And the magic word is.......

Open!!!! Or at least Riley thinks so! That's his new "swiss army knife" of words! Open! Open! Open! It ranks only second to "Mommy"!

And if you don't "Open" whatever he's talking about almost immediately - Terrible Two Toddler Tantrum Time has arrived!!! The good news is that it usually leaves almost as fast as it comes....if you're lucky anyway!

Riley Big Boy!

So....Riley ended up moving up 1 class at school It wasn't as bad as I initially thought - previously Sloan has only EVER had 1 2 year old class, so when they said he was moving up - I thought they meant to the 3 yr old class, but it turns out - they actually  have 3 2 yr old classes this year. So Riley is in the middle one, the teacher says it's obvious he's the youngest one and the newest to "group care", but he hasn't had one episode of "aggressive behavior" under her watch. Things that make you go Hmmmm...... I'm just sayin' it seemed like a habitual problem with the other teacher. To be honest, I was ready for him to be out of her class b/c I felt like she was watching him like a hawk just waiting for him to do anything.

And I can tell a difference in him too. When we're driving to school, we talk about his day and when I ask if he's excited to see Ms. Dina (his new teacher) he adamantly shakes his head yes. Where he used to just be indifferent when I asked that about the other teacher. Ms. Dina is definitely someone that's good with kids. She has grown kids and grandkids, so she's the perfect candidate for a crazy 2 yr old class! I cannot imagine that being my job all day long! Bless these teachers for their calling!!

So Ms. Dina calls Riley - Riley Big Boy - because even though he's the youngest by around 6 months - he's still the biggest in the class! So the other morning, I went to drop him off and all the little kids said "Hi Riley Big Boy"! It was so cute!! And he just waved and said "Hi" back!

He's growing up so fast!! It makes me sad!!!! But it's so rewarding to see him blossom into his own little personality! He's definitely NOT shy! I think he spoke to EVERY person we passed in the grocery store tonight! Cracks me up! He literally says "Hiiiii" and "Byeeee"to every person we meet, every car we pass, anything!

Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mamma! Mommy!

Careful what you wish for!! :) Wowzer! I've never heard Mommy so many times in my life! It's music to my ears of course! But wow!

Here's a video that depicts a day in my life! Except I don't say "WHAT?!" (yet!)! I say "Yes" and Riley's reply is "MommYYYYYYYY"! So SWEET!

Family Guy Scene


I don't care who you are...that's just FUNNY! That's why it's so hard not to laugh my pants off every time he does it!

Funny Things!

Just had to post a few of the funny things Riley has done just since we got home today.

At dinner he picked up his grape and said "ball". I said well technically I guess it is a ball! Ha!

Then we're playing with Play-doh he got for his birthday, and we made another 'ball', and he picked it up and said 'shoot shoot' while making his arm shoot, so I said why not?!

And his big thing this week is "uh-oh", so he's saying that non-stop and bringing me back flat balls to re-make for shooting.

It's funny, but not really, but he gets TOTALLY freaked out when you push the play-doh thru this press that makes it come out the other side like spaghetti. He literally starts crying about it! Then when I make it back into a ball, he gives it back to me and says "push push" so I'll do it again! Too funny! He's a glutton for punishment!!

He's doing a little better at school! Only havin a couple of timeouts a day! Ha!

iTwo going on iThirtyNine!

So we went to Riley's 2 yr old well appointment on Friday.

Height: 37 1/4" 97%
Weight: 33 3/4 lbs 95-97%
Head size: 20" 95%

Basically, the pediatrician said he's the size of an average 39 month old!

Ironically, he also told me (without me even telling him about the aggressive behavior at school), that I am going to have to be cognizant as his parent to remind people that he's only 24 months old. He actually described what I had sort of felt like was happening at school - just because he's BIG, people have unrealistic expectations about how much he should talk, how mature he should be, what he can handle emotionally, and his ability to communicate his needs, etc. So to hear that from my pediatrician, made me feel better about the emotions I was feeling around the school thing! I mean the teacher mentioned moving him up to the 3 yr old class! I was like NO WAY! He's BIG, but he's not ready for that! Like I said in the post before....stay tuned!

Riley's Introduction to Time Out!

Well...we knew it was inevitable! This past Tuesday when I picked Riley up from school he was sitting in time out! Nice...his afternoon teacher who is not his teacher all day said he pushed a girl TWICE, so she put him in time out. No biggie. I totally agree with that approach! It was just the first official time, AND it just so happened to be the 2nd day he was in the much larger 2 year old class. I went home and thought nothing else about it!

Then......fast forward to drop off Thursday am, and his normal teacher basically gives me a 20 minute rundown of how aggressive Riley is being by pushing and wrestling even the little girls that are half his size. So much so that the little girls are running behind the teacher to get away from him! Wow! To say that's not a good way to start your day would be an understatement! So I call Kelly and have a good ol' cry all the way to work, then put on my happy work face for a 2 hour meeting! :)

Let's just say I was a little distracted in my meeting...and I started to think about everything the teacher said. She basically said she usually gives kids that have just moved up a week grace period before she starts disciplining them, but that since the girls are running behind her and he's bigger than pretty much every boy in his class she had to start putting him in time out on Wed to protect the other kids. I TOTALLY agree with protecting the other kids. Obviously, I don't want my child to harm another child!

However, I started thinking about the fact that Riley has only been in "group care" for 6 weeks. AND he's the youngest kid in his class. His birthday is 2 days before the cutoff, so it's almost like reverse discrimination! Just because my little boy is so BIG doesn't mean he's ready or able to comprehend BIG boy concepts! And his world has TOTALLY been rocked in the last 6 weeks, so maybe he just needs a little help adjusting from being 1 of 1 with Ms. Emily to 1 of 4 with Ms. Jessica to 1 of 11 with Ms. Amber.

Anyway....things didn't really improve the rest of the week, so I'm not exactly looking forward to seeing how things go this week! Kelly's reeled in the playing aggressively with him at home at least for the time being until he simmers down at school or begins to get the concept of ok with Daddy does not mean ok with little girl at school.

I really like The Sloan School, so I hope this isn't the beginning of the end! Only time will tell. I guess this is the good and bad thing about having him in a small school. By the time the teacher talked to me on Thursday, she had already discussed Riley's behavior with the owners, director, assistant director and his previous teacher! I was like! Wow! We went from 0 to 60 quick! I figured they would at least talk to me before involving the entire administration of the school! And I'm not meaning to be insensitive, but I'm pretty sure Riley isn't the first child to exhibit aggressive behavior! In fact, the teacher even said he's not doing it to be mean, it's just when they get near his toy, and sometimes he's even smiling when he's doing it like he's playing! I'm like that's because he IS playing! You should see the testosterone filled wrestling matches that occur on my sofa and living room floor! Which is why Dad's going to cut back on some of the testosterone playing for the time being! 

To be continued.....

Riley's 2yr Old Photos

Here's just a quick sampling of 4 of the shots from his 2 yr old photo shoot! He worked it for the camera as usual, but Ms. Jessica is great at capturing the essence of Riley and his playful personality b/c she just goes with it! She doesn't try to force him into poses, etc.

OMG! I LOVE HIM!!!!!! 

Mischievous! :)

What?! Where's my LITTLE boy?!

Seriously? Where is he?! At least we still have the cheeks and the rubber band wrists! WE haven't lost those YET! :)

More to come! These are the only 4 pics I've seen too! We just rushed these so I could have prints of them to put on the table at his birthday party!

iTwo! iTwo!

He and I had been practicing all week - I'd ask him how old he was going to be on his birthday, and he'd say iTwo! iTwo! And instead of holding up his 1st and 2nd fingers, he'd hold up his thumb and index finger! I was like that counts! It's still 2 fingers! 

MAN OH MAN has Riley had a record birthday!! We celebrated for 4 days straight!!

Day 1 - His actual birthday. Cupcakes with his class at school! Yummy! And he didn't cry when they sang Happy Birthday to him, so that was a success!

Here are his basketball cupcakes! Yummy!

Here he is at school with his buddy Jacob! 

His current classmates are the 4 along the bottom - Riley, Jacob, Kayla and Cody (with the plate to his face). 

A closeup of the birthday boy. You can see his face is still a little red from when they all sang to him! Sweet!

Day 2 - Splash Day at school! This was a coincidence, but one of Riley's FAVORITE things is Splash Parks, so it was meant to be!

Here he is all decked out for "splash day" in his board shorts and surfing shirt! So cute!! He looks like Daddy!

This is also one of his birthday presents! A Little People Race track!

Day 3 - His actual party at Pump It Up! OMG! I was worried he'd be too young for it, but that wasn't the case at ALL! He LOVED it!! He had a BLAST!! And I think everyone else did too! Adults included! :) It was a resounding success!! I can't think of one thing that didn't go as planned or that I would have changed, so we're 2 for 2 on successful birthday celebrations! But I'm setting the bar high! Not sure I can maintain these standards long term!

Photos to follow! We had Ms. Jessica (the girl that does ALL his photos) come to his party to take pictures too! That way I wouldn't be stressed about that as well as everything else going on! I did capture some cute videos I'll have to edit down small enough to post eventually! To say Riley had fun would be the UNDERSTATEMENT of the year! He was the life of the party!! Even our party "attendants" were carrying on about how into it he was for his age! 

Day 4 - He opened his presents from his birthday party! He had so much fun at the party, he was too pooped to open gifts! And at this age, it would have been torture! It basically took hours at home b/c he'd have to take a break from opening presents and play with each present he opened as he opened it! Good Times!!

I forgot to take pictures of him opening presents! Oops! I think we may have a few after he opened them on the good camera. You can tell all the pictures taken here were with our little point n shoot, and it just doesn't cut it anymore! He's too fast for me! So Kelly bought me a nice Nikon camera for my birthday last year. I'm just still not that great at all the features!! I'll add more pictures later though if I have them!