Friday, April 25, 2014

Fore!


This evening before bedtime, we were playing in Riley's room when he started swinging at anything he could find with a makeshift stick/club/bat.  So rather than letting him learn wrong and waste his energy, we took out the golf set we bought a few weeks ago and started the lessons.


I'll admit, it wasn't the best idea to start teaching him to play golf in the house, but with the weather warming up, I'm hopeful that we can move this new activity to the backyard and really let him take a swing!


And with an on-site golf pro, we should have him on the course in no time and winning the Master's in record time.  I won't send the measurements for his green jacket quite yet, but keep an eye on this one - he has natural talent!

Monday, April 21, 2014

New experiences in Pittsburgh


When I said on Sunday afternoon that we were going to have to find something to do after nap time, I had no idea that we would find SO much to do!  It was Easter Sunday and with almost everything closed, it was a challenge to find things that were open, but once we had a game plan, we hit the ground running and didn't stop for hours.


We headed down to Station Square and decided to take Riley on the incline for the first time.  We watched the cars go up and down.  When it was our turn, he was a little hesitant, but once we started moving, he was happy to watch the cars get smaller and head to the top of Mt. Washington.  We looked at the city, saw a "waterfall" from above (The Point) and even found an ice cream store that was open for our afternoon snack.


After heading back down again, we walked around Station Square and headed down towards the water.  That's when we heard it... a train!  We rolled the stroller as fast as we could and got there just in time to see the train chugging by.  Riley was so excited!  He kept waiving and saying "choo choo" and when it was gone, he looked for another one.  By the end of the day, he saw four trains go by and was excited about each one.


It was still early and beautiful outside so we drove over to The Point to show Riley the "waterfall" that he had found earlier.  He wanted to jump right in, of course, but was happy just to walk around the fountain and get sprayed by the mist.  We saw boats and trains and cars and bikes and babies and hats and everything else that Riley loves to point out.  It was such a beautiful day that we really just wanted to make the most of every minute that we could.



Sunday, April 20, 2014

Let's all sing like the birdies sing

This weekend, we have had the most beautiful weather and we are making the most of the blue skies and sunshine!  Surprisingly, we had nothing planned on a Sunday so we are having fun finding things to do outside.  We started with a morning walk with BiBi and Zee, then had a hot dog picnic on our side porch, we played a little more outside and now it is nap time.

Riley didn't want to waste one minute of playtime so we took an extra ride around the neighborhood before lunch.  He was having such a good time and breathing in the fresh air.


And as we were waiting for the hot dogs to grill, we had fun playing on the porch.  Chris had Riley try on his new shorts and sandals.  Even though the outfit doesn't work well - at all - the pieces are great and will hopefully get a lot of use over the next few months.


Looking forward to spring and summer outdoor playtime!  Now what should we do this afternoon?

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Wonderful weekend

This weekend, RIley and I had some quality time together while Chris is out of town for work.  We put a bunch of activities on the books to keep us busy and with the free time that we had, we found more to keep us active and happy.

On Saturday, we went to the JCC and spent an hour playing on the playground, running around the gym and making new friends in the lobby.  It was nice outside when the sun was shining and Riley was happy to show me some of his favorite playground toys that he gets to use at school.  Check out his new trick on the slide - something else new that he learned at school!


Stacey came over on Saturday evening to join us in an all-you-can-eat pizza fest where Riley was the surprise winner, eating 3 pieces of pizza!  Once he went to bed, we had some lazy girl time but enjoyed each others company.


On Sunday, Riley and I started out the morning by going to a Pancakes Before Passover event at the Squirrel Hill JCC.  There was singing, story time, games and cold pancakes but Riley's favorite game was walking around and trying to pick up the matzo pieces from the floor and eating them.  Needless to say, I was right behind him every step of the way, knocking matzo pieces back to the ground.  Then, after politely refusing a nap, we headed back into town and hit up the museum campus.  It was such a pretty day that we spent time playing in the park, checking out trucks and pretending to be squirrels but putting acorns in our mouths - oh wait, that was Riley.  My job, again, was to swat them out of his hand before he was able to pop them in.  The final score was Riley 3, Mommy 6!

Stacey and Brad joined us in the park and we went through the history museum together - checking out rocks, dinosaurs and animals.  Riley led the way and showed us where to go and we all had a great time pretending to be dinosaurs.  After a trip to the yogurt shop, we headed our separate ways to enjoy the rest of the beautiful day.


And on the way home, Riley proved that when you play hard, you're allowed to crash hard!