Sunday Funday

With the History Museum and the Library under our belts yesterday, today we headed to the Children's Museum!  We had only been there once before but Safta and Zadie got Riley a membership for Hanukkah so we checked in and are ready to make the most of our yearly pass!

You can't imagine how many things there are to do in just one museum - and we didn't even make it to the 3rd floor with the water tables!  There is building and climbing and cars and buttons and balls and arts and trains and lights and slides and noises and puppets and sand and... 

It is the perfect places to spend a rainy or cold afternoon and just like we got a ton of use out of our membership to the other museums last year, it will be nice to switch it up and learn every inch of this building.  Maybe we can switch off year by year to keep it fresh.

Even though I wanted to spend more time in the art room, Riley was on a mission to re-explore all the fun things he remembered from last time.  And boy did he have fun!  In a museum where you are encouraged to touch everything you possibly can, it is pretty much a 2-year-old heaven!

All of that and I can literally see him learning things in front of my eyes.  He was playing with a mini circuit and once I showed him to connect the red and black wires, he wanted to test them out on everything - trying to get all of the lights to light up.

He even took a pass at climbing up the "You Must Be 5 Years Old to Climb This" net.  This is about as far as he got on his own, but with a few pushes and shoves from mommy - who felt like a monkey - we made it to the top and Riley took the twirly slide on his own.

So thank you Safta and Zadie for this awesome gift!  I know we will have fun exploring the Children's Museum and we can't wait to show you around if you ever find yourself if the neighborhood!

Where in the world is our family?

With the whole family being in all four corners of the globe, Riley and I are finding things to do on our own to keep us busy until the troops return home.  We went to the library and what did we find but a giant globe!  We took a few minutes to point out where every single member of the family is and now Riley has a better idea.  On the way out, he even said "Daddy is on a long plane (ride)" which is kind of what I tell him every morning when he asks where he is.  We pointed out Israel, South America, Alabama, California and New York.

From there, we made our way over to the history museum - making sure to use up the last few months of our membership before our hanukkah gift from last year expires.  With the appropriate dinosaur shirt on proud display, we suited up, took to the dirt and brushed the teeth of the dinosaur bones that we found in the pit.  By now, Riley is a museum pro and knows exactly where he wants to spend his time, where the buttons are that he is allowed to push and which elevator he likes to ride.

On the way out to the car, we took our time enjoying the "warm" weather and the sunshine - both a true pleasure to experience on the last week of the year!

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah from the Herman family!  We have had quite a busy week celebrating.  We started with an early celebration at BiBi and Zee's before they went out of town and have been celebrating every day since!

Turns out, our Hanukkah miracle in the new house is that we keep finding places to put all of the new toys that keep accumulating throughout the eight nights!  And although there is absolutely nothing that Riley needs, that hasn't kept you - our amazing family members - from spoiling him rotten!

With the first half of the holiday already bringing Riley a guitar, a mini laptop, train tracks, a puzzle, a movie, a fork and spoon set, a soccer ball, I am a little nervous to see what the second half of the holiday comes with.  But as you can tell, he is loving every minute of it - so thank you all!

Cruising the Caribbean

Tell me this doesn't look like the face of a kid who is truly enjoying the new cruising lifestyle! Fresh off the boat from Riley's first cruise on Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas, we have a whole slew of awesome memories and pictures that will be shared when Riley is old enough to actually remember.

We had an awesome week of warm weather, fantastic destinations and fabulous family time that was made possible because we are part of the best family ever!  With stops in St. Maarten, St. Kitts, San Juan and Labadee, we had plenty of fun in the sun, warm sand between our toes and delicious meals. 

Don't get me wrong - there are definitely some challenges when cruising with a 2-year old, but with so many hands on deck, we were all able to enjoy ourselves to the fullest extent.  Thank goodness for a play room, movies on the big screen, all you can eat ice cream and pizza and a family who is willing to step in.

And with a few extra days to relax in Ft. Lauderdale after the cruise, we soaked in the last warmth of the season and prepared to come back home and brave the winter months.

This is a family vacation that I know we were all looking forward to and one that we will remember for the rest of our lives.  It was a long time coming but I am so glad that we were all able to carve time out of our schedules to spend Thanksgiving together.

