What are we going to do today?

Since we moved here I have been home with Riley and have loved this opportunity...it will change sometime in the future as I am currently job hunting...but for now I am taking advantage of it. However, the biggest questions is always "What are we going to do today?" Since Riley goes to school M,W,F I try to come up with something creative to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I can't just sit around here...sometimes we take trips to someplace new, sometimes we hit the pool, and sometimes we come up with something different to do at home! This past week we did a couple of fun things! I remember when I was growing up going over to my friend Libby's house and her mom always had homemade play-dough and I thought that was the coolest thing so I googled some recipes and tried it out! I didn't realize I would find so many recipes...some you cook, some you don't...I decided to start simple and made some play-dough that consisted of flour, salt, and water...simple enough!

Riley was a little unsure at first but she got the hang of it...and of course she took a bite and said "yummmmm"...it was a tad salty but I suppose it was tasty for her!

We rolled snakes, cut with cookie cutters, and made balls...

Her serious faces are the best...she was intense with her play-dough!

After play-dough time I let Riley play with Jason's college stash...check out this Little Gator Girl!We had so much fun playing with the play-dough and I have to say that it actually got better a few days after I made it...the consistency was better and it was great! Because I chose a non-cook recipe it's not supposed to last as long as cooked play-dough but so far so good so we'll see how long it lasts!

On Thursday Riley and I went to Stroke of Magic to let her paint...here's my little artist!
We picked out two canvases and I picked out paint colors that matched Riley's room and she did the rest! Her she is waiting patiently for the girl to mix the paint so she could get started on her art!

I, along with the women that worked in the studio, were amazed at how well Riley painted...she knew exactly what to do and when she was finished with a color she would put her hands up and say "All done"...how cute!

She also got a little paint on her face!

She is quite girly because as she painted each color you could tell she was uncomfortable with the fact that some of the paint was on her hands...luckily wipes would take the paint off because I would just clean her up and she was all ready to go!

After she painted all the colors they took her little hands and made hand prints on top of her art...she did so good for the whole adventure!I had so much fun with her and hopefully we can do this again soon!
Here are the painted masterpieces...

Before hand prints and finishing touches...

All finished and hanging in Riley's room...LOVE them! So those were our two fun events last week! This past Saturday Jason left for a short trip to Washington and we definitely miss him! I got to have a girls day with Amanda and Jen and we had so much fun...we started with a trip to the movies to see "The Proposal"...hilarious! After the movie we headed to Target to get a gift for the baby shower we attended that evening for Julia who will be having a little girl in September...it was all so fun and great to get out with the girls!
Life wasn't too rough for Riley either while mom was out having fun! She was over at Paul and Jenn's house for "Daddy Daycare" since John and Paul corralled the three kiddos all afternoon! We checked in on them before we headed to the baby shower and things were totally under control!

Riley and Cooper played in the pool with Sarge while Maddi napped!!

When we got back from the baby shower not a creature was stirring...and the dads were barely moving...they were worn out from tending to the children all day...haha! It was a fun filled day for everyone and thanks John and Paul for watching Riley!

Tonight the kiddos all started swim lessons together and we will go every night for 2 weeks...not much learned today for all we did was get them acclimated to the water which was not really necessarily since we are at the pool all the time and we tried to teach them to blow bubbles...Riley doesn't quite have that down so we'll keep working on that...pictures and stories about swim lessons coming soon!!

On a totally random note I am going to brag on my own reading skills...hehe! I am not a big book reader...never have been. However, when I get my hands on something good I really get into it. I became a fan of Francine Rivers when I read Redeeming Love...if you haven't read it you NEED to! My friend Ashley...who comes to visit next week...gave me The Scarlet Thread and I just finished it...it was great and I am proud of myself for finishing a book...the little things! I am already on to another book that I will talk about later but I think I will pick up another Francine Rivers book for my trip to the lake in a few weeks!

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!

To the park we go...and stay!

