Short

This entry will be short, but so is the subject matter. It has been quite warm here for the past week and Riley has been wearing shorts to school every day. This morning we woke up to cooler weather and some rain and it was time to bring the jeans back out. Much to my horror, the pair that I put on him had shrunk considerably in the wash. Or so I thought until the second and then third pair (which had not been washed recently) also were a good inch and a half too short as well. So I grabbed a pair of 2T jeans that had been much too long a few weeks ago when I tried them on him only to find that they were not too long at all now.

I wonder who growing pains hurt more -- the children whose bodies are stretching or the parents who are suddenly startled to realize that their little baby has grown into a little boy literally overnight.

Riley's friend Wally

I cannot remember if I have posted about this in the past, but Riley has a mobile with a bunch of Wallys (Boston Red Sox mascot) and a baseball hanging from the ceiling fan over his crib. He has loved Wally from the minute his eyes could see far enough to notice him. (I have some adorable pictures of him smiling and reaching towards Wally from when he was an infant.) Well, now he has begun to understand that Wally has a particular song that goes along with him. Each morning he will point to Wally and say "Wally's song". At which point you absolutely MUST sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" on repeat until he (or you) grows tired of it. It was during one of these delightful renditions of the song that we discovered that Riley understood what "1-2-3" meant. Turns out that he can count to 10 (although it often takes some prodding). Who knew?!?

We also discovered that they must work on their ABCs at school too. When we first started singing the alphabet song to him at home, he could usually repeat it up to c or d. About a week later when I was singing it to him again to distract him long enough to change his diaper, he made it to h. Then he'd say a few unintelligable things and come to "elmo p", which I'm pretty sure is l m n o p. A few weeks later and he can make it through the whole alphabet (well, at least on some days). It's amazing how quickly they seem to be able to learn at this age.

Guess it's time to really pay attention to what we are saying in front of him.

Bittersweet

Today marks a very important day in the life of the Otis family. Today we closed on the purchase of a new house. We are extremely excited on the one hand (after all, it's a really neat old home in Buena Vista, a neighborhood which we have always aspired to live in), but on the other, we are very sad to be leaving our current house and street and neighborhood (Ardmore) and park (Miller Park) and all of the amazing and kind and fun and thoughtful neighbors that we have met over the 8 and 1/2 years that we've lived here. I doubt there could ever be a better street than Elizabeth Avenue. In fact, just last week while Riley, the dogs and I were walking back from the park, we encountered a film crew preparing to film a commercial on our street because they felt that it was a perfect example of an "All American" street. It is.

But the new house and street and neighborhood are going to be wonderful as well. After the papers were all signed, the deed was recorded and the house became officially ours, Casey and I left the office and went in different directions. Casey went to the grocery store to pick up a bottle of champagne and then home to pick up the dogs. I went to pick up Riley from school. We all arrived at the new house at essentially the same time and explored together. The dogs were delighted to find a golden retriever and yellow lab next door. Riley was excited to have a house with absolutely nothing in it so he could run back and forth from wall to wall for about 10 minutes straight without anything interrupting his progress. Casey opened the bottle of champagne (he even had the foresight to place in an ice bucket with a bunch of ice and bring two champagne flutes - wow, I love this man), poured a glass for each of us and then all three of us "cheersed" -- Riley with his plastic cup full of water and Casey and I with our champagne.

Eventually we wandered outside to check out the yard and it was there that we encountered our first group of new neighbors. I immediately felt we had made the right decision when we discovered that the next door neighbors have three little boys under the age of 5 who Riley promptly abandoned us for. The sounds of their little squeals while running around the yard was a perfect way to end the very long process of buying a new home.

Driving Mr. Riley

Driving Riley to school has become one of my favorite times of day. There is no shortness of entertainment. After he is buckled into his seat and I am safely buckled into mine, he will point to the stereo and say "Usic" (as in "music"). When the music has been turned on, he will put his hands in the air and wave them around and clap and chair dance until he grows tired of it. Usually this is right about the time that he notices a bird. Then he tucks one little hand into his armpit and flaps his arm around and says "tweet tweet". Shortly after that, he usually spots a garbage truck, school bus, bicycle or some other delightful mode of transportation as we are still driving through our neighborhood. He is obsessed with all such items and will point to it, tell you what it is, and then either tell you that it goes "round and round" or "beep beep". He would do this all five minutes of our drive to school if we didn't happen to pass the Ronald McDonald House on the way. But we do, so he has to point out each and every morning that Ronald, in fact, is still sitting on the bench out front. "Hi Ronald" is what I hear from the backseat. (I swear I only told him once who Ronald was, but they apparently became very close friends quickly.) He continues to talk about either Ronald or the flags that we've passed until we spot another exciting vehicle -- the ambulance. There is a parking lot full of them on our way to school, and he shouts "am-boo-lance" from the backseat before he can even see them. He then proceeds to tell me how they say "whe ooo". Luckily, we come across a stop light shortly thereafter and then he repeats "light" over and over and over until we arrive at school.

