Not a very tricky question, especially after seeing the pictures below. She’s really into layering. I almost always think her layers should be opposite of what they are before she puts them on, but then she ends up being right… I guess she has more fashion sense then me (which isn’t really saying much).
Here are a few of my favorite creations:
(We’ve been reading a lot of Winnie-the-Pooh recently, and even watching the movies, and when they go on an expedition they call it an “expotition.” When Riley heard she was going to be in an “exposition” she immediately wanted to call it a “expotition” instead… I thought it was funny so the name stuck!)
After the ballet disaster, we decided to try gymnastics (which I was secretly rooting for all along). Two of her boy friends Leo and Noah were in a class that they liked, so we decided to have Riley join them even though they are younger. It’s a class with parent participation, so we figured it would work out well for her. She LOVED it. The teacher suggested we move her to the non-parent-particpation older kids class, but that didn’t work out so well, so we end up taking her twice a week to a transition class with kids her age where the parents are allowed to kind of hang around. As the weeks went by, she needed us less and less, and her confidence even outside of class seemed to grow. Her daycare teacher noticed it as well. Anyone who knows Riley knows she can be very very shy, almost paralyzingly so, but when she warms up she does great. Well, somehow the gymnastics class seems to be helping her move past that. Now she’s back in the no-parents class and she seems to be thriving just fine with us staying on the sidelines.
Recently the gymnastics center had an exposition for all the kids to perform and show what they’ve learned. We signed Riley up, not really knowing how it would work out, but thinking it would be fun. It couldn’t have been more of a success. When we arrived there were kids running around everywhere, and Riley was supposed to go upstairs with one of the older kids while we went to sit down. That obviously didn’t happen, but they let me stay with her. The parents were all sitting in chairs by the floor, and there was an announcer with a microphone and loud music and the kids were supposed to rotate between an obstacle course on the floor, balance beam, and the bars. With all the people and noise and commotion, Riley panicked and wouldn’t go out on the floor. In the last minute, the announcer let me walk out with her. Once she started though, she didn’t even look back, and I went and sat in the audience.
She looks so serious! She barely cracked a smile the whole time. You could tell she was having fun though because she had a hard time standing still… she kept bouncing around and skipping from place to place.
My Dad took a bunch of videos…
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
The last video is Riley accepting her award (every kid got one of course). I was definitely that dorky mom sitting on the edge of my seat taking a million pictures and beaming. I’m just so proud of her! She says her favorite part was watching the older kids do a tumbling routine at the end.
Anyway, now we know that gymnastics can be a huge help for shyness. She’s already asking when the next show will be…
Back in January we started talking to some of Riley’s friends about doing a dance class or a gymnastics class. The mothers of two of her girl friends wanted to try ballet. Riley and I went to a dance supply store with Sofit and her mother and the girls went crazy running around in their new pink leotards and skirts and ballet shoes. Seemed like a good sign. Unfortunately, when we showed up for the class the next day Riley refused to participate. I think if the teacher had let me stand in the room with them for a little while she would have been okay… but ballet involves strict rules, which include no parents in the class room, you have to watch through the window. So we watched Sofit and Nusia dance until about half way through when Nusia ran out crying and refused to participate further. So Riley and Nusia stood at the window and watched. If nothing else, it made for a good photo op. Needless to say, that was the end of ballet class…
But! A few weeks later Nusia had a birthday party that was dance themed and Riley had a BLAST! It was in a little open dance studio (no observation window) and the teacher was really friendly and fun. Much much better…
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
This was taken just before heading off to the party…
We’ve been trying to get out and go walking more often…
Riley will often through a huge fit saying she doesn’t want to go, but then invariably she has a great time. Especially if we find her a walking stick and go adventuring off the main path.
[Sharing a walking stick with grandad]
This video is from back in february when Damon was about 8 months old, but he still loves playing with sticks. We figure giving him really long ones isn’t really that dangerous because he can’t actually poke himself… it’s a little treacherous for whomever is carrying him or walking by though…
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Damon is 9 months old!! Time flies. He’s a total sweetie pie. Very happy and easy going, and still a good sleeper (thank god). I think he is becoming the victim of second-baby-syndrome (i.e. we’re not keeping up with the photographs and blog posts like we did for Riley), and we’ve gotten lazy and are mostly using our phones to take pictures… the upside is more cute spontaneous shots… the downside is the quality is pretty crappy in comparison.
