Little Riley Riding Hood

3 years, 2 months By Allyson

In: Children | Little Red Riding Hood

So today I was reminiscing about when Riley was little. For instance when I wished I hadn't gotten her hooked on binkies. She was so low maintenance. No fussiness at all. No troubles falling asleep or anything. You just had to make sure that you got her bottles to her on time. If you were late on that it was the end of the world until you stuck it in her mouth. Ha.

But then one day, when she was about 3 or 4 weeks old I felt really guilty not using binkies because people had bought me 12 of them for the kid. So I opened it, washed it in hot water and gave it to her. She liked it. From that point on she needed it to help her go to sleep. She would be sleeping soundly in her basinet, and it would drop from her lips and next thing you know - Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! I remember falling asleep in bed with my hand hanging over the edge of the basinet holding it in her mouth.

Or searching for it in the dark. You know its in there. You search frantically cause all you want to do is go to sleep...Where in the hell is it??? Damn, too late. She's wide awake. And now not only do we have to find the binky we also have to rock her back to sleep again. Which requires getting up out of bed.

Or when she was 1 or 2 and Matt and Michelle were visiting us I think. Or maybe we were just walking in the mall together. Riley saw those little kiddie rides they have and wanted to know if she could get on them. We told her sure. Matt and Michelle started digging out quarters and Thom and I said, "Shhhh. Put those away. She doesn't know they move." I think Matt and Michelle were flabberghasted. Thom and I had gone a few months with just letting Riley sit on them and she was thrilled with that. We didn't have to worry about having quarters for such a long time. Heh. Maybe that makes us horrible parents. Don't worry we did eventually start paying to have them move for her.

Another cool thing was when she was a really little infant. Maybe a month or so old. We were riding in the car with my mom. And my mom had praise and worship music on, and Riley had been sleeping soundly the entire car trip. The music stopped playing because it had reached the end of the tape and was getting ready to switch sides. Riley started crying like crazy. My mom couldn't figure out what in the world happened. I told her it was because the music had stopped. As soon as the other side of the tape started playing again Riley quit crying. It was pretty cool.

Riley has always been a cool kid. She has this way of making anybody her friend whether you want to be or not. Ha. A lot of shy kids don't know how to take her. She's gotten better at not being quite so forward now. Now she realizes sometimes you have to give people a little space before they are ready and willing to be friends. But when she was two....she could make just about anybody smile. She was always so determined that you were going to be her friend. "Hi, I'm Riley, do you want to be my friend?"

Well, that was my trip down memory lane. I'm really glad that Riley is in my life. She is a great kid. Although I will admit, her and I bump heads a lot. I think its because we are so much a like. There are times when I see her doing things or saying certain things that I remember when I used to do those things plain as day. Or I see how certain things effect her and I remember that's how they used to make me feel. It's really kind of strange having another little person around who is so much like you. But I love her. And like I said, I'm really glad she's in my life.

Here's some pics of her growing up over the last five years.