18 Month Monkey

My sweet little angel is almost 18 months! She is so full of energy and spunk. Some days I question if she's even my child. But she is the best blessing I could ever imagine and I am so thankful every single day for her. Now down to the cool stuff.

YES PLEASE!

• Dogs
• Cereal (just like her mama)
• Singing
• Dancing
• Being outside
• Snuggling stuffed animals and blankets
• Car rides
• People watching
• Hitting/biting/throwing fits

NO THANKS!

• Naps/sleeping in general
• Being told "no"
• Getting scared
•  Diaper changes
• Baths (off and on)

Yummy in my tummy:

• Corn
• Carrots
• Ranch dressing
• Cereal
• Noodles/pasta
• French fries
• Grapes
• Applesauce
• Oreos
• Veggie straws

Milestones/Cool stuff:

•  Saying more words like: shirt, shoe, dirt, juice, hello
• Jibber jabbers constantly
• Pretends everything is a phone and says "lo!"
• Stands on her head  
• Gives extremely tight hugs (especially to poor Daisy)
• Climbs stairs and up and down on mom
• Throws balls, toys, anything she can get her hands on.
• Combs her own hair
• Brushes teeth
• LOVES books. Wants someone to read to her all day long. I LOVE it! :)

 

She's super cool with her Dutch Bros

Eating her oreos in her moo moo pjs.

Grandpa and Ri Ri playing in the water with her new truck. Such a tom boy! :)

Big girl in her big girl chair!

 

Ri, the Crazy Dog Lady

My monster  angel baby is currently sleeping off a crazy weekend so I thought I'd write a new post about my daughter's obsession with DOGS! She can now officially say "dog". Before, I was just kind of guessing that's what she's saying, but now it's for sure. Ri will point at everything and say "dog!" even if it's a lamp. It's so adorable. Last Thursday, we checked off one of our summer bucket list items which was: go to the Boise Zoo. The weather was perfect and my momma joined us, so it was an amazing day. It was so cute watching Rilyn get so excited over every single animal (even the fake ones) and pointing to the tigers and snow leopards and saying "dog". I am so grateful to have time this summer to take her to do fun stuff. Here are some pics from our fun little experience together:

DOG!

DOG!

Riding a "dog"

My sweet little angel eating some fruit snacks



 

 

 



On Friday, ma maw and myself took baby Ri to the Canyon County Fair (also a bucket list item YAY!) . I was SO excited because first of all, who doesn't love fairs? And secondly, I hadn't been in like four years. We started our afternoon by enjoying some delicious fries and strawberry lemonade. Then we walked around and looked at the 4H exhibits and different vendors that were there. I was stoked for Ri to ride the carousel because she loves those almost more than ketchup and that's a lot. Unfortunately, the rides didn't open until like 4 or 5 and it was only 2. Womp womp. Mom fail. :( We saw all the animals and Ri got to pet some goats and look at the stinky piggies. She got put back in stroller jail because she tried giving all the goats kisses and I was a little nervous she was going to end up with a  bloody nose. And of course she kept getting all excited and yelling "dog!" at all the goats. Her love for "dogs" (animals) is so  dang sweet. We ended our trip with the purchase off a stuffed pig I named "Peppa" for her (yes, after the cartoon). She hasn't parted with it since we left the fair and I think it's becoming her second best friend (her first would be Daisy).

Not so happy about having to take a picture while there were dogs waiting for kisses

Little love bug

Delicious fries

Naughty Ri Ri

         I thought the title of this post was fitting considering my child is literally a monster. Literally. She is the definition of a sour patch kid, and although sometimes (most of the time) I just want to rip all of my hair out, she's a hoot. She's got such a personality and is a little entertainer. I was really thinking hoping she would be like me as a little kid. Shy, calm, scared of getting in trouble. Nope. Didn't happen. She will walk over, hit me, kiss me, then put herself in timeout for a few minutes. It's really hard to discipline such a cute little stinker.
         She's starting to get into cartoons more which is fun for me. Her favorites so far are Doc McStuffins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Tickety Tock, and Chuggington. She loves trucks, trains, and tractors & can make better car noises that I can. We have spent a lot of time this summer being lazy, playing in the water (crab pool, Lakeview Water Park, & Settler's Park), staying cool at Jabbers, and having play dates with friends!   
         

