Sunny Days

Today I was amazed by Riley's attention span. It was a gorgeously sunny day, so Riley and I decided to go watch Casey play tennis. The match ended up lasting around 2 hours. For someone who wants nothing more than to be in motion these days, you would think being confined to a small space watching tennis for that long would be pretty awful. Instead, he enjoyed watching his daddy while he played with his trucks.

On that note, I have found myself pondering a number of times recently the fact that it does appear that boys love trucks and cars without any sort of prompting from us. Maybe he sees the other kids at school playing with cars, but we really had never given him cars to play with until he started "driving" other things -- i.e. coasters, books, lids, whatever -- around our house). I wonder why that is.

The other fun thing that we did today was an unexpected treat. We were actually supposed to attend "Woofstock", which was a dog-friendly version of Woodstock (meaning, "bring your dogs and come drink and listen to live music"). However, by the time we had finished our errands and Riley woke up from his nap, we only had about 2 hours before his bedtime. So, we ended up meeting my friend Amanda and her almost 2-year-old son, Clete, at the park near our house. It was so much fun watching the boys "play" together. Neither of them was terribly keen on sharing, but it was still fun to watch them interact anyway. It was also neat to see how much different a year makes -- although Riley seems so old to me right now, next to Clete, he still seemed young. Clete, on the other hand, seemed like a little man. I wonder if I'll think that about Riley next year at this time.

Friday Nights

Friday nights may be one of my favorite parts of the week. They signal the beginning of the weekend, and the beginning of a few days where we can all relax and be together. Since its opening about 2 months ago, we have spent almost every Friday night at Mario's, an Italian/pizza place just down the street from our house.

Each week Riley amazes me -- this time it was because he was able to sit still in his high chair without having a meltdown of any sort for the entire 45 minutes or so that we were there. I think that probably had something to do with the fact that he ate pizza (with mushrooms and sausage) for the very first time. I think he could've done without the pizza itself, but he ate the sausage with gusto.

Morning Routine

Our normal morning routine since I went back to work has been to let Riley wake up on his own schedule. He usually talks to himself for awhile and plays with his toys (which I know because one of the toys in his crib is a blue dog with a bell inside of it that I can hear him shaking). Eventually, he gets bored and lets us know that it's time to come get him. Casey and I usually fight to be the first one into his room. The loser has to make his bottle, and the winner has to get him changed from school. All five of us hang out while he drinks his bottle, and then we put him back in his crib to play while Casey and I get ready for work. Usually Riley is crying by the time we are done getting ready. Well, the last few days the routine has changed. Now, when I come downstairs after my shower, he is standing in his crib facing the window and pointing at and talking to whatever it is that happens to catch his eye. A nice change.

Out of the Corner of My Eye

Tonight, while I was playing tennis, I caught a glimpse of a man arriving at the courts with his little boy. It wasn't until the point ended that I realized that it was Riley and Casey. Out of the corner of my eye, Riley seemed like a little boy and not a baby. It was at this point that I realized that to perfect strangers, he probably IS a little boy and not a baby. We don't really notice it because we see him grow up a little more each day.

This may say a little bit about my tennis, but all of the highlights of my match were related to watching Riley and Casey. They played with a truck. Casey ran around like a maniac while flailing Riley to his uttermost delight. A man that we do not know wanted to play "Guess the Baby's Age" and guessed Riley at 14 months -- which made us proud because the man thought he was very advanced for his age. Riley came up to the fence that separated my court from them, and hung on while he ate it (the fence). He smiled any time I came close, and flirted with my partner.

Casey also claims that Riley is going to be the class clown. He says he enjoys making people laugh and smile. According to Casey, this became apparent while he was feeding Riley his dinner. Apparently, with a big serving of pureed apples in his mouth, he found it a great time to make "motorboat" noises. Food splatter went everywhere. Upon hearing this story, I lectured Casey on not laughing at such incidents because they will encourage such behavior. And then I thought two things: first, it IS funny and second, every once in awhile isn't it just fun to delight in making people laugh, even if it means all manners have gone out the window????

Ch-ch-ch-changes

This is a small one, but still, it amazes me (and has been amazing me for about 2 months now) that Riley has gone from a little baby laying on his changing table during diaper and clothing changes, to a little guy who won't lay still for more than 10 seconds, wants to sit up almost immediately, and helps me get him dressed. Instead of having to put each little arm and leg into the shirt or pants, now I just put his arm or leg somewhere in the vicinity of where I need it to go and he miraculously does the rest for me. He almost changes himself. Just wait until he starts choosing his outfits...

Dear Riley

Dear Riley,

Today marks the day that Daddy comes home from his trip -- the longest he has ever been away from any of us since you were 7 weeks old and didn't know the difference. I just want to thank you for these five days of letting me get to know you all by myself. We all missed Daddy terribly, but it was so fun being able to share this extra special time with you and Winston and Wrigley. The thing that strikes me most as I reflect on our last five days is that I can't remember one single time that you cried or had a melt down or even seemed the slightest bit out of sorts. You slept well, you ate well, you smiled a lot. You giggled, you clapped, you danced, you talked, you walked, you reached for ME when you needed someone to make it better when you stumbled. You were truly delightful. It is like you sensed that Daddy was gone and you needed to be on your best behavior to help Mommy survive the week.

Not only did I survive the week, but I actually enjoyed it so much that I got a little (OK, a lot) sad when I dropped you off at school this morning. You are turning into such a big boy right in front of my eyes, and I couldn't ask for a sweeter, more lovable little guy. I like to think Daddy and I have something to do with that, but I think you would be special no matter what.

So thank you for being you, and for giving me these five days to see you shine when there was only me in your world.

Love,
Mom

A Morning Person

Today Riley amazed me when he talked to himself and played in his crib for almost 45 minutes before he thought to let me know that he wanted to have some company. He amazed me even more when I opened the door to his room to find him standing in his crib, holding onto the side, waiting patiently for me. Another first.

Later in the morning, he amazed me when he pointed to Winston and said what truly sounded like "dah", which I interpreted to mean "dog".

And, as usual, my heart almost melted when I turned around in the car to look at him and he just giggled, as if seeing me was the most delightful part of his morning.