RYLEE is 2 years old!

Rylee's birthday:
To begin the day,we watched Sprout to see if the birthday card I sent in would be on tv, well it wasn't ,but her name was on the bottom of the screen & i got a video of it for her to see when she's older.
And then she got to swim in her brand new pool! she loved splashing around, she never wanted to get out.


at Chuck E Cheese. it was her very first time to ever go there and she was AMAZED, she saw toys and kids all around her, she had a blast.
We decided this year not to do a party for her, and just do family.
She got a tricycle, a big ball, & a sit and spin from mommy and daddy. Her nana & pappaw got her a Justin Bieber poster & her new big pool with a slide :].
She played for hours and hours. We will definately be taking her back soon.

Rylee can say just about everything i think. Actually somewhere she heard "I'm gonna break your neck", i'm guessing tv.
So one day she randomly runs up to me and says "i'ma break your neck" and is pinching my neck.
its cute when she says it, but i can't believe she learned something like that!.
She is very polite, aside from breaking people's necks. She says May I?, Please, Thank you, Excuse me & Your welcome.
I really feel like she is going to turn out to be a sweet little lady. :]

The saturday after her birthday we decided to have family over for cake.
She was the center of attention just like she likes!
Over all she had a very good birthday and for a couple days later she said "my birthday", she wanted everyday to be her birthday, it was too cute.
She tells me out of the blue that she loves me all the time, & after i say I love you ,she usually says, I love you more :]
I love being her mommy more than anything. She is such a bright, sweet, polite little girl and I am proud to be her mom.

Talking, Talking, Talking

Rylee is almost 2 years old! I can't believe it really.
We told her about a month ago that her birthday is coming up and that it's May 5th.
So now everytime we ask her when her birthday is, she knows.
It's so cute. It's almost like Rylee can hold a full conversation with us.
She remembers things that I told her months before.
If I ask her something, she always gives me an answer, even if it is just to say " I don't know".
Sometimes she makes up her own answers to things too, like the other day I asked her who made her smart? And she said "daddy".
I asked her who made her pretty? And she said "mommy". I don't know how she knows to say the things she does.
It's really funny sometimes. I could go on forever about how well she talks now.
She puts words together really well now, which was someting I worried about her doing for a while so I am so glad :]
When she is in a really good mood, just randomly she will say "scited mommy!"
Those kinds of things just make my whole day :]

Rylee's 2nd Easter!`

This year with the Easter Bunny I was more than expecting another melt down like we had with Santa, so i definately was expecting Rylee to be crying around him.
We had stopped by to see the Easter bunny about a week before we actually took pictures just to see how she would react.
And I was holding her and as soon as I started to get closer to him she started whining and holding on to me tighter and looking away.
When we went back a week later, Jake really helped the situation.
First I put Aedyn on the bunny's lap and then I think she started to see that he wasn't going to hurt her or anything.
And then Jake just worked it in steps, he went over and sat by the bunny's chair and asked Rylee to come over and stand by him with him.
So she did but she still wanted her daddy to get her away from him.
The next thing was he walked away and he told her to just stand by him.
And then after enough of that went on we asked her if she would sit on his lap, and she said "yeah".
So it worked out perfectly and i got a smiley picture!

We had our Easter Egg hunt at Coolidge this year.
We got there pretty early for a good parking spot and I knew Rylee would be able to get her face painted.
She did really good with that, she said there patiently through getting a butterfly on one cheek and a flower on the other.
Then we waited a while for them to start the Easter egg hunt, So Jake took her to play with the bells at the park, which kept her occupied for a little while.
And then her Nana and Pappaw came to watch her hunt easter eggs, and Rylee is completely attached to her pappaw.
She was very happy to see him.
Once the hunt began, it was crazy, there was about 30 little 0-2 year olds and their parents rushing in.
And most of the parents were swooping up eggs for their kids, and I didn't think that was the point, I was there to let Rylee have some fun and do it herself.
She did really good, not like last year when she just wanted to pick up one egg and look at it a while.
She kept going to the next egg, but one thing she kept doing that was so sweet, she probably put half of her eggs in other babies baskets.
lol
She just loves other babies, she is always in aw of them.
But the next round to hunt Rylee's daddy got her a bunch of eggs.. haha...
mainly because there was a 7 year old in the 0-2 section stealing all the eggs. :/

After the hunt was over, we went to listen to the Church service and Choir.
Rylee did not want to sit still for that at all, So she threw her hacky sack around for a while, which she loved!
And then her pappaw took her on the River boat.
When she came back to me Amanda and Lexie were there. Rylee rarely gets to see Lexie anymore.
She kept going up to her and saying "hey lexie, hey lexie" hahah.
i could tell she was happy to see her.

But she was way too hyper to be sitting around, so she kept running from me, and running pretty far! It was getting pretty annoying.
So eventually I got her to stay right around where we were, and where I could see her.
I kept telling her that she didn't wanna leave her lexie, and it worked.
She went up to this random little girl, probably around the same age as her and kissed her, it was too cute.
So Rylee was standing about 4 feet away from us on the concrete and all of a sudden, she gets ran over by a girl on a bike.
I couldn't have been more upset, i don't know how I didn't go off on that little girl or her mom.
My mom went up and said something to the mom because the girl just kept on riding her bike, knowing she just ran over a 2 year old, like it was nothing.
The mom said " kids will be kids"
I was so furious, we left.
Definately ruined the experience for us & I doubt we will go back next year.
After that, we went to Olive Garden with my parents :]
It was a nice Easter even though everything that happened... It was nice to do things out of the ordinary...

Cartoons

Since I had Aedyn almost 2 months ago, Rylee has been spending alot more time at her Nana's house, which I mentioned before.
So all of a sudden, when she comes home, she is telling me she wants to watch cartoons.
I have never even told her about cartoons or showed them to her or anything.
I would really rather wait as long as I could before she has an interest in TV. I would rather her play with her toys or being playing outside, just being active instead of sitting in front of the TV all the time.
So my mom tells me that she loves them and she puts them on for her.
I realize she didn't know I didn't want her watching them, so I can't really be mad.
But there is no going back now, Rylee has the best memory of any 2 year old I have ever seen.
She begs and begs me to let her watch them, so I usually do for a certain amount of time a day.
But I put on Sprout, those shows are usually more educational.
Now I am mad because, I told my mom to put on Sprout for her if she is going to play cartoons for her instead of nickelodeon.
But still everytime I come back to get her, she's watching Spongebob, she can't get anything from that!?
I don't want to have to stop taking Rylee over there because that is the only help I get, but she doesn't listen to me!?

OH NOOOO

So about a week ago, I was taking our puppy, Bella outside on our back porch, usually Rylee comes with me, but since we dont have a gate up around our back yard yet, Rylee & Bella can just run around and I don't like that because there is a busy road right there.
Bella doesn't usually run around unless Rylee is out there to chase her. So for the first time I decided to leave Rylee & Aedyn inside while I took the dog out.
Aedyn was just sitting on the couch like a good boy.
Well, I come back to the door literally like 5 minutes later and Rylee has turned the lock on the knob!
And this is not something she has ever done before so she really didn't understand it at all.
She just thought I was not coming in to torture her.
I was trying to talk to her through the glass on the back door to tell her to turn the botton on the knob to let me in.
But she didn't get it at all. So she was just standing there screaming and crying.
So I was stuck outside by myself without keys or a phone.
If this were in the old apartment, no problem, i would have went downstairs to Amanda's and used her phone or walked to the office to have maintenance let me in.
But at our new house I don't really know any of the neighbors and we don't have an office here.
So I decide I have to start ringing doorbells, I have to use someone's phone.
No one is answering the door, finally the last neighbor does.
So I am calling, calling, calling the landlord, no answer! oh my god!
I finally call my mom and tell her to come over because I don't know what else to do!
I get ahold of my landlord and she says it will take 10 minutes to get to our house.
My mom comes before then and that really made it worse for Rylee because she really wanted my mom and she could'nt get to her.
For some reason Rylee keeps saying Aedyn! Aedyn!, and I can see him on the couch, he is just there sleeping, by this time he had fallen over though. Luckily not off the couch!
But Rylee didn't know what else to do and didn't have anyone else's comfort, so she just kept going up to him and kissing him.
It was kinda sweet but at the same time I was so worried that she was going to pull him off of the couch or something.
Finally the landlord comes and lets me in.
I am so relieved for this nightmare to be over!!!
Rylee didn't calm down for a long time. It really upset her. I hope she learned her lesson!

GETTING MORE GROWN EVERYDAY!

Rylee is growing up sooo much faster now.
Everyday she is less and less like a baby. She talks all day long and makes sense.
I can tell her almost anything and she understands what I am saying.
Like for example, when I can tell she is fake crying, I will call her a "faker" and she will usually stop crying because she was caught.
Well, the other day we were watching tv and on a show there was a guy who I knew was fake crying, you would think a kid would believe it, but she was like "faker"!
It was so funny :]
And I usually tell Rylee when she is coming down the stairs to be careful.
Well the other day I almost fell and Rylee was like "be careful mommy!"
it was so cute, I had no way of knowing before this that she even knew what I meant.
She is putting her words together so good, I can get her to say 3 words together at any given time really, I just have to break each word off and tell her 1 at a time and then she will say all 3.
We are still working on colors, she's getting better, but slowly. lol.
Rylee has been spending alot of time at her nana's during the day while I run errands or just while I take a break.
Just last Friday, my mom asked to keep Rylee for about 6 hours. I ofcourse said yes...
I would love a good break. Rylee really enjoys being over there anyways so it was win win win.

Last week we bought a pitbull puppy named Bella.
Rylee loved having a puppy, she would play with her all day long.
But the Rylee started liking tp pick her up and sit on her and hit her, so we had to sell the dog.
It was really too much on me having 2 kids and a puppy top look after especially having to watch constantly so Rylee wasn't hurting her.
She went to a really good couple and I know she has a much better home than she had here.
Since Bella has been gone, Rylee really doesn't mention her much. She remembers her, but I am so glad she wasn't sad that she is gone. :]

GREAT BIG SISSY!

Rylee adjusted so well to our move to our new house and becoming a big sister.
She hasn't seemed to be jealous at all!
And while I was in the hospital she stayed with her Nana & Pappaw, so she bonded alot with her, so if I am ever having a bad day and I need a break from her my mom is usually happy to take her for me.
And Rylee definately loves to go see her nana! Anywhere else I leave her she screams for me, even if it is with her own daddy. But not with Nana or Pappaw.

