Kentucky Derby Here We Come!

I think it's safe to say that Ryleigh is now a big fan of horseback riding.

The video is short, and not the best quality. But you can definitely get the gist of how excited she was Thursday night at her lesson.

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. :-)

Weekend in Hoptown

We spent this past weekend in Hopkinsville for Ron's high school reunion. His 20-year high school reunion!

Thankfully the trip wasn't all about the nostalgia of 1993... not that we wouldn't want to reminisce about this:

The Lexington Rowes came down for the weekend too. So Mimi and Pop had a house full and Ryleigh had a chance to play with her cousins.

big hotel bed + big bed head = cuteness

Cousin love!
My favorite pic from the weekend...too bad Kacy's missing. 

Swinging in the blue swing with Mimi.

Friday night Ron went out for some reunion festivities while the rest of us headed out to Tangy Root for some frozen yogurt. We usually just give Ryleigh bites of our ice cream, she was a big fan of having her own spoon.

"Let me take a picture of your chocolate face for daddy."
Ask and you shall receive. Ha ha!

There was also storytime with Pop.

Looks like Pop needs a bigger chair!

Saturday we hit up the reunion picnic. There wasn't a huge turnout, but we had a good time. Ryleigh was the youngest kid of the class of '93. Only by about two weeks, the little guy sitting next to her is celebrating his birthday this coming weekend. She should probably win the award for the cutest kid too. :-)

The babies of Hoptown High School Class of '93

Ryleigh was also very brave climbing on the playground and sliding down the slides... A little too brave for mommy and daddy at times. Yes, we were totally the crazy parents on the playground hovering around our kid ready to catch her if she did a header off the slide.
Not the closest picture. See the ladder thingy to the right? She was determined to climb up that too.

You know, sometimes PB&J just makes you want to dance...

Sunday morning it was time to get up, say our good-byes and get on the road. Of course the drive took longer than we would have liked. About 45 miles before we got to Columbia, Ryleigh was over it. All done. We had to stop and get out for a while to give her a break. But she was (as always) a trooper on the trip. Sleeping in a hotel room with a toddler is not easy. I think we are all trying to catch up on our sleep this week.

Boone County Fair

Last night we headed out to the Boone County Fair. We thought Ryleigh would love to see all the animals up close and we'd heard that there were pony rides. Well, the pony ride part was true. Ha ha! 

Our little girly girl was super excited to see the animals...in theory. Once we were there and actually got up close to a cow, or pig, or goat she clung on for dear life. I do have to say it is a little intimidating standing next to a mooing cow, even if it is inside a pen. Inside the goat barn she kept pulling her feet up and saying, "no doggies lick my socks."

I kinda have to agree with her... with his long floppy ears, this guy does look kind of like a dog. But where she got the idea that they were going to lick her socks, I have no idea. 

We decided to give the pony ride a go. She was SO excited. ...again in theory. She loved hanging on the fence and watching the other kids go round and round on the ponies. When it was her turn there was a lot of clinging, and more than a few "no"s. Of course we were the mean parents torturing our toddler and laughing about it. But she made it through and even gave the "horsey" a couple pats and said, "thank you," after the ride.  

Oh, her little face looks so scared.

I look like a total goob in this picture, but I still had to post it.
I was laughing at my poor little daughter.

This also made me really sweaty. First of all, my child was clinging to me for dear life. Second of all, we were going around that circle pretty fast. I thought we'd have a minute to get her up on the horse and collect herself. Nope. I had no sooner gotten her in the saddle and we were off and...well, walking. But still. 

Of course when we retell the story, we will remember how brave Ryleigh was and how much fun she had riding the horsey. We are planning to sign up for therapeutic horseback riding this fall. So hopefully we can get her a little more acclimated to horses before then. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

The Real Ryleigh Rowe

Ryleigh, in her toddler stage, has become a little bit shy. We went out for brunch yesterday with friends and she talked the whole way to the restaurant about seeing baby Arlo, and meeting our friends and on and on. But when we got there she was shy and stand-offish. Even a bit of a pill, crying and carrying on when she wanted mommy to pick her up. More often than not lately I've found myself being one of those parents. You know, the ones who sigh to their friends, "really, she never acts like this." I'm ashamed to admit that I've judged these parents. "Oh sure," I would think, while inside I was rolling my eyes. But now I know the truth. She really doesn't act like this all the time.

Aside from being humbled by toddlerhood, it makes me a little sad that our friends and family don't get to see the real Ryleigh - the sweet, funny, TALKATIVE girl that we get to see everyday. I know it's just a phase that she will grow out of. ...well I hope it is.

So here's a little glimpse of "at home" Ryleigh. Including a little fussing and demanding to see my phone - she loves looking at pictures and videos of herself. Oh and please ignore my bumbling for words...I was really tired. Ha ha!

That little voice. The counting. It just melts my heart. That's why I want so badly for everyone to see the real Ryleigh. Until she decides to stop being shy, this will have to do. :-)

Biker Chick

Yeah she rides...

Whoop!! How awesome is our girl?!?!

A few weeks ago we got this trike. It has both hand and foot pedals. I really thought Ry was a little young to be coordinated enough to get it going. Boy was I wrong!!

The guy in the video is Chris, a PT student who is shadowing Gerti for a couple months. He wasn't really pushing Ryleigh, just helping steer and giving her a little boost over bumps and ramps around the neighborhood.

I tell ya, I LOVE my amazing kid! 

Standing

So this is what Ryleigh has been working on lately...

Standing up. No braces. Talking about cars.
:-)

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

Weekend Fun

Why oh why must weekends always go by so quickly...

friday night
a tired girl doesn't need much more than her blankie and mickey mouse clubhouse while sitting on mommy's lap

saturday morning
she often insists on wearing her hat around the house...even during breakfast

Saturday afternoon, Ryleigh and I went to a birthday party for our friend Bailey. She turned five and her party was at Flipz Gymnastics. Ryleigh wasn't too sure about the situation at first, but it didn't take too long before she was having a great time watching the bigger kids bounce and run all around. She REALLY wanted to bounce on the big trampoline, but I was a little worried about her getting bounced and bumped by the big kids. We played with a ball, did some bouncing on a smaller trampoline and some climbing on the mats...

This is pretty awesome sauce y'all. As you can see her feet get in kind of 'cringe worthy' positions when she is doing this. She has some braces to help keep them straight, but to this point they are just cumbersome and inhibit her crawling and movement more than they seem to help. We are looking into other options. I'd say she's doing pretty well on her own. She is just so motivated to go go go!

saturday evening
family relaxation time

sunday afternoon
like i said, goof ball loves wearing her hat

And one more little video to make you smile. This is post-nap, so she sounds a little congested.

Ryleigh loves watching this video of herself. She cracks up every time.
Oh weekend, until we meet again...We'll miss you.

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.