Reading

I have been thinking of what to make this post for a while and I think the most impressive thing Riley does recently has been "reading." Sometimes I think she definitely knows certain words, but I know that probably a majority of it is just memorizing her books because she will start reciting books randomly in the car, at home, etc. Either way, it's just so amazing how quickly she changes and learns new things!! I thought it would be cool to show Riley reading an ABC Book recently, and to go back and look at Riley reading an ABC book about 8 months before.

The first video was recorded on January 14, 2010. Riley was 18 months old.

The second video was taken last month, on September 16, 2010. Riley was 26 months old.

Singing

So someone asked me the other day what Riley's "new thing" was. After thinking about it for a while I think that her newest accomplishment, in my eyes anyway, is that she has really been singing a lot in the last couple of months. It gets better everyday, too, and it seems like everyday she either starts singing a new song or sings more words in a song she already knows. I guess I should mention that I use the term "singing" a little bit liberally because a lot of times it's more of her just saying all the right words with not much of a melody. But we still love it. :)

We are trying to get more on video, but usually when she notices one of us taping her with the camera, she says "cheese!!!"

Anyway, here is a little video of her "singing" the ABC's.

Reading the map

A few weeks ago we bought 2 maps at a store in Huntington Village. One of the United States and one of the world. We thought we would put up the one of the United States first, to introduce her to the idea of our country.

She was immediately drawn to it and wanted to know what it was all about so we started showing her some states. For example, "We live in New York. This is New York." Then she started pointing to other states and we told her what they were. And last week we realized that she knows all of the states, Puerto Rico, and the Canadian Provinces! She is such a little sponge!!! We are so proud of her.

Hopefully we will get a video of her reading all of them in one sitting but obviously it takes a while and this video is already 4 minutes long. I added subtitles because the sound quality isn't fantastic and I know that not everyone has the ears of her mother and father. :)

test

On April 18 we went to her little friend Eva's 1st birthday party at White Post Farms in Melville. She got to play with a baby goat. She had lots of fun!