Short Week

Despite being an active week, I really can't think of much to write about.

Having a couple of days off gave me and my buddy a few chances to get out and about.

Thursday morning, we went for a long father-son walk and spent some time watching the cows along the Camellia extension. He brings his tunes along for the ride, so the cows got to hear some good music.






Friday morning we took a bike ride and had breakfast at Sonic. When pulling approximately 40lbs of baby/trailer/diaper bag, you can quickly find out how out of shape you are.






Thursday we made 3 stops at various family functions and he put on his best cuteness show, but needed to rest a little between performances.





not being one to settle for inactivity, he headed down to Erath on Friday where he got to pet a horse and hang out with his great-great-grandmother, who is over 98 years older than he is, and a gaggle of his 2nd cousins.






While we were there, I was almost killed by a snake.
It was, I would estimate, a 12 foot long cross between a black mamba and an anaconda.
It was either that or a two foot long garter snake. But, regardless of those piddly details, I almost set my hand down on it and I'm pretty sure it struck at me. Fortunately, my scream did not sound as girly to third parties as it did to me, but I was beyond paranoid for the rest of the day. Every leaf that blew into me felt like dive bombing pit vipers. I've moved on though, as you can tell.

Saturday evening, we ate with my parents where he was, of course, completely ignored.





Tonight, he was in for even more of a treat when Joan's mom babysat him. Since he was born, we've only made it to Blue Moon once, but tonight a guy that we would usually see at the Blue Moon, Scott H Biram, played an early show in Scott at Bourque's Social Club. We got to see a rockin' trucker-blues-country show from an internationally touring artist in a room not much bigger than a large living room,and we're still getting to bed before 10. It doesn't get much better than that.


And SHB is a great entertainer. Joan was laughing out loud at his witty banter.

Not sure if we've got anything good going on this week, but you'll find out in 7 days if you're nice enough to come back.

Disclaimer: To any of my co-workers who may be coming for the first time after having seen the link in the Winter Newsletter- if you're on a work connection, you're may not be getting the full effect. SF's intranet has recently, on a couple of occasions, blocked flickr.com which is where all of my pics are stored and linked from. Without the pics, this blog is pretty bad. But I promise that if you check it from any other connection, the pics of the cute kid make it all worth a click.

Cuttin' Up(per)

This week has flown by, and I expect that next week will do the same, with only three work days.

Thursday, the little dictator was benevolent enough to allow us to go to the final Rhythms on the River of the season to catch a good set from Roddie Romero.
It was a little chilly, so Riley got to break out his long sleeve pearl snap shirt. I was so proud of him. Now he just needs some boots.
He would've fit right in at a Weary Boys show, if only they were still around.



(we miss the Wearies, one of my "top 3 best bands, ever")



After that, he tried to go for the 50's tough guy look with the white T and Jeans. That look is hard to pull off though when your chin is covered in drool, and you're only a few drops away from getting into a wet t-shirt contest.




Around the house, he is loving the fact that he can roll his deathtrap walker right up to the table and have his choice of toys. He doesn't love it though, when he pushes them just out of reach. I say "Get used to it buddy, you're gonna be short all your life."




On Saturday he got to visit an estate sale that Aunt Sherie was holding at her childhood country home.



There, while holding him upside down ( it allows more blood to his brain, thus making him smarter) we discovered that his top gum has split and there is a little pearlie just waiting to peek out. It should be here soon.




Later in the day, he accompanied me for some attempted Christmas shopping, but cut the trip short after offering up more nastiness than his diaper could handle. After about 15 minutes of trying to clean him up in the back seat of the truck, I realized that I couldn't find any spare onesies in the diaper bag, so he got to ride home Speedo style.



That evening, while we ate at Outback, he demonstrated that he can fit a whole pacifier in his mouth, backwards.




Sunday was slow and not very noteworthy.
It did give me a chance though, to document his early propensity for good dental hygiene. He'll sit there for a long time chewing on his toothbrush and babbling, without complaint.






and for one final pic, we think this one looks like a baby version of Heath Ledger's Joker mixed with Stephen Adler of Celebrity Rehab/Guns & Roses fame.




Hope everyone has a good thanksgiving.

When in doubt........ Post Pics

As promised. Nothing big this week. But we did end up getting some pretty cute pics.

we didn't get kicked out of any churches this week. In fact, one lady at Asbury, who always sits in front of us, asked me why I took Riley out when he started talking. She said, "He wasn't bothering anyone." Her husband always says, "I think that's just how babies say 'Amen'."

Without further ado....

One of his new favorite toys is my old cell phone. I don't think it can hurt him so we just let him have it.




He's really starting to fill out his carseat even though it is supposed to hold up to 25 lbs. I can't wait till he can face forward, especially in the Jeep, but they're not supposed to do that until they're a year old. (which he will be by the next time that the weather gets nice enough to drive the Jeep.)




He is finally big enough to wear his "I Love Boudin," shirt, which is yet another projection of our opinions onto him. (but hey, when your opinions are as good as ours, why not force them on someone helpless)





Now he just needs to learn that Anna's shoe doesn't taste as good as boudin.




Here's the daily crew just hanging out.





Saturday he sported his Cajuns winter cap, which ended up being very useful because it was cold on the porch at Johnson's. I've got a matching one that I wish I'da brought.






After that we headed over to the Rok Haus, where Uncle Eli was helping to put on a climbing competition for kids. At first Riley had the sense enough to stay off of the wall, but eventually he broke down and showed us some moves. Check out that 2 finger grip. Now that's strength.





This weekend actually ended up being ok despite the fact that Friday evening we implemented "Cry It Out" as opposed to the old plans of "Rock You Completely To Sleep" and "Grab You Everytime You Wake Up."
It went about as well as you can expect it to, and was nowhere near as bad as Paul and Liz's experience, which Paul described as "the worst night of my life."

Despite our cruelly making him learn to be an independent sleeper, Riley has maintained his cheeseball, doofus personality, as evidenced by these goofy smiles. (we think he's starting to develop a camera face)





As a reward for being such a good boy, he got to try grapes and starfruit in addition to the usual cantaloupe in his feed bag thingy. (which is awesome)




and finally, entirely unrelated to Riley, but dealing with our first "child," Jimmy wanted to sun himself today, but was too much of a wuss to lay on the cold concrete, so he parked himself on a garbage can lid that had blown down. We can only hope that Riley is as resourceful as him.



We expect another slow week around here, but I'm sure I'll post anyway.

Expelled

What we thought would be a fairly boring week ended up being pretty exciting.

Tuesday was election day and Riley's first chance to sport his "Born Libertarian" onesie. Despite his support, it was not a good day for libertarian-ish ideals (except in Massachusetts). Oh well. Is it ever?



Instead of watching the election results, Riley opted to get his first haircut in our driveway by our neighbor, Miss Jeanne (a professional stylist). He needed a little trim around the ears and a little evening out in the back.




Once he's a little more calm, he's off to to see Maurice and his clippers. That'll be the fourth generation of Wallace boys that Mo will have cut.


Fast forward to Saturday and the annual Heartwalk, where, as usual, Aunt Sherie rounded up a team in memory of her daughter, Cousin Cassie. This year Joan had onesies made for the babies to match the adult shirts. Cassie's Team had 4 babies (Riley, Caroline, Gabe and Whitney)






Riley went along for the ride with Whitney, daughter of our high school classmate, Emily, who happened to be in town.(they live in Japan).




About halfway through, Riley decided it would be more interesting to be carried by my Dad than pushed by his own Mommy.




A short while later, Whitney also decided that carrying was the way to go, and Joan was left pushing an empty double stroller.



Saturday was also the last UL home game that we'll be making this year (the real last one is on a Wednesday).

The weather was great and Riley discovered that he is much more interested in watching flags than in getting handshakes and high-fives from the football players.





He tried to be a big boy and take part in the adult conversations, but found out he would rather just play "pat a cake"





He also got to make new friends by meeting Ms. Amanda's family (very nice people), and getting reacquainted with Eli D (now 14 months old).





Eli was very well behaved and didn't seem to mind all of the harassment from the two babies.



