Riley Nicole at 2 Years, 3 Months

It's amazing how a toddler can change so much each month.  There's always new things to report!  Here's a glimpse of Riley Nicole at 2 year, 3 months:

• Riley still says she sees the "monkey." Sometimes he's a nice monkey and sometimes he's scary.  I think I've pinpointed who the "monkey" is.  Anytime she hears a loud noise or an unexpected noise she runs to Daddy or me and says "I scared.  Monkey in there."
• She is able to say that her birthday is "Owgest 15."  This is mostly Hedy's doing.  They review birthdays and months.  I've been reviewing the month and day combination with her since I found out she knew her birthday month.
• On occasion she surprises us by counting to 20.  She's only done this a couple times on her own.  She likes to follow someone else who is counting.  She's started counting by using her fingers.
• She went to the doctor a couple weeks ago for a flu shot.  She weighed 26 pounds even with her diaper and clothes on.
• She's still wearing size 2T pants.  Most of which need to be accompanied by a belt or they fall down.  But, she's now wearing mostly 3T shirts.  She must have a long torso because most of her 2T shirts are belly shirts now.  She's still wearing some of her size 5 shoes, but has size 6 tennis shoes.
• She likes to pick out her own shoes.  Usually she picks her "new shoes" (tennis shoes) because they have purple on them or her "pink shoes."  Her favorite colors are definitely purple and pink.
• She will have a meltdown in the morning if she doesn't get her milk.  Today we thought our milk was spoiled so tried to give her some apple juice until we could stop on the way to Hedy's.  She threw herself on the floor, cried "my milk" over and over, and crawled from the living room to the refrigerator.  Drama Queen!  Luckily the milk wasn't spoiled and she got some before we left the house.
• She is a back seat driver.  She is always saying what direction we need to go and points out when we're close to home, close to Hedy's, or close to Grandma's house.  She likes to say "green means go" when she sees a green light and "red means stop" when she sees a red light.  She might be learning this from her Mommy since I'm a terrible back seat driver.
• She loves routines.  Bedtime routines are huge.  There's a different routine for Daddy than there is for Mommy.  She reads books in "mommy's room" with Mommy and she reads books in the "guess woom" with Daddy.  We haven't messed with them yet because she's a Drama Queen!  
• She LOVES ice packs and needs them all of the time!  She'll get a hang nail and ask for an ice pack. 
• Favorite foods include: apples, red/yellow peppers, chicken noodle soup, peas, chicken nuggets, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into shapes, mac and cheese, any pasta, sweet potato, cheese.  Riley loves cheese and will always ask for it for a snack.  She always says that she wants soup for dinner or lunch.  She almost always reports that she has soup for lunch.
• Favorite books include her Mother Goose book and Elmo books.  She has memorized nearly 40 mother goose rhymes.  You can say 1/2 of a line of one of the rhymes and she will finish it for you.  It amazes me how sharp her memory is.  She definitely has a better memory than her Mommy.  I'm sure I confuse her because I can't remember nursery rhymes for the life of me.  Although the repetition of reading Mother Goose nearly 4 times a week is helping!