Adventures Aside

With all the adventures, I have neglected the subject which actually prompted me to begin blogging. That's right- it's my Rile-saurus!! He will be 11 months old while we are at the Ranch in Texas, visiting with my family. It'll be quite the impromptu reunion. My brother and his clan (Pam, Brenden plus baby girl in the oven) will be out there the whole time we're there, and then my soon to be wedded cousin and her mom, my Aunt will be stopping through for a few days!! My dad has cousin's on the west side of Texas and I wouldn't be surprised if we got them to come out for an even more elaborate reunion. Anyway- there I go, getting distracted by travel and adventure.

So here's what's going on with Riley.

He gets into EVERYTHING!! He loves when I open the fridge. He'll speed crawl double time to get over to the open fridge and stand and climb on the little ledge. He's also been known to reach for the YOBABY Yogurt and in the process, knock a bunch of stuff onto the floor. He also loves to play on the dishwasher door. I sweep him off every time, but it doesn't so much as slow him down from jumping back on and setting up camp to hit spoons together and drum them on anything available. He's shut himself in rooms. He bangs whatever is in hand on my coffee tables, not to mention the veil of kid hand prints that are covering everything in my house 2 feet and under. He LOVES the dog kennel. The water bowl has always been an obsession since he first started crawling but now he finds just as much enjoyment inside the kennel with the food dish.

Since we've covered the destructive behavior, let's move onto the MILESTONE category... To keep him occupied, he will stand up and when I am near he reaches for my fingers to steady him. Then he's off!! We do laps around the dining room table and he will stop to readjust his grip so that we can keep on circling... He has been standing on his own, without pulling himself up on anything. The first time was in San Diego and due to his crying after the new trick I think he frightened himself when he was standing and he didn't have anything around to hold on to. He's since improved on that and his balance is pretty good.

Well the pressure is building and I've caught him take a couple quick and small shuffles within the last few weeks. Today I caught a couple steps!!! He's getting brave and was working very hard on walking!!

Disclaimer: Please do not judge me for the DISGUSTING shirt that is on my son. I do not know who put that filthy shirt on him... strange... I was with him all day. Who ever it was is VERY SNEAKY!

So when does one count "walking?" Or "first words" for that matter.. There is so much gray where it's kinda there, but not quite. As far as talking goes, he's got a lot to say! We have conversations through out the day.. Maybe he truely understands what he's saying but I, along with the rest of the human race sure can not! There are a few things that have me raise an eyebrow when he says them. We come downstairs every morning and say hi to the doggie and in his mess of babble, "doggie" usually slips out.

Well, that's about all for now. I'm still loving motherhood and enjoying every moment with my fun little monster!