24 inches long. He's in the 50th percentile for his weight and head circumference, but he's in the 85% percentile for his height. In other words, he's growing like a weed. It's weird because I took him to a WIC appointment two and a half weeks ago. They weighed and measured him there too, and he was only in the 25th percentile for all three categories. I'm wondering if the WIC people measured wrong or if he just hit a huge growth spurt.
It was really hard to see him get his shots. He had to get poked four times, and man did he cry (i must confess that I cried a tiny little bit too). After crying hysterically for about three minutes, he fell asleep.

It's Autumn Time

Sam and I went hiking up Provo Canyon last weekend. The leaves were all turning colors, so it was beautiful. We took Riley along in a little backpack/babycarrier thingie that we bought for him. He seemed to like it a lot. He was looking around at everything and smiling. Hooray for autumn!!

The Mommy Syndrome

Okay, so I have this great memory from my childhood. All four of us Morrill kids are lined up by the door with freshly scrubbed faces. My mom is trying to get us out the door before some sort of disaster occurs and we’re late AGAIN. She’s running around the house frantically, looking for her keys. Her teeth are clinched and she’s asking, “Where in the world are my keys?” Why are her teeth clinched? Because her keys are dangling from her mouth.
At the time, we all thought that was pretty funny. But now I understand something that I never knew before. I’ve always been absent minded, but now it’s worse than ever. I’ve decided that once you become a mom, you lose your mind.
Let me present some evidence. A couple of weeks ago, I was getting gas. As I got in my car and started to pull away, I happened to look out the car window. I had left the gas nozzle in my car pump, and as I pulled away, it jerked it out and went flying. My fellow gas pumpers all thougt that was pretty funny.
Later, Sam and I locked our keys in the car. The bad part was Riley was still in it. Luckily, the car was running so he didn’t get too hot. We stood there for about 10 minutes while Sam tried to break in. It was unsuccessful, so we decided to call the police. It was at that point that my mom noticed my purse dangling from my shoulder and asked, “Are your keys in there by any chance?” The answer to that was yes, of course they were. In the ten minutes of frantic deliberation, the fact that I had my keys right there beside me didn’t even cross my mind.
After that, Sam and I decided to go to Barnes and Noble. After taking Riley out of the car, I looked down and noticed I had forgotten to buckle him into his car seat.
All of this happened in a 24 hour period. For those of you who are thinking of reporting me to child services, please don’t! I promise that I won’t do stupid things that endanger Riley’s life anymore. However, I’m sure I’ll keep doing plenty of stupid things that don’t endanger his life.
Anyway, I want to hear all of you mothers out there fess up. Has anyone else noticed that a vicious cycle of stupidity began with the birth of your first child? Or is it just me?

Say Cheese

Riley now smiles!!! It's a lot of fun. It was hard to capture a good smile on camera; these were the best shots I got. He smiles every time I sing "The Eensy Weensie Spider." Sometimes it's confusing though, because he'll smile and two second later he'll start crying. Maybe my singing is bad.

Our Place

Here's the living room. There's not much to say about it. It's where we do all of our TV watching.
Here's the kitchen. It's nice to have a little more room to move around. And.....get this.....it even has a dishwasher. It's like Christmas, birthdays, and Canadian boxing day all wrapped into one.

Thanks to Becca and Tyler for supplying the letters for Riley's name. I'm pretty sure he knows how to spell it already. If you think the letters look a little crooked, please keep it to yourself. It took me a stinking long time to get those things as straight as they are now.

So we really love our new place. It's nice and new and doesn't smell like mildew. The previous tenant was evicted, and the landlord had to move all of the stuff out for her because no one knows where she went. He told us one of these days she'll probably show up and be like, "Hey, who are you and where is all of my stuff?" As more and more time passes, I've stopped worrying. I think she's gone for good. It still beats the homeless man living under the tree outside the bedroom window of our old apartment.

More Pictures (Again)

Fire!

There was a huge fire today at my parents' house. It was started by someone throwing a cigarette out their car window. The flames got pretty close to the house, and for awhile we thought we were going to have to be evacuated. Then the wind shifted and the fire headed the other direction. There were all kinds of fire trucks and helicopters flying around trying to put out the flames. It was about as exciting as things get here in Neola Utah.

Growing, Growing

We took Riley down to my dad's office yesterday to weigh and measure him. He weighed 8 lbs 4 oz and was 21 and 3/4 inches long. That's not really very big, but he had to play a lot of catch up from the pound he lost in the hospital. He still looks really small to me, and his clothes still don't fit him, but I can definitely tell that he's growing. I know it's a good thing, but at the same time I get sad and think to myself, "Please, just stay tiny!" Babies grow so fast. I guess that's why you have to keep having more.
He sure does hate being naked, and he screams his head off every time we give him a bath. He also makes little machine gun noises when he sleeps. It's pretty cute, although slightly less cute at 2 a.m. He's the only person I know who makes more noise when sleeping than he does when he's awake.

Farmer Sam

Sam has been busy working for my parents at our wanna-be farm in Roosevelt. Here's a picture of him brush-hogging. He drives the tractor up and down the field pulling the mower and chopping down giant weeds. Basically, it's an on-steriods version of mowing the lawn. He keeps insisting that it's a lot of fun. I'm not sure I buy it......it must be a guy thing.

The many faces of Riley

So things in the baby world have been going great. Riley's sleeping habits are changing already. He will want to eat every hour for about three hours, then he'll stay awake for a bit, and then he'll sleep for five or sometimes even six hours at a time. I know every mom says this about their kids....but I think he really is a good baby. He hardly ever cries. At night when he wants to be fed he just kind of whimpers until I hear him and pick him up. It takes quite a lot to get him worked up to a full-blown cry. Me being the new mom that I am I have to find every possible excuse to worry. Riley has me worried that he doesn't cry enough. I know, I know. This will probably change all too soon.
He sure does make a lot of funny faces. Sometimes I just like to sit and watch his face while he sleeps (I know, you're thinking "Man, her life must be boring'"or possibly "that's slightly creepy"). Really though, it is quite entertaining. For those of you who aren't able to see Riley's many faces in person, I'm posting a few for your benefit.

This is his "I'm a sleeping angel" face. Isn't he cute?

This is his "I hate baths" face. Guess when he makes it? Yep, that's right...bath time. Maybe he'll like baths more after his umbilical cord falls off and we can let him get all the way wet.

This is the "What are you looking at/Please leave me alone" face. He usually makes it after we've taken one too many pictures or woken him up from a nap.

Riley always puckers his little lips. We're not sure why. I like to think he wants me to give him a kiss. (The real reason is probably that he wants to eat).

This is Riley's happy face. I know there are those of you who will try to tell me that when babies smile, it just means they have gas. But I know better!