New things...

Riley has been surprising us with some funny new tricks.

Saturday night getting her bath Ryan was shocked to see her grab her shampoo/soap bottle tap it upside down (still closed though) on her hands and "wash" her hair all by herself!

Sunday morning getting ready for church Riley was digging through my toiletry basket/drawer and pulled out some deoderant- popped the lid off lifted up her little shirt and started applying some deoderant!! Thankfully it was my all natural chemical free lavender stuff- didn't streak up her clothing for church- and made her smell so perty. :0)

She has also gotten to be quite the pro at putting on her shoes all by herself- not even 18 months yet! They are not always on the right feet, and rarely a matching pair (hehe and some times both are meant for the same foot!). But she stomps around in those shoes proud as can be at the good job she did.

This age is amazing, watching her discover new things, every day is so much fun!

A few other new things: Stacking blocks...The stacking part isn't new, but she makes these incredibly high towers (6+ blocks, quite impressive!). It is adorable to watch her keen concentration, she is sooooo careful and meticulous about each and every block. I have a feeling she is going to be the typical oldest child- a tad bit of a perfectionist. We're working on making it "okay" when things get messed up- clapping and making it a silly game when the tower of blocks falls down instead of yelling/crying and getting frustrated.

She is very into the way things should be. If her pant leg gets tucked up in her play she must stop immediately and fix that pant leg or play can't go on. If her socks aren't on right they must be fixed- or pulled off. She HATES when her hands get dirty and will either run over me with her hand as far away from herself as she can get them and say "dudy". We went to the Crayola factory last week with a friend (more on that later this week) and there was a place where youc ould finger paint- Riley HATED it. She immediately wanted to wash her hands and since the factory had this adorable little sink for tiny ones she spend about 15 minutes washing and reswashing her hands- she looved that tiny sink. It took quite a bit of distraction to get her interested in the other fun stuff there after she discovered that sink- she loves water.

She works so hard at the zippers on her jacket- she can see HOW they fit together, but she can't seem to get them to latch...She will stand there and practice and practice at that zipper for a LONG time. We've learned to avoid zippy shirts when she's tired- it always results in a puddle of frustrated Riley. She is so desperately determined to do grown up stuff.

Another funny thing is that if my belly is showing so we can talk to baby she marches across the room to pull the shirt down- SHE is the one to pull it up if baby is going to be talked or kissed, thank you very much (oh boy!). THough that is usually her first thing to do every day, lift up my shirt and say hi to "baaby" and give him/her kisses. We're not sure if she fully understands the "baby in mommy's belly" concept or if she just thinks "baby" is another word for "belly". Hmmm- we'll see.

I just wanted to share some silly Riley doings.