Riley's 21 months

Riley turns 21 months old today. Two is coming up sooooo fast. I feel like I am forgetting everything. I have to keep reminding myself that its impossible to remember every detail and I’ll remember enough.

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Fun Facts about Riley in the last two months:

1. She has gotten two more teeth – the missing molar and the missing bottom tooth. I call them missing because they belong to a pair or set that came in a while ago. She got her first three molars (two on top, one on bottom) several months ago. And she got one of the outer two teeth on her bottom like six months ago. Last month while visiting Grandpa Bill & Grandma Q she got the missing teeth.
2. She talks. I could not even begin to list the words she says. But she talks. A lot. Even to herself. We have listened to her talk to herself (or her posse) in her crib for over an hour at a time. And in the car she will just chat away with her imaginary friends. I never tire of listening to her (so farJ)
3. Along with talking here are some highlights. She says I love you. It is more like “I wuv you”. Riley & Mommy have a night time ritual…we read a couple of books. When we came home from our trip to Florida she started on this thing of wanting us to rub her back each night (she would say “back, back”). I tell her “ok, for 1 minute”. She then responds with “minute, minute”. She seems to have outgrown this, but I still offer every night. Then when I’m about to leave I say “ok, Riley, Mommy is going to go. Do you want to give me a kiss good night?” She gets up, gives me a hug and a kiss. I didn’t realize but I guess I always end with saying “I love you”. A few weeks ago, we went through this ritual. And then before I could say it she goes “I wuv you.” About to cry I managed to say…”I love you too.” To which she replied “I wuv you too” (picture her kind of singing the “too”).
4. Referencing #3’s bedtime ritual. It’s kind of changed. We read our books. And immediately on putting her into her crib she now says “Night-Night Mommy.” Or “Bye-Bye Mommy”. I’ll say “do you want me to rub your back?” She says “No. Night-night Mommy”. She seems to like a little time alone before going to sleep.
5. This morning (Aug 13), as she was leaving with Chris, she says “bye-bye Mommy” And then goes “nice day mommy”…as in ‘have a nice day’.
6. Riley’s favorite obsession pastime right now is coloring. She wants to color in the morning before school. After school. When we get to school. “Color, color”.
7. Speaking of coloring she knows her colors. This was kind of a surprise to us. I guess we ask her sometimes “What color is this?” But for a long time she always said “blue” no matter what color it really was. Then one night she brings me this caterpillar stuffed animal she has that has a bunch of different colors. She points to each color and rattles them off. I was like “well, ok, I guess we know our colors now.” She knows white, red, green, yellow, pink, blue, purple and sometimes black. She has trouble with orange.
8. When we asked Riley how old she was she used to hold up her index finger and say 1. A month or so ago she started saying “Two”. We would say “almost two.” Now if you ask Riley how old she is she says…”Two almost”.
9. She is starting to learn numbers. If you say 1, she will follow with two. If you THEN say “three” she will follow with “Go!” as in 1-2-3 Go! J But if you say four she will follow with 5. that’s as high as she goes.
10. With our trips to Florida in June and our east coast tour in July, Riley has now been to 10 states and is becoming a pro-traveler.
11. She’s got manners. The other morning I was holding her and this double sneeze came out of nowhere. She goes “Bless you Mommy”. Chris and I just stopped and looked at each other.
12. Riley LOVEs babies. Baby dolls and real babies. At school there is a new girl in that is a lot younger (maybe 13 or 14 months). Anyway, one day the teacher was getting all the lunches out and was busy. Hannah was crying. Riley got up, went to Hannah’s cube, got her pacifier out of her backpack and took it to Hannah.
13. More on the Baby Love: Two weeks ago we were watching Chris play soccer and Riley walked right up to this lady pushing her daughter in a stroller and started helping push her.
14. More on the Baby Love: Yesterday we went to the grand opening of a new pool by our house. There were lots of great water features, but Riley spent a good 10 minutes hanging out with this lady we didn’t know who was feeding her baby. I was almost embarrassed at how close Riley was getting to the lady. She wanted to sit right next to the baby.