2012 promises to be yet another great year!  Just a few of the major things to look forward to:

-Baby Bartlett #2's arrival in less than 2 months
-Riley becoming a big sister
-Riley turning TWO
-Mark finishing his PhD and becoming DOCTOR Bartlett
-selling our house
-potentially moving back to the US for good
-and lots lots more!

Riley wants to wish you a fabulous New Year!!  She even put on her sparkly headband to celebrate.

I've been meaning to post this video for a while, but just have been so busy/sick/without internet, so I didn't get around to it.  Here's a little taste of Riley over the past few weeks... a little talking, a little dancing, and a little counting and ABCs.  The usual.  Enjoy!

Again, quite a few days late, but better late than never. :) This seems like such a big milestone to me... One and a half.  Like, almost a bigger deal than turning one, but without the party to go along with it.  And once again, SO much has happened this past month.  I have a feeling I will continue to say that for quite a while!  So here we go:

New words:  Holy cow, it's getting hard to keep up with her new words.  Just some of the new ones on the list are "frog, fire, puppy, knee, oh tooo! ("oh toodles" from mickey mouse clubhouse), read, phone, belly button, two, four, ice cream, apple pie, juice, spoon, fork, knife, bowl, cup, pants, move."  And there are a lot more.
Letters:  When we ask "what letter is this?" she knows A-I, M, O, P, Q, T, V, W, and Z.  She can say many of the letters and their sounds except for a few (like for H she says A, so she's close at least).
Numbers: She can pick out 1, 2, and 4, and knows when she is holding two objects, and says "two!" appropriately.  And she can count to 5 on her own.
Colors:  She knows red, blue, and green.
Shapes: She knows circle, triangle, rectangle, diamond, and star.

This month she decided she only wants to sleep in a big girl bed, which has been an interesting transition.  She started refusing to sleep in her crib one day- crying and yelling "bed! bed!", PLUS she can climb out of her crib, so we decided to go ahead and make the change to a big girl bed.  I'll do a separate post on this soon, but so far she falls asleep in a bed, and usually wakes up at some point in the night and comes in our bed.  Last night was our first night of making sure she stayed in her own bed all night long, and it went fairly well, so I'll share a little more on this later...

She has become even more of a mama's girl, and wants me to be in her sight, if not right next to her, all the time.  If I leave the room, she yells "MAMAMAMAMAMAMA" the whole time until I come back.  She has also become super snuggly, and will out of nowhere come over to me, climb on my lap and lay her head down on my shoulder, or just give a bunch of big old kisses.  And I love it every single time.  She's really into naming things she knows, and will randomly just point things out and name them.  One of her favorite things to do is give you the rundown of body parts, pointing and naming them all including eyebrows, chin, and cheeks.  She also loves to name her utensils (fork, knife, spoon, bowl, plate, etc...) and she likes to point to my drink and say "mama" and then point to her drink and say "Ri-Ri."  Yeah, she knows her name, and if she sees a picture of herself or sees herself in the mirror she says "Ri-Ri!"  She also now points to my belly and says either "baby" or her version of the baby's name.  It's pretty darn cute.

This little one is obsessed with her milk, although for some reason, she no longer calls it milk.  She used to say milk, but now she's made up her own word for it, and refers to it as "ng ng"... yeah, weird, I have no idea where that came from.  She also now named her paci her "pay" and her blankie her "gray gray," and has become super attached to all of them.  She is very interested in what everyone else is eating, and will come up and say "taste?" until you give her some to try.  She LOVES cheddar cheese slices, cereal, fruit snacks, bagels with cream cheese, smoothies, spaghetti, and bananas.

She's very into doing things herself right now, which means she insists on using her own fork and spoon, and holding her own big girl cup.  She is NOT happy if you try and help her or sneak your hands onto something to avoid spilling.  She says "hold? hold? hold?" until we give it to her to do herself.  She currently loves stickers, crayons, and painting, which is fun because I enjoy doing art projects with her.  At her 18 month appointment she weighed in at 23 pounds (33%).  I can't remember her height but it was in the 85 percentile I think.  She's in size 4 diapers, size 18-24 month clothes, and mostly size 5 shoes.  Still no more teeth!

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, but she keeps learning and doing new things so it's hard to keep up!!  I'm hoping to take her out and do a more formal 18 month photo shoot this weekend, so let's hope she cooperates!  Happy 18 months, my little one!

I told you there were going to be lots of updates and photos... that's what no internet for 5 days will do to you!  So after spending tons of time outdoors leading up to Christmas, it was finally Christmas day with the Bartlett fam.  As usual, Riley was the first one awake, and we had the job of keeping her away from the Christmas presents until it was time to open them.  Of course she sported her Elmo Christmas pajamas most of the morning. :)

And as expected, Riley loved opening presents.  She tore through them like a pro.

