It's Our Birthday

May 1st already, how is that even possible? I noticed when I logged in the my last post is from January, a fact of which I am not terribly proud. What can I say, it has been a busy year, although that really is no excuse. I should start out by acknowledging the obvious. Not once has the new baby been mentioned on this blog. I promise that is no reflection on our excitement level. We are thrilled to be adding another member to our family, and the fact that we are going to be welcoming another little boy is awesome. Perhaps we are biased, but I cannot imagine that there is a better thing in this world than a son. You will get a sense of why I think this when reading through this month's posts. A few things about the new baby. First, after past experiences, there has been a whole lot of fear and paranoia during the early phases of my pregnancy. Losing a baby is an awful experience in general, and we were so sad to suffer through the miscarriage before Riley. But, at least to me, losing a baby after you have a child and know just how much they bring to your life, well, it was devastating. The cancer scare that came with it may have ultimately been a blessing because I could focus my attention on the tests instead of dwelling on the loss. Truthfully though, the loss and resulting "what if's" may very well explain why we have been procrastinating all of the things we had already done at this point during my pregnancy with Riley - choosing a name, decorating the nursery, packing my hospital bag, installing the infant car seat. Or maybe it's just the second baby syndrome that everyone refers to (I hope not). Second, although Riley has been told that he's going to have a baby brother, I'm not sure he really fully grasps the concept (which may be a good thing). He'll do sweet things like try to feed a banana to my belly. He's chosen a name: Alice (I should note here that Alice is the name of the lunch lady at school - see past posts regarding his rocking horse and most other inanimate objects that he has named Alice - she clearly has made an impression). Today as we were driving home from school, we past a woman holding a baby and he said, "Hi cute baby!" and then proceeded to tell me that he likes babies. These things make me optimistic about him welcoming his baby brother in July. Riley is such a sweet little guy that I have no doubt he'll be a wonderful big brother, at least after the shock of it all wears off. Finally, this is likely the last post in which I will mention the baby until June. This is Riley's birthday month, and for the last two years, I have devoted the month to writing posts about what it is that makes him so special. Especially during this, his last birthday month without sharing the spotlight with someone else, he deserves some special attention. So I will start out the month of May with a quick example of what a kind soul Riley is. Wrigley, for reasons we can't really understand, seems to be getting nervous of loud or unexplained noises. She hates thunder and will hide in the bathtub any time it storms. She also dislikes being in the yard lately (which is quite odd considering how much she lives to play ball), which we have attributed to barking from neighbors' dogs that she cannot see due to the privacy of our yard. So now, when Wrigley is inside moping, Riley will come inside, bend down so that he's eye to eye with her and say, "Sweetheart, you ok?" And then he'll give her a hug and a kiss. It is so sweet and so kind that it makes me want to cry each and every time he does it. Speaking of Riley and Wrigley, they are hilarious to watch together. Often, during our walks, the two of them will run ahead of Casey, Winston and me. Just watching them makes you smile because you can tell that they are going to get into trouble together. Wrigley loves to roll in the grass, especially during the spring, and especially in our new neighborhood where it seems that everyone's lawn is immaculate, almost carpet-like (in fact, Riley calls one neighbor's yard his baseball field and insists that no one walk on it except him). But I digress. The funny thing is that Riley seems to have taken to this idea, so on most nights, you will find Wrigley and Riley in a random yard rolling around in the grass together. I hope neither of them ever outgrows this...