This week in Hilarity

Is it just me, or is Kellan getting ridiculously huge? It seems these 3-6 month clothes are really shrinking down to nothing, which is reeeallly unfortunate. I need them to make it until Christmas, when he will primarily be getting clothes. It's amazing to me how different the boys are. I think I've mentioned that before. There are moments that Kellan gives a look or makes a face in which he looks exactly like Riley as an infant. He also has this serious, pensive look a lot of the time. Kellan, it seems, is going to be a lot like my mother. He's going to be a little more introverted, and a little more studious, and maybe a little more chill in general. While Riley is my wild child (already - which is odd, because he's so sweet and tender hearted, but still has this driving force for mischief) Kellan is going to be (eventually)the sweet boy of my dreams.
It's amazing how he's starting to really and truly notice and respond now. He'll follow me all over the room, straining his neck to see where I went. He seems to respond to his name fairly well most times, although that may be my imagination. Riley is his favorite. Anything he does is amazing to Kellan. It's so cute. He looks up to him already. Not sure that's great! haha! But Riley enjoys his new-found adoration so much that he's starting to volunteer to entertain him while I do short tasks (ie make a bottle). So sweet.
One thing that I am NOT enjoying that is a glaring difference between infant Riley and infant Kellan is my inability to leave Kellan to hang out in his crib. He is bound and determine to find a way to injure himself. With Riley at this age (or around there) we could lay him down at bedtime and he would just soothe himself, and YES - sometimes Cry it Out - but it would take about 20 minutes MAYBE for him to sleep, and for the most part he would just lay there and hang out until he fell asleep. At first I was able to do that with Kellan, but then when I would go and check on him I would find him in these crazy positions. He would stick an arm through a slat, or stick his face up in the corner, or - in one horrifying case - somehow managed to pull the bumper from the sides of the crib and get up under there!! Blankets, shmankets - no worry there. It's the WHOLE FREAKIN' CRIB! So now, I have to rock him to a complete sleep each and every time and make sure he is OUT before laying him down. It doesn't take long. He hums himself to sleep on most occasions and doesn't really fight it unless he's over-tired. Even after laying him down, I have to check on him constantly to feel ok. I had a video monitor for Riley, but with Kellan that wasn't affordable so there are only regular ol' monitors. Honestly, I barely turn them on. There's a white noise machine in his room that is virtually all I hear. The house is old and has thin walls. Besides, I saw this episode of 'A Haunting' in which a spirit talked through a baby monitor and I've been terrified of them ever since. He seems to be sleeping more and more, which is not a complaint, but "early to bed, early to rise". If you knock out at 6pm, you're gonna be up pretty darn early. And he generally is.
I still need to work on cereal, because though he sleeps through the night excellently, there is still an issue about how often he eats during the day. Unless he's napping, it's every two hours ON THE DOT. I understand that he sleeps for such extended periods that he's catching up, but I think cereal would help. I got a great tip at my last WIC appointment to give the baby a spoon just to put in his mouth (under supervision of course) and then to allow the baby to hold the spoon while you feed them, just so that they have a sense of control. I haven't tried cereal in a couple of weeks, so I think I'm going to do that for lunch tomorrow.

As for Riley, there is never a dull moment. This week he has been throwing out such words as "stupendous" and "unfortunately". He's definitely in a "hey, look at me" phase, and often conversations go like this "Hey, you what? (yes, no 'know') Ummmm....Wolveriiiiine....you what? Wolveriiiinnne has claws, but they aren't really claws they're spikes, and hey - you what? They're not really spikes they're sort of like knives. I never noticed that afore." At school, he's doing really well but struggling with both his tender-heartedness and his desire to be a super hero. No Super Heroes at school is the class rule, and he has a HARD TIME keeping that in check. He transforms both on the playground with his big buddy Wesley, and as soon as he walks out the door (often as Nightcrawler. In which he crawls.) Last week, his teacher told me that he had gotten pulled out of Circle Time because he elbowed a little boy named Gavin. Apparantly they'd had some issue, and Riley told Gavin in no uncertain terms that he was mad at him. Gavin ignored him, Riley told him again. When rebuffed a second time, Riley elbowed him in the gut. The teacher said she barely got onto him because he was so heartbroken about being in trouble. She told him she was proud of him for using his words, but if he felt he couldn't continue to use his words he needed to let the teacher know. I told her my motto around the house with Riley "Use your words, not your whines". It helps a lot. That and some deep breaths compliments of NiHao Kai-Lan.
Riley has decided that he can get out of anything with compliments. Or, if he doesn't have much to say, he busts out a compliment. Example: "Umm.....Mommy??" "Yes?" "I just wanted to say something to you: You're pretty and beautiful". He has found that I take to this well (who wouldn't) so he uses it to try and get out of things. There's this little problem of him flushing the toilet. For some reason he finds it annoying and tedious. Yesterday, I sent him back to the bathroom to flush and wash his hands. He threw a bit of a fit, and I told him that I would turn off his game if he continued and didn't listen. On his way back he said "I JUST HATE - I mean, no, I mean, I don't hate you I was just gonna say I think you're pretty and beautiful". Good save. He later informed me he was just sad and "afrustrated" that he had to go back to his bathroom and flush. Again, thank you, Riley, for using your words and not your whines.

