A New Year, A New Beginning

I keep promising myself that I'm going to update the blog. But here we are, almost a year after my last promise, and no posts in between. Embarrassing! What really spurred me into action is the fact that both my mother AND my mother-in-law joined the social network Facebook just so they could see pictures of the boys. I've now succumbed to the guilt, and instead of trying to catch up the time periods that I've neglected, I'm going to post from this point forward. I may try to throw some flashbacks in at various points. For instance, the fabulous Disneyland trip we took in October 2009 has yet to be documented. But for now, I’ll concentrate on bringing everyone up to speed with current events.

RILEY

My last "real" post left off with Riley's first birthday. He'll be turning 3 years old in just a few months. As mischievous as he is, the best word to describe Riley at this point is that he is an enigma. You never know what you're going to get. He's so random! Each night before going to bed, he helps pick out his clothes for the next day. Occasionally when I go into his room to get him dressed the next day, I find that he has taken it upon himself to swap out various clothing items, whether it's just a pair of socks or the entire outfit. One morning I went in to get Riley and he had unpacked an entire package of wet wipes and stuffed them into the vent in his room. This past weekend I walked in to find he had stripped his bed and pillows of sheets. Of course there was the morning a few months ago that I walked in and found he had smeared the entire contents of a brand new tube of Desitin on his carpet. He was so proud of himself! One thing is apparent though. The boy has a sense of humor. He's constantly doing things to get us to laugh. His newest trick is to hold his breath, close his eyes, and scrunch up his face. Adorable, and gets a laugh out of us every time he does it!

Riley has just recently started expanding his vocabulary. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a matter of him not being able to talk before now. I'm positive it has more to do with him being stubborn and wanting to do it on his terms. With that said, I would estimate that I really only understand about 50% of the words that come out of his mouth. For instance, I would never have known "Missmiss Mime" translates to "Optimus Prime" had the movie Transformers not been on the TV.  After asking him to repeat himself several times, he finally pointed to the TV in frustration.  Connor (or "Nonnor" as Riley calls him) does a pretty good job interpreting the other 50% of what I don't understand, but sometimes even he is baffled. It’s because of this that I’ve only recently been able to take note of some “Rileyisms.” For instance, a conversation that I can count on each weekday when I go in to wake him up:

Mommy: Good morning! It's time to wake up.
Riley: Why?
Mommy: Because you need to go to school.
Riley: Why?
Mommy: Because I need to go to work.

Riley: To get money?

The word “why” is his newest and seemingly favorite word, and it’s enough to drive a person crazy. He will continue to ask over and over again. Regardless of how well you answer his question, he responds with “why?” The only thing that seems to stop the interrogation is to tell him “because.”

Some other examples of his personality have been documented on Facebook:

June 30, 2010: Was on track to be early today, until walking into Riley's room. Again, he stripped himself out of his pajamas and diaper. However today, he filled his diaper before he took it off. Ew!

October 31, 2010: Riley closed himself inside the pantry today. When I figured it out and opened the door, it was to find he had discovered a stash of gum. When I held out my hand for him to spit it out, he gulped and opened his mouth to show me there was nothing in it.

Yep, he's a funny kid. 

CONNOR

As for Connor, I don't know where the time has gone. I tell him almost on a daily basis to quit growing so fast. He seems to outgrow his pants in the blink of an eye. With that said, he came to me on his birthday last year to report he didn’t grow like he was supposed to. “I’m still just a kid.” I used to keep track of the various Connorisms that came up in conversation. Over the past year or two, I haven’t done such a great job, but luckily I occasionally recorded a few of them on Facebook.

July 17, 2010: Was shopping at the outlets today with the boys. Connor was falling behind, so I called out to him to pick up the pace. He replied, "Hey, I can only go as fast as these little legs of mine can take me."

August 10, 2010: Connor's teacher asked him what he's hoping to learn in kindergarten this next year. His reply: "The monkey bars."

August 18, 2010: Connor recently made it known that he knows how to drive, but still needs to learn how to stay on the road.

October 28, 2010: Card from Rita received yesterday: "I love Connor. I miss you."  When I read this card to Connor, he threw his hands in the air exclaiming, "Rita loves me! I feel so alive!"

December 15, 2010: While preparing dinner tonight, I overheard Connor say the following: "Listen here, Riley. I'll tell you how it is. I'm your boss, Mommy is my boss, and Daddy is Mommy's boss." Don't worry. I set him straight.

December 15, 2010: While doing the dishes tonight, I overheard Connor ask Riley if he'd like to hear a story. At first I thought he was going to read him a book, but quickly realized he was looking in his photo album. The story went a bit like this:  “Once upon a time there was a sweet, little girl named Julia. She had two evil brothers named David and Nate, who tied her up to a tree. They kept her there for days and days, never letting her go.  The end."

Anyone who knows Connor knows there’s no bigger fan of Harry Potter than him. When we moved into our new home this past year, I decided it was time to change the theme of his bedroom. When we revealed the room to him, he deemed it “"the most awesomest room EVER." In addition to a couple of HP posters and HP bedding, he now has his very own triwizard cup lamp and a golden snitch. Since then, his best friend Rita has also given him a life size Harry Potter standee.

 

Overall, Connor is a great big brother and does a great job of showing Riley how to sword fight, wrestle, and properly jump from great heights.  He's still as fickle as can be when it comes to eating, which makes putting his lunch together a challenge each day.  It's almost sad to think that he's moved on from favoring Cars, Toy Story, Incredibles, and other Disney movies.  Now it's all about Avatar: The Last Airbender, Phineas & Ferb, Star Wars, just about any superhero, and of course, Harry Potter.  He's officially a "big boy" now.