Haircut

Big girl got her hair cut on Saturday. We cut quite a bit of hair and I think it turned out pretty cute.

Before, during and after.

Of course her reward was a ride on the mall carousel. 

Of course, she looks SUPER cute. :)

Horseback Riding

Last week Ryleigh started therapeutic horseback riding. Let's just say it didn't go as expected. She had been crying for mommy all afternoon at school. (Heartbreaking for me to hear). When we got to the stable the fussing and tears continued - for most of the hour session. Once we got home I discovered that she had a mild fever and probably just wasn't feeling well.

Luckily last night was an entirely different story! I should say, she has been having a great week. She is loving the farm theme at school this week. She's been waking up in a good mood. Yesterday morning she even told me, "I'm having a 'yes' day!" AWESOME! So this made me even more excited for a great horseback riding session. She did not disappoint. When we arrived she was excited and ready to go. She put her helmet on and went right to the volunteers to get on her horse, Babe. It was also good that she got to ride the same horse she rode last week - we'd been practicing, "walk on, Babe!" and "Whoa, Babe!" all week.

As she passed me she would say, "Hi mommy! I'm riding a big horsey!" :-) She was chatting up the volunteers the whole time too. On one pass I heard her telling them, "it's not going to rain today." The girl has the gift of gab and already know how to make small talk. Ha ha!

Unfortunately, I forgot to grab my "real" camera and only had my phone. They're not the greatest, but I did manage to get a couple pics.

She did so great. She listened and participated. And she had a great time! I'm so proud of her!

Hi, Remember Me?

Wow, August was a busy month! And I can't believe it's almost halfway through September already.

Here's a little rundown of some recent highlights:

A few weeks ago we got a demo wheelchair to test. Ryleigh is getting big enough to be independent when we're out and about so we were excited to try it out. Aside from independence it is great that she can be up taller to see out the windows, which she loves.

Here she is trying it out for the first time:

This model was a little big and bulky. We've returned it and currently have a lighter, more compact TiLite model that's PURPLE! Unfortunately, it is a little on the small side and we had a couple incidents of tipping over. Luckily, she seems fairly unfazed. Although she does keep reminding us, "Ryleigh fall down in the grass. And Ryleigh cry." We'll work with our mobility specialist Pete, to get the exact specs and have a chair custom built and will fit her better.

We've made several visits to the public library

"Doing work" on the computer

Playing with the library doll/treehouse

Oh yeah, and somebody celebrated her second birthday!!!
We didn't have a party this year. Instead we took the birthday girl out for some fun and ice cream on Sunday and had a birthday cake for the big day on Monday. She also had plenty of presents to open from mommy and daddy and family in Indiana.

Opening legos from Aunt Christy and crew

We decided to brave Chuck E Cheese's for some fun with our little birthday girl.

Playing a game with daddy

Ok, so "fun" may be a stretch. I can't say Ryleigh was all that impressed with all the wonders Chuck E has to offer. This video pretty well sums up her feelings, and really cracks me up. Especially at the end when she says, "get off."

 

She loves her princess castle from Grandpa Hugh

Cheesy smile from the birthday girl!

She blew out her candles like she's been doing it for years...

A couple weeks before her actual birthday, our wonderfully talented friend Christy took some two-year old photos for us. They turned out great, but for now I'm only going to share a couple...

You may remember Christy took Ryleigh's pics last year too. Looking back, it amazes me how much she has changed in a year.

And just a few more pics of some of our adventures over the past month...

Ry and daddy stopped to check out a fire truck on the way home.
She says she wants to be a fireman for Halloween. :-)

We made some salt dough to play with on a day off from school.

We also went out to lunch with some friends that day. Ryleigh pointed up to the wall and said "it's a frog!" It took us adults a few seconds to figure out what she was pointing at. It really does look like a frog! I love that she has such a creative eye to point that out!

"It's a frog!"

"Cheese!"
A little mixed message here... MU shirt and UK headband.

We rode the carousel at the mall.
But don't let that smile fool you. She wasn't the biggest fan at the time.

and ate ice cream at Andy's...at Ryleigh's request of course. 

You may notice a theme in her clothing throughout many of these photos. No, they were not all taken on the same day. She has her favorite "pretty dress" and wore it many, many times during the month of August. She is becoming quite fashion conscious and wants to pick out her own clothes most of the time. Sometimes those choices can be pretty interesting.

I'll just share one last video. Gerti sent this to us earlier this week. I'm certain this is the best walking I have seen her do. So exciting that she just keeps getting stronger and stronger.

We start therapuetic horseback riding tonight. I'm super excited! We've been talking a lot about it. We did the pony ride at the fair and the carousel - both were met with hesitation. I hope she'll be brave and actually enjoy it. Keep your fingers crossed!!

We also had a Labor Day weekend visit from Mimi and Pop. Along with more birthday presents. But all those pictures are on my "real" camera, so that will have to be another post. :-)

Ten Things

Yesterday our sweet girl turned 22 months-old. I can't believe we're just two months away from her second birthday!

"Say cheese!"

I thought I'd share a list of 10 awesome, funny, cute things about our favorite little 22 month-old:

1. She says, "hug it out." At home, in the grocery store, when she's nice, when she's being naughty. The girl likes to hug.

