“Video” Tuesday: Trampoline

Riley got to do a few new things at his second gymnastics class a couple of weeks ago, including hanging from the bars…..

…..sliding down a big padded ramp on his belly…..

…..and climbing up a ladder to rescue a stuffed animal at the top.

 

Riley also got another stamp for participation, but this time the teacher put it on his foot. He couldn’t stop looking at it as he walked over to show me.

Class ended a bit early, so Grandma and I decided to let Riley-bean stay and play for a few extra minutes. Of course all he wanted to do was run down the long trampoline.

This is not really a true video, but please enjoy this video series of photos of my silly, happy boy. I snapped away as he ran down the trampoline two separate times. Be warned: the video goes by really fast, but I included the same series of ten pictures three times (one right after the other) to hopefully give everyone a chance to really see it.

Happy Tuesday!

Oh, and one last little bit of news: it’s entirely possible that we will get to meet Doodlebug today! Aunt E checked into the hospital to be induced last night. Fingers crossed everything goes well for them, and stay tuned for a special “Welcome to the World” post when I get the go-ahead from the new, proud parents. It certainly is an exciting week. Please keep the new little family in your thoughts and prayers today!

Twenty-Three Months

Good God. Is he really going to be two next month? I’m not sure I can handle that.

At 23 months, Riley weighs 29.8 lbs and stands about 36 inches tall.

Here’s what I want to remember from this past month:

• He tried a few new foods, including sesame sticks, hush puppies, fried mozzarella-prosciutto bites, cottage cheese, and mango and raspberry sorbets (has also tried choocolate and coconut gelato). He also became very adamant this month about removing any skins from his food, like bell peppers and edamame.
• He is saying a few new phrases, and he is still constantly impressing us with how well he speaks: wash all the germy-germs off, just rock-rock a little minute more, noodle….kinda like toodles!, whatever that means, know what that is (instead of siss-ah), you little dickens, do you know?, do we hit/bite/kick/throw?
• He’s still napping well once a day, usually for two hours or more. And he’s sleeping well at night, although Kenny and I have both heard him talking in his sleep a couple of times!
• He started requesting we sing “Hey Fightin’ Tigers” very late this month. Kenny and I are so proud.
• He has started to ask to be changed. Very interesting. We have also started sitting him on the potty every night before his bath with no success as of yet.
• He is very demanding lately and more whiny too, especially when he doesn’t get his way. Super fun for me.
• He’s very concerned with bugs these days, and he especially hates when gnats fly near his eyes.
• He is pretending more and more. I observed him doing “up the hill, around the curve, down the hill” on his arm while eating his lunch one day. He also pretended that the back of his highchair was a slide. And he is still seeing crazy shapes in his food, most recently a birdhouse.
• He’s still doing a great job with climbing up into his highchair by himself before meals, but he has the strangest little ritual: he almost always closes the doors between the kitchen (where I am preparing his food) and the dining room and then climbs up into his chair. So I inevitably have to open the doors and find him grinning, pleased with himself, on the other side. Odd, but very cute.
• He is starting to have little conversations with his toys: “Come on guys; we got work to do!” and “Let’s see. Where does this piece go? I don’t know!”
• He knows the {complicated} names of all of his toy dinosaurs: brachiosaurus, styracosaurus, ceratosaurus, plateosaurus, and ankylosaurus. Whatever happened to good ole T-Rex, stegosaurus, and triceratops???
• He saw a real walrus on tv and, after he got over being a little scared by him, called it a snuffleupagus. We don’t even watch Sesame Street regularly!
• My sweet boy kisses Jesus on the cover of his prayer book every night now.
• He can count to 7.
• I found an old mickey doll of daddy’s a couple of weeks ago and showed it to Riley, asking him who it was. He said, “Mickey! He needs his mouseketools!”
• A lot of times when he’s watching tv and I’m leaning over typing on the laptop, he’ll put his little hand on my leg, just to let me know he’s there and to make sure I’m not going anywhere. So sweet.
• He likes watching videos of himself and will often request “’nother video.”

Twenty-three months old!

Fifteen Things

1. Way back at the end of May, after Riley’s last music class, Grandma and I took the boy to see the Tiger Bead Dog at the foot of Carrollton. (There are 45 different bead dogs all over the city, and they serve to spread the word about the LASPCA and animal welfare.)

 

2. Nola, Riley, and I took a trip to Sam’s just before the 4th of July, and Riley charmed the checkout girl so much that he left the store with his very own blue balloon.

3. TWQP is still going strong. QP may not always get here on Thursdays, but she does the best she can to fit a couple of hours with Riley into her schedule every week. Those two sure do have some fun together.

4. Riley loving on Endymion while watching Mickey

5. Doing puzzles with Grams

6. My {unsuccessful} attempt to capture “the face”

7. Nola brought back two LIG shirts from Michigan for Riley, and they are both so cute. Of course he’s going to love anything with a digger or a dump truck on it. Plus, I think (and hope) they’re big enough for him to wear next summer, too. Thanks, Nola!

  

8. While I was in Paris, Grandma and Riley picked up a little patriotic pinwheel on one of their daily outings. The pinwheel currently resides in one of the pots on our back porch so Riley can see it spinning through the window. Imagine my surprise one day when he was by the front window in the breakfast area and exclaimed, “Orange pinwheel!” Huh? I looked out to see what he was talking about, and, lo and behold, I spotted a blooming bird of paradise flower. Smart, creative boy.

9. Cool dude having lunch out at Gott Gourmet (with our favorite waiters Taylor and Aladdin in the background)….man, that place is good.

10. Summer treat…..gelato at Sucre w/ cool new shoes. Riley-bean had his own little cup of mango and raspberry sorbets!

11. Sad news, people: the Sleepy Bean pics are occurring more and more infrequently these days. It’s a combination of him rolling around too much when I go in there or simply not sleeping as wonkily as he used to. Try not to let this revelation ruin your whole weekend.

12. Weekend cuddles with Mama

Oh, and he calls this position “sitting in the triangle.” Blew me away when he first said that to me.

13. Mandeville splash area with Grandma

 

14. Playing with Mama’s hairclip and headbands

15. I don’t know about any of you, but I am so excited for the Olympics. Go Team USA!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Choo-Choos Out the Wazoo

Our house has been invaded by lots and lots of toy trains fairly recently, all thanks to Riley’s cousin Zac (and Aunt Jaimi and Uncle Steve).

Zac very generously passed down his old train table (and all the fixins) to his birthday buddy cousin. We have actually had the table since we went to Jambalaya Park early this month, but Kenny and I decided to wait until last weekend to give it to Riley.

We set it up while he was napping and let him discover it when he came downstairs. I’m fairly certain he was excited to see his new toy.

We had the table all arranged nice and neat, with strategically placed trees, road signs, and even an airplane, a helicopter, and some construction equipment.

I think Kenny really enjoyed figuring out how to arrange the tracks: it brought him back to his own childhood. Plus, his engineering degree clearly meant he was the one for the job, leaving the accessorizing to me. We make a good team.

However, it didn’t take long for Riley to descend upon his new table and wreak havoc. Shocking behavior for an almost two-year-old, I know.

He played with his new trains the rest of the afternoon, and he even decided a whole pile of them needed to watch him eat dinner. He kept pausing between bites and saying, “Look at all of ‘em!”

Since the table has joined us, Kenny and I have learned the names of many of the Thomas & Friends characters: Thomas, of course, and James, Percy, Harvey, Freddie, and Peter Sam. And perhaps Riley will get some of the Chuggington trains for his birthday next month to add to his collection.

Thanks so much, Zac, for letting Riley-bean borrow your train table. He’s having so much fun with it, and you’ll have to come over to play with him and the trains soon!