Easter Egg Hunt & more...

For the 2nd time our church held a Easter Egg Hunt for the children who love at the Raleigh Rescue Mission Center. To these kids candy & balloon animals mean the world. This was Riley's first participation in an Easter egg hunt and once I showed her there was candy in the eggs she was all in. For being one of the youngest participating she had a bag full of eggs (a.k.a. candy). The Easter Bunny also made a grand appearance. Riley has a love for characters and the Easter Bunny is now tops on her list. Once she saw the Easter Bunny she did not leave his side for the rest of the time. She plopped herself on his lap and did not get off. I felt sorry for any other kids who wanted to see him because she would not share. And when the bunny had to leave to hide eggs for other kids she chased him out the fence. She just cracks me up! We also decorated cookies, painted a banner, sang songs and heard the story of Easter. It always great to see our church step up and "Be Christ" to the world.

To Do List

Now that baby #2 is on the way, I have 3 big to-dos when it comes to Riley:

1. Potty Training: I keep putting this off for some reason. We are ready to go with the Elmo potty & Sesame Street undies, now I just need to get ready. Part of the reason for the delay is I don't have 4-5 straight days that I can stay at home. Riley will sit on the potty (big improvement from before when she didn't even want to sit on it) but not go pee-pee on it. My goal is to start 2 weeks from now. I will keep you updated.

2. Move into Big Girl Bed: I'm struggling on the timing of this. It is nice having Riley in her crib so she can't get out. I can just imagine her getting up in the middle of the night to play or to come see us, I know my child and this seems like a big reality. I will probably do this during the early summer time.

3. Wean of Paci: I dread this one the most. Since she only gets the pacifier at night it can be a wonderful bribe. "Riley, lets go night-night." "Nooooo!" " Do you want your paci?" "Okay!" She goes to bed so easy because of it but it can be such a pain in the middle of the night when she is half asleep and can't find it. I don't really want two babies with a pacifier but then again she may want hers back if the baby has one. We will see.

Three BIG to-do's in 6 months, wish me luck!

22 Months Old

My little girl has become a chatterbox. She can repeat most words, she just said communicate today, good ole Sesame Street! Her love a music continues. We can not ride in the car without her requesting "her music" to be played not matter how sneaky we try to be. She can sing a-long with some of the words of most the songs and knows all the words to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and sings the alphabet song to herself (not in order). She knows three shapes: circle, heart & star. And of course she still is non-stop and can't sit still for a minute!

Mommy/Daughter Date

Riley & I had a little date to the Marbles Kids Museum today. It was such fun seeing her run from one section to the other. Being an almost-two-year-old she could not focus on one thing for long. It was toy overload! It was a fun morning for the both of us.

The Wonderful World of Disney

We decided to take a very last minute trip to Orlando to use our free Disney tickets we got through the "Give a Day, Get a Day" promotion Disney has going on now. We are use to driving 13 hrs to visit our families back home, so the 10 hrs to Orlando seemed like a treat! My parents joined us at Disney, so Riley had the full attention of four adults all day long!

Riley has just recently learned who Mickey Mouse is and had been talking about him for the several days leading up to the trip. She really enjoyed seeing all the characters and had no fear in going up to them. She actually didn't want to leave their sides!

She loved every ride & show we went to. After each one she would say "again, again"! We picked a great day to go, the weather was great during the day and the crowds were low. The longest we waited in line was 20 minutes.

The parade was one of the highlights for Riley. It kept her attention the entire time and she was upset each time a float passed by out of sight.

We stayed the entire time and caught the fireworks after we crossed over on the ferry. It was such a fun and perfect day! What a day to remember!