18 Months Ago

Ryleigh Katherine Rowe was born...

August 26, 2011

February 26, 2013

Have I mentioned that toddlers are nearly impossible to photograph?

Her 18 month birthday was actually a couple weeks ago and was marked by a blizzard that pretty much shut down Columbia. Hurray for snow days! I have been working on a post with our snow day pictures for at least two weeks. No joke.
Anyway, because of the snow, Ryleigh's 18 month check-up was postponed until this past Tuesday. She's doing great! She weighs 29.8 pounds and is 32 inches tall. She says a TON of words and her pronunciation is getting better and better. Current top favorite books include Llama Llama Red Pajama (aka "Mama Mama Mama") and Goodnight Moon (aka "Moon"). She is definitely testing her limits (and ours) with her toddler attitude. But it's all part of learning, right? Just keep repeating... "it's all part of learning." Breathe in. Breathe out. "It's all part of learning." Take a sip of wine. Breathe in. Breathe out... ;-)

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.

Happy Valentine's Day

...a little late.

blurry toddler on the go

yep, this is the best we could do

beautiful valentine flowers from the hubby :-)

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.

New Baby and Our Weekend

On Friday my sister Christy welcomed  a new baby into the world. A son after two daughters. He is just about as squishable as can be. I cannot wait to get to Indiana and get my hands on him!

Nolan Alexander

big sisters are in love

gah! just love him!

Luckily we live in the time of iPhones and I have been texted daily photos. And luckily my friend Christy here in Columbia will be giving birth to my surrogate nephew this week. So there is some baby squishing in my near future. I am so excited to meet these little guys!

Saturday I got in some sewing time, I am making some curtains for little baby P's nursery. Not a day too soon, right?

So I have a rotten(ish) toddler on my hands.

mommy says, "ryleigh don't drop your cup on the floor."
ryleigh gives mommy a dirty look. drops cup.
says, "uh oh" in the sweetest voice you ever did hear.
little turd.

Sunday we went to the Mizzou vs. Kentucky women's basketball game. Fun was had by all, until Truman the Tiger tried to get too close. But as soon as he was about 15 feet away, she was all, "hi! hi!" and waving at him. It's ok, I felt kind of weird taking her over to see Truman dressed like this anyway:

checking out "ry ry" on mommy's phone

It was freezing cold and the awesome parents that we are, didn't bring Ryleigh's hat with us. Oops. So I put my hat on her. Yes, I brought a hat and gloves for myself and not my child. That's Rowe, with an "E" when you're engraving my "Mother of the Year" plaque. But I digress...HOLY CUTENESS! I mean really.

Other highlights: Saturday we got a babysitter and Ron and I went to a birthday party with wine and dancing...a lot of wine. And I got a ton of laundry done. Hooray for weekends!!

Becoming a Big Kid

Well, I am not really succeeding at my new years resolution to update the blog more consistently. My 2013 is not necessarily off to the greatest start...but more on that some other time.

Check out this kid.

cheese!

sometimes a girl just wants to lie on the kitchen floor, you know?

I think it's safe to say we are officially into toddlerhood. My little baby is not so slowly turning into a big girl. I mean, how grown up does she look?? and just this week she started calling me "mommy" instead of "mama" some of the time. She's been going back and forth between "dada" and "daddy" for a while now, so we're used to that. And while hearing her say "mommy" in that sweet little voice is heart melting, it's just another sign that my baby is growing up right before my eyes.