Cape Cod June Vacation! 19 months old...

We spent the week of June 22nd in Cape Cod, MA and Newport, RI with a bunch of the extended Riley family for my cousin's wedding (Patrick Riley). We stayed in a beautiful home on John's Pond in Mashpee most of the trip a few doors down from my Uncle Pat;s house, traveling to Barnstable to visit my Uncle Bill's family and to Newport to attend the wedding. Riley had such a fun time and was entertained from dawn until dusk with various cousins, aunts and uncles...they were great babysitters!! Riley got to visit her first aquarium, touch her first starfish, lobster (alive!) and clams...she thought it was pretty cool. She screamed (with pure excitement) the entire time we were in the aquarium.

During our trip, Riley was such a trooper...only getting one "scheduled" nap the entire time...all other naps were in the car, airplane, back of a bike or in the stroller. One afternoon we decided to join my Uncle Mike for what was supposed to be a 4 mile bikeride down the coast....Cody pulled Riley in the bike trailer and it was the most beautiful bike ride I have ever been on...onle problem was it really ended up being 22 miles...we were exhausted at the end but it was worth every mile.

On June 26th we traveled up to Newport Rhode Island for the wedding...this was no normal wedding...it was held in a Newport Mansion that was breathtaking...views of the ocean, lush green gardens and an amazing manor home! Every wedding should be in a Newport mansion! Newport is know for it's amazing mansions, shopping and beaches...this is a vacation spot we will return to again!

I think we have officially decided that Riley is no longer our baby...she really is a toddler...growing up so quickly! She knows EVERYTHING that we tell her...she can communicated back well enough that we know almost everything that she wants...she knows the power of "no" and how to use it (she probably said this word more than any other word on our trip...annoying but amazing that she knows exactly what she wants and has no hesitation about it).

Here are some pictures of Riley from our trip...enjoy!

After our long bike ride,we ended up at Woods Hole (where the aquarium is)...

After a long car ride...gotta love the long eyelashes for these pictures!

John's Pond...right in front of our rental...

Riley searching for rocks to throw in the water...

Evening view from our porch...took this picture with a long shutter speed to catch the light from the distant lighthouse...turned out cool!

New York strawberries....she couldn't get enough! This is the reaction I get when I ask her to make a "silly" face for the camera...

On our last day, we went to visit Great Grandma Riley...here are some pictures from the Barnstable house...

The Locust house where Cousin Jess lives...Riley loved playing in the fields and picking flowers. This property is pretty much amazing!

1 1/2 Years Old!

It is amazing that Riley is already 18 months...my how time flies! Riley is like this amazing human sponge…she observes, absorbs and then copies everything that we do. Even when you don’t think she is watching or listening…she is! Riley still enjoys going through all of my make-up, dress-up shoes and jewelry while I get ready in the morning. She knows exactly where the blush is applied, how to use an eyelash curler and how to put the foundation on the sponge and apply to your nose.

Riley is a very strong willed child and stubborn as all heck! Last weekend it was nap time and Riley decided that she wasn’t ready…after reading several books to try and calm down her crazy energy, we put her in her crib to fall asleep. She wanted nothing to do with it! After 10 minutes of crying, sleepiness came over her body and she laid her head down on the railing of her crib (remaining standing…she wasn’t ready to surrender 100% yet). Cody and I watched her from the baby monitor in our room for about 20 more minutes…she would start to fall asleep, her legs would buckle, she would catch herself from falling and then she would resume the standing/sleeping position on the crib railing. This seriously happened for 20 minutes until we gave in and decided that standing/sleeping wasn’t going to suffice for the 2 hour nap we needed her to take. So Riley won, we went and rescued her…however, 20 minutes later she was sound asleep (laying down) in her crib and didn’t wake-up for another two hours…so I guess we won too!

