Happy Birthday, Riah Girl!!

Riah-1 1/2

Riah-8 Years old. Summer 2008 Top Sail Island, NC

Ahhhhh......the stories that will forever be told about this precious one. Shall we begin? Mind you, I don't post these for you. I post them for my babies, and for their babies.....so this one is a tribute!!!

The day she was born...arriving at the wee ole' hours of 4am, the child has forever been an early riser. We rushed to the hospital to greet the nurses with the first baby of the day. They checked me at roughly 8am, and the minute the nurse walked out of the room, I looked at mom and said,
"Something doesn't feel right, call her back."
Mom-She just checked you, you're fine.
Sarah-MOM!!! Something is not right, get her!!!
Mom-Ok!!
Nurse comes in....."Get me an MD, we have a baby coming!!"
To this day she is always in a hurry!! Oh, and she follows in her mama's footsteps, gotta love being delivered by a nurse. The doctor didn't make it. Funny how she still charged me.....

The day she fell out of the window....let me paint the picture. Riah couldn't have been older than 2....maybe 3. (I think I mentally blocked this day....I'll have to go dig to find details.) Beautiful day. All the windows open in the house. Me in the shower. Matt downstairs with Tim Bird (Hi Kelly!! Are you reading this???). Girls in their room playing (aka jumping on their beds). Tanner.....I'm pretty sure he was still an infant. All we have is the story Madeline, to this day tells so vividly.
Maddie and Sariah were jumping on their beds. Sariah's bed was under the window, and all we know is that she fell backwards into the window.....and down she went. Not down a few feet to a flower bed. Not down a few yards to the yard. She fell 10' (if not more) from her bedroom window straight down onto the concrete driveway. This is the coversation:
Maddie (running down stairs): DAD!!! Riah just fell out the window.
Dad: Maddie, no she didn't. Go play.
Maddie: Dad, she really fell out the window!!
Dad: Maddie, that's not funny. Go play.
....from outside the front door all he hears is screaming and crying....
Matt and Tim jump (I can only imagine....remember, I was in the shower) faster than lightning and as Matt is opening the front door, our baby girl is sobbing and walking up the sidewalk. Matt grabs her and brings her inside. While this is happening, Maddie is beating on my bathroom door and I hear her say "Riah fell out the window!!" I grab my robe (sorry, Tim!!) and race downstairs. I've never been more terrified in my life. I grab Riah and lay her on the couch. Matt an Tim are scowering for broken bones and as I try to calm her down, the only thing this sweet baby girl can say is:
"Mom, can I have a green popsicle?"
I'm sure I cried harder than she did at that point. Probably just because if you know Riah at all, you know that nothing stops her. NOTHING!! And this was proof she was ok. We didn't find anything broken, but our state of shock was nothing short of a heart attack. I remember calling mom to say, hey, can you come sit with T and Maddie while we run to the hospital? If you know my mom, imagine this sentence in the most "Sarah, have you lost your ever-lovin' mind?" tone:
"SARAH!!! TAKE HER TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM!!! NOW!!!!"
Oh yeah....my baby just fell out of a window....on the concrete....hummmmmmmm.
Now here is the best part of the story. While they were up in their room "playing", they were also playing dress up. Riah had on a dress that was for a 6 month old. No baby of mine is going to the hospital in a dress 3 times too small, with her booty hangin' out (and they are lucky I didn't go searching for a bow to put in her hair!!).....you can also imagine the tone of voice Matt took with me when I insisted she change. I'm gonna say I deserved that one! (But she did change....... :) )
Riah was fine. In fact, the only proof we had that she actually did fall (and not fly) out of the window, was the imprint of the window screen on the outside of her right pinky finger.

Go ahead, tell me there are no such thing as angels. I have proof of one.
She's sleeping on the sofa right now. Sariah-2 years, Madeline-3 years, Mom-doesn't matter how many years and Tanner-2 months

The above picture was pretty close to when
the window incident happened (+/- 6 months).
She's so little....

And then there was the day after Thanksgiving.....I'm pretty sure the exact same year.
Who hasn't played in the Christmas Tree box after Mom and Dad take it out for the first time? Well, Grace...I mean, Riah, put this Turkey day in the books for us. Riah was standing inside the tree box, playing away, and as she tried to step out, he legs were too short. The box tumbled to its side......the side that was next to a corner point of two walls. Down Riah goes, and all I hear are screams. I do the "sane" mommy manuever and tell her she is fine, we'll get some ice. We got ice all right......and 5 stitches to sew up the gash on the side of her head left by the wall. I tell you what....you'd think we bought stock in the Paulding Co. hospital!!

That was all almost 5 years ago, and instead of her falling off of things, we're teaching her to tumble through them. We fall off the monkey bars, but we are learning how to do back hand springs nicely!!

She's our running, jumping, tumbling, fast talking, blonde bombshell....
who we wouldn't trade for the world!!

Happy 9th Birthday, Ms. America!!!!

Sariah Alexis
August 2008
8 Years Old