This past Saturday Jason's squadron had a picnic at the park and it was quite the party! The park was right by our house and it's a huge park...room enough for lots of people to have parties so when we arrived there were bounce houses everywhere and people cooking all kinds of food! We ended up being there for over 6 hours and Riley played like a champ running on only a 45 minute nap that we snuck in before we headed to the park!

When we arrived she ran like a wild child checking everything out!

She found her friends and had fun playing with them. The Bogart kids are so cute...Tye (6), Kailey (4), and Ashley (2)...they live in our neighborhood and Jason works with their dad so we see them quite a bit! They all LOVE Riley and help take care of her...they often ask if she can come spend the night! Here's Kailey with her awesome blue eyes taking care of Riley...you can't see it in the pic but Kailey is actually holding Riley's milk cup and this was after she fed Riley a brownie!

Family pic!

Chowing down on some watermelon!

So the guys in the squadron had a pie in the face contest and they all bought votes for who they wanted to get a pie in the face and they threw pies for the top 5...Jesse was picked and he got a scrumptious pie thrown in his face. Here's Kailey so upset that her Daddy looks so scary...poor thing!

We were reluctant to let Riley play in the jump castle and the ball pit because she was by far one of the smallest and there were some CRAZY kiddos in there...I just couldn't handle the stress level, but she was so eager to play like all the big kids. We managed to get in a few play times in each after the newness wore off the the bigger kids were off to do other things...Riley had a blast!

The bounce house with the balls in it was really a batting cage but due to too many kids getting whacked in the face with the bat it was taken away and we just let them play in the balls. Air would blow up through these two tubes below to suspend the balls in the air so the kids could swing at them but Riley just had fun trying to get the balls to stay in the air and letting the air blow in her face!

She finally made it in the bounce house and a sweet older girl played with her and watched out for her!

Time to get out...no fun!

Riley got to eat the normal "picnic at the park" foods like hot dogs and mac 'n cheese, but her Daddy brought her/us a special treat because the ice cream truck came through the park...we had a HUGE watermelon popsicle that was super messy but so yummy...the two of us couldn't eat it fast enough! By the time we started to head home we were all dirty, sweaty, and covered with stickiness...the true sign that we had a good time at the park!

For proof look at my sweet little girls dirty dirty feet and cute sandals that now reside in the trash...they weren't worth cleaning and her toes were beginning to hang over the ends so we said our goodbyes!

Even after an exhausting day at the park Riley put on her party girl hat and said she was ready for more!

And more we did...instead of being the parents who rushed home to bathe their stinky child and get them to bed after a LONG day of playing outside we figured we would just keep having fun...we also heard there was a bike sale going on at a local sports store and since we have been looking into getting bikes for all of us to ride we headed there to check them out!

I'm glad we went even though I was so exhausted...I ran after kiddos all day and sat down for only a few seconds to scarf down a hot dog! We found bikes for Jason and I and a front riding seat for Riley...all for a great deal! Jason's bike was in stock, but mine won't be in for a few weeks. We have so many parks and bike trails that we really wanted to make biking a family event so in the next few weeks we can start riding together! I had a reality check, however, as I rode a bike in the store and realized I haven't ridden a bike in several years...haha!

Here's Riley in her new bike helmet...we actually haven't bought hers yet but I'm pretty sure we are going to get her this ducky one!

She looks thrilled doesn't she! She got on a few tricycles while we were there and is almost big enough to take a stab at that so I think that may be what Santa or her birthday brings her this year!

After our bike shopping we headed to a Chinese restaurant that Jason had been itching to try since we moved here...sort of a spin on PF Changs since we don't have one locally and the food was very good. After all of that it was home, quick baths/showers for all of us, and we were all quickly asleep! A fun but exhausting day!

