Christmas was great for me. I got to play with a ton of tissue paper, which I loved. I would pull the tissue paper out of a gift bag, not so interested in the gift, and then I would flap the paper up and down, all the while giggling almost uncontrollably. Then, I would cover my face with the tissue paper, laughing until I ripped the paper off of my head. It was amazing. Mom and Dad will post pictures soon. Not too many good ones came out, but there are a few of Emmett and I opening presents…

I got some good things for Christmas, but I don’t think that, with the exception of the our new art table, I really have played with anything the way that I played with the tissue paper. My new books are good, but I’m not really a reader yet. Emmett will ask to be read specific books and then he’ll read then to himself. Or, he’ll pretend like he can read and just talk to himself and turn the pages. I mostly like to turn the pages and rip them, if I can. This means that I am not allowed to play with anything other than board books right now. Too much destruction.

I am furniture surfing and walking while pushing things. So exciting! Soon I will be walking without any help and Mom and Dad will be so happy! I am still an army crawler. Its not that I can crawl conventionally, but I prefer army crawling. Mom has a theory about that. She thinks that regular crawling is hard on the knees, especially on our hard wood floor. This makes sense, as I do more regular crawling on the carpet upstairs and in the basement. But as it doesn’t really matter, I think that I’ll just concentrate on standing and walking and go from there….

New Year’s Eve was fun. Pizzas, a small snippet of a movie, bath and bed.  A perfect night.

Happy New Year’s to everyone! I can’t wait to see what this year brings. I know one thing that’s coming: Next time we chat I’ll have a little sister (or brother!)…

Riley

This is the best time of year. I get to see all of my favorite people all the time, it seems. There’s my birthday in October, then Thanksgiving, Emmett’s birthday, Hanukkah, Christmas–and that’s just the start. They come over and play with me and give me presents and love.

I had a ton of fun at Emmett’s birthday. First, he got a slide from Mom and Dad. And the box was just as much fun as the slide itself. But since I’m really getting the hang of climbing up things, the slide is fun because I get to show off this skill. The box is great fun, except when Emmett sits on the open end and traps me in there. That was not so good.

After presents and cake, we went to a light display at a local wildlife museum. We saw Santa, reindeer, and lots and lots of lights. It was great because Grandpa Bob, Grandma Cheryl, Aunt Ashley and Ann came. I’m not quite as shy with new people as Emmett is, but these are most of the people that I like to spend my time with.

Mom and Dad have taken to calling me the “Stage 5 Clinger.” Once I get a hold of Mom, I won’t let go. I hold on like a spider monkey. And when Mom tries to pass me off to someone else, I cry and cry and cry. Usually its only food or Mom (and not necessarily in that order) that will get me to stop.

Next time, I’ll post pictures of Christmas and Emmett and I at our gym classes. They will be wonderful, I promise.

Have Great New Year!
Riley

It turns out that I am a fairly determined little boy. Determined to get my way, I mean. Mom and Dad aren’t sure if it is something that I recently learned from Emmett or if it is just a part of who I am, but when I want something, I am not to be easily deterred.

Unlike Emmett, who, for the most part, can be pacified with another toy when he can’t get to something like the cordless phone or a Blackberry, if Mom or Dad won’t let me have those things, I throw quite the tantrum. I arch my back and throw my head back, which is never a good thing given its size and the momentum it can generate. I can go on crying for 20 or 30 minutes, well past when one would imagine my single-mindedness would wear off.

But no, 30 minutes later, if you give me what I want, I will calm down. And right away too. In mid-wail, even.

You may think that this is not an attractive quality, but just wait. Once I get older, this characteristic will no longer be associated with a tantrum. People will call me determined. I will be capable and smart and successful because of it. You just wait and see.

Riley out.

Ps. We had Aunt Ashley, Uncle Steve, cousin Ellie, and Grandpa Bob over for Thanksgiving yesterday. It was really great to hang out with everyone. We tried to take pictures with Grandpa and the grandkids. I posted the shots. See if you can figure out who refuses to stay put for the picture. One hint: His name starts with an Emm- and ends with an -ett.

So this was my first real Halloween. And it was really fun, but not because I got to go around to the houses in Grandpa’s cul-de-sac and ask for candy. I wasn’t too excited about that. It was the fact that I actually got to eat some candy.

