Today marks Riley's 16 month birthday. No, we didn't get him a car, but we did let him watch a movie during dinner! And to celebrate occasion, we had a dance party!
Riley has an ever growing vocabulary and source of energy and it's always fun to talk to him to see what he is going to say and figure out the new things he is learning. Here is a list of things he can say:
Today was cold, rainy and gross, so we picked an inside activity and headed to the museum. Riley had been to the History Museum with BiBi and Zee, but we hadn't gone with him yet. We walked through the front doors and we were off on a tour of Riley's favorite rooms.
We started out in the gem exhibit. There were brightly colored rocks, buttons to push and walls of gems to run up to. Riley picked out his favorites and asked if we could take some of them home. Luckily, he got distracted by the next exhibit and forgot about his pending personal rock collection.
Next up were the dinosaurs. There were big ones and little ones, bones you could touch, models up the the ceiling and so many animals to say hi to. Riley kept looking up at the dinosaur displays and saying "ooooohh" - so much so that people were waiting for his reaction because its just so cute!
There is an area where you can play with toy dinosaurs and Riley and Chris had a great time at that station. By the end, there was a trail of dinosaurs on the ground and Riley was ready to make his way to the next room.
The museum is very kid friendly and has a whole section set up where you can dig for fossils and play with bones. Their only rule is that you have to wear safety goggles at all times to protect you from flying dust. Riley really wanted to dig and play but had no interest in wearing his goggles. We tried to explain that if he wanted to play, he had to wear the glasses, but he didn't quite get the correlation. Needless to say, that was the exhibit that we had to carry him out of, crying and making a scene.
But all was forgiven when we went to the Hall of Animals. We saw lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Riley would go up to the windows and say hi, then move to the next window and point out the animals he knows. Lots of the animals were either kitties or horses (because those are the animals that he knows best) but he had a great time looking around. We only spent about an hour and a half at the museum but because of our new gift membership, we don't feel bad about missing some of the exhibits. It just gives us something to look forward to on our next visit!
This morning, Riley had an appointment with the ENT to check in and see how things are going. Since he has been a little under the weather, it was good to go in and take a look under the hood. Our thought was that Riley's adenoids were enlarged and that is what causes him to have a runny nose and sound like baby Darth Vader all the time. In order to see what was really happening, Riley had to have an x-ray taken. He was really interested in the machines and wanted to touch all the buttons. In order to keep the radiation to a minimum, I made him keep his hands to himself, as much as he protested. Riley had to lay down and I had to hold him down for 2 quick pictures. He didn't love the process but in the end, we got what we needed.
When the doctor took a look at the results, he said in 2 seconds "Well, this is a text book case of a little guy who needs an adenoidectomy". He said that the airways from his nose were completely blocked by the huge adenoid and that the procedure should help.
Riley was very good at the doctor (even though the picture tells another story) and all the nurses had a fun time coming in to say hi and see what a cute little guy came to visit. We are hoping for an easy month with as little illnesses as possible before the procedure, which should hopefully set us on a clear, and silent sleeping, course!
Yesterday, the JCC had a concert of Sheldon Lowe, a Jewish kids singer. There was a room full of kids and parents and there was a very relaxed and kid-friendly atmosphere. Kids were dancing and singing and they were invited on-stage to be part of the performance. Riley took the opportunity to show off his moves and once he got on-stage, he didn't want to leave.
This evening when I went to pick Riley up from school, the teachers told me that he had a good day, but didn't want to take a nap. They tried to let him sleep in the morning, they tried again in the afternoon, but he just didn't want to miss any of the action. He was super happy when I took him outside and wanted to play on the playground before we went to the car. There are plenty of toys outside to choose from and since it was in the 50's, we took a few minutes to play. Riley went straight for the little red car. He pulled himself in and took it for a test drive.
Although most of the driving was in reverse, he seems to still have had a good time. He told me afterwards that he learned the lesson from his Grandy to drive the car backwards so that he could save on gas mileage. All that driving was exhausting, though, and he finally took his nap in the car on the way home!
Who remembers Mondo? He was one of Riley's monkey friends - a favorite Hanukkah gift from Aunt Patricia and Uncle James last year - who sang so much that he ran out of batteries. Sadly, he had a very particular shelf-life because there was no compartment where you could change out his battery. So there he hung, silent but still smiling. Enter Zee... with a degree in grandparenting and pediatrics, he put Mondo on the operating table to see what could be done.
At first, it wasn't pretty, and we didn't know how Mondo would take such a challenging procedure, but Dr. Zee worked with a skilled hand and a parent's love and Mondo came out singing and smiling!
I would call this a success all around! Thanks Dr. Zee!
Over the weekend, we spent an hour killing time at the mall. When it's cold and snowing outside, you have to find ways to be creative inside!
As we were walking around, Riley spotted the train and asked politely if he could take a ride. He made his plea and after telling us that he would sit still and get strapped in, we obliged and purchased one round-trip ticket for the train.
He picked a seat, held on tight and took a ride around, and around, and around!
He was a great passenger and loved each lap more than the next. Unfortunately, he loved the train so much that he wanted to ride it again. The only way to convince him that it was time to move on was to leave the train side of the mall. So we headed down the hallway, with Riley making friends and showing his belly button to everyone that smiled at him.
And then he saw it... the escalator! Riley has been on escalators before, but never when he actually rode it himself. So this was to be celebrated!
This activity could have gone on for 25 minutes if we let him, but after 5 rounds, we decided to move on. Had we known what was going to happen next, we probably would have stayed on the escalator ride.
The Apple store has these pretty glittering lights in the window that Riley stopped and stared at from the outside. He was mesmerized by them and all the employees were commenting on how cute he was. Then he came inside and in 2 quick motions, he lunged for the lights and took a quick tug - and the display came apart. The strand of lights came down, the hanging part fell and part of the display was on the ground. Lucky for us, it wasn't the kind of display that could really break, but while we were in the store, it was temporarily out for service. After some profuse apologies and offers to help, we moved along to the Build-A-Bear store, where the displays were much more durable and child-friendly.
This weekend, we are planning to go to one of the museums and explore more winter weather activities!
