17 Months Old...

Riley turned 17 months old yesterday and she is just gobs of fun! I am so enjoying this time off work hanging with this little girl all day...it's a challenge to try and get our house all set up with all the energy she has but we have ALL our boxes unpacked and we have only been in the house 10 days...not too shabby! We still have LOTS of work to do but we'll get there! Back to sweet Riley...I feel like she has really learned a TON this month...she's understanding more, talking more, and becoming more and more independent! Here's what Riley is up to these days:

• Sleeping...this month has definitely been the most abnormal month for Riley considering we moved out of our house into Jason's parents for a few weeks, took a week long road trip out here and lived in hotels, lived in TLF for a week, and finally moved into our house...not to mention a 2 hour time change. All things considered she has done GREAT...she's just not quite as consistent as she used to be...lately she's been pulling some 3 hour naps and sleeping anywhere from 10-12 hours at night. She's been waking up a little earlier than I would like...around 6-6:30 but I don't have curtains up in her room (long story for another post) and the sun comes blaring through so once I get that resolved...hopefully tomorrow...perhaps she can sleep until at least 7 or so!


• Eating...we have a little piggy on our hands!!! She must be going through a growth spurt because she has been eating insane amounts of food the past week or so...her belly gets so big after she eats...but I suppose she's a healthy girl and we won't be depriving her anytime soon! She would eat fruit all day if I let her...her favorite is pears but she eats lots of bananas, strawberries, kiwi, mango, and grapes as well! We also took the tray off her high chair and got her some cute plates and utensils so she is eating like a big girl! We just pull her high chair up to the table and she's learning to feed herself...she's doing really well so far. This change involves more cleanup afterwards, but it's so fun to see her learn and try new things!


• Talking ALL the time!!! She will take a stab at repeating anything you challenge her to say and she's learning all of her animal voices which is so fun. She loves to sing and we can tell which song she is singing...my favorite is when we say "Old McDonald had a farm" she follows up with "EEEIII EEEIIII" but she forgets the "O"...it's so stinkin' cute! Here are some videos of her talking and dancing as well...she's an animated little gal! My favorite is her saying "I yuv u"
  
  
  
  
  
* Note that in the last video her daddy asks her to say "poo poo"...he thought it would be so fun to teach her that word...such a dude! However, she says it so sweetly that you can't help but crack up. Since she picked up on the word I decided to try and attach it to the action so when she does the deed I ask her if she has gone and she now says "poo poo...uh oh" so she's at least getting the idea...now she could care less about having her diaper changed right away and would play for hours if I let her but at least she knows what she's doing and how to tell me...it's so cute!

• Discipline...we have begun! Since we are well aware of how much she understands now is the time to start setting the guidelines for disciplining her! We are currently trying the "time out" method and considering we're only a few weeks into it I would say it's going pretty well. If Riley deliberately disobeys I make her stand in the corner and of course she screams. I ask her if she's all done and she holds her hands up and sobbingly says "awww dun awww dun" and then I make her say sorry and give mommy a hug...sometimes my last request for the hug and an apology starts the entire process over again but most of the time she does it the first time. I can threaten with standing in the corner now and she shakes her head no that she doesn't want to go, but sometimes she just continues on with the bad behavior anyway so she hasn't connected all the dots yet! My biggest issue of late has been getting her to sit in a shopping cart...geez! What used to be so fun and exciting for both of us has all of a sudden become horrible although I have used some tactics the last few days that have worked well. I had to leave the grocery store several nights ago and just leave my basket because I had lost all patience and my child was screaming as if I was beating her...slightly embarassing! I had tried everything...even letting her sit in the big part of the cart if she stayed on her bottom...which she didn't...and when I told her she had to sit in the front part and get buckled she arched her back so hard and screamed and flailed that I thought I was going to drop her on the floor...uuggghhh! My only saving grace is if wherever we are has fun carts with steering wheels...which the commissary does thank goodness! I received some advice from a friend to bring toys which I always had and she would just throw them on the floor...that's a fun game! She also mentioned to bring snacks and as I mentioned earlier we have a piggy on our hands and food does the trick! If she's eating she's happy so I just make sure to have raisins or a cheesestick or something she can snack on...I'm learning! This could be the beginning of the terrible two's...but really, other than a handful of moments, she's still very well behaved!


• Baths...for now she's enjoying them and all things water! As you can see from my last post she loves her pool as well! She plays for a while if we have time and then hates being pulled away from the tub! I'm working on getting her into swim lessons this summer since we can have a pool to go to!


• Riley LOVES reading books...this is a newfound love! We have always read to her and she's been entertained by it but now she runs to her basket of books and has favorites...it's so fun! Her favorite is Dr. Seuss' "Hop on Pop" but since the edition we have was also Jason's she has ripped half the pages out now...we might have to invest in a new edition! She will shake her head "no" if she doesn't want you to read a certain book and she now reads books while riding in the car! Tonight she was reunited with her bumbo chair as I unpacked it from a mismarked box and she wanted to sit in her dad's lap in her bumbo as he read "Where the Wild Things Are"...his favorite book! I can't believe she still fits in the bumbo but she does!
• Crayons...for the past few months Riley has played with crayons only at restaurants that give them to the kiddos. She can draw with them but mostly she has just wanted to put them in her mouth. Since we got her a fun table and chairs at Ikea I decided to let her try drawing with crayons this afternoon while I finished up dinner! She was having fun dropping the crayons, picking them up, and getting on and off the chair...and she even drew a little! I kept her binky in her mouth to reduce the temptation but lo and behold I turned my back for a few seconds and turned back around to see a blue mouth...she had taken a nice bite out of the crayon...aaahhh! I quickly grabbed a paper towel and cleaned out her mouth and hands...I know she's not the first one to try and eat a crayon! After that we moved onto the colored pencils...haha! We'll have to keep working on the crayon thing...hopefully now that she's had a taste she's done with them...I can't imagine they taste good!

We just love this little girl to pieces!