Cheetos...Jelly Bellys...Fun Fun Fun

This week seemed to fly by...I think we were busier than usual for some reason. With Jason on swing shift it felt like everything was sort of thrown out of whack...but in a good way! Tuesday night Jason's squadron had a "Burger Burn" as they sent of the squadron commander to Oklahoma...Jason was technically at work but we were able to spend several hours with him and Riley got to meet all the kiddos from the squadron and play! During the ceremony Riley clapped so passionately after each award was given...her spirit was infectious! In between the clapping sessions she was getting a little loud as she chatted while climbing on and off the chair so we completely buckled as parents and gave her Cheetos to keep her quiet...it was her first time to taste Cheetos and I think she might be in love! Considering the amount of cheese residue on her dress, face, and hands it was hard to believe she actually got any of them in her mouth but trust me...she did!

After the ceremony and dinner all the kiddos were "unleashed" to play and Riley played with more energy than I have ever seen...she was so fun to watch! She ran in HUGE circles screaming and giggling and she hung with the older kiddos like a champ! She had several total wipe outs due to her smaller size but she would get right up and go right back to playing...it was so hard to get her out the door and on our way home and she slept great that night!

Thursday we spent some more family time in the morning since Riley didn't have school and decided to check out the Jelly Belly factory at the headquarters here in Fairfield. The tour is 45 minutes long and there was a bit of a line when we arrived so we didn't do the tour but instead just checked out all the Jelly Belly goodies!
It was fun to see all the flavors...they had a tasting bar where you could just stand there and taste anything. They have some rather interesting flavors...vomit, ear wax, pencil shaving, booger, and skunk...Jason was intrigued and thought he would try the vomit! As I watched him eat it I could tell it was not a good decision...he actually asked if he could spit it out but instead he made an awful face and swallowed hard...apparently it tasted JUST like vomit...who thinks of this stuff? After his experience the girl at the tasting bar actually tried to persuade me to try one...she must have thought I was stupid!

While Jason was picking out jelly beans I was scoping out their amazing bakery...I somehow managed to exude major willpower and not try one of these amazing cupcakes...but I know we'll be back and I just might have to give in!

We were pretty impressed with the Jelly Belly factory and can't wait to get back and do the actual tour...I'm sure it will be fun to see how they make all those crazy flavors!

Friday we spent the afternoon at the pool and it was lots of fun! Riley and I played for a little bit before she had an issue sharing with another little girl and I decided it was time for a snack or a "naaack" as Riley calls it so we laid out and shared some goldfish and strawberries!

California strawberries are the best...check out the juice on her neck!

Gotta be silly at the pool sometimes...check out this face!

After our snack our friends John, Amanda, and Madison joined us! Madison is 9 months old and Riley is so cute with her...she really tries to take care of her which is great because I had some worries when Riley would throw her baby doll out of the stroller...looks like we're all good!

Riley pushed Maddi all around the baby pool in her floaty!

Maddi was very amused!

After the pool they came to our house and the girls played while we all chowed down on some food..it was a great summer night...too bad Jason had to work through all of our fun!

A trip to Suisun...

When we found out we were moving to Cali I, of course, researched and googled all sorts of things about the area we were moving to and knew we had three options when it came to where to live...Vacaville, Fairfield, and Suisun City! The funny thing is that they are all within just a few miles of each other but each has their own distinct charm and personality...I finally made it to the downtown area of Suisun City (pronounced "soo SOON") last week when I went to get my hair cut and I was impressed with the quaintness of the area, the architecture of the buildings, the waterfront, and the fun restaurants. It resembles a beach town and while the waterfront is extremely small it is a bay and the inlets will eventually take you to the Pacific...and better yet Jason has heard that there is good fishing in the inlets!

While Jason is working mid shifts this week meaning he goes in at 2 in the afternoon and works until the wee hours of the morning we took advantage of some family time this morning while Riley wasn't in school and strolled along the waterfront in Suisun City and ate at Bab's Delta Diner!

Jason had steak and eggs while Riley and I went for the sweet stuff...pancakes and french toast! It was all delicious!

We took a walk before we ate although we should have taken another one after we ate all that healthy food! Riley had her purse in hand during the entire walk...such a girly girl!

