Babes To Butterflies: Riley's Developmental Program!

Don't be fooled by the title, Riley is a perfect 3 year old and she is wise beyond her, few, years. But being at home all the time with Andi & I can get a little boring for a toddler, and she doesn't get much interaction with other kids her age or especially an authority figure other than family members.

In August, my mom asked if she could take Riley to a class that was available for kids around Riley's age while my brother went to tutoring. She said that it was a developmental class where they would learn things like numbers, letters, shapes, and even beginning writing. Riley knew most of these things, so I thought it would be worth a shot and my only concern was if she would behave. I didn't know how she would do in a setting where she would have to follow instructions from a stranger (it is a drop off class so she wouldn't have my mom or I there) and not try and get into things, so I was kind of worried for her 1st day. My mom took her while I stayed home with Andi & Amelia- I was little disappointed that I wasn't able to take her to her 1st day of "school" but she was really excited and I knew she would enjoy herself, so that made me feel better. She came back home with all of her papers and proud smile showing me what she learned in "school" that day. I was so proud of her for doing such a great job and staying alone, and following instructions from the teacher!

Since then, she's been improving so much! She's only had 1 day where she didn't listen to the teacher that well, but she's been a really good "student". She now goes 3 days a week (M-W) for an hour and a half, and looks forward to Donut Day on her last day. Now that I don't watch Mila anymore, I can take her 2 of the days and my mom takes her the other. She has definitely improved in tracing her letters, and matching pictures that are the same/opposite. She also has been singing the days of the week at home while she plays with her toys, which is awesome because I've tried to teach her that before and she didn't quite catch on.

Her teacher always has positive feedback for us when we pick her up, and says that Riley is very studious and always gets her work done. She also likes to play with the toys in the classroom before and after their class.

We're so proud of you, Riley! You're such a big girl!!!!

how cute and little she looks in her chair!

Toddler Genius: Riley Learning to Write Letters

Teaching Riley how to write letters by connecting the dots!

Toddler TAG with Riley!

This was a YouTube "TAG" that I thought would be fun to do with Riley.

Enjoy!

Family Updates: Riley- 2 1/2 Years Old

Riley has grown SO much these past few months- physically, mentally and emotionally. I know I usually say that every time I'm giving an update on Riley... but it's true! She's become such a great big sister and I can see she's discovering herself more and more each day.

  Riley has definitely been going through that "sponge brain" phase where she's been soaking up all these new things we've been teaching her and doing a really good job remembering! At 2 1/2 years old she knows how to: count to 20, count to 10 in Spanish, recognizes colors, recognizes numbers, recognizes her alphabet, knows the sounds of the letters of the alphabet, recognizes different shapes, and other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. She is also an amazing singer (biased opinion) and she loves to DANCE!


Riley's most recent accomplishment has definitely been POTTY TRAINING! And boy, was I dreading that! We tried starting before Andi was born, that way we would only have 1 babe in diapers making it a little easier on us. She didn't pick it up right away and she didn't quite understand not to pee on herself when she wasn't wearing a diaper. But obviously that's a normal reaction. It was a little easier to be consistent with her during Ruben's family leave. Lucky for us, I could recognize right away when she would need to go and eventually she picked it up and would tell us if she needed to "go pee pee". I eased her into it, so I think that made it easier in the end for us all. She is now diaperless and has only had 2 accidents at night time these past 2 or so weeks. We're so proud of you, Riley! You did it!!!

Keep checking back for more updates!

-Paige

Check out these links!

Click here to read an update on {Ruben & Paige}
 
Click here for our {latest VLOG}

Click here to read my {Mommy Blog} 

November & Andi's 1st Month!

Andi is already 1 month old! Seriously, where does the time go?!

The first couple of weeks were spent adjusting to life with our new little babe. The only time we went out with Andi was to see the Dr. every few days to keep an eye on her jaundice. If some of you remember, Riley also had jaundice when she was born but she needed to stay in the hospital an extra day and a half for photo therapy. We're really glad Andi didn't also have to go through that.

Andi's first real outing was for Thanksgiving! We went to my grandparents house (Guerra grandparents) first and spent time with my mom and mom's side of the family and ate, then we went to Ruben's grandpa's house (Grandpa Villa) and hung out there and ate some more, and the last place we went was to see Ruben's dad's side of the family. Everyone loved seeing Andi and Riley and we were happy that we got out of the house for a little while.

Things are definitely different with two babies now instead of just one. It makes going out and doing things a lot more difficult and can be super time consuming... but what's life without a challenge!? Hahaha. It'll be a lot of fun seeing Riley and Andi grow up together, they'll be best friends forever!

Riley went to her 1st concert the weekend after Thanksgiving. She went with Ruben's mom to see the Fresh Beat Band LIVE! This was her birthday present that she had to wait 3 months for, but from what I heard she LOVED it... and that may be an understatement. I wish I could've been there with her, and I could've, but with breastfeeding and all I just chose to stay home with Andi. I'm sure we'll take her to something like that again in the future anyways :)

1 week old!

getting ready for her 1st bath

she loves it!

she smiles in her sleep often :)

2 weeks old!

she didn't like the hat...

awww!

Riley loves her baby sister!

ready to go see the Fresh Beat Band!

from what I heard, she had an amazing time!

Riley is loving her days with her Daddy

3 weeks old!

1 month old!

Riley's 2nd Birthday!

Another year came and went as we got ready to celebrate our little girl's 2nd birthday :( Riley has grown so much this past year as we've watched her change in so many ways and learn many new things. She's blossoming into her own person and as much as it kills me as a mom to see her grow up, I'm so excited for all the things she'll discover and happy to share in all of it with her! Being a mom has been THE BEST thing that has ever happened to me, and sometimes I truly believe that I was put on this Earth to be a mother. And yes, that sounds completely insane, but I've never been more proud of any accomplishment in my life until now.

So this year we had Riley's birthday party at Mae Boyar Park in Lakewood. It was the perfect park to have her 2nd birthday because it had a huge shelter, kiddie park and wading pool! What I really liked about Boyar was that all 3 things were super close together and it was enclosed so we didn't have to worry too much about lost children. Riley had SO much fun running around everywhere, eating snacks she doesn't normally get to have, playing with her cousins & friends, cooling off in the wading pool, and just enjoying all of her favorite people in one place!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We had her party the Sunday after her birthday, so on her actual birthday, Riley spent the morning playing with her BFF Amelia. Then we went over to Gigi's (my mom) house and hung out for the rest of the day until Ruben got home. Then we went out to Super Mex for dinner with Ruben's family, sang happy birthday at home and let Riley open her presents from Grandma & Papie. The day before her birthday, I took her to Chuck E Cheese with Carissa & some of her family so we celebrated a little early :)

She LOVES her new play house from her Nino Johnny!

 Thank you so much to everyone that made it to her party and helped us celebrate Riley's 2nd year of life! We are so blessed to have so many amazing people in our lives. Thank you also to everyone who brought Riley a present, unfortunately, Riley tore through her presents so fast I didn't get a chance to write everything she got down and where it came from. Her presents also got mixed up a lot and some didn't have a tag or card inside, so we couldn't figure out who got something. But THANK YOU everyone!