Rylee loves to give Aedyn kisses and try to help me with him, she gets me diapers for him or her and throws them away.
The only problem I have had is when she thinks shes helping and she is soooo not!
Like the other day I had the bulb suringe on the couch and Rylee picked it up and put it in her mouth and I told her to take it out.
I looked away for about 30 seconds and I turn back around and shes sticking it down Aedyn's throat gagging him bad.
I felt so bad for him.

She is very protective of him. I was using the bulb suringe on his nose and he was crying, Rylee started crying and saying no! no! no!
She gets really upset when he goes to the doctor because she is scared of the doctor herself, so she gets scared for him too!
Its very cute!
But I definately have my hands full!

Rylee has learned her left and right almost perfectly.
She will say "left hand", "right hand", "left foot", and "right foot" and she gets it right almost everytime.

I try to teach Rylee just about every word I know myself.
I want her to be as smart as she possibly can be.
She now says "housewives" when the show Desperate Housewives is on.
And she knows "Reba".
She even knows the "progressive" commercial as -car insurance.
Shes too funny sometimes!
--Aedyn being here has helped alot with her putting words together instead of just saying 1 word all the time.
She will say stuff like "Love you Aedyn" and "bless you Aedyn".
Now she has taken it and saying alot of words together, like "thank you mam" "hey mommy (or whoever she is saying hey to).
I really feel like she must be one of the smartest 22 month olds ever.
I am so proud of her :]

getting back on track!

Rylee was sick in the picture above. I was on the computer and she just brought her blankie and pillow and came and layed on the floor. :]

She was sick for about a week, and I have got to say, she is the best sick baby I have ever seen. She wasn't fussy, if anything she was much sweeter. She just wanted to be held alot and lay on the couch with her blankie. And sleep!

She started back on her naps! yes!

Some days me and her would still go take naps together in Mommy and Daddy's bed because mommy was sick this week too!

Rylee didn't want to eat very much. I felt bad for her. She got a fever but it dropped within that day.

I thought for sure that she would be even more clingy after all this time with me holding her and sleeping with her and everything, but no :]

Once she started feeling better, she didn't want to be held much or anything. Kinda sad, I wish I had more sweet moments with her.

She is back to taking naps everyday! And I appreciate them so much more now, I get to have a shower by myself!

The baby I had mentioned before, Ryan, that I had held and Rylee freaked out about it came over this week and when I held him, Rylee was fine with it! I couldn't believe it.

She saw that he was sleeping and she was saying "shh, night night". And giving him kisses.

But when he did cry, Rylee would put her arms out like she thought she was going to get to hold him, I am very excited to see how she takes having Aedyn around all the time, and she will be able to hold him.

Speaking of which I have an induction date of February 1st & he should be born on the 2nd :]

Rylee has a little over a week of being an only child.!

Last night, there was a tornado warning out, so Jake suggested that we let Rylee sleep in the bed with us so we wouldn't worry about her.

I was pretty happy about this. We went to bed at her bedtime (9:30)

She was freaking out because she wanted to be right up next to me, we had her in between me and Jake but she just wanted me.

It makes me feel bad for Jake because she is just like that because he works all day.

So she kept on for about 30 minutes trying to talk to us and tell us she loves us.

It was getting pretty annoying, So i rolled away from her and she started to drift off on her own.

She woke up around midnight, I'm not sure why, but she sat up and was wanting to wake up. I was pretty much past my limit by this time.

So i carried her to her bed and she fell back to sleep right away in there.
She is just too big to sleep with us anymore.

But I need my sleep anyway!

EVERYTHING changing*

Rylee's baby brother is almost here! I can't wait to see her reaction to him!

Just this past week we went to the hospital to see a friend of mine and her new baby.

Well when I went to hold the baby Rylee put her face in her hands and started balling. She didn't want to talk much or throw a fit.

She just kept saying mommy and seemed like she really got her feelings hurt or something.

I kinda took this as a sign of whats to come!

But I hope whenever Aedyn comes, by making her more involved with him will help.

Because she will be able to hold him and sit with him and give him his passy and all of that.

I just couldn't let her hold someone else's baby and she didn't get that.

I hope she isn't too jealous of him.

When the baby is born, I plan on Jake and Rylee going home each night together while me and Aedyn are in the hospital.

So hopefully she can just get alot closer to her daddy.

God knows I'm gonna need that! When I get home and I need to breast feed or something, I don't want Rylee being upset everytime.

So I would like her to feel more attachment to Jake.

On another note- for quite some time Rylee has known her body parts, and recently we taught her that boogers are in her nose.

Maybe not the brightest idea, becuase now she is fascinated by it.

I catch her alot with her fingers in her nose!

She does it in public too.... ugh.

It seems like we have done a complete turn around in alot of areas.

Potty training- pretty much on hold. She very rarely will go in her potty. I don't try to push it on her because I don't want to stress her out over it.

I think alot of it had to do with when Jake had his week off of work for Christmas, we didn't really stay home much.

And we never take her to other bathrooms to go potty, always just ours and on her princess potty.

So I think she just got out of the hang of it.

