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...

Growin' Up

Look who just graduated to a big boy bed?

(Incidentally, he is SO proud of himself.)

Groundhog Day

As I was driving Riley home from school today, I was reminded of the movie "Groundhog Day". You know, the one where Bill Murray relives the same day over and over again until he gets it right. This is often how it feels when you are driving around with a toddler.

Each day we pass by the Children's Home on the way to and from school. They always have the place decorated for whichever holiday is approaching. For Halloween, there was an enormous spider by the front gate. This was promptly replaced by a large turkey for Thanksgiving. Immediately after Thanksgiving, the turkey left and a nativity scene went up. After each item was replaced with a new one, I'd get peppered with questions. "Mommy, where's spider?" "Mommy, where's turkey?" "Mommy, what's Baby Jesus doing? What's cow doing?" And each day I'd answer the same way. "Spider/turkey went inside for the winter." "Baby Jesus is sleeping. Cow is keeping Baby Jesus safe and warm." Now, since Christmas is over and there's no holiday in sight, there are no decorations to talk about. So instead, it's now, "Mommy, where's Baby Jesus? Where's cow? What are they doing?" "Baby Jesus is inside the house. Cow is in the barn. They are keeping warm." It's the best I can do, and seems to satisfy him until the next drive when he asks the same questions and I repeat the same answers. And so there we are in Groundhog Day...

...until today. Typical drive home. Typical questions about Baby Jesus and the cow and what they're doing. Typical answers. Atypical response from Riley. "Mommy, I want quiet." Two solid minutes of silence followed. At first I was insulted ("why doesn't he want to talk to me?"). Then I was thrilled ("oh my gosh, silence...in a car...with a 2 year old!!). And then it hit me, I missed the constant questions and chit chat. I wonder if this is what it feels like to have a teenager.

Alice

Without so much as directly telling Riley that he's going to be a big brother, we have started asking him questions like, "Do you want to have a baby?"

"You are such a good brother to Winston and Wrigley. Do you want another brother or sister?"

For the most part, his responses are pretty typical and are generally pretty accepting of the concept. A lot of his friends at school have baby brothers and sisters, which I think helps. He thinks babies are fascinating.

My favorite question/answer, however, was as follows: "If you have a baby brother, what do you think his name should be?" His response, "Alice."

Hmmm.

Rileyisms

Learning to talk can be complicated. Even adults sometimes struggle to get words and phrases correct (which is most apparent when listening people sing the words to songs that they think they know). Riley is no exception, and I thought I should probably start to document some of my favorites. I have no doubt that this list will continue to grow over the years, and only hope that I remember to keep track of them.

1. Bounce-it-ball (at 2-1/2, how he thinks "basketball" is pronounced).
2. Mr. Table Head (translation: Mr. Potato Head).
3. When singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," he believes the last word of the song is "You". As in, "We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New You!"

Tough Night

Riley, as noted many times before, has always been an excellent sleeper. When you put him to bed at night, he really doesn't make a fuss at all and will happily talk or sing himself to sleep.

Last night was an exception. He did not want to go to bed. He cried and cried and cried. Casey and I had to go back into his room countless times to talk to him or rub his back. It was just odd and so very out of character. He slept great after he finally fell asleep, so I was certain it wasn't because he wasn't tired.

I figured it was because he was excited about our trip to Chicago, after all, we have been talking about flying and seeing his cousins and aunt and uncle and grandparents for weeks.

I decided to ask him about it on the drive to school this morning. I said, "How did you sleep last night?" His response (standard these days): "I just closed my eyes." I then asked him why he didn't want to go to sleep. His response: "My cried." "Yes," I said, "you sure did. Were you scared or sad about something?" His response was not at all what I was expecting, but explained everything perfectly: "Wrigley not here. And Winnie." Ah ha! So that explains everything. I had dropped the dogs off last night at the house of some friends where they'll be staying while we're in Chicago. Riley didn't want to go to sleep because they weren't home. "My miss them, Mommy." Yup, buddy, me too.

Why?

You always hear about that phase where children begin to question everything. The common response to anything is "why". I believe we have hit the precursor to that stage, and it is equally as difficult to come up with appropriate responses.

This is how the average conversation with Riley goes these days.

"Mommy, what's tha-yat (yes, I swear "that" is pronounced as a two-syllable word with a distinct drawl in the middle)?"

I respond with the name for whatever he's pointing at.

His follow up question: "What's it doing?"

And I respond with some sort of answer.

To which he almost always replies, "Oh, ok" as if that was what he thought.

Sometimes this is easy. Example: "What's tha-yat?" "A dog." "What's it doing?" "Going for a walk." "Oh, ok."

Sometimes I have absolutely no idea how to respond. "What's tha-yat (pointing to something in road)?" Realizing it's a dead animal, I say, "A squirrel." "What's it doing?" "Sleeping." "Oh, ok. When's it going to wake up?" Hmm, no response to that.

This conversation also varies slightly when something or someone is on his mind. This morning he pointed to my purse and said "pocketbook", a word he learned from Granny Annie. Then he said, "Where's Granny Annie?" "In Florida." "What's she doing?" "Drinking coffee." (Seems likely.)

I guess I shouldn't complain. At least I can make up answers at this point and he doesn't know better than to call me on them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when he starts learning things that I don't know how to answer.