Riley Right Now

Oh miss Riley. I feel like I haven't really talked much about her lately. Sure, I've talked about the things we have been up to lately - which, to be honest, feels mostly like we are trapped inside with the never ending winter weather. Even my 'go with the flow' child (at least when it comes to weather) has been lamenting every time it snows that she wants it to be summer. Me too child, me too.

We haven't really been doing anything exciting lately. Work, school, music class, gym, grocery store. Repeat. This past weekend we went crazy and saw grandparents on each side. And one of these grandparents might have reminded me that I haven't talked much on the blog recently about Riley and what she's up to. Time to fix that.

Let's just say that I am enjoying her at four years old and am almost afraid to say that in case it brings down a big 'ol curse of the tantrums or something. But really, this age has been good. She still has her moments and seems to be narrowing her palate instead of widening it. Sigh. Also, I didn't know she had the capacity to eat any slower than she did at age three, but it's happened. We even used a timer one night to get her to eat faster which may or may not have created a level of anxiety that we were not trying to add into the mix.

Other than that she has been saying the best things. Recently, when leaving the gym she asked if I would be her best friend. Man, did my heart swell - especially when she agreed to be my best friend too. Jesse walked along side us clearing his voice in a 'what about me way', but Riley didn't fall for that. She declared that only two girls could be best friends. I tried to clear that up, but I think Jesse was just fine with her believing that... at least for now.

We have a 'feel good' jar where we write down what makes us feel good from time to time and then we read them all at the end of the year. Occasionally, I'll ask Riley what makes her feel good and will add it to the jar. Recently, she's started asking us at dinner time "what makes you feel good"? She pretends to write it all down (because you have to name at least 4 things apparently) and then she 'throws' it in the direction of the jar. It's fun to see her embrace this tradition in this way. It makes me feel like she gets what it is about.

Riley's still super into princesses. She still plans on being Ariel princess when she grows up (although this morning she said she was going to grow up to be Kung Fu Panda - go figure) and can often be found wearing her Ariel dress or Cinderella crown around the house. The other night as I was saying good night to her she 'fixed' my hair and 'applied' lipstick on my lips before I could leave the room. When I told her I was going to go show her dad she told me he would have to make me a princess dress, a crown and some princess slippers. Ok. And last night, she 'made' them for me herself.

Riley seems to have a pretty big heart right now - whether it's saying sweet things to us or giving away some of her books for other kids to read - I can't wait to see this in her as she ages. Since she so nicely donated a bunch of books we decided to go to the thrift store to restock. No surprise that out of the 12 or so books we got, four of them were princess books. Princess, princess, princess.

Speaking of books, she has been 'reading' more. Sure, a lot of it is her memorizing words or the story itself (how do kids remember so much - if my brain only had that capacity now), but it's coming together for her. We bought some more flash cards and videos that teach her phonetics on top of the sight words she's learned. We're not trying to force the reading thing, but she is so interested in that we are encouraging her to learn more as long as she is open to it. She requests to watch the videos frequently and usually wants to attempt to read a book or two at bedtime. If she's not feeling up to 'reading' herself she will just demand to read certain words like 'princess' and 'Rapunzel'.

Riley and I recently went on a lunch and shopping date and it reminded me how much older she's gotten... and how silly she is. She had me cracking up at her goofiness, but I was also very proud of her good behavior. I need to make a better effort to go out with just her as I could tell that time together was pretty special to her - a little one on one time with mommy.

Visiting 'friends' at Old Navy

So that's what's been happening lately. One of these days I hope to be able to give updates about how we rode our bikes outside or drew pictures with sidewalk chalk, but in the meantime my best friend and I will probably just be snuggled up in bed reading books to each other.