Development

Two days ago, Scott and I were in the kitchen and Riley was playing with his toys on the floor. He mostly plays sitting up but moves around more and more. He goes from sitting to his tummy, rolls to his back, back to his tummy. He often fusses if he's on his tummy for too long though. Well, at this particular time, Riley had gotten onto his tummy and hadn't started fussing yet, so we just left. I was reading a newsletter and Scott was fixing dinner. So, I glanced over for a second and saw him lifting up on his hands and knees. I got Scott's attention and we watched him as he moved forward just a tiny bit to reach a toy in front of him. Once he got it, he collapsed and we cheered (Yeahhhh!!!!). He hasn't done it since, but I'm sure he will again.

Riley really likes to stand up holding the coffee table, the couch, our hands or anything. He gets so excited. He hasn't figured out the cruising thing just yet, but he has taken a few steps...sort of. Riley likes to plant his left foot and take a step with the right and then another step with his right (holding on to our hands, of course). I guess he doesn't know you have to move one and then the other, but he'll get it. We aren't pushing it. We're just letting him enjoy standing up.

And finally.....Riley has really been giving us a hard time at night and during the day. He quit saying "Dada" and "hop," though he's tried to say "hey," "yeah," and (I PROMISE!!) "clap." He still says "Mama," but it's when he's upset and he says it like it's a bad word, "MA-MA!" We've been thinking that he's been having a rough time with his sleep and probably starting to go through separation anxiety. So, yesterday, he wanted "MA-MA!" pretty much the whole day after we got home from church. When he was having a hard time going down to sleep, Scott took a shift to help me out. After a few minutes, I heard "come quick" from the monitor. Scott had found that Riley's first little tooth (right bottom) is starting to break the surface. You could even feel a small part of the actual tooth. It's still about the same today, but you can almost feel a part of the upper right tooth too. I took a picture, but you can't see it in the picture. We had to get really close and look really hard to see the little white spot.

(As for the "clap" thing, Riley's been working on his clap and is getting better and better, though it's not totally there yet. On Saturday, I was playing with him on the bed and clapped my hands and said "clap, clap, clap." After the second "clap," Riley started moving his hands together to try to clap and he mouthed in his breathy way "clap, clap." It was totally clear too.)