I should never tell my mom when I have a video in the works, because it always takes me longer than I thought to get it all done and uploaded. :) But, finally, here it is... Took me forever because I kept adding to it, and now it's so long, I don't blame you for not watching it all! In the future I should just share more regular short clips rather than monster videos, but I suppose I make these for myself, my family, and for Riley to watch in the future, so I don't really mind if it's super long!! What you are about to see: silly two year old behavior, lots of reading, her telling you about her crocodile friend, lots of singing, jumping and playing!! One of Jackson coming soon (I almost said tomorrow but realistically it may be a wee bit longer than that). Instead, a glimpse into the daily antics of my two munchkins (much shorter for your viewing pleasure).
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Riley loves reading, Jackson loves listening... they make the perfect pair. Video courtesy of my mama. :) Oh and um, don't mind the little, err, interruption partway through... :) I'll be honest... it was a pretty awesome day. Didn't start out all that well, Riley woke up at 1am with a fever, but that ended up just being an excuse for me to snuggle with her in my bed for 2 hours. And also? Then she slept in until almost 7am. Which also meant, since I was up at 5:15 with Jackson, I had time to prep everything for her. She came into the lounge to see THIS: Her response? "Look at all those animals on the couch!" All "new" stuffed animals, most of which we brought back with us from the US in December and just stuck in a box and saved for her b-day. She was pumped. Then we brought out a few little presents for her to open before breakfast. Included in that lot of presents was a nightgown and matching slippers from her grandma. Total hit. After a few pressies, she moved on to her favorite breakfast: weet-bix! Of course she had to help get the box, pour the milk, and put some sugar on it. And of course, sit on the couch and share with daddy. One bowl, two spoons. There were more presents, lots of playing with the presents, and then.. the big one. Oh yes. A pink motorcycle. Eventually it was nap time, and I used that time to blow up a bunch of balloons to fill the floor of her room. Funny thing is, her floor was COVERED in balloons, and she didn't even notice! She came running out, and it wasn't until I stopped her and told her to go look at the balloons in her room that she then noticed. And then she was pumped! Bahaha she kept saying "Look at all these balloons!!" Nana and Grandad came over for lunch, and Mark made Riley her favorite- pancakes and bacon with maple syrup. And then it was time for cake!! Riley was a PRO at blowing out the candles, in fact, that was all she cared about. She wanted to light them and blow them out over and over and over. She didn't even touch the cake! And a little tradition I want to start: the birthday interview! I've seen in a bunch of different blogs, it's nothing original by any means, but I wanted to ask Riley a bunch of questions and see how her answers change, and also be able to look back and see what things she said at each age. I also want to do a video version, but umm, getting a 2 year to sit still and answer 15-20 questions? HA. HAHAHA. So, here's the answers she gave me when I asked her the questions... And because I'm a little video happy lately and I couldn't resist.... A little clip of one year ago... Today, my little baby girl turns TWO years old. Two whole years. At two years old, Riley is just the sweetest, smartest, cutest little two year old I've ever met! I don't even know where to begin with this post. I want to remember every little thing about her. All her little sayings and quirks, her favorite toys and the funny things she does each and every day. Exactly how she is at the age of TWO! Language: She's a full blown talker these days. It's pretty easy to communicate with her, and she doesn't hesitate to tell us what she wants and doesn't want. She still likes to repeat everything she hears, which means she says some pretty funny things sometimes. She's got pretty good manners, saying please when she wants something and thank you after she gets it. Pretty cute to have her just blurt out "thank you, mama! thanks mama!" Some of her current funny phrases include: (1) "no mama, no can do that, I don't like that" when you try to help her do something that she wants to do herself (2) "Hey-o" instead of "Hello" (3) Saying "Hi Daddy, how are you today?" (4) "Baby awakey awake now!" every time Jack Jack wakes up (5) During diaper changes: "Baby penis! Don't touch the baby penis!" (yeah... that's what you get when you teach her the correct anatomical words for things) (6) saying "be careful, don't fall down you get a big owie, get a really big owie" (in reference to leaning over the edge of the couch) (7) "that's a bright light, it's really really hot, like a fire, don't touch it. that one's not working..." (in reference to the overhead lights in the lounge, where one bulb was out) (8) "that's an ooey gooey yucky yucky one!" (in reference to her pooping in the potty) (9) "okay here we go to do pee pee on the potty" when she needs to go. She always says "here we go" as she's running to sit on the potty. Books/stories: Riley still loves to read. We read a whole bin of stories throughout the day, and then we either read stories or I tell her a made up story or classic fairytale before nap and bedtime. She has countless stories memorized, and still loves all her Mickey Mouse stories the best. Other current favorites include: Slinky Malinki Open the Door, Babar the Little Elephant, Cinderella, Peter Rabbit, Madeline, and a bunch more. I try and make up at least one story for her during the day, and have her help me come up with the details. Sometimes we use Mickey and his pals as characters, sometimes we use Riley and Jack, just depends. I'll ask her questions to prompt her to help me create the story, and it's amazing the things she comes up with! Then when Mark gets home I have her tell him about the story I told her and see how much she remembers, and she does very well retelling the main points. Little video of her reading one of her fave stories: Mickey and the Pet Shop. This was actually quite a while ago, and it's near impossible to get her to read the whole story while also getting it on video, so it's pretty choppy and way less clear than normal, but you get the idea. Songs: She loves listening to music. We play a lot of music during the day, and she loves listening to it and singing along. Her favorite song is "the ABC song" and she would listen to it (and sing along) over and over and over. She knows and can sing dozens of songs, including Itsy Bitsy Spider, I'm a little Starfish, Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Twinkle Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus, and many more. She also LOVES to dance. She bust a move big time, and loves when someone dances with her. It's pretty darn cute, I must say. Little dancing video (sweet PJs, I know) Independence: She is potty trained, hooray! She uses the little potty as well as the big toilet (with her elmo seat) and she is doing extremely well. She is really into getting herself dressed and undressed these days. She can get her underwear and pants on all by herself most of the time, and can get her shirt on with a little bit of guidance. But just a little bit, very discreetly, otherwise she gets mad and wants to do it all by herself. She can put her shoes and socks on by herself, and she can take everything off all by herself. She wants to make her own PB sandwich, pour her own milk, pick out her own spoon and cup, put her own toothpaste on her tooth brush, buckle herself and her brother in their car seats... the list goes on. Basically, she wants to do it ALL herself. And if you forget that for even a second, she will very loudly and clearly remind you she did NOT like you helping her. Food: Favorites include: pancakes with syrup and bacon, pretzels, bananas, peanut butter sandwiches, hummus, raw carrots, "those vines" (fruit snack thing), weetbix, pistachios ("stachios"), and cheese, and chippies and sauce (or as us Americans call it, fries and ketchup). She's picky with vegetables but she absolutely loves raw carrots. Not cooked carrots. She will also eat raw spinach if it has balsamic dressing on it. She will eat bananas and oranges, and that's pretty much it. We get fruit in her by giving her those pureed squeeze pouches, which she usually devours. Favorite toys: She loves to build towers (and knock them down) and play with her train tracks. She loves any of her toys with ABCs on them (ABC tower, abacus), and still loves her shape sorter. She loves playing with playdoh and bouncing on her pink poodle from Aunt Jennie. She's really into throwing things, and loves throwing balls all over the place. She loves riding on her various bikes and in the cozy coupe car we got from the toy library. She does multiple puzzles each day, she just loves them... And of course, always up there, is the ipad. Favorite activities: Jumping. The girl loves to jump. Mostly on the bed, but she LOVES trampolines as well. She also loves running and "crashing." She'll run up and down the hallway and fall down and yell either "crash!" or "kaboom!" She loves painting and coloring and playing with stickers. She loves going to the playground and LOVES going to feed the ducks "a sandwich" (or old stale bread). She got really excited when Mark pointed out a pukeko to her, and spent the rest of the day saying "feed the pukeko a sandwich!!" She also loves riding the firetruck outside the supermarket, and going to the local coffee shop to get a fluffy (frothed milk). She LOVES playing with Harvey (Nana and Grandad's beagle) and thinks he's just the best thing ever. Feeding the seagulls and ducks. Favorite shows: She LOVES watching videos of herself and her brother. She would watch "Ri Ri videos" all day long if we let her. Mickey Mouse is her favorite show to watch, and she's pretty darn funny watching it. Mark and I disagree a little bit on how much TV she should be allowed to watch, but he's been getting her into some new movies this month, so her favorites are: Despicable Me, Mega Mind, Shrek, Tangled, and The Princess and the Frog. She also likes Hi-5 (and loves all the songs she has learned from this show), and Sesame Street. Smarty pants: At two, she knows: all her colors, letters, and numbers. She knows the sound each letter makes, and a couple of words that start with each letter. She can count to 20, but mostly stops at 15. She knows that the number two represents a quantity of two, and "3" means she has three things, and so on. She knows tons of animals and the sounds they make and the foods they like to eat. She has a crazy good memory and is able to recall facts and retell stories extremely well. She know tons of shapes, and loves biting her pretzels into triangles and semi-circles. Silly bug. Other faves: She loves her grandma and grandpa, and Nana and Grandad. Every single time Nana comes over she wants to play trains with her. It's like Nana = trains. She asks to "kype with grandma" or "call grandma" every day. She knows how to call daddy all by herself on my cell phone, and does so frequently. She still doesn't say the "s" at the beginning of most s words, which I think is so very cute. She bargains like crazy, and my favorite is after I finish reading her stories at bedtime, and I say goodnight, and she says to me "how about, mama can snuggle you ONE more minute?" How can you say no to that? She loves playing in the front seat of the car. She loves helping me do the dishes, the laundry, and washing the counters and the floor. Such a good helper! She LOVES her baby brother and gives him kisses and cuddles, tickles him, and tells him stories. She loves cracking eggs and helping with baking. She LOVES having the bottoms of her feet lightly stroked/tickled, and will lay there perfectly still and say "tickle the other one, one more time?" She loves playing in Jackson's crib and asks to get in there all day long. For the most part, she is extremely well behaved when we're out and about. She rarely has tantrums while we're out, and usually listens to me when we're in public. She's really good with other kids, doesn't steal toys or hit or push or any of that stuff.
Her hair is wild and fluffy and getting long, but she rarely lets me pull it back. She no longer hates having her teeth brushed (thank you electric spiderman toothbrush) but she doesn't love it either. She loves taking a bath with me, and wants me to read her stories before bed and naps, but is happy for daddy to do it if I'm busy getting Jackson to sleep. She normally wakes up super happy and comes running down he hallway, BUT she needs a solid 20 minutes to wake up fully from her nap, we call it her "fragile time" and we try not to set too high of expectations or demand too much of her during that period She still hates the sun in her eyes while we're driving, and doesn't like us to close her bedroom door at night before she falls asleep. I think that pretty much covers it! Happy second birthday to my little buggy! Just another day in the life of Riley Bug. And I apparently forgot to name the video, so it's called "New Project." :) A post dedicated to my little man, who I fall more and more in love with each day. My mom may have mentioned that she hasn't seen any videos of the wee man (hint hint), so I decided it was about time to put one together. I mean, look at this little face.... So here you go, baby Jack, the first 3 months... imovie gave me a lot of trouble with this one, so I finally just gave up and published it as it was... it's not perfect, and the music is a little sappy (Mark proposed an Usher song for the background and I politely declined...), but I love it anyway. 7 minutes of baby Jack. My how he's grown in three months!! Oh man. These kids crack me up sometimes. Okay, most of the time... Jack Jack is just full of smiles these days. All he needs is a little attention and BOOM. Smile. He's also discovered he has a tongue. I mean, he's always stuck his tongue out, but that was more of a hunger sign than a realization that "oh hey look what I have in my mouth!" 90% of the pictures I took of him in the past 2 days look something like this: But then I was able to sneak a few of these in there: And a little video for you, because, you know, some things are better shown through videos. What you are about to see: (1) Riley has learned a new little monster voice which she uses frequently, but only with the phrase "go see _____" (2) The girl talks constantly, and the clip of her doing her shape sorter is just a little glimpse (3) You're about to hear her newest favorite food-related phrase. It's awesome. and (4) Riley has about 15 of those "That's not my ______" books, and she loves to read them to us, and it's pretty funny to listen to her pronunciation of some of the adjectives. Enjoy. A special birthday wish for my sister!!! Happy birthday Jennie we love you!
Another month has come and gone, and again, lots has changed with our precious little Ri Ri. But she's still just as cute as ever. AND. She let me put her hair in pigtails. I just about died from the cuteness. Riley's language is exploding! She repeats everything we say, she talks in sentences, and just jabbers all day long. She loves using adjectives (big one, small one, soft, too hot, too cold, green one, blue one, etc) to describe things. My favorite development this month is her ability to recount and retell things that happened earlier in the day or even days earlier. For example, when daddy gets home, we usually make a point of asking Riley to tell him what she did during the day. It's fascinating to listen to her come up with the things that must have stood out in her little mind. For example, if we went to the playground, she will tell him about the swing and slide and see-saw etc... If we went to playgroup, she will tell him she saw her friend Nikau, or that her friend Zach pushed her down, or she played with a ball or rocks or whatever other things she did. Some days, if she got in trouble for something, she will tell him what she did wrong by saying, for example "no kicking mama." Riley has always loved books, but this month she started "reading" a ton of her books to us! She can finish the sentences of a bunch of her books, and some of them she has started reciting the lines on pages she knows! My favorite is listening to her recite "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," I even got it on video for you below. She also knows her books by title and will ask for which one she wants, and some of them she has made her own names for (For example, she calls "Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?" the "cock-a-doodle doo one", and her car book "the beep beep one.") She's also started singing the ABCs and a handful of other songs as well. Riley has mastered all her wooden puzzles and her shape sorter, and it still cracks me up when she sits there and shows me her shapes, saying "trapezoid! hexagon! octagon! pentagon!" And if for some reason she can't get the shape into the right hole, she yells out "mama help-a you! no working!!!!" She loves fire trucks and trains, and baby dolls and tea sets. She HATES having her diaper changed, and kicks and fights and tries to roll out of it. She loves putting on other people's shoes and walking around saying "Ri Ri wearing daddy's shoes!" She still loves art projects, and she can even draw a circle now, which makes her sooo proud. Me and my big 21 month old! Remind me not to go out in the early evening in shorts unless I want to get so. many. sand fly bites. Ugh. Oh well, at least the picture is cute. Riley has started to show a little bit of interest in potty training this month! For a while she would sit on the potty, but nothing would happen. I wasn't sure she totally understood the concept, so we weren't pushing it at all. Then one day I decided to try something... I got a clear jar and filled it with marshmallows, and put it in the bathroom. I told her if she peed in the potty she could have 5 mini marshmallows, and low and behold, she sat right down and peed in the potty. And the next day she pooped in the potty! Totally was not expecting that! We're taking it slowly and sort of following her lead for a while though. I'm waiting for a few more signs that she's fully ready before we jump right into it full force. It's funny the things that stick in her mind... Every morning we give her a gummy vitamin, and there are only red, yellow, and orange vitamins. I once asked her what color she wanted, and she requested green and purple, and I told her there were no green or purple ones. So now every single time I ask her if she wants a vitamin, she immediately rattles off "no green one, no purple one." Every time we play with playdoh she tellls me "no eating playdoh" and when we brush her teeth, she says "get tongue out of the way!" She LOVES watching "Ri Ri videos" and will do pretty much anything you ask if you let her watch a video of herself (how do you think I got those pigtails in her hair!?!) Her sleep is AWESOME. Every night we read her a fairytale before bed, kiss her goodnight, and leave the room and she goes to sleep in her big girl bed. She almost never tries to get out, and never fights bed time. She goes to sleep between 7 and 7:30, and wakes around 6, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. We put a gate at her door to make sure she's not roaming the house in the middle of the night (even though she doesn't usually get up), and in the morning she calls out "daddy!? move the gate? daddy!" and when he goes to get her she rattles off "go see mama? go see jack jack? mama sleeping? baby sleeping?" She naps for 2-3 hours every day usually, and she LOVES waking up and running out to see me. And her bed head is AWESOME these days. She is still obsessed with peanut butter sandwiches, and loves spaghetti and noodles and omelettes and baked beans. She is a pro at using her fork and spoon. We've started trying to get rid of sippy cups and move to a regular cup, so she's been doing great so far! Getting rid of her paci on the other hand, that's a different story. Hopefully by her second birthday, which was my goal, so we have a few months. Size-wise, she's about 26 pounds, wearing mostly all 18-24 month and 2T clothes, although some 18 month old things still fit her... sort of. She's size 6 shoe I believe. Ya know, just in case you wanted her stats. She is the best big sister ever, and loves Jackson so so much. She's kind and gentle, she likes to try and play with him, and wants him to come with her wherever she goes. She wants to hold him and lay with him and do tummy time with him, she pats his head and offers him his paci when he cries. The two of them together just makes me so so happy. I dare you to watch this video and not want to have like 10 babies. :) This month Riley also developed her first real fears, and there are a couple of them. (1) She's afraid of me taking a shower. She developed this fear all of a sudden, and she absolutely loses it when I try to take a shower. I've tried a ton of things to ease her fears, and nothing has worked, so in the end I take showers while Mark is looking after her or while she's sleeping. (2) She's all of a sudden afraid of draining the bath tub water. She used to like pulling out the plug, and now she gets so scared and she cries and shakes and hates it. So we pull her out of the tub, and drain the water after she's in bed! Happy 21 months baby bug!!
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