Better late than never

I'm not even going to try to remember everything since my last blog (October), but I want to record some of the things Riley's done since then. This may be a long post.

I have a feeling that Riley has been saying much to us for some time that we couldn't understand, but everyday we understand more, and I'm sure he says more too. We are hearing more and more sentences such as "I'n running" "I close drawer" "I smart" and my favorite "I can book." Of course, you can't top "that my mama and that my dada." He's really into making messes more than playing with his toys, but his favorite toy right now (besides his stuffed animals and Precious Moments "baby") is his Little People recycle truck that counts as you put things into it. It also sings songs including ABCs, and I've caught him singing certain letters and then "Y and Z." He loves to sing and read books. There is nothing like hearing his little voice sing. It's amazing. One day I was in the kitchen and he was playing on the couch with his stuffed Curious George. I was playing music and heard the song, "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the..." then a sweet little voice at just the right time and just the right note "Hi-ii". Now he sings "hi-ess." It's pretty precious. He also sings "Sing sing sing" by Chris Tomlin when that's playing. Often when I sing now, I will stop to see if he knows the next word, and he does a lot of the time. His favorite to sing with me is "I've been working on the railroad." When he wants to sing this, he starts blowing with his mouth, you know..."Dina won't you blow," though when he sings it, he says "blow." This song became the favorite when we were in Washington at Gramps and Grandma's. They have a Leap Frog fridge toy with several different songs on it. Riley always went to that song. In fact, we were all quite baffled by him because he would go so fast through the songs that you could barely hear the first note and definitely couldn't tell which song he whipped by. Then he would stop and immediately start dancing. Two or three seconds later the rest of us could tell what song it was ("I've been working on the railroad"). We figured that he must be "counting," so we kept trying to discreetly get it on a different song, but he could still pick it up and get to that song just as quick, so obviously, he can hear it. He does imitate lots of noises - ringing on Skype, airplanes, vacuums, etc. and he always matches the tone. His Uncle Rocky was like that.

So his stuffed animals, he plays with "dorge" (George) the most, but he loves "Bear Bear" and "baby" a bunch. We play "hide the baby" many nights, and he loves closing his eyes and counting with us and then going to find baby. He also loves his blue "teddy" and "moo" the moose that his Uncle Nick and Aunt Stephanie gave him for Christmas. He sleeps with both of them every night. He's sleeping great. I know that I've definitely babied him with sleeping, but it's really helped me be consistent. At night and for naps, I sing to him for just a few lines. He lets me know he's ready to lay down by giving me a kiss. I put him down and leave the room. He goes to sleep pretty quickly most times.

He loves all of his books, but his favorite right now is "Willy Bear." It's my older brother Rocky's book and was his favorite growing up. He also loves "Chicken Pox" and knows most of that book. For both of the books I mentioned, he points to the little boy in the story and says "Riley!" Both also talk about school and he loves to say "cool." Glad that's a ways away!

Recently he started opening doors by the doorknobs. I wasn't so excited about this, but he seems to either have forgotten, not be interested or think it's too much work. Either way, he hasn't done it for a week, and I'm thankful.

As I said, he learns new words everyday. I wish I kept better track, but his favorite words are "book" "cookie" "choo choo" for train "car" "vac-cuum" "teddy" "willy bear" "nine" ("nine" might be one of the top words he says) "wall" "door" "on" "off" "up" "nack" for snack and "no" (of course). He says a lot more than that, but those are the ones he says the most. His favorite food is still spinach calzones. He sure loves his "broc-ee" (broccoli) though. He often eats his veggies first...yea! Eating is still pretty messy, but it's getting better. We finally took him out of the highchair, because he kept trying to climb into it. It's on wheels, and even with the wheels locked, it slips and slides on the tile. Now he sits at the table with his booster seat. It's actually less messy. He always has a utensil and uses it a good bit of the time. He always uses his spoon for his Cheerios. If he isn't eating lunch or dinner well, we pull out the mustard to see if he will eat if he can dip his food in the mustard. It works almost always. He loves mustard and sour cream, too. Riley used to hate anything slightly spicy and would get mad if you (meaning his daddy) gave him a taste. He seems to be getting over that. Scott was eating Wickles the other day and Riley wanted a taste. Scott was doubtful but said "okay." These Wickles were pretty spicy (and delicious). Riley liked it and kept asking for more. If we have some around him, he wants some. You can tell it's hot to him because his eyes get watery and he will sort of shake his head and sometimes wave at his mouth and say "hot," but that doesn't stop him from wanting more. Just like a man ;)! "If Daddy can handle it, so can I."

About a month ago, the lady who is in charge of all preschool at church gave Riley a CD full of songs directed to "Riley." Her daughter is Riley, so that's why she had this CD. Riley loves it! Whenever I ask if he wants music he says "Riley!" If I start a different CD, even one that he loves, he gets upset and shakes his head "noooo, Riley!" He's starting to get a little better about listening to the other CDs in the player, but "Riley" is still the favorite. He has really funny dance moves. I'm not sure where he gets them, but he keeps us entertained for sure.

Finally, he's learning names of family members better every day. He's had all of his grandparents down for some time. He can't quite say Gramps, it's "Gerrr." He says both "Baba" and "Bebe" for my mom, but mostly he says "Baba." He says "Nick" often and randomly. He still says "Lene" for Aunt Charlene and "Step-ni" for Aunt Stephanie, but this one is a little harder some times. He said "Troy" this week. He still says "Gaga" mostly for Kaylee but sometimes says "Kaylee" quite clearly. He hasn't been able to say "Lisa" yet for Aunt Lisa. Usually when I try to get him to work on it, he will say "and Gaga." He says "Rock-ee" now. We work on all family members names every day. He tries to say John Thomas and almost has "Tatum" down. Lately, he's been going around saying "Pa Bi" for Pa Bill and said "Jool" this week for the first time for Mama Jewell. It seems like whenever we talk to family on Skype, he gets their names down a little better. Not sure why - he's known who everyone is for some time now, but there's something about it that helps him.

Just now Riley spilled his cup of water in the kitchen. He grabbed a blanket and went over to wipe it up. Not excited about having to wash the blanket now, but how do you get upset about that?! He is definitely "our little helper" even if he does make a lot of messes.

Will post pics next (or soon).