He Shoots, He Scores!

If only I was a little bit taller!

Almost tall enough to dunk!

My future Hooser, watch out Assembly Hall

Going in for another shot!

Sister shoots and scores!

He got the rebound!

Jacob's New Trick

Jacob learned a new trick on Thanksgiving Day, how to go in and out of the jumper, kind of defeats the purpose of putting him in it to keep him in one place but he and Riley had about an hours worth of fun climbing in and out of it on Thursday.  Another "best of" until I figure out this picture space thing!

Warms My Heart

My new favorite thing is to watch my kids play together.  I absolutely love it and can't get enough of it.  Lately Jacob has gotten much more interactive with Riley and she is loving being able to play and show him things.  Granted she often takes over and takes a toy away from him but more often than not they entertain each other and I love watching it.  These moments are truly what life is about, I just hate that I miss so many of these moments while I'm at work. 

Checking out the light up ball together

Jacob thinks his sister is hilarious!

One of the times when Riley takes over :)  Jacob is so mellow he just sits there and smiles most times though he's starting to protest when he doesn't like something

Day Off

I took Monday off because my parents had a later flight and figured it would be a fun day to spend with the kids.  I had all sorts of things planned out, Target run, a walk to the park and some quality time with them.  Well, Riley came down with the stomach flu and it looks like Jacob is on his way to having it so I spent my day off cleaning poop and puke but I did get to spend the day with the kids.  Poor Riley spent the day laying on the ground in a makeshift bed that she had me make and Jacob napped a lot.  I did sneak out to Target while my parents were still here because I desperately needed some stuff from there.  While I was there I saw this Fisher Price toy on clearance for $20 and the ages were 6-36 months so I figured both kids would like it.  Riley and Jacob have been playing SO well lately.  Now that Jacob is sitting up and is able to reach for stuff and interact with Riley, she is loving him.  Well this toy ended up being my savior for the day because it pretty much kept them busy all day long.  We had a few episodes of Jacob trying to get involved and Riley getting annoyed and grabbing stuff from him but overall they played beautifully together and both loved this toy!  Best $20 spent at Target in a long time!

Excuse Riley's crazy hair, she hadn't had a bath since before her recital and she still had all of the hair gunk in it.  And Jacob really is having fun, I think he's mid-"word" in this photo! :)

Multitasking

Friday was a fun day with the kids, I picked them up a little early from day care and took them to the park.  We came home first and Riley changed into her bathing suit so that she could play in the water area that they just opened up for the season.  Riley was so excited and I became her best friend for the weekend, it's the little things that make her happy.  Well got home and she wanted to play "going to Disneyland" which is her new favorite game.  She rolls around an ice chest that is on wheels that she refers to as her suitcase and we sit on the steps where she pretends to drive the bus to Disneyland.  Well Friday she decided that she was going on a "business trip to India."  Where she got this from I have no idea, one of her friends at school must be going to India for the summer and Marc just got back from a business trip a few weeks ago so maybe that's where she got it from but it was pretty funny none the less. 

Multitasking with her 2 computers, notice the "suitcase" in the background.  And yes, I often look like that on my business trips as well

Hand Me Downs

Poor Jacob-pants has very few new toys to call his own.  He even uses his sister's chair for his monthly pictures.  Today I took out Riley's old Exersaucer for Jacob to use.  He is all about toys and is wanting to sit up more so I figured it would be perfect.  He wasn't so sure about it but didn't scream, he also had Riley up in his business so I'm not sure that he got to fully enjoy it since Riley kept telling me that "Jacob was not sharing and that Ya-Ya (her doll) needed a turn."  Oy!

Play Time

At Jacob's appointment last week the Dr told us to go ahead and start tummy time.  Marc went out last Tuesday night with some friends, Riley was in bed and Jacob as wide awake so I decided to let him try out his new play mat.  He definitely dug it!

Who is this girl???

Riley is quite the character.  At our last ultrasound the Dr asked about her to get a gauge for how big she was and if she ever caught up.  When I told him she was still 10th percentile on weight and 12th on height he asked if she was meeting all of her milestones.  I said yes and that's she actually ahead on many of her developments (speech and fine motor skills) and he said "well good things come in small packages."  I told him that "what Riley lacks in size, she certainly makes up for in personality."  I think this photo pretty much sums up how big her personality really is:

Riley is very excited about her birthday that is coming up (it's been coming up for about 9 months now!) but she is beyond ecstatic and put on her shades and got her cupcakes ready as we were getting ready to go to the pumpkin patch and was singing happy birthday to herself and then making us sing her happy birthday!  This girl is too much!

Wordless Wednesday

Just Because

We walked downstairs last night after putting Riley to bed and found her "Ya-Yas" lined up like this.  I asked Marc if he put them them like this and he said no and I didn't do it so that leaves Riley.

That's Ya-Ya, Small Ya-Ya, and Big Ya-Ya.  Yes, they all have the same name! :)

Pow-Pow Power Wheels

Riley is always asking to go to the park or play outside after school these days and I feel bad being the one always to say no, I'm either too tired or it's too hot to do anything but sit in the AC.  It also usually takes a good 1/2 hour to get out of day care but yesterday she left fairly quickly and it was cool enough outside that when she asked to ride her motorcycle I felt like saying yes.  So Riley rode her motorcycle for a good hour and was joined by her friend Ryan.

Now, after we went inside, Riley had a major meltdown so I might just continue to think twice about letting her play after school! But she and Ryan definitely had some fun out there!

Refurbished

One of Riley's Hanukkah presents from my parents was a cradle for her baby. My mom refurbished the cradle that I had for my baby doll when I was a little girl and had some adorable bedding made. Riley (and "YaYa") are too very lucky little girls!

Bicycle

I worked at home on Thursday because I wasn't feeling well and since I had an hour web cast in the morning I decided to put together Riley's new storage bin for her toys (yes, she got too many Hanukkah presents) and also her new tricycle. Riley calls it a bicycle but that's just semantics. Poor girl is still a little short for it but it doesn't stop her...

Riley likes to make fun of me by saying "outside, no. outside, no." Apparently, I say "no" a lot to her requests to go outside, but to my defense, it's been either dark or raining when she asks, so this video is proof to Marc that I do say yes!

Conversations with Aunt Jill

Sunday Riley talked to her Aunt Jill, it was adorable seeing her have a conversation on the phone, she even has the pacing down like a pro! I missed the really cute part when she was telling Aunt Jill about her new monkey that she got Saturday and put the phone up to the monkey's ear, just incase monkey wanted to talk to Aunt Jill too!

Rock A Bye Baby

Riley still LOVES her babies, I taught her how to swaddle and rock her baby tonight, she was in heaven....

LaLaLaLa Elmo's World

Marc got this video of Riley Saturday night...

Early Birthday Present

Riley pretty much scored the best birthday present EVER this week. I've been wanting to get her a playhouse or slide/swing set for a while now but let's face it, we live in Cali so our yards aren't all that big, plus there's our whole HOA thing which ruins pretty much all of the fun and then Marc was worried that she would get bored quickly of a slide or swing set so it would be a waste of money. I was still searching the web for the perfect thing for her, oh and it had to be around $150, not an easy task. At the same time my mom asked me what I wanted she and my dad to get Riley for her birthday, I told her a playhouse. I told her I found this awesome one that has a slide, climbing wall and a picnic playhouse all combined but it was like $249 (actually Little Tikes had it listed for $499, Amazon for $299 but Toys R Us had it for $249). Still it was expensive but she said maybe we could just split it and it would be from Marc and I and she and my dad. I thought about it a bit, then the Sunday circular came out and I saw that Toys R Us had it for 20% off plus my 20% off coupon would bring it to $159 and put it right about in the budget range and Marc and I could pay the difference. So last Monday I called Toys R Us, they had 1 in stock, I asked them to hold it for me and asked just out of curiosity how much it was. The lady said $149! $149??? I finished up my meetings and rushed right over there, I thought for sure that she made a mistake but figured I would buy it and we could always return, it was the last one and it was pretty sweet. I didn't have my coupon with me so they said that I could just bring it back over the weekend with my receipt and they would adjust the price. I had them ring it up so that Marc could come back later that day with his SUV (there was no way it was going to fit into my lovely Impala), and sure enough it rang up as $149!!! Smoking deal, I got "the torch" for the deal of the week. Marc went and got it after work and the box was so huge that he had to take out the car seat and use his whole back seat.

My mom told me that we should put it together so that she could play with it some while it was still somewhat warm out so Sunday we set out to put it all together. Plus it was taking up a ton of room in our garage! It was quite the process but the end result was pretty cool! We tried to get it done while she was napping but unfortunately she woke up right before we were finished so she saw it for the first time as an unfinished process. She immediately ran to the slide. Riley LOVES her new playhouse, she climbs up the wall and goes down the slide and says "wewewe" all the way down. She loves that there are little seats inside the house with a table and sat there yesterday "talking" on the phone.

Thanks Nanna and Peppy for the AWESOME early birthday present for RiRi!

A couple of videos of Riley playing after school yesterday:

Rare Form

Riley was in rare form tonight. She has a little bit of a cold so she's been a bit cranky, which is unfortunate because we appear to be in a little teething lull right now, so while she was entertaining herself with her books in her room I escaped to go change out of my work clothes. When I returned this is where I found her; in her closet, sitting on a sand bucket. with every single pair of shoes that she owns around her as she tried one on at a time. At first she didn't know if I was going to get mad at her or not but when I started laughing she continued trying on her shoes for me and was even kind enough to pose and smile for the picture (unfortunately her "meme" is blocking her smile. I know, I know I need to break her of it but her teething has been so bad over the last month that I haven't had the heart to break her of the one thing that provides her comfort and peace and quiet for Momma and Dadda!).

Riley loves putting on her own shoes and she's actually quite good at it, she usually gets it on the correct foot and can loop the straps through the loops, probably because she likes to help with her "night night" shoes so she has lots of practice. This video isn't a great example of her mad skills, I think sitting on the bucket in the closet was throwing her off.

After trying on her shoes she decided that she needed to put a swim diaper over her clothes (and normal diaper), which she did by herself, somehow she even managed to put it on correctly (with the front in the front) and walked around saying "poopoo." I guess sometimes two diapers are needed and you can never be too safe! At one point she asked to go outside and I told her I didn't think it would be appropriate to go outside dressed like this.
























Then she needed to check for "poopoo"





















Just making sure...





















Yes, she was definitely in rare form tonight!