Fall Fun

It's been a pretty busy week for us.

On Tuesday, Cate and I started our Aqua-babies class at the YMCA. It's not really swim lessons. We splash in the water, sing songs, play with toys, etc. The lifeguard does put Cate under the water, but only very briefly (less than 1 second) and in a way that water doesn't go straight up her nose. It's important for Cate to learn early to spit that water out. We also back float (with her head against my shoulder) to get her used to water around her ears. She seemed to enjoy the class (and the echo her squeals made in the pool). Mommy enjoyed it too. I'd been wanting to do some kind of mommy and me class with her since I pretty much peed on the stick and got a positive. There aren't a lot of evening and weekend options available for us working moms, but I found one. Sometime in late winter/early spring, I'm hoping to do a sign language class with her as well (we were going to start one last weekend, but it was canceled- so we're swimming instead). Don't judge- I am not over-committing my child before she's even one. I just like having something to do with her outside of our home, especially since I work.
(If you're wondering about the glasses- I had swollen corneas a week ago. It was pretty painful. Now that they're not swollen, I need to get some new contacts).

Anyway...on Wednesday we went to a Harvest Party at my grandma's church. Eric was busy with work, so it was Mommy/Daughter time again. Cate enjoyed her first wagon ride. No hay- too many allergies and too much mess.
She crawled around on the slick gym floor too. I think she liked being able to slide around.
Today I left my house dressed like this:
Our team of teachers was a biker gang for Halloween.
Again, don't judge. Our team was previously known for our lame attempts at costumes. We were a ruler last year...cute, but lame. The teacher Halloween costume contest is pretty intense at our school. The winning team of teachers gets the coveted "golden broom" and bragging rights for the next year. We were a little surprised we won (student council judges us), but excited to win the golden broom for the first time. Thank you to my mother-in-law for loaning me the Harley gear (my in-laws just got a brand new Harley-- it's pretty sweet). The chaps were a little hot to teach in, but I made it. Eric thought my Vera Bradley lunch bag, Coach purse, and breast pump definitely completed my look as I left this morning.

This afternoon we finally carved our pumpkin:
Cate wasn't really too sure about the whole touching pumpkin guts thing. But she did enjoy reading the Halloween book Mommy and Daddy got her (she can't have candy yet, and we had to get her something to put in her cute little bucket).
I took her to see a few coworkers who live in the neighborhood before we headed home, exhausted. Cate is now sound asleep. And since I've caught you all up on all things Riggs, I'm off to bed as well. Happy Halloween.

~Melody :-)

PS...Please read my quick post from earlier tonight (the post right before this one) and please pray for those mentioned. Thanks!

We Serve a Mighty God

I don't understand everything God ordains- and I'm not supposed to. I trust and have faith that it is all for his glory. But parts of this week were rough. Some friends from college are going through a tough time with their daughter. Please lift them up in prayer. A student on our team at school (I do not have her in class, but had her older sister when I was a student-teacher and her older brother a couple of years ago), was diagnosed this week with leukemia. She is the second student at the school where I teach to be battling cancer. The other student, also an 8th grader, was diagnosed over the summer. Please lift both students up as well. I've cried a lot for both situations this week and in certain moments I have been frustrated with God for allowing these things to happen. But in the words of Ginny Owens, "there's a bigger picture [I] can't see." God is good, that's all I know.
~Melody :-)

So, It's my turn to write a blog. A couple of nights ago, Cate and I sat down to read a book. She is becoming quite the bookworm. Mommy and Daddy like that, though. That's one passion we wouldn't mind fueling.


Then after a long week, the fam decided to go to Hall-Zoo-Ween and dress Cate up in her finest butterfly digs. She was quite the charmer.

She tried to hang out on Daddy's shoulders like all of the other older kids, but wasn't very keen on it. She did sit long enough to pose for a picture though.



Oh yeah, she was looking at the gorilla's smashing their pumpkins.



She did get another Cate sized pumpkin at their pumpkin patch and took a pose next to the ghost. She wasn't quite sure what to do with the pumpkins, but she had fun, all the same.


I loved spending time with the fam for a couple of days. It just reminds me of how truly blessed I am. I am a father, a husband, a friend, a goofball, and I get to enjoy time with some of the greatest people on earth. God is smiling.

- Papa E

A Little Bit Faster Now...

Cate is clearly getting the hang of this crawling thing. Zoey (our dog) is not so happy.



~Melody :-)

Pumpkin Patch Outing

Today I had a random day off of school for fall break (which we've never done in our district before) and Eric had the day off as a comp. day since he was in Columbus this weekend. So it was off to the Pumpkin Patch at Burger Farm. Cate made friends with a scarecrow when we first walked in.
And she wasn't so sure about the small gourd.
We posed for some pictures with the pumpkins.
There were a lot to choose from.
We found a perfect Cate-sized one though.
We also found a perfect mommy and daddy sized pumpkin.
Cate enjoyed the playground after we put the pumpkins in the car.
And sized up the rock wall as well. Mommy and Daddy can't wait to take her climbing when she's older.
It was a morning well spent. Incidentally, I went on a few field trips to Burger Farm in my preschool and early elementary school days (none of which I remember) and I think my brother got in a couple before we moved to Hudson. Burger Farm has a fall festival every weekend in October if you want to check it out, but we opted out of it this year figuring that it will be more fun next year when she's walking. The quiet morning at the farm definitely was a better decision for us. We had the place to ourselves and the freedom to take all of the cute pictures we wanted.

Happy Fall!

~Melody :-)

The Neck Bone's Connected to the Shoulder Bone...

In the spirit of Halloween...here is Miss Cate in her skeleton PJ's. Enjoy!

~Melody :-)

PS...I'm not sure why the picture is a little fuzzy...oh well.

PPS...The bones glow in the dark.

A Weekend Visit and Fall Day Trip

On Friday afternoon, my mom and aunt arrived for a visit. We gathered together at my grandmother's house for a fall favorite- homemade vegetable soup. For dessert, Cate got her first taste of pumpkin pie and loved it! She kept holding her mouth open for more.

On Saturday we got up early to drive to Stanton, Kentucky to visit my great aunt. We've had family reunions at her house just about every year since I can remember, although the last two years we haven't been able to get our schedules coordinated (don't worry, we will for the summer of 2009). The drive was beautiful (all of the leaves are starting to turn) and the weather nice and cool. Cate posed for a picture in a mini-chair outside on the porch.
And was clearly tickled by the plants in the garden with great Aunt B.
It was great visiting. My mom's cousins Lois and Danny stopped by as did Danny's daughter, Danielle, and her boyfriend.

On Sunday we had originally made plans to go to Hall-zoo-ween at the Zoo with Nana, but my mom had to hit the road earlier than expected, so Cate and I did a little shopping for some winter clothes (for her, not for me) and played at home while we waited for Eric to get back (he was in Columbus staffing the marathon for TNT on Saturday and Sunday).
Why do the weekends always go by so fast?

~Melody :-)

On the Move...Cautiously

Batten down the hatches...Cate is on the move! Well, sort of. She is definitely up on all fours and crawling, but she definitely is slow moving and cautious. Hopefully she'll be that way when she learns to drive too. :-)

Here's what we're seeing on our end- we pretty much scooted all of our living room furniture to the edges of the room to give Cate plenty of space to do her thing.



We know with each day she'll get faster and better. We are soaking in every moment with her because she is literally changing before our eyes.

~Melody, Eric, and a crawling, cautious, curious, crazy Cate :-)

Bookworm

I am a bookworm, Eric also loves to read, and it looks like Miss Cate is following in our footsteps. We've been reading to her since birth. We even read to her a couple of times while she was still in the womb. While Cate doesn't understand the stories we read to her, it's great for her to pick up on language patterns and vocabulary. We started out with a Taggies soft book that was a gift from my mom's friend and a bath time edition of Rainbow Fish. We've carried and read those two books to Cate in more places than I can remember.

Lately she's been very curious about her board books. She kind of turns the pages. She bites them and chews on them. She pats them with her tiny little hands. She scratches at their textures with her fingers to see how they feel. She loves her bin of books. Her favorites right now seem to be: Click Clack ABC, Rainforest Discoveries, Goodnight Moon, and two books with pull-out shapes from Pottery Barn Kids (Andrea got us one of them...thanks...it's a hit). We have plenty more books for her to explore as she gets older. Her grandma just bought her a ton of Little Golden books, and I've been collecting children's books since before Cate was even a remote thought in my brain. My friends Jenn and Jane have also sent Cate books to read.

I encourage you if you're reading this to pick up a book and read...to yourself or to your children. In fact, I'm off to read some more as soon as I finish this post. But first...some pictures of Miss Cate and her books.

We love the different textures in Rainforest Discoveries.
Hmmm....which books to choose.
This one looks good today.
Time for another one. We keep her book bin on the lowest shelf of our bookcase so she can get to it. Although, since Cate is not quite into everything yet, we usually move it to the floor during playtime so that she can reach it.
But...Cate did crawl today. Up on all fours. For about 4 or 5 feet. Then she flipped out, belly-flopped, and gave up. She can go from her tummy to sitting though. So that's exciting. And it apparently looks like she's literally a few days away from crawling...but only time will truly tell.

~Melody :-)

It's Coming

While the weather in the upper 70s and low 80s is nice this time of year...we know winter is coming. As we picked up a few things at Meijer this weekend, we tried a few winter hats on Cate. We didn't buy one yet since she seems to grow about every other day. But we know it won't be too long before the coats, gloves, and hats all come out.
~Melody :-)

Happy 8 Month Birthday Cate!

Hyde Park decided to have an art show on the square in honor of Cate's eight month birthday! Just kidding...but there really was an art show on the square today and it does happen to be Cate's eight month birthday. It's hard to believe how fast eight months has gone! We decided to head out the art show after church this morning.

While we don't practice "attachment" parenting (philosophy that says you should pretty much have your baby on you at all times), I do like to put Cate in the sling (love my Hotsling) or the front carrier instead of the stroller every so often. Today seemed like a good day for the sling since I didn't feel like maneuvering a stroller through a crowded square. Cate didn't seem to mind. It was cool to see all kinds of different art available for sale on the square. My personal favorites were the pictures done by local elementary, middle, and high school students. Maybe Cate will have some art there in a few years.

We posed for a picture in front of the fountain.
Cate was starting to get tired by this point, but we let her touch the water too. She is a little explorer for sure. We like to call her "Curious Cate."
We also found some pretty fall blooms and Daddy took these pictures.
It was a perfect day for baby leg warmers, which she has on under her dress. I LOVE baby leg warmers!!
Cate loves to touch the grass as well. She is fascinated by each little blade that sticks to her hand.

It was definitely a day well spent.

~Melody :-)

Some yummy Irish food

I really don't know if either Eric or I have any Irish in us at all (I know I've got a lot of heritage way back on my mom's side from that general area of the globe, but I don't know if any of it is specifically Irish). Regardless of what our heritage may be though, Eric and I definitely like Guiness and Smithwicks and Harp, potatoes and cabbage and corned beef, fish and chips, beautiful Celtic knots, U2, Irish pub songs and other Irish music (ask Eric what specifically...he's the music man and knows our extensive CD and iTunes library much better than I do)-- one would think that maybe we are Irish somewhere in there. Anyway, last night we decided to head up to our local Irish pub, Molly Malone's. Molly Malone's is right here in Pleasant Ridge and an easy 10 minute walk from our house. It's also right next door to one of our favorite coffee places, Pleasant Perk.
It was perfect sweater weather last night in the Ridge.
So off we went...
We sat outside and Cate and daddy posed for a picture while we waited for our food to come.
Of course we had fish and chips (and some wings too). Cate got to try a chip as well. She wasn't too thrilled, but when baby food is all you know what can you expect?
Cate was pretty mellow on the ride home. We read her Eric Carle's Pancakes, Pancakes, which we checked out from the library, gave her a bath, and nursed her right to sleep.

~Melody :-)

PS...Molly Malone's was not our original intended destination. The Peapod Cafe is a new restaurant up in the Ridge that has a much lighter fare (soups, salads, sandwiches and herbal teas). The owner is big on using organic and/or locally grown ingredients. They only had lunch hours since their grand opening in August, but have now expanded and are open for dinner. However, I think they're still adjusting to being a place for dinner as they were pretty much out of food when we got there. Eric and I both enjoyed a cup of vegan tomato curry soup before we decided to head to Molly Malone's. I think we'll try The Peapod again once they have a few more months of experience under their belt.