Designed for Speed

No intro. Right to the development updates, namely vocabulary.

The new words keep coming like bad ideas from the White House.
Ewwww.
Too quick with the politics?
Oh well.
Back to words about words.

This week he has added Poppy,"Hey Buddy", helicopter sounds, "touchdown" (with hand signals) and the beginnings of "Go Cajuns" to his cache of tricks.

add that to his daredevil Jack**s/Nitro Circus personality and he can be quite entertaining. (and dangerous)

Early in the week we finally broke out the bubble machine that we got back in May and Riley had a blast chasing bubbles around the back yard with Granny Lynn.







He also showed us that he is either getting into hip hop fashion or needs to put on some weight so that he can fill out his 12 month shorts. (at 17 months)







On Friday afternoon, we cooked in preparation for lunch at Heather and Trey's on Saturday.
Our assignments were macque choux and brownies.
I browned up some Johnson's tasso for the macque choux while Riley watched from a safe distance.





(you didn't think we were fancy enough to use "real" corn did you?)



When it came to brownie making time, safe distance went out of the window and it was all about the photo op of a lily white baby on white tile with brownie batter.










the brownie mix must have done something to his head because I had to wrestle him down with tickles and tackles just to get his shoes on.







Once he was well shod, we met my parents at the new Super Taco Buffet, which opened this week, at the corner of Rena and Johnston.

At least two words in the name are fitting, taco and buffet, but that's about it.
The food is more authentic mexican than most places, which I was looking forward to, but I was disappointed by the execution.
The staff was friendly. A couple of the items were pretty good but nothing was mind blowing. Selection was slim.
The pork tacos were really tough.
Not worth the $12 per person.
They didn't take credit cards, which is a pain.
Worst part about Super Taco Buffet was that they charged us $ .75 each for tap water.
Hope you enjoy that extra $1.50 you made off of us, 'cause it'll be the last.

One interesting thing though was that Riley liked the beef tongue in my Dad's taco.
No pics, but interesting nonetheless.




I would much rather go to La Pagua Mexican Restaurant (behind Baskin Robbins) where you can get better tasting food with a mix of authentic and tex mex. Good prices too.
That's where you'll find our family for a fix of tacos al pastor, pupusas con chicharon , menudo or chorizo con huevos.

Saturday morning we packed up the food and the kid and headed east to that oozing sore of drunken frat-holes we call our state capital.

Despite the general crappiness of the city's population, there are a few cool people there,including Heather and Trey.
Riley got there straight out of a nap but eventually revved up and played with Lillian. Fortunately she didn't get him to play dress up.








Eventually Lillian lost interest in the new baby, but Riley was enthralled by all of the new (to him) toys.







He even broke out his concentration face for the puzzle.





Once Lillian was over her Annie DVD, she drew some inspiration from the ongoing whooping of the Raiders by the Saints, and tackled Riley in the open field.




Riley showed much less interest in being tackled by a girl in her underwear than he will in about 12 years, but that's a good thing considering that her dad's SWAT team weapons were probably not far from reach.


Riley also mastered his first magic trick this week, and blew his own mind the first time he did it.

Mini-Houdini here can make a piece of bread disappear using only a plastic bowl and an unopened yogurt. Be amazed (if you have the comprehension of a 17 month old)





and finally a little bit of funny.
Some time mid week, Riley broke free from his Nonnie in mid diaper change.
He decided that he would prefer to slide than be reclothed.

God sure knew what he was doing when he made butt cracks vertical because I'm sure a horizontal split would have made for much less pleasant sliding.
Riley proved to his audience that the cliched simile "smooth as a baby's bottom" is quite true and leads to some high speed slide runs.







Now that's how you end a family blog.
Am I right or am I right?

and does that deserve a NSFW tag?
Sorry if anyone gets canned over my kid's can.

Social Climber

If you don't like reading about the mundane weekly activities that are our life, please click away. They're fun to us, but if I wasn't me, I wouldn't care.
Really, nothing noteworthy to follow.


But, if that kind of thing floats your boat,please do partake.

nothing really new on the developmental front, except the expanding vocabulary and that Dada has morphed into Daddy.

Riley is finding ways to get into, onto, under and over just about every object in the house. He's gotten lots