Another thing that happened because of Jake's Christmas break,

We were sleeping in pretty late on those days, and Rylee's door has a child safety lock on it so she can't just let herself out and get into everything in the apartment before mommy and daddy wake up.

Which has never been a problem because I usally wake up around the same time as her and go let her out.

But on these days we were sleeping in late and she wasn't. I would wake up to her crying at her door to be let out.

So I think she has taken sleeping in her own room to be a punishment, like we aren't going to let her out or something? Because now every bed time she cries and cries and doesn't want us to leave her.

Which she was totally fine with sleeping in her own bed before.

Well nap time has been 1,000x worse! because she knows she can make it without a nap and its light outside so she doesn't fall asleep, she will continuously cry until we go and get her.

One day, I layed down with her in her toddler bed and told her to close her eyes, and she fell asleep.

But obviously I Can't do that everyday or she would become spoiled by it.

So I made the hard decision to let her drop her naps.! :/

That is like the ONLY free time I have at all.

So everyday for about 2 weeks, it has been non-stop Rylee!

But if I get tired or want to take a nap, all I have to do is put her in my bed with me and we both get to sleep :]

I am just scared by this that she will get used to sleeping with us again, and I already worked so hard the first time to get her out of our bed.

She has just all of a sudden become so much more clingy!

Now she has a pretty bad cold, and I have been giving her childrens cold medicine for it, and I think it is making her more sleepy, so today after me and her took Jake to meet a guy to take him to work, we came home and went to sleep in my bed for about 5 hours.

And then 2 hours later we were watching tv in the living room, and she just lays down on the floor and closes her eyes.

I asked her if she was sleepy and she nodded her head yes, so I took advantage of this time for a little test.

I put her in her own bed, and she cried a little at first but she went to sleep!

I can't believe it, I hope once she gets over her cold she can go back to taking naps, I will really need it here in a month!

Rylee Nicole's 2nd Christmas :]

This year I decided not to put the presents under the tree until Christmas eve night after Rylee went to sleep.

So the next morning she was not expecting to wake up to presents.

This was the first time she has really enjoyed opening any sort of presents.

Last Christmas she was only 8 months old and didnt care about it.

On her birthday, she didnt really care.

But this year at almost 20 months she was completely into ripping all of them open.

But when she would open one toy, she would stop and forget about opening anymore, because she wanted to play with her new toy.

She was really good about it though, Jake would just say, open another one and she would get up no problem and do so.

I got the entire morning on video :]

Such a great memory to have.

After she got done opening her presents I got into the shower.

And when I got out Rylee was dragging my dad's present (that we had left under the tree) around the house, holding onto the ribbon.

I am really glad she didnt open it.

I would not have been too pleased to have to wrap a present all over again.

We left for my parents house around noon.

We ate and then opened Rylees presents as well as mine and Jakes.

Rylee got so many toys.

And they really kept her content. Usually she acts like she has ADD or something and only plays with the toys for a few minutes and moves on.

But not with all of these new toys!

We took her outside to let her ride her power wheels car that was supposed to be a Christmas present.

We keep it at her Nana & Pappaws house.

She was riding it up and down the street, I think she completely gets how to drive it now.

Before she would step on the gas and would get so excited that she was going, she would quit.

Now she stays on the gas and loves to keep going.

She doesnt quite get how to steer it.

But she is still sort of young for it.

After spending 5 hours at my parents house, we went to Jakes parents house.

We got there and right away openned our presents.

Rylee got this dog that laughs and rolls around on the floor. Rylee really seemed to love it.

Well I was standing up holding her and she was holding the dog and she dropped it!

The motor got broke or something. So that toy didnt last very long!

Hopefully we can get them to send us a new working one!

We ate again at Jakes parents house.

We spent almost 5 hours there too.

Rylee had no nap the whole day and we left his parents house past her bedtime.

So needless to say she fell asleep in the car!

When we got home, I got her out of the car and she didnt wake up at all.

She was beat, she had too much excitement for one day.

I wish she could have days like this more often.

All I wanted was for her to be happy and have the best day :]

I think we accomplished that.

I love her more than life itself.

Doing new things everyday

Shes so cute sometimes, Lately she has been obsessed with getting her picture taken...
I wonder what could have made her that way....? :]
Maybe the camera that has been non-stop in her face since she exited the womb. lol
Lately she has been sneaking to get my camera out the diaper bag and turning it on and holding it above her head pointed at her.
When she does this, she doesnt completely get how to take the picture.
She knows what button to push but she holds it down instead of just pushing it.
So she sits there with it pointed at her saying "cheese" "cheese".
She is so conceited too, she loves to look at herself and everytime I take a picture of her, she says "see".
She wants to look at herself as often as she can, and when she does see the picture of herself, she says "aw" or "pretty".
She occassionally likes to pretend like shes taking pictures of mommy and daddy.

Also on the topic of her being conceited.... Everytime she puts clothes on that she thinks is cute or gets a bow in her hair or anything like that, she says "mirror" and runs into our room to look at herself in the mirror.
She is too cute sometimes. :]

Another new thing for her is when she is pooping in her diaper, she feels the need to run and hide.
I dont know what could have given her the idea that this is embarassing, we have never made her feel bad about doing it?
She has this one particular wall in our apartment that she runs behind and stands there until she is done.
When she is done, she comes to us and says "poopie".
If she cant leave the room she will just go to a corner and cover her face.
I really dont know how she picked this one up.

