Riley Christopher

Riley Christopher was born at 10:37 pm on December 27th, 2011 (8 days after his due date). He was 8 lbs 9.4 ounces and 20 inches long. I still vividly remember his first cries and my doctor saying "look at those pudgy cheeks!". I also remember the nurses going on and on about how strong our little man was.

I remember staring at him in shock of just how perfect he was. I'm sure every new parent does this but until it's you you don't really understand. I always braced myself for an extremely bald baby and was also in awe about how much hair he had...and how red it looked under the hospital lights. 

Preparing for Riley

Crazy enough my BFP (big fat positive--pregnancy test) came one day before signing the contract on our new house. Moving is crazy enough. Moving and preparing for a baby is just insane!

The last week of June (2011) we moved into our 1916 craftsman style farmhouse on 2 acres. We adore it! Right away I picked the bright pink floral room to be the nursery. To give you an idea of just how pink here's the wallpaper:

We had picked out a girl bedroom set and a boy bedroom set. The only color the two had in common was a cheerful yellow color. Not wanting to repaint for every child in our future we decided that yellow would be our choice. When we found out "it's a boy" in August we knew our theme would be farm animals with tractors.

My husband made the nursery bookshelf in wood shop when he was in high school. It appropriately has a tractor adorning the top. It currently holds our forever growing library.

Above it is a canvas I painted with decals matching Riley's bedding. I ordered our rocking chair through http://www.rockingchairs.com/ on Cyber Monday. For months I went back and forth on whether it would be worth the money or a mail order downer. I can't tell you how much we've loved this piece. It's solid and very comfortable. We've talked again and again about ordering a second for our sun porch.

The curtains came courtsey of the house's previous owner. There's nothing I despise shopping for more in the home section than curtains! I looked for months before Chris fessed up that he actually liked these (or maybe he was afraid of shopping for curtains with me). I have to admit they go nicely with the house. It still goes through my mind often that I want to switch them. I just can't commit! 

I purchased these blocks through SimpleBlockSayings on Etsy and couldn't be happier with them! I'm not one to put my child's name all over the walls or anything so this a fun little touch for us.

I've never been a fan of the look of traditional changing tables. To me they look like open serving carts minus the wheels. Some of them can get so pricey and I questioned what I would do with it after or in between my children using them. Also, I'm obsessed with antique furniture. Therefore when Chris and I ran across this antique dry sink in our favorite antique mall we knew it would be a possibility. And when I found a changing pad that fit it was quickly sold. We love this piece and it has so much hidden storage below for big boxes of diapers, big boxes of wipes, towels, etc. We also opted out of the famous diaper genie. We got this cute little stainless garbage can on black Friday for under $20. When it's done with diaper duty it will easily be used in another room!  

The JJ Cole Diaper Caddy was one of my baby item splurges. I knew I wanted it but it wasn't (in my mind) a "need". I love love love it though! It holds a good amount of diapers (maybe 20?), wipes, and has a drawer for smaller items (I have our thermometer, nail clippers, bulb syringe, diaper cream, and q-tips in there). It also has a matching fold-able changing pad if you need to take it around the house to use, say, on your living room floor. It's one of the few organizers I've followed through with using.

Above it is our nightlight by Switchables.

 We started with this small chest of drawers that I painted blue and got new hardware for. We're now using a bigger honey colored six drawer dresser that I used when I was small.

Above hangs a window out of Chris' family's barn. This window is over 100 years old and we saved from it's barn that fell in my first trimester. Three of it's panes hold baby pictures of Chris. Three of it's panes hold baby pictures of me. In the near future I plan to take these pictures out and replace them with pictures of Riley... But that's another blog for another day.

Here's a view of our crib, which we also love! I'm heavily considering making a bench out of it once we're done having children! 

After seeing numerous small plush stuffed animals on cheapo music box mobiles at the baby stores I knew we had to fin for ourselves in the mobile department. These are "Giggle-Ling" Christmas ornaments by Belsnickle. Our local orchard carried them years ago and I started collecting. I knew they would be perfect little farm animals to compliment. They are simply tied to an embroidery circle. We hung it for a cast iron plant hanger.

Needless to say the nursery wasn't ready for Riley until I was full term. Even now as Riley's pushing 10 months there's still things that I've meant to change and things I've wanted to add.

Baby Beluga in the Deep Blue Sea

I found out I was pregnant in the middle of April 2011. Almost immediately Chris, my husband, started singing "Baby Beluga" to our unborn child. He still randomly calls Riley "Beluga".

Morning sickness (morning, noon, night, 2 am...) haunted me for the first eight months. There are certain foods I may never eat again.

I craved Whoppers from Burger King and Cheesy Bits from Casey's General Store. Oh, and unsweetened tea was the only thing I could keep down some days.

In August we found out we were the proud parents to be of a little boy!

Reflections

Where does time go?

Above is the only picture of my swollen baby bump (that I'm aware of anyways). I was 41 weeks, 1 day pregnant (according to the ultrasounds). I was uncomfortable, having contractions, and getting ready to leave for the hospital. I only asked my husband to take this picture so my child wouldn't question adoption. Now there's proof!

Below is Riley at 41 weeks, 1 day. He's a curious nine month old full of energy. He's growing super fast (which I know people talk about all the time). What people fail to discuss is how much is forgotten!

I've talked about blogging in the past with a few of my best mommy friends. However I never really saw myself doing it until just last night. I try hard to keep up with pictures of Riley and his baby book. But I'm going to be honest...I'm failing. It takes so long to upload, decide, and order pictures. And the baby book, well...it doesn't have places for everything. Actually it just has places for things that I'm sure my grown child won't care so much about.

Therefore I've decided I'm going to give this a go. I've appropriately named my blog Stealing Memories because that's exactly what I intend to do. I'm kicking myself for not starting this sooner so I'm sure lots of my first blogs will be surrounded by the past but of course they'll be so much to blog about in the future too!