Accomplishments:

• WALKING! Ri has been officially walking for about a month or so now. She doesn't look like such a drunken little monkey, so that's been nice. Since she's started walking, she thinks she runs the house (which she does) & has quite the attitude about it. Awesome. 
• Completing 2 weeks of swimming lessons. 
• Saying new words like dog, daisy, stop, don't, shut up, and shit. She's an angel. 
• No more bottle! Yay! Up until about 13 ish months, she would have a bottle before bed and naps. Now it's just a sippy.

Yes, please:

• Food. She will eat mostly anything. Her favorites have been: fruit snacks, pizza, French fries, watermelon, grapes, and KETCHUP!
• Playing in the water. 
• Snuggling with anything soft. 
• Dogs  
• Singing (still)
• Sitting on Daisy 
• Her new book with farm animals
• Jabbers play dates 
• Cars 
• Opening/closing doors (aka slamming her fingers in doors and crying, then doing it again)

No thanks:

• Listening to mom 
• Sharing 
• Getting her diaper changed 
• Having her hands/face wiped 
• Playing with other kids (kind of a problem)

  

  Playing in her sweet crab pool

Having a snack break (if you give her a half cheese stick-which is all she will eat-she will throw it on the ground. Has to be a full one. Spoiled baby.

She LOOOOOVES dogs.

Snuggling and watching morning cartoons

Her first timeout experience with mom. So sad. But also a little cute. (oops!)

Tickle fight! She loves her cousin, Xavier.

All ready for some 4th of July fun!

 

One of our many Jabbers play dates. Mowing the yard.






 

3rd grade letters to next year's class

I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS POST I CANNOT CONTAIN MYSELF AND HAVE TO USE ALL CAPS!

Okay, so I really don't know where to start. It's the end of the school year. Happy. Sad. All sorts of feelings mixed into one. Let me just start by saying if I could build perfect little human beings to put in my class, they STILL wouldn't be as great as my class this year. It's been such an amazing year, which was exactly what I needed to keep me goin'. With the end of the year dwindling down, I found a cute "balloon pop" idea on teacherspayteachers.com (my classic go-to website). You count down the last however many days of school you want (I did 9) by putting little notes w/ activities inside a balloon and blowing it up. Each day someone gets to pop a balloon and the class gets to do the fun activity in the balloon. It's been so much fun! Here's a rundown of what we have done so far:
Day 9- Move your desk anywhere in the room you'd like!
Day 8- Come eat lunch with the teacher.
Day 7- Let's have a paper airplane contest.
Day 6- Bubble gum blowing competition!
Day 5- Since the weather is so nice, let's have a lesson outside.
Day 4- Write a letter of advice to next year's class.

So that's where we are at today. I was literally laughing so hard at their letters I was crying. I encouraged them to give them advice of "do's and don'ts" in Ms. Shipman's class. I cannot believe how well these kids know me. First off, they made me sound like a Nazi  but it was so great I have to share some of these things:

• One kid started theirs off by saying: " Ms. Shipman is a really awesome, kind teacher but she can be very stern so DON'T get on her bad side." -- Luckily, no one this year got on my "bad side."
• Another student said: "You might have to help her remember things. She's forgetful." Hahahaha.  
• Here are some of their "do's":
• Have fun
• Listen and be respectful.
• Do your best.
• Study for spelling tests.
• Wait until Ms. Shipman is done talking before raising her hand.
• Make sure your pencil is really broken before getting a new one.
• Always put her workshop games away nicely.
• Keep your desk area organized.
• And here are some of their "don'ts" :
• Do NOT pick your nose or else she will make you sanitize your hands.
• Use too many tissues. (you should be safe with 1 at a time)
• Put sharp pencils facing up in the pencil cup.
• Lose her math workshop game cards.
• Interrupt her.
• Get a drink while she is teaching. 
• Try to use your bathroom pass right after recess or lunch.
• Be lazy when working in a group.

