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And still she sings!
Posted on: February 3, 2011
Riley is hilarious. Well, I think so but then again I am her mom which does mean I’m biased, but if you lived with her you’d think she was hilarious too.
Current Riley moments:
The girl is in love with superheroes. She loves watching Wonder Woman, the old Batman and Robin series, and anything we can find that is age appropriate for her (there’s a lot of stuff for teens rated PG-13, esp what is available on netflix streaming). She loves the stories, and the simplistic idea of good guys and bad guys and asking questions about both.
Another favorite is singing. She will sing anything at any time, unless you ask her to specifically sing something and she’ll clam up like the Warner Brother’s cartoon frog. Occasionally she’ll comply but it’s always with a laugh and a smile. She’ll sing the Wonder Woman theme song – we’ll hear her belt it out when she is supposed to be going to sleep. She is a bit trying as her other favorite song is one she learned from Musicare but only remembers one verse:
Snow is falling on
Grandfather Mountain
Snow is falling so deep…
Snow is falling on
Grandfather Mountain
Putting all the bears to sleep
I feel for her teacher -she apparently hears it a LOT from Riles- it’s her default sing to her self song at school as well. What can I say, the girl gets it from me I guess. I love to sing and I’m thrilled that she’s found her voice.
When she finds her tone and the right key and loses the nasal… that’s when I’ll be relieved!!!
She does sound pretty good at times, it’ll be interesting to see as she grows if she continues to be so outgoing. One of the elementary schools we may try for is an arts magnet school where she could develop her love of music and art further. She loves the stage and performing- I found out this week that another teacher has her sing the Ariel song (the Ah ah ah— bit) from Little Mermaid. She’s been singing that one forever it seems but it impressed her little friends.
Otherwise things are going well at home- we’ve had a pretty easy time of things this winter. Dad’s feeling a bit under the weather but he’ll be back in the swing of things soon we’re sure. Work for me is going great- lots of positive and interesting challenges.
We’re a blessed family and thankful for each day we get to celebrate life together!
Hello there!
Posted on: January 8, 2011
Okay, bad mom for not posting before now but I swear I couldn’t log in and well, that’s all fixed now.
I bet you’d like an update on the kiddo, eh?
Riley is still growing like a weed! She is 43″ tall as best we can tell and considers herself a “Big Kid”. She has been going on and on about going to Big Kid School (kindergarten) until last week. She’s finally made the connection that when she goes to BKS, she’ll miss her friends from daycare. There’s a chance one of the girls in her class may go to the same elementary, but odds are she’ll not know any of the kids in kindergarten. Once we know where she’s going to go to school (private, charter, magnet, community, SO MANY CHOICES) I think I may look into something to attend over the summer to get to know some of the kids to ease the transition a lot.
She continues to do well at school (daycare) and loves to learn. She’s already complaining about homework but I can’t blame her there. She’s 4. She has better things to do.
Riley has a long list of favorites at this time- she still loves the Princesses and anything to do with horses (My Little Pony included), but has also started getting into superheroes such as WonderWoman, Superman, Batman, etc. Santa brought her the Wonder Woman series (Lynda Carter) for Christmas and she loves watching them.
Another development that I’m thankful for is that she is very excited about going to the movies! Finally I have an excuse to go again. She loves seeing them on the big screen but like taking the mouse to the movies, you have to get her some popcorn. The girl can eat her weight in popcorn in less time than it takes to get through the previews it seems! I’m looking forward to more kids movies in 2011 and when she’s big enough to take to more ah sophisticated films like Harry Potter and Transformers!
Wait, did I just refer to the Transformers franchise as sophisticated? Scratch that bit, okay? It is good eye candy and I loved the Transformers growing up!
Today is a home day and Riley is decked out in her Snow White costume and checking her look at her Rapunzel vanity. Mark picked us up some Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast and we saw some snow for a minute. All in all, a great weekend ahead of us!
Big Girl Bed!
Posted on: November 22, 2008
A new day, or rather night, has come to our household. Riley is sleeping in a big girl bed for the first time in her life. Today I took her convertible crib and transitioned it to a youth bed (toddler bed). She was so excited when she saw it! She kept bouncing on it and just seemed tickled at the transformation. We also finally put down some Disney Princess mats that we picked up for her ages ago.
Tonight when it was time for bed, she skipped back to her room, jumped up on the bed and was ready to go to sleep. No hugs no kisses no night night, just ready to go to sleeps like a big girl.
I love being her mom and watching her grow. I love playing with her and reading with her. While she is only 2 years and 3 months old, she’s growing up entirely too fast. I’m proud of my big little girl!
Libraries
Posted on: November 6, 2008
I’ve not taken Riley to a library yet. I know I know– but heck I have to figure out where they are around here. I think I know- just haven’t had a time to go. However, they’ve talked about libraries at school and she’s seen Caillou episodes and other references to libraries. (Trust me, the kid is not hurting for books and she loves them all.)
So on the way home I ask her where she would like to go. She does this Dr. Evil kind of point at the corner of her mouth thing and says “Hrmm”.
“I go… LIBRARY!”
I was kinda shocked she said it as we’ve never talked about going to the library. So I asked her a few more questions including what was at a library. She shared with me what she knew and then..
“Books, they have books!”
“Yes, yes they do Riley! Do you think they would let us look at their books if we are careful?”
“YES!” as she laughed at the silly mommy.
“What else do they have at libraries?”
*pause*
“THOMAS!!! I PLAY THOMAS!!!”
For a minute I was lost then as she talked more about going to the library I realized what she was talking about.
Dear lord, Riley thinks Barnes and Noble is a library!!!
I laughed so hard. We came home instead and I think I will do my best to take her to a real library soon.
Halloween is coming!
Posted on: October 20, 2008
And Riley is dressing up as her favorite princess of all – Belle!!!
We tried on our costume tonight and there are a few pictures on the Flickr link to the right for you to check out. She was so happy and tickled to look like her favorite princess. “I’m dancing!” she exclaimed earlier!
Long time coming
Posted on: October 12, 2008
Hello all!!!
It has been a while since we last updated but trust me, it has been busy busy busy at our house! Except for when we were at the beach but even that was a busy time!
Riley is now two. Two years old and running strong. She is the light of our lives still and just a joy for the most part. Hey, she is two and with two comes trouble. Of course trouble for her is what other people dream of as a good day! Yes, we are spoiled and know it when it comes to Riley. Which makes it hard for us not to spoil her as well.
We had a wonderful summer, with the trip to Milwaukee, Mark’s trip to Canada, Luci’s visit, my trip to JadeCon /Indianapolis, a visit from Grandpa and Grandma Hagenbuch with Meghan and Madison, and our trip to the beach with my extended family. It is hard to believe it is over and there is a chill in the air with the leaves changing color. I constantly look around and wonder where the time has gone!
As for Ms. Riley, she is now singing, talking in basic sentences, counting to 20, and is in love with Thomas and his friends. She loves to play, especially with her trains and Belle is always around as well. She loves to play with her kitchen and tea set, she loves balls and sandboxes, and she loves puzzles and reading.
Well, it is well past my bedtime, but wanted to say hi and let you know too that we’ve uploaded a ton of new pictures from our beach trip. Click on the link to our flickr account to the right.
Cheers!
19 months old
Posted on: March 8, 2008
Hello everyone!
Riley is 19 months old today and continues to amaze us every day. Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, she can definitely count to five and sometimes ten. She recognizes her name if you write it and can spell it. She still insists on calling “i” “dot!” though. She’s so cute doing it I can’t complain though. Another thing she has taken to loving to do lately is put socks on her hands and using them like puppets. I love how she plays and has such an imagination even at this age! I can’t wait for the weather to cooperate for us to take her to the zoo– she is going to go crazy seeing the animals! She loves monkeys right now– and makes the funniest monkey noises too.