This baby got LOTS of presents.  In fact, so many presents that she got overwhelmed and didn't want to finish opening them!  We had to save some for the day after Christmas!!  But of all her presents, one of her favorite things was that little pinwheel she's holding.  Oh the simple things.

Other faves?  Sand and water table from Santa.  Total hit.

And floor piano from Nana.  She wasn't too sure at first, but once she figured it out, she loved it. 

In the afternoon, Santa made an appearance!  Riley wasn't totally sure, but we convinced her to sit on his lap without any tears!

After a morning and afternoon full of Christmas fun and visitors, we had a few minutes of down time before the next side of the family arrived for the evening celebration.  We tried to get Riley to relax and recharge, which worked for a little bit, but it wasn't long before she was looking for mischief...

Bin full of corks all over the floor?  Check.  Crazy baby!!

Riley was only able to stay awake through a small part of the evening celebration before she asked to go nigh-nigh and marched her little self into bed.  Overall it was a great Christmas with lots of food and family and fun!

We got into Wellington on Wednesday morning, had a day and half in our home, and then packed up the car and headed 3 hours north for Christmas with Mark's family.  I wasn't totally sure what to expect, all I knew was we were staying in a house with a pool with Mark's parents and a few of his other family members.  I had visions of Riley being on US time the whole time and waking everybody up at 4am every day, which might not have made for a very merry Christmas!  BUT, somehow she adjusted extremely well, and slept great (we're talking 3 hour naps every day), and loved exploring the house.  They had a bunch of fruit tree in the yard, which provided plenty of entertainment

She ran up and down that little walkway over and over and over again, begging us to turn on the hose, and making piles of the fruit she picked off the tree.

This child loves the outdoors, and was as happy as could be to just run around and explore.  I wish I could say the same for me, but I have been cursed with the worst allergies ever, and was pretty much miserable pretty much the whole time with all the pollen and other crap floating around.  But Riley didn't seem to be bothered by any of it, so that's all that matters!

Since the weather was so nice, we took advantage by visiting all sorts of outdoor places, including a duck pond.  Riley LOVED it.

She's wearing a swim suit, in case you were wondering what the heck was going on with those booty shorts.  There was also a splash pad at this park, so we ventured over there after.  She totally preferred feeding the ducks though. :)

Mark wasn't totally excited about the thought of putting her down and letting her feed the ducks (apparently he has traumatic memories of feeding ducks as a child), but Riley insisted so we let her give it a go.

She would have stayed there all day!!! Needless to say, we made multiple trips back to that pond while we were there!  And heard a lot of "duck duck duck!" and "quack quack quack!" 

More Christmas vacation fun coming soon...

We haven't had internet for the past 5 days, which just about drove me crazy, but we all survived and I have a ton of blog posts coming in the very near future.  But we'll start with this one...  We took Riley to see Santa a few days before Christmas, and paid an arm and a leg for ONE photo, and here's what we got.

A half smile!  She didn't cry, although at one point the photographer had me move a bit further away from her and she was not pleased about it, but no tears were shed, so I don't feel like a horrible mom torturing my kid for the sake of a photo.  I think Riley was more thrilled about the photo than Santa was, jeez the guy didn't crack a smile the whole time!

Many many Christmas-related posts to come, plus Riley's 18 month update!

Well, after what was probably the most stressful travel period we've had, we have arrived back in New Zealand.  Exhausted, but here nonetheless.  And I have determined that I have a champion traveler for a baby.  Or maybe she's just totally awesome in general.  Either way, she was a rock star once again for our travels.  So the stressful part?  Went something like this...

Our flight on Monday was scheduled to leave at 7pm... which means check-in at 5pm since it's international.  Well, our goal was to start getting out the door at 3:30, figuring we would have to pack up the car, the todller, and it always takes longer than expected, so we were hoping to be on the road by 4:00.  Well, we of course were slightly behind schedule due to Riley's 3+ hour nap, but we got all packed up and were ready to leave when... dead car battery.  Thank goodness for multiple cars at my parents' house, we jump started the fully loaded/packed car in just a few minutes, and we were on our way.  Could have been a disaster, but ended up not being too much of a delay.  Phew.

Off to the airport we went!  Normally, in traffic, this drive could take about an hour, so we were due to arrive a little after 5, maybe 5:15.  No big deal.  Well, turns out there was a 49ers game in the city, so every one and their mom was headed into the city, which means it took us almost 3 hours to go 35 miles.  My mom dropped me off right out side the check in, and I, 30+ weeks pregnant, ran to the gate and begged to be let on.  At 6:45 pm.  When the flight was due to leave in 15 minutes.  I think they took pity on me, and agreed to let us on, and my parents helped Mark unload the luggage and the toddler.  We said the quickest goodbye in history to my parents, and ran to security.  Somehow, we managed to make it to the gate at 7:05pm, and boarded and then finally had a few seconds to breathe. Talk about stressful! 

Now the flight was actually not so bad, all things considered.  We did not have a bassinet seat, but Riley did have her own seat so we could use her car seat, which was helpful.  She played and watched DVDs for the first 2 hours or so, and then she was exhausted (2 hours past her bedtime) and basically just fell asleep in my arms.  I held her for a bit, and then was able to slip her into her car seat.  I think she would have slept there for a while if not for the 18 month old in the row next to us that kept screaming every 45 minutes or so... but seriously Riley was the cutest, the baby would cry, and she would wake up, whine a little but, and then look at me and go "baby? baby?" and go right back to sleep.  So she slept on and off for about 8.5 hours, which is pretty darn good, I must say.  Me, on the other hand?  No sleep.  Being 30 weeks pregnant on a long flight with a toddler is no easy task, I tell you.  I was pretty uncomfortable, and Riley either wanted me to be holding her or touching her, so I was a little bit trapped. 

Anyway, so this flight (12.5 hours) landed about 30 minutes late, which made the connection for our next flight a bit of a rush, which meant pushing our 200+ pounds of luggage plus carry-ons plus Riley from the international terminal to domestic, which is no short walk, let me tell you.  Let's just say I got my week's workout in.  And again, Riley was a trooper, just going with the flow.  The only meltdowns we had were on the next flight, which is only about 50 minutes, but she was just so exhausted she was losing it over nothing, until she just finally laid her head down and fell asleep on me... as we were landing into Wellington, of course. :)

Overall though?  Stressful, but another very successful trip with Riley.  And this kid is SO happy so far here in NZ.  I was worried our first week was going to be rough with the time change, but we've kept her up late (US time) to get her adjusted to NZ time, and she is doing pretty well.  I thought she's be waking up at 3am, and she slept until 4:45, so she's doing well. And she LOVES our house.  She loves having room to roam, and being able to go wherever she wants with nothing really being off limits to her.  She's opening all the drawers and cabinets, she's exploring the rooms, she's climbing on furniture and getting to play outside.  She's sleeping in a big girl bed and loving it.  She's totally, totally loving it here.  Although, every time, she sees a phone, she goes "gra gra?" and then "jeh jeh?" for Grandma and Jennie.  And she heard a neighbor's dog barking and immediately yelled out "Bay?" and searched for her favorite black lab.  Poor little one, she's going to miss my family so much!

But, at least she's adjusting well so far.  And the new FAVE thing to do?  Redecorate our sad little Kmart Christmas tree over, and over, and over again.  She LOVES the ornaments, she loves the garland and the beads... pretty much everything. 

We asked her where she wanted to put each ornament, and for a while she wanted to put them all on the same branch.  Hence the ornament cluster. :)

This is what happened when she got a hold of the box of ornaments. Note the hands on her head? She's also saying "uh oh."  "Uh oh" is right, little one.

We also managed to go see Santa today, and even sit on his lap!  We'd been trying to do this in the US but the lines were ridiculous, and we hardly even waited when we went today, so it was a total success!  No tears or anything!  Picture to follow... :)

Because, how could I NOT try to do these Christmas-y photos??

If only I had put a santa hat on her... maybe next time. :)  You would never know from these photos that (1) she refused to sit still (2) she hated that dress and kept wanting it off and (3) she kept trying to come sit on my lap.  Needless to say, this "photo shoot" lasted all of 5 minutes.  But I got what I wanted, so we're all happy!

I had SO many fun Christmas things planned for this past week.  We were going to take advantage of our last week in the US and do every holiday thing I could think of.  We were going to see Santa and bake cookies and build gingerbread houses and do Christmas crafts and go shopping and see lights.  And then Riley got really sick, and all those plans got tossed aside.  BUT, I am happy to say she's on the mend, and getting back to her normal self, just in time to hop on a plane back to NZ tomorrow.  But we still have some time for a little Christmas fun before we go!

First, we needed to take a few fun Christmas tree photos...

Fun, right?  Then I had this awesome idea of getting Riley to help put up all the ornaments on the tree, which interested her for all of 30 seconds before she was over it.  Oh well, maybe it will more fun next year.  All she really wants to do is pull the teddy bear ornament OFF the tree.

Also on the list of fascinating things at GG's house? A little white doily (or hat?), and chairs perfectly sized for climbing.

We finished off the evening by checking out the spectacular Christmas lights in Alameda, followed by Riley's first good, cough-free night of sleep in over a week.  Lots more Christmas cheer to come, this post is getting too long!

I thought the little one was on the mend, but I was wrong.  Still very miserable.  Lots of cuddles and sleep required.  Don't I look awesome and well-rested in these photos???