It's hot here on our nation's celebration of independence. So what better way to cool off then to run through a sprinkler? This was our first hookup of our sprinkler this summer, and the videos below capture Riley's first passes through. After what's shown on the videos, I got in on the action, and all three of us had a blast running through the sprinkler as we made up dares for each (e.g. touch all three yellows, etc).
This wasn't Riley's first time through a sprinkler though. A few weeks ago, we went to a county park which has a "Splash Pad," a gated off area that has a lot of different and crazy sprinklers. For example, in one of the pictures, there is a series of rainbow sprinklers to run through. It was a little windy that day and the water was *very* cold (or so I heard). So, I couldn't get a really good video of Riley going through any of the sprinklers. But here are some pictures of Riley testing the water, so to speak.
Recently we decided to get Riley a more traditional bike. (That in and of itself is a long story.) What we got her was a princess bike, complete with a bell, basket, streamers, and a seat for her "babies" to ride with her. She is enthralled with the bike. Every day we get home the first thing Riley asks about is riding her bike. Although that really means all of us have to ride our bikes. (Our bikes are new too.)
Here are some videos taken outside the house. We have found it much easier to just ride around and around our cul-de-sac then try to go anywhere. The one video I (obviously) took when I was riding my bike. (That was a challenge!) In that video you'll hear Riley tell her baby, Bailey, that they have come get me. The way she interacts with her babies is so cute... she's always stopping to make sure they are okay and that they know she's just up front riding and not to worry.
The other you'll see Riley keep telling me to start riding after her. That's her favorite game to play... come get me! :)
Here's an adorable video taken Easter afternoon. As becomes clear a few seconds into the video, Riley was singing "I'm a little teapot." This was an impromptu song and dance by her as she waited for me to come back from getting my shoes on to go check out the blooming flowers in our yard. I'm so glad that I got some of it on camera because she was so adorable!
Anyone in the know is aware that Easter holds a special place in my heart as it was on Easter day, 3 years ago, that my Riley came into the world. (Funny how it was March 23rd back then and now it is on April 24th.)
Here are some videos taken this morning of Riley going out on her Easter egg hunt. She was so excited to look for all of the eggs and very sympathetic to the poor Easter Bunny who had to hop to every boy's and girl's house to leave an easter basket and eggs for them to find.
Riley's been doing this cute thing recently, where if we play music she likes, she closes her eyes and moves in a deliberate way to the music. Kinda like she's really feeling the music, man. We have two clips that illustrate this. One is on her birthday where we were eating cake, and I was singing this made up song to her. The other is when Cam was playing a youtube clip, called "Funny Bear." An interesting back story about that youtube clip: Cam found it quite by accident one evening when he was super tired and was just trying to get Riley to settle down for a bit. It's an animated video about a bear and it is sung in French. Riley loved it and kept asking for it over and over again. If you have time, just search for "funny bear french" on youtube. It'll come up.
Riley just celebrated her 3rd birthday. She is getting so big now! Here's a short clip of us singing happy birthday to her and her telling us what she got for her birthday.
One of the great things about having lots of space is that we can get all of our stuff out of storage. Cam and Riley are particularly excited about having the space to have the Rock Band equipment out. Here we are in one of the basement areas, otherwise known as the "man cave," where Riley has discovered the drum set from Rock Band and created an original song. She's got talent!
... that means it's apple picking time! We found out from the director of Riley's daycare about an orchard that isn't too far from us (about 20 minutes due south), so we decided to head on over. Our primary goal of this trip was to pick some apples off the trees before it got too cold. This particular orchard has about 10 varieties of apples to choose from (in addition to pumpkins, rasberries, etc.). We weren't sure what we were going to get, but to even get out to the place where the apples were, we needed to take a hay ride pulled by a tractor. Riley was sooooo excited to do this. Here's a short video of Riley on the trip:
Once we got there, Riley ran all over the place picking tons of apples off the tree (and even the ground at times.... heehee). We ended up picking some Jonathan apples and some Northern Spys. Riley sampled them both and loved them. :)
After the excitement of the apple picking, we checked out the rest of the attractions the orchard had to offer. They had a pony ride (which Riley rode on by herself!):
They also had loads of areas that kids could play in. Riley loved being in the barn filled with corn kernels (much cleaner than sand!), playing on the train carved out of wood, playing in the sand (not as clean!), and playing on the antique tractor.
We had so much there (as well as some of the best donuts I've ever had!), that we went back again! This time we went to pick pumpkins. When we went to ride on the antique tractor (when Cam went to get donuts... yumm), there was sign that said it was only for show and there was no riding on it. Oh well!
We definitely hope to go again in the summer when their summer fruit is in season! It really is a great place to spend the day.
With the pool closed for the winter, I thought we'd post the last of the fall's pool videos. Riley's been so sad that the pool has closed for the season. We're hoping to take her to the university's pool soon (it's heated and indoors).
What's really nice about where we live is that there are two parks that are really close by, both of which have really nice playground equipment as well as nice fields to run around in. In particular Riley has loved to test her ability at climbing (and hanging from) all sorts of things. Here's a video in which you see Riley climbing the rock wall they have at one of the playgrounds. We were really impressed with how well she did, especially considering that she just had some cheapy-type sandals on (ie, not a lot of traction at all) and pants that were too big for her that they were falling down as she was climbing. :)
As we've mentioned before, one of Rlley's favorite pastimes is to chase the goose that lives in our pond. Well, there is more than one goose that lives on the property which is makes it that much more fun for Riley to chase after them. Every time she get's really close but they all fly away together right at the last moment. What's really funny is that Riley always says after she chases them, and they inevitably fly away, is that the geese don't like to be chased. Well, at least she realizes that... that's something.
