Training Wheels, or the Lack Thereof

So yesterday I decided to go out on a limb and take off Riley's training wheels. If we're being honest, it was as much because they weren't functioning very well as it was that I wanted to challenge her. Here's her first trip out sans training wheels yesterday -- needless to say, we were pretty impressed.




Impressed...until today, when she blew us out of the water! Here's how she started the day:




And here's how she ended up. In total, she spent *maybe* 10 minutes on her bike yesterday, and another 10 minutes on her bike today, before she could do this.





I thought I'd mention that I credit her speedy learning to the Skuut we got her as a toddler. Here's a video of her on her Skuut

Old Skuutin' Video

and here she is on the same bike just hours before her first attempt on her bicycle with no training wheels.

Happy Birthday, Riley!

Our little girl is 2 years old today!!! She has gotten so big and is talking so much, it's insane!

The theme of Riley's birthday presents this year is transportation. First up we got her a "Skuut" which is a bicycle with no pedals or chains. It moves "Flinstone"-style, where Riley walks the bicycle. The purpose of it is to teach balance which of course is really the hardest part of riding a bike. It'll be some time before she can do it on her own, but the bicycle "grows" as she gets older.




Riley loves it, and looks super cute with her helmet on. She actually just loves to walk around with the helmet on. Here she is with her helmet, my gloves, and her tea set (courtesy of her cousins Kate and Aiden). I think she was on her way to go feed her rocking horse, "Bubba." (You can see it in the picture there with a blanket on. Riley thought that Bubba was tired and had to take a nap.)



Next up is a tricycle. It's still a little hard for Riley to pedal by herself but as you'll see, she doesn't let that stop her.




Of course she loves it best when we just push her!




Finally, we got her some books, one of which is the Dr. Seuss book, "Go, Dog, Go!" Here she is with Cam reading the story for a 2nd straight time. She already knows so much of the story although this was only her 2nd time hearing it!

Some more cute moments

Those of you following Facebook will remember some frantic posts I made about a pizza-making catastrophe. I forgot I had this video of a midpoint in the process. Riley's a complete mess -- the powder you see on her face and hands is not actually powder -- it's rather thick and hard dough that's crusted on. It took a pretty massive effort in the bath to get it all off. :)





Here you see the result of Riley's decision to pretend that the asparagus that she was eating was an airplane. As expected, super cuteness ensued. :)

The Count

We knew that Riley knew how to count up to 3 - she had demonstrated that to us on several occasions. But we were floored when she started counting something last week (raisins, I think) and counted all the way up to 10! We've been trying to capture it on video for an entire week, and finally our determination paid off.

What's interesting is that we haven't spent that much time with her working on numbers. I mean, we've read stories about counting and maybe they do stuff in daycare. But I'd say the majority of our time has been working with her on letters and colors. Who knows - maybe math really does run in the family?

You'll have to really listen to hear Riley in this video - she starts off speaking very softly, but gets a little louder as the video goes on.

My little fashionista

Here's a video right before dinner tonight, which if you couldn't tell, was soup. I absolutely just loved the outfit that Riley had on, and even more so, how she made sure her hat was still on after she got up on her tower.

To summarize, Riley had on her pink hat (which she just absolutely had to have on); a bib with a dog on it (currently her favorite to walk around all day with it on); her nursing necklace which she was wearing Rambo style; and 1 of my slippers (and no, she did *not* want my other slipper, thank you very much).





How cute was her "I love you" at the end? :)

Conquering fears

For the longest time now, Riley has had a fear of vacuums. However, she has just recently started to conquer that fear, in part, because we are constantly asking her to help us when we need to use the vacuum. She especially loves to help us push the "big vacuum" while we are cleaning up after dinner (or better yet to take the extension arms and brush to clean off the chairs and couches).

Riley has also taken an interest in cleaning up the floors with our dustbuster (or the "little vacuum"). Here's a video of her hard at work. You'll see at the end her turning off the dustbuster. We're right now learning about opposites, and one set of those is "on/off." I think the video cuts out right before she says, "On! On! On!" about 15 times. :)

Self-sufficiency

Riley's just so proud of herself that we just had to share. It has *nothing* to do with the fact that Riley is the smartest child alive - promise. ;-).

Busy, busy - so much work to do!

So, there's *always* a debate around what parent a child looks most like. And while Riley is no exception, I think we can all agree that Riley is the spitting image of her Dad here.

Traditions

In my house growing up, every year at Thanksgiving my brother and I would rip up loaves and loaves and loaves of bread in order for my mom to make her amazingly delicious stuffing. Well, that tradition shall live on in my house. Not only was this the first year that I made the stuffing without any help from my mom, it was the first year that the next generation helped in making the stuffing. Look at Riley rip that bread... she's a natural!

Hop! Hop!

It's the wrong holiday I know, but Riley found the bunny ears that we had gotten her for Easter. I put them on my head yesterday and showed her how to hop like a bunny. So, this morning she came hopping down the hallway as I was putting her clothes away. How adorable!

Homemade Pants!

