Story Time.

Recently, Riley has taken over story time. Instead of quietly listening to me read and questioning the pictures on the pages, she grabs the book and "reads" to me, making up her own stories. There couldn't be anything cuter in the world! Her past two nights' stories have began: "Once upon a time in a faraway crib...." and the newest was her rendition of Goodnight Moon, which started: "Once upon a time, the moon was sleepy. Goodnight moon." Sure, she may act like a monster half the time, especially out in public-- but moments like these are unforgettable and make every toddler temper tantrum worth it.

Riley's First Trip to the Zoo

Today, two days before Riley's second birthday, I took her to the zoo for the first time ever. I should've known what I was in for since Riley is obsessed with anything animal related, but we went anyhow. The bummer of the day was the weather, the forecast said 66 and partly cloudy, not 40 and raining but after driving almost an hour to make it to the opening we stayed through the drizzle.....in our capris and short sleeved tops.

First we visited the aquarium like setting where Riley visited her well known friends, Nemo and Dory. She was thrilled to see them there, but she was kind of irritated that she was unable to break through the glass to swim with her fishy friends.

--That would be Dory. We considered getting Riley a Dory before we bought S*Head the Kitten, but when researching the species came to the conclusion that giving a headstrong child a fish with a razor blade fin was probably an irresponsible parenting choice.

Then we were off to the flamingo pond. But Riley would not call them flamingos, to her they are FLA-PINK-OOHS. Why? "Cooz I LOVE Pink, Mommy." Well, okay then. Riley has started the I LOVE everything stage though, so far this week she has loved everything from boogers to Gymboree.

From her new pink friends we traveled to the wallabys, whom she named Darby. No idea why, seriously. After she waved and said "Bye DARBY SEE YOU SOON!" at the top of her lungs we made our way to the African Boardwalk where she spotted ZEBRAS. She FREAKED. This is her in the midst of jumping for joy over seeing the feisty striped fellows.

Then there was the tiger. The tiger that Riley was so convinced was just a big kitty, and what do you do with kittens when you're Riley? Well you harrass them, of course! "COME HERE KITTY! TIGER. NOW!" was the start, then she decided the tiger was Sheer Khan and she would yell "Can you roar like a tiger? I SHEER KHAN!" and everytime it would step up to the glass she would run backwards and say NO SHEER KHAN! That's what, 2 Disney movie references now? I'm pretty sure the people that were behind us the whole time probably thought I lock her in her room and play movies all day. Which I don't, but the peace and quiet from that would be nice. Hmm.

Then she ate, feed emus and goats and played on the park swingset thing for an hour or so. We came home and she crashed, which was a nice break for once. And doesn't she look so cute in her new Naartjie sent from Sara? :)

Meet Leo.

This is the latest result of Riley's Two Year Old Tantrums. Once upon a couple weeks ago, we took a trip all the way to the bad side of town to rescue a German Shephard. The dog was truly beautiful, a young female with a beautiful coat and her poor body was obviously malnourished, we were so excited to welcome this helpless animal into our home and save its life. We waited in the "Hug Room" as they are called, and waited to meet our new dog. Riley was estatic to see a dog, and though the animal was on the bigger size, it's gentle way with Riley really made us happy.


"We'll take her!"

And so we started filling out paperwork, only to be notified right before signing our names that this animal would not be going home with us. It had an age limit, and Riley was too young and too little to live in the same house as this dog.

Devastated, we offered them Riley in trade. Begged, really. Only kidding. But we were truly upset. Having a German Shephard has been a lifelong dream of Andrew's, the really one only. To walk away without our new dog was pretty upsetting, so we decided to try again and went to a different shelter.

While looking at the dogs, Riley shot towards the Kitten Kennels and SQUEALED at the top of her lungs. The squeal quickly became a scream as she realized she was locked out of the kitten room. When the door didn't break open from her pounding, I came over and saw what she was staring at. Kittens. Yuck.

Now, kittens are really cute and all, I'm just not a fan of the hair and the whole litter box deal. But suddenly, Riley became frantic and I had to help her get in with the kittens. Her screaming leads me to doing a lot of things I never thought I would do.

Like buying a kitten.


So I screamed at Andrew, FILL OUT THE DAMN PAPERWORK!

He obliged.

He wasn't supposed to.

We now have a kitten. We aren't supposed to be cat owners. We are dog people. But we now have a kitten. And a litter box.

Riley may be the worst cat owner in the history of the world, but she loves her new kitty, whom I named Leo. After Leo Tolstoy. Yes, I'm a huge Russian Literature nerd and the cat fell asleep to me reading Tolstoy to him, so I only saw it fitting. So this is Leo. Meet Leo. Hopefully he lasts a while, unlike most of Riley's toys.

ANOTHER blog?

My life is very multi-dimensional. You can't expect me to write about three different topics on one blog and expect my OCD personality not to freak out. Division is necessary in some aspects of everyones life, and blogging isn't any different.


This blog is specifically to follow the daily events of my soon-to-be-two year old, Riley and the struggles and challenges of being a young mother with a strong willed child. This is my journey into toddlerhood with my little one, and all of the fun things that are attached to that title, the "toddler" title, the title that turned her into a tantrum throwing, get my way or the highway kind of kid overnight. Okay, maybe it didn't happen overnight--but it happened, and I want to know.....WHY GOD, WHY??!!?


But seriously, come along for the ride. :)