I'm Awesome

Riley's shirt explains it all...

If you can't tell, it says "I'm Awesome."  Look at her fashion sense at just 1 year old! What a personality!

Gone Fishin

Riley went fishing at Great Grandpa Melvin's farm in Carlisle. 

We met up with my brother and his family, and Grandpa and Grandpa Burch.  It was suppose to be "Gone Campin," but Riley didn't allow for us to stay all night long.  We ended up leaving around 11:20 pm because she was bouncing off the walls and being a holy terror!  She did LOVE Uncle Nick and Aunt Casey's camper though. 

 She could have cared less about the fishing and would have much rather been swimming. 

 But, I'm proud to announce that she did catch her very first fish with her pink Barbie pole. 

Even though we weren't able to stay overnight we did enjoy the sunset and a camp fire!

Riley Nicole at 1 Year, 11 Months Old

Riley is nearing her 2nd birthday.  I can't believe how time continues to keep racing by!  Ugghh, slow down already!  Riley is so full of personality she is really keeping us on our toes these days.  I thought it'd be fun to compare her to where she was exactly one year ago today.  Here's how she stacked up (last year's info in Pink):


When asked "Riley, where's your eye?" She touches it! She hasn't learned any other body parts yet that she's shown us, but she's got one down! I have to give credit to Hedy for this because Riley came home from daycare with this trick.
Riley now knows all of her body parts and can say them and point to them.


She has 6 teeth. The middle uppers and lowers are completely in. Within the last week the tooth on both sides of the upper middles have broken through (sorry I don't know my teeth lingo).
Riley now has something like 16 teeth.  Is that bad that I can't remember for sure?  I sort of lost count!  I do know that she is now working on getting her 2 year molars.  I can see the white dots under the gums, but they haven't made their appearance yet.


She has taken one step completely on her own. She'd much rather reach as far as she can to grab a hold of something, or just plop down and crawl...unless she's got her walker in front of her!
Riley is running around everywhere like a crazy kid.  She loves to walk backwards and will do this through the entire house with a mischievous  look on her face.  She loves to run which is usually more like a gallop.  She loves to stomp her feet when "following the leader."


She says: mama, dada, puppy, hi. She really only uses mama and dada meaningfully. She is constantly moving her mouth like she it talking, but no words are coming out. She has started to mimic the sounds of words we say to her. One of these days she is going to surprise us with her new vocabulary.
I couldn't even tell you the number of words she is saying now.  Probably 100 times as many words as exactly 1 year ago.  She now talks in sentences that usually make sense, although may not be understood by many people.  She loves to say: carry, carry;  let's eat; oh no; Kiss Me.  Riley's sentence structure is a bit backwards.  Instead of saying "I kiss Dino" or "Me kiss Dino," She said "kiss dino me."  She understand most everything we say.  Last night I may have told Brett under my breath that she was "a little shit" while driving home from Costco.  From the back seat Riley begins yelling "not-ta me, not-ta me, not-ta me."  First, how in the world she heard me, I have no clue.  Second, how in the world she knew I what I was saying, I have no clue.  But after a little questioning she said something that Brett swears was like "not-ta me...inaudible...shit."  So, I guess we will be keeping the cuss words and under the breath talk to a minimal now!


She is in a size 2 or 3 shoe. I know...tiny feet! I just bought a pair of sandals for her that are 3-6 months and she has some room to grow into them! This isn't surprising considering my feet are only 7 1/2's and Brett's are 10's.
Riley is wearing her size 5 shoes.  Her sandals fit perfectly and she has some room to grow in her tennis shoes.  Slowly, but surely, she's catching up!


She is wearing some 9 months clothes and some 12 months clothes. Most of her shorts are 9 months because her legs are so short! But slowly, she is growing into the 12 months clothes. Riley is still wearing size 2T clothes.  Most of her shorts hang off her little booty with a couple inches of diaper hanging out the top...and go down to her knees.  She didn't luck out in the leg department; she's destined for short legs.  All of her 2T tops fit her perfectly. 


She loves to be outside and to SWING! We finally bought her her own swing and it is hanging in the tree in our backyard. She screams as soon as she sees it through the window. She'll sit in there as long as someone will push her.
Riley still loves to swing.  She loves to lay with her belly on the big swing and hang her legs in the air.  She can't seem to go high enough and most people would probably think we're trying to flip her over because she just wants "high, high, high."  She loves to look up at the sky with her head back and say "high in the sky."


Favorite foods: banana pancakes, cheese, bread, grilled chicken, blueberries, peas, cheerios, and really anything else you put in front of her!
She still loves pancakes, cheese (all kinds), blueberries, strawberries, apples, and peas.  She also loves cooked carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, quesadillas, mac and cheese, pasta, and much more.  She loves being able to pick her own tomatoes out of the garden.  If we're lucky she'll only steal 4 or 5 of the small sun gold tomatoes while we're outside playing.


She's drinking most of her "bottles" from a sippy cup. She prefers a softer spout. Some days she needs the bottle to finish a couple ounces, but otherwise she's a sippy girl. This transition took way less time than I had anticipated - only 1 1/2 weeks. She still likes to have 5 5oz sippies through the day.
She's still drinking whole milk from her sippy.  Her favorite sippies are the ones with Tinkerbell on them.  She still loves milk and asks for it quite often throughout the day.  She also likes to drink water, and sometimes juice.  She's not usually a fan of chocolate milk.


Favorite books: Any book about animals and Head, Knees, and Toes. She's a page turner and loves to turn the pages faster than you can read!
She really loves all books.  She loves books that allow her to move things or uncover pictures.  She loves her Thomas the Train book that makes noise.  She still loves any book with animals in it.