And now that we are all back home, it's time to unpack, relax and look forward to the next family vacation (which will hopefully come sooner rather than later)!

We're back!

After nearly a month of back and forth single parenting, lots of plane rides and plenty of help from the family, Chris and I are finally back in the same city at the same time.  It took a lot of coordinating and we couldn't have done all we needed to for work without the amazing help of the ground crew - so for that, we have a huge shout out to BiBi, Zee, Aunt Stacey and Uncle Brad!  Thank you for being us while we were away!

To celebrate the fact that we are all back together, we decided to take Riley swimming.  He is still taking his once-a-week swim classes at the JCC and was happy to show off his "popcorn" skills (bobbing up and down and bouncing off the pool wall) but wanted mostly to swim in our arms and be thrown in the air.

Now we get to look forward to our family cruise, where I'm positive that we will be spending plenty of time in the pool and playing in the ocean!

When Daddy's away

October and November are crazy months, between the move, Chris in and out of town for work and my upcoming group.  But the one thing that remains constant and keeps us moving along is Riley.  And when one of us is out of town, we have to make sure to keep his distracted and busy enough so that he doesn't miss the missing parent.

I'd like to say that we do a pretty good job at this!  Today, it was beautiful outside so we took one of the last opportunities of the season to play outside on the swing set after school.  Then after dinner and bath time, we stuck to indoor activities.

There are still about a dozen boxes here and there, so Riley and I attacked his books tonight.  After they were all on the shelf, we had a few great boxes to play with.  So what do we do?  We make trains!

A new buddy, Bones!

As we all know, Safta LOVES Halloween!  We weren't sure if she would get into it this much with the recent move to California, but when a package arrived for Riley, we knew she was counting down the days till her favorite holiday. 

It was a special treat to open the package and he had a great time exploring the contents.  But all of the other elements went unnoticed as soon as the skeleton came around!  This was certainly the winner by a long shot and I think Riley has a new best friend.  Apparently Halloween is the skeleton's birthday and Riley was excited to teach him all the songs he knows.

We tried to hang the skeleton on the front door to get in the spirit of the holiday, but Riley had other thoughts.  After unsuccessfully inviting the skeleton into the bathtub, Riley was pretty adamant about where his new friend should go for the night.

I think we'll name him Bones and let him stick around for a while!  Thanks Safta!

Home sweet home

As of last week, we are officially home owners!  It feels good to have the hunting and the paperwork behind us and are now able to focus our energy on unpacking and making this house our home.  I will admit that there are things that I may not love about the house, but that is probably true with any house, even if you build it from the ground up.

I will tell you, however, who is loving the new house... Riley!  He has a man cave/toy den in the basement, a swing set and slide in the backyard and a new room that he is already very comfortable in.  We were worried that he would wake up the first morning and be scared that he didn't know where he was, but this kid is an adaptable nomad who didn't complain once through the whole process.

Now that we are unpacking, we are finding all of the old favorite toys that had been packed up for a while - and making new toys - like humidifier filters that can be used as hats!

Moving mayhem

With the closing complete, all there is left to do is pack, paint and move!  I will easily admit that this is not my favorite part of getting a new house, but with Chris being the professional packer and Riley adding a helping hand, we're sure to be in the new house in no time. 

Now if only he could put that book down, put on some pants and tape up some boxes...

Fun time friends

Since the weather has cooled off, we are looking for some fun activities to do inside to stay warm.  Add on top of that the fact that we are potty training and staying inside is really the best thing for everyone!  

This afternoon, Chris had to work, so I thought I was in charge of afternoon entertainment.  Turns out, Riley thought he was in charge of entertaining me!  He took his job very seriously and had a great time putting on a show in his room.  I'm not exactly sure what he was chanting but he seems to know exactly what's happening.

Next activity was brushing Mommy's hair!  I guess I couldn't quite convey the fact that you don't brush curly hair so he took his turn and did the best that he could.  I will not be adding this hairdo to my rotation but I will allow him another chance or two to redeem himself in the future.

