June

Everyday is so amazing watching our little boy develop. He's always chattered quite a bit, but picking out what he was saying (if he was saying anything at all) was difficult. He still chatters, but he's also definitely speaking new words as well. I need to be better about writing down new words I hear, but here are some off of the top of my head: light, Elmo, Natalie (thoungh it's not perfect - it's pretty good), clean, that, what, tickle, getya (get you), hi daddy, bye daddy.

Bebe came to visit at the end of June. One day when the four of us were together, I showed Riley some pictures from Bebe's phone. There was a picture of him and I said, "This is you, Riley, eating your first birthday cake." He immediately said, "birthday" as clear as day. We were all pretty surprised. When my mom left, the next week, he was walking around saying, "Boba." I just thought it was a new sound he was testing out. However, the following week, we were looking at pictures and he pointed at a picture of Bebe and said, "Boba!" Riley had a great time playing with Bebe while she was here. On Saturday, Scott watched Riley while Mom and I got coffee and ran some errands. It was really nice being able to take my time and enjoy talking with my mom. When we were at our last stop before coming home, Scott called me and said, "Meet me at the emergency room." Of course, my heart just dropped to the floor. I had a cart with some groceries that I just started walking away from as I said, "What?! What's going on? What happened?" People around me were looking at me and mom looked really worried. All I could think was that something horrible happened to my baby. Scott said, "Everything's okay." So, I'm still wanting to know what happened as I headed for the door. "Oh, nothing. Lunch is ready, I just wanted to get your attention." You can imagine I was NOT too happy with him and made him promise to never ever ever ever ever EVER do that again. On the sweet side, Scott had fixed my "birthday lunch," and it was quite a surprise. I had thought the three of us would make it when Mom and I got home. It was really, really sweet that Scott made it all (while watching Riley) and it was ready to go when we got home.

Side note: It was my 30th birthday this year. I didn't really feel upset about turning 30 or feel older. It just made me reflect on the last 10 years and think about how awesome they have been! In September, Scott and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary. I feel so blessed that God chose him for my husband and Riley for my son. I'm also extremely grateful for my and Scott's families and for our friends. The Lord has been good to us!

When Riley gets upset about something we are doing such as brushing his teeth or cleaning his face after he eats, we make up songs about what we are doing. It's amazing how much this can help. Once when we were first married, Scott used to watch Elmo's World before he left for work. I'm not sure why, but he did. Anyway, Elmo would introduce something like a fish and sing a song about it to the tune of "Jingle Bells." So, he'd sing, "Fish fish fish, fish fish fish, fish fish fish fish fish." This has become our default song with Riley. Until we started singing "Brush brush brush, brush brush brush, it's time to brush your teeth," brushing Riley's teeth was a major ordeal. We tried all kinds of songs, and then just tried it this way, and voila - brushing his teeth is fun for him now. Go figure?! When I'm cleaning his face ("clean clean clean") he starts singing with me...which is how I knew he can say "clean." It's cute. We also found this online in June - Elmo's song. Riley loves this and walks around singing "la la la la, la la la la" all the time, especially if he sees a picture of Elmo. It sounds so beautiful.

Riley had his 15 month appointment on June 17th. He weighed 24lbs (50th percentile) and was 31 1/2 inches tall (60th percentile). It's so weird how he gained weight so fast at the beginning, but has only gained 2lbs in the last 6 months. It's obviously normal though.