About a week and a half ago we took Rylee to JCPenney portrait studio to get her christmas pictures done and while we were waiting for it to be our turn we were sitting out in the little waiting area.
Well they have toys there to keep babies occupied.
And there was a little girl waiting with her mom too, I would say the little girl was about 3?
And she was playing with a toy and Rylee came up to her and started playing with the toy with her, didnt even try to take it away from her.
And the girl says "mine!" and takes the toy away.
Well ever since that day, Rylee has loved the word mine, and I hate it soooo much.
I want her to be a brat. And she completely gets how to use it. I dont know how hearing it one time has taught her to keep using the word over and over again.
Every time she says it she gets popped and I tell her we dont say mine.
But its an every day thing.
She takes toys from Lexie now and says it, or takes the phone from me or jake and says it.
I have to put a stop to it, I am not going to have a little brat on my hands.

ALMOST POTTY TRAINED

I would say she is for the most part potty trained.

While we are at home, she will not have a diaper on.

If there is even 1 pee in it she will say "change"! She absolutely doesnt like pee on her now that she knows she can do it in the potty.

So pretty much as soon as we get home she takes off her pants and her diaper and goes to the potty.

I try to keep a diaper on her, but that definately doesnt happen, she ends up getting her way.

And I really dont want to hold her back from learning, because it is good that she wants to go on the potty.

I wish that she would just keep her clothes on until she needed to go!

Especially when people are over, and theyre like "whys your kid naked" lol.

Or when we go down to Amanda & Lexies house, she gets naked there too!

I really would hate for her to have an accident in someone elses house.

But in general she has done really good. She rarely pees on the floor anymore.

For some reason her potty is messing up though, it is only supposed to sing when she goes in it. But now it is singing even when she just sits down. So she says "yay!" for herself even when she didnt do it! Its annoying.

We havent mastered going on a big potty yet.

The other day when we were at Amanda's and she had taken off her diaper, she said "tee-tee" and I was like oh, no, she doesnt have her potty here!

I tried putting her up on the regular toilet and she didnt go, about a minute later she said "tee-tee" again, I thought she just wanted to get back up on the potty because it was fun.

I didnt believe her and she peed on the floor.

I quickly stopped her and got her on to the toilet and she finished going on the big potty.

I still havent let her try to go while we are out in public. I think Im just too lazy for it.

It is alot of work on my part and I would rather her just pee in her diaper while we're out.

LOG OF "TEE TEES & #2S IN POTTY"

12/9- 5 TEE TEES

12/10- 8 TEE TEES, 1 #2

12/11- 4 TEE TEES

12/12- 3 TEE TEES, 1 #2

12/13- 8 TEE TEES, 1 #2

12/14- 7 TEE TEES, 2 #2S

12/15- 8 TEE TEES

12/16- 8 TEE TEES

SHES GROWING UP BEFORE MY EYES!

Well, Rylee has been reading this little book of colors she has had for about a month.

Her daddy and I have been trying to teach her a couple of colors with it.

Usually I think she just guesses what color it is and always says pink. lol.

Yesterday she brought the book to me saying "Red", and it was actually on the red page.

I congratulated her on getting it right but I thought she had just guessed.

Well today I was flipping through the book with her and I turned it to red, and she said "red".

I turned it to pink and she said "pink". Then I turned it to yellow and she said nothing. I told her yellow.

And the next turn around she got pink, red, and yellow.

I dont think I want to give her too many different colors to remember yet. I think I want to ingrave these few in her head first. lol.

I am so proud.

POTTY TRAINING :]

I have been keeping a little log of the number of times Rylee goes on her potty each day.

And so far --- 12/4- 2 times

12/5- 1 time

12/6- 0 times

12/7- 2 times

12/8- 6 times

Yesterday with the 6 times -

The first time Rylee just came out of her room where she was playing with Lexie with no diaper on.

And she went in the bathroom saying "tee-tee". I honestly didnt believe that she was going to go.

Because alot of times she just says it for attention and does nothing.

But a second later I heard the music on her potty.

I am really glad we got her a potty with music because sometimes I probably wouldnt have known that she went without it.

And all through out the day she would take her pants off by herself and go.

Alot of times I stop her from taking off her pants and diapers just becuase it is a pain for me and she does have alot of accidents on the floor.

But I am trying to get past that so she can learn.

And she does alot better if when she says "tee tee" and goes in the bathroom if me or her daddy goes with her.

Because if we dont usually she starts going on the potty and then when the music starts she gets up to see if we are going to come watch her and pees all over the floor.

But if we go with her she completely pees in the potty.

I am really proud of her, but I am still not pushing the issue.

We are just taking it day by day because I do not want to get frustrated with her if she stops going in the potty.

Such a little character!

So not too long ago, Jake was getting onto Rylee for something and he said "Rylee, I'm gonna pop you".
And She said in the cutest, happiest voice, "pop you". So ever since she thinks its so funny to say it to me and her daddy.
She doesn't actually pop us, she just likes to say it.

