Big Girl!

Riley is getting to be such a big girl!  We took her for a haircut on Sunday and I ran out to get Marc so that Riley could sit on his lap during her trim and when we got back inside she was sitting on the chair all by herself, and proceeded to stay there and follow directions the whole haircut!  She's now the proud new owner of an adorable {straight!} bob haircut!

I've definitely noticed increased maturity in Riley lately, not only is she now wearing pull-ups and "going potty on toilet" at school but she's following directions better and at gymnastics she is trying things outside of her comfort zone, like doing a spider walk up parallel bars for the first time, and freely jumping into the foam pit without holding my hand or hesitating.  Now we just need to work on her staying put during circle time a school and we will be good to go! :)

Party Like a Rock Star

Riley got invited to her little friend Trevor's birthday party yesterday.  It was up in Brentwood at Chuck E Cheese's.  Yes!  Another Chuck E Cheese birthday party and Riley was super excited!  Her friends Jimmy and Mitchell were also there from school.  Coincidentally, Chuck E Cheese was right next door to the store where we bought all of Riley's bedroom furniture and her UppaBaby stroller so we stopped in to check it out after the party.  They recognized us and couldn't believe that Riley was 2 years old already!  Riley enjoyed the store and sat at a little kids table looking through the catalog of bedding and furniture.  We were also happy to see that they are doing well and expanding into the space next door, it's a family run business and they are super nice so in this economy I am really happy that they are doing well.  If you are ever in need of baby or kids furniture, we highly recommend Kids n Cribs in Brentwood!

Riley had a great time celebrating with Trevor and playing with her friend Jimmy!  (Friday on the way to school Riley informed me that "Jimmy Riley friend in classroom."  It was very cute!)

Riley loved this ride, she insisted on going on this ride 3 times!

With Daddy and Chuck E Cheese

Dancing with Jimmy

Jimmy and Riley riding in the car together

Riding the horsey

The birthday boy

Saying good bye to Chuck E Cheese

Passing the Time

It's cold (even by CA standards, they are predicting snow for our area on Saturday!) and rainy and I have a nasty respiratory virus.  I have been out sick all week, well I've been working at home all week except for today when I decided to just rest and get rid of this nastiness.  I went to the doctor yesterday and she told me I looked absolutely awful, she doesn't usually like to prescribe antibiotics since I am allergic to a whole list of them which limits what I can take but I clearly needed something.  I told her I felt like I got hit by a truck and she said I looked like it too, nice, huh?  It all started Monday night with a 103 fever and with my cough she was worried I was getting pneumonia, so I'm on z-pack and it seems to be working, I feel a bit better today.  The hardest part has been having a very active toddler who wants to be with me 24/7 and doesn't understand that Mommy is sick and doesn't have the energy for "Ashes" (also known as Ring Around the Rosie).  I also hate not being able to take care of everything and everyone, I'm usually the one who does everything but I have just been completely sidelined and have such guilt for not being able to spend time with Riley, give her a bath, cook her dinner.  And in my sick state I slipped and allowed her to have mac and cheese for 2 meals!  Of course she didn't tell me she had it for lunch because she wanted it for dinner too.  But hopefully I'm on the upswing and can get my make-up kisses from Riley that I've missed over the last 4 days.  And fortunately she seems to just have a little bit of the sniffles and a little bit of a cough, nothing like what I have, I am very miserable.  Anyway, since I am spending the day on the couch and nothing is on TV right now I decided to go through some pictures and found some cute ones (are there any other kind?) of Risers! 

I don't usually encourage this type of behavior but Riley was very proud of her new hat

Saying "cheese" of course

Riley's new love, olives, she can't get enough of them!

Counting her olives...

Olives, a math lesson: 6 - 1 = 5 olives left!

Riley's Professional Photos

I've pretty much wanted professional photos of Riley since she was born, Marc never wanted them.  We never did them when she was a newborn because of her casts (I know sounds horrible but we have plenty of pictures of her casts and couldn't see spending money on taking photos of them) and then we bought an expensive SLR camera about a year ago so why did we need professional photos?  But when Marc asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year I  told him I wanted professional photos of Riley, besides we didn't really have any good family photos and there are hardly any photos of just Riley and I because I'm the one taking the photos.  So Friday night we took Riley to Picture People in the mall for some professional photos.  I must say I fully prepared myself for an episode of the terrible 2s and fully expected to walk out of there with absolutely zero pictures.  However, Riley absolutely LOVED it.  She kept asking for more pictures and was a total ham, in fact the guy taking the photos asked us to sign a model release so that he could use some of the pictures in the store for displays. 

Oh and Marc is really glad that we had the pictures taken!

Earning Her Keep

Riley is finally earning her keep!  Just kidding, but Riley loves to go with Marc for haircuts.  The ladere absolutely love Riley, especially the owner Grandma Sunny.  Last weekend Riley took the broom and dust pan and got to work cleaning the store!

Next American Idol?

Probably not, but Riley singing sure is cute!  She loves to sing these days, in fact when Marc was in Japan, Riley woke me up a few days with her singing in bed and she's constantly singing in the back of the car.  Some of her favorites:  The "ABCDs" (Ri doesn't like to leave out "D"), "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "5 Little Monkeys," and "Happy Birthday."  Here's a sampling of her singing, I'm pretty sure the judges would tell her she needs more work dawg, her voice gets really deep when she sings for some reason, especially when she sings "Happy Birthday!"  She loves singing "Happy Birthday" to all of her friends, here she's singing to my friend Lori, and no it's not Lori's birhday.

Riley's New Ride

Riley has a new ride to roll around Dub-town in, we actually got it a few weeks ago but I didn't have time to blog while Marc was in Japan this past week.  Last weekend the weather was gorgeous so we took her new wagon out, it's a gigantic hit.  Last Saturday we went for our weekly walk with our neighbors Shari and Ryan and Riley and Ryan rode in the wagon for the first time, it was a huge hit with both kids.  Riley and Ryan were giggling and talking to each other the entire time, it was absolutely adorable!  And they even stayed strapped into the wagon the whole time we were at Peet's so Shari and I could enjoy our coffee without chasing them around!

Testing out her new ride

Riley do it!



Her innaugural ride, Puppy came too!



Friends!

Riley Burrito

Riley loves to rock YaYa and sing Rock-A-Bye Baby to her so the other night Marc got home early and showed her how to swaddle YaYa for better rocking.  Of course Riley wanted to be swaddled just like YaYa.  Sadly, our favorite swaddling blanket still nearly works on Riley!  It must have been ginormous on her when we actually swaddled her as a newborn with it!

25 Months Today

Another month is behind us and Riley is now 25 Months!  I can't how big she is getting, well relative to Riley!!!  :) 

Chinese New Year

On Friday, my good friend Lori invited Riley and I to her kids' school for a Chinese New Year performance.  Riley had a great time bopping to the Chinese songs and singing (even though she didn't know the words) with the older kids!  She even sat still for most of the 2 performances!

Riley LOVES Lori!

Cameron was the dragon head

Taylor (in red) during the performance

Cam and Tay and Tay's friend Jorden

The girls helping Riley with her arts and craft after the performance

Best Play Date Ever!

For Mommy and Daddy that is!  Today our fav winery in Livermore had a release party.  One of Riley's friend's parents are also wine members there so we made plans to meet up with them and Isabella and Riley so that we could do the wine tasting and the girls could play.  Mitchell Katz is a super kid friendly winery and they have a huge lawn out front for the girls to run around.  Us parents had a great time and so did the girls!

Riley and Isabella chilling on the lawn

Chillaxing in the sun (a total lady!)

Hanging on a wine barrel with Marcellis, the king of barrel tasting!

Friends!

Rainy Sunday Fun

Sunday was the first cold rainy day that we've had in a long time so we took our time getting out of the house for our errands.  Riley took the opportunity to be the entertainment!  Riley loves bags so she has like 6 on her stroller to help her shop!

Going shopping!

Somebody's ready for Spring Training (and it's not me!)

My little bag lady!

Does it get any cuter than this? :)