Sunday, January 30, 2011

And now we can bargain!

We've reached the point where you can bargain with Riley a bit. I'm trying to think of all the deals I  made with him today as an example. 

If we go upstairs and get our shoes on, we can go get McDonald's cake-cakes and then watch Barney Zoo when we get back! Riley dashes up the stairs like Flash! 

If you take a nap, we can go to the playground again when you wake up! Dashes up the stairs again! 

Do you want me to put your shoes on upstairs or downstairs? Upstairs! See - we both get what we want, and everyone's happy!

I can do this! It's the whole love and logic thing - give him choices of what he wants to do instead of locking in a battle of "No you can't watch Barney right now!" And ruining BOTH our mornings! It doesn't work in every situation, but I'm feeling the love of it right now! Like I said in my last post, that'll change! Next week, he'll be the one giving me choices! LOL!

Okay....

Okay is the new yes! Much like More Peeezzz! He says "okaaay" a lot like Mr. Harrison says "Mkay" in South Park! Long and drawn out. Sometimes it even sounds sad, but he's saying ok to something that he wants or makes him happy. 

Mommy - Riley, do you want some milk?
Riley - Okayyyyy
Daddy - Riley, do you want to go outside? 
Riley - Okayyyy

It's almost like he's replaced "Chess/Yes" with ok for this week anyway. No matter what it is...one thing is certain - it's sure to change!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

What's THAT?!!?

If I had a dime for how many times a day Kelly and I hear this...Kelly, Riley and I would ALL be set for retirement! :) It's giving us a glimpse into the inevitable "Why?" or "Where do babies come from?" or "How do planes fly?" or....many other questions I'm not sure I'm prepared to answer yet!

And he says is so LOUD! No matter where we happen to be! 

Too funny!!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

The Ark at First Baptist Coppell

We found a new place to play over the Christmas holidays too! It's a really cool place called The Ark at a church in Coppell. They've decorated an entire play area to be like Noah's Ark and you can go play there for free! Pretty cool! I have to remember this for birthday party options too! 


Hello! Of course we couldn't pass up a picture with the eledent!

The Toddler Area

The Big Kid Area - Riley can do all of it except 1 part, so we just do it with him!

Cool painting in the room to make it like Noah's Ark!

First eledent picture, but I got one with a cheese up top!



 

Eledent watching Barney Zoo

One or two more quick ones...this one is TOO cute! Riley watching Barney Zoo with his eledent - he did this all on his own! Which was no small feat considering how big 'eledent' is! I had to capture this Kodak moment for sure! 



 

One more to go!

I'm pooped from all this blogging!! The only post I didn't get done today is the Halloween post! So that's coming soon! Stay tuned....

Go Steelers!

Working the Steelers jersey!

We're all rocking our jersey's this day!

Look at that form! :) Watch out Mikey!! I hope your hands are as good as your feet!

Little Ben (without the creepy personal side of course!) Yuck!



Go Daddy! Go!









Playground fun in our Steelers jerseys! Figured since they made it to the Super Bowl today - I'd post these pics from back in December! We all wore our Steelers shirts today instead of our jerseys! 

It's hilarious to watch/listen to Kelly watch the Steelers..I want to secretly record him one time so he can hear it for himself! But what's even better is when Riley is watching it with him! They both start yelling Go!Go! Get him! Get him! And Riley always goes and gets his football and runs around with it whenever Kelly turns football on. Too cute!

Bicycle! Bicycle!

These pictures don't even BEGIN to do Riley and his bicycle justice! It's actually his Strider Pre-Bike! OMG! He's flying around on this thing now! And starting to pick his feet up for longer and longer periods of time! I need more time to upload and edit some of the videos we have of him. I want to do one from when he 1st got it and was so unsure to now! It's AMAZING! We have to hide the bike out of sight because if he sees it - he's riding it!! 


Getting ready to head out the door!
Zooming on over to the playground!

Christmas in Pictures

To say I've fallen behind in my blogging would be a massive understatement! I'm going to try to play some catch up today! I have 5 posts already started here that I need to finish - I'm pretty sure I was waiting to post them until I had pictures added to them. 

Which is what my focus will be today! The pictures are always what pushes me farther and farther  behind b/c I have to be at home at my home pc to do pics...and that's if I've uploaded them from my camera...last year I think I went almost 8 months without uploading pics from my camera! Not good! I'd be so upset if I lost the camera and all those pics! We're also doing a lot more video now that he's so fast and all over the place! But videos take even more time because not only do you have to upload, I usually have to edit them down, then convert the format so I can put them on the blog, so I really get behind when it entails all that effort!

So back to the post at hand here! 

Riley still doesn't get "Santa", but he definitely caught on to the "presents" part this year. And that Christmas is Baby Jesus' birthday. 

Riley's first Christmas celebration was his party at school. I'm sure you could make a FORTUNE publishing hidden video from any 2-3 year old room! So at parties, I get a glimpse into his daily life without me! 

Mommy & Riley at his party

All sitting in their seats anxiously waiting for lunch!

Mommy & Riley eating lunch

Cute Reindeer ornament they made

This is CLASSIC!! Look closely - that's the infamous Riley & Mat-two PUSHING each other!

Then immediately after - their "nothing to see here" guilty faces!


Madison - her hair is actually combed down for the party!

Riley "ironing"! Ms. Dina says he does it EVERY day!

He's gonna have to teach Daddy how to do that!

Getting ready for their book exchange presents!

His Book!

Avery & Riley - everyone at school wants to go ahead and arrange their marriage!


We celebrated with my Mom's side of the family the weekend before Christmas. This is the celebration Riley really enjoys b/c of all the cousins around his age that are there.This year was no different. Although he did enjoy some basketball with Daddy too! 

Aunt Amy & Jayden

GiGi taking pics and my cousin Brandi (it's her house) & Ross her son

Riley opening presents with GiGi

Getting ready to load his dart gun

Opening a present

Riley taking his turn videoing with the flip vid

Dance Star Mikey!! And Jayden looking on. 

Jayden & Riley watching Mikey break it down!

Jayden, Mommy & Daddy liked Mikey more than Riley did

Playing hoops with Daddy!

Taking a break from playing basketball to strike a pose!
One pooped little boy on the ride home! Barney videos couldn't even keep him awake!
Luckily for us, he didn't figure out all the gifts under the tree were for opening until the day before Christmas Eve. This year we did the same as last year so I guess it's turning into a tradition. We let Riley open his gifts from Kelly's family in Maryland on Christmas Eve. This year we videoed him opening his presents, and I created a video card that night to send to Kelly's family so they could watch the video Christmas day as if they were here seeing Riley open his presents.

Our creative card display for this year
Trouble!


Christmas Tree and Presents

Riley had to be in the pic when he saw the camera!

Riley riding his 'eledent' from Santa. His easel and Toy Story 4-wheeler

His other toy from Santa - a rocket ship tent!

Dad capturing video - we actually had 2 cameras going when he came downstairs to capture both angles

Vroom Vroom! He was scared of it at first.




Daddy's BIG Sponge Bob feet won't fit!


There was only one way out for Daddy!

Nice skirt!

Granny even got in on the Rocket Ship action!

More presents!

He's getting this down now!

Wearing one of Daddy's stocking stuffers! But he rips his own off whenever I try to get him to wear one!

Aunt Amy & Jayden

Jayden & Riley riding on Jayden's train from Santa!

What?! I don't even know how he got up there without us seeing him trying!

He had to share the Rocket Ship fun with "B" too!

Checking out every detail of the Rocket Ship before blast off!

I think he and "B" like the Rocket Ship!

Jayden in the drawer?! What?! Riley never did that! Ha!

They're WORN out after all this action!!

Having lunch with Granny.

He cannot get enough of the Rocket Ship!

Who knows what these two are scheming up!
As you can see! We had a very good Christmas! It's so nice to spend it at home now that we have Riley! No rushing around trying to see too many people in too little time! I'm not even sure what time we all got dressed that day! We had a delicious meal thanks to GiGi and Granny. Watched movies! It was definitely what Christmas is supposed to be about! Spending time with loved ones and enjoying seeing the kids have so much fun playing together! 

We celebrated Christmas with my Dad & Sheila the following week. They came to watch Riley on New Year's Eve so Kelly and I could go out. We all went to dinner that night, then they got to hang out with Riley til we came home the following day. 

I need to photoshop these pics together, but again - no time! ha! The first one is good except for the straw in Riley's face! Then my Dad's not looking in the 2nd one. We have to train him to just  keep looking at the camera like we do! 

Wow! This wore me out just posting about all the things we did during the holidays!! I need a vacation from my vacation!