 I will end this letter by saying I am not a crazy lunatic (mostly). I just like things to be organized and I have a routine for every thing. Every. single. thing. But, it makes things run fairly smoothly most of the time and I still like to think of myself as a "nice" teacher. Haha. :)

Weekend Recap + WILW

Weekend Recap. Ready. Set. GO!

Friday: We had early release at 11:15 so I definitely took some fractional leave and PEACED the heck out. Came home. Got my little stinky monkey ready for our first road trip together. And we were off! I was so nervous about traveling 3 1/2 hours by myself with Ri. (I'm a worrier) We weren't even out of Boise and that little turd nugget passed out. But don't worry, about an hour later she was wide awake, with her party pants on. And when I say party pants I mean snack pants. All that was keeping that baby happy was snacks. And snacks. And more snacks. We stopped at "The Pit Stop" about 35 miles outside of AF and got her some French fries and that held her over until we got to Ben's house. She was soooooo excited about all the new stuff she could get in to. Not to mention, Ben has a giant yellow lab that she was instantly obsessed with. She went to bed at about 8:30 and slept for almost 12 hours!!!!

What a great co-pilot huh?

Saturday: Ri slept in until about 8:15, then was ready for a nap by 9:30 so we had a pretty relaxing morning. Got ourselves ready, went to the store to get stuff to make Ben dinner, then went to see him at his "work." (a field) Rilyn got to ride in the tractor for the first time and even got to "drive" which she thought was the coolest thing ever. She also helped Ben check the planter to make sure it was planting the spuds. She had a VERY important job. After about an hour and a half it was nap time so we headed back to the house for a relaxing evening.

My little ice cream cone.

 

"Mom, I don't know about this hair style."

 

See, she wasn't scowling the ENTIRE day.

 

Eating on the job.

 

Ri, taking her job very seriously.

Boy, she  had a hard day at work.

 

Getting ready for bed. (Don't worry, this isn't where she actually slept.)

Sunday: For Mother's Day, we all slept in and were lazy all morning. We finally decided to be productive and go to breakfast down at the Marina. It was yummy and Ri had a great time making a mess of her chocolate chip pancake (amateur move on my part). After breakfast and a quick (we are talking 20 minute) nap for Ri, we headed out to Ben's mom's house to visit. Rilyn was having a rough afternoon since she didn't get her nap out. Poor thing kept falling all over and bumping and bonking everything possible. She was feeling pretty sorry for herself the whole time BUT we had a pretty good time. :) It was soon time to head home, so we packed up and left. And guess what? Rilyn cried the ENTIRE trip. No joke. And did not even sleep for one minute. It was so much fun.

Only picture I managed to get on Mother's Day. I suck.

OKAY! What I'm Loving Wednesday! (I'll make it short. Or just stop reading. Either way. )

 

I'm SO excited for summer I decided to make my 2014 Summer playlist on my phone. Here's the lineup I am starting with:

 

We Are Tonight - Billy Currington

My Baby's Guns n' Roses- Brantley Gilbert

Where It's At- Dustin Lynch

Dirt Road- Kip Moore

Up All Night- Kip Moore

Drive Me Crazy- Kip Moore

Crazy One More Time- Kip Moore (I LOVE KIP MOORE)

Your Love - The Outfield

Ready Set Roll- Chase Rice

Dust- Eli Young Band

Song About a Girl- Eric Paslay

Meanwhile Back at Mamas- Tim McGraw

Famous- Kalleigh Brannen

Close Your Eyes- Parmalee

 

 

P.S. You're welcome.

 

Thankful Thursday....?

When I was typing the title of this post I was saying it as Ron Burgundy would. (I'm Ron Burgundyyy......?) Is Thankful Thursday a thing? Or can it only be Throwback Thursday? Well it's now a "thing." I'm trying to make it happen.


