Our boy

It's unbelievably messy to give Riley Cheerios this way (so we don't normally), but he's got to practice eating like this some times! He actually gets a lot in his mouth but also in his lap.

It's been REALLY hot here...can you tell?! Scott and I took turns getting in the pool with him.

Someone got into the diaper cabinet....

Although Riley wears me out some days, it's so fun seeing him learn so many things all the time now. For the last several weeks, he's found himself a "hiding place." It's where I hide for hide-and-go-seek with him. He goes there when he wants us to come find him, when he wants to do something he's not supposed to (like chew on a leaf or a book), or when he's doing something he's not supposed to and we catch him. He had the camera the other day, and his daddy discovered him. As soon as he said, "Riley, are you supposed to..." Riley ran to his hiding spot and just smiled. As if it's base or something.

He's really taken to climbing on things. The other day, I sat down to check my email and Scott was on the couch. After a few seconds, I felt a hand on my upper arm. I thought, "that seems a little high." I turned towards him. He was standing on the seat of his Kawasaki with just the one hand on me. He laughed as soon as I looked at him. A few days before that, Riley climbed on top of his portable booster seat (which was sitting on the carpet) and stood up. He did it so fast. I was across the room and ran to get him. I knew he was going to fall before I got there because he was standing on the edge of the tray. Thankfully, somehow, he didn't. That got put up right away.

Recently, Riley woke up at 5:00 am. He doesn't normally do this, unless he goes right back to sleep for an hour or so. This time, he was moving around and passing gas, so I realized he was "working" on something (he never does this first thing in the morning). I sat him up in his crib and got a couple of books to read him. During the second one, he was definitely busy. I grabbed a few more books and started to read the first of those. As I opened the book, I stopped and said to him, "Mommy's going to read some more books. You let me know when you're done." I didn't think he'd really get it. Then I started the first sentence. He looked at me and raised his eyebrows. I kept reading. Then, he picked up the clean diaper I had placed next to him, handed it to me, and made a little noise like he does when he wants something. I couldn't believe it. He was in fact done and let me change his diaper with no fight. I had attempted to change his diaper before the first books, and he had gotten mad at me.

When we first moved to town, Riley and I met a couple and their daughter, Olivia, who is one month older than Riley. Olivia's mom and I have been meaning to get together for a long time. We finally met up at the local park. The playground was closed, so we just decided to walk around the park. When we got out of our cars, we stood Riley and Olivia up to face each other. They just looked at each other and smiled. Then Riley stepped forward and hugged her neck. It was the cutest thing ever. I had never seen him do anything like that. Well, he hugged so tight that she fell backwards and he fell on top of her. We quickly stood the two up and brushed them off. Olivia stepped away from Riley a little bit, and Riley then got shy and buried his face into my legs. The rest of the time, they were too busy walking around and studying the ground to pay too much attention to each other.

Riley's new thing is "talking on the phone." He uses our home phone, cell phones, toy phones or basically ANYTHING to put up to his ear and walk around. It's kind of funny. He often sounds upset. Scott says the pizza place must have gotten his order wrong. The funny thing is that we really don't talk on the phone very often at all. Maybe a few times a week.