Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

The summer is soon going to be one big blur...I can feel it. Last weekend marked our "every weekend a BBQ or birthday party until November" phase- which although hectic, we are looking forward to it because there's nothing to tire out our little monkey man like a good party. Jim and I have been noticing lately that when we're out somewhere, like the park or the beach, random people always comment on how Riley is "always" on the move. Yup, it's true. Sometimes, I see people shopping and their child is just chilling out in the stroller...not grabbing at anything or squealing or snacking- Benadryl- induced stupor? naturally low energy kid? Who knows? All I know is that we don't have a kid that provides us with such luxury. Luckily, neither Jim nor I are big shoppers.

Riley's been on a real word/sentence tear lately. He loves telling us who people are in pictures and he's getting at saying some of the "tough" names. A couple of mornings ago in the wee dawn of the day (yeah, he still gets up super early and much like me, wakes up raring to go) he went to get a book and told me "I be right back". He's been really psyched to hear the airplanes that fly around our house (often the ones that travel along the shore touting some $19.99 lobster special) and gets upset when he doesn't actually see it. This morning he heard one while eating breakfast and when it was clearly no longer overhead, he asked me where it went. I told him the plane went to work, like Daddy. ha ha. When he hears a police or fire siren (it's right behind our house and it is super LOUD) he tells us that it's an "uh oh".

We've also begun potty training...but we're just in the sitting on it stage. He wants to sit on it (which is a good start, I suppose) and a couple of days ago, he told us it was a "baby toilet", which was funny to hear because Jim and I don't really say toilet all that often. We bought a Grover potty book yesterday...maybe it'll help move things in the right direction.

Riley is officially off the bottle- he hasn't had one in over two weeks! Wooot! We still have one saved, just in case he gets sick and refuses the sippy. With all the recent positive developments, we have always had an upsurge in the tantrums/freakfests. Hello "Terrible Twos" and the subsequent time out sessions that occur! He gets real pissy when we take something away or tell him he can't go outside right now. Luckily, the tantrums don't last all that long.

A few recent pics (we've been horrible at taking pics lately ourselves so I ganked these from Auntie Heather)of our visit to the Catalano's LBI pad: