Decorating for Christmas

We started decorating for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Riley was "so happy" to see the Christmas stuff come up from downstairs.  She just kept saying "I so happy" over and over.  She loves all the decorations and can hardly keep her little hands off of them.  She hung more ornaments than I did.  All of her ornaments were hung in a row on the bottom of the tree.  She carried around her mickey mouse ornament for two days straight.  Since decorating the tree she's broken three ornaments.  With the help of crazy glue two were salvaged.  Now, most of the breakable ornaments are kept out of reach and we still have to threaten time out for her to leave the tree alone.  She still likes to carry her mickey ornament around the house and we'll find it on the floor most nights after she's gone to bed.  She loves her advent calendar and doesn't forget to open a door each night.  Some nights she loves the chocolate, other nights she chokes it down and chugs her water.  But, she's determined to eat her chocolate.  Christmas lights and nativity scenes are also a huge hit.  One street in our neighborhood has three houses with lighted nativity scenes. We drive by it every night to see Baby Jesus.  She loves the little people nativity scene at Hedy's house.  Yesterday, Hedy said that she carried Baby Jesus around with her all day.  It's the cutest thing to see her cradle her little 4 inch Baby Jesus.  She loves Christmas music.  Last night in the car she sang the main verse to Away In A Manger.  I got her on video singing it last night, but she was in the tub so I have some video editing to do. I'll get it posted sometime.  Next on our Christmas list...visit Santa, find her Christmas outfit, send out our Christmas cards, and finish our Christmas shopping!  Christmas is such a fun time of year.  Here are a few pictures:

 Circling ideas for Santa

 Sitting in front of the tree while Mommy and Daddy try to find the problem to our half-lit tree.

 So Happy!  Her favorite Mickey ornament.

 Decorating

 All of her ornaments in a row.

More decorating!

What Riley Says...

I thought that it would be fun to share a few things that we've been hearing from Riley lately.  She's been very talkative and has no problem sharing what is on her mind.

• She likes to eat soup from a spoon and take drinks from a big girl cup.  When she does she always says "Juss a liiiiiiil bit!" 
• She was pretty naughty on Monday when at Hedy's house.  On the way home I asked her why she was so naughty and she had the nerve to say "cause."  Really, my two year old has already learned the tween's answer to everything? 
• She surprises us all the time with her manners.  Last night, as we were decorating the tree (more on that in another post) she bumped in to Daddy and says "oh scuse me, Dada." 
• Every time she says sorry, she always attaches "I no mean hurt you."
• She knows all of the mother goose rhymes out of her book.  A lot of the times we'll read all of the line, except the last word.  It always makes us laugh when she finishes one of the the line in "crooked man" with "sixpence."  Smart little thing!
• Every night as we put her to bed she starts crying that the "choo choo comin."  Brett and I have always told her that it was the wind outside or the cars outside.  Last night, right as she said it we hear "choo choo."  Sure enough, the nightly train that is close to our house passed.  Maybe she's not making it all up.  Hopefully she is making up the blue monkey that she always claims to see.
• With Christmas, she's been talking about "baby Jesus" who is "up there" (as she points to the ceiling), "laying in the hay." She also asks to watch Frosty the Snowman every day that she goes to Hedy's.  A new favorite.
• For the first time, she called Daddy "Brett" last night.  I was yelling down to Brett to bring up the diaper rash cream and as he was leaving the room Riley says "Where Brett goin?"  She thought it was the funniest thing.
• She likes to talk about traffic lights.  Lately she's been saying "geen means go.  Geen means stop!"  We correct her every time and she doesn't care.  It's not changing anytime soon.
• Lately when she counts it ends up like this..."1,2,3,8,9,10,17,18,19,20!" 
• "That's juss how it wooks."  This is one of Riley's top lines.  She says it about almost everything!  I think she picked this one up from asking "why" one too many times.

There was one last one that I wanted to share, but I just can't remember!  It is amazing how much she has started to talk in the past few months.  She says random things that Brett and I had no idea she even knew.

Happy Birthday Addie Lee

Cousin Addison turned 5 on Sunday.  We got together at Grandma and Grandpa Burch's house to celebrate.  Addie is a character and we loved getting together to celebrate her birthday.  She loves Riley and Riley loves to follow her and her big sister, Kennedy, around.  Here's a few pictures from the night:

 Kennedy, Riley, Addison

 New necklaces from Grandma and Grandpa Burch

 Zhu Zhus!  Although, the new DS stole the show!

 Crazy Kid!

 Make a Wish



Cookie Decorating

Riley decorated her first batch of cookies. I kept it simple by making little sugar cookies with frosting from a can and sprinkles.  Riley loved it and was very independent with the frosting and sprinkles!

 

New Hair Style For Riley Nicole

 From the most awesome bedhead...

To the cutest little do:

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!

First Trimester Recap

Yesterday I finally hit 12 weeks.  Here's a few of my thoughts on the past 3 months and comparisons to my first pregnancy:

• I'm not the pregnancy women who gets "the glow."  Unfortunately, I'm the prego who gets terrible acne.  Luckily they're mostly around my hairline, but still!
• This time seems to be going much faster than before.  Having a 2 year old seems to make a difference.
• I'm thankful for a husband who made dinner for about 4 weeks straight because I didn't have the energy or stomach for it.
• I seemed to feel worse this time around, but it didn't last as long.  I started feeling much better around 11 weeks.
• I haven't gained any weight, but I started off 5 pounds heavier than with Riley. This time around I just feel fat. 
• I am determined to not gain 55 pounds this time around! 
• We heard the heart beat again yesterday.  It was 174.  Riley's was always around 145.  Wives tales say that means we're going to have another girl.  But the doctor reassured Brett that we still have a 50/50 chance for a boy.

We have confirmed that we are 100% going to be taking the progesterone shots to try to avoid pre-term labor.  The statistics say that women who go into pre-term labor spontaneously have a 30% chance of having another pre-term labor.  With the progesterone shots it will reduce the changes to under 10%.  So, around 17-18 weeks I'll begin my weekly Dr visit for the shot.  I'll continue to get the shot until I'm 34 weeks.  Truthfully, I hope that I don't go into labor 5 weeks early again, but dear God am I terrified to have normal sized baby!  Yikes!  I know the pain of delivering a baby under 5 pounds and try not to even imagine a larger baby.  Oh well.  Healthy baby.  That's what I'm channeling!

Lastly:

Here's my Super Riley.  Look at that hair.  Any suggestions on what to do with it.  Right now it's crazy and growing super fast!