Sunday, July 26, 2009

Swingin Doors

Before we get to what you came for, let me just vent and reiterate how much I hate American Airlines.
Early in the week, I spent a couple of days in Dallas for work.
Lafayette has direct flights to Dallas, and I traveled with two other people.
Despite being back to back to back in line, and all three of our bags going onto the conveyor belt in sequence, my bag didn't make it to Lafayette on our flight.
How hard is it to get a bag on a direct flight when the customer checked in 2 hours before the flight?
C'mon American. No wonder your industry is failing.

Oh well. I got back safe enough to be able to type this, and that's all that matters.

We got back from the big D too late in the day to justify going to work, so I grabbed Riley and headed out to the airport to visit his Poppy.
It was kind of a bummer at first because it was raining hard and he had to just look at the helicopters from a distance.

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Once things cleared up, he was able to play pilot for a little while.

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Then he really put his brain to work making connections between the poster Poppy gave him and the aircraft on the ground.

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Later in the week, he learned some new ways to use his slide when Presley, (daughter of Joan's co-worker/loyal blog reader/state farm product, Lesley) stopped by to hang out.

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Bright and early Saturday morning, we headed over to the zoo with Anna and her Daddy.
Since she's 10 months older, she gave him a guided tour and started off by showing him the "fwamigos"

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Then, as is his custom, they posed on the concrete wildlife statues.

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and there was plenty of time for climbing and sliding. Riley even inspired Anna with the courage to go down the big slide, which she had feared in the past.

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But there's such a thin line between courage and recklessness.

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The highlight for the adults was that the baby lemur is growing up but can still get out of the cage, thus allowing the kids a closer look than normal.

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Later in the day we made the mistake of going to Once Upon a Child, not knowing that there was some huge sale attracting hordes of psychos willing to shed all civility to save a dollar on some used clothes.

To get away from that madness, we walked a few doors down and visited uncle Eli, who is a personal trainer at Snap Fitness.
Riley acted like he actually knew what to do in a gym (unlike me), and even got in a good spinning workout on one of the bikes, but not the way that most people do.

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Saturday evening, Mommy and Daddy went to a movie and dinner for our 7th anniversary while the young 'un got to hang out with and show off for Ms Stevie.
I remember being younger and how having a nice girl paying attention to you could actually keep you up past bedtime. Oh, glory days gone.

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Sunday morning, he joined us for our annual anniversary breakfast, which has moved from IHOP to Broken Egg to Meche's.

He still can't seem to grasp the concept that, when you weigh 20 lbs, you don't have to eat a whole donut hole in one bite. (especially when a nice Daddy has already ripped it in half for you)

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He later demonstrated a skill he had been resisting-- holding our hands while walking.

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He also did very well in riding every single escalator at the mall in search of t-shirts that fit him.


for a little variety, we'll close with a couple of videos.

It was kinda cool that his post sickness hoarseness coincided with him learning what a lion says. It was better earlier in the week, but this was still good.





And his new, self taught and entirely surprising trick of the week is opening doors. He closed himself in the laundry room and i sat on the other side of the door laughing at him while he banged on the door. Then, as if by magic, the handle turned and the door opened. And it wasn't a fluke because I then watched him to it 10 more times. Fortunately all of our exterior doors have knobs.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Duck , Duck....Gross

I predicted not much interesting would be going on this week, and, as with most things in life, I was right.

All of the real interesting action has been happening at night, in the bedroom..... because Riley has been sick all week and can't stay down for more than a couple of hours.

The snotty head hit him hard on Monday and by Wednesday night he was coughing. We took him to the doc just to be sure it wasn't anything important. The nurse heard him cough once and suggested croup. Doc never heard him cough but said it may be a mild case and gave him some cough suppressant/decongestant that helped him sleep a little.
It seems like he gets really pissy and cranky when he takes it during the day, so he's only getting it at night.

Though he was not his usual self, we were still able to have a little fun.

Last Sunday he got to feed ducks for the first time at a nearby park. The ducks were mostly crippled and pitiful,and living in filth, but he doesn't know the difference.

He was quite drawn to a family with a bunch of babies.

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But the momma didn't like the idea of him being around and he, fortunately, got the message.

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he's been playing on his slide pretty much every day, and has gotten pretty good at getting on it properly and by himself. He still likes to tease that he's gonna go noggin first though.

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Saturday morning, he was up early as he had been all week, so I loaded him up in the truck to let mommy go back to sleep. We made it to Chik-fil-a right as they opened at 6:30.
He got to try their playground for the first time, and it was a letdown. he's too adventurous for their small toys, but too small for their big toys.

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Then we walked around the UL campus and Girard park where he was able to commune with more ducks and a few moderately aggressive geese.

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Eventually it was lunchtime and since Johnson's Boucaniere was having a band playing on the porch, we decided to head over there. (as if that made the difference)
Unfortunately the kid that averages 45 minutes per nap, stayed down for 2.5 hours and we missed the music, but he needed it, so it was ok.

At Johnsons' he did his usual wooing of the women and punching of the cash register buttons. Then he played one of his favorite games with Nonnie. I don't know which game it was, because there are a few that all end in his favorite way..... with him upside down.

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Sunday morning he beat the sun up so we hopped in the Jeep and headed over to Meche's, where he stuffed his piehole with donut holes.

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The combination of snot and donut glazing crusted to his face just makes him irresistibly cute, huh?

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Amazingly, it felt awesome outside this morning, so we took advantage and headed over to the park closest to our house.
The slides there were too complex for him (they all have curves that he kept falling off the side of.) But we tried.

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Since he was still in a good mood, we headed over to Thomas Park, where they have a few slides a little more suitable for him.

He wasn't really interested in the rock wall until I showed him how it worked. Then he wanted to give it a try. That was a dud though, since he has the grip strength of , well, a 16 month old.

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He then showed us that he's much better at climbing ramps than walls.

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He also proudly enjoyed the view from the top. (5 feet off of the ground.)

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He had fun playing with the Teva sole ground cover.
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But, best of all they have gears that he can spin.

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Since i feel that I've let you down humor wise this week, I'll leave you with a couple of funny video clips from other people. (sorry to those people like me who have You Tube blocked at work.)

First, the newest local sensation-- Cajun OnStar.



No, not everyone talks like that, but some people do.


And a little Mitch Hedberg.