I wanted a picture with Riley and when I bent down she decided to mimic me instead of come to me to take the picture...she's all about being a copy cat these days!

She finally obliged, but there were doggies approaching so I had to keep my grip on her and she was not too pleased. Luckily the dogs were nice and she was able to pet them after the picture!

We had a fun time!

Happy 4th of July!!!

We started off this past week with a sick little girl...lo and behold only hours after Grammie and JoePa left she started running a fever...she was so sad they left she made herself sick...poor baby!

Monday she was rather clingy and just didn't know what she wanted and still hadn't shook the fever...I suspected it was an ear infection because she had been messing with both of her ears since Saturday. She stayed in her PJ's all day Monday and we made an appointment for the doctor on Tuesday.

The doctor's office was in pandemonium because the swine flu is running pretty rampant around here. They had the peds clinic divided for kids with swine flu symptoms and those without...I knew Riley didn't have the swine flu but since she had fever we HAD to go to the "bad" side...there were some sick kids over there and they all had masks on...I stayed as much in the middle as possible and didn't let her out of my arms...how sad would it be to contract swine flu while at the doctor's office? My intuition was right and she did have an ear infection...by the time we went to the doctor Tuesday afternoon she was already in much better spirits and had broke her fever but we still had to get her on antibiotics. She SCREAMED when the doc examined her ears...she cried harder than I've ever heard her cry...it was awful! I tried my trusty trick of giving her a snack to make things better and she was screaming so hard she nearly choked on her goldfish...it was slightly dramatic. The doctor left so I could calm her down and I feared that the hysteria would start all over once the doctor came back in the room but Riley must have forgotten because she was still whimpering but kindly smiled and said "Hi" when she came back in...whew!

Once Miss Thang was back to herself we were back to school and having fun! She ended her session of "pre-school" this past Thursday and started her new one today...she is now going three days a week and she has so much fun!

This past weekend we hung out with friends, went to the farmer's market, went to the pool, and of course celebrated the 4th! I so wished we were at the lake with my parents...where we have spent almost 100% of all 4th of July's...but we'll get there soon!

Riley had on this cute dress that I only got a pic of with my phone because once we got to the BBQ at our friends' Amanda and John's house she was down to her bathing suit and strutting her stuff!

LOVE this smile...and check out her tattoo!

There were lots of kiddos and they all had fun playing together...until they had to share toys!

Here's Riley and I...if you're wondering where Jason is...he had to leave the party for a bit because Kadie and Hank escaped our backyard! Luckily some nice people in the neighborhood next to us snatched them up, put them in their backyard, and gave us a call! Jason went and rescued the dogs and fixed our gate so no one can get in our out...apparently the wind blew the gate open and off the dogs went to explore!

So who knew that Riley would still be interested in getting IN an exersaucer...look at her legs all bent...she wanted in and she stayed in there for over 10 minutes until she realized she couldn't move around...haha!

Riley's friend Maddie has a chair very similar to hers and therefore Riley claimed it as her own. When Cooper tried to sit in it things went downhill...he was pointing his finger at her saying "NoNo" and she was standing with this pose expecting him to obey her will!

Sunday we started our church hunt...we'll have to keep hunting! After church I made us some BLT's and we all took a nap...so nice! After our naps Riley and I headed to the pool and Jason went to hit golf balls...I jogged to the pool which meant I had to jog home which was fine except we got a last minute invite to dinner so I was busting my tail to get home so we could make it in time...it was good exercise though! We went to Chipotle with friends and to ColdStone afterwards...SOOOOOO good!

I will leave you with this video of Riley reading her first book...I think she has memorized the gestures of the babies rather than learned the words but we have read this book zillions of times and one day this past week I took it out to read it to her before nap time and realized she was saying the correct word on every page...it blew my mind!!! Jason read it with her that evening and he was amazed too! We wanted to get it on video but I had to do it sneakily so she didn't know I was videoing...is that even a word? Anyways, it's a cute video and you can even see how well she says her favorite word "No"...hehe!