March Madness All Around!

Well for us March Madness means a few things - not just the college basketball tourney. The first madness, is that Kelly and I got 2 adult date nights in one week!! WooHoo! First, Emily kept Riley overnight at her house the Friday before last so Kelly and I could have a date night and celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. We had already planned to take half a day off work that Friday for a "day date" to see the Bodies Exhibit. So we just made an afternoon and evening out of it! So fun! Like old times dancing til 2am just the 2 of us! But we're a little out of practice! ha! The 2nd date night, my friend Terri watched Riley after work so Kelly and I could attend my friend Reza's son's wedding. It was a St. Patty's Day wedding and a lot of fun! But we had to go to work the next day, so that was a little rough! We are definitely out of practice with these late nights!

The 2nd part of March Madness for us is of course watching college hoops! One of my favorite times of the year! And now it's definitely one of Riley's too!! It is soooooo cute! He will get all excited watching a game on tv and stand in front of the tv with his own basketball and run all around and say "AWEEEE" if they miss a basket or "dunk" if they dunk it! And sometimes after they dunk it on tv, he'll run to his basketball hoop and dunk too! It's so cute cute cute!!

Now with the time change, we're able to go the playground pretty much every evening when it's nice outside. Riley still takes his ball and "shoots" at the hoops the entire time we are there! Now he likes to try to climb up the slide backwards too and go down by himself. He still doesn't know how to maneuver the turns so we have to support him.

OMG! We did make the mistake last weekend of taking him to the other playground to play without his BALL! OMG! Did we ever pay dearly!!! Someone had a soccer ball there, and once he laid eyes on it - it was OVER! Try to explain to a 19 month old that it's not their ball! We had a full fledged meltdown! I almost dropped him twice just trying to carry him to put him in the stroller, then he literally cried almost the entire way home! BIG ol' crocodile tears! And the walk home isn't short!! Wow! I'm not sure I'm ready for this crazy toddler time!! Kelly and I just looked at each other helplessly! What can you do?! There was NO consoling him about the ball! Lesson learned - do NOT go to the playground withOUT a ball! EVER!!!

His love for balls got him in trouble at my cousin Billy's house a couple of weeks ago too. We didn't realize Billy's big lab Tatum loved "basketball" too, so when Riley came running with the basketball - Tatum came running too and there was a collision! Tatum was just a little larger, so he took Riley out. Unfortunately, it was a perfect storm of Tatum knocking Riley right into a wood step and he hit his head hard! :( My poor baby! He had an instant bump on his head too, but he was fine! Before that accident though, Riley was dancing and showing off his moves in person! My Aunt Mary and her husband Bob said they thought the videos were funny, but seeing Riley's moves in person was even better than they imagined! I have to agree with them! :)

He is definitely Little Mr Helper! Emily said when it's time for lunch, he will do all the things to get ready for lunch - move the chairs to face each other, get his high chair seat out of the closet, put his place mat on the table...all that without her even asking him to or showing him how - he just did it! And he's for sure my little helper at home! In fact, I find myself having to do things SEVERAL times these days! I've literally been trying to throw away the same fabric softener bottle for 3 weeks! I put it in the trash, and every time I turn around some little helper has put it back in the pedestal drawer of the washing machine! Same thing with hangers, if I try to throw bent hangers away - he'll take them out of the trash and hand them to me and point to the laundry rod in the pantry! And you still have to watch him very closely at laundry time! Or else you end up with dirty socks in the dryer and clean clothes back in the washer! And when he puts things in the washer or dryer - Nolan Ryan doesn't have anything on him! He winds up and throws them so hard they bounce off the back wall! And he grunts each time too! So cute! Thank goodness for the grunt - it's sometimes my only indicator that he's just added something to one or the other!

He still loves to dance. You can just say dance and he'll flap his arm and up and down and move his shoulders back and forth.

He can point to almost all his body parts now - head, hair, nose, eyes, mouth, ears, belly button (although sometimes that's his chest), knees and toes/teez (although sometimes knees and toes are just patting on his thighs).

Oh yeah...and now he gives 'puppy' and 'bear' kisses all the time! Muwah! Muwah! And he'll just smile and talk to them. Wish I had the decoder ring for those conversations!

Oh yeah - the 3rd 'madness' - Riley's new obsession is the stairs! He LOVES to climb them! And that's one of the only times I realized he hears WAY more than he lets on. Like tonight, I said let's go upstairs and take a bath. He looked at me and said bathhhhh. Then took off running. At first, I didn't think anything of it, but when I turned around to see where he was going - it was straight to the stairs and he started climbing up. He'll do the same thing for let's go upstairs and change your diaper, do laundry, take a nap, etc. Like a flash, he's gone! And he'll totally do it even when I think he's not listening.

He definitely understands a lot more than he can say - if I say 'Mommy's Room', he goes to my room. 'Your room' - he goes to his room. Laundry room - down stairs he goes to the gate. Upstairs he starts climbing the stairs. And don't DARE say the word OUTSIDE unless you are ready to go RIGHT this second! He runs to the gate and get's REALLY upset if you aren't ready to go right then!! That's one of those lessons like taking the ball to the playground! You only have to experience it once, then you're a FAST learner!

I've got to get some video of him running after his basketball outside! It's hard to explain, but so cute how he swings his body and legs back and forth to run.

He's still your cheerleader for anything! Closing a door, putting something in the trash, and he'll pause what he's doing and clap for you.

Oh yeah, he totally knows "Poo" now - as in poo-poo! He actually walked up to me and said "Poo" "All Done" a couple of weeks ago! I almost died! He hasn't really done it again though. But if you are changing a "Poo" diaper, he'll say it. Then I guess I always say "Shoo Wee Stinky Poo", so he's starting saying "Shoo Wee" and crinkling his nose up then saying "Poo"! Funny!

Okay...I think that's it for now!! Never a dull moment in The Life of Riley!