1. I am SO obsessively thankful for Ri's adorable little personality. She sings constantly and loves to listen to music and dance. We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse tonight for an early Mother's Day get together. As we were leaving, the employees started doing their line dance so I bounced Rilyn around and she busted out some serious moves for everyone watching. It was so cute I peed a little. Okay maybe not but it was pretty darn adorable.

This monkey loves Texas Roadhouse!

2. I am thankful for all of the wonderful love and appreciation I received this week for Teacher Appreciation Week. My students and their parents always do such a great job of making me feel valued and appreciated, but this week was extra special! Monday I walked in to a huge poster hanging up in my classroom that was put together by my students and our room mom. Not only that, but at the end of the day I received a beautiful bouquet of gift card flowers. AND one of my workshop students brought me adorable little gifts each day with a cute saying on them. Her mom has spent some quality time on Pinterest. Love it. :) AAAAANNNDDD PTO hooked us up with a nice card and some sweet gift cards. AAAAANNNNDDD they provided us with doughnuts, Del Taco, and all sorts of other healthy treats throughout the week.

 

 

 

3. I'm super duper thankful for my sweet boyfran. That's right, I said boyfran. I am usually super cautious of posting personal (to me that's very personal) stuff on Facebook or on the blog because I just don't like people knowing my s***. BUT I feel like he deserves some praise and Rilyn and I definitely deserve someone like him in our lives. He lives in American Falls, which is about 3-3/12 hours from here and we were not able to visit each other last weekend. We were both kinda bummed but still trying to be optimistic. Well last Friday, he sent me some flowers "just because" with a really sweet note intended for me and Rilyn. She thinks he's like the funniest (looking) person ever. :) It's great. We are taking our first road trip to see him this weekend so it should be interesting!

4. AH! I almost forgot. I entered (for the first time ever) to win a giveaway on Thisisboise.com and guess whaaaaaat? I won! I think I am still in shock because I NEVER win anything. Ever. I won the "Mother's Day Giveaway" which includes a bunch of spa stuffs at this sweet salon, a $100 gift card to Muse Bistro and Wine Bar, and a necklace from a jeweler! I'm friggin stoked. 

P.S. I'm thankful for my sister in law who has taken tons of adorable pictures of Rilyn recently! Here are just a few. I'll post more later. :)

 

What Ri Dog Is Loving Wednesday

I've done a few "what I'm loving Wednesdays" and let's be honest.....they were lame. So let's hear about what Ri is loving on this fan-freaking-tastic hump dizzaaaaaay.

1. Bananas & pizza. No joke, Rilyn eats bananas with every meal. Over Easter weekend we had some company and ordered pizza on Saturday  night (on my request of course) so Ri has been eating leftover pizza with every meal too.

2. Stuffed animals. It's soooooo cute when she cuddles them. When she's tired, she will crawl over to anything soft and lay her head down on it. I love it!

3. Spoons. They go straight to her mouth. Poor little girl is getting more teeth so she puts everything in her mouth and chews, and it usually happens to be a spoon.

4. "Loungin" on her cousin's Minnie Mouse couch. She thinks she is one cool cat. Such a sweetie.

5. Cruz. My brother recently moved to Alabama and until his wife & kids can move out there, they are staying with a family member. Therefore, we have the honors of keeping their cat, Cruz. Rilyn LOOOOVES him. Cruz, however, is not even a slight fan of Rilyn. It's pretty sad/adorable when Cruz books it in the other direction whenever Ri is near.

 

 

 

Don't Be Tardy for the Party

Okay so seriously...I suck. I meant to do a 12 month update and a "birth day" story and all sorts of cool stuff but definitely did not. If you get the joke behind the title of this post, you are probably a badass like me. (AKA: You watch loads of trashy reality tv and I can get down with people like that) Lots has been happening so here we go!