So, I got this wonderful sewing machine last year for Christmas from my in-laws, but haven't ever had any time to use it. Today started out as kind of "blah" day for me, so I thought I would break out my "new" sewing machine.

I didn't have any real aspirations of making anything, but I came across the The Frugal Family Fun blog and this neat idea of making a pair of toddler lounge pants out of a pillowcase. So, I found a pillowcase that reminded me of sweatpants and got to work.

Of course, it took me a while to familiarize myself with the sewing machine. I learned the basics of sewing when I was younger, but have never really done any sewing. So, this was all new to me!

I made the lounge pants (I made them a drawstring) using another pair of Riley's pants as a guide. I had a bit of trouble with the crotch and the stitching is crooked. They're also a tad too short on Riley - I mean they are just long enough. But, all those things aside... I did it! I made pants!!! :D

Here's a close-up of them:


And here's them on Riley:




Riley's been wearing the pants for the last 20 minutes or so, crawling in and out of things while doing so, and they haven't ripped yet. So, I think I can safely say this project has been a success! :D

Playdate Madness!

Yesterday Riley's friend Tygh came over to play and make some playdough. It took them a while to warm up to each other, but after they did, they really started to have fun. It was really neat to see Riley playing with, rather than alongside, another child.

Here's a cute video taken of the two of them. Sorry about the quality in some spots. Something happened with the youtube upload, but since it took forever to upload, I didn't feel like doing it again.




After Tygh left, Riley stood at the door for a few minutes saying, "Tygh? Tygh? Tygh?" We kept answering her (that Tygh had to go home to eat), but she wasn't buying what we were selling. :)

Vocabulary

Recently Riley's language development has really started to take off. She's been able to comprehend the meaning of words for a while now, but has generally seemed to be reluctant to try and say the words. It's like she wanted to be sure of her ability to say the word before she gave it a shot.

So, we're not sure if her recent explosion with trying new words is a result of an increase in confidence in her own ability or perhaps because of the strengthening of certain muscles in her mouth. Probably a little bit of both I'd imagine, among other things.

Here's a video that we took this morning. It's not too long as Riley really wanted to go outside, which by the way is a new word for her (only a day or two old). You'll also hear Riley's use of a 2 word phrase, which is also really new. At the moment she can really only say "Riley's xxx," "Daddy's yyy," or "Mommy's zzz," (where xxx, yyy, and zzz are variables). However, we think it's absolutely amazing. :)

Enjoy!

Spinny McSpinnerton

Baker's Riley

With the colder weather starting to settle in, a lot more baking is being done in the house. But much different from last year at this time, Riley is now very willing and eager to help out, which we just love. She can't do too much just yet, but she loves to pour the ingredients into the mixing bowl and stir them up.

Here's one of our first attempts - we were making cornbread. If you listen closely you'll hear Riley say 'more' and 'all done' while signing both phrases. I love the fact though that she still signs the words even though she can (and frequently does) say the words. Riley's signing is neat because she is constantly evolving her signs. For example, she used to sign 'more' with one hand flat and the other hand hitting it. It has now since become two fists that she bangs together.





Here we were making oatmeal and cranberry bars. Riley poured in all the dry ingredients and the egg... well most of the egg anyway. ;) Also, like a true baker, you'll see Riley pause to eat some of the ingredients (in this case, some of the cranberries). :)





While I was helping Riley stir up the batter for the oatmeal and cranberry bars, I had used her white teaspoon (seen in the video) to scrape some of the batter off of my spatula. Seeing me do this, Riley proceeded to take my spatula and use that to scrape off the batter from her teaspoon. Precious!

Wordless Wednesday

Buh Buhl!

Chicken Soup for the Toddler's Soul

One of my favorite comfort foods when I'm sick is Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup. Now, it can't be Healthy Request or Low Sodium or anything fancy. Just plain old chicken noodle soup. I'm weird like that.

Anyway, I'm been fighting off this minor but annoying cold for the past week and a half. So I wanted to have some soup. Well, in true fashion, anything that either Cam or I has, Riley wants. The soup was no exception. Now up until recently we haven't given her liquid-based foods. But... with her recent success eating a bowl of cereal with milk, we thought we'd give it a try.

Wow! Did Riley love that soup! She slurped it right up and kept asking for more! It's a good thing I made the whole can as I may have had only a quarter of it. Not that I minded too much. I love the fact that Riley is such a good eater! :)

Here's one of the cuter videos we took of her eating her soup.

Riley's the champion, my friends

It's not Wheaties, but she is eating her first bowl of Cheerios in milk by herself. Although not all of the milk and the cereal made it into her mouth, Riley did a fantastic job wielding that spoon. What was especially cute was how she wouldn't leave her tower until every last drop of cereal and milk was gone from the bowl.

Here's her first go:




After about a minute I realized that a bib, especially one that has a "pocket" to catch falling food, was an absolute necessity. :) I also gave her a bigger spoon, and she seemed to like that much better.

This and that

How independent is our little girl? She doesn't need any help from us at all! *sniff*



We have these beautiful roses out in the front of our house that Riley just loves to smell. We're working with her on saying "flower," which works only some of the time. :)