Conversations with a 2-Year Old

After my recent birthday, Riker is obsessed with when his next birthday is…and ever since I told him that on his next birthday, he will be 3, he thinks that he is already 3. for example:
R: can I have a tootsie roll?
ME: sure, you can have 2 because you are two years old.
r: No I’m not…today I’m three so I can have three tootsie rolls.

After being scolded for jumping off of the kitchen chairs:
R: But I’m a bird, mom…a bird has to fly!

At an event for Kirk Adams, we heard TJ over the speakers, speaking to the crowd:
R: (gasp!) That’s my father! Where are you father!?

While walking around the house in his undies, carrying his laptop, barn full of animals, and flip flops.
R: I’m going to go find dad at work…I need to see him.
Me: Okay, have fun, I love you, be safe!
R: I’m not pretending MOM! Goodbye!

life with a 2 year old is never dull.

Parks vs. Politics

TJ works in politics and, in case you’ve been living under a rock, the elections are coming up and are pretty important.
This means TJ has been working a lot lately, which means we don’t get to see him nearly as much as we want to.
And because its hot and we live in a small apartment, the kids and I tend to get pretty sick of each other by the afternoon.
So when Riker woke up from his nap after only 45 minutes (as opposed to his typical 2+ hour naps), I knew we needed to get out of the house to preserve all of our sanity.
Lucky for us, it was very overcast today and relatively cool.
(Note: “relatively cool” during the summer in AZ is anything under 100 degrees…I think it was around 95 with a slight breeze today!)

We drove down the road to Freestone Park.
I always loved this park as a kid. I have many memories of cruising around on my roller blades, ice blocking down the hills, and feeding the ducks.

Riker was loving the freedom of being able to run around outside.
This boy thrives when he is outside and could care less what the weather is like.

Of course, Olivia’s favorite was the swings.
I think we stuck her in a swing once when she was about 3 or 4 months old, but this was her first TRUE swinging experience.
And by the look on her face, she was in heaven!

And her swinging experience was only improved when she saw her brother swinging right along side her!

Bliss.
The smiles and giggles coming from this little girl made the entire trip worthwhile.

Once he was done swinging, Riker was crawling up and down, over and under, around and through.
He is definitely all boy and loves to see how high he can climb and how far he can jump.
Of course, once his hands are dirty he needs to stop and wipe them off…I just need to teach him that a little dirt won’t hurt!

My favorite part was probably watching Riker run down the hills.
He’d start out pretty fast, realize that he was going too fast, attempt to slow himself down, and inevitably tumble and roll down the hill.
I never felt bad about laughing as he tumbled because he was laughing right along with me.

Being a mom isn’t always the easiest gig.
And until this political season is over, the long long days are left to just me.
Some days, alright MOST days, I look forward to nap times and bed times.
But I am so grateful to get to spend my days with these two adorable kids.
And I’m SO looking forward to more cool days so we can have more adventures at the park!
And I’m so looking forward to the elections being over so we can include TJ in some of our adventures!

Ghosts of Birthdays Past

Tomorrow is my birthday.
I’m not posting this to make you feel bad for not buying me a present.
I’m posting this because I was sitting here thinking about how OLD this birthday is making me feel.
You guys, I’m going to be 27 in like 3 hours.
27 seems really old to me.
So as I sat here reflecting on how old I am, I was thinking about my past birthdays.

Birthday #18.
This birthday was epic.
And not the good kind of epic.
18th birthdays are kind of a big deal, right?
18. Adulthood. Major.
Guys, my then-boyfriend bought me a jar of jelly for my birthday.
Grape jelly.
Oh yeah, and a pool noodle.
They were supposed to represent inside jokes, neither of which I ever found funny, but you’d think for my 18th birthday he would get me something more than grape jelly and a pool noodle.
To make matters worse, he didn’t even take me out for my birthday.
He had “plans” with his family.
Needless to say, I dumped him the next day.
BUT…the above picture does show exactly how I celebrated my 18th birthday.
My mom and sisters came to the rescue and took me to dinner.
Mexican food, a sombrero, and a mariachi band.
Epic.