Her favorite toy: by far her swing is number one. She also loves her lion walker and good old pots and pans!
Bunny, Piggy, baby stroller, balls, bubbles, dino, Mr. Potato head, bus/truck/cars, Little People.  She has really started enjoying imaginary play and likes to make her little people do things, especially sit in chairs in a line.


Her mommy loves to buy her new clothes and toys. Her daddy knows if Mommy goes to Target alone she will come home with something extra...it's no surprise.
This has not changed...

Some new things...

• Riley loves to swim.  She likes to lie down in the bathtub or be outside in her pool. 
• She loves sit on the potty and always says she has to "poop."  And actually, some of the time she truly does.  She has gone poop a handful of times on the potty and usually pees in the potty at least once a day.  Here pretty soon I'm going to take potty training head on!
• She usually lays in her bed quietly for a half hour before she actually falls asleep.
• She loves her dino and loves to sit on him or make bunny sit on him.  She always puts a pair of shoes under dino.  Usually daddy's or her own.
• She loves playing with Lucy at Hedy's house.  They have so much fun together.
• She loves to run away from you as fast as she can.  Usually in places like Costco.  She likes to sit in the cart part of the shopping cart or walk.  We can usually keep her in the child part of the cart for a good 20 minutes before she starts squirming.  She likes to have bunny sit next to her in the cart.
• She recognizes certain neighborhoods.  When we get close (like within 5 blocks) to Hedy's house she starts yelling "Hedy's house." She knows if we don't go the same way home in the evenings because she counts on seeing the fountains on our way home.  We often drive past Grandma and Papa Burch's house to go places and she always recognizes where we should turn to go to their house.  She usually yells for "Dixie Do Do" (Dixie Doodle).  She recognizes both routes that we usually take to get home.  She always yells that she's going to see the "BUS" that is always parked in the church parking lot by our house.  It's crazy how observant she is!
• We are still holding out on her first hair cut.  We are hoping by next month's pictures it's a little more even.  The back just continues to get longer and longer. And she's not a big fan of letting mommy pull her hair back in pony.  She really wants me to do it and then frowns and says "hurt, owie, hurt" and pulls away.

Next month I'll be writing about how I can't believe my little Ri Babe is 2! 

Oh, and a quick shout out to Riley's friend, Maxx, in WV who turns 2 today!! Happy Birthday, Maxx!!! xoxo - Riley

Lost Things

I recharged the battery on my old camera and found a couple lost treasures (we're in Tinkerbell mode here at the Murphy's).  And, since blogger restored the movie upload tool I can even share a fun video from the past.  Enjoy...

Mommy's Little Helper

Meet Dino

Meet Dino  (aka Ri Ri): 

Riley loves Dino.  There was a day when Dino hid downstairs under a blanket out of sight because of a fearful child.  Now Dino spends his time moving back and forth from the living room to the front room.  Dino is pretty neat.  He eats leaves, or whatever snack, that Riley feeds him. He likes kisses on his nose from Miss Riley.  He especially likes stickers (Hello Kitty, to be exact!) on his horns. He's even able to move his eyes and head, and make dino noises. But we may never see all of his talents during his stay at the Murphy house, or he'll be hiding under the blanket in the basement for the rest of his life.  You see, Riley only likes the lifeless Dino.

And yes, all of Riley's babies, and even Dino, are named "Ri Ri." 

Watkins' Wedding: Revealed - Part 2

So I believe that I left off the night before the wedding....

Saturday morning Riley and I stayed around the house playing and getting our things prepared for the day while Daddy was off playing golf for the second day in a row!  Lucky Daddy!  Around 11:45 am I dropped Riley off at Grandma Sheryl's house to eat lunch, nap, and bathe before her big flower girl appearance.  Thanks to Grandma Sheryl, I was able to go to the hotel and get my hair and make-up done.  It was fun hanging out with Libby and all of her girlfriends...and enjoying a couple pre-wedding cocktails.

After taking pictures we headed over to the Jasper Winery to wait for the ceremony.  Riley arrived with plenty of time to get her dress and headband on.  Remember how we were worried that we would see a repeat of Friday night....we were even more worried when our fear was coming true.  Riley was shy and unsure of all the commotion around her.  Luckily the winery had some magnetic letters that seemed to occupy her for the final minutes leading up to the wedding.  Last minute we decided that it would be best for Riley to walk down the aisle hand in hand with her mommy.  I was so surprised that she walked all the way down the aisle without crying or sitting down.  She did great and we were so proud! And then...Riley took in her surroundings and decided that she just couldn't handle it.  After some frantic nonverbal communication Grandma Sheryl took her back inside the winery building and everyone else enjoyed the rest of the wedding.  Despite the 90 degree weather, the wedding was perfect.

After the wedding we finished up pictures of the entire wedding party and the family.  I'm pretty sure that we only got two pictures of Riley.  Both of which her face is bright red from crying.  I'm also pretty sure that neither of them includes a picture of smiling flower girl.  Oh well.

The reception was great and Riley was eating up all of the attention.  She loved wearing her pretty dress and running around EVERYWHERE!  She had fun dancing, twirling, and flirting.  I wish I had taken some more pictures, but didn't feel like carrying my camera around with me everywhere.  Grandma and Grandpa Burch took Riley home around 9 pm and then the real party started...!

I'm hoping to steal some pictures off of Facebook to upload in a separate post.  Hopefully that will come later in the week.  In the meantime, here's a peek at Riley in her dress: