Every so often, Casey and I allow the boys to spend a little time on their own without us hovering over them. Such was the case this morning. I was taking a shower and Casey was drinking a quick cup of coffee. Riley and Chase were in Riley's room with the door shut so that our crazy little man would not be tempted to attempt going down the steps without supervision.
As I emerged from the peacefulness of my shower, I heard a horrible sound coming from Riley's room. Well, not horrible in that something bad was happening, but horrible in that it was tremendously off-key. Upon entering Riley's room, I found Riley and Chase in the closet -- both standing up banging on the keys of the keyboard set up in Riley's closet, Riley singing at the top of his lungs, both boys grinning from ear to ear.
In hindsight, it may very well have been the most precious sound on earth.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Birthday Parties
It seems that turning four is officially a big deal. This is the first year we are having a birthday party for Riley, and it's the first year that many of his friends are having parties too. There are 4 other kids in Riley's class that have May birthdays. Today was the first of the 5 parties. Riley was so excited about picking out a gift for his friend, Grace. When we first asked Riley a few weeks ago what he wanted to get her for her birthday, I was not all that surprised when he said "a fire truck". After all, it is one of Riley's favorite things. However, when we went out to actually buy a present for Grace, we asked him again what he wanted to get her. This time his response was "a princess". Grace is a sweet but rowdy girl that definitely can hold her own with the boys, so Casey and I were sort of surprised by this choice. When we arrived at the party, the entire theme was princesses. When we were telling Grace's mom the story of picking out a gift, we laughed as we told her his first response had been a fire truck. Her reply, "Grace LOVES fire trucks." It seems that our boy has already grasped the art of listening to what girls want -- he knew the exact two gifts that would've made her day.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Olive
The first time I ever heard of Olive was way back in September when we were vacationing in Maine. We were at the back bay one morning. Riley, Casey and the dogs were walking around in the marsh while Chase and I stayed back on the sand so Chase could drink his bottle. When they came back from their adventure, Winston and Wrigley had been renamed Wilson and Olive. They retained those names for our entire stay in Maine. Not long after we returned, I saw the roster of names for the kids in Riley's class. On it were Wilson and Olive. It all made sense.
I didn't hear Olive's name again until mid-October. By then, the renaming of the dogs was a distant memory in my newborn-induced fog. It was during this time that Chase learned how to put himself to sleep and I had more time to spend with Riley before his bedtime. The two of us would lay in his bed with the lights off and stare at the ceiling. Sometimes we'd pretend we were watching fireworks -- pointing to different spots on the ceiling and talking about what color we saw and if it was big or small. Other times, he just wanted to talk, and somehow in that uninterrupted setting in his dark room, he started really talking to me about things that were on his mind. Sometimes it was questions about things he'd seen and didn't understand. ("Monny, why is Uncle Scar mean? Why did he hurt Simba's daddy? Did he killed him? Why did it make Simba sad?") Sometimes it would be silly stories that he'd made up. All of those conversations were precious to me. And then one night out of the blue he looked at my feet and said, "Monny, I like you shoes. Olive has shoes like yours." And with those ten words, I knew his life had changed. He had his first crush. So I asked him if he'd tell me more about Olive. He replied, "Olive is a princess." So I asked who the prince was. "Riley." (Big grin.) He then proceeded to tell me, "Monny, Olive likes dresses. She likes dresses with stripes. We match." (Immediately, a light bulb went off in my head: so THIS is why he had insisted on wearing exclusively stripes to school for the past few weeks. Prior to that, he had never voiced an opinion about his wardrobe.) Is it weird to admit that for a minute I was almost jealous of little 3-year-old Olive? I had Riley point her out to me the next day at school when I dropped him off, and I actually eyed her to make sure she was good enough for my baby. I wonder if this is how Casey's mom felt about me 13 years ago...
After October, all we heard about for months was Olive. His teachers also noticed the budding romance and said that they were always holding hands and sitting next to each other. Riley would get nervous walking down the hallway to his classroom when I dropped him off each morning. I had no idea you could get butterflies in your stomach at 3. It was adorable.
In November, I did what every good mom would do: I emailed Olive's mom and coordinated their first date. We met up with Olive, her parents and her little brother (who coincidentally is very close in age to Chase) at the park. It was so cute how excited Riley was in the week leading up to this date. We could've gotten him to do just about anything by threatening to cancel his playdate (I made a mental note to remember this down the road).
In their Christmas program, Riley and Olive had to be next to each other on stage. I was able to get a pretty good picture of them - both reindeer - and Santa framed it for him and left it in his stocking for him to open on Christmas morning. One of my few successes as a mom. He grinned from ear to ear when he came to show Casey and me what Santa had left.
