Christmas Lights!

Riley liked Christmas lights so much. Remember the "magical trees". And anytime we saw even 1 strand of lights somewhere, his reaction would be "WOW! Christinamas Lights!" We took him to a park in nearby Grand Prairie that has about a 30-45 minute drive through of Christmas lights. It's called Prairie Lights. Josh, Nancy and the kids met us for dinner the week after Christmas. Ethan came in our car with us to go see the lights. I videoed it, and you can't really see Ethan and Riley but the color commentary is priceless! Riley was a little repeater of anything Ethan said...they both LOVED it! 

They have an area in the middle of the park where you can get out and do things sort of like a small carnival, but it was raining the night we went so we'll have to do that next year! 

Here are a few pics from dinner then in the car. 

Gadget Geeks in Training!

It's scary how good Riley is with my phone and all his games! But I need my phone back!

Ms. Emily

E-Ten and Riley in the backseat on the way to see lights

Riley couldn't get enough. After we dropped E-Ten off, he watched the Flip Vid videos of the lights all the way home!

All the way home....for real!

Mommy Buzz Year Sad!

It's the sweetest thing. We have the Toy Story 3 soundtrack cd, and the first time the song that plays when Buzz Year figures out he's just a toy or can't fly - Riley says - Oh no Mommy! Buzz Year SAAAAAAAD! :( And I thought he was going to cry right there!

Then there is another part of the song where it says Like a bird I can fly. I can FLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! And I almost had a wreck one day when I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed Riley holding his mouth wide open, with his little eyes darting back and forth like he was holding the note for that long. So now we do it together every time! And as soon as the note is done - More Peeezzz! :)

More Peeezzz!

As in MORE PLEASE! Who knew 2 words could be so powerful??!?! And universally applicable to everything in life!

Here just a few scenarios in which more peeezzz is leveraged in the Sterne household!

• As soon as Barney, Toy Story 1,2 or 3, Cars, Robots any tv or video is over - More Peeezzz! 
• More Peeezzz as soon as he takes the last bite of anything
• More Peeezzz Milk/Water
• More Peeezzz as soon a his favorite song is over in the car, and now we are even drilling down to his favorite part of certain songs
• More Peeezzz ride my bicycle
• More Peeezzz play at the playground
• More Peeezzz tickle me even though I'm about to wet myself!
• More Peeezzz blow on my hot sweaty feet! I know! I'm pathetic! GiGi and I did that one time when we took his socks off his sweaty feet and it stuck! I also spoil him by heating his clothes up in the dryer on cold mornings! He gets all giddy and says HOT PANTS! Ahhhh! as he rubs his own nipples! LOL!
• More Peeezzz bubbles in the bath
• More Peeezzz bedtime books

 Pretty much it is universally applicable to any and everything that ends! And it was so adorable when he first started doing it that we gave him anything he asked for, so now we're having to wean him off!

I know just what Riley needs...

Another B-A-L-L!!!!!

Seriously!! And the crazy thing is that EVERY one of these balls get played with consistently! And the worst thing is I'm pretty sure there are MORE than this I just didn't got looking for them!

Barney Live!

Santa brought Riley tickets to Barney Live in his stocking, so Kelly and I had our first of what I'm sure will be many new adventures today! Barney Live! WooHoo!

We've been trying to build it up all week saying you're going to get to see Barney in person! So all week, if you ask him what are we doing this weekend - he's say "Barney in Person!". Although, I don't think he had ANY idea what that meant until we got there!

Riley wasn't as excited as we thought he would be. In fact, he just sort of sat there watching intently like he was at home watching it on TV. He did great the 1st half, then he never really recovered after the intermission! It was cute as we walked back into the theater though - Riley was saying "Barney, I coming! Barney, I coming!".  I was worn out from wrestling with him the 2nd half of the show. In my lap, in Kelly's lap, on the floor, dancing, where's my stuffed Barney?, where's my sippy cup?, I wanna play PeekABoo on your phone, OMG! Mommy's head is about to BLOW up!

We finally went and stood between to sections and let him run around a bit toward the end. It was funny because I could hear every parent around us making the same threats about "We're gonna have to go bye-bye, Do we need to leave?, etc". We all get so worked over! :)

They sang the same song at the end that they sing at the end of the tv show, and when it started he was like No! Mommy! Barney don't go! Then he finally gained his composure and said "Bye Barney". Oh so sweet!

My friend Cody from work was there with his daughter that's 2 weeks younger than Riley. They said she had the same reaction - just sat there like it was on tv too. But I saw the older girls DANCING away in the aisles! Funny...there were no boys there dancing! Just like a middle school dance...and high school dance...and now as an adult! Guys just won't dance! But Kelly will!! That's just one of the many things I love about him! :) And we got to go dancing for New Year's this year since PawPaw & MiMi (my Dad & his wife Sheila) came to babysit for us. Good times!

Here are a couple of pictures of Riley at Barney Live. I tried to do video too, but it was too dark! I need to create a FlipVideo with night vision like my bigger one has! I'd be rich!

Sitting in his own seat for 5 minutes!

Now with Mommy!

Back to Daddy! I see a smile for Barney!

Barney & Friends!

If You're Happy & You know it! Clap your hands!!

More Barney & Friends!

Getting into it a little with his new "baby" Barney!

I don't know WHY he wanted me to put that in my mouth! ha!

Baby Bob, BJ & Barney!

My Little Star!

Riley was Mr. Big Boy Independent this morning, so he insisted on carrying his star all by himself. Even down the stairs at our house despite the fact that he couldn't see over it!

Kelly dropped him off this am bc I had an all day offsite mtg with IBM. I'm assuming Riley had to carry his star into school since he refused to have it anywhere in the car where he couldn't see it! Kelly said when he walked in all his friends were like Hi Riley! Riley's Star! I guess they've figured out what it means by this time of year! In fact, Riley couldn't stop looking and pointing to his Star once he saw it last night either like he knew what it meant.

Anyway, Kelly said Ms. Dina's reaction was OF COURSE it's only fitting it has a fwag theme! :) She's told me before he points out flags at the school she's never noticed in her 14 years there! So Kelly said when he left, all the kids were gathered around and Riley was pointing and saying all his favorite things on the star!

Sounds like Talana and I knocked it out of the park with the star! :)

I can't wait to hear his rambling answer to did you have a good day when I pick him up today. I'm sure it'll be something like and I outSIDE, and Ms Dina, and my STAR, and blah blah! And Matwoo and pushing and time OUT. :) I don't know if he gets put in time out for pushing Matwoo every day or if he's just retelling me the same story over and over again!

Either way! Riley's the Star of the Week!

So I didn't get this posted before I picked Riley up...the usual conversation on the way home went something like this:

Mommy - "Did you have a good day at school?" 

Riley -"Chess (Yes)" while he also shakes his head up and down. 

Mommy - "What did you do?" 

Riley - "OutSIDE and star and Mommy and Daddy and Eledent and Monkey and Ms Dina and star and blah blah blah" 

Mommy - "Did everyone like your star?" 

Riley - BIG SMILE "CHESS" head shaking up and down. 

Riley - "Mena Mena Mommy Pack Pack I reach it!" which means give me the banana out of my backpack I'm trying to reach from my car seat that I usually eat on the way home because I'm STARVING MARVIN b/c we just got finished playing outside 10 minutes before you picked me up! :)   

Then as if it were meant to be, I found iced star sugar cookies to take for his special snack. They are really supposed to be snowflakes, but they look just like stars!

A few pics from Reese's 4th Birthday Party!

I'm impressed we got them all pretty much smiling!

Michelle helping Riley with his juice!

The Birthday Girl!

We went to my friend Michelle's daughter's 4th birthday party at a WOGA gymnastics gym today! Riley LOVED it! We may have to sign him up! The ones near us don't offer it under 3 years old, but this one does. It's actually where Nastia??? and some other gymnastic gold medal winners trained.

Anyway - Riley jumped right in and had fun! I have some video of him jumping on the trampoline. That was his favorite thing!

It was so cute. I was standing behind him, and I could hear him continuing to sing the Happy Birthday song LONG after it had been sung, but I guess it was stuck in his head. The little boy next to him just looked at him like he was crazy! Too funny and cute! All at once!

Speaking of, now no matter what happens if he sees cupcakes or cake - he starts singing Happy Birthday!