Riley Breese

Last night I had a brief sleep interruption to feed Reegan (our almost 3 month old). More on sleep in another post. Anyway, when I returned to bed I lay there for a bit thinking. Of Riley. Of funny things she says and does. And I wrote this blog post (in my head...as I do for most of them...thus the 1 month hiatus since my last post :)

Its fun watching Riley continue to develop her language skills. Its almost like listening to a foreigner learn English. Everything is in a more proper form or sentences missing a few key verbs. Pronouns sometimes misused.

Lately it seem slike Riley is getting more formal in certain responses. Examples:

Me: "Riley, did you have a good day at school today?"
Riley: "I did"

I would answer that question with "yeah" or more likely "no". But she says "I did" or "I did not" to many yes or no questions I ask her.

Me: "Riley did you do 'fill-in-the-blank (with something she is not supposed to do)'"
Riley: "I did not do 'fill-in-the-blank'"

Other conversations:

Me: "Riley do you know where Kylie lives?"
Riley shakes her head yes
Me: "Where?"
Riley: "Hmmf?"
She never says "where? or what?" when she doesn't know something. Instead she just says "hmmf?"

She also never says "because"...

Me: "Riley why did you do this?" (use your imagination for this)
Riley: "So I want to" (this is not a snotty response, she is serious...as if because she wants to is a valid reason for everything she does)

Other cute Riley sayings:

"What is her doing?"
"Hey Mom"
"Please I have something to neat (i.e. eat)?"
"Mommy, you please smile for me?" (this has been a big favorite later...not sure if i don't smile enough or what?)

Riley is also what I like to call our "master negotiator". Today I had been telling her I cannot respond to whining. And tonight after her bath she was whining..."I want to go downstairs. I want a snack." She whined this 2 or 3 times with me mostly ignoring her...she whines..."my nose hurts."(remnants of a very old cold). I tell her how going to sleep will make it feel better. Then she stops whining and says very convincingly "how 'bout I go downstairs and have a snack...it will make my nose all better?" I mean how can I deny her?

Sometimes I yell. I wish I could tell you I didn't. I almost always regret it when I do. I don't think I do it that often. But sometimes when I don't yell, I still talk in a serious, tense voice. Either way, Riley has totally picked up on it. Example...Dazzle is outside digging holes in our grass.

Me: "Dazzle, come here!"
Riley: "Why are you talking to Dazzle like that?"

More often I suppose I yell for real. When I shouldn't. But I don't really feel like writing about those stories here...so these are more innocent. Sometimes if Chris is upstairs I will yell up to him to ask him to bring something down. Even then she will say "Mommy, why you talking to Daddy like that?"

And one time (hahahaha) I yelled at Riley. When I do yell at Riley I almost always feel horrible after b/c I think it doesn't really teach her anything but to yell or get angry. But I believe in being honest with Riley, even now. So when I do something wrong I own up to it and apologize. When we were visiting my parents in Pennsylvania, I lost my cool and yelled at her (I mean she would not take a nap and I needed a break!). Anyway, when I was putting her back to bed for what seemed like the 100th time I said..."Riley, I am sorry I yelled at you. Even mommies lose their cool sometimes. I shouldn't have yelled." And she looked up at me with her best puppy dog eyes and said "Yes, Mommy. Please talk regular to me."

She may only be 2 years and 8 months, but she will teach me to be a better person. And I will love her all the more for it.