Lesson for Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster sits proudly on a low shelf near the door at Riley's school. Most days, as he is leaving, Riley has to say good-bye to Cookie Monster, usually by patting him on the head or reaching into his cookie jar (which is, thankfully, without cookies).

Today, however, Riley decided it would be funny to put his hand in Cookie Monster's mouth. Trying to capitalize on the opportunity to have a conversation about not biting without Riley actually being in trouble, I said, "Cookie Monster, no bite. Not nice." Without missing a beat, Riley replied, "Mime tout, Cooey Monner." (Translation: "Time out, Cookie Monster.") He then proceeded to turn Cookie Monster around so that he was facing the corner.

I sure do hope Cookie Monster learned his lesson.

Reminder to Daddy

Riley and I were sitting at the kitchen counter this morning eating breakfast. As with most days, Casey left for work while we were eating. Riley likes to watch Daddy leave and waves at him the entire time from when he closes the door to the house until he backs his car down the driveway and out of sight.

Every morning, before he leaves the house, Casey will give Riley a hug and a kiss. This morning, after receiving his hug and kiss from Casey, he quickly said, "Mommy hug." I assumed this meant that he wanted me to give him a hug too, so I leaned over to hug him. This obviously wasn't it, as he repeated, "Mommy hug," and pointed to Casey. So Casey gave me a hug. This was clearly it, as a big smile immediately crossed Riley's face. A second later, with his devious smirk, he said, "Mommy kiss." After I received my kiss from Casey, he seemed satisfied.

Guess he didn't want Mommy to feel left out...

One of the Best Things Ever!!!

When I am loading Riley into the car to head off to school, I usually tousle his hair or give him a kiss before closing the door and heading around to the driver's seat.

For the past two days, by the time I open my door, Riley's got his arm stretched apart and is saying "Hug, Monny, hug." I mean, really, what Mom can refuse an extra hug? So I walk back around the car, open his door and give Riley a great big hug. Well, today I got an added bonus: after the hug he unmistakably said, "Love you."

My heart could've melted.

Toast

Ever since I was pregnant with Riley, Casey has been making me "special toast". It is toast with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon on top and it is my favorite. Recently, Riley decided to opt out of his traditional peanut butter toast and instead wanted special toast. Being the ever-accommodating Daddy that he is, Casey made it for him. He has requested it pretty much every morning since.

Casey loves to cook, and likes to share the cooking experience with Riley. He has Riley smell things, feel things, etc. and is constantly explaining what he's doing.

This morning, Riley slept in particularly late, so I was in charge of breakfast. As is commonplace these days, when asked what he wanted for breakfast, Riley's reply was "Special toast." So I made him some special toast (I have to say though, I think Casey's toast is more special -- tastes better to me anyway) and was going about putting things back after I handed the toast to Riley. All of a sudden he started whining about something that I could not understand. "Monny, sell. Monnnnnnny, selllllll." As he grew more agitated, he started pointing to what had clearly offended him (something inside the kitchen cabinet). With this clue, I was able to figure out that I had made the grave error of putting the cinnamon away before allowing him to smell it.

After a good long sniff, all was forgiven.

Pool Break

Riley loves spending time at the pool. If you cannot find us on a weekend, odds are it's because we are at the pool. He splashes and plays and jumps off the side of the pool and generally has a big time. But he also understands his limits. And this is why I think "pool break" was invented. Each and every time he hears a whistle blown, and particularly on days when he has worn himself out, he will yell, "Pool break" and insist that we all get out of the pool.

Side note: This does not just occur at the pool. We were at home the other day and Riley said, "Pool break" -- it took me a few seconds to realize that the song we were listening to had the sound of a whistle in it.

He also says "Pool Break" at the store, while driving in the car, pretty much whenever, I have surmised, he has the pool on his mind.

Happy Birthday

You may remember from a prior post that Riley became slightly obsessed with his friend Hannah's birthday, saying "Happy Birthday, Hannah" for weeks after her birthday party.

On the 4th of July, I made the mistake of trying to explain the holiday in terms that he could understand. I ended up saying, "You know, it's America's birthday, like it was Hannah's birthday."

Well, almost two weeks later, he is still saying "Happy Birthday, America" multiple times a day. I find this particularly adorable. I also find that the people we encounter in our daily lives (parents dropping off their kids at school, people in line at the grocery store, neighbors, complete strangers) think this is charming as well.

Must capture on video.

Front Porch

Casey is a "get out of your pajamas and change into your clothes for the day before you leave the bedroom" kind of a parent. I, on the other hand, am a bit lazier and like to ease into the day. Probably much to Casey's displeasure, on the days that I am fortunate enough to be the one to get Riley out of bed, we usually start out his morning by letting the dogs out the front door.

This was one of those mornings. Riley likes to sleep in, so it was probably 8:30 or so before we made our appearance on the front porch. By that time, many people are out and about in our neighborhood, likely trying to get their walk or run in before it gets too unbearably hot.

We must be quite a sight to all those passing by -- Riley and I sitting next to each other on the top step, both still in our "jammies" with crazy, unbrushed hair, flanked by two very large golden retrievers. We are hard to miss, especially now that Riley thinks he's the neighborhood social director and insists on saying, "Morning" to each and every person that passes by...

I will miss that front porch.

Fireman

After I picked up Riley from school last night, we were on a mission to get to the grocery store when the most exciting thing (to a two-year-old) happened: a fire truck drove by. As luck would have it, the fire truck was headed in the same direction we were, so we got to see the fire truck for quite awhile. It was pretty far ahead of us and ended up turning. "Bye bye, fire truck," he said, somewhat dejectedly.

I turned into a different entrance to the shopping center than usual, knowing full well that the fire truck had also decided to visit the shopping center. We parked and instead of walking into the store, I walked Riley down to the parking lot where the fire truck was parked. His eyes immediately got big as we walked toward the fire truck. And then the second coolest thing happened: a fireman got out of the fire truck! And he started walking towards us! And he reached out his hand to give Riley the sticker badge that he was holding! Riley was so excited that he could barely stand it. The fire man showed us around the fire truck and we got to look at all the cool buttons and ladders and hoses. After a few minutes, it was time for the fire truck to leave, and besides, we still had to go buy our groceries.

This dear fireman though was not through with Riley's experience. As the fire truck pulled out of the shopping center, he honked his horn, turned on his lights and gave a quick blast of the siren. If you could've seen Riley's face -- I have never seen him so excited about anything.

He insisted on sleeping with his fireman sticker badge on his jammies last night. This morning (and this should tell you how much he loves "Alice", his rocking horse), after we were finished getting dressed for school, he walked over to Alice and proudly put his sticker badge on her nose and proceeded to tell her about "fire truck".