Riley and Olive broke up sometime in January. He started to talk about her less. Casey and I would ask him about her sometimes and he didn't have much to say. Finally Casey ended up asking him if he and Olive had broken up. He shrugged and then said something like, "I'm just hanging out with the boys in my class."
I'm not exactly sure what happened to their romance, but as it turned out, Casey and I really liked Olive's parents and were sort of crushed when it was over. Luckily, they are now friends again and we had Olive and her family over for dinner, drinks and play time today. It was a lot of fun. I do hope that someday, when we do meet Riley's future in-laws, we like them as much as we liked the first candidates.
I didn't hear Olive's name again until mid-October. By then, the renaming of the dogs was a distant memory in my newborn-induced fog. It was during this time that Chase learned how to put himself to sleep and I had more time to spend with Riley before his bedtime. The two of us would lay in his bed with the lights off and stare at the ceiling. Sometimes we'd pretend we were watching fireworks -- pointing to different spots on the ceiling and talking about what color we saw and if it was big or small. Other times, he just wanted to talk, and somehow in that uninterrupted setting in his dark room, he started really talking to me about things that were on his mind. Sometimes it was questions about things he'd seen and didn't understand. ("Monny, why is Uncle Scar mean? Why did he hurt Simba's daddy? Did he killed him? Why did it make Simba sad?") Sometimes it would be silly stories that he'd made up. All of those conversations were precious to me. And then one night out of the blue he looked at my feet and said, "Monny, I like you shoes. Olive has shoes like yours." And with those ten words, I knew his life had changed. He had his first crush. So I asked him if he'd tell me more about Olive. He replied, "Olive is a princess." So I asked who the prince was. "Riley." (Big grin.) He then proceeded to tell me, "Monny, Olive likes dresses. She likes dresses with stripes. We match." (Immediately, a light bulb went off in my head: so THIS is why he had insisted on wearing exclusively stripes to school for the past few weeks. Prior to that, he had never voiced an opinion about his wardrobe.) Is it weird to admit that for a minute I was almost jealous of little 3-year-old Olive? I had Riley point her out to me the next day at school when I dropped him off, and I actually eyed her to make sure she was good enough for my baby. I wonder if this is how Casey's mom felt about me 13 years ago...
After October, all we heard about for months was Olive. His teachers also noticed the budding romance and said that they were always holding hands and sitting next to each other. Riley would get nervous walking down the hallway to his classroom when I dropped him off each morning. I had no idea you could get butterflies in your stomach at 3. It was adorable.
In November, I did what every good mom would do: I emailed Olive's mom and coordinated their first date. We met up with Olive, her parents and her little brother (who coincidentally is very close in age to Chase) at the park. It was so cute how excited Riley was in the week leading up to this date. We could've gotten him to do just about anything by threatening to cancel his playdate (I made a mental note to remember this down the road).
In their Christmas program, Riley and Olive had to be next to each other on stage. I was able to get a pretty good picture of them - both reindeer - and Santa framed it for him and left it in his stocking for him to open on Christmas morning. One of my few successes as a mom. He grinned from ear to ear when he came to show Casey and me what Santa had left.
Riley and Olive broke up sometime in January. He started to talk about her less. Casey and I would ask him about her sometimes and he didn't have much to say. Finally Casey ended up asking him if he and Olive had broken up. He shrugged and then said something like, "I'm just hanging out with the boys in my class."
I'm not exactly sure what happened to their romance, but as it turned out, Casey and I really liked Olive's parents and were sort of crushed when it was over. Luckily, they are now friends again and we had Olive and her family over for dinner, drinks and play time today. It was a lot of fun. I do hope that someday, when we do meet Riley's future in-laws, we like them as much as we liked the first candidates.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Story time with my baby
I may have mentioned this before, but Chase is completely in love with his big brother. Now that he can crawl, the first thing he wants to do when I put him down on the floor in the mornings is to crawl to Riley's room. I usually watch to make sure that he doesn't change his mind and head towards the stairs, and then I let the boys do their own thing for a few minutes before I interrupt. Today, when I entered Riley's room, they were both sitting next to each other on the floor. Riley had a soft "baby" book about Nemo in his lap and was reading it to Chase who was the most attentive I have ever seen him. There are just no words...
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Hello May
Somehow another year has come and gone. Today marks the first day of May, which means I will begin my month-long tribute to all things Riley. He has grown up so much, and I just wish I could stop time... or at least slow it down.
