Riley’s day
We don’t have a very good internet connection at home yet, so we haven’t been able to upload new pictures and videos… which is too bad because this post would be better with pictures. Oh well. Coming soon!
A run through of a typical day with Riley recently…
Somewhere between 6-7 am: Wake up. On a good day this means we hear happy babbling through the monitor as she plays in her crib. On a less good day, she wakes us with a loud cry. One of us gets up and plays in her room for about half an hour. Then breakfest (scrambled eggs is a favorite right now).
9am: By the time we’ve both eaten and gotten cleaned up and dressed (with a lot of play breaks in between) it’s usally after 9 and Sage has left for work. So we pack up lunch and sand toys and head off to the park in the stroller. It’s about a mile away and we have to stop to pick up leaves and smell flowers and pet dogs, so it takes about half an hour to get there. People in our neighborhood are super friendly and stop to talk, which is a big difference from Palo Alto. The dogs are also smaller and cleaner, and very friendly. Turns out dogs and babies make great conversation openers.
9:30-12 Play play play. Usually with other kids toys, but it’s okay because they play with Riley’s. Often there will be a tricyle or toy stroller or mini-car or some similar thing that Riley will try to steal. She swings and slides and climbs, and stops for a water and food break in the middle. There’s a trellis with red flowers growing on it that shed on the floor, so most days Riley goes around with her blue bucket and collects them all off the floor. She’s very generous with her flowers and gives them out to random people in the park. There
are lots of nannies and mothers at the park, most of whom are very nice, some of whom grill me on where we’re going to send Riley to preschool/elementry school/high school/college (i swear to god). We hear a lot of helicopters, which Riley thinks are planes (LA seems to have more helicopters then planes, we almost never heard helicopters in Paly), I’m trying to teach her the difference… I think she’s catching on, but it’s confusing. We taught her how to sign “Thank you,” which she picked up on surprisingly quickly. I try to remind her to do it whenever a kid gives her a toy to play, or when she asks for something and gets it.
12 – Lunch, then back in the stroller to head home. Riley usually falls asleep about 30 seconds after we leave the park, so I can stop at one of the many lunch trucks that stop in our neighborhood (because of all the construction workers I think) for a burrito and cold diet coke… so good on a hot day. Riley transfers to her crib without even really waking up then usually sleeps for at least 2 hours.
2:30ish. wake up. play. snack. I just bought her a bunch of new toys since i thought hers where to young for her… blocks with numbers, letters and pictures on them (she likes the pictures), block puzzles with colored shapes or animals, stacking rings… all stuff that she can do stuff with. Her other favorite thing to do is wrap up her stuffed animals in a blanket or her pajamas and rock them like a baby. It’s really sweet, she pats them with her free hand. She learned this in her old daycare because there is always a teacher rocking one of the kids to sleep. She mimics everything. When she washes her hands she reaches for the hand soap, but just touchs it. I don’t think she really knows what it is, but she sees us doing it. Sometimes we go swimming in the afternoon, sometimes we just play around the house or walk in the neighborhood or run errands.
6ish – Sage comes home (yay!! everyone is very excited). We make dinner and try to eat together at the table, but sometimes Riley can’t wait. Usually she insists that we go outside and play ball. Our house came with a full-size basketball hoop and basketball, and Riley is obsessed with watching us try to shoot the ball. She doesn’t seem to want to hold the ball herself, she just points at the basket, then cheers when we throw it. We got her a little kid hoop and she immediatly took the little ball and dunked it. Maybe the WNBA is in her future?
7:30ish – bedtime routine begins… change into pajamas, brush teeth (amazingly she actually likes brushing teeth), read books.
8pm – bedtime. sometimes riley crys for 20 seconds when you leave the room, but then she goes right to sleep.