Rosh Hashana Wrap Up

Last week, we had such a great time visiting Chicago!  We had been looking forward to the trip for a while and the best part was the down time that we got to spend with family.  After the requirements at shul were over and we were able to catch up with many of our old friends, we were able to take advantage of the beautiful weather and spend casual family time.

Riley enjoyed spending time in some of his old stomping grounds and even got to stay in his old room for a few nights.  It looked a little different but once he unpacked, he felt right at home.  We celebrated our birthdays complete with cake and gifts and Riley's garage got a new slew of additions.

Riley had a great time exploring the house and checking out each and every corner - even the one with the sticky mouse trap in it.  Once he figured out what it was and tried to get it off his foot, it turned into a family activity that everyone helped to participate in.  Once all his toes were set free and cleared of sticky, he was off to do more exploring.

The visit was wonderful and Riley was great on the plane rides both ways.  Thank goodness for entertainment devices and movies!

Let's get packing!

Seeing as how we're moving in 2 1/2 weeks, I guess now is as good a time as ever to start packing.  I think packing is the worst thing in the world and I put it off as long as possible, but lucky for me, Chris is an expert packing and has taken on the challenge head-on.  I guess Riley has seen us putting things in boxes and wants to make sure that his valuables make it to the new house too!

And now that I' done procrastinating, I guess I have to go pack up my summer clothes...

Old McRiley Visits A Farm

E - I - E - I - O!  This weekend, Chris had a great idea to go apple picking!  We went to the same farm where we went last year and decided to space out our farming activities - apple picking in September and pumpkin picking in October.  

The visit started with a stop at the petting zoo where Riley said hi to the goats, ran away from the chickens and tried to wake up the pig.  He was a little nervous the whole time and didn't love the idea of getting too close to the animals.  He did, however, like to hear all the noises they made!

Once we made it to the orchard, it was time to fill up our bag.  The Gala apples were in season, but we started in the wrong lane and filled up half of the bag with another variety - but those are the ones we all like anyways.  So once we covered up our mistake with the correct apples, we took a walk through the field and of course, found some diggers to watch for a while.

We were real professionals and took time picking the best apples and tasting a few here and there to make sure they were really the ones we wanted.  Hal way through one apple, Riley saw another one on the ground that looked better, so he put his down and picked up the new one.  Luckily that was not one of the apples that had been living not he ground for a week, stomped on and feeding a family of ants...

When the picking frenzy was complete, we headed back to the store to check out the rest of the crop.  Riley wanted to inspect the quality of the mini pumpkins and in order to do a thorough job, he had to get in and really take a look at the product.  In the end, he approved of the pumpkins and had to be dragged away.  We came home with a half bushel of tomatoes that has thus far been turned into pasta sauce, chili and gifts to neighbors and family.  Anyone have any suggestions of what to do with the remaining 14 tomatoes?

Look who's 2 (and 30)!

Today marks another fun birthday that Riley and I got to celebrate together - we are 32!  Well... I'm 30 and he's 2!  I think this is the last birthday we will get away with where he doesn't quite know what a birthday means and that we can celebrate together without him thinking that I am stealing the day from him... we'll see next year!

We've already had fun for a few days with a birthday cookout on Saturday, a celebration at school and toys throughout the week.  This kid is obsessed with everything on wheels, so we put trucks on his cake, trains in his toy chest and tractors in the back yard to ride on (or at least take advantage of the fact that the neighbors are doing construction and pretend that they are for Riley).

By the time 8pm rolled around on his actual birthday, Riley was zonked from the days of celebration and ready to sleep.  He was pretty feisty and stubborn on the first evening of his 2's so lets hope that this year comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.

Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate from near and far and we are looking forward to a very exciting year of new opportunities, exciting activities and learning from each other along the way!

Bring on Birmingham

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to visit the family in Birmingham and had such a great time!  It's never easy to travel, especially when it involves a 2 year old who is always on the move, but Riley did such a fantastic job on the flights and did so much better than I thought.

It was nice to just hang out without a specific plan and just spend time with family.  We went to the park, went to the pool, went to the museum and had some quality time at Grammy and Grandy's house.  I think they were surprised at how much Riley is on the move and how fast he is.  We reminded them quickly that he is a handful but with his cute smile, it was easy to also see how much fun he is.