The game was a bust for the Cajuns, but Ms. Amanda and the softball team were presented at halftime, recognizing their terrific success last year. They'll be getting their Sunbelt Conference Champion rings in soon. Then she'll be able to put the smackdown on my brother if he gets out of hand.



Riley also started "crawling" this week. He's not yet up on all fours, but he pulls himself around to get to what he wants. Since crawling doesn't really show well in still shots, I'll just pepper you with some cute pics.

with his Godmother, Lesley




With his Poppy



Chillin' in the tub



and doing his best John Popper impression (with a cell phone)



From henceforth, I write this post very carefully.
I've written passages about poo, and I've made snide comments about politicians and the medical establishment, but now I'm going to tiptoe into religion.(kinda sorta)

Sunday, Riley got us kicked out of a building, and, of all places, it was a church.
Even worse, it was not because of his behavior, but because of his mere existence.
Let me frame the scene for you.

On Sunday morning, someone who is virtually a family member was being baptized in a local church. To be nice, I'll change the name and just call it Cardinal-Direction Waterbody Denomination Church, or EBBC.
We headed on over to EBBC on information that the baptism would be just before the start of the service. Because Riley went straight from the crib to the carseat, our plan was to go for the baptism then slide out to change him and figure out what we would do from there.

So, we walk into the sanctuary/studio and past a few greeters. Halfway to the seats we get to a woman we'll call Ms. Bad-Perm McClown-Makeup, or Ms. BM (pun entirely intended).
She asks if we need directions to the preschool. We explain that we'll be keeping Riley with us.
She responds that this is an adults only service. That's fine, I respect those wishes, but of course there can be minor temporary exceptions, right?
We explain that it won't be an issue, we'll only be staying in the main room for the baptism, then we'll slide out when the rest of the service starts.
Ms. BM lets us know that she's not going to be able to let us do that, and reiterates that this is adults only, and that our only two options are to leave him in the pre-school or go to the family room.
We again explained that were there specifically for a baptism that we were told would be occurring at the start of the service, and the baby would be gone before the service really started.
Ms. BM was having no part of it.
Obviously, the mindless drone was not gifted with much common sense, or human emotion.
At that point I calmly(much to my surprise) handed her the program/flier that I had been warmly greeted with and we turned around and left, missing the event that we had arrived for. ( I missed a great Mitch Hedberg opportunity there, but I figured the wisest use of my vocal cords at that point was, for safety sake, non-use.)

I fully respect, though I don't favor, the idea of an adult only sanctuary. When Riley makes even the slightest noise at Asbury, I step out with him (even though they're cool with a reasonable amount of noise.) But if you expect me to go dump my kid off in a nursery with absolute strangers or watch the baptism of a close family friend from a tv instead of allowing my well behaved child into the sanctuary for 10 minutes, after which we would leave when the service starts, then you................


Ok, enough of that story. I figure no one can get mad at me for retelling the facts, but I should avoid editorializing. Hopefully my readers are such a sophisticated lot that they will see the bottom line without me typing it out.


On a lighter note, and giving us some "good people" street cred, Riley is giving away food.
Ok, it's unintentional on his part, but still.

Joan is churning out much more than Riley is chugging down. You can freeze milk, but only for 3 months. We've gotten to the point of throwing stuff away.

Fortunately, in a few places around the country, folks have established "milk banks" where women are able to donate excess food which is given to poor and/or sick babies. Joan has hooked up with a milk bank out of Austin that provides to Louisiana and Texas. (so we know the kids have access to good music)
They pay all of the shipping and provide all of the materials needed, Joan just provides the milk.
Its a pretty cool concept, even if it does seem kinda creepy at first.
Hopefully, they'll be able to take advantage of the fact that Joan's milk is dairy free (isn't that a paradox?) and get it to a baby that has an allergy similar to Riley's.


Unless he starts walking, the next week should be slow, assuming, of course, that we don't get kicked out of any other churches, or other purportedly family friendly establishments.
That shouldn't be a problem because I know a few people that really like Riley at our church.

How could you not like this goofy mug?