Poop!

Riley went poopy in the potty last night!  I'm 90% sure it was just a fluke, but it's a huge milestone.  For awhile now we've been sitting on the potty before and/or after baths each night.  Last night I asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty before her bath and she said that she didn't.  During her bath she kept tooting so once we were done I asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty and go poopy.  She nodded her head yes.  I thought we'd have another episode of tooting on the potty.  But, not 5 seconds later she was pooping! She acted like it was no big deal and she poops on the potty every day.  Not a bit of struggle, excitement, or anything.  All she was intersted in was looking at it and flushing the toilet! Ha!  Maybe we'll have a potty trained toddler by 2.

Riley's Trip To DC: Day 1

I don't even know where to begin...we had such a good time in DC.  I wish we could have stayed a couple more days to see the entire city.  Brett and I decided that we'll definitely be making a second trip to DC when Riley is old enough to truly appreciate all of the history.  Let's start from the beginning...

Day 1:

Wednesday morning we left our house around 8am in route to the Kansas City airport.  Our flight left at 1:45 pm, but we wanted to give ourselves enough time since we were traveling with a toddler.  Riley did great on the three hour car ride to KC.  I'm pretty sure the three hour loop of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse helped out a bit!  Getting checked in for the flight was much easier than we anticipated.  They let us check Riley's car seat and stroller free of charge for $60. It supposed to be free and they said that it was, but after getting home and checking our account there was an extra $60 charge.  So, calling Delta is on Brett's to-do list!  Thankfully, we didn't have a second extra charge for our flight home.  Riley did great on the plane ride.  She slept most of one entire flight and then watched Backyardigans and looked out the window the rest of the time.  No freak outs! 

We landed in DC around 6:40 pm.  Since our flights were so small we were able to get our baggage in about 5-10 minutes.  One of my best friends, Maria, and her family, Kevin and Maxx, drove up from West Virginia to join us on our trip.  Since they had their van they picked us up from the airport.  We decided to head straight to dinner since everyone was getting pretty hungry.  We chose a Cheesecake Factory that was near our hotel.  The kids loved sitting together.  There were plenty of high fives, back pats, thrown food, and even a broken plate (by Miss Riley)!  After a great dinner and conversation we headed straight to the hotel to get some sleep before our big day of sightseeing!

  

To be continued...

We're Back!!

We had a great time while in DC. We're all feeling a bit like this:

(Riley asleep at lunch while in Georgetown!)

Anyway, I hope to get all of our time spent in DC up on the blog sometime this week.  Until then, here's a glimpse of what our weekend entailed...

Riley and Maxx - first night in DC

Our sightseeing trolley

More Riley and Maxx time!

Riley's first glimpse of Abe.  Love at first sight...obsession born!

The Whitehouse!

Washington National Cathedral...Beautiful!

More to come...

DC, Here We Come

I'll be on a bit of hiatus the next week as we'll be visiting Washington DC.  This time tomorrow we'll be boarding Riley's first ever plane ride in Kansas City.  We're all super excited for our getaway!  I think I'm the most excited to be seeing two of my best friends while there!  But I'm a bit anxious about flying with a toddler!  I've stocked up on new toys, books, and a borrowed handheld DVD player for the trip.  Our plans include:

• A White House tour
• Trolly tour of the City and it's historical places. 
• A rehearsal dinner
• A beautiful wedding
• Riley and Maxx play dates
• Lots of fun and laughter
• Many, many pictures!

Soccer!

Riley went to watch her cousin, Kennedy, play soccer last week. Riley loved running around, and especially loved running on the field.  It won't be long before she's out there running after the ball! Here are a few pictures:

Conversations With Mommy

Riley brings a toy to Mommy.

Mommy:  "What do you want?"

Riley: "That" and points to the toy.

Mommy: "What do you want Mommy to do with it?"

Riley: "That" and points to the toy's open button.

Mommy: "Can you say: open it please, Mommy?"

Riley: " E-I-E-I-YO."

Riley's First Grandview Softball Game

We went to watch my cousin, Meagan, pitch for Grandview last Saturday.  She did great and they won!  It was a perfect day to be outside watching a good game.  Riley loved everything about it.  She loved seeing the bright yellow balls, the girls running, playing in the sand, hanging on the fence, petting the dogs, climbing the bleachers, playing with her cousins, and running everywhere! 

Happy Friday!

Riley Nicole At 1 Year, 8 Months

It's that time again.  Miss Riley is another month older.  She is definitely a sassy little thing these days!  I find myself just sitting there, mouth closed, telling myself to breathe quite often!  Here's just a glimpse:

• Favorite phrases: "I see bus." "I saw bus."  "I see...(insert anything)."  "Doe, Doe" (No, no).  "Get, down." - anytime Sam is on the counter or table. "Bless you" - she says this anytime someone sneezes.  It's usually delayed by a couple seconds, but never prompted.  So funny!
• She still mixes up yes and no.  She'll usually repond by saying yes, but shaking her head no.  Often times whatever direction her head shakes is what she really means. 
• She is 22 lbs.
• She is going gangster in size 2T spring/summer clothes.  18 month fits perfectly, but soon enough she'll be fitting perfectly in 2T.  She still wears 18 month jeans, which are just the right length.
• She loves shoes.  We sometimes let her pick out her shoes.  She is still wearing size 4 shoes.  Her sandals are size 5 since we can adjust the backs and tops. 
• She is speaking so much more, but still tries to point and whine to get what she wants.  She will repeat words if you ask now.  I like to get her to say: Have a nice day.  Usually she'll humor me.  She also will say the days of the week.  The other day we were in the car and she kept saying "satday" over and over.  So, I had her repeat all of the days and she did a pretty good job!
• She points out every "wa, wa" (water fountain), bus, and slide that we see.
• She wants to be outside every waking moment of the day.  I love that she loves the outdoors, but dread the fit she throws every time we have to head inside.
• She eats best when we're at home.  It's really hard to get her to eat when we're out and about.  It will be interesting to see how she does when we're in DC next week (yay, I'm soooo excited to go to DC!)
• She still prefers to watch Backyardigans, but also likes Mickey Mouse, Elmo, and Wonder Pets.
• She'll raise the roof when asked too.  She has also improved her dancing skills by raising the roof and bending her knees simultaneously.  No longer does she just rock back and forth with stiff legs!
• She's started a new habit of chewing on Bunny's ear.  I know, it's really gross.  Especially when you pick bunny up and he's crunchy! Yuck.
• Her hair continues to grow. Now that she's outside a lot it curls up at the bottom. 
• We've started sitting on the potty before and/or after baths.  So far, we've only gotten toots.  Which she is very proud of.
• She loves her babies and loves to help out with the baby at daycare.
• She has started to gallop.  I'm not sure really what it should be called, but gallop is close enough.  She can't just run now, it has to be prancing.  Maybe prance is a better descriptive.  Either way, it's really funny and she thinks she's awfully cute.
• She loves singing!  It's the cutest thing to listen to her sing along.  Most of it you can't understand, but she's always right on track with e-i-e-i.

I have a ton of fun new pictures of Riley at cousin Meagan's softball game (she pitches for Grandview), at cousin Kennedy's soccer game, and lots of pictures of her playing outside.

Busy At Work

Hawkeye Girl!

I guess Hawkeye fans teach their children young.  Our neighbors, also huge Hawk fans, let us borrow a Hawkeye baby DVD that their children love.  I didn't even know they made things like this!

Needless to say, like the neighbor boys, Riley LOVED this video!  I guess it won't be hard for her hawk-loving parents to instill the obsession.  She sat in front of the TV in her chair straight through the 20 minute video complaining every time it skipped or ended. 

You might be asking, what could they possibly include in the video to make children obsessed with the Hawkeyes?  Well, there was the marching band, the football team, the mascot, babies crawling across the screen in hawk gear...everything a child would love to stare at!

It's true, we're brainwashing teaching our daughter young!

Cousins' Love

Easter Sunday

After returning home from Minnesota Sunday afternoon we went to Grandma and Grandpa Burch's for Easter Dinner and and an Easter egg hunt.  Riley was old enough this year to enjoy her Easter basket.

She was even old enough to enjoy the egg hunt!

Checking out the goodies:

Look Dad, money!

Mom, put it in my pocket.  My back pocket!

Victory dance!

Weekend In Minnesota

Friday afternoon we headed up to Minnesota to attend Aunt Libby and (soon to be) Uncle David's MN couples shower.  Since we were in another state with people Riley didn't know we opted to bring her rather than leave her with the nanny and other kiddos. 

All dressed up for the shower

Luckily, she was wonderful.  Even so wonderful to last until almost 10pm before heading back to the hotel.  After Riley was fast asleep, Brett made his way down to the hotel bar and brought us each a drink up to the room. After finishing our drinks, Grandma Kathy came to our room so that we could go out with Libby, David, Wes (David's brother), and a couple of Libby and David's friends.  It was so much fun to be out and about.  Too bad I forgot what it's like to drink large amounts of alcohol.  Needless to say, Saturday I was not happy with myself! 

Saturday, Riley really decided to come out of her shell at the tailgait party (before the Twins Game) - I only wish I was able to see it firsthand! While I was back at the hotel "sleeping it off" Riley and Daddy went for brunch at Libby and David's.  Before Riley's afternoon nap we decided to take her down to the hotel pool to swim.  She loved it!  Her favorite part was jumping into the water into Daddy's arms.  Her least favorite part, going under water.  Saturday night we enjoyed a great dinner downtown and watched the final four games.  Riley was wonderful at dinner and loved pointing out every bus that drove by. Good thing a bus passed by about every 1-2 minutes! 

Look at that tush!  We forgot her swim diapers.

Sunday we were up by 8 and on the road by 9 to celebrate Easter with the Burch side of the family.  It was a great weekend and so good to see Libby and David.