23 Months

In a matter of weeks my little girl turned into a ABC wiz. She went from not knowing her ABC's to bringing me her cloth toy letters and telling me what letter they were. She can read almost every letter now and can tell me a word that starts with a that letter (50% of the time). She doesn't sing the alphabet by herself but chimes in when I am singing for certain ones. Her favorite letter is "K", for some reason. When we are out shopping and she sees letters she yells "K!!" She has little interest in numbers and colors even though we try to teach her those also. Riley is starting to listen better and I don't feel like I have to have my eyes on her every minute. She is becoming a very independent toddler who is almost two!

Camping in the Great Outdoors

For Christmas Thomas got a tent a some camping supplies. We had been waiting for it to warm up to try it out. We decided to take some of our youth for one night to test the waters. We were only 20 minutes from home so we played it safe! We took all girls and some adult leaders. A few of the girls had never been camping and probably have never sweated either:) It took a lot of convincing for them to come.

First to do when we arrived was to put up the tents! Our site was beautiful, right on the water!




Then it was time for dinner: hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans & chips.



After Riley went to bed (this took a little longer than normal) we played games, ate s'mores, and had a devotional time.

In the morning (Riley was the 1st one up!) we made a yummy breakfast! Eggs, biscuits, bacon, and hashbrowns. One of our adult leaders made an oven out of a box to cook the biscuits. I felt like I was really camping!

We had the perfect mix of warm weather during the day and colder at night. Our next camping adventure will be on the beach!

Potty Training Part 2

(Riley showing off her big girl Pull-Up and watching something on TV)

So I'm sure you wondering if Riley is fully potty trained now, right? Not so much. On Friday I broke the "Stay at Home for 4 Days Straight Rule" to help at a MOPS yard sale. So Riley didn't even get a chance to sit on a potty till after her nap and she refused to do so the rest of the day. Through the weekend and this week I have been sitting her on it occasionally and she has been going. Not every time but a lot of the time. One day she went 3 out of 4 times she was on the potty. She even went #2! She does not tell me when she has to go and still doesn't always like to sit on the potty but we are getting there!

Potty Training Day 1 & 2

We started potty training yesterday. We have a running theme: Elmo potty, Sesame Street underwear and Sesame Street potty chart with Sesame Street stickers! Every time Riley sits on the potty she gets to pick a character sticker to put on the potty chart and every time she goes on the potty she gets a piece of chocolate or other candy. She has done surprisingly well so far.

DAY ONE: pee pee on the potty 2 times
DAY TWO: pee pee on the potty 4 times

I know with her being younger it may be awhile till she is fully potty trained but I really want her to be trained before baby #2 arrives so I wanted to start early. I am so proud of my BIG GIRL!

Easter Weekend Festivities

We had a great Easter weekend. Mostly low-key but we did so some fun things.

Saturday one of Riley's friends had a birthday party at Kids Together Park.

That evening we dyed Easter eggs with Riley for the first time. She kept trying to eat the wand and the dye. I think she thought the wand was bubbles. After we dyed them she put Mickey stickers on her eggs and shirt.











Easter morning after we were dressed for church Riley got to get her Easter basket goodies along with some gifts from Mamaw.






After church we had an Easter egg hunt for all the kids.






That afternoon Ryan & Laine come over for brunch. After they left we were able to take naps and make resurrection rolls. We ended the evening skyping with our families.






We spent most of the day trying to get a good picture of Riley. None ever turned out because she just will not look at the camera. So we have an importu photo shoot. Thomas took pictures while I tried to be silly. We finally got a few good ones of her!








HAPPY EASTER