Grammy and Grandy tried to convince us to move to Birmingham but between the heat and the bug bites, we are happy just to visit and hope to do so again soon!

Fun at the grocery store

This evening's exciting activity was a trip to the grocery store to do a minor stock up.  We hopped out of the car, picked out our cart with a race car on it and made a bee-line straight for the bakery so Riley could pick out his free cookie.  After licking the frosting and sprinkles off the top, he tossed it in the cart and was ready to help.

I don't know if any of you have ever tried to drive one of these extension shopping cart monstrosities but they are just about impossible to maneuver.  I almost knocked over a carton of canned tomatoes, had to wait my turn to walk down an aisle alone and at one point realized that a bagel display on wheels was attached to us and coming along for the ride!

After about 15 minutes in the cart, Riley decided enough was enough and it was time to explore - and by explore, I mean run up and down the aisles, hopping, jumping, making friends and at one point running through the pharmacy automatic doors and making a run for daylight.   Needless to say, I will be wearing my sneakers next time we take on this activity.

So we left Chris to do the shopping and took laps, exploring all of the options.  Riley was particularly fascinated by the ricotta cheese and sour cream display and took it upon himself to reorganize.  They clearly looked much better out of color order and in a tall stack!  This picture was taken just before the last one was placed on top, just slightly off balance, and I had to catch the Leaning Tower of Ricotta Cheese-a!

Lesson learned - do not expect to take a 2 year old to the grocery store alone to get shopping done.  Either go with back-up or go alone!

Wet weekend

With our weekend starting out sunny and dry, we set up Riley's new sandbox and picked out the perfect toys that should live in there.  We have a nice flat spot in the shade where the turtle now lives and Riley has a really great time playing in there - when the weather allows it.

The whole weekend wasn't that pretty, though.  With Sunday morning's concert in the park being cancelled, we had to find new indoor activities to keep us busy.  So first we went to Lowe's to get a handful of things that we needed around the house, and then spent some time playing around Wal-Mart.

Do you see Riley?  Can you tell what we are testing out?  Can you see how happy he is to be part of the display?

Read me a story

Tonight, Riley was in charge of reading me a bedtime story.  He chose a Snoopy book but insisted on calling him "Soupy".  Subtle differences can really change a name!  I can't quite tell what he is asking over and over again, but the answer is always 'no'.  I'll have to ask at camp to see if they read another book where the answer is always 'no'...

My challah!

This evening, we got back to family Shabbat, and lucky for us, Riley did not forget about his love for challah.   As soon as he saw it, he claimed "Mine", cried until he got a piece and then took the whole thing and wouldn't give it back.

He took huge bites between mouthfuls of pasta and was even nice enough to share it with his monkey chopsticks.  But when Mommy asked for a bite of challah, did Riley want to share?  No...

He did seem pretty proud of himself.  So with Chris beaming from ear to ear cause of Riley's fuel intake and a smile like that from my little guy, too - who was I to put a halt to all the happiness?

Now he better have energy for everything on tomorrow's "to do" list after all this carb loading!

We now return to our regularly scheduled program!

After a few weeks hiatus, it is now time to jump back onto the blog and keep everyone posted on our comings, our goings, our new tricks, and our fun times.

It seems that in the 2 weeks I was on the Med Cruise, Riley has grown taller and now talks more than ever.  He is forming sentences and is always very willing to speak his mind.  He is very opinionated and makes sure that you know exactly what he is thinking.  And if you choose not to listen, he is very persuasive in getting his way.

On the way to camp this morning, I asked Riley if he was going to tell his friends about the fun weekend that we had and all of the exciting activities that we did.  He could tell them about having family Shabbat dinner, going on a walk, making art projects at the mall and playing at the pool.  He could share with them that he snacked on pizza, ate Chinese food with Bibi and Zee, shared ice cream with Mommy and ate corn soup on the patio.  Then, he could brag about his new t-ball set, picking out snazzy jammies, checking out a new park and playing with new toys at the JCC.  And that was all this weekend!

They keep him very active at camp, yet he always seems to find the reserve supply on the evenings and weekends, so it is up to us to fill the time and have fun together.