Mar 17, 2011 - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

After being gone all last week, Chad took Riley on a father-daughter hike Sat. morning

CA is beautiful this time of year, the hillsides are all green.

Of course, hiking with Daddy involved mud.

Lots and lots of mud.

And an apple.

Reading is still Riley's favorite activity, and Miss Independent likes to climb into the rocking chair and read by herself

After splashing in puddles and playing in wet sand, she was unhappy about having dirty hands

Gymnastics! Several different stations are set up for the kids to practice their skills

Carefully walking across the balance beam

Looks like Seamus won the race for cleaning food off the floor

The PJ's say it all

Green eggs, how fun!

She really wasn't sure about them

But finally decided they were just as good as the usual scrambled eggs

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We started our St. Patrick's Day with green eggs (no ham). Scrambled eggs is Riley's favorite breakfast but she wouldn't touch the green ones. I finally snuck some in her mouth when she wasn't looking, which convinced her that they were edible. I thought she would think they were so fun, guess that backfired! We had fun wearing green and eating corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. Riley loves potatoes, I think that's all of her Irish meal that she ate. Complete with ranch dressing of course!

Long ago Riley discovered the "throw food on the floor and Seamus will eat it" game which they both thoroughly enjoy. We had to put a stop to this fun and Seamus isn't allowed near the table when we are eating. We call him the clean-up crew and call him in when we are finished eating and he can have anything that has fallen to the floor. Riley has recently decided she doesn't want Seamus to have her food and tries to tell him no, which is completely ineffective since we have already said yes. So her most recent solution is to eat the food off the floor, too. They race to see who can eat the most. I frequently mop the floor beneath the table and am thankful she is eating a little more.

Our 3 month long Small Fry Gymnastics class is almost over. I signed us up as a way to get us out of the house during the rainy season, but it helped Riley's coordination and balance more than I expected. She can walk all the way across the balance beam by herself and can sometimes do somersaults on her own. I also noticed that she became better about waiting her turn, so this class had all sorts of benefits. I'm thankful for Hayward Parks and Rec for all the opportunities for toddlers.