So, lots going on this week. It's amazing how much happens when you think nothing is happening at all! haha!! They just grow up so fast it's amazing!!

Quote of the Day:

(In tears and clad in a pair of firefighter rainboots, gloves, and Cars 2 underwear): "Mommmmyyy!  If I can't stop crying Bub's gonna let me go to bed!!!!"
"Do you mean MAKE you go to bed??"
"*sniffle* That's correct...."

Pasgetti and Meatballs with Monsterella

Riley says words wrong. He does it all the time. It's absolutely adorable. I remember the first word of note - phrase, rather. It was "excuse me". Instead he said "me me" and I said it ALL the time. Then "phone" became "toe" and I called my phone a "toe" for the better part of two years. Now it's "TD" instead of "TV", "ridicleeous" instead of "ridiculous", and the list kind of goes on. I'm super grateful that it's just a matter of mis-said words and no real speech impediment. When I was little, I couldn't say my "s". I said it like "th". Sometimes if I don't hold my tongue just right, I still say it wrong. That's after a lot of speech therapy. It's really cute when kids say things incorrectly, but it's also unnerving when the shows they watch encourage it. Case in point, The Wonder Pets. I really REALLY didn't want him to watch them at first, because Ming-Ming the Duck says her 'r's' wrong. Now it's cute, but I don't know if it would be as cute if Riley said "Wiley". Anyway, I bring this up because, as the title suggests, today Riley busted out with "pasgetti and meatballs with Monsterella" as his lunch. It was super funny. I've started noticing that instead of correcting him I just wind up imitating him. I'm gonna say that phrase for the next 3 years, guaranteed. Saturday's are always kind of laid back for Riley. During the regular week, when it's just me, him, and Kellan, he tends to be a comedic genius. During the weekend when he has more than one adults' attention, I don't get as much hilarity out of him. As of late, Riley is very concerned with what superhero he is portraying. I noticed today that when I woke up he was in the same jeans he had on yesterday. Come to find out, that was intentional. He's the Incredible Hulk. No shirts, no shoes, no service for this fella. For Halloween he was Wolverine. It seemed as though the second Halloween was over, he and Wolverine broke up. He is also Cyclops on a regular basis, and The Beast or Nightcrawler on occasion. We're BIG fans of the X-Men around here. (By "we" I mean NOT me). As for Kellan, he's just a baby. I realized today while I was in the market for a new bottle that 3-6 month olds were supposed to use fast flow nipples. No one told me that. I don't remember knowing that with Riley, either. I don't know if I've been making Kellan work for his food the last month or two, or if he wasn't ready. Anyway, we're gonna give it a try. I'm a bit nervous. It's amazing the differences between Riley and Kellan so far. Both babies have been really laid back and cool about stuff. Both boys have been really sweet. But Riley was a cuddler whereas Kellan is NOT. And Riley was very easily distracted (although he had an elephant memory) while Kellan is ExTREMELY focused. It's just really interesting how different children are. It's much more difficult for me to make Kellan laugh than it was for me to make Riley at this age, which is interesting because Riley was in daycare. So, I wonder if my humor has already lost it's novelty with Kellan. Either way. Little boys are awesome.

May as Well.....

There was no way I was going to keep up with any kind of blog about my life. My BOYS lives, however, is a completely different story. I've been told more than one time that I could write a book about the things that my oldest son, Riley, says. So, my goal for this blog is really simple: share the hilarity that is my children, and share the ridiculousness that is motherhood - regardless of the situation.

I have learned in the 4 years since Riley has been alive that it is an absolutely ridiculous notion to take yourself too seriously as a parent. While I am certainly not saying motherhood isn't a big and important thing, and I have no intention of shirking my maternal duties, I think being a parent - like any other part of life - is something that can be overdone. Obsessive might be a better word. I feel like my parents set a good example for me. My mother always took care of things and was very driven and serious and boundary setting. My dad was always fun, and only set the boundaries in cases of the extreme (ie cheating on a 7th grade pre-Algebra test). But the overall balance of the house - despite my parents now being divorced - was really, really good. A good instruction of what to do - and not to do - for my children.

So...let's get started, shall we. I'm hoping that I'm able to get online daily and at least post a "Quote of the Day" for Riley. And if Kellan shares the same wit when he is able to talk, I'll add some for him as well. Of all the things in the universe, it is extremely easy to talk about my children. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

While I wish I could go back and tell everything funny Riley has ever said, that's really quite impossible. So for the purposes of getting things moving, let me just tell you about this week.....