Anyway. Damon has just started crawling! It’s a whole new world. He’s not too quick yet, but he’s already getting into things he shouldn’t (like pulling on wires and trying to grab things off tables over his head) so we need to think about baby-proofing a bit more. Like Riley, he much prefers walking holding our hands to crawling. He’s actually pretty quick! In the evening after dinner we go walking in the neighborhood. There’s a cute video of Damon walking holding my hand on one side and Riley’s hand on the other side.
He’s getting super chatty, but no definitive words yet. We’re letting him eat just about everything now… like his sister he’s a big pasta fan. We’ve started feeding him bits of whatever we’re eating in hopes that he won’t end up picky like Riley. So far he likes pretty much everything we put in front of him. Every weekend for the last year or so we’ve gone out for sushi at a restaurant down the street from our house (walking distance). Riley loves it because she can order edamame, plain tofu, rice and milk (same thing every time). For a brief period we could take Damon and he would fall asleep on the way there and stay asleep while we ate, but that doesn’t work anymore. We thought about giving up the tradition, but instead decided we’d just be the first ones there (we’re talking 5:30) and feed Damon at the restaurant. It was a little hectic the first few times, but now it’s actually pretty smooth. Like his sister, Damon eats tofu and rice, and chews on the edamame shells (and eats whatever else we remember to bring for him). It’s kind of a fancy restaurant, and we do make a bit of a mess, but they seem to like us anyway… I guess that’s the bonus of being a regular!
With day light savings it’s really light outside after dinner (especially since we’re usually done with dinner by 6:30 latest… that’s what happens when you have 2 kids!) so we’ve been hanging out in the yard more. Damon LOVES to be outside. He pretty much wants to be outside all the time, and actually will cry sometimes when you try to bring him back in.
[Hanging out in the front yard] His doting big sister still likes to give him lots of big, tight hugs all the time, which is very sweet, except it turns out babies don’t really like big, tight hugs. This is hard for Riley to understand (since there’s not much she likes more than a big, tight hug), but she’s getting better.
As always, Damon loves to swing. Yolly, his babysitter, takes him to the park everyday and sometimes sends me pictures to my phone. She’s amazing, we are very very lucky.
[Damon and his buddy Max in the swing together] I think I’ve mentioned previously that Damon loves the water, and it’s still true. On the weekends when it’s warm enough we take him to the pool and he has a blast. He doesn’t mind going under water and loves to splash around, it’s pretty cute.
Just some random pictures to end on:
[Damon and his buddy Maddox playing with princesses and a pink cellphone]
[Both kids passed out asleep in the car (it’s a beautiful thing)](This is an old post that for some reason stayed in draft status and never got published, oops)
In the car on the way home from daycare the other day I asked Riley what her favorite song is. She seemed to like thinking about it, so we went for second favorite then third… She would close her eyes and say “I’m looking at all my songs and trying to choose” and wave her fingers around in the air, them suddenly open her eyes and burst into song. Pretty awesome. Here’s her list:
1. The Aisha song (a really sad song from a story about a little girl who learns how to be happy again after her mother dies. Riley is obsessed with the story and the song)
2. Puff the magic dragon (she still listens to this on repeat sometimes while falling asleep)
3. All the Curious George songs (from the movie soundtrack, see previous post)
4. Twinkle twinkle little star (a classic)
5. Abcd’s
6. The elephant marching song from the jungle book
7. Bare necessities (jungle book)
8. King Louie’s song, I wanna be like you (from the jungle book. King Louie is a jazz singing orangatan)
9. Ka’s song, trust in me. (continuing in the Jungle Book theme)
10. The vultures song, we’re your friend. (JB)
11. “The song at the end of the movie with the girl in the pink dress” (JB)
Yes, she loves the jungle book. LOVES it. I have to say of all the Disney movies I’ve seen, it’s certainly the least offensive, and the music is pretty good. Since we don’t let her actually watch the movie that often, we end up listening to the soundtrack a lot… and the songs seem to be in all our heads even when not listening to the soundtrack,
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
“Do you know why I like clouds?”
“Why?”
“Because clouds make rain and rain makes rainbows.”
Elise got a set of dessert wine glasses at a Christmas gift exchange for the ucla surgery department a few months back. Our original thought was to pass them on at some point, but we took them out for Riley to play with and promptly broke one. Recently they resurfaced when we were cleaning up for Tweeny and Josh’s baby shower, and all week Riley has insisted on using them at dinner. Hers with water or milk, ours beer. They’re not particularly practical, but they’re cute!
When Dallas and vida came to visit she convinced Dallas to drink his beer out if a tiny cup too (apparently he can’t say no to a fancy cup either).
(Late addition to post)
I found a better picture on my phone!! Just a random dinner…