Today Riles is having daddy time– mom is actually coming to you from Taylor’s Tires. After hitting the consignment sale this morning, I took a chance on getting some new tires for the Outback and was lucky enough to have a laptop with me and free wi-fi so the wait hasn’t been too crazy. It’s one of those things you keep going “oh next saturday” and then forget and then repeat so when I thought of it I decided to go on and take care of it.
So yeah, nothing terribly exciting to share. There are a few new pictures on the Flickr site, just click the link to the right to get there. Maybe even some more later- maybe even some more little mini-movies!
Well, hopefully will be leaving soon so going to keep this short. Just wanted to point to some new pictures and let you know we’re all healthy, safe, and happy here. And still just amazed at this little miracle we were given.
Oh! One more thing to share… it is consignment sale time here and last night we got a mini-magna doodle for Riley. She fell in LOVE with it. So a regular one is on the list, maybe for Easter. 🙂 She just loves scribbling and watching it disappear. I love playing with them too!
As if spelling wasn’t enough…
Posted on: January 22, 2008
I’ll try and get a scan in after she’s down – or ask Mark to later—
But you tell me what her teacher was going on about in her art from this morning.
They wrote her name in the top corner (it’s a big sheet) and this is what she did at the bottom.
Now, I’m biased, but her teacher saved it for me and all the other teachers were excited too. Plus they were going on about how she knows so many letters and they even scrambled them and she would still know which one was which.
I think we’re in for it… what do you think?
**if you’re scratching your head, if you look at the scribbles, the kid WROTE HER NAME. No, seriously, she did! Not _perfectly_ but hey she’s still getting the idea of which end of the crayon to write with easier!
Seventeen months and 2 weeks old.
Update – 1/25/08 – Dad tried to give the ‘signature’ a scan, here’s the best result that he could come up with:
Ah ha!
Posted on: November 25, 2007
Riley has had her first Thanksgiving that she actually participated in! Uncle Tim, Aunt Trina, with cousins Meghan and Madison came to NC to eat and have fun! Riley loves her cousins and uncle and aunt, I don’t think she had a minute where someone wasn’t playing with her. I almost fear for her teachers tomorrow, but time has shown she’s done a great job readjusting to daycare after holidays, so hopefully that will continue.
If you check out the flickr link, you’ll see a picture of Riley with Uncle Tim– yes, she went down a big inflatable slide with Uncle Tim and Meghan multiple times! She LOVED it! And I have ammo for the day she ever tries to call me over protective…
In other Riley non-holiday news, we discovered that she actually knows a couple of signs that we can’t figure out where she got them from. I know they use Thank You at school, but turns out she also knows “more”, “please”, and “book”. Yeah, the last one is not a shocker as the kid LOVES to read and loves books! When she starts making the same movements, we can google it and get a translation typically. “More” helps, but hard to figure out what “more” of she’s looking for!
She keeps growing in leaps and bounds– she’s still on the small side technically though, in the 25% for weight/height, but usually pretty healthy. She still has some issues with her ears and tends to get every cold and sniffle that comes within a mile of her, but she rarely lets it slow her down. She loves to play- with her little people, blocks, her piano, her stuffed animals– you can even tell her what to go find– she will find it and bring it to you!
Riles and Daddy have also been talking alot about how to spell Riley– she has a mug that has her name on it and Daddy has gone over it many many times with her. Now, if she’s paying attention to you and you ask her to point out a letter in her name- she usually gets it right! I think we might be in trouble…
Along with finding the letters in her name, she’s also good at finding people in pictures. She loves Seseme Street characters- Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster especially. We were at dinner the other night and they had a “find hidden pictures” on the menu– would you believe Riley at 15 months was able to FIND things in that picture? Look out Where’s Waldo!!!
There’s probably more, I’m just too tired to think right now. Mom and Dad have been under the weather for a while themselves. We’re keeping stock in DayQuil and taking care of each other best we can. This weekend with family was fun and we can’t wait to see everyone again soon in December!!!!!
Yes, we’re still here…
Posted on: October 15, 2007
But as most of you can guess, pretty busy!
Life With Riley 