You're Welcome Riley

On the way home from guitar lessons tonight...
Ri: "mom thanks for letting me be born"

I'll take it as a compliment

Ri: "mommy you look just lovely"
Me: "thanks Ri"
Ri: "even when you were mad, you looked just lovely"

Warning for Riley's future girlfriends...

Riley: "mom I'm never going to marry a girl that burps, pukes, toots and gets sick a lot"

Whew, glad we got that covered. Hopefully, he'll be a bit more forgiving when his wife has morning sickness....

Biden's job description according to Riley

Riley: Mom I know what a Vice President does
Me: What's that Riley?
Riley: Well if Obama is sick then the Vice President fills in. Kinda like a princess filling in for a queen.

This is one of the reasons I enjoy taking Ri to do errands on the weekends. You just never know what he's going to say :)

Submerged

Saturday was a very big day for Riley. We went to a neighbors house for the afternoon to be a part of their yearly Memorial Day weekend gathering and to open the swimming season. My kids LOVE the water. Riley is probably the one that has always loved water the most, but what has always been interesting is that he has never gone all the way in the water. Ri doesn't think a hotel is worth anything unless it has a pool. Doesn't matter if it is 5x5 in size. Doesn't matter if it's indoor our outdoor. Just as long as there is a pool.


With all the love he has for pools there are somethings that he has never liked about them. Being splashed and putting his head under the water top the list. Big splash or a sprinkle of water, if he's not doing it to himself, he's not interested in it. Putting his head under the water is a NEVER! Even in the bathtub, he refused to go under the water. Showers are new within in the past few years and truth be told only because he wants to be just like Andrew. There have been many times that I've had to re-rinse his hair because he didn't like standing under the shower.


Well Saturday was a new day! The neighbors pool was packed and it was impossible to avoid the splashing, although he tried as best he could. I was at the baby pool with Mary Kate when I looked over and Riley was IN the pool up to his neck in water. WOW! I made a big deal about it, well as much as he'd allow me to without crossing the line of embarrassing him. A bit later, the hot tub was packed with a bunch of little bodies (because where else would you be on an 85 degree day, but in a 102 degree hot tub!). Riley was beginning to get a bit more daring in the hot tub and before we knew it he was completely under the water with goggles on and plugging his ears.

He was so proud of himself. When he came above water he immediately started telling me who I needed to email the picture too and then started calling people over to see him do it again and again and.... well you get the picture!

It is days like Saturday, that remind me of just how far Riley has come. His sensory processing disorder has kept him from so many things, but when he is able to learn to work through them the possibilities are endless!

Ummm, No Thank You Ri

Riley: "mom can I put fertilizer on you?"
Me: "no"
Few seconds later...
Me: "Ri, why do you want to put fertilizer on me?"
Riley: "so you can turn into a chicken egg and I can heat you"

Obviously, Ri is learning about the life cycle of the chicken at school. Clearly, we need teach the difference between a person and a chicken.

Ri needs to work on his photography skills

I was passing out the kids dinner tonight when Riley said he wanted to take a picture of me in his brain. He held up a an imaginary camera and gave a big "click".

Ri: "Ok, lets see you are wearing a Hokie shirt, glasses, sneakers and a little bit of pants..."
Andrew: "Ri she has her pants on, you can't just a wear a little bit of pants"

I will say that Andrew was just as shocked by Ri's photographic memory and even turned around to make sure that I was in fact wearing pants.

For the record, I was wearing a pair of capri pants.

Why Riley won't be a Pirate

Ri: "I don't like Pirates because they drink a lot of alcohol, they don't follow Lent, they say a lot of bad words and say the Lord's name in vain"

This conversation all came from him seeing an A&W commercial in which people were drinking out of a barrel. He must have drawn a connection to Pirates and then felt it necessary to reassure us that he wouldn't become a Pirate.

Some day I'll just need to write a book about Riley. He cracks us up. I've said it many times, we are so blessed with him and I think every family should have a Riley ;)

Riley's thinking ahead

Ri: "when I grow up my job is going to be the president, but if I lose then I'll be a priest"

Have I said yet today how much having Riley around rocks? Every family should have a Ri ;)

May rethink this college thing

Ri: "hey mom do colleges have recess?"
Me "nope"
Ri: "oh that's boring"

Riley on the weather

After school today with big concern-filled eyes Riley came up to me and said "mom, I'm very sad".
Me: "What's up?"
Ri: "It's warm out and you know it's winter, maybe Mother Nature made a mistake and did this wrong"

And then he was off to play outside in this unusually warm weather. 60+ degrees in January, I'll take it for a quick break from the freeze. I am still holding out for a school closing blizzard though :)

He's a walking commercial

This morning Riley was eating his 23 french toast bites, (yes you read that right, 23, he's on a weight gain diet), when I guess he realized it was time to educate his mom (that's me:)

Ri - "Hey mom you need to get me some Arthur books"
Me - "Arthur books? Sounds good, but why Arthur?"
Ri - "because they are at the local library and we can find Arthur books and other cool things at the local library"

Maybe he has a future working for PBS. Apparently, Riley hasn't figured out that I have a very strange phobia with public libraries and that is why we always order from either scholastic or amazon.com!