In My Daughter's Eyes

I have the need to sit down and write this blog today because of so many changes that have been happening in my little girl recently. I don't know what happened to my 8lb. 10oz. baby - she is now this "grown" 17 month old who is learning non-stop. She is literally a sponge.

She has an interest in almost everything - especially animals. She can tell you every animal (including the lemur and tapir) by picture and loves Go, Diego, Go because of his animal rescuing. She is a social butterfly at daycare and will name every child in her class (and kiss them all goodbye - GERMS). Ask her who her boyfriend is and suddenly she doesn't remember names - don't worry Everitt and Riley your secret is safe with me :) !!!!

Here are some of Riley's other interests - in no particular order:

Riley loves to color - she calls crayons, pens, markers and any other drawing utensil "colors"

Riley is such a great helper with cleaning the house - she needs her own dust rag and will clean the tables and floors with it, as well as her toys and the couch.

Riley loves her baby dolls and takes good care of them.

She loves to sing and dance. She will dance to anything - I mean it, anything! She sings the ABCs - with help. I think it's adorable that the letter 'k' is pronounced "cake" and the letter 'q' is pronounced "cute." She is a fan of Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and believe me EIEIO has not left the rotation. The only difference is she comes up with the animals (duck, cow and chicken are the most popular for her to call out).

In 3 short weeks she will officially be moved to the TODDLER room at daycare. I love that she gets to return to her old friends who have already moved, but I know that she (and probably me a little bit more) will miss her awesome teachers Miss Brittney and Miss Carol. They were the sippy cup crusaders for me months ago when Riley refused to give up her bottle and they were the Nap Time Warriors and helped get Riley on a nice long nap schedule. They will truly be missed!!!

What I love most about Riley is that she knows how much we love her. Every morning when I drop her off at daycare and when we put her in bed at night and she is told that she is loved, she responds with an "I love you too" and a big 'ol smooch...now if that isn't enough to melt a mother's heart, I don't know what is.

I love looking at the world through the eyes of Riley. Each and every day with her amazes me more and more. I cannot believe that I had a hand in raising this smart, funny and cutie pie of a child. I look forward to watching more of what she is capable of learning.

In my daughter's eyes I can see the future
A reflection of who I am and what will be
Though she'll grow and someday leave
Maybe raise a family
When I'm gone I hope you see how happy
she made me
For I'll be there
In my daughter's eyes
- Martina McBride

My Gym

For weeks I have been wanting to get Riley involved in some kind of tumbling/gym class. It's wintertime and there isn't a whole lot to do once the snow starts falling. So the other day, I called My Gym and asked about classes. They have classes for kids from 3 months - 9 years old. Perfect! Today we went as guests to see if it would be something that Riley would like.






Looks to us as though we made a good decision to sign her up today!! Every Saturday we will be going to My Gym to play on the swings, in the ball pit, on the trampoline and MORE!!

Riley had so much fun - she really did fall asleep in the car on the way to Babcha's house!!

Now Riley and mommy are wondering; if mommy has Zumba and Riley has My Gym, what does daddy have??? I think we're gonna need to find something fun for him to take part in!

15 month check-up (yes this is 6 weeks late)

Somehow between Riley's illnesses and the holidays a 15 month appointment was missed. Thankfully yesterday when we went to the doctors we were informed. So it was back to the doctors again today. Unfortunately we didn't get to meet with Dr. Rufa, but we got to meet Dr. Leavitt who was very nice.

So one of my favorite parts of bringing Riley in for check-ups is getting her stats:

Head: 19 in.
Height: 33 in.
Weight: 25 lbs.

Dr. Leavitt showed me the chart and said that Riley was "moving along nicely." He was also impressed with Riley's verbal skills.

We think Riley is moving along well too! Her next appointment will be shortly after her 18 month birthday...and even better - no shots!!!

D is for Diva or Drama Queen - Take your pick!

This post is for those of you who don't believe that Riley could be anything but a little angel. Don't get me wrong, Riley is an awesome kid - as long as the word "no" does not come out of your mouth. Documented in the following 3 pictures was simply the result of Riley being told "no." I know, I know, how dare I tell Ms. Riley Paige "NO!"





As dramatic as all of this is - I still think she is a cutie pie!!

Happy New Year 2010!!

Riley spent her new year hunkered down indoors since it snowed non-stop from Friday until Sunday. But she did get to spend some quality time with mommy and daddy!!! There was lots of playing with all of her new toys from Christmas - not one toy went unplayed! There were also 2 jammie days where Riley never came out of her cozy pjs. Here are some pictures from how Riley spent the first few days of 2010.

Playing with her zoo (I noticed there are no animals in this picture - not sure where the elephant, penguin, giraffe and monkey are).

Feeding her baby doll Sydnee (or as Riley calls her "Nidnee")

Enjoying dinner - baked ziti anyone??

Spending time with Babcha and Pop!

Happy New Year - Love, The Clarks!


BONUS FEATURE: Check out Riley doing the Itsy Bitsy Spider!!!