Riley Elizabeth Bouch: August 2009

I am sorry for the delay in posts. We have been too busy enjoying our summer!! We have been just going on day trips - zoos, petting animals, walks, beach, visiting family, and talking up a storm! We went to the beach last week and Riley had mixed feelings about it. We arrived at Virginia Beach on Monday and she was not a fan of the sand at all! She liked the ocean and the pigeons. Every time she got sand on her she cried, which meant we had to carry her from the towels to the ocean. On Tuesday she was a little better and she figured out that she liked the wet sand too. By Wednesday she was totally fine and was running everywhere. I think she figured out that the sand would come off in the water. Overall it was a great trip and we loved introducing her to the beach. Riley has gotten her 4 molars (making it a total of 12 teeth now) and we are very luck that she has had no problem breaking in teeth. It doesn't seem to bother her and we would never know she got new teeth if she wasn't constantly laughing with her mouth wide open! She is still a very good listener and still has no problem with us telling her NO. She may put up a little fight but it usually lasts about 5 seconds and she will find something else to play with or distract her. Unless she is tired, she is a very happy little girl. We are hoping this will continue and she will coast through her "terrible 2's" with no problems......I know - FAT CHANCE!! But we will try to hold off on that as long as we can!

Riley LOVES to dance - whether we are a store and she hears the music in the background or if we are taking a walk and a car passes by with music playing, she will stop what she is doing and dance. Riley knows that when we are walking if we are going in a street she has to be holding our hands.

We are very lucky that she is still a great sleeper - 12+ hours at night and 2 2+ hour naps a day. Actually when we were at the beach she had a hard time sleeping the first night because she was not used to us sleeping in the same room as her. Around 2am when she woke up crying I tried to put her in the bed with me but she thought it was time to play. She has never slept in a bed with us, so didn't want to do it with us that night either...I brought her right back to the crib and she was out in no time. She has no fear of water and enjoys putting her head under water. She would have run straight out into the ocean if we let her!

Riley is chatting up a storm:
* ba-bye (with a open-close wave)
* hi (with a side to side wave) - interesting that she waves differently if she is saying hi or bye!!
*Puppy
* sky
* bird
* Boppy - which is for a bunny
* truck
* big truck (with hand motions to show that it is a BIG truck),
* car
* kitty cat
* no
* uh-oh when she drops something,
* mommy, daddy
* baby
* book
* Uppy - when she wants to be picked up
* mine - not in a possessive way, just stating that something is hers

She totally comprehends things when we ask her to do something "go sit in your chair" or "put your shirt in the dresser", "two hands please" "do you want this or this?" (she will point to the one she wants). If we ask her if she wants to go "night-night" she will lay down in her Night-Night position if she is tired. She is like a little girl now!! We are slowly getting rid of the paci....only in the bed or car (or if she hurts herself!). If Riley is awake then we are not sitting still! She loves to go for walks and pull her lawn mower or her baby stroller with her doll in it. Each walk is .5 of a mile and we do the walk on average 2-3 times a day (on her request!) as we walk she points to every house that has a "puppy" or "kitty cat" and every truck or car and tells us that they are "car", "truck"(SUV), or "BIG truck" (Pick-up trucks or delivery trucks). We are sad that she is growing up so fast, yet love that she is still such a little girl and so dependant on us.

I am really sad that I only have a week left with her until I head back to work. Here are a few updated pictures!!