Anna Riley

I haven't updated on Anna Riley lately and she is now 27 months (Riley says to stop saying months after 2...so 2 years and 3 months! :) She has really turned into quite the character the past couple of months. She keeps us laughing. I feel like she is really growing into a little girl!  Here are a few things about Anna Riley right now:

-She has learned how to make "silly faces" and so she makes them all. the. time!  I posted quite a few because they seriously crack me up.

-She loves to try to make Ava Kate laugh. She will say "Hey A. Kate!" over and over again and make her silly faces. And if she hears her crying, she goes to see about her.  She is a great Big Sister...most of the time!

I love listening to her talk to Ava Kate.  The other day the storms really scared Anna Riley and she thought it was the garbage truck and I explained it was thunder and so she was sitting by Ava Kate saying "That not garbage truck, that thunder... ok A.Kate"  

-She LOVES school!  She gets so excited when I tell her it is a school day!  She usually says "WOOHOO" or Yay! I go to school today!" :)  She is going to really miss it this summer but in the fall she will move up to 3 mornings a week.

-She is talking non stop now.  I understand most of it but that is just because I hear it all day!  Here are some of her favorite phrases right now:
-"You stay right there, I be right back"
-"Watch this, Mommy!"
-"Shhh, Be quiet!  (she has the whole finger on the lip down pat so I am guessing this came from school)  We have had to really talk to her about how she can't tell us to be quiet though.
-"No, No I do it" (the infamous toddler phrase!)
-"Come here Mommy, lay down! (This one you would just have to hear because it is so funny the way she says it.  She wants me to come lay on her like I am the baby and then she will just keep saying "come here, come here) and then she pats me on the back!  It cracks us up!
-"Hello in there" 
- She has started telling us she loves us (but still just on rare occasions) but she does say it sometimes.

-She has always loved her baby dolls but she really loves playing with them right now.  She is really getting into pretend play.  She usually sleeps with one or two of them and I can hear her in there talking to them and telling them to go nite nite!

-Speaking of pretend play, she is also mimicking a lot of what we do with her or Ava Kate.  I notice her rocking babies, feeding her babies in the high chair and the other day she pulled out a kitchen chair and put Elmo in it and said "TIME OUT, Elmo!"  and just kept telling him over and over he was in Time out!

-Speaking of time out!  Anna Riley's behavior has gotten somewhat better.  She still gets very frustrated if we don't understand what she is talking about.  She is also very impatient so that often leads to melt downs.  You can tell when she is tired, because like most kids, she starts having more meltdowns.  But she is getting a lot better at listening and obeying! 

-She is turning into such a girly girl.  I was this way when I was little so it doesn't surprise me that she is too. 
-While waiting to get our hair cut the other day, she noticed this sweet ladies shoes that had a big rhinestone on it and looked at her and said "hey, cute shoes!"

-She LOVES her hairbows!  The bigger the better!! True southern girl!  She wants to sleep in them but I try to get her not to because she will wake up in the middle of the night crying because she can't find her hairbow!! I am not kidding you!  I know it is my fault...I have put them on her since birth and I love that she loves them, but I have told her it is ok to not have them in sometimes!! 

-She likes for us to chase her and lay in the floor and tickle her and blow on her belly.
She will say " Tick me, Mommy"  "Blow my Belly!"

-She also doesn't like to get dirty. Well, I say this but if she is striped down to her diaper and she is dirty, she is ok with that. But if she has on shoes and dirt gets in there, she doesn't like that or if she spills water or anything on her clothes. 

-She loves to ride anything that will take her somewhere...golfcarts, 4 wheelers and horses are currently her favorites. 

-She is a great traveler.  She loves being on the go and really does great while traveling on our trips for the most part.  She begs to go sit in the car and watch tv in her carseat while we are at home!

-She still loves going to the doctor!  We had to go today actually, and she said "she listen to my heart, Mommy?"  She loves the stethoscope and playing doctor.  We always get compliments at the doctors office about how good she is but it is because she thinks it is playtime!  She loves it! 

-We did have to get a urine sample today to check for a UTI and she was such a big girl!  They had to put a bag on her to collect the urine since had a wet diaper, we didn't think she would be able to go on the potty.  So, I was telling her I was proud of her for being good and being still since the appointment took a long time and she didn't feel well and she said " yeah, im a good girl, Mommy!  High Five!  (turns out we had a little fever virus and no uti)

She wanted a pictures of her CP doll! :)

-She is learning so much everyday...she is a little sponge right now!
She knows most all of her colors (execpt orange and the stinker still wont say it!), She can count to 10 (most of the time), she knows several of her shapes, she can recognize a few of the letters (A, of course is her favorite).
-She loves to sing.  It is so funny to hear her try to sing songs since she still doesn't get all the words exactly right.  In a way, I am going to be a little sad when she can sing them the right way! :)

Look how tall she is getting!

-She is at a stage right now where she is scared of everything.  She really gets this from me because I can remember when I was little and even when I wasn't so little, being so scared or worrying about certain things.  I really hate she is like this too.  Right now, she is really scared of thunderstorms, any loud noises really unless you have explained to her what is about to happen and bugs (which can be anything that even resembles a bug).  And often, she has been scared of the shadows in her room.

-She is scared to go in our guest bathroom now also because she accidently turned on the vent fan and the loud noise scared her so she will not set foot in that bathroom now!