Riley is now a "big girl". I still call her baby all the time, and she doesn't mind it, but she is no longer a baby at all. Well, except during tantrums I guess, but that isn't often. She has full conversations with us, and I can't recall the last time that we had trouble figuring out what was wrong or what she was trying to ask or tell us. Her speech isn't the clearest still, but other people don't seem to have too much trouble understanding her, and we don't have much trouble at all. Her memory is also developing really fast these days! She learns paired associations so fast, and remembers them for quite a while. For example- she can now look at the book cover of "brown bear, brown bear" and recall the animal that goes with each color! She remembers where she puts things later in the day, and she holds us to every promise/bribe we give no matter how much time passes (e.g., I will negotiate, "we have to eat dinner and clean up, and then take a bath. We can read big sister after bath time." and the second she gets out of bath- "mommy, read big sister now!")
She is getting really good at playing with big kid toys now too- we've started putting together real puzzles, and she is great at finding pieces to go together and rotating them to make them fit. She put together a 24 piece floor puzzle the other day, with only help finding the right pieces! She can stack wooden blocks so high that she finally knocks them down herself because they don't fall on their own, and she likes to build stuff with her jumbo size legos (really they are huge- like 8x4x4"! expensive, but so cool!) Her favorite toy at the moment, though, is a wooden train set. She will put it together three or four times a day, all by herself. Every time, she holds up the box to us and says, "I need more tracks! I need the tunnel! I need the house!" and point to each of the pictures of additional parts you can order. It's funny, because she almost always uses the word want and not need in other situations, but apparently the train accessories are extra important. Luckily, she is still really good at stores and will put things away and leave without throwing a fit about wanting or needing anything (knock on wood I don't jinx it!).
We are just starting to work on potty training, and are being very casual about it- just asking if she wants to sit on the potty when we think of it, and talking about it a lot. She goes on the potty a few times a week, and has told us she needed to go several times (and then actually goes!). I guess we should get on top of it... She also knows when she needs to poop, and we can tell, but she doesn't want to sit on the potty for that yet. She does like to get the diaper off immediately, though. The other day we were too late- and when I came in the room there was an empty diaper in her hand, and poop on the ground. She said she went poop on the ground, but I am thinking she emptied her diaper on the ground. Either way, it was very gross.
Riley is also super excited about becoming a big sister. She talks about it whenever she sees other babies, and she often will come up and say she wants to kiss or hug or tickle the baby, and proceed to kiss/hug/tickle my belly. She also says she is going to help take care of the baby, by changing its diapers, reading it books, and singing it baby songs (when asked what a baby song is, she usually sings rock-a-bye baby, though she says she'll sing ABCs to the baby too). She also said that she will use the potty when the baby comes, so that the baby can have her diapers. She laughed at our silly name suggestions for the baby, and gave her own suggestions- Baby Saturday and Baby Florida :) Her favorite book right now is "I'm a Big Sister", and she has most of it memorized and insists on reading it at least once a day. It is so sweet to see her happy about the baby!!
My friend wrote about wishing she had included more stories about her toddler, and I think it is a great idea! I have two that made me smile this week. One was this morning- I got up late, and Riley was already eating breakfast when I came out. We talked and got ready together and everything, and then I said, "I'm sad- I didn't get a hug from my Riley this morning!" And she looked at me so serious, and said, "You're sad? Oh no!" and she ran over and gave me a huge hug! She is very affectionate with hugs and kisses these days, and is always giving and asking for them. It is great! Another kinda silly story: I was rushing out with her to get her to school in time for breakfast (#2-she eats so much). I somehow closed the door on my thumb and cried out, and it was obvious I was in pain. Riley said, "Oh no, mommy got a boo boo? Riley will kiss it better!" and kissed it better and gave me a hug. Then I put our stuff in the car and was tightening the belt on her carseat and my thumb still hurt a lot, and I said "Mommy really hurt my thumb!" She said, "Mommy got another boo boo? Mommy hurt her thumb AGAIN?" And she burst out laughing at me, I guess thinking it was hilarious that I hurt the same finger twice in such a short time. It seems silly now, but at the time I could not get over how funny this was. I guess it was just funny seeing how hilarious she thought the whole situation was. I could go on and on with funny stories about her, and stories about how sweet and caring she is, but I think this post has gotten long enough!!
I need to upload some new videos and pictures from my phone and camera, but here are a couple from a month or so ago:
Visiting the farm (we get to go every week now for our vegetable share!)
Video reading brown bear:
