Yamma's Birthday

Yesterday, we went to Arlington Heights to celebrate Mom Green's (aka Grandma, aka Yamma) birthday. Fun was had by all, as evidenced by the following. :)

Riley's just waking up, so no captions... Feel free to add your own. ;)

Noelle's new clothes...

It seems that I just can't help myself as far as adorable, girly stuff goes. Here's sweet Noelle's sweet new outfit. :)

How hilariously adorable is this one?! :)

Bravery

I guess it must be me because Riley, my little, timid girl, was absurdly brave at the park with Daddy. I am so ridiculously proud of her.

Yesterday, after I got back from my amazing 90-minute massage (thank you thank you thank you, Michael!), we decided to take a family trek to the park. I stayed with Noelle while Mike and Riley played. I could hardly believe everything that she did. We were at Kelly Park, and she had previously just worked up the courage to go down the little 4-foot-ish slide by herself. But yesterday, she did EVERY SINGLE SLIDE... by HERSELF! She even went down the HUGE tunnel slide, over and over and over again. What the what?!

I didn't get many pics of the sliding phenom, but here are some other park shenanigans...

Run! Run! Run!

The little slide...

The big slide (later to be conquered by Riley-girl) with Daddy

Tunnel! (Note that her chin is pretty healed up. The nose is following along, slowly but surely...)

Little tunnel slide

This is perhaps the 24th trip down this slide. I mean, seriously, these little ones are child's play. :)

No trip to the park is complete without some swinging!!

Weeeeeeeee!

Random Pics

Uncle Steve brought these hats back from Bolivia for us, and, so, okay, they're not in season, but cute babies are never off-season, so here we go...





And just a quick update on Riley's face. It's looking pretty gnarly, but I guess that's what healing's all about. I feel like there's a sermon illustration there somewhere... :)

In the Trees

I thought I should end the day with some cute pics of my little adventurer. :)

From earlier this week...

Is this not one of the best pics you've ever seen? Click to enlarge for the full effect. :)


And from today... pre-accident

This Just Snapped

As a follow-up to my last post, here's Riley's face. So sad, right?

The Award Goes To...

I truly feel like I am deserving of the Worst Mom Award. I mean, I'm feeling a little better, now that it's been about an hour since the event, but still...

The day started off so well. I snapped some cute pics of Noelle for her 5-month "birthday."







We ran out to Babies R Us and got Riley her very own "big girl" potty and underwear. (This was going to be the main event of the day, and sadly, deserves much more blog time, but I suppose it's probably better to wait until we actually attempt to use the new items...)

Riley and I played outside and with her animals and zoo while Noelle slept. We shared a piece of toast. Everything was well and good...

Then we went to the Arboretum with the lovable Livingstons. Naturally, this was another fantastic part to the day, until we went to the water-and-woodchip play area. Riley had been begging for the water, so she was pretty pumped when she got there. I think this makes it all the more horrific for me-- seeing her go from the heights of joy to pain. She was splashing with her buddy, totally carefree...

This last shot occurred right before Riley took a downright nasty tumble down that stair behind her. I wish I could say exactly what it looked like-- that may have made it better-- but she fell out of my view, while I was SNAPPING PICTURES. Ugh. Worst mom ever. I do know, however, that it was not a graceful or painless fall. The side of her face is pretty scraped up, with a nice ground burn under her nose.

I scooped her up, snuggled her, then we made a break for it. At this point, Noelle had been cooped up in her carseat for long enough and was also wailing. I put Riley in the stroller and ran as fast as I could (not fast) to the car. The poor thing cried and whimpered all the way home. Actually, both poor things did. Riley even had that devastating lip-quiver going on.

I know she's fine, but sheesh... I couldn't feel more horrible.

I suppose it's a good lesson for me. I can't always be there, and I won't always be there. In fact, her safety is, really, completely out of my hands. So I can be grateful that God is in control. Right now, though, I'm just really grateful and he and Riley are forgiving.