2. When I laugh at something Ron says or does, she laughs too and says, "Daddy's funny."

3. She can identify some of the birds in our backyard - she knows cardinal, mommy cardinal, woodpecker and bluejay.

4. When she shows her muscles. Hilarious. It's usually prompted by pointing out daddy's "muscle milk." Which to me is almost equally as hilarious.

5. When she's stalling before bed and asks me to, "rock a minute," in the sweetest little voice.

6. The way she sings "Rock-a-Baaaaybeeeeee" and "Ring-a-Dosey, Pock-a-Dosey"

7. Her curls. And the cutest pigtails that have been our fave hairstyle lately.

8. The way she says basil - "bayseeel"

9. If she can keep from breaking down into hysterics when a fly comes around she'll say, "don't bodder me." or "don't bodder me, stinky fly."

10. She wants to 'go see' EVERYTHING."Go see daddy doing." "Go see mommy doing." "Go see out da winnow."

I'm one lucky mommy and I'm looking forward to seeing what this little cutie pie will do next.

With "misser" bear

The Art of Negotiation

Do all kids just instinctively understand they must negotiate all things? Or is it just their way of getting what they want?

Conversation this morning:

Me: "Hey Ry, why don't we leave blankie here today? You can take one of your animals with you instead."

She hands over her blankie and starts collecting one, two, three stuffed animals.

Me: "Oh, let's just take one."

She puts down Minnie Mouse but keeps Pooh and another bear. With bears in arms, Ryleigh says, "two."

Me: "Yes, you have two, but let's just take one."

Ry (hugging both bears tightly), "Both. Both."

I mean, how do you say no to that?

Answer: You don't.

When we got to school I we were able to leave one bear in the car, but Pooh had to come to school. Hopefully he survives the day. 

Smarty Pants

This is a video from last week. We were eating dinner and Ryleigh was just sitting in her chair and started repeating her name over and over. Her full name! I looked at Ron and said, "do you hear what she's saying?"  Pretty sure she picked it up from daycare. But "Daddy Rowe," that's all her. So cute!

Big Steps

I'm thinking about working on a post about our Florida vacation. Thinking about it. Maybe someday I will have time to actually write it. In the meantime, this happened today:

What a big girl! Ironically, on April 18, 2011 - two years ago tomorrow - we first learned of Ryleigh's spina bifida. Oh, if only I knew then what I know now...

Another Snowy Day

Yesterday we had yet another snow storm. Ryleigh got up early and we spent most of the morning watching the snow and the birds outside. We saw lots of birds eating all the grass seed daddy put out last weekend. Ryleigh found it hilarious to say, "no no birds!" And there were more run-ins with birds. A fat robin landed on the fence outside while Ryleigh was eating lunch. It flew away. Then we had this conversation about 437 times:

Clearly she is very concerned about our feathered friends. Bird-watching is serious business.

We ran all our errands on Saturday so we could spend the day indoors if we had to. Good thing we did. It was nice not to have to go out. And at least the snow was pretty, I guess.

the view from our front porch

our backyard

oh yeah, and there was some basketball on tv
definitely her father's daughter

Welcome to Toddlerhood

Having a toddler is fun and entertaining, frustrating and exhausting. Ryleigh is so amazing. I love watching her little mind work things out. And I swear she is learning new words everyday. There is a bus stop near daycare, earlier this week we were getting out of the car, she pointed to the group waiting for the bus and said, "people." Seriously? People? Where the heck did she learn that? Hilarious.

Even more amazing though are the cognitive connections she has been starting to make. For example, I have a pair of red gloves, they are kind of fuzzy and I guess you could say they look like Elmo's hands. But I didn't really expect my 16 month old (this was a more than a month ago) to point them out and say, "Elmo," totally out of context of the little red monster. She has hardly ever even seen Sesame Street for crying out loud! They do have a poster hanging in her classroom.

Ryleigh is becoming quite opinionated these days. "No" has become a favorite word. She is picky about what books we read. If you start reading one she doesn't want she'll push it away. Sandra Boynton books seem to be her favorites.

She has made the transition to the Red Room at daycare. It was a little bit rough at first. I know she misses her teacher and friends in the infant room. But after a couple weeks she is getting used to her new surroundings. She has been happy to wave bye-bye to mommy every morning. 

Sorry, this post is a little bit all over the place. But it wouldn't be complete without any pics of the cutest kid in America. 

getting the hang of using a spoon

And a few random photos for the sake of cuteness:

Exceeding Expectations

Back in November we worked with a Mizzou journalism graduate student, Hayley Bartels. She produced this multi-media project about Ryleigh and our family. While there are some things we may have done differently, she did a really great job. We just wish she would have shown a little more of how much Ryleigh is like other kids her age. But prepare to be impressed... we have one awesome kid.


Exceeding Expectations from hayley bartels on Vimeo.

We recently found out that a local weekly newspaper/magazine is going to pick up the story and publish some of the photos this week.

And here are some of the photos Hayley shared with us.

girl loves her blankie

meeting truman for the first time

Ryleigh & Gerti in matching shirts :-)

one day we'll get her some mouse ears of her very own

All I can say is that this kid is not lacking in the love department. We absolutely adore her. Period.

My Morning

I swear we woke up yesterday morning and we were suddenly the parents of a toddler. No more baby. I had breakfast with this little mess this morning. And she was up to maximum cuteness this morning. I guess it was the messy hair.

she cracks me up

Happy Tuesday!