Lately Rylee has liked to be held like a baby, probably because I have been teaching her to hold babies.
My mom will hold her like a baby and sing "Rock a bye baby" and Rylee loves it, she will let her hold her as long as she is singing.
Well today Rylee was on the phone with my mom and my mom started singing it to her.
So Rylee, holds the phone like a baby and rocks it back and forth. I thought it was the cutest thing. When she saw how much attention I gave her for it she started hysterically laughing. She loves attention!

Another BIG THING right now is... Bribery!
I mainly just have to bribe her to eat. It all started with those graduate meals with ravioli and a side of vegetables. Well she didn't seem to think that she had to eat the vegetables, just the ravioli. I told her that she couldn't have anymore until she ate the vegetables. And right away she did it. Now when we eat those, she eats every other bite a vegetable. She really seems to understand everytime I try to make a deal with her.
She doesn't particularly like her yo baby yogurt, so I tell her that she will get candy or a cookie when she eats it all, and she comes up and eats it, no problem.
Or I will tell her just one more bite and it will be gone gone. and she will say "gone gone?" and then eat it. I end up telling her this a few times. I'm sure soon she won't believe me anymore and I don't know what I will do then. But I always hold up my side of our deals.
She loves to be Mommy's helper. When she brings her toys into the living room, once she's done playing with them, I will say, be mommy's helper please. And she says"box" like her toybox. She automatically knows what I am talking about and cleans up her toys.
When she walks into her room, if there are toys on the ground, she says "messy" and starts picking them up. I think I might be creating a neat freak!
But when her friend Lexie is over she always pulls out every last one of her toys!
I don't know what shes trying to prove? If she's trying to show off all of her toys or if shes trying to show Lexie all the things they can play with or if she's just trying to be bad?

POTTY! --- the past few months Rylee's potty has been sitting in the bathroom just waiting to get used. I haven't been pushing the issue with her because she is only 19 months old.
Well she used it 1 time when we first got the potty.
And yesterday right after her daddy went to school, she took her diaper off. (it's such a struggle to keep anything on her, clothes, shoes, socks, diaper!).
So I just let her keep it off, thinking she doesn't pee that much, I will probably put a diaper back on her before she goes.
Well we were about to go into the kitchen and she just stops and says "tee tee". She peed on the floor. Well while I was running a bath for her, we were sitting in the bathroom waiting for the tub to fill up, and she just willingly sits on her potty and pees!
I clapped and cheered for her and she was sooo proud of herself. I don't know if I have ever seen her smile so big and she is always smiling!

So today, she strips down again without saying a word and goes and sits in the dark bathroom and all of a sudden I hear the music to her potty (it goes off when it senses #1 or #2 in it)
So I rush in there to see her getting off the potty saying "tee tee". I am so proud of her. She could have very well just left her diaper on, but she knew she should go in the potty.
Well I came back into the living room and was on the computer and about 5 minutes later I hear the music again & she did it again.
She obviosly knows this is where she is supposed to go. I am trying not to get my hopes up about it, I know that it might not stick. But I am so proud of her. :] Words can't really explain how proud I am :]

19 Months :]

Rylee is such a happy girl. She is always playing and making up games with her mommy and daddy.

We even taught her to say "happy" and im pretty sure she understands the full meaning of it. We only say happy to her when she is laughing or smiling.

Now she will just randomly walk up to us and say happy and smile.

She loves to talk on the phone. She is always bringing the phone to me and saying " nana" (my mom), so I have to call her for her.

She will talk to her for a little while and then hang up and bring the phone back to me, usually she doesn't realize that she hung up on her and wants me to call her back. She is also trying to be really pursuasive it seems like, when she says something that she wants she nods her head yes while saying it.

Like she knows she is gonna get it or something and she is so sure of it.

It is cute, but it can be a pain when I tell her no, because she was so sure she was gonna get it that it upsets her so bad.

She tells us when she is hungry, which sometimes I feel like she can't be hungry that often. I wish I could tell when she was really hungry. Like if she had some kind of hunger meter that I could see. lol.

But she tells me she's hungry and takes my hand and guides me to the kitchen.

She eats so much now that she is off the bottle.

Still not drinking any milk!

My mom got her some chocolate soy milk and I try just putting the slightest amount in her cup of juice, just so she gets a little bit of milk.

Usually she will drink it as long as there isn't too much.

I have been feeding her more macaroni and cheese and things like that to help her get more calcium.

We have still been talking about "brother Aedyn" ofcourse, and how he will be here in 2 months.

I know she has no idea how long that is. lol

We have been practicing how to hold a baby, and putting a baby doll to sleep in a crib and how we have to be quiet.

She hasn't really gotten that part down, she will "shhh" and then say " nite nite baby" real loud. lol

Also I took her by myself to go visit Santa, I figured with all this extra - scaredness she's been going through lately that we should go visit him a couple times before we actually take her 2009 Santa pic.

Before it was our turn to go see Santa, Rylee was looking at him through the gate saying her version of Santa, Santa.

I had been showing her the picture from last year with him.

(different Santa this year btw)

And she seemed to be excited to see him, but as I expected the closer we got to him the more she wanted me to hold her.

By the time we were standing in front of him she had her head down on my shoulder.

I was showing her that he had boots, because she is obsessed with her own boots.

