Hard to believe, but Riley is now two and a half. She has grown to be such an amazing little girl, and we feel so lucky to be her parents.

Our good friends, and next door neighbors, have a 13-month old son named Riley. We have been referring to the two Riley's as Baby Riley and Big Girl Riley, although I'm not sure how much longer we can get away with referring to him as the baby! We love this kid so much and really enjoy watching the two of them play together. He is mesmerized by anything she does, and she just loves acting like a "big sister" (aka bossy) to him.

Here are some pictures of the two Riley's playing with bubbles the other day!

Isn't he precious?

Riley is now potty-trained! She hasn't had an accident in over a week now, and is consistently telling us when she needs to go. A couple of things we have been hearing/dealing with over the last week:

• Anytime she happens to see an adult in the bathroom and can make her way in, she'll come hang out and then congratulate that person on a job well done. Yesterday, after picking her up from school and making a pit stop in the bathroom upon arriving home, my mom got a "Good job, Granny" with a pat on the back! Today she told me "Mommy, I'm so proud of you"!


• She is now fascinated with bathrooms, whether it's at someone elses house or in public. At church on Sunday, she told my mom twice that she needed to go, and then just wanted to hang out in the bathroom. At our favorite taco joint the other morning, she was asking me "what's that?" as she was pointing all around the bathroom.

I decided it was time to give the 'ole blog a lift. What do you think?

Riley has something she'd like to tell you...

"I'm a big girl now!"

Yes, we have officially begun the journey that is called potty-training. Let me just say that this little girl has exceeded our expectations by leaps and bounds. Don't get me wrong, the first day was completely frustrating, but it has all been worth it. We've spent most of the weekend at home, knowing that it would help minimize our chance of accidents. Believe me, we have a long way to go before we can say we are truly potty-trained, but seeing the sense of pride in our little ones face when she goes on the potty...it's worth the wait!

So after two plus years, Riley got her first real boo boo. Poor thing was so excited to go to Granny and Papa's house (to see her cousins who were visiting) and got going a little too fast. If you've been to our house, you've probably heard us complain about our dreadful, very steep driveway. Well, it finally got Riley!

But it didn't keep her down too long!