Back to the blog...

Well, it's been a long few weeks of getting back into the swing of things at school- I am still roomless during my lab's renovation so it just makes organizing my school life all the more difficult and stressful. Jim and I have been hiatus from blogging because we've had a LOT going on with various aspects of our lives, such as:

-The craziness that is Merrill Lynch (Jim is still in the mix despite all of the recent layoffs/mergers so we're happy about that)
-The craziness of Sir Riley- who is learning tons of new stuff and pretty much is our little myna bird as he can say/sing anything now- his recent faves are "Italy" since that's where poppy and grammy are right now, "Miss Laura" (his new teacher at his new school), and "Ginger" since she we are watching her while my parents are away.
-The craziness of being el preggo again- that's right- little bro/sis will make his or her arrival sometime in later March! Eeek!
-The craziness of switching schools for Riley- we just outgrew the place we had him going and we weren't thrilled with the summer "D" team who the became the new school year staff since a couple of our favorite teachers hit the road. Plus, "Dirty James" is still a major biter and for some reason, his favorite target is Riley. We love the new place we are in- it's brandy new and the curriculum seems to be much more focused so we're psyched! Plus, they even have a lunch program so we're hoping he'll start eating his veggies since he always eats so much better at school than for us!
-The craziness that is our social life these days (I'm NOT complaining since we love any activity the gets energy out of the boy!)- we have LOTS of birthday parties & showers going on in the next few weeks, so we are busy, busy, busy.

Well, I hear the pitter patter of little and big feet as the boys just returned from the Little Gym so I'm off to hang out with those nutballs.

Later skaters!

And so it begins...

Sorry for the lack of posts...with the school year starting and it kicking my butt, I've been too busy to post. I know, excuses, excuses.

Anyway, here's a video of Riley rocking out to Lifetime to hold you over until Jim or I finds the energy to post something a little more expansive:

Someone pinch me...

Someone pinch me...I can't believe summer is over. Wah! Yesterday, after a long weekend (especially for Jim) of me being sick with some sort of flu/head cold, I went back to school. It wasn't horrific as I work some pretty awesome people, but my room is still under renovation so I don't have a solid home base so it's a tad annoying. I'm not looking forward to getting students this Thursday. Double Wah! Well, nobody reads this blog for the complainin' so I'll get to the good stuff. We went to Sesame Place with Auntie Heather, Uncle Victor, Olivia and Blake last week- Riley loved it (as did we!)until he got stung by a wasp on his thumb and even then he was pretty enthralled with the place, well maybe not the lazy river as that went over with the little man like a fart in church. We're already looking forward to taking him back next year...when he's ready to tackle the 6-person mega-tube ride!

On to the pics..

Grover topiary

The real "Super Grover"!

123 Sesame Place (as you can see, Riley is very excited...ha ha)

Elmo Ride

Blake

Riley (the scene of the wasp stinging crime...btw, the first aid staff at Sesame Rules- they had numbing cream/antiseptic on Riley's thumb and a ice pop in his other hand within minutes of our arrival)

Olivia being sneaky

Elmo Cupcake!

Hmmm, let me sniff for freshness

Hmm, let me taste it

All done!

Playing the fish game...Sesame knows what's up when it comes to young kids- most of the games are "play until you win!"


Victor and Blake

More Sesame topiaries...and one tired looking little guy

Grandma's Visit!

Since my Mom came up from Florida for a visit....we broke out the camera (shocking, right??)!






And just a cute pic of Little Ol' Maggie (emphasis on the "old"):

Pool party

A few weeks ago, we went to Erika's pool for the day...here's some highlights (thanks Michelle!):
Jonah being all trippy in the tube

metal tractor = FUN for all

Swings! Riley thought it was hilarious that he could see Mia swinging next to him.

And just a goofy pic of Riley watching himself on the computer with my mom at Uncle Woob's place in Philly:

More pics to come soon....the countdown to school has started and it's not fun. I'm not ready but I'm hoping Riley is ready to go back to school "full time" b/c the end of lazy summer days is fast approaching. Wah!

We're so proud...

This is what happens when you leave a 22 month old alone with a laundry basket full of freshly washed and folded laundry...laundry acrobatics and cheesy "I know I screwed up but look how cute I am" grins:




NOTE: This dinner conversation(my directing the nose picking)occurred as a redirection of Riley's previous dining activity of Riley trying to put a yogurt covered raisin up his nostril...but of course, we all thought it was hilarious.

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: