Ice Skating

Riley finished her first Ice Skating lessons today. She's starting again in a few weeks. Debbie skated with us today. We didn't know she was coming, so we were surprised. Riley was excited to show off her new skates and what she's learned in skating so far.







Rest of the set here.

In other weekend news, we had poker and everyone had fun trying to solve the puzzles I got Doug for Christmas and Riley and I had fun playing the new game she got from the Gotobeds!

Happy New Year

We had a very relaxing New Years Day. We watched the Redwings defeat the Blackhawks 6-3 in the NHL Winter Classic and Riley played hockey in our living room during and after the game. She warmed up to Let it Rock by Kevin Rudolf just like the RIT Tigers do and then she rocked back and forth during the Star Spangled Banner, and then she made 3 goals in 3 pretend periods. In between each period, I drove the Zamboni. After the game, I interviewed her and every answer was "good", then she took a pretend shower because she smelled like hockey stink, then a crazy fan (me) asked her for an autograph and a had my photo taken with her. Then we started all over again. Good times!

These photos didn't come out that great though, apparently there was a huge fingerprint smudge on the camera lens. Oh well, they are cute anyway.

I Will Not!

I'll warn you before I get started that parts of this story maybe too much information for you.

Sunday didn't start out so well. Riley woke up at about 8:45am, came into my room to let me know she was awake and would be playing in her room. I got up to go to the bathroom, I was feeling gas pains. It all went downhill from there. I started to get more intensified pains, began to lose control of my bowels, then I got very cold and started sweating like crazy. I had no idea what was going on, but I felt terrible. So I'm in the batroom trying to deal with this when Riley walks in and states she has to go potty. I tell her that it's going to be awhile and remind her that there are 2 other bathrooms in the house. She insists on waiting. So she's just standing there in my face staring at me not saying a word. That starts to drive me nuts. Then all the sudden I start to feel sick to my stomach. I think I'm going to throw up. I don't know what to do, I can't risk moving for fear of what might come out the other end. I call out a couple times for Doug to come and help me and also get Riley out of there and to a different bathroom, but of course he's sleeping on his good ear and can't hear me. I say to Riley,

"Riley, can you please go and get daddy for me?"
To which she replies, "I will not"

I will not, are you f'in kidding me! She must be kidding. I try again.

"Riley, please go get daddy for me, I really need him"
To which she replies again, "I will not"

What the F#@! Is this kid serious? I will not? What am I going to do? As I'm quickly surveying the bathroom trying to make a game plan, I hear Nyssa russling around on her bed. Nyssa, my saviour. I call out to her.

"Nyssa, Nyssa come!" She immediately complies.

"Nyssa, get daddy. Nyssa, get daddy." To which she very obediently complies. I'm thinking, thank god I trained her to do that. Who knew what was something funny and playful would actually be so handy? I hear Doug's voice and I call for him. He manages to get Riley out of the bathroom, but never comes through with an alternative location for my puke. His answer was "get off the pot" which as I stated really wasn't an option. Luckily, the urge to throw up subsided.

I'm still trying to deal with what's happening to me. When I hear Riley break into one hell of a diva tantrum. This was unlike any other she's had. She went into her room, slammed the door, and stood pushing on the door, trying desperately not to allow her father into the room, all the while crying and screaming. I was able to get my bowels and cold sweats under control long enough to go to her room and try to go in. (Doug was standing outside it, playing with his iPhone). Riley yells, "No don't come in" and I can feel her pushing on the door. I say, "Riley it's mommy!" and she lets me in. Now she's crying even harder. I pick her up and ask what's wrong? She doesn't have an answer. It turns out she was scared because something was wrong with me. She wanted to play in her room, and she wanted to use the bathroom of her choice which was occupied, and she wasn't going to budge on any of those things. I tell her I'm just not feeling well, but I'll be okay. She's able to stop crying long enough to say, "Are you done in the bathroom, now?" To which I reply, "for a few minutes I think" She goes in to go potty and I go lay down. As soon as she's done, she runs back into her room, slams her door, and is refusing to let Doug in and crying again.

I tell Doug, "She's upset because something's wrong with me and she wanted me to tend to all her needs this morning. You'll need to console her." He replies with, "I know". Then there is a few minutes of silence. All I can hear is her crying though the baby monitor. Next thing I know I hear:

Daddy: "Riley if you come out, I'll take you to Mcdonald's to get french fry thingys(breakfast hashbrowns). It's still early and they are serving them."
Riley: "Yeah!!! (stops crying and opens the door). YES! I'm happy now! Can I get two?"

Nice bribe Doug!

I had one more round of uncontrollable bowels, cold sweats, and almost puking and then I slept until 12:30. My stomach was off all day, but I was fine. I have no idea what was wrong with me?

Squiggly Ears

We had a fun Saturday.

First up was swimming lessons in the morning. Last week, Riley swam all by herself with just 2 swimming noodles. She was very excited about it, so she convinced her Daddy to come to swimming lessons this morning so she could show him. It was safety day today though, so she barely got to go in the water. They spent all class reading pool safety books and walking around the pool reading all the rules. The only actually pool time they got was when they were trying the life jackets. They got to jump in and see how the life jackets helped them float. Both Riley and Daddy were bummed. Daddy said, "Pool safety is important, but not very fun, huh?"

After swimming lessons, we came home and relaxed for just a few minutes and then headed out to the movie theater to see Madagascar 2. Riley loved it. Doug and I thought it was good, but no where near the level of the first movie. There were 10 times as many monkeys in this one though, so Riley was happy!

After the movie, Doug took a nap and Riley and I had a fun project afternoon. We made squiggly eyed monsters and turkeys. Then Riley showed me how to color her Dora coloring pages and then roll them up together her.

After our projects were done, we had a little photo shoot with them, and when Roo was taking my photo she said, "Mommy, say squiggly ears!" and then she said the same when I took her photo. Together, we laughed about it.









And Riley's Xmas list looks like this so far:

1. Scooby Doo movies
2. Alvin and the Chipmunk movies
3. Tag reader
4. Piano
5. Singer microphone
6. Kung Fu Panda tag reader book
7. More art supplies (white glue, paint, dora coloring pages, paper)

Photoshop Upgrade

I just upgraded from Photoshop 2 to Photoshop 7. A huge upgrade. I'm so excited. I've been missing so much. There are so many new cool things I can do with my upgraded Photoshop. I've been playing with actions, they are so fun, but I still have a lot to learn. Check out these fun images. This is one I took of Riley at the Pumpkin Patch.

This one is the SOOC (straight out of the camera) image. Nothing done to it.


Here's what I did with it:

The first one is a very subtle enhancement, brighten and a little color pop.



The second one is alot of brighten and color pop



Not sure what to call the next one, but I love it!




This one is just fun, it's a grunge/urban look.


I'm having a really hard time deciding which one I like the best. They are all pretty cool. Which one is your favorite?

LANGUAGE!

It's no surpise to anyone that Doug has quite a potty mouth. He just can't seem to control his swearing around Riley. It really annoys him, but whenever he says a bad word, I immediately say "LANGUAGE!" to remind him to be careful what he says around her. She is at the age now where she picks up easily on words and is able to reuse. Luckily, I haven't heard her say any really bad words and there have been no reports from her school of such language and I'd like to think it's because I've made it very clear that these words are bad words and shouldn't be said. Doug thinks that I shouldn't make such a big deal about the swear words and if I don't call them out she won't even notice them. I strongly disagree, I think that if I don't call them out as unacceptable words that she will think they are okay and just start using them.

While playing Mario Kart on Sunday:

Daddy: "F*@!"
Riley: "Daddy, Language!"

I almost fell off the chair in laughter. To say Doug was annoyed would be an understatement. Now he gets it from both of us. Unfortunately, I am not immune to this. Making lunch this morning, I was having a hard time opening a jar of dip.

Mommy: "Shit, I can't get this jar open! What the hell!"
Riley: "Language Mommy!"
Mommy: "I know sorry."

But now she's taken it to a whole new level. I also said things like:
Mommy: "I can't get this jar open. How annoying?"
Riley: "Is that a bad word?"
Mommy: "no annoying is not a bad word"
Mommy: "Crap why won't this open" "What the heck?"
Riley: "Is that a bad word?"
Mommy: "No crap and heck are not bad words"

I started to get annoyed that she kept asking if words were bad just so she could say language mommy, so I proceeded to explain to her what words were bad which I'm not sure was the best idea.

Mommy: "Riley, the bad words are F!@#, Shit, Bitch, Hell" (These are the words that are most commonly said around her, so I just used those as examples. No need to introduce ones she's never heard at this point)
Riley: "oh"
Mommy: "Daddy says those alot huh?"
Riley: "yeah"
Mommy: "They are bad words and we shouldn't say them especially outside of the house"
Riley: "You forgot F@#! (mommy trying to ignore what Riley just said) Mommy, You forgot F@!#"
Mommy: "Yes that's a bad word too. Don't say it just say Gosh instead okay"
Riley: "Ok, Gosh"

Digital page #3: My Jam

"Oh hot damn, this is my jam. Keep me partying till the AM. Ya'll don't understand, this is my jam." - Flo Rida (In the Ayer)

Here's my 3rd digital layout. I've been wanting to do a page about the Riley's music for awhile now. I took some photos of her listening to my Ipod to go along with the journalling. I'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out.

When I paper scrap, it takes me forever to pick out the paper I want to use with a layout and I'm finding digital scrapping is no different for me. I think I went through about 4 paper/color combinations before I settled on this one. I'm still not 100% that I love it, but I got tired of staring at the layout. :) Cool thing about digital is I can mix and match a lot of different paper without worrying that I'm wasting paper.The bad thing is that if you don't find free paper that you like, it can get kind of expensive. This is the first digital paper that I didn't find free online somewhere or didn't come with the class I'm taking.

Six with Roo

Riley: Mommy, I want to watch another Scooby.
Me: Ok. Answer 6 questions for me and then you can.
Riley: Ok.
Me: What's your favorite color?
Riley: Purple
Me: What's your favorite TV show?
Riley: Scooby
Me: What's your favorite dinner?
Riley: chips
Me: chips are not dinner, what about pasta?
Riley: No,chips
Me: Who's silly?
Riley: you are mommy
Me: Who's your best friend?
Riley: Siobhan
Me: What's your favorite toy?
Riley: Mommy, come here, I want to show you.
Me: Just tell me what it is?
Riley: I can't! come here.
We walk over to her toy area.
Riley: This is my favorite toy (points at a box). Hmm. This is my favorite toy. Watch what I do with this. (puts a knight hat on her head). So much toys. I don't know.
Me: How about books? Are they your favorite?
Riley: yeah books
Me: What about all your art supplies for projects, is that your favorite toy?
Riley: Yeah
Me: What about Monkey Doodle, is he your favorite toy?
Riley: Monkey Doodle's not a toy, He's Monkey Doodle!
Me: My bad.
Riley: Can I watch Scooby now?

Nyssa, I'm Full!

I have a pretty awesome Dog. I love her. She is a cute, fun, good, smart Black lab. She understands many words and commands; sit, stay, down, come, wait, nicely, walk, and ride to name a few. She's a quick learner, but has a hard time understanding commands from Riley even though Riley tries hard to get her to sit, wait, and okay. Today, I think she picked up her very first Riley command.

Mommy: "Riley honey are you eating your lunch?"
Riley: "I'm full!"
Nyssa wakes from sleeping in the hallway, runs over to Riley and plops herself in front of her patiently waiting for what always comes after those words, Riley's food. :)

August in a nutshell

I have really been slacking on this blogging thing this month. I thought I was getting better at it. In my defence alot has been going on this month and blogging just wasn't at the top of my mind. I suppose it should be quality of posts not quantity, huh.? Here's August in a nutshell.

We started the month off celebrating Riley's 3rd birthday. The theme was Scooby Doo, of course. Her party was so much fun, my favorite party so far. I loved the way everything turned out from the setup of the party to the decorations to the cake to it not raining. She had 3 friends from school come and I loved seeing her play with them outside of school. I also remember the look on her face when everyone was singing Happy Birthday to her. I wish I could have captured her joy on film. I've never seen a kid blow through presents as quickly as she did. I couldn't keep up. I really need to get the thank you cards in the mail.



Entire set Here.

Then we had some very sad news a few days later that basically turned our lives upside down. My father in law passed away. It was not sudden and something we all knew was going to happen, but still none of us were ready for. I miss him very much. I'm not going to go into details because I don't think Doug would want me to.



This photo was taken on Thanksgiving and I think is one of the last photos I have. I wish I had taken more. I'll never forget the last things I remember him saying to Doug. "You just out in the neighborhood driving around and decided to stop in?", "I told you I wouldn't make it to Riley's next birthday, but I did." Doug helping him with water, "That hit the spot."

We had several vacation plans for August that we continued on with because Doug's Dad told him, "Go out and live your life, have fun. Don't worry about me." So we did and those words will be with me forever.

We went to Alexandria Bay with my parents. We took a boat tour, Riley got to drive the boat, saw two castles; Boldt Castle and Singer Castle, and Riley had Smoore's for the first time. I found a really expensive dark chocolate to use in hers since she can't have milk.






Entire set Here.

The next weekend we went to Camp Mead in the Adirondacks with our friends the Gotobeds. We went to Great Escape, did some hiking, canoeing, and swimming, played some games, watched Michael Phelps kick ass!, and then stopped in Lake George on the way home for another boat ride. Some of my favorite photos from the trip:





Entire sets Here, Here, and Here

The fun didn't stop there. I also attended a wedding, bridal shower, and wedding poker night for our friends Kai and Hannah. Riley ate chicken feet which I don't have a photo of. I'm so happy for Kai and Hannah. They are such nice people. Hannah is incredibly greatful for everything and she makes me realize just how much I take for granted in my life.



This is by far one of my all time favorite photos. To me the exposure and composure are great and I really captured the emotion. I think this is probably one of the best photos I've ever taken. I love it.



Rest of the sets, Here, Here, and Here.

And guess what there's more. We managed to find time to go blueberry picking, goto the zoo twice, have dinner at Chris and Deb's new house twice, play some Rock Band, goto the Drive-in a couple times, and if you can believe it even relax and do nothing a couple days. I think the rest of August will be more of the relax and do nothing. Now that I've put it all out there, that's ALOT in one month.

Dad Heckman, We are having fun, we are living our lives. We love you so much and miss you terribly.

What the F#@!? Isn't she alittle young to be shaving?

Daddy and Riley are on vacation this week by themselves. It's nice that they get to spend some quality time together. When I arrived home from work last night, I immediately noticed that Riley had a new bandaid on her leg and it in fact was covering a boo boo. When I asked what happened, this is the story I was told from Daddy:

"I was playing Guitar Hero and Riley was in the bathroom. She had the door closed when I went to check on her. I tried to go in and she said, NO! I'm doing something, go play another song. What she was doing was shaving her legs. She had my shaving cream on her legs and was using my razor to shave her legs. She scraped her leg. "

I had to laugh and then worried what could have happened with that razor. Oh boy! Next I'm told of another interesting thing that happened. Daddy and Riley were outside most of the day. Riley playing in her sandbox and Daddy working on our new backdoor landing steps (which I should take some photos of). He had a piece of wood sitting on saw horses and Riley walked right into it and bumped her head. She didn't cry, instead she looked up all angry and said, "What the Fuck?" I didn't believe it, but Doug swears that's what she said. He said that he told her that was a swear word and not to say it, and I said, "Well at least she's using it in the proper context?"

I can't wait to find out what interesting adventures they had today.

Riley's first ride

Thought I'd share another layout. This is from the day Riley got her first bike and it's using the Basic Grey scrapbooking paper line called Euphoria which I was extremely happy to have back in June when it first came out. This was my first time being on the cutting edge of scrapbook products. LOL!

Journaling reads: After four trips to the toy store and you telling me you didn't NEED a bike, I finally convinced you we should get one. Surprisingly, it's not been the first time it's been me thats really wanted you to have something. We got it home and you helped Daddy put it together. You took it for a spin and were so happy. You loved it!

Is that coming soon?

We went to see Batman:Dark Knight last weekend and took Riley with us. She loved the movie, but more important was something interesting she did during the movie. It happened during the trailers. The trailer for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor came on and Riley sat there wide eyed ooh and ahh through the whole thing.

When it was over she whispers to me: "Is that coming soon?"
I said "yes, do you want to see it"
To which she whispered: "Yes I do"

Okay a three year old understanding that it was a trailer and wanting to know basically when the movie comes out. That just blows my mind.

In other news its rated Rated PG-13 for adventure action and violence, so I guess that means she won't be able to see it. Who knows what her friends in Preschool might be learning on the playground because she got watch this movie? I got into a "discussion" on the two peas message board about young children in pg-13 and R rated movies. Let's just say I was in the minority on this issue. After arguing that it was a parent's right to decide what their child can and can't see and a parent's right to bring their children to the movie theather anytime they want as long as the child behaves and is respectful of others, I decided to ask my Mom what she thought because I don't ever remember a time when I wasn't able to see a movie I wanted to see. She told me other than some R rated movies when I was very young, they never restricted what I saw. The key to what she told me though was that we ALWAYS watched the movies together. I think that's the main thing, watch with your kids so you can discuss, answer questions, and explain things.

So Riley, you obviously want to see this movie, You are WELL under the PG-13 rating for this movie, but guess what? We are so there on August 8th! (I don't even want to see it that much and didn't even know it was coming out, but how could I say no to those big eyes and all that ooh and ahhh during the trailer?)

Everyone say it with me

It will not rain on Saturday August 2nd until after Riley's party.
It will not rain on Saturday August 2nd until after Riley's party.
It will not rain on Saturday August 2nd until after Riley's party.
It will not rain on Saturday August 2nd until after Riley's party.

Stall Tactics

As soon as Riley hears those three words, "Time for bed" from mommy she immediately goes into stall mode. Her most commonly used tactic is aimed directly at Daddy and it goes like this:

"I want to watch Dr. Who, Daddy."

What this means is I want to cuddle with Daddy while he watches Dr. Who and I get to stay up an hour later because that's how long the show is. This is the tactic that works most often for her, but what she hasn't realized yet is that Dr. Who is only on once a week and therefore only works once a week. That doesn't stop her from trying it the other 6 days of the week. What Riley doesn't know is that Daddy has freely admitted that if Dr. Who were on 7 days a week, it would absolutely work for her every single night.

She tried this last night, but it didn't work because it worked earlier in the week. I had to laugh as I had finally realized what she was doing. I had heard her say that to Daddy before, but didn't really put all the pieces together. I told Doug that I should really do a scrapbook page about this particular stale tactic because it is quite funny, and also is why I'm blogging about it now, so that when I get around to actually doing the scrapbook page, I will have remembered what I was thinking. (Note to self: get a photo of Riley and Daddy cuddling watching Dr. Who)

Doug tried to convince me that she just LOVES Dr. Who because it is an awesome show to which I fell off my chair in laughter.

Who taught her that?

A few days ago, Riley peed on her Yankees bear. Whether accidental or not, it makes me wonder just what Andy, the Red Sox fan, has been secretly teaching her?

Here's the bear patiently waiting for his turn in the washer.

Watch out Ebert, there's a new critic in town

We went to see Hellboy2 at the drive-in last night. When it was over, I leaned over to Riley who watched the entire movie sitting on her daddy's lap and asked her, "What did you think? Did you like it? She said, "I liked Hancock better." Laughing, I said, "Me too honey, me too."

On the way to the bathroom between movies,Roo asked where Hancock was and I point to the screen playing it. She tells me her favorite part of Hancock was the lightning, and asked me what my favorite part was? Then she said she did like Hellboy and I said I liked it too. Then she said, "but I still like Hancock better."

Got Steam?

Here it is, my first scrapbook page based on something I blogged. Part of the plan when I switched to blogger was to use my blog to journal for potential future scrapbook pages. Finally, I got around to doing one. I love the way it came out.



Blog post its based off

Now I need to find a better way to digitize my scrapbook pages. I should play around with photo stitching I guesss since my scanner won't scan an entire 12x12 layout. I'll add that to my list of things that don't get done. Hope you enjoy this page as much as I do.

Everyday Life and Childhood Memories

I haven't been blogging as much as I have wanted to since I moved to blogger, but more than I did when I was on Livejournal. I guess I feel like I don't have a lot to say and I feel like the day to day stuff in my life probably isn't all that exciting. Like for example, yesterday, I went to work for 8 hours give or take a few in either direction (haha). I'm not going to write about my work even though it gives me plenty of material. I don't want to get dooce'd. After work, I picked Roo up from school, we came home, had McDonald's for dinner. She got the Master Crane in her happy meal. She really really wants Master Monkey! anyone surprised? Then we went upstairs so I could get some materials for her birthday invitations. She threw a massive temper tantrum because I wouldn't let her bring downstairs the huge pile of crap she had collected together. "But I Love it Mommy, I don't want to put it back!!" Too bad! After that I worked on her birthday invitations, talked to my brother on the phone for a bit, put Roo to bed, played Wii Fit for about 45 minutes, watched some HGtv shows from the on-demand channel, some Chelsea Lately, and went to bed. See very boring, nothing exciting happened, no funny or insightful stories to tell, just everyday boring. Who wants to read about that. Anyway.

I've been thinking alot lately about my childhood memories. Lately, I've been seeing alot of scrapbook pages and blogs about things your mom used to say, or memories from childhood, etc. I feel like I have no memories, I mean I have memories about my childhood, but I don't feel like I have those meaningful stories, life lessons and awesome words of wisdom from my parents that most people seem to have. It's starting to really bother me. Why can't I remember things my Mom used to say or things my Parent's used to do all the time? They are amazing parents so why don't I have these types of memories? I know I must have them, but how do I pull them out, how do I remember them or how do I better convey the memories I have? Maybe that's my problem? I wish I could sit down and write a detailed recount of interesting things that happened in my childhood like this guy. Or why don't I have a scrapbook page all about my mom's words of wisdom like on page 35 of the July Scrapbooks, etc? I want those things, but everytime I try to think about it, I got nothing?

I remember the time I made my mom so mad once she pushed me up against the back door, but I don't remember what I did? I remember my dad worked late alot and everynight no matter what my mom was doing she'd sit in the kitchen with him while he ate his dinner and they'd talk. I remember that my brother and I used to fight, A lot, so much it would make my mom nervous leaving us alone. We'd call her all the time at work. My dad can't turn down stuff. He'll pick uneaten food out of the garbage (at home only) and eat it. He'll pick anything up off the street. We joke about it all the time, how he'll ask Mom to stop the car so he can get that sock laying on the side of the road. I told my brother when he was about 3 or so that he'd played basketball and love it and he told me he never would, that he hated it. I remember my Dad made the best snowmen, he'd collect aftershave bottle tops for eyes and a nose. I have a lot of photos of us making snowmen together. I remember my senior year I got drunk on a school night and had a terrible hangover, puking, and the works and my mom forced me to go to school, but I don't remember what she said to me. So I have memories, lots of them I could go on forever, or moments, but I don't seem to have memories of conversations, I wonder why?

Quotable Riley

Before leaving Grandma and Papa's house
Me: Riley, are you going to give Papa a hug and kiss bye. We are going home now.
Riley: No
Me: Are you sure? He really would like a hug.
Riley: I'm too old to hug
Me: You're never to old to hug.
Riley: Yes, I'm too old!!

In her bedroom
Me: I hear Nyssa barking she wants to come in. Let's get up and go downstairs and let her in.
Riley: That's not going to happen.

In the toy store:
Riley: Let's go see the bikes
Me: Okay, want to try this one? (a 12inch bike with training wheels)
Riley: Yeah sure
Me: look you're peddling that one. Cool. Do you like it?
Riley: Yeah I do
Me: Do you want to buy it?
Riley: No
Me: Are you sure? Wouldn't it be cool to have a bike at home to ride?
Riley: I don't need it.