Deep Breaths and Catching Up

Two things that I am very much looking forward to doing during my 2 weeks off!  I announced it on Facebook but I have been a big blogging slacker (I felt like I lost my voice recently but hopefully it's back now that I am mentally in a better place), so here goes with my exciting news (nope, unfortunately Riley will not be a big sis anytime soon, but hopefully that will be our next exciting announcement!) But for now this will have to do, I've accepted a new job outside of my current company.  I'll be going over to work for Kellogg's and I think it's going to be grrrrr-eat!  (haha get it???)  Anyway, I am super excited and they encouraged me to take 2 weeks off in between jobs (seriously, how many companies do that???) so I am super excited because there has been lots that I have wanted to accomplish and there hardly seems to be time for anything, so here's my short list of things to do:

1.  Get caught up on my scrapbooking  since I am still on Riley's BIRTH!!! (Riley will be going to day care most of my 2 weeks off so that this can be accomplished)
2.  Get caught up on my online blogging/scrapbooking class (I think this post may qualify as lesson #6)
3.  Put labels on my blog posts
4.  Clean out my closet
5.  Sell old purses on eBay
6.  Start working out again
7.  Relax, re-energize, de-stress

I'm keeping it short so that I can get these accomplished and still have some fun time with my favorite girl, so check back around May 1 to see how much I accomplished!

Wow

Wow, how can it be that 2 years ago today we were forced to say good-bye to my first baby, my furry four-legged Homer.  Marc and I were texting about it this morning and it seems a different lifetime ago that Homer was physically a part of our lives - Riley was just about 2 1/2 months old, a week prior she had had her tenotomy and she was in her hot pink casts, I was an unsure new mother and beyond stressed about whether my little girl's feet would ever be normal.  My how times have changed, if only Homer knew how much attention Riley would be giving him right now I wonder if he wouldn't have let his congestive heart failure get the best of him.  I do know that he clung to life when I needed him most and for that I will be forever grateful to him.  Tonight we're having chicken burgers in your honor little buddy.  You may not be physically with us anymore but you are forever in our hearts!  Miss you Love Bug!

Peeps

Riley is obsessed with marshmallows.  When she has to go potty she tells us "Riley go potty on toilet.  Riley 2 marshmallow."  She makes it very clear on her expectations of marshmallows.  So we were in Target the other day and I saw some peeps and I was like "ooo, yum and I bet Ri would like them too since they are marshmallows."  I forgot how utterly sugar coated they are but the damage had been done, they were on our counter and they had been spotted, so I gave her a 1/4 of a Peep, yes 1/4 of a Peep.  Apparently this is what happens when Riley has a 1/4 of a Peep and we turn on her CDs of her music from school!   (Oh and for the record, in the second video Riley is saying "stand up" to Marc, not "shut up," it took us a while to decipher that phrase of hers.) 



Bieber Fever

Riley has been singing Justin Bieber for a few days now, she must have picked it up from my Glee CD.  She sang it the whole way home from day care, getting out of the bath, and coming down the stairs.  I caught her on video twice, before and during dinner and then she proceeded to sing it as we put her to bed.  When we try to sing with her, she tells us "No stop!!!"

Riley's a Bieliber!

I Chase You Me!

Riley loves to play chase between our kitchen and family room and around our dining room table.  Last night she recruited Marc for the job of chaser.

Daddy, I Want a Doggy

And so does Mommy! :)

It Seems Like Yesterday...

that we were bringing our 4lbs of fury home from the hospital and yesterday Riley turned 26 months!  I can't believe it, 2 years and 2 months old, it's crazy talk!  Riley has matured SO much in the last month, it's unbelievable!  She's talking in sentences now and is communicating so well!  And emotionally we can see a difference in her as well.  The kindergarten teacher stopped me the other day to tell me how well Riley is communicating.  It seems our little lady wants nothing to do with her 2s room and insists on spending the morning in Pre-School B (Pre-K), she basically skipped 2 grades on her own will!  She has even been rehearsing their graduation skit with them.  They let her go in there in the morning and then send her back to 2s when she asks for her little buddy Nate.  We have also started potty training!  I was totally not expecting it so soon, our Dr told us not to even really push it until she was 2 1/2 or 3 years old, so last week when she actually asked to sit on it and then went on it, we were shocked.  We even saved a #2 the first night to show daddy, he was very proud!  :)  I don't know how excited I am about it, it does seem that the end of diapers truly signifies the end of babyhood, even though I know she's becoming more of a little girl everyday, something about stopping diapers seems so final about her growing up too fast!  Riley is very proud of her accomplishments on the toilet, she's doing pretty well on the potty, she goes on it several times a day and sometimes even asks to go on it.  We're pretty proud of her and she was very excited when we washed her big girl panties (which she insists on wearing over her Pull-Ups).   And I also finally won the hair clip battle, only because she likes to walk around and ask "How do I look?"  We're in a lot of trouble during the teen years!

So here they are, Riley's 26 month photos!



Official 26 month photo, it's going to be time for a bigger chair pretty soon!



Look at Risers grow!

Play Date

Sunday we met up with the Goines' in Emeryville for some lunch.  It had been a few months since Riley and Jake had seen each other and it took them both a few minutes to get over their shyness, but once they did they took to each other like peanut butter and jelly!  They were so cute calling each other by name and telling each other to "come here."  They even insisted on holding each other hands walking down the steps.  It's so fun to watch them interact and talk to each other now, I have a feeling they are going to be good super good buddies!

I think Jake likes his computer!

Silly girl!

Friends!

Friends don't hold hands, friends HUG!

Getting Josh involved in their cuteness!

Park Day

Yeah, so I am way behind on my blogging, it's been a super crazy week at work and all I can say is TGIF!  Since I was off last Friday, Riley and I walked down to Peet's for some breakfast and some quality time since I had been gone most of the week.  After I had my coffee and she had her croissant (her favorite) I decided to take her to the park since it was a beautiful day.  It's been several months since we last went to the park and seeing the developmental difference in Riley on the equipment was amazing!  The baby swings were taken so she tried the big girl swings and held on pretty well!  I didn't get a picture because I was too afraid to venture too far and have her fall off, I mean we only need one black eye at a time! (Which by the way she got another one on the other eye last night playing after school!  Oy!)  Riley also was not afraid to run across the bridge and even jump on it and she took on the big, twisty slide all by herself.  She even made a little friend there and showed him how to do it.

Nothing Says Welcome Home...

Like a black eye!  I came home Thursday night and Marc warned me that Riley had a black eye, apparently she fell at day care on Thursday and hit her eye somehow, sure enough Friday morning when I went to get her out of her crib she had a big shiner. 

In my opinion, this picture is classic, I think she has her daddy's look here! :)

Practice Makes Perfect

Riley decided tonight to practice her gymnastics to show Daddy how good she is getting, because after all practice makes perfect!

Rainbow Connection

A couple of weeks ago we had a ton of storms that left us with some pretty cool rainbows.  Two mornings in a row I had views of a double rainbow from my office window.  Pretty cool, and being the ex-sorority girl/Mamarazzi that I am, I was able to catch the beauty on "film!"

Day 1

Day 2

Day 2

I should've gone to search for my pot of gold at the end!

Have You Ever Seen Such a Happy Girl?

A New Phase

I think we've hit a new phase - the booster seat!  Sunday Fuddruckers was out of high chairs so we let Riley sit in a booster at lunch and it was one of the best lunches we've had with Riley in a long time.

So happy to be sitting like a big girl!

We've also entered the apple juice phase of life where she asks for it incessantly

Jumping

Riley LOVES to jump, that is pretty much her favorite mode of  transportation lately.  After finally figuring out the 2 footed jump, she's now working on jumping off of things; the curb, the balance beam at Gymnastics, and her chair.