My sweet little monkey turned ONE! It's amazing how much has changed in the last year. Thinking back to this time last year, I never would have thought that things would happen the way they did. Although Ri's first year has been the hardest, craziest time of my life, things have worked out just as they should and the two of us couldn't be happier.

For Ri's party, I tried to keep it simple, yet cute. I stressed and pondered over how big to do it and how much money to spend. Well, I went with the 'You Are My Sunshine' theme and kept it simple, yet somehow managed to spend waaaaay over my budget. But that's okay; she's worth every penny. :) I got a lot of my ideas from Pinterest and Etsy and looooooved how all the décor turned out. I am super grateful for my awesome sister-in-law's cake making/party throwing/picture taking skills. :) We kept it small and invited family members and close friends. We had pizza, opened presents, then demolished a cake. Classic first birthday events. In case you missed them, here are some pics taken from her party!

 



Here are some one year (ish) stats and info. on Ri dog:
Height: 31 1/2 inches (above the 90th percentile)
Weight: 21 lbs. 14 oz. (50th percentile)
Head: Don't remember
(I am pretty sure Ri is going to be taller than me by the time she reaches kindergarten. WNBA here we come!!)
Sleep: UGH! I am trying something new with her night/sleep schedule and it seems to be working for now. Some weeks she will sleep all through the night, others she likes to think she's a newborn. She has NEVER been a very good sleeper.  So we will see if she stays consistent. Some days I think I might want another kid JUST to see if they are as awful of a sleeper as Ri is. Haha. Call me crazy.

Likes:

• Singing (still)
• Playing peek-a-boo
• Playing with ANYTHING! She gets amused so easily. I love it! :)
• Hitting Daisy and anything really
• Eating
• Her cousin Amaya's Minnie Mouse Couch
• Going for car rides
• Swinging at the park
• Dancing
• Stuffed animals
• Pizza (definitely my daughter)
• Bananas (she could eat them for every meal)

Dislikes:

• Getting her diaper changed (nothing new)
• BATHS! This is a very recent and difficult development. As soon as she hears the bath, she starts screaming, crying, and shaking. I hope she grows out of it. She used to want to sit in the bath and play until the water became cold. Definitely not anymore. I dread bath nights. :(
• Being told "No!"
• When Amaya gets in trouble. Can't put Amaya in timeout without Rilyn crying.
• Walking practice

Accomplishments:

• Getting more teefers- it's been a rough go around
• Penguin walking on her knees. It's so cute.
• Eating more "people food" Haha
• Developing more motor skills like stacking and putting things together.
• Becoming a semi-snuggler! You're probably thinking, "Oh, cool? What an accomplishment.....?" But if you know me, then you know that I could not possibly have a daughter that is super lovey-dovey or snuggly. Recently she's become quite fond of resting her head on my chest or shoulder and I couldn't be happier when she does!

My little stinker is still not walking. We try working with her every night when I get home from work, but she haaaaates the idea of walking. She is getting a little braver with standing on her own. And she will scoot along the couch or anything where she can hold on to. She's starting to use her walker more and more, so hopefully by next month I will officially have a walker! :)

There's so much more to blog about, which means I guess I will have to post again at another time this week instead of grading papers. Oops. :)

11 month update!

AHHHHHH! I can't believe Ri is almost a year old. I feel like she is changing more and more every minute and learning new things every second! She is at such a fun age, it makes me want to have a thousand more of her. Then she wakes up screaming at 2 in the morning and I instantly retract my previous thought. Okay here we go:


Ri baby's likes:

• French fries & ranch (her latest obsession)
• Chasing her cousins around- They pretend she's a "monster" and run away from her. She just chases them back and forth hoping they will play with her and it's so cute/sad
• Ketchup
• Macoroni & cheese dinners
• Playing with cords or ANYTHING she's not supposed to
• Stealing Daisy's babies. And then crying when Daisy takes them back. Bad Daisy. :)
• Singing- it's seriously the cutest thing I've ever heard. If you sing to her, she will hum back at you.
• Swinging at the park
• Being outside
• Hanging out upside down
• Going on walks in her stroller or chillin in shopping carts

