Random Moments from 2022 Part 2

 Watching me scrubbing stains out of laundry. "You sure are working hard!" It's nice to get a little recognition. :) 

Riley can be a stickler for the rules (when it suits her.) There is a road near our house that closes it's gates on the weekends to allow bikes to use it freely. One day when the gate was open she saw a bike driving down the road. Getting very upset she says to me, "But you said the bikes go on the road when the gates are closed!" Took me a minute to figure it out, but then I explained bikes are allowed any day, they just have to share with cars when the gates are open. 

Riley loves to hear about Ben's patients. She says she wants to become an ophthalmologist for kids and adults. Whenever he comes home she requests to hear about some illness he saw that day. Preferably one from a girl patient. One day when she asked to hear about his patients he said, "My patients were all fine today." Riley replied, "Then why were they there??" Haha well visits are too boring for her. 

Sad seeing her Dada heading to work she tried to convince him to stay by saying, "But it's kind of hard to take care of two kids if there's only one grown-up." Hahaha she's not lying. 

Very excited to be sharing a milkshake with me. She says with glee, "We are gonna have to brush teeth really good today!" 

Riley requested I play a hymn that she chose. It happened to be "Count Your Many Blessings" so I explained to her what the song was talking about. She sweetly says, "You know what I'm grateful for? You! And Nelson!" Every mom's dream come true. :) 

*Tapping at her temple.* This is what I do when I'm thinking. 

The word we use for your gluteal area is usually your bottom. One day Riley was obsessed with using the word butt. She said it over and over with happiness in her voice. I can only imagine she heard it at preschool and was excited to show me this new word she learned. Part way through the day she sat in some water. She said. "My botto-...my BUTT'S wet." Surprisingly, this fad ended after just a few days. Even though it was just a silly thing it was a hard reminder that the more I send her out in the world the more other people will influence her choices. 

Riley asked Ben to play doctor with her so he told her his ankle was hurting. He said it hurt when he walked or stood on it. While demonstrating very sweetly Riley asked, "Have you tried tip-toeing?"

One day I was very frustrated that Nelson wasn't falling asleep. I had already gone in 3 times to try and calm him down. Riley helpfully said, "Maybe if you just do it 100 times he'll stop being fussy." 

"This is a catastrophe!" Said whenever anything goes slightly awry.

Riley likes to play a game when I pretend to be sick and she takes care of me like a mom. She wanted it to be clear that I wasn't sick with covid so as we played she'd call me "negative girl". 

Riley has some real rockstar energy sometimes. The other day I asked her to not take a toy away from Nelson. To express her discontent she burst into song, singing about how she's upset at mom for not letting her take that toy, all while playing her inflatable guitar. 

If you are a Paw Patrol fan you will appreciate this comment by Riley. "Marshall always has something going on with him." Haha we feel the same way about Marshall apparently. Why can't he ever get into the Lookout without tripping and falling over everything? 

Things I didn't expect my toddler to say (in tears), "Did you vacuum up my Canadian Lynx??" Haha no dear, I moved your beloved magnet before I started vacuuming. 

"I'm doing a Korean braid in your hair." I mean there is a French braid and a Dutch braid, why not Korean? 

"But how will Nelson not be allergic to chips?!?" Hahah oh Riley. I explained that you are supposed to feed babies peanut butter, eggs, and shellfish when they are young to reduce the chance they will be allergic to them later in life. Now whenever I tell her Nelson isn't allowed to have a certain food she gets very worried he will become allergic to that thing. 

The idea of moving is brand new to this little 4 year old and it's created a lot of funny moments. She's often asking me if specific items will come with us. "Will we move our toys?" "Will we move our pillows?" "We will have to get a REALLY big box for the couch!" 

On our ride home from preschool one day Riley said, "You chose a cute name for me!" :)

Driving home we were talking about someone who wasn't alive anymore and Riley says, "Like King Martin." I'm wracking me brain for what King she could be talking about. She's starting to get upset saying I know who she's talking about, that we were talking about him just the other day. Finally it hits me...Martin Luther King! 

Ben was gone for a week in January. When he came home we had an outing to the park. In the car on the way home Riley says, "It's fun being a family again!"

Riley took a very unflattering picture of Ben. Proud of her work she says, "He's so cute!" She sat there with her finger poised on the button and I asked if she was going to take another picture. She said, "I'm waiting for him to be cute again." 

Ben gave a little talk/testimony the other day and Riley had everyone around us laughing and she declared, "Good job Dad!" "You're doing great Dad!" "You're doing awesome with your loud voice Dad!" When he was finished and was walking towards us she ran up to meet him and said, "You did awesome!" 

Oh fall, we won't miss these GIANT piles of leaves, but Riley probably will. 

Our little boy LOVES food.

I can't get over these BLUE EYES. 

Riley went through a horrible stage of asking to do my hair every day. I can't stand a child touching my hair, but it brings her so much joy. Luckily, it hasn't happened for a bit now so I'm hoping the phase is over.

A few months ago Riley finally painted a recognizable picture and I was so impressed! 

My handsome men! 

Riley wanted to breastfeed one of the babies in the library. 

When you unpack a bunch of new shirts from Mel, Riley must wear them all at once. 

Riley loves taking pictures with my phone, they used to always be pictures of her forehead or the floor, but recently she's gotten better and now there is some "evidence of mom" in my photo roll! 

"I'm a lamp!" :)

Our new gym location has a splash pad. Not sure we will ever return because we discovered a splash pad is very LOUD when it's inside, but we had a good time this day. Ironically, it worked out because we accidentally went when they had a water fitness class happening. So they had to turn off the water basically the moment we arrived. We were sad at first, but then discovered it was ideal! The slide was still wet from the water, but it wasn't super loud and annoying. Riley had a great time running up the stairs and down the slide. 

My heart! 

I love seeing her creating with her legos. This was the first time she was using legos without a guide to tell her how to build them.

This video is a bit long and wacky, but Riley was just cracking me up. This day she'd fallen asleep around 4 pm...so that meant at bedtime she was FULL of energy. Ben and I were sitting in our room and all the sudden we hear Riley say, "My puppy luggage!" She burst in our room declaring she needs her puppy luggage because we need to start packing for our move. Then she decides that she'll just start making a pile instead. It was just so silly. I love capturing these day to day moments.

Nel trying to grab Mama during church. 

Riley's fun time at the gym splash pad.

This is another long video, but Riley was just being so cute. We got these paw patrol costumes for free and she just about died from happiness when she saw them. 

Nelson finally started babbling! Using his ba and da sounds. I love seeing even the tiniest milestones!