Rileigh Ilene

Rileigh Ilene was born at 9:18 a.m. on August 18, 2003 weighing in at 4 lbs. 5 oz. and 16 3/4 inches long. She was the first one born and was head down for the majority of my pregnancy, hence the large stretch marks on the left side of my upper hip! Her name came from an old College neighbor of mine who happen to be a guy from Canada. I loved Rileigh for a girl and it was like one of ten names on the girl list. Rich knew how much I loved and adored my Grandmother, my Mom's Mom who had passed in 1998. So while discussing names with family it was Rich's sister who put together Rileigh Ilene Whitemyer.

Rileigh did very well considering she was premie. She was never ventilated or incubated just hung in the NICU for 7 weeks. She did have some reflux that prevented her from keeping her feedings down and prevented her from gaining enough weight to go home. Rileigh was the "BIG" sister and got to go home before her brother by three weeks. She was kind of a cranky baby at times and Rich always said, "the Squeaky one gets greased," so once Logan came home she for sure got the majority of the attention.

Rileigh progressed a bit slower than your typical baby but was always a step ahead of her little brother. I honestly think by about 18 months they had caught up physically to where they should be compared to the average toddler and those crazy growth charts the doctors use at each and every visit. For a short time Logan and Rileigh shared a crib and Rich called it the two headed monster. Rileigh walked at 13 months and from then ran and refused walking and just ran every where she went. With running would come a lot of falling, Grandma Thatcher even questioned if something was wrong with her because she would fall all the time and was so bruised up. Rileigh was a thumb sucker and the verdict is still out if she may or may not still enjoy a good thumb sucking these days. When checked on in the wee hours of the night there is no thumb sucking but I think to soothe herself to sleep there maybe some. She does still sleep with her rag of a blanket which is a huge danger to her health ha ha!

Rileigh is the person in our family to go to if you ever lose anything she knows where it is and responds with, duh! She is a miniature version of me in so many ways. I honestly remember my mom telling me that one day she hopes I have a daughter like myself and sure enough I did and now I know why my Mom is crazy, I drove her crazy. Rileigh is the type of personality that when she wants something she wants it NOW! So we struggle with this, oh and when I ask her to do something she wants to do it LATER! We struggle with this even more. Like keeping up with the cleanliness of her room, watch out it is a MESS! She is getting smarter with age and even more conniving. Once again can be good and not so good. She is my right hand man, we enjoy each others company a lot, so I like to think. She is always up for what ever I want to do and vice\versa. She was my running partner, her on a bike me on foot. She is craft partner and an amazingly talented one to boot.

She is my day planner and reminds me on numerous occasions of things I forget or need to do. She is my babysitter, my maid and my friend.

I cannot believe she is going to be 7 years old, where has the time gone. It freaks me out a bit, I mean a lot. I look so forward to the future with her and watching her do the Rileigh things that she does. Her dad calls her Earl and thinks it is a great nick name. She is very excited for 1st grade and just today got some new jeans for school. She has become very opinionated about the taste of her clothes these days, but not as much as Logan that kid is even more opinionated about clothes. So good luck to Miss. Foster a brand spanking new teacher and graduate of college. Rileigh was told by her Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Lake who the teacher was and who the student is. She had to be reminded to back off and to let Mrs. Lake teach. I love that story it kind of makes me laugh a lot on the inside. My little control freak, in time it may be a good thing ha ha ha!

I love you Ri and am so proud of the sweet little girl you have become and am going to miss you when you are going to be gone at school allllllll day. Nellie is going to be so bored without you. Happy 7th Birthday my Ri Ri!