Birthday #19.
Also known as, one of my favorite birthdays EVER.
Turning 19 is almost as important as turning 18.
Your 19th birthday means that it is your last year to be a teenager, to be stupid, to have fun.
And oh what fun was had.
My uncle handed me the keys to his San Diego beach house, so I loaded up my car with my two best friends and we spent a week laying on the beach.
Talk about the perfect way to spend a birthday.
We lived off ham and cheese sandwiches, cold cereal, and Taco Surf burritos (oh the joys of a teenage metabolism!).
Definitely one of my favorite birthdays.

Birthday #20.
This birthday was seriously so much fun.
My dear friend Sarah called everyone we knew, literally everyone that we had ever hung out with, and planned a big dinner at Red Robin.
I think we took up over half the seating at Red Robin.
Oh, and the best part was the cameras.
Sarah had bought like 10 disposable cameras and left them on all the tables…I have a box full of pictures from that night, which are so much fun to go through.
However, I must confess, I don’t remember like half the peoples names anymore.
The night ended with karaoke. Any night that ends with karaoke is a good night.

Birthday #25
If you haven’t seen all the pictures from my fabulous 80s birthday party, you must go here.
I threw this party for 2 reasons:
1. I really wanted a totally rad birthday party.
2. I really needed to make some friends in Ohio.
Reason #2 was actually the biggest reason for the party.
I branched out a bit and invited a few people that I didn’t know very well yet, but really wanted to befriend.
And let me tell you, I’m oh so glad that I did.
One of my dearest friends for life came to this birthday party…we really hadn’t talked much at all to each other prior to this, but after this party we became bosom buddies (holla Jen!).
Also, Riker wore a Run DMC onesie and a mustache.
Win.

Birthday #26.
I wanted to cry when I walked outside that day.
My favorite friends had heart attacked my door with the sweetest notes and made my walkway the cheeriest one in the neighborhood.
No big party was had for this birthday, just cake and ice cream with a few close friends, but the loveliness I found outside made this birthday oh so special.

So now, in about 3 hours, it will be birthday #27.
I’m not sure why, but this is a hard number for me to accept.
26 wasn’t too bad because it was just barely a year past 25.
But 27 means almost 30.
Thinking back on all of these birthdays, I can still remember them so vividly.
I can’t be turning 27 because it was just yesterday that I turned 18, 19, 20.
Aside from the metabolism, there is no way I’d ever want to be 19 years old again though.
I have an incredible husband and two of the greatest kids ever to be born.
So here’s to embracing 27 and all that it brings!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

You guys, traveling with two bitties is so tiring.
We have been home for 4 days now and I am STILL exhausted!
Our vacation was super fun though and it was totally worth it.

We headed up to Washington to visit TJ’s dad, go to a wedding, and spend some time with family.

The plane ride over was awesome.
An amazing flight attendant saved us the front row, so we had all sorts of leg room.
Riker was happy with a movie and snacks, and Olivia only slept for 20 minutes but she didn’t cry or scream…WIN!

We landed in Seattle, greeted Grandpa and Grandma Grier with hugs and kisses, and headed to Tacoma.
After a long, busy day we were exhausted.
I have more than one picture of TJ and Riker passed out in bed…we partied hard all week and we were always so exhausted by the end of each day!

Day Two of our vacation was devoted to the wedding.
Jesse and Maria’s wedding was beautiful (and I’m so grateful that my children didn’t ruin it by screaming or crying!)
and the reception was a blast.

It was a long, long day (a long, long week) with no consistent naps, but the kiddos were troopers.
This picture of Olivia makes me laugh, she was so tired…and when Olivia is overtired, she gets slap-happy. She was giggling at EVERYTHING!

Riker’s favorite part was the dancing.
He would ask me to go dance with him and we’d rock out on the dance floor…but after a few minutes, he’d say the music was too loud and we’d head back outside to run around the gardens.

After seeing the bride and groom off, we loaded up for the drive to Ocean Shores.
TJ’s dad Thom recently built a little house there and we were excited to get to finally check it out.

Ocean Shores is absolutely gorgeous.
The house is right on the channel water and everything was so green!
Of course, it was also pretty chilly! I loved wearing sweaters in August!

Riker’s absolute favorite part was the yard.
From the moment he woke up, all he wanted to do was play outside.
We played baseball, went down the slide, and chased the dogs. Riker was in heaven!

I was really looking forward to taking Riker to see the ocean for the first time.
His reaction absolutely did not disappoint.
He took one look at the ocean and said “Whoa, that’s a lot of water!”
He loved walking in the “squishy sand” and running from the cold waves.

One of my favorite activities was going on bike rides.
We loaded the kiddos up into the wagon and cruised around the quiet streets of Ocean Shores.
The elementary school is just down the street from the house and was the cutest school I’d ever seen! And Riker loved the playground!

One night we roasted ‘mallows and Riker got to try a smore for the first time.
He loved it…but he just isn’t a fan of getting messy so it was hard to convince him to eat it!

On our last day, we headed to the beach while the tide was out to check out the tide pools.

TJ worked so hard to catch this crab, soaking his shoes and jeans in the process!

Finally, after 6 days of non-stop fun, it was time to head home.
I wish I could say that the flight home was just as pleasant as our flight to Washington.
Unfortunately, Riker decided to act like a 2 year old and Olivia cried like the overtired baby that she was.

As sad as we are to return to the reality of our lives (and the heat of AZ!), we were excited to get back to our own beds and the kids regularly scheduled naps!
But we definitely can’t wait until our next visit to Ocean Shores!

Conversations with a 2-year old

If you’ve never met Riker personally, you might not know this about him: he is an incessant talker. Literally, the kid doesn’t know how to stop talking.
He is a parrot and is always repeating things that he hears others say, whether we want him to or not!
He’s also very expressive when he talks, using hand gestures, shrugging his shoulders, and raising his eyebrows…and the inflection in his voice is just adorable.

Some gems…from the mouth of Riker (while these are much cuter “live” because of his expressions and voice, the words themselves are still adorable!):

L: Why are you being such a stinker?
R: I’m two years old!

………………………………………………………………

R: are we going swimming today?
L: sorry bud, it’s raining so I don’t think we can go swimming.
r: Can I just tell the rain to stop it? STOP it rain!!

…………………………………………………………………..

r: today was such a beautiful day at church!

30 Things: Update

I FAILED EPICALLY THIS MONTH.
epically.

try one new recipe a week
I thought I’d made more new recipes this month, but I think I kept bumping those recipes for easy, go-to meals instead.
*Cheesy BBQ Chicken Bacon Sammiches…healthy? NO. Delicious? Yes.
*No Bake Brownie Batter Cheesecake…so good. Like, ridiculously good.

read 30 books
*The lightening thief…cannot wait to read this aloud to Riker!
*The sea of monsters…second book in Percy Jackson series, just as good as the first.

Seriously, guys, that’s it?!
What did I do all month?
I literally have no clue.
Next month will be better.
I hope.

8 Months

If I’ve spoken to you recently, I might have told you that Olivia WAS ALMOST 9 MONTHS OLD.
until I SAT DOWN TO EDIT THIS ADORABLE PICTURE OF HER, I REALLY THOUGHT Olivia WAS 9 MONTHS OLD TODAY.
turns OUT, SHE’S just 8 MONTHS OLD.

why WOULD I THINK THIS ADORABLE LITTLE GIRL WAS ALREADY 9 MONTHS?

at 8 months, Olivia is:

*crawling faster than the speed of sound
*pulling herself up to stand next to the couch, chairs, bookshelf, counters, doors, beds, anything and everything
*TAKING LITTLE STEPS WHILE STANDING AGAINST THE COUCH, CHAIRS, BOOKSHELFS, ETC
*cutting tooth #3
*babbling non-stop and blowing raspberries all day long
*smiling at anyone and everyone
*”vacuuming” the floor by sticking every little thing she can find into her mouth

AS A MATTER OF COMPARE/CONTRAST…rIKER WAS STILL working on his ARMY CRAWL AT 9 MONTHS.
I BELIEVE OLIVIA IS HITTING A LOT OF THESE MILESTONES A LOT SOONER THAN rIKER DID SIMPLY BECAUSE SHE IS DESPERATE TO KEEP UP WITH HER BIG BROTHER.
ALL DAY LONG, oLIVIA FOLLOWS HIM AROUND THE HOUSE…CHASING HIM UP AND DOWN THE HALLWAY, TRYING HER DARNDEST TO PLAY WITH HIM.
This bitty bug is the sweetest little girl and we absolutely love watching her grow!