Mornings

I try and get to Riley at 7 a.m. every morning - sometimes I am delayed because of my shower/lack of an ability to get out of bed on time. He is usually talking before then, but we've found that if we get him earlier he tends to be a bit more tired. I think he needs time in his crib to talk and gradually wake up.

Every morning I take him out from his crib and he immediately swivels, and turns his entire body to look at his bookcase. He points or "eh's" to the book he wants (thank god he seems to not be as enamored of those damn cat and dog books) and we sit down in the chair to read.

I love this little routine. It reminds it of me a bit - Riley seems to get a lot of pleasure just looking at his little book collection. He's a lot like his mama that way; I love just gazing at the books in our bookcases, either picking out something to read or remembering which books I enjoyed.

Two-Way Communication ... and the Dangers of Standing Up

Riley is really good at telling us what he wants. He either points, does this cute little "eh" squeak, or just complains. It's nice that he's able to do this now, but it also means we are wrapped around his little (pointing) finger and will do whatever he says. Look at his favorite cat book the billionth time? Sure. It's only going to get worse.

Today we took him to the park to enjoy some of the sunshine. He loved swinging - I would run back and forth to play peek a-boo - and he liked the slide. So much so that when we went to leave, he *communicated* with us and we had to take him back to the slide so he could finish up.

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We had been saying we needed to lower the mattress in the crib and tonight we did. We put him to bed and about 5 minutes later he started crying ... I thought it was because he was the dreaded overtired, and was prepared to let him cry it out. Andy was concerned he could have fallen out, so thank goodness we checked on him ... he was standing up in the crib crying his little eyes out because he couldn't get back down. This was a far cry from when he triumphantly greeted Andy with a huge smile after his (non) nap this afternoon, very proud of himself for standing up. So we lowered the crib (Riley helped by holding onto the bars and squawking), and now we have to stand on a stepstool to put Riley down -- both Andy and I have such short stubby arms it would mean either dropping Riley in, or using a crane. The stepstool should work.

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Two other updates: bathtime has become difficult because he wants to stand up and grab onto the faucet. Dangerous.

He's started to wrinkle his nose - especially when his picture is being taken and there's a red light blinking in his eyes. Photo proof below.

Sleepy time

There is nothing cuter than when Riley is going to bed. He rolls over on his side and cuddles his little lovey. He's all snuggly in his sleep sack. Tonight I checked on him and he was sleeping on his tummy, breathing deeply. I hope he was dreaming sweet dreams.

He cried out as he was going to sleep -- I ran upstairs from the basement. I think I was hyper-sensitive given the time he got the blanket over his head. In retrospect, I didn't need to check on him, he would have quickly calmed down and gone to sleep. But it was so nice being able to calm him down and snuggle him as I rocked him back to sleep. I told myself as long as it didn't become a pattern it was okay.

Some more milestones

Because this is my defacto baby book and I want to remember these things. I need to get some more pix up here, stat.

Yesterday Daga went to get Rileypants after his nap and she found him standing up in his crib with a big smile! Guess it's not that surprising given how hard he's been working to pull himself up. (It's so cute to watch him ... he cries in frustration and wobbles as he strains to get traction. But he always gets there.)

And today Riley came into the office! I had a ball showing him off and Riley loved playing with a box filled with soccer cleats. Daga and I took him to a lunch and he dropped bananas all over the floor. He also was obsessed with the numbers Cosi gives to diners waiting for their food ... he stared at ours--119--for a long time.

Milestones March 2, 2010

Today Riley said his first word!!! I am pretty sure it counts - it was one word, and it wasn't surrounded by babbling.

He said "Mama."

I am so lucky to have caught it. I was working from home today. He crawled into the office from the nursery and said, very clearly, "Mama." I was thrilled and my heart was racing!! Boy, this erases any mommy guilt I have for the day!

He hasn't said it again, and I'll anxiously await hearing his sweet voice again utter my name.

Other milestones for today: Daga and Riley visited the library for the first time.

Riley climbed up two stairs with the assistance of Andy and I. He wasn't too thrilled with the idea, especially when his goal (Kingsley) ran off, but he worked really hard at it and got up two steps!

He also pulled himself up on his red push toy and took a few steps as Andy pulled the toy away from him and he held on. I was there to steady him and make sure he didn't topple backwards.

Next up: getting his drivers license and his first date!