2 1/2 Years All Ready?

It's hard to believe that our little baby is 2 1/2. Riley is such a sweet little kid. She has always been my little helper. If I'm unloading the dishwasher, she's right there helping. If I'm putting clothes away, she wants to help. If Mia asks for milk, she'll bring her the sippy cup. She's always grabbing Ethan's blanket for him. She's very much a people pleaser.

Though, she has started acting like a 3-year old. I was just thinking that the twins have finally gotten easier and now I have another 3-year old. Riley reminds me a lot of Ethan. I think she may have inherited some of his quirkiness. I made the mistake of tucking her baby in with an old baby blanket. Since then, she has me tuck her babies in multiple times a day. She'll bring me 7-8 baby outfits and expects me to put them all on. She'll then bring me washcloths and towels and I'm supposed to tuck those around the baby. Then she'll bring me a couple of baby blankets and I'm supposed to wrap those around the baby. She watches me like a hawk and if she doesn't like how I do it, she screams. After 20 minutes of this, I finally get the baby tucked in how she likes it. She'll hold it for 10 minutes and strip everything off the baby and wants me to start over. :)

She loves putting "ake-up" on and putting it on her babies. She watches how I do it and then copies me. She's getting a little better about getting into my mascara. She'll still get into my powders and foundation though. Riley also loves having her fingernails and toenails painted. I try to do it when the kids are sleeping because otherwise, I'll have 60 extra digits to do.

Riley insists on picking out all of her own clothes and pajamas. She is pretty decent at matching. She's been wearing underwear for a month now. Everytime I put underwear on her, I tell her not to pee in her underwear because the underwear will get mad. Haha. She now says it every time I put underwear on her.

She has accidents sometimes but is really good about telling me she has to go to the bathroom. Riley still copies Ethan and pees outside. She is very proud when she does it. She still needs a diaper at nap and bedtime. Speaking of nap time, she still usually needs an afternoon nap. She'll sleep 1 1/2 hour and she usually goes to bed around 10:30pm and wakes up around 9am.

Riley is still a huge mama's girl. She is getting better with the clinginess. She'll run off and play babies with Mia, so that gives me a much needed break. Riley likes to rough-house with Ethan but he tends to be a little too rough, so it doesn't last long.

She has just started watching tv. She really likes the, "Bubble Guppies", "Umi-Zoomie", and the movie, "Tangled." Riley loves to color and paint and read books. Her favorite thing is to play with her babies. She pretends to feed them, change their diapers, and rocks them.

She really likes going to daycare. The last time I dropped her off, she kept saying, "bye mommy"--like she wanted me to leave. She didn't get sad or cry. There are a couple of little girls there and they play really well together. I'm so glad she likes it there!

Riley is a pretty good eater. She tries almost anything. One of the weird things she likes is coleslaw. I had never given it to her because I figured she wouldn't like it. Over the 4th of July, she had some off of Grandma's plate. She wolfed it down. I received a text from Elizabeth (their daycare) a few weeks ago, and it said, "I served coleslaw for lunch and Riley inhaled it." :)

Riley has been talking a lot. She likes to tell me that I'm "ucky" and "gross" (she gets that from Ethan.) She copies everything the twins say. She also tells me to "go away" a lot. She's now very private when she uses the bathroom, so after I help her up on the toilet, she points her finger at me and says, "go away, Mommy." Ummm...okay. If I do something that upsets her, she tells me that I'm in "big trouble" and tells me to go to my room. It's so funny what they pick up.

It hasn't always been easy having 3 little kids, but I couldn't imagine what our life would be like without them! They're growing up way too fast, and I constantly have to remind myself to enjoy every little moment. Before too long, they're going to be in school and I'll be wishing that they were little once again.