First, it was a cupcake on my birthday. And now I get to eat some M&Ms and Milky Ways! What comes next? A straight sugar IV?

Emmett looked so fantastic in his dinosaur costume, and I was pretty cute in my monkey outfit, if I do say so myself, and everyone stopped us to tell us that. But we get that all the time. What I don’t get is the candy.

Why does this holiday come only once a year?

And why did Arlo eat all of my candy this morning when we were out running errands?

Riley

I can’t believe it! I turned one on Saturday! I’m a whole year old. Mom and Dad can’t believe that its been a year since I was born. Boy does time go by quickly…

I had a great birthday party. Just my favorite people. Grandpa and his friend Anne. Aunt Ashley, Uncle Steve (and his mom!), and my new cousin Ellie. And my great-Grandma Betty. It was perfect because there weren’t too many people there and everyone was there to celebrate me! (Last year, Emmett was a little overwhelmed at his birthday party and ended up hiding in the master bathroom shower, so Mom and Dad opted for a small turnout for my party.)

I had almost an entire cupcake all by myself! It was great, you should check out the pictures. I sucked on the cupcake for, like, 10 minutes. When I finally pulled the cupcake away from my mouth, there was a big hole where I’d eaten all the frosting that I could. I just repeated this process until there wasn’t much frosting left and then I moved onto the cake portion… It was great.

I got some great presents too. They were almost all car related, but I got a great toy for the bath as well. Emmet has really been helping me break in the toys. Mostly helping. Sometimes demanding.

I saw the pediatrician yesterday for my one year check up. Everything went fantastic. OK. So, I’m a bit behind on my leg strength, but I keep making good progress with kneeling and standing so no one is worried. I chalk it up to how tightly I was packed before I was born. There really wasn’t much room in there! So it’s going to take me a bit more time to start walking. But I’ll get there! Don’t you worry!

Riley

I am sitting up all by myself, which is really not too much of a feat. But what is special is that I am only rarely falling over and hitting my head. I used to be pulled over by the slightest movement of my gigantic nogin. But now, I am doing a very admirable job of controling it. Yea!

I am crawling, but only backwards, and only once in a great while. So, in other words, not often. But you have to start somewhere, right?

I have a super strong grip and enormous mitts. So I am getting really good at taking things away from Emmett and holding on tight.

I love sweet things. I can’t enough of chocolate (not that Mom and Dad have that very often) and when I have normal stuff like oatmeal, I prefer it sweetened with agave nectar or molasses or something. Emmett prefers the salty stuff. But give me anything sweet and I will act as if I haven’t eaten in months.

I wave at everyone. I wave hello and goodbye. And for no reason at all. I do the double wave (two hands). And something i watch my own hand as I wave. Its very interesting how I can control that.

I am a very determined little guy. If I want a toy, or some food, or to be held, I really don’t let go of that idea until I get what I want. Don’t get me wrong. I’m also very content with almost everything that I am doing. But when I get an idea in my head, I like to see it through to the end. Not a bad quality to have, right?

Anyway, I’ll let you know how my first Halloween goes. I’m going to be a monkey. Which is fairly apt as I like to hold onto things with my hands and drag things to me with my feet!

Talk soon,
Riley

I guess that title is a little misleading. Only in as much as I am not currently walking; nor have I ever walked. I don’t mean with regularity. I mean ever. What I was getting at in the title to this post was that it really takes some determination to keep up with Emmett, and to keep my toys from Emmett. He is moving. A lot. And fairly quickly too. So I have to move fast to keep up.

I am still working on crawling. I am army crawling like a champ. (Or as Mom likes to call it Roomba-ing because I inadvertently vacuum the floor when I pull myself across it.) And I am now getting much better at pulling my knees underneath me and rocking forward and back. But still no crawling. Which only means that I have to work that much harder to keep up with Chocolate Thunder (see Emmett’s blog if that’s the first time you’ve heard that name).

I will literally be following him from one room into another, when he decides-with Emmett’s customary je ne sais quois-to change direction and turn around. This is a bit disheartening for me. I work very hard to pull myself from one room into another only to see Emmett decide that it is, in fact, another room that is his final destination. Sometimes it just gets to be too much and I just lie there with my head on the ground. But only for a moment. Then I remember that I am White Lightening and I can do anything! (Except walk-yet.) So then I just turn around and follow Emmett to infinity and beyond…

But sometimes infinity means that he’s working hard to tire me out so that he can steal my toys. I have drawn a line in the sand when it comes to outright theft. If I have something in my hands, that is to say either being held by me or on my person, I expect that it will remain there. Perhaps I will entertain the idea of a trade. Give me something good and I may be persuaded to give up my toy in return. But for Emmett to just come up and try to yank my toy away? I will not stand for that.

To that end, I recently worked on my grip strength. And with the concept of retaliation. Both have helped me immensely. The grip strength has even surprised Emmett. When I crawl up to him when he is having a bottle and I try to wrest it from him, he is, I feel comfortable saying, shocked. Unfortunately he has taken to defending himself by hitting me on the head with whatever else he is holding. (I am currently searching for a solution to that problem. Stay tuned.) But I retaliate when he is otherwise engaged, then I crawl up to him and try to pull his hair. All’s fair… Right?

I would like to end this post by pointing out that I really learned all of these tactics from Emmett. I hesitate to say that, if asked, he would say that he was secretly proud of me. But I think that if he knew that I thought that, he would probably just hit me on the head with whatever he was currently holding.

Riley out.

Although this must be old-hat for Emmett, I am kind of nervous about the fact that I am going to be a big brother. It seems like a lot of responsibility. You have to teach the little one about a lot of stuff… What to taste, what not to taste. How to properly fling food with more than just a spoon. What sort of smile works to get you out of certain situations. There’s a lot to know if you are going to be a successful baby. And it falls to me to teach a little sister (Mom and Dad are pretty sure but aren’t going to find out until she gets here) all about these things.

But I think that if she’s half as fun as Emmett is to play with, it will be great. Emmett thinks that this means we’ll have someone else to blame for everything that we do wrong. Now, I don’t know so much about that, but I do like the idea of having someone else involved in any high jinx. The more the merrier!

She’s coming in January. So get ready!

Riley

Ok. So, I’m still not crawling yet. But I am a champ at army crawling my way across any floor. i am still growing too, which means that I am almost as big as Emmett now. He just weighed in at 24 pounds at his 18 month doctor’s visit and Mom thinks that I am probably close to 20 pounds.

I am starting to mimic everything that Emmett does. If he makes a funny sound, I make the same funny sound; if he shakes his head, I shake my head. He thinks its hilarious. And I have a great time playing with him. So it’s a win-win for everyone.

I am more mobile that you’d think, though, given that I am not yet crawling. I roll everywhere. I can open and close doors (as long as they aren’t closed all the way). And I am a big fan of wedging myself into really small places. I always end up under the stoller when I play in our entryway. (Dad jokes that I am changing the oil on it.)

I am also trying to get the doggies to play with me. I think Tally prefers that I roll, as opposed to walking or crawling, so she’s not as surprised by my approach. This means that she stays still (sometimes) for me to pet her. She’s super soft.

Dad has taken to putting me into a baby-backpack and walking around with Emmett and I. Emmett is on the ground, of course. But I like this because I’m up high and there’s a sun shade on the backpack so I can keep from getting burned. Dad says pretty soon we’re going to head up to the mountains and really go hiking. That should be great because it is way too hot at home. I cry when we go in the stroller because I am missing my air conditioning…

Anyway, I’ll check back in in another few weeks.

Take care,
R

Turns out I have two new teeth. Know how I figured this out? I bit my finger. Hard. It wasn’t pleasant. In fact, it hurt. But you know what they say… You only have to do it once to learn. So no more biting myself. But maybe I’ll take a leaf out of Emmett’s book and start biting Mom and Dad. Mostly Dad.

I woud like to say that I am now a champ when it comes to solid foods. I’ve had peas, spinach, sweet potatoes, rice, apples, bananas, and oatmeal. And more fruit to come.  But I still prefer the  bottle. Mom and Dad are working on that. Emmett likes to eat what I’m eating, and you would think that would make me want it to, but no dice. Still a work in progress.

I have been way more interested in playing with Emmet’s toys. Sometimes when he’s playing with something and I can’t get to it, I start crying.  I really have to get crawling down so that I can start stealing Emmett’s things.  He steals my things. So it really isn’t as mean as it sounds. Its just evening up the playing field.

Other than that, really no much new here. Just eating, sleeping, and growing. All good thing. Hoping to be mobile when we next chat.

Later.