Ri baby's dislikes:

• Her number one, all-time, life-ending dislike is getting her diaper changed. Truly the worth thing ever. I DREAD changing her diaper every single day.
• Getting dressed/undressed.
• Being left alone.
• Being told "No!" She will burst into tears.
• Getting her nose wiped
• Taking naps

Ri baby's accomplishments:

• Being a speed demon crawler
• Pulling herself up into a standing position- She's only down this a few times and every time, I get so excited that I scare her and she loses her balance. Haha
• Feeding herself! This sounds silly, but for the longest time, she would just crunch up and smash any food she picked up. I would try to guide her hand into her mouth but she would freak out and jerk her arm away.
• Clapping! She's obsessed.
• Waving "bye bye". She is pretty inconsistent with this but it's soooo cute when she does it.
• Smoothly transitioning into a rear-facing big girl car seat. She looooves it.
• Being an overall badass baby.

Weekend Update

I know Rilyn's 11 month update is coming soon, but so much has been going on I felt the need to blog. Let me just tell you that I sat down with a huge stack of papers to grade, ending up spray tanning, painting my nails, uploading pictures onto my computer, and blogging instead. I'm SUCH a good teacher. :) Anyway, our weekend went a little somethin' like this:

Friday: Let me just tell you, with the "short" week last week, by the time Friday rolled around, my students and I were stru-gg-ling. Okay mostly me. The sun was shining and once the buses left, I was outta there! Ri & I had a fun little shopping trip to Target to get a present for our friend Karson (who was turning one on Sunday) and browse the clearance section. OH & get Starbucks. Then we wandered over to Caldwell to watch Sienna play basketball. Ri had a BLAST playing with Shianne & Sienna's nephews and was such a little charmer. She usually just stares at people. Literally stares. No smiles cracked, no laughs, funny faces, nothing. So for her to actually be social and show off her little personality just warmed my heart! We made it home pretty late, had a minor major meltdown, then passed out until 7:30 Saturday morning. (Yes, I do count that as sleeping in.)

Saturday: If any of you know me, you know I truly have the worst memory in the world. Today at work someone asked me what I did on Saturday and I just stared at them like this:

But anyway, moving on. Saturday kind of got away from me, but in the evening, my mom watched Ri and I had a yummy dinner (and margs of course) with my friend Jessica at Jalapenos!

 

 

Sunday: Sunday morning was my favorite part of the whole weekend! Usually on the weekends, Ri will wake up a little later than usual (between 7:30-8:30). I will get her out of her crib, change her diaper, make her a bottle, and put her in bed with me. This Sunday morning was the first time I showed her some cartoons up close on the iPad. We watched a solid of 15 minutes of Pocahontas and laid next to each other. I say this because Rilyn takes after me and is definitely NOT a snuggler. I take that back, she snuggles everyone except mom. It's really cool. After our little cartoon spell, my mom made us a huge breakfast and Ri had pancakes for the first time. She's obsessed! Then we got ready, she took a tiny nap, and then her dad picked her up for a fun filled day with her brother and sister. I went on a nice little run and drove to Boise for my good friend Kayla's son's first birthday party! I love that her little boy is so close to Ri in age and I was able to get some ideas for how the frick to throw a first birthday party. (I'm soooooo stressed about it) All in all, it was a very fun, busy weekend! I love busy weekends, but sometimes I forget to do stuff like laundry, grading papers, cleaning, going grocery shopping, etc. so I am really looking forward to a relaxing weekend here within the next year or two. :)

 

 

 A little off topic but definitely necessary: I stress out SO easily. Like over the dumbest things. I don't like throwing parties or having a lot of people around or feeling like I have to entertain/make people happy and comfortable and make small talk and all that jazz. So having a kid requires having to be a functioning human being like that which I really struggle with. I know first birthday parties are supposed to be small and simple, but I feel all this pressure to go above and beyond and it's really stressing me out. So if any of you have any suggestions (besides a vodka-Xanax martini) please throw them my way. :)