Serious bonding with daddy

Well, I'm finishing day 9 of being sick and quarantined from my family. Thank God Russell is such a wonderful dad and hubby, and my friends are so thoughtful. Russell took 3 days off last week and spent all weekend with Riley; they've had more 'date nights' than I can imagine (Riley's started asking for 'date night with daddy at Beach Chalet!'). He's sent me some photos of their dinners together, and somehow they got lost in my new iPhone. I'll get it figured out, and post some later.

So funny, after a jaunt to the playground Russell said, nearly out-of-breath, 'Whoa, she climbs EVERYTHING! And won't let me help her!' Welcome to my nervous life as a fearless toddler's stay-at-home-mom!





A little skate-rat with an attitude! (Daddy still got her to put her helmet on!)




Plus, friends have offered to take Riley (and taken her) with them so I can get some rest and she can get some play, and brought food and things to help out. What an amazing group of people we are friends with! Thanks, everyone.

Here are some great photos daddy took to document their time together at the beach on a gorgeous day.



Hey, I'd say this little girl looks a LOT like me! No?




Oh, by the way, I have an upper-respiratory viral infection. Not swine, not the flu. Just something annoying and contageous. Yuck.

I bought Riley a new dresser last week. I was trying to put it together, and she kept bugging me to play with her, so I decided to put her to work. I can't tell you how excited she was to be able to help me! And, she was actually a GREAT little helper. She put all the screws in, and I just had to top them off with the drill. She sure is a chip-off-the-old-Richardson-block!




And one more thing... I mentioned in the last blog that we took Riley to Disney on Ice. Then, I realized I still had photos of it on my camera! Here they are.

Another awesome Halloween... with Grammy!

Well, Halloween is Grammy's favorite holiday, outside of Christmas. So, she was able to come to San Francisco once again to spend the week with us. And what a busy week (month, actually) it was!

Riley was a puppy named Frenchie for her school's pumpkin party.






Riley was a little mermaid for her school parade.






Riley was Tinkerbell, I was a funky lady, daddy was a drunken washed-up astronaut (or something like that) and grammy was a pirate for Harmmonie's street fair.











And this, the quintessential 'daddy farting' shot. Wow, good timing on taking that one, grammy.



Riley's school had a pumpkin party the evening grammy arrived. It was fun, and beautiful! It was a potluck dinner, and the kids sang Halloween songs and had a pinata. The adults lit pumpkins in the sandbox. What a nice welcome to town for grammy.







And, of course, Riley and grammy carved our pumpkin, too. Only one got carved this year... too many events going on. But it sure was a good one!



Some shots from the day grammy came with us to school. Riley loves all her friends!







Pizza night with the lady friends (and Jackson, the little bro). Best pizza in SF.



The weekend before Grammy came, Riley's school had it's Harvest Festival. What a fun day! Loads of activities, games for the kids with prizes, yummy food, and a great turnout! I was the face-painting witch, with black hair (not a wig!!) and all. Yes, the hair is still black! I kinda like it....













The weekend before that, we took Riley to see Disney Princesses on Ice. Wow! What a show. We all loved it, even though Russell would have been happier if it actually ended after the first act... the fact that there was a second act was surely a surprise to him.



And here are some great photos of a playdate with daddy. She sure loves dates with daddy, and she's been getting a lot of those this week, while I'm sick as a dog and he stayed home to take care of us! What a daddy... aside from my own, he's the BEST!!






And certainly not to forget... our Toronto clan on Halloween! Nice work, Lindsay, on getting daddy Dave dressed up... love it!




Oh, and nice pool, you guys... wow. Just in time for the snow!! : )



And to close, here's how I get my fill of the beautiful changing leaves of fall. Mom and dad's yard in Derry. Miss those changing leaves! I need to go there to decompress for about a month after the massive Halloween season we just experienced.