It is astounding to think of what a difference a year makes. Each and every day with a young child seems like an eternity, but each and every year seems to pass in an instant. Last year at this time, Riley was active but not athletic, talking but not completely conversant, silly but not funny, into baseball but not INTO baseball. He may have been anticipating a baby brother, but certainly couldn't have comprehended how much his life would change, and mostly for the better. He had friends, but didn't fully understand what that meant.
Today I turned in the paperwork to register him for school next year. As I was filling it out, I realized that this is the last time I will register him at Foundations at 4-1/2 Street. Next year we will be registering him for kindergarten. Yes, kindergarten. How is that possible? I still remember being with him at the hospital when he was born. I still remember taking him for walks all day long as a baby. I still remember dropping him off for school the first time and how I thought my heart would break. I still remember watching him take his first steps. I still remember the first time he said what we thought was "hey, buddy" but really was "hand buddy" and how he would say it while taking our hands into his and holding on like he never wanted to let go. And I wish he wouldn't, but I know I have to start accepting that he will.
So with that in mind, here's to a month worth of fun stories which will (hopefully) showcase what an amazing little boy he is.
It is astounding to think of what a difference a year makes. Each and every day with a young child seems like an eternity, but each and every year seems to pass in an instant. Last year at this time, Riley was active but not athletic, talking but not completely conversant, silly but not funny, into baseball but not INTO baseball. He may have been anticipating a baby brother, but certainly couldn't have comprehended how much his life would change, and mostly for the better. He had friends, but didn't fully understand what that meant.
Today I turned in the paperwork to register him for school next year. As I was filling it out, I realized that this is the last time I will register him at Foundations at 4-1/2 Street. Next year we will be registering him for kindergarten. Yes, kindergarten. How is that possible? I still remember being with him at the hospital when he was born. I still remember taking him for walks all day long as a baby. I still remember dropping him off for school the first time and how I thought my heart would break. I still remember watching him take his first steps. I still remember the first time he said what we thought was "hey, buddy" but really was "hand buddy" and how he would say it while taking our hands into his and holding on like he never wanted to let go. And I wish he wouldn't, but I know I have to start accepting that he will.
So with that in mind, here's to a month worth of fun stories which will (hopefully) showcase what an amazing little boy he is.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
When I Grow Up
In the car on the way to school this morning...
Riley: "Monny, when I grow up, I want to be a Daddy."
Me (interested in where this conversation was headed): "Why do you want to be a Daddy, sweetheart?"
Riley: "Because I want to be a cooker."
Me: "Any other reason you want to be a Daddy?"
Riley: "No. I already TOLD you, I just want to be a cooker."
Attitude aside, it was super sweet and also says a lot about who does the cooking in our family.
Riley: "Monny, when I grow up, I want to be a Daddy."
Me (interested in where this conversation was headed): "Why do you want to be a Daddy, sweetheart?"
Riley: "Because I want to be a cooker."
Me: "Any other reason you want to be a Daddy?"
Riley: "No. I already TOLD you, I just want to be a cooker."
Attitude aside, it was super sweet and also says a lot about who does the cooking in our family.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Growing Boy
Hard to believe that almost a month has gone by since Chase's teachers called me aside to discuss their concerns about him. I am happy to report that since then, and since we followed his pediatrician's advice and let him "cry it out" for a few nights, Chase has been a MUCH happier, hungrier, active little guy. Although strange to me, it seems possible that re-learning how to soothe himself has made an extraordinary difference.
About 10 days after our meeting with his pediatrician, we were back at the doctor's office getting Chase checked out for pink eye. (As an aside, he had some sort of virus that caused an ear infection and viral pink eye -- who knew there were different types of pink eye -- and he was put on amoxicillin. 8 days later, he broke out in a crazy rash all over his body. Turns out the little guy is allergic to penicillin and it turns out this is not unique on either side of his family -- my mom, sister, nephew and niece are all allergic and so is Casey's dad -- who knew??) Anyway, in those 10 days, he had gained almost an entire pound (which is incredible considering he usually doesn't even gain a full pound in the two months between his well visits). Definitely positive news. His reflux also seems to be under control and he even occasionally will come home from school in the same outfit we dressed him in that morning. I suspect he's just aging out of the reflux issues some, but still find it interesting that the weight gain coincided with all this. Either way, I love tickling his chubby little belly and Riley thinks it's super fun to give him zerberts.
In other positive (I think) news, Chase is trying his hardest to learn how to crawl. At times, he will get frustrated and resort to rolling instead, and truly looks like he is going to dislocate his shoulder because his arm will get pinned behind his back and he'll get stuck laying on it like that until he gets the rest of his body to roll. He can go from a sitting position to a crawling position and can then get himself up onto his hands and knees, but can't quite coordinate the rest of the process and will just rock back and forth on his hands and knees until he gets frustrated and gives up. It is fun to walk into his room in the mornings and find him in his crib on his hands and knees, rocking back and forth, practicing on his own time. He'll look up at you and give you a great big grin. Part of me looks forward to the day when he gets it all together, and part of me is terrified at the thought of TWO mobile, active little guys. How on earth will we keep up with both of them?!?
Another sign that time is flying is the almost arrival of at least three teeth. Much like his brother, it appears that he will get his upper fangs before he gets his front teeth. At least in Riley's case, he got his two bottom teeth first. Poor Chase seems to be getting his two upper fangs and one upper front tooth, but there is nothing to indicate that any bottom teeth are going to make an appearance any time soon. His lack of teeth does not seem to discourage him much from eating -- this kid LOVES food, especially things he can chew on. He will tolerate pureed fruits, veggies and meat (pureed meat??? disgusting if you ask me), but gets absolutely bent out of shape if you stop feeding him puffs, cereal, mashed potatoes or pancakes before he has declared himself done. Teeth would certainly be helpful in this regard -- it seems like more often than not he tries to cram enough pieces of whatever it is he is eating to feed a small army into his mouth at once and gags to the point that it is scary to watch -- and we welcome their arrival (not to mention that it would be nice to not have to hear him whine on and off for a good portion of the day as they try to break through). It will be fun to have him eating what we are, but even so, it is nice to have him as a member at the dinner table now instead of in a swing, bouncy seat or exersaucer on the kitchen floor.
On a totally unrelated note, the dogs seem to have taken a real interest in Chase and love to sit at his feet and gaze in admiration at him during dinnertime.
About 10 days after our meeting with his pediatrician, we were back at the doctor's office getting Chase checked out for pink eye. (As an aside, he had some sort of virus that caused an ear infection and viral pink eye -- who knew there were different types of pink eye -- and he was put on amoxicillin. 8 days later, he broke out in a crazy rash all over his body. Turns out the little guy is allergic to penicillin and it turns out this is not unique on either side of his family -- my mom, sister, nephew and niece are all allergic and so is Casey's dad -- who knew??) Anyway, in those 10 days, he had gained almost an entire pound (which is incredible considering he usually doesn't even gain a full pound in the two months between his well visits). Definitely positive news. His reflux also seems to be under control and he even occasionally will come home from school in the same outfit we dressed him in that morning. I suspect he's just aging out of the reflux issues some, but still find it interesting that the weight gain coincided with all this. Either way, I love tickling his chubby little belly and Riley thinks it's super fun to give him zerberts.
In other positive (I think) news, Chase is trying his hardest to learn how to crawl. At times, he will get frustrated and resort to rolling instead, and truly looks like he is going to dislocate his shoulder because his arm will get pinned behind his back and he'll get stuck laying on it like that until he gets the rest of his body to roll. He can go from a sitting position to a crawling position and can then get himself up onto his hands and knees, but can't quite coordinate the rest of the process and will just rock back and forth on his hands and knees until he gets frustrated and gives up. It is fun to walk into his room in the mornings and find him in his crib on his hands and knees, rocking back and forth, practicing on his own time. He'll look up at you and give you a great big grin. Part of me looks forward to the day when he gets it all together, and part of me is terrified at the thought of TWO mobile, active little guys. How on earth will we keep up with both of them?!?
Another sign that time is flying is the almost arrival of at least three teeth. Much like his brother, it appears that he will get his upper fangs before he gets his front teeth. At least in Riley's case, he got his two bottom teeth first. Poor Chase seems to be getting his two upper fangs and one upper front tooth, but there is nothing to indicate that any bottom teeth are going to make an appearance any time soon. His lack of teeth does not seem to discourage him much from eating -- this kid LOVES food, especially things he can chew on. He will tolerate pureed fruits, veggies and meat (pureed meat??? disgusting if you ask me), but gets absolutely bent out of shape if you stop feeding him puffs, cereal, mashed potatoes or pancakes before he has declared himself done. Teeth would certainly be helpful in this regard -- it seems like more often than not he tries to cram enough pieces of whatever it is he is eating to feed a small army into his mouth at once and gags to the point that it is scary to watch -- and we welcome their arrival (not to mention that it would be nice to not have to hear him whine on and off for a good portion of the day as they try to break through). It will be fun to have him eating what we are, but even so, it is nice to have him as a member at the dinner table now instead of in a swing, bouncy seat or exersaucer on the kitchen floor.
On a totally unrelated note, the dogs seem to have taken a real interest in Chase and love to sit at his feet and gaze in admiration at him during dinnertime.
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