I put her down to stand by him because I thought that would be the next step to sitting on his lap.

She immediately started crying and saying "up. up". He gave her a coloring book and she still didn't like him.

I didn't want to stay there forever trying to make her like him, there was a whole line full of people. So we left. I plan to take her back again on a day where Santa isn't very busy.

Hopefully by the 3rd time she can go in her pretty dress and get pictures with him.

I don't want to give up the tradition of Santa pics!

18 Months :]

Rylee had her 18 month doctor visit with Dr. Wiley.

Her very nice doctor.

When we got into the room and the nurse was measuring her Rylee flipped out.

She didn't want this stranger anywhere near her.

And she definately didn't want to be on the little patient table by herself so daddy sat up there with her.

While we waited on Dr. Wiley to come in we taught her to say "Dr. Ben".

But ofcourse when he actually came in she was scared of him and she didn't want to show him that she learned his name.

This was an even huger flip out! because he needed to check her hips and Rylee was fighting him the whole time screaming like someone was torchering her.

Same thing happened when he tried to look in her ears.

She is at a very scared age. He said its pretty normal at 18 months.

But Rylee is scared alot of the time!

Before Jake would make a monster sound and come play bite her, now when he does that Rylee runs to me and says "mean", she used to love it.

I don't know if all of this started because of Halloween and scary costumes?

Also ever since I last blogged about Rylee still being on the bottle, I haven't given her one.

She has been drinking out of a sippy cup.

Not happily though. At first she wouldn't touch it.

Now she will, the only problem is that she will not drink milk out of it at all. Even if i put juice or chocolate milk in it, if she tastes a hint of milk she puts the cup down.

Her doctor said that this happens alot when you switch from a bottle to a sippy cup.

He said to just try to feed her more cheese and stuff like that.

It's really alot more pressure now to keep her healthy.

I have to make sure she's eating enough fruits and vegetables and now calcium.

It was so much easier when all she needed was milk or formula.

I'm still waiting for the day when she will drink milk out of her sippy cup!!!!

Rylee's 2nd Halloween!

My little BEE!

From the time Rylee woke up on Halloween I started trying to teach her to say "Trick or Treat".

She ofcourse didn't get why I was teaching her this yet, but she learned it.

We had so many places to go this year (very different from last year when she was only 5 months old.)

First we went to Jake's parents house. We rang their doorbell to trick or treat, but when Jake's mom opened the door Rylee just tried to walk in.

She didn't understand standing outside.

Jake's mom got her candy bowl and was picking out tons of things to give Rylee. But Rylee just kept grabbing out suckers, that was the only thing she wanted.

We stayed at her house for an hour while Jake dressed up his brother, Austin like a hobo.

He had a painted on beard and messy hair - this really scared Rylee.

She knew it was Austin, she just didn't get why he looked like that, she wouldn't go near him.

So I knew early on in the night that she would be getting scared alot by scary costumes.

When we were leaving their house Austin decided to come with us for the night.

The next stop was Chase Meadows neighborhood to go trick or treating with Lexie but by the time we got there Lexie was leaving to go to another neighborhood.

So we trick or treated at a few houses in the neighborhood including Amanda & Josh's house.

This was Rylee's first taste of trick or treating. While at these other houses she really didn't get why we were not staying to talk to people for a long time.

Once she got her candy she didn't want to just leave. She would stand there talking to them and looking at them. It was really hard to get her to leave.

She also thought she could take as much candy as she wanted. So it really wasn't good for the people that let you get your own candy, because Rylee took a ton of it.

And also at first, she didn't want to put her candy in her pumpkin (which I guess is understandable) she wanted to eat it already. And also she wanted her mommy to go with her and hold her hand every single time, she was very un sure about going up to all these doors by herself. Shes at a very insecure age I guess?

Once we left that neighborhood we let Rylee eat a couple of pieces of candy in the car to keep her happy until we got to My mom & dad's house.

My mom was the same way with Rylee as Jake's mom, she wanted to fill Rylee's bucket.

We didn't stay very long at my mom's house because at this point it was starting to get dark.

We trick or treated at 2 houses in my old neighborhood - just to people's houses that I knew my whole life & they were so happy to see Rylee.

We then went to our last stop that I was really excited about - it was to a neighborhood me & Jake had went to a few months back just to look at the beautiful million dollar houses. (Enclave) I knew this would be a great neighborhood because it had probably 100 houses and they were all so nice. I knew they would give out plenty of candy too haha.

It was fun for me and Jake too just because every house we went up to we were admiring and talking about what we liked about it.

It was nice too because alot of the people giving out candy were dressed up as witches or vampires. It was a whole different experience for Rylee.

While she was scared of these vampires she saw that they had candy so she got over it pretty quick. lol

She started to get tired of walking, good thing we remembered to bring the stroller! we really needed it.

About half way through this neighborhood Lexie , Amanda, & Johnny came to trick or treat with us.

Rylee is always really happy to see Lexie.

We trick or treated for 3 hours total I think and by this time me & Rylee were wore out & we decided to call it a night. It was a great Halloween :]

SOLID FOODS

Well, about a week ago, Rylees friend, Lexie got a new sippy cup and it was alot like a bottle.

It gave me the idea to try it with Rylee, so I went out and bought her one.

