She's TWO.

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!