Road-trip!

We took our first road-trip with Miss Riley Dearing this past weekend -burning up the road to see the family in Asheville, NC!

This was a much needed trip... I have been super stir-crazy trying to stick to the "no public access" with Riley for 8-weeks (which means no going out to restaurants, shopping, or other places with lots of people)... and Grant has been wanting to relax and cut loose with a golf club for months now.

I was pretty nervous about the car ride. Riley has shown that she has a bit of an aversion to her car seat in the past couple of weeks. She has had several screaming "conniptions" during short car rides to the pediatrician or to the park. I call these conniptions because she works herself up so much to the point of holding her scream until she makes no noise, turning plum red and gasping for breath. On the car ride up, she slept until we were about an hour outside of Asheville. The "plan" was to gas up, grab food for us and nurse Riley all in one stop as soon as she woke up. Riley woke up and immediately went into one of her fits, and once Grant actually heard her, the plan went right out the window. We pulled over immediately and stopped for about an hour. All-in-all, not too bad. (Bebe and Papa also witnessed one of Riley's "conniptions" on the way home from walking at the Arboretum on Sunday and Bebe - one who does not let babies cry - laughed at Riley as she is so dramatic!)

We had several special treats in Asheville - 1) Riley's Great-uncle Hay and cousins Bea and Bob came to meet her and see Harding and Shelby...

2) Great-grandmothers Burney and Nana spent the afternoon with Riley (Riley met Nana for the first time and thought she was especially funny)...

3) Great-uncle Mark also stopped by Sunday morning to meet Riley...

and 4) last but definitely not least.... Tiffany, Trip, Harding and Shelby Frances spent the night at Bebe and Papa's BOTH Friday and Saturday night so that they could get plenty of Riley time!! This was so special and meant so much to me. (I know it is hard to not sleep in your own bed when you only live 15 minutes away.) We loved seeing them and I definitely got my much needed Harding and Shelby Frances fix!

She smiles!

We had a really rough day yesterday (Riley 24 days old) - there was not a "wake time" during the day when Riley was not crying, a day that started at 4am, a day where when she would nap, she would somehow wake herself up 15-30 mins later and start crying again. I felt so defeated as a mother. Grant left night class about an hour early to come home because he was worried about both of us. Riley was asleep when he came home, until the dogs barked, so she lay crying in her crib waiting for daddy to come save her. I heard him say "Oh my lord that smile is the cutest ever" and thought, NO WAY. But, he brought her into our bedroom to show me and sure enough, she had a goofy little grin on her face. I could not believe it...after the day of screaming we went through... she smiles!! (saving it for Grant of course, such a daddy's girl already)

Well I got my share's worth of smiles today, although just one smile would have been enough to make up for yesterday. And today Riley had such a great day. Hopefully yesterday was just a fluke. We can all be in a mood every once in a while...

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious -- It's something to say when you don't know what to say!" (Mary Poppins).

A word that perfectly sums up this first blog post... a blog created to serve as a family journal of my family's life, The Moss Life. We plan to use this blog as a means to share thoughts, stories, photos and videos with family and friends, and to hopefully capture and document "The Moss Life" as we live it...