All About Rylee

Photo courtesy of Sweet Little Love Photography

Oh how I love this little girl!  Anyone who meets her now would never even begin to imagine the struggles she had her first 3 months of life.  She has the best laugh that is unique to only her.  She doesn't always smile or laugh easily if she's in a new situation or environment, but once she warms up, she talks and smiles at everyone.

It's funny how her and Ayden tend to swap personalities sometimes.  Until a few weeks ago, she was so super easy going, always going with the flow of things.  He was the cranky one.  Lately, it's been Rylee's turn to whine and scream.  Oh the screaming!  She has taken it to a whole new level!  She definitely is not afraid to let us know when she is not happy with something.  This sweet little thing has a very big voice!  Or maybe I should call it a very loud screech....

She's yelling at me about something...

At their 18 month check up (almost a month ago!), Rylee weighed 23 lbs 4 oz, falling in the 59th percentile.  She is a full 2 inches shorter than her brother at 31 inches tall, which is the 23rd percentile.  Well, this explains why she has such a cute little belly!  I call it her milk belly because she LOVES, loves, loves her milk!  She guzzles it as if someone is going to come steal it from her, so she has to get every last drop as fast as she can.  The girl is short with a weight falling slightly above average.  Thus, the belly.  haha!  She has a big head like Ayden, but hers is at least not in jeopardy of going off the chart!  Rylee's head is at 83%.

Rylee is wearing mostly 18 month clothing, but still fits in 12 month pants.  She actually has one pair of shorts that she wore last fall as capris that are size 3-6 months, and she still wore them yesterday!  Clothing sizes continue to baffle me.  She is wearing size 4 diapers and is in a size 5 shoe.

Photo courtesy of Sweet Little Love Photography

Rylee's finally starting to say a few words.  She knows exactly what a ball is and will declare it whenever she picks one up.  She's very proud of her knowledge of balls!  Last week she started saying baby in reference to stuffed animals and dolls.  She's said the word for quite sometime, but not with any meaning.  She says "hi" ALL the time!  She comes up to us randomly throughout the day and says hi, sometimes over and over.  Last week we were at Costco, and she said hi to anyone that walked by us.  We've been taking swimming lessons and she will holler out hi and wave to the lifeguard.  She says it in a really sing-songy voice and it is absolutely adorable!  She has just recently started saying "bye."  She tells her Daddy bye almost all morning until he walks out the front door to go to work, and then says it a few more times for extra credit.  Rylee says "Gah" for car, but then she also says the same thing for dog (or any other animal she sees!).  She is actually quite the little chatter box and talks all the time.  Her favorite thing to jibber jabber is "dubadubaduba."  She's even started trying to sing!  She loves "singing" E-I-E-I-O to Old McDonald.

Rylee got a referral for Early Intervention in regards to her delayed language skills, along with Ayden, but she's actually starting to say more and more all the time.  When the gal called from EI to assess, she said if it were just Rylee, they'd check back again at age 2 to re-screen.  However, since they will be coming out to evaluate Ayden because he is definitely behind, they might as well evaluate her too, since they will be here anyway.  For the record, I'm not real worried about their delay in communication, but I do want to stay on top of things just in case there does turn out to be a problem.  Besides, it's a free program, so why not?

Rylee absolutely loves to go to the park!  In fact, if we are out for a walk and we go past the park without stopping, she starts to cry.  This RARELY happens, since most of our walks are completely planned around park trips.  As I said, she's become quite vocal lately, and that includes letting us know that she wants to play at the park!  She has become a little pro at climbing the stairs of the playground equipment and her favorite thing is to go down the slide.  Rylee also really enjoys picking flowers, or weeds as most adults would call them.

I still haven't figured out what Rylee's favorite foods are, because she changes her mind all the time.  What she likes one day, she won't like the next and will just throw it all on the floor instead.  The one thing she will always eat for snack is a kids Clif bar.  She does typically enjoy fruits, her favorites being blueberries, watermelon, and strawberries.  She likes cheese on most days, and pasta is okay most of the time.  Rylee loves eating with a fork and spoon, although she isn't very good at it and always wants help.  But look out if you actually take the spoon away from her in your attempt to help!  The spoon must remain in this girl's hand the entire time.

Rylee has actually gone potty on the toilet a few times!  After getting a nighttime bath, it had been turning into a race to get a diaper on her before she would pee.  We finally decided that if she's going to pee every time, then why the heck don't we just put her on the toilet?  What do you know, now she goes potty on the toilet almost every time after getting a bath.  She doesn't know what she's doing yet, but it's at least a start.  We haven't started doing any official potty training, other than sitting them on the toilet after baths.

Rylee's favorite game is to run either away from us or toward us, whichever suits her fancy at the time.  She loves running to us for hugs, but she really, really enjoys being chased as well.  Especially if you say "I'm gonna get you!" while you are chasing after her.  This causes great big giggles and squeals of laughter.  It also means that when we want her to come to us to get her teeth brushed, or go in the highchair, or it's time for bed, she thinks it's a game and makes us chase after her.  She thinks she's soooo funny when she runs away from us!

Rylee might have recently become very opinionated and outspoken (i.e. cries, whines, throws fits), but she is also such a little sweetheart that loves to cuddle.  She's got a great big personality that tends to stay hidden if she doesn't know you, but once she lets loose, she has the most infectious smile and laughter you've ever heard.

Rylee's first cowgirl boots and "pony ride"

Photo courtesy of Sweet Little Love Photography

Photo courtesy of Sweet Little Love Photography