Our little "No No" Girl...

I am still trying to catch up the blog on all of our visitors...slowly but surely I will get there...they're in chronological order for my sanity and so when I get my Blog Book done it all makes sense when we look back at all the memories we are making!

As you can see we had back to back visitor for over 10 days and it was GREAT! We had so much fun and did so many cool things...now are house is empty and we are pooped! Riley slept until 11:00 on Sunday after an early morning playtime from 4-7 so we missed church to try and get this little girl some sleep and back on some sort of schedule! She still took a two hour nap that afternoon and went to bed by 8 or so so hopefully she has caught up on some rest for she has been partying way too much for a little girl! We have an early morning tomorrow as Riley and I are headed to Lake LBJ for a week with Grammie and JoePa...Texas heat, awesome meals, lakeside lounging, beautiful sunsets, and visits with many special people...we wish Jason was coming with us but someone has to work!

In the midst of all of our company and adventures we have seen Riley begin to possess some habits that need breaking and have seem some glimpses of what the terrible 2's just might be like for us! Parenting is tough and we are just trying to figure out how to handle these "habits."

"NoNoNoNoNoNo.....Nnnnnnoooooooo" - So you hear everyone comment about how quick kids catch on to the word "No" and oh how true it is. Riley pretty much goes through phases where she answers EVERY single question or comment with a short cute "No"...even if you ask her if she's having fun or if she wants a piece of cake...we know she doesn't really mean no but just thinks it's fun to answer in that fashion. We pretty much ignore the "no" in these cases and move on...and laugh when she's not looking because it's so stinkin' funny! However, when she looks at me and says "No No No" with the shake of her finger it's a different situation and calls for some sort of reprimand or when she screams "Nooooooooooo" when we ask her to do something this again is not gonna fly! It's hard to say "No Riley we don't say No to Mommy"...how do you tell a toddler no to saying no...uuugghhhh! We are spending more moments in the corner...we'll see how that goes!

Inconsolable Temper Tantrums - I think the presence of these tantrums has risen this past week due to sleep deprivation but whatever the case may be we have seen more tantrums from Riley than normal. Riley knows exactly what she wants and when she doesn't get her way...MELTDOWN! I'm talking screaming, kicking, crying, blubbering mess...you pretty much have to ignore it and let her get it out...it can be frustrating! Saturday morning we had all planned on going to the airport to take Jason's family but Riley had gone to bed late and woken up way too early and she was just having one meltdown after another...one because she wanted "the mommies" (what she calls me now) and I was still in bed...one because she didn't want to get in her highchair...and several more for reasons I can't even recall. It was obvious she simply didn't know what she wanted and was very frustrated...and super tired. So I stayed home and put her down for a nap at 9:30 in the morning and she slept for 3 solid hours...poor little pooped girl! She's also had a few of these in the middle of the night again and we realized that even with the mattress all the way down she is still trying to get out when she's angry...Jason was putting her back to bed after one of these tantrums and she was just jumping on the mattress screaming and put her leg up on the top of the crib and he caught her before she fell out...we have no option to lower the mattress so we have just been letting her cry it out but standing outside her room with the door cracked until she calms down to make sure she doesn't try to escape and hurt herself! If you stay in her room and try and console her it will not work...leaving is the absolute hardest thing to do but she literally calms down in less than a minute when you do and lays right down!

Energetic, Funny, Smart, Loving, Addicting Little Girl - In the midst of these tantrums and the overwhelming amount of "Nos" that we hear Riley is just so much fun! She is so smart sometimes it's scary and she is just such a fun little girl! She is so loving with her frequent kisses, hugs, and pats on the back as well as her "i uv you's" yet she has some spunk as she is possessing some major independence these days. When she is trying to do something she does NOT want your help...she wants to try it and accomplish it all on her own...she might possibly have gotten that independence from her mom...hehe! In one of the videos below you can see the determination as she tries to put on CJ's shoes...she eventually gets it and it's so fun to see her figure out new things! We are so blessed God allowed us to be parents to this little girl and we pretty much eat her up and love on her as much as we possibly can!

Here's some videos we took last Friday night...way after this little girl should have been in bed but we had been hanging out in San Francisco and after a short nap on the way home she was deliriously tired and goofy...I just love this little girl and crack up watching these videos.

This first one is pure silliness...Riley is not too happy about not being able to take her milk on the couch but is suddenly distracted when she realized she's on camera...she shows you how she knows who Gaby and CJ are...poor CJ had some stinky feet after walking the streets of San Fran so that is why we are teasing him...boys are supposed to have stinky feet, right? At some point Riley randomly grabs her toes to smell then...not sure where that came from but she is full of random these days...she also goes to sleep and then puts her daddy to sleep...

This shows Riley's independence and determination as she processes how to put on CJ's shoes...

This last one is Riley's counting skills...a few weeks ago I realized we had not taught her how to answer the question "How old are you?"...so I set out to get that taken care of. To my surprise when I told her she was one she quickly followed with "twoooo....theeeee"...she knew how to count to three and I had no clue! Since then she has decided there is absolutely no need for the number one...when Riley counts she starts with two and ends with three and that's all that anyone needs to know! Since she could care less about the number one when you ask her how old she is she says "twoooo"...whatever...it's cute and she'll get the whole counting thing down soon enough! Here's her example of counting two and three with a little excitement...she follows that with showing off her camera and saying "miilllee" which means "smile" but sounds more like "meooww"!

Well here's to hoping I don't have a tantrum throwing NoNo girl on the flight tomorrow...we downloaded Happy Feet and some other movies to my iPhone as well as come cool apps where she can finger paint and color...I'll soon have a report and how our travels go!