Thinking I would be able to trick her into drinking it and thinking it was a bottle.

She knew right away it was a "Cup", I kept telling her, "no, it's a bottle", but she knew better.

She kept correcting me.

So I keep giving it to her with milk in it and she will not drink it consistantly like she does a bottle.

But when I put gatorade in it she drinks it all.

She just doesn't like milk enough to drink out of a cup.

She has been saying "hungry" alot more since all this started, so she is eating as much food as me.

Before when she was on a bottle, all she cared about was getting her food by a bottle.

Im amazed by how much she can actually eat now.

Im not sure how much milk she actually needs at this point.

Although I know it is bad for her teeth and I had actually already got her off of going to bed with a bottle before,

I now give her a sippy cup of milk to keep while she goes to sleep.

That's the only way I can get some milk in her, because she is desperate for something to drink.

And she knows she can either lay there and do nothing or drink her milk.

I will get her off of a night feeding once I can get her to drink milk in the day.

Yesterday I even tried giving her 1 part milk and 3 parts gatorade,

she still didn't drink it.

She's so picky.

One thing I really like about it is before she constantly had a bottle in her hands, when I was trying to take pictures of her I couldn't pry it away from her.

Now she isn't attached to anything.

I think she's even almost forgotten about the "BABA", she hasn't said it herself in a couple of days.

I just wish this was a little easier or I wish I was seeing progress.

I want her to drink milk!

Taking it day by day

Well. Rylee is just about a year and a half now and I still can't get her off the bottle!

This has been by far the hardest thing to transition her off of.

I have tried just taking all the bottles away and only giving her a sippy cup but then she just cries and cries for it.

And it makes me feel awful.

It has made her start wanting more solid foods though, which is a plus.

But by the middle of the day she is in the worst mood ever!

I have tried putting juice in her sippy cup and water in the bottle and she still picks the bottle and she totally does not like water.

So I think it is really just more of an attachment than anything.

The other day I put sprite in the sippy cup and she drank it,

But i worry about her getting enough milk.

And she definately doesnt care enough about milk to drink it from a sippy cup.

I just dont understand why she wont take the cup. Every time she drinks out of it I clap for her and tell her how much of a big girl she is, which is how she has always learned.

I was really stressing over the whole bottle thing for a while.

I just eventually started feeling like what is the point?

I mean, I dont want her to go to kindergarten with a bottle, but really its not the worst thing in the world that shes still on it.

So im not really trying to get her off of it anymore, but Jake complains to me about it all the time.

BLAH. Im with her the whole day. I think I will decide.

On to another subject...

We have been working on Rylee saying 2 words together.

And about 2 weeks ago she started saying things like, "up, please" or "bites, please" - she knows if she says please, we will do what she wants.

Because I really want her to learn manners.

She says please and thank you just about every time now, but who knows if she knows what she means or not?

Also if she wants something from the kitchen, she will grab my hand and say cmon please.

Its so cute, but a little annoying. haha.

Also, about a week ago, we found out that we are definately having a boy.

And we think we have decided on the name Aedyn, and we taught it to Rylee.

So now when shes telling my belly she loves him, She says Aedyn!

I think she is going to be a great big sissy.

Jake has been working on counting with her, She will say 1-2-3 in order like that, but as far as holding up her fingers,

She will hold up 1 and say one, but she has a hard time holding up just 2 or 3 fingers, so she usually just holds up all her fingers for those numbers.

A couple of days ago we carved pumpkins with Amanda and Johnny and ofcourse Lexie.

Rylee and Lexie were more into going up the stairs together.

But Rylee got a little involved in it.

She kept saying Punkin Punkin.

We let her color on the front of the pumpkin, and Jake carved out as close to what she drew as he could.

We knew it wouldnt be perfect, but I really wanted it to be for Rylee.

We also got Aedyn a little baby pumpkin and I drew a little face on.

It was a fun family experience.

Rylee. Rylee. Rylee

It seems like she changes more and more everyday.
She knows words and names that nobody taught her knowingly.
She picks things up really quick. She knows all of her body parts. And she has got them down really good. Before she would mess up, not so much anymore.
She knows her hair, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, ninnys, belly button, knees, feet, toes, and hands.
She knows what get dressed means and take your clothes off and shoes and pretty much anything you say she understands.
She understands the meaning of no now, If you ask her if you can hold her, she will either put her arms up to you or she will say NO.
its so funny to me.
Also, when Lexie is doing something shes not supposed to she will say Lexie, NO! - but that is really the only 2 words she will put together.
When we have food she wants, she says please, but we have been working with her to get her to say bites please.
But it's not working yet.
I don't know if she is supposed to be putting words together by now or not but I feel like she could if she really tried.

She loves the baby in mommys belly now!
We will just be laying on the couch and she will say BABY!BABY!BABY! and she kisses the baby, and rubs the baby, just yesterday Jake was feeling the baby kick and she put her hands on my belly. Trying to be like her daddy.
I wish she could have realized that she was feeling the baby kick.
Also she loves to give the baby her baba.
Everything she does is sooo cute to me.
We got her halloween costume the other day. She is going to be a bee :]
I cant wait to get her out trick or treating, this will be her first year doing that.
Last year she was still little.
But I think shes ready this year :]