Some of Riley’s favorites this month include:
· Feeding the dogs…once piece of food at a time (its torture!)
· Stuffing her face so full of food she can’t’ chew…proceeding to spit it all out and feed it to the dogs.
· Throwing rocks and crackers into the canal…crackers for the ducks (well…half the time, the other half end up in her belly)
· Dancing to music in the living room and then asking for “more” when she doesn’t like the song
· Signing “Old McDonald”, “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes” and “London Bridges” while driving in the car (facing forward now!)
· Sitting on her new potty…not to go to the bathroom but to watch her Elmo potty movie
· Jumping on the bed

Riley loves her Uncle Charley and Uncle Patrick...so much so we think she has a crush on both of them...when she first sees them she gets so shy...as you can see below, she warms up quickly...

Besides her grandparents, Riley has two favorite people right now…Arianna Colosimo and Siena Rounds. Just the mention of their names and she starts dancing, screaming and smiling! Below are come pictures of Riley eating a Popsicle and waiting for cousin Siena (“See-See” is what Riley calls her) to come and play with her…

This is her screaming "See-See!"

Riley's first Popsicle...I think it was a hit!

Riley will be a great big sister :)

Pool fun at Grandma Sue and Grandpa Gary's...

Pucker up Siena...I have lots of germs to share!

Riley LOVES her grandma Sue...

Eating crackers...kinda a big deal in Riley World right now....





Riley LOVES rocks...

Riley and Siena

We bought Riley a really fun toy for the backyard...she loves to play on it!

Climbing down the steps...
Siena Swinging...

Siena Looking Outside...

Here is Riley in her "big-girl" car seat facing forward...we just flipped her around (she's tired after a long day at the Children's Art Museum with Dad!

Animal Noises and School Pictures

As many of you know (and have heard on multiple occasions), Riley has a wide collection of animal noises that she likes to make. Not only is Riley responding to the question, “What noise does a ______ make?” but she is recognizing animal drawings (abstract and cartoon) and photographs and connecting the noise to the object as well. The learning curve that Riley is facing at this age seems so steep that I guess Cody and I don’t expect such quick progression…we are literally impressed EVERY day with the connections and knowledge she is not only learning but retaining as well.

Last weekend there were multiple instances in which we were totally blown away…. Cody had some animal planet show playing in the background as Riley sat down for lunch last Saturday…I wasn’t paying attention to it and I assumed that she wasn’t either…how quickly I forget that Riley hears and absorbs everything around her! There was a small domestic looking monkey on the show that was stuck on a telephone pole…Riley instantly started making her monkey noise and scratching her armpits. Later that afternoon, she was looking at a book and it had a close-up picture of a gorilla (very different looking than a small monkey) and again, she started to make the monkey noise. I guess we didn’t realize that she recognized “monkeys” with such different looks!

Later that night I took Riley to Trader Joes to complete some weekly shopping. Riley was in a very talkative mood…she said “hi” to everyone who passed by, was using quite a bit of sign language and words to ask for different foods (I always have to give her the food item and she puts it in the cart…when we get to the fruit bars, she always asks for more because she loves them!). While we were getting some milk, she started to make her horse animal noise (which is the best of her animal noises because it is sooo funny). I was looking around for a horse but didn’t see anything…giving Riley less credit than she deserves, I just assumed she was being silly and making the noise for fun. Before we left, I realized that I forgot something in the same aisle as the milk, when we went back, Riley started making the horse noise again. I knew she had to be recognizing something so I looked harder and realized there was a very abstract looking horse piñata hanging from the ceiling…I couldn’t believe that she knew the bright pink and yellow piñata was a horse (it was a very abstract representation of a horse).

Riley’s current repertoire of animal noises include: dog, cat, horse, cow, pig, sheep, fish, rabbit, duck, bird, bee and bear (I am sure I am missing some too).

Below are some pictures of Riley at school over the last few months…Cody and I love this school…they offer very stimulating activities throughout the day, which are not only fun for Riley but very educational as well.