Not much narration needed for this cute video from Kent's Beach, but a couple of side notes: First, those finger puppets (which she asked for, after having seen them on an episode of Caillou) are made of play-dough, and had names that I now forget. Actually, I believe one was Bob. Also, if you can't tell, the song she's singing is "Where is Thumbkin", or rather, a merge of a couple of different versions of that song.
Here's part two of our adventures at the pool. We are very lucky that our complex has such a nice pool area. Did we mention that it is about 500 feet from our unit and that we get free wi-fi there? Very nice indeed.
I love this first video. It really shows just how uninhibited Riley is when it comes to the pool and getting her face wet. Granted we are going to have to monitor this as she gets older, but since we don't want to buy a house with a pool (it's a deal-breaker for us), we're not too concerned.
Here are Riley and Cam partaking in one of their favorite pool-time activities: tip-toeing along the edge. I'm not sure how clearly I captured the fact that Riley is literally scaling the side of the pool, like a crab. Too cute!
While on our cross-country trip, the one thing that saved all of us from cabin fever at the hotels after long days of driving was a pool. It all started after our first day of driving. We pulled into a Best Western and while we were checking in, Riley spotted the pool from the lobby and went nuts! She wanted in so badly! Thus started a tradition of nightly swimming which continues to this day. It's a great way for Riley to get out some pent up energy after eating and a great way for us to tire her out in hopes of an easy time putting her to bed.
What the times in the hotels and the first day here taught us was that Riley was incredibly comfortable being in the water. So we went out and bought Riley a "Poolmaster Learn-To-Swim Tube Trainer." While she looked a little funny when we first put it on her, it was just what she needed in order to gain a little confidence in the water (and to give Cam's tired arms a rest!).
Here's Riley entering in to the water by herself!
What's great about the orange inner tube suit is that it allows us to just let Riley go off in the water without us having to hover. The pool that we have at our complex has a 5' max depth. This lets both Cam and I stand in the deep end (me on tip toes) and still be able to get to Riley quickly if she needs us. Not that we let her go off too far by herself, but we don't have to be right next to her always. In fact, she now can swim to the stairs or the pool's edge by herself. We do often remind her to close her mouth when her face goes in the water, but she is such a natural. I love her little legs kicking and her arms paddling. While we don't have it on video, Riley has referred to this as "paddle dogging." LOL.
One of Riley's favorite things to do now is to spin around and around - the inner tube obviously let's her stay above water - so she has a blast going around and around. In the video that you'll see the same girl from the previous video - she has quickly become Riley's favorite people (notice how Riley just follows her after she jumps in) - she's a nice girl and always has a smile for Riley and comes over to say hi.
We have more really good pool videos to share, but I'll leave that for another post. But here's a hint - Riley's a good jumper!
Well, it's been a shameful three months since our last post. Here's hoping we get back into the swing of things -- we've got a ton of videos to share and stories to tell. Now that we're restocked with blogging ammo, let's begin.
As anyone reading this blog knows, this post comes after a marathon drive from Salem to Grand Blanc. We weren't great about taking videos along the way, but here's one of the few we took while actually in the car:
Next up, life in Grand Blanc: Lots of videos, so we'll start small, with our backyard. Here it is, with a great picture of Laura and Riley and the video to match. The apartment buildings you see on the other side of the pond are carbon copies of our own. Note the goose in the pond.
While we're still in the backyard portion of video diary, the goose from the previous video has become a de facto adopted pet, frequently hanging out on the grass outside our back patio, drawing Riley's attention. Riley loves to give chase...once she and I made it around the entire pond before the goose swam away into the water. Clever bird.
A few posts ago, we put up a video where Riley was "riding" her bicycle (aka her Skuut). In that video you could see how she (expectedly) struggled with her balance as she walked along. She also was scared to be on the bicycle without us and made us hold on to it. Even then, she only lasted about 10 seconds at the most.
Here are two videos that were taken this past weekend. What a huge difference a month makes! Riley is now extremely comfortable getting on the bicycle herself, and while at times she still wants us to hold on, as you can see she can walk along without us for good stretches at time. She can also regain her balance to stop herself from falling! Take a look.
This past weekend we took the kids to the agricultural festival here in Salem. The kids could only last a couple of hours, but I could totally see going to this with an older kid. You could spend the entire day there, it was so big!
Here's Riley (and Jacob) on the pony rides. She had a blast! I love her little waves to people as she goes by. :)
Here's Riley (and Tygh and Jacob) checking out and petting some animals. She got to see llamas, goats, bunnies, sheep, cows, horses, pigs, and more! She did really well with all of the animals.
Of course with all there was to do, the kids had the most fun running through an empty alley way behind the back of a building and finding an empty sand lot to play in!
Continuing with the birthday party theme (I know, I know, these are now a month old), here's some videos of her and Tygh at Chuck E. Cheese, riding a car together.
Not two posts ago we were saying how she could get most of the alphabet in any given attempt. Here's a video from just a couple of weeks later where she gleefully gets through the whole thing (and makes a lot of funny faces in the process!).
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!
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. :)
