Potty Training

And so it begins.  For about the past two weeks I've started to introduce the potty to Riley.  The first step taken was to put her in pull-ups instead of her regular diaper.  Phew, that was a hassle and a half.  Riley wanted nothing to do with the pull-ups.  And when I say nothing, I really mean NOTHING!!  I wasn't even putting her on the potty yet, just trying to get her use to wearing something similar to underwear.  Everytime I'd go to change her diaper(pull-up) she'd scream bloody murder when I'd try to put a new one on.  It was awful.  I just thought to myself that Riley is definitely not ready for this potty training thing. 

Just a couple of days ago Riley has come to like her pull-ups.  She even takes them off and puts them on herself.  To me this was a major milestone in the potty training adventure.  Riley even wipes herself during the diaper change and then throws the wipe in the toilet.  But she still wasn't wanting to sit on the potty.

Last night Riley was a big girl and actually sat on the potty.  About a minute later she was ready to get off!  She didn't go potty, but the fact that she was willing to sit on the potty was yet another milestone to me!!  Trey and I told her what a good girl she was for doing that.  Trey shared some ice cream with her as a reward!  Of course now she'll probably go sit on the potty, get off and want some treats!  I figure she'll go pee on the potty when she's ready.  I'm not going to push it.  It's a gradual process and I think Riley is doing great thus far!! 

Waking Up Happy...Or Not

This little ray of light always wakes up in the morning and from naps with a smile on her face!  Riley was the same way up until last week.  I love walking in to a smiling baby.  It makes me feel like I'm going to have a good day.  Hadley just jibber jabbers away in her crib until I get in there to get her.  I love to hear her baby talk.  Then we have Riley who either screams at the top of her lungs when she wakes up or yells "Mama, mama, mama, mama, mama" until I get into her room.  For about the past week Riley has been waking up way too early.  It's been anywhere from 5:30-6am and she doesn't go back to sleep if I put her in my bed.  I'm not sure why she's becoming such an early riser.  All I know is that I'm not a fan.  As soon as we get downstairs and I give her some milk she's a load of energy.  The picture below is Riley at 6:15am.  Already busy playing with toys and making a mess of the house!  The only perk to her waking up so early is that she has been sleeping for over 2 hours during naptime.  I'm hoping this early bird girl is just going through a phase and will start sleeping until 7:30 again.  But I guess it doesn't really matter since Hadley is normally up by 6:30am.  I sure hope this early morning nonsense doesn't stop my visitors in September!!

Easter Treats

Yesterday we got a special delivery from Kiki and Po.  It was our Easter package!  Yeah!  This box was loaded full of goodies for the girls and contained Christmas cards for all of us!  I know where I get my late gift giving from!!  Riley & Hadley both got a bathing suit which are absolutely adorable.  I'm sure you'll be seeing the girls sporting their new suits when we hit the beach this weekend.  They also got some new movies..."UP" (which was Riley's first movie she saw in the theater) and "The Princess and the Frog."  I had rented that one from netflix for Riley, but Riley likes to have the dvd case with her when she watches a movie so she can point to the characters on the case when she sees them on the tv.  She is now in love with The Princess and the Frog!  We got some yummy cookies from Trader Joes which I had never had before.  Riley definitely enjoys them.  And we all got our pretty hand made Easter cards.  Sorry, I don't have a picture, but they were beautiful Mom!!  Thanks for all the special treats for the girls!!

I got the best treat of all!!!!!!

Oh yes, Mom & Mr. Kev sent me some Fisher's pop corn.  It's been so long since I've gotten to taste a little bit of Ocean City.  Yes, I know I live in paradise, but sometimes you just crave those sweet things from your childhood.  Oh my, am I old enough to say things like that??  It's such a delicious treat I'm not quite sure that I wanted Trey to have any.  He took a few bites last night and I didn't feel the excitement from him that I myself had when I took my first bite.  But he's never had it before, nor has he been to O.C!!  This was a heavenly treat for me!  Thanks Mom & Mr. Kev for thinking of me!

Morning Fun

It's totally apparent that summer is arriving here in Hawaii.  As the afternoon comes so does that nice summer Hawaii heat.  It's been getting nice and hot during the afternoon.  So hot that Riley is standing at the door with her shoes off ready to go back inside.  I can tell that it's time to get a pool out for Riley so we can enjoy the afternoons outdoors with some fun in the water! 

To beat the heat I've been taking the girls outside in the morning.  Riley likes to push her baby around in her stroller and take a walk around the block.  This walk takes forever because Riley likes to point out every rock on the sidewalk, every bird that flies by, and every place that she's fallen off of her bike!  This girl likes to talk!!  After a few strolls around the block with her baby she then likes to take a few cruises around on her bike.  Riley is a huge fan of her bike.  Her little legs go super fast.  As tall as Riley is she still isn't able to reach the pedals.  But that doesn't stop her from getting around.  Riley just rides Flinstone style!

Little sister Hadley just sits in her seat and watches her big sister ride her bike all around.  Hadley is thoroughly entertained by Riley all of the time.  Riley makes Hadley belly laugh like nobody's business.  It's hysterical!  I look forward to the day that Hadley is able to just follow Riley around wherever she goes.  Hopefully it won't annoy Riley too much!

Hoppy Easter!

Our Easter morning started out with Trey at work.  Unfortunately Trey had duty from 0800-1600.  So while daddy was at work Riley opened Easter gifts that Nana had sent for the girls.  Riley's favorite things were an Easter cup that lights up and Hadley's little musical butterfly light up toy.  Riley always seems to enjoy Hadley's toys more than her own. Riley did let Hadley play with her new toy for a little bit!  Nana also sent a little wind up jumping bunny and chick that freaked Riley out at first!  It was funny to watch.  

 I was planning on going to an Easter party that our friends were having outside for a load of people that don't have family here to celebrate with.  However, it had rained all night long and was continuing to rain throughout the day.  The party started at 1pm but due to the rain the party was moved inside.  The idea of this made me cringe a little.  I don't like being in a house with a ton of people and not having anywhere to move.  Hadley was still napping when the party started so Riley went to the party with our neighbor Erika.  I thought I would be following behind shortly after but Hadley wound up taking a 3 hour nap!  I did run down to Abbey's to pick Riley up because she definitely wasn't missing her nap because she didn't get one on Saturday and I wasn't about to deal with a no nap girl two days in a row!  When I got Riley she was snuggled up on Erika because she was tired and completely overwhelmed with the massive crowd of people crammed into Abbey's house.  I was honestly glad Hadley was taking a long nap.  I don't deal well with lots of people in a confined area.  Riley came home and went down for her nap and slept for 2 hours.  I actually woke her up because I didn't want her sleeping past 4:30pm or else she'd never go to bed.  I made Trey a yummy dinner...chicken, asparagus, and alfredo.  To top it off he had a nice warm brownie with vanilla ice cream for dessert!  Yes, I'm Betty Crocker!  After dinner our friends Adam and Monica stopped by to drop off some Easter gifts for the girls.  They got Riley enough candy to last until Halloween!  I definitely put the candy away for potty training rewards!  Riley also got some play-doh & a beach ball.  Hadley got a couple of teething rings which she really enjoyed. 

I had taken the girls on Friday to get their pictures with the Easter bunny.  It didn't work due to the fact that Riley wouldn't get out of the stroller and Hadley was looking in every direction but at the camera.  So needless to say I don't have any pictures of either of the girls with the Easter bunny.  I do have this one of Hadley sporting the bunny ears that Nana sent.  Riley refused to wear them.  She ripped them off as soon as I put them on her and threw them on the floor.  I don't think Hadley even knew she had anything on her head which made it easy to get her picture!!  I was going to attempt letting Riley dye Easter eggs this year but I just never got around to it.  I'm vowing that next year we will dye eggs and have an egg hunt in the house just like mom & Mr. Kevin did for Justin and me every year(and I won every year too)!

Nice Afternoon

Saturday Trey had the idea for us to go out to lunch and spend the afternoon in Waikiki.  We don't really go to Waikiki very often because it's so touristy and full of traffic!  We went to lunch at The Yard House.  Trey and I first ate there right before his jaw surgery.  It was delicious!  Easter Bunny Madeleine sent Trey and I some "date money" so we decided to enjoy lunch with our girls at The Yard House.  Whenever we go out to eat Trey has to have an appetizer, so we ordered the same thing that we got the last time: spinich cheese dip.  I know many of you are wondering why we'd order something that I wouldn't eat, but actually I do love this dip!  Trey and I knew Riley would enjoy the chips the dip came with, but much to our surprise and delight Riley LOVED the dip!!  It was hysterical to watch her dip the chips.  Once we got our lunch Riley continued eating the spinich dip.  She dipped her fries and her grilled cheese in the dip.  My picky eater Riley wouldn't eat her grilled cheese though because it was made with cheddar cheese.  She only eats American.  I wonder where she gets her pickiness from!!  Oops!

Our lunch was cut a little short because Riley had enough of sitting at the table and it was time for Hadley to eat.  I stayed inside to pay the bill and feed Hadley and Trey took Riley outside.  As I came walking outside of the restaurant I see Riley running around in this foutain.  I'm not really sure that you're suppose to run around in it, but there weren't any signs saying not to.  Leave it to daddy to let Riley run through water and get soaking wet with no change of clothes.  Riley was having a blast though.  She didn't want to leave.  The only way to convince her was to tell her we were going to walk by the ocean and see more water.  Riley definitely has a love for the water.  Our walk by the ocean was cut short because the rain clouds started coming in plus we had two tired girls.  We enjoyed our nice afternoon with an extra special thanks to Madeleine for treating us to lunch!! 

BLING BLING

March 26th marked 4 years since Trey and I had our first "blind" date!  We always acknowledge the day every year but never really do anything to celebrate.  Trey came home from work and totally surprised me with something that I've been asking for, for every holiday since he's known me!  Oh yes, Trey gave me diamond earrings!!  I was so stoked!  He caught me totally off guard.  I hadn't even been talking about earrings since Christmas time so I wasn't expecting to get them at all!  I said "but it's not even our wedding anniversary."  Trey replied, "today is more important than our anniversary.  If we had never met than we would've never gotten married.  Meeting you was the best day of my life."  Awwwwwwwww!  I know,  you're queasy after reading that!  Trey definitely enjoyed my excitement and the fact that he actually surprised me with a gift.  Normally when he buys gifts he can't keep them a secret and tells me what he bought for me!  He's definitely getting better with that!