I suspect there will be a day when I find his constant chatter and enthusiasm from the back seat a bit irritating, but for now, I couldn't think of a better way to spend 5 minutes in the car.

May has arrived!

I feel like I blinked and all of a sudden May has arrived again. It has been an interesting spring to say the least, and with all of the business and exhaustion, this blog has been one of the things I had to let slide. It strikes me, however, that documenting our doings for future reflections on days gone by is one of the things I most enjoy doing and it's a pity that I have let it go because I have been "too busy" with work and worrying about other things I cannot control.

So, as I did last year, in honor of Riley's birthday month, it is my intention to write an entry for every single day of the month leading up to my little man's second birthday. Some may be short, others may be long, but all of them will hopefully showcase the little guy he's becoming -- so full of life and energy and personality.

With the exception of when he is sleeping, there really are not many moments that Riley is truly still. Unfortunately, some days he can still be a bit clumsy and falls and scrapes and bumps are a common occurrence in his life. Unless it is hurts a lot or is very scary for some reason, he rarely cries after a tumble or bump. And as much as I hate that he hurts himself in even some minor way, I have to say that I find these "injuries" to be the source of much sweetness and hilarity to me. Pretty much each and every time he finds himself with an "injury", after he has recovered from fright of it all, he will point to the injured limb or head and say, "Mommy kiss." After I kiss the spot (and believe me, he lets me know if I have kissed the wrong place), he will point at the offending object or surface, wag his finger at it, and say "Bad boy" to it. The things he comes up with...

Question has been answered

In spite of the fact that most of the time Riley really doesn't look much like either one of us, after this morning, I can say with certainty that he is, in fact, our child.

Clue #1: While putting on his lightweight jacket (thank goodness Spring weather has arrived), he became very interested in something on it and made me take the jacket off and show it to him. He found what he was looking for -- the big "B" on the front. He pointed and said, "Red Sox." He was correct, the "B" was most definitely the Red Sox logo.

Clue #2: Shortly after putting on his Red Sox jacket, we exited the house out the back door to leave for school. Upon further thought, he turned around and went back into the house, promptly gave each dog a kiss and exited again. He repeated this another time before we could get in the car.

Elmo

Riley has a confession to make: he is absolutely obsessed with Elmo.

I like to think that it is somehow related to the obsession with Elmo that my late grandmother (Grandma Joan - my dad's mom) developed during her terminal battle with cancer. I vividly remember one year at Christmastime: she wanted nothing else but the "Tickle Me Elmo" that was on every child's wish list and was virtually impossible to get. But my dad had connections - one of his best friends (Henry) was a store manager at Toys 'R Us at the time - and he managed to score a Tickle Me Elmo and gave it to my grandma at Christmas. It has been many, many years since that Christmas, but I can still remember how delighted she was, how she hugged and hugged him and screamed "Elmo", how she got tears in her eyes (right along with the rest of us). I don't know what it was about Elmo, but it brought her such joy.

And now Riley is equally obsessed. If he sees Elmo or hears Elmo, he will say "Melmo" and his face lights up. Before Riley was even born, my parents gave him a baby Elmo with a pacifier that sings a song ("Guess who lives on Sesame Street, guess who is a monster, guess who has two red furry feet, that's right it's Elmo!" - couldn't forget those lyrics if I tried) and says "Elmo wants to sleepy now". He loves that baby Elmo. When he started being interested in Casey and me using the bathroom, we got him an Elmo potty. He has Elmo spoons, Elmo forks, Elmo books. Like I said, obsessed.

Most recently, he has discovered that Elmo also lives on our computer and on my iPhone. Every time he sees the computer or the phone, he will point and say "Melmo". This means that he would like to listen to (or if he's been good, watch) the video of "Elmo's Song" where Elmo is playing his new song for Big Bird and Mr. Snufalufagus (sp???) and then let's them borrow it to create "Big Bird's Song" and "Snuffy's Song". Once the lyrics start, Riley will start dancing. It is adorable.

Now, sometimes, at completely random time you will hear him say, "La la la la" and a little while later, "Melmo". It is quite obvious that he's singing. I really need to get this on video...