19 Months Old

Riley turned 19 months old and she is just so much fun!

She celebrated by having somewhat of an off day...not bad but definitely not the norm for this little girl! She started out the morning with a meltdown over not being able to eat her banana in the living room...realizing that I probably should not have allowed her to have it without her being in her highchair I put her in the highchair which was NOT good for Riley...she wanted her banana and she wanted to carry it around and eat it where she wanted...this led to a meltdown that followed us out the door and to the car to go to school...she finally managed to get over this major letdown after she started jamming to the music!!! After school she took a LONG nap and woke up ready to play...we started with play-dough and she did not want to obey mom's rule of only playing with it at the table...meltdown again! After we recovered and put away the play-dough she decided it would be fun to climb on the kitchen chairs and stand up on them...let's just say mom stood her ground and Riley had yet another meltdown...life can be rough sometimes! So it was a day full of meltdowns that we normally don't see out of Riley but that's just part of this age I suppose! She ended the day with a special date with her Dad...partly because mom needed a break and partly because Dad was about to leave town...they headed to the mall to ride the carousel and have Chick-Fil-A for dinner...she was an angel for him and they had a great time! Here's what else is going on in Riley's world at 19 months...

• Sleeping - She is definitely enjoying a summer schedule these days by going to bed a little later than normal...anywhere from 7 - 8:30 is bedtime depending on the days events. She has slept pretty well this past month and has just recently started waking up screaming early on in the night as if she is having a nightmare...we're not sure what the problem is and she is usually back to sleep rather quickly but she wakes up completely scared and pointing to get out of her room...we've been down this road before and just have to love on her and put her back in bed...sometimes she goes right back to sleep and sometimes she fights it! She wakes up anywhere from 6:30 - 8:30 depending on who knows what!!! She does nap a pretty consistent 3 hours each day and that's nice!



• Eating - She is still a good eater but getting more and more picky each day...there have been several times when I prepared her lunch and she refused to eat any of it...doesn't seem like my child! I think she has texture issues and I'm trying to think outside the box to resolve these! Vegetables have been the hardest to get down her lately and one night at a friends house she wanted baby food that she saw being fed to a baby and she ate it right up and it was veggies! So...I decided to try and put baby food veggies on her plate and let her feed them to herself with a spoon and she eats them right up...so in a way we are moving backwards as far as eating baby food but whatever it takes to get some veggies in her diet is worth a try to me! She definitely goes through stages...sometimes I can't figure out where she is putting all her food and other times when I wonder why she won't eat much...but she is a healthy kiddo so she'll eat when she's hungry! She's weighing in at around 24 pounds!!



• Talking - This little girl can talk a mile a minute and is like a sponge these days! We continue to be amazed by how quick she can pick up on things and how well she can communicate! She has learned a few new animal sounds...sheep and monkey, as well as a new body part...her elbow, and she is learning shapes...circle, rectangle, and triangle! Just this past week she and I sat down and scrolled through the pictures on my camera and Riley was able to point out each person in the picture...herself, me, Jason, my parents, and several of her little friends in Cali...it was so cool!!!


• Reading - She just gets more and more into reading books...she will often sit in her room and just play with her books and "read" them all by herself! She refers to the book Goodnight Moon as "night night" and she makes the cutest growling sounds when she reads the book Where the Wild Things Are!


• Just a few other random things Riley does at this age are throws trash away if we ask her including her own diapers, LOVES being around people and it just breaks her heart to have to leave a group setting with her friends, talks about her friends "Pooper" (Cooper) and "Maaaeeee" (Madi) all the time, loves the pool and can walk around very well by herself in the baby pool, loves eating a "nack" (snack) of goldfish with mommy at the pool, loves dancing still and her newest fav is Boom Boom Pow, and last but not least looks forward to the moment her Daddy walks through the door each day and is just smitten with him!
  

We love each moment with her and are amazed by how much she learns on a daily basis these days...love her love her love her!