Pumpkin Patch 09

We were so excited this year that we would be able to take Rylee to the pumpkin patch. So as soon as it opened we went. Our first visit was with our mom's group. We had a great time riding the train (Rylee loved it- i think it was her favorite part of the day, going to the petting zoo, and finally playing with the huge pumpkins. We had a really nice picnic under the apple trees and then packed up and headed home. It was a great first trip to the pumpkin patch.

While Rylee and I were there we realized (ok I realized) we had to get the extra large pumpkins- the ones that need a fork lift to be picked up. So we knew this would be a job for daddy. so the next day we headed off to the pumpkin patch with daddy and mema in tow.

This time we started with a picnic next to the Koi pond and then took a tour of the farm. Then it was off to find the perfect pumpkins. After searching high and low we found two HUGE pumpkins. So Chris headed off to get the man the drives the tractor to lift them and put them in his truck. While he did that MeMa and I took advantage of taking lots of pictures of Rylee playing in the pumpkins. On the way out we had to stop at the bakery and get some delicious carmel apples and apple bread. Then it was off for naps.

Overall, I think Rylee enjoyed her first trip to the pumpkin patch. I can't wait to see her reaction next year when she can run all around. Oh boy I think we will be in trouble. :)

PJ day at the tomaszewski crib

A few days after Rylee got her flu shot she wasn't feeling 100% and the weather outside was cold and drizzly so we decided it would be fun to have a PJ day. We hung out in our PJ's all day. It was alot of fun for both of us. But I have to say Rylee wins for cutest PJ ensemble!

One last dip in our pool for the season!

Since the weather has been so weird we decided to take Rylee for one last dip in our pool before it gets to cold. We wanted to practice her swimming skills. So off to teh backyard we go. I should tell you that the pool where she takes her lessons is a cool 90 degrees every week. So as we put her in our 72 degree pool we see this shocked look come over her face and almost instantly she pulls her feet up as far as she could. Chris and I laugh and say we should still try. Oh no was our little princess going in the 70 degree water. she held on to Chris with her death grip- including wrapping her legs around his arms and gripping with her toes. so we decided not to torture her and decided to try the spa. It was a cool 80. She seemed to think it was more manageable because she actually got wet. She swam a few laps and then decided she was ready to dry off. Poor girl has no idea that her pool will rarely be 90!!!

Rylee can pull herself up!!

Yes, you read write- she can pull herself up to a standing position all by herself. Our little baby girl is growing up so fast. The first time it happened- Chris was watching her and she woke up from her nap and when he walked in there she was standing up waiting for us. It melted his heart and broke mine because I missed it. But now that is how we find her every morning- standing, waiting for us and then when we walk in she starts smiling, laughing and moving her legs with excitement. It is the cutest thing ever. She now pulls herself up all over the house. In the last two days she has conquered the couch- the end tables- coffee table- her high chair- the fridge- anything that she can possible climb she climbs. Our home is now officially baby proofed!:)

8 months!!

So I am a little behind on this...I don't have many of Rylee's 8 month pics on this computer but I do have this one. This pretty much explains the photoshoot. She was so excited to eat the sticker that we didn't get many. But she is still the cutest:)

At 8 months:

Weighs: around 19lbs
Wears a size 3 diaper
Wears 6-12 month clothes

Loves her swimming lessons and being in the water. This has been a great daddy and me bonding time.

Can go from laying down to sitting with no help.

Loves Mema's dog Bella- they are BFF!!

Is super talkative-she loves yayayaya!! I think there has been a few dadas. I am patiently working on mama!!!

Still loves her Bob stroller- the free air, the ability to stand in it and hold on, and the freedom to look around. She is not so much in love with the Bugaboo- to restricting.

Eats two meals a day- breakfast and dinner. She is loving all of the different varities of homemade food we make.

Still takes two naps- ranging from 15 minutes to 2 hours. Usually 30 minutes.
Loves to play peek-a-boo. Especially when we put her down for her naps and hid her face with her blanket.

Stood hanging on to the ottoman for a few minutes all by herself.

Loves her blankies in her crib.

Sleeping around 12 hours a night!! Priceless!!!
Is the cutest baby ever!!

Her first teeth and scooting around!!

Our first family bike ride

We finally got all the pieces we needed for our bike trailer and decided to take Rylee for her first bike ride around the block. So we buckled her in, threw in a few toys and off we went. We went about half a mile and Rylee decided she did not like it. So we stopped, repositioned her and tried again. No luck! So we headed back home. So although it wasn't a huge success we did get her in it and we will have to keep trying.

Ready and excited about her new ride!!


all buckled up and ready to go!!

Rylee's 7 month stats

At 7 months Rylee:

weighs:18lbs
wears a size 3 diaper
has started to crawl- she still loves to do the wounded soldier crawl but has started to use her knees more
favorite toys: an empty water bottle and the phone. Forget the expensive baby toys just give her a plastic water bottle and she is happy.
Loves the BOB stroller and tries to stand up while we walk around. It is the cutest thing ever!!
Eats two meals a day- she loves her oatmeal and fruit in the morning and veggie at night.
Is not a picky eater- thank goodness she is more like her daddy than her mommy.
loves to look around at everything and everyone- she is very aware of everything.
is in swim lessons and enjoying it.
takes two naps a day and maybe a small one in the car. We are still working on stretching out the length of the naps.
has two teeth and they are sharp.
Enjoyed one night with daddy all be herself.
is the cutest baby girl in the world!!!!

Rylee Loves to read!!

Ever since Rylee was born we have read to her. It started out with a book before bed (Goodnight Moon) and now we read before every nap and during the day. Well Rylee must love to read because whenever she sees a book she crawls to get it and opens it up. A mommy couldn't be prouder:)

Swim Time!!

Rylee loves to swim. We have her in swim lessons every week and she absolutely loves it. Chris and I are really excited about having our own pool but want to make sure Rylee is safe - so we signed her up for lessons. Every week we take her and one of us (usually Chris) gets to swim with her. She is learning all the basic survival skills- to float on her back and to swim to the side and pull herself up. So far she is doing amazingly well. After 5 weeks she has already learned to swim under water- yes you read right- swim under water. She is able to go under and swim through a hula hoop and then come up. We are so proud of her. She even went down the waterslide this week. I think we may have a fish n our hands!! We are hoping that by keeping her swimming all winter she will still love the pool next summer. Watch out we may even have a future Olympian!!!

We're starting solids!!

Now that Rylee is 6 months old it is time to start solids. To me this is bittersweet- it is exciting that she will now be able to sample yummy, delicious food and join us for meal time but bittersweet because it shows how quickly she is growing up. But we are really excited about watching her taste new things and see her reaction. Here is a breakdown on how it is going so far...

Day 1- Rice cereal
We started with the typical rice cereal. We got the fancy bowl, spoon and new bib ready. We called Mema and had her come over. We charged the cameras and got them ready and then it came time to start. Rylee is already used to sitting in her bumbo so we put her in it and began. Her first bite caused a look of confusion-like what is this. But like the champ she is she actually swallowed it. I will admit it was more like milk than cereal. So we gave her another bite. This time she took the bite but then grabbed the spoon and decided it was hers and that it was her new favorite toy. So we would have to pry the spoon from her hand and take another bite. We continued like this for a few minutes. Then she realized that the spoon was fun but the bowl looked even better. What does a 6 month old and a bowl of cereal = one very messy baby!! We loved every moment of it. It was a very proud moment in out house. Here are a few pics from the big day...







Day 7- avacado
After a week of rice cereal I decided it was time to start adding new things. So I thought it would be fun to try avacado. I have read that some people skip rice cereal and start with avacado. So I went to costco and bought the jumbo bag of avacados knowing that Rylee was going to love them- I mean it is the main ingredient in quacamole!! So I mashed and mashed added a little milk and gave it a shot. Nothing could have prepared us for the face that Rylee made. it was one of absolute disgust. She did this gagging face and curled her nose up and started spitting it out. We laughed and tried again thinking she just wasn't used to the texture- wrong- she just doesnt like avacados. We tried for 3 more days without any luck so we gave it up and went back to our staple rice cereal.

Day 9- sweet potato
I have to admit that I am obsessed with making Rylee's baby food. After reading what is in the jarred food (even the organic) I decided that I was going to make it. So I was lucky enough to get the cool baby food making device at William sonoma so I decided to put it to work on the sweet potatoes. Now I do love kitchen gadets but this thing ROCKS!! I love that it steams and then purees. It is brilliant. So I whipped up a batch of sweet potatoes in no time and put my cooking skills to the test. Rylee took the first bite and only made a slight yuck face, gave herself the chills, and then swallowed. Chris and I looked at each other and said we may have a winner. She took a few more bites, played with the spoon, got sweet potatoes on everything (even behind her ears) but really enjoyed it. We just finished our 3 day of sweet potatoes and tonight she ate the most ever and ,ost of it made it in her mouth and not everywhere else. I think we have found a winner.


Stay tuned for an update on peas and carrots they are on the menu for this week...

Happy Half birthday Rylee!!

OMG! Can you believe Ryleee is already 6 months. WOW time is flying by. What an amazing little person she is becoming every day. We have had a super busy month and Rylee enjoyed every second of it. For all of you that are interested her are her stats for the month:

At 6 months Rylee

- weighs over 16 lbs ( we are waiting for our dr appointment this month to get the actual numbers but let me tell you she is a chunky monkey-her cheeks give it away!:)
- wears size 2-3 diapers and sometimes size 3
- loves to roll and roll and roll. You never know where she will end up or stop. I think if she could she would roll from one side of the house to the other with no problem.
- loves, loves, loves her jumperoo. She loves to jump and jump some more. She loves it even more when you jump with her- she smiles from ear to ear and starts laughing. She loves to grab the banana and pull it into her mouth. (I can't wait to see what she will do with a real banana)
- sleeps through the night but loves to wake up at 6:12am every single day. It does not matter if she goes to bed at 7pm or 10 pm the girl wakes up at that minute no matter what. It is crazy!
- still thinks that her feet are the best toy ever. We call it her baby yoga time.
- can sit up for a few minutes all by herself.
- loves to splash in the tub and try to catch the bubbles. She really loves it when we are traveling and she gets to bathe in the big tub-watch out cause water goes flying.
- has flown 8 times and 4 of those times were in first class (lucky girl) and has been to 10 states. This is where in the world rylee has been- California, Nevada, Hawaii, maryland, Delaware, pennsylvania, new jersey, new York, Washington, texas. Plus one district- DC!! Not bad for 6 months!
- is still teething like crazy but no tooth yet (come on tooth fairy help a mom out here)
- is the happiest baby ever. Anyone who runs into her just adores her but not as much as her mommy and daddy do- we love you boo.

A few pics from our photo shoot ( disclaimer: my nice camera busted so we had to use our point and shoot :(

NYC 2009- a visit with auntie J and uncle Mike

So after DC we decided to head to NYC to visit Jen and Mike. I was so excited because we haven't been out there since they moved and they haven't seen Rylee since she was about three months old. We had a fabulous time with them. They took us to so many sites and places we would never been. But the best part was spending the few days together.
On our first day, we had an amazing lunch at 5 napkin burger. If you are ever in New York you have to try it- delicious! We then headed over to central park so Rylee could see the carousal. Of course by the time we walked there she had fallen asleep- but we did get a picture with her by it. We then headed over to the boathouse for cocktails by the lake. It was very pretty and we enjoyed the time catching up. Rylee enjoyed it too...he loved that she had 4 people that would bounce her around and give her lots of attention. We then headed to FAO and the big apple store. THe apple store is really cool. We then headed back to Times Square. Rylee loved all of the lights. She would just stare at them- it was really funny to watch. We checked into our hotel and then headed to Harlem ( yes, Harlem) for dinner at the Dinasour (A BBQ joint). The food was really good and we had a great time. Then it was back to the hotel to put the little princess to bed.
The next morning we decided to walk across the Brooklyn bridge to a famous pizza joint in Brooklyn. It was a fun walk because you gt to see so much. We saw the statue of liberty, empire state building and the beautiful skyline. We made it across the bridge right before it started to rain. We got to the pizza place and began waiting in line. (on any given day or time there is at least a 45 minute wait) so we waited in the rain. Uncle Mike was so nice he gave Rylee and her stroller his big golfing umbrella and got stuck with Jen's pink heart umbrella. What a good uncle :) The pizza was very good. Then we headed to the subway station because there was no way we were walking in the rain. Daddy was a trooper carrying the stroller, backpack and umbrella all the way to the subway station. We took the subway to ground zero. Chris and Mike went to look at it and then headed to a bar for drinks while Jen, Rylee and I headed to Century21 for some shopping. This place is amazing- great deals just super dooper busy. We then met up with the boys and headed to Wall street so Chris could rub the bulls balls for good luck. (We will see if it was worth the trip). Mike had to go to work so we said goodbye to him and then we headed to grand central station, bryant park and then on our way back to the hotel we ran into a huge street faire. So we decided to walk through it- chris tasted some of the local food and we grabbed a few little presents. We then stopped at a brewery and had dinner before heading back to the hotel for some much needed rest.
On our last full day in NYC, Mike and Jen had to work so we met up with them for breakfast at Sarabeth's (another super yummy place- if you ever see there jams in a store try them because they are super dooper good) Then Chris, Rylee and I headed to the natural history museum. It was a lot of fun to see everything. Made me want to rent a night at the museum again and then go see the sequel. We were lucky we got there right when it opened because by noon it was packed. Afterwards, we walked through central park and headed to Dylan's candy. We had to go there because aunti Jen had bought Rylee a pair of PJ's from there for my baby shower and they are the cutest PJs ever so we had to go get her a bigger pair. Chris couldnt believe how much candy was in one store. We then had reservation at Serendipity. But once we got there decided it was not the best idea. (Not very baby friendly) So we skipped it and had lunch at a cute little place down the street. We then headed back to Times square to look around and then called it a night because we had an early flight back to Cali.
It was an amazing trip. I was so glad we got to spend so much time with Jen and mIke. we have missed them so much since they moved. We cant wait to take Rylee back when she is older in the winter so we can take her ice skatting and do so many more things with her. But we are still hoping Mike and Jen will head back to the west coast eventually :)
Here are some pics from NYC

at the carousal


how you get a baby around NYC


The fam at central park


Mike and Jen with rylee at central park


Waiting for their drinks at the boathouse


At FAO


at Rockafeller center


look at rylee checking out all of the lights- wait until we take her to vegas!:)


Times Square


Brooklyn Bridge






Mike and his pink umbrella


Chris rubbing the bulls balls


grand central station


Bryant Park


our happy jet setting girl


at the natural history museum


Relaxing before we head home