Pink Hippo

If you have a little girl, and you're a sucker for adorable little girl stuff, you should definitely visit Pink Hippo in Glen Ellyn. My goodness, it's Cute Heaven. Of course, I gave in and purchased Riley one headband and an adorable bow. Here she is, modeling her new items.

This is our initial attempt at getting the headband in place. Since she had ripped it off at the store, I wanted her to get accustomed to it before we decked her out with the bow. Thus, she's sporting her hippie/rocker chick look.


Headband plus bow... Oh, so beautiful. Love it. Repeat: love it.

WE HAVE FIRST STEPS!!!

I mean, it still counts if she only takes two steps, right? We're counting it.

I just got back from a trip to Riley's doctor, and, inspired by her exceptional, one-hand-supported walking when she was getting a little stir crazy (and by the fact that I had to answer a few of those is-she-on-schedule questions with a "no"), we practiced walking in the living room. We started with playing the Standing Game (one-two-three... standing girl!!), and I held her at arm's length. Then, after she was on her own two feet, I asked excitedly, "Can you walk to Mommy?" Apparently, she could because, twice, she took two faltering steps to me. On the second time, she nuzzled into me, and I asked her if she wanted to take a nap. She nodded yes (her new thing), so that's why we stopped at two steps. That's also why I'm currently able to record this moment in blog form. I'm hopeful that we may even get up to three steps today. Can you imagine? :)

Either way, I'm so proud of our little girl.

The Many Faces of Riley-Girl

Just thought I'd post a few pictures that I uploaded this morning. She's pretty darn cute. :)

Riley rocks the pony-tail. Too bad it didn't make it long enough to get to church.

Our neighbors gave Riley a family of ducks (one of her favorite animals), just because. How sweet is that?

We call this little activity "spelunking." Riley does it all day long.

Are moms supposed to laugh and snap pictures of tantrums? This one does. :)

Feeling cool in Mommy's hat.

Ahhh!!! I LOVE KONA!!!

We get ready to watch Roger win number 15!!

Hanging in the ball pit at Robbie's place

disaster

Two posts in one day. Whoa. This one will be short, and it will revolve around a question.

Can I blame pregnancy for being an utter disaster this morning, even if I'm not really showing, am no longer horrifically tired, and am not really nauseous?

In other words, getting ready this morning was quite a task. I tried on a dress that I had gotten shortly after Riley was born. I guess it's nice that it was too big-- so big that it was revealing in almost every possible place it could reveal-- but it still left me looking for another outfit. I threw on a button-down shirt, which is tugging quite a bit at the buttons due to the growth of some... uh... baby-feeding parts. I then slipped on the jeans that I wore last night to the movie. I looked in the mirror, and, oh, for the love... My jeans had a huge stain, I'm assuming from the popcorn topping that we loaded onto our large popcorn at the flick last night. Hmmm... somehow that didn't make it into the last post. Funny. I guess the truth will out. :) My eyes scanned upward and saw that I had a matching, though smaller and lighter, stain on my shirt. As Pooh would say, "Oh bother..." I abandoned the pants but stuck with the shirt. I'm only going to go through so many outfit changes. I wasn't up for thinking through what I'd put on my lower half, so I went the delay-the-inevitable route. I pulled on some comfy black shorts that I purchased from Target yesterday (these shorts... seriously, I'm going to be living in them. Thank goodness I got two pairs) and went to the living room to hang out with Riley while Mike showered. When he was done primping (hehe... this is a test to see if he ever reads these), it was time to decide. I pulled on some brown capris that I really do like but that are, admittedly, probably seeing their last few wears for quite some time. I squeezed the buttons into their slots, and off we went!

It wasn't till after church that I realized I must have neglected the zipper.

abundant blessings

The Lord is simply raining blessings down on us, as of late.

It began, for me, at our family dedication class. Riley will be dedicated at Wheaton Bible on July 19th, so we attended the prep class this past Thursday night. It was not, in the least, what I expected, not that I had put thought enough into it to expect much. I suppose I thought that Rob Rienow would talk a little about parenting and would walk us through why we were dedicating our little ones. He did do that; however, he also inspired us to fervently pursue God, which-- really-- is the only way we are going to effectively minister to Riley.

Mike and I have prayed together before bed the last few nights, and it's been wonderful. But beyond that, I've been waking up, both throughout the night and early in the morning, in a spirit of prayer and thankfulness. I never thought I'd be excited over a restless night!

God has also allowed us to see, once again, the amazing community of believers and loved ones who surround us. Yesterday, we spent the day at the Greens' house while the men-folk gave Dad G. his birthday present, a day of work in the backyard. Sarah, Mom G. and I went out to Target and Jewel, and we later played with bubbles and balls (and, of course, Kona) in the backyard.

As we were getting ready to leave the Greens', my roommate and wonderful friend, Becky, called me. She informed me that she and her husband, Seth, thought that it was a good night for them to come over and watch Riley. Would Mike and I be up for that?

Would Mike and I be up for that?!? I asked Mike, and his response was more than appropriate: "Are you serious? Ummm... absolutely!" Thus, Mike and I had our first non-special-occasion date night since Riley was born... and all thanks to Becky and Seth. Really... how many people have friends who call them up to request that they babysit? Thank you, thank you, thank you. It was so wonderful, getting to spend some time, just Michael and me.

For our, ha, romantic date, we went to dinner at Corner Bakery (chopped salads-- mmmmm!). Then we walked over to the AMC 30 and watched Transformers 2. Really, I wanted to see UP or (dirty little secret) Star Trek (but only because of Zachary Quinto). However, these two films weren't showing until 8:10 and 8:40. Seriously, I was already pushing way past my bedtime, being out past 8, so Transformers it was. I hardly remember the last time we saw a movie in the theater, and if you're going to see one with special effects, this is a winner. Mike's assessment was that the actors probably put in about two weeks time, and the rest of the movie was guys sitting in front of computers for nine more months. The acting was better than I recall from the first Transformers, but that could have been for two reasons. First, I quite obviously have very little memory of the first movie. I didn't recognize the girl, and another character from the first one made an appearance later in the film. I laughed because I recognized the actor; others laughed because he was a recurring character. I'm still at a loss for his role in the first flick. Second, I think my focus on the acting may have been a little distracted by the awesome and complex "plot" and the editing holes that I usually don't notice or care about. But whatever... it was a great mindless film. We were entertained. And it was a GREAT date night. :)

junk sales and dear friends

I've never taken part in a garage sale (although I do love perusing them). After this morning, however, I can no longer make that claim (the former, not the latter). At 7:30 am, I had Michael throw two boxes of... uh... treasures in my car, and I headed over to 1503 Washington to drop off our goods at a neighborhood garage sale. Granted, it wasn't my neighborhood; it was my friend Leah's neighborhood, though. Not her house, but apparently I have little shame.

See, I first found out about the sale yesterday, when Leah emailed a group of us, kindly informing us that her neighborhood was holding previously-mentioned garage sale. She told us that she knew some of us were the rummaging types, so we may well be interested. It seems as though Leah didn't know that some (or one, I guess) of us was also the Ooo-opportunity-to-unload-my-crap types, too. I immediately called Leah and (again, shamelessly) asked her if I could not only attend the sale but also participate. I'm so glad Leah's so darn nice. :) She vigorously agreed, and I set to sorting through my stuff.

This didn't take all that long because we recently had our basement carpeted, and during the clean-out process, I had filled two boxes of stuff that wasn't horribly awful but that we definitely didn't need filling up space in our house. I did have to price things which, I have to say, is hard-- especially for a novice garage saler. Honestly, though, I figured that I would take whatever people offered since I'm set on throwing the leftovers straight into the trash.

Since I'm writing this post now, at 11:41 in the morning, you may be able to guess that I didn't stay at the sale the entire time. Leah is, overall, a very trustworthy person. :) I think I can count on her not to stiff me. I did stay for almost two hours, and I was reminded, again, of how blessed I am to have dear friends. Leah, I believe, embodies joy and kindness. She and her husband Ben are one of a kind. Sadly, even though we live just minutes away, Leah and I don't see each other nearly as often as we should. (I plan to rectify this.) However, Leah's friendliness and grace make it so easy to connect and enjoy her company.

(Not so) secretly, I'm hoping there's a little Bowen on the way that will allow for many a playdate. :) No pressure, you two.

God is so gracious in what He gives us every day. Garage sales are great places to find treasure.

True Blue

I can't believe it's taken me even a couple days to write about one of the most exciting new events in our lives, but there you have it...

Michael started his NEW JOB this past Monday. He will be a salesman for ADT. I could be wrong about this, so don't quote me, but I think that ADT is the largest security company in the USA by a long shot, biggest then the next six combined. Needless to say, this is the largest company Mike has ever worked for. So far, it's been a lot of paperwork, training and boredom. He's spent almost his entire first days in front of a computer, doing online training. Sounds like a good time to me. However, this should be over by the end of this week, and then onward and upward! Actually, we're not quite sure what even next week will look like, considering he's supposed to, at some point, fly out to Colorado for two weeks for additional training. Apparently, the only scheduled training session started this past Monday, and they don't have the next one on the calendar yet, so we're kind of in waiting mode. We're used to that position by now, but that doesn't make it much easier. Plus, I want to fly out to Pasadena while he's gone, so I've got to get a ticket. :) I know... selfish.

However, we're so grateful that Mike's back to work. And it's been pretty fun here on the homefront, too, getting back to "normal." Riley and I are enjoying our time together. We've gone grocery shopping and outlet mall shopping for some schnazzy new shirts and ties for Daddy; we played in the sand with Robbie, and today, we think we might head over to Borders to check out the children's books section. What an exciting life we lead!

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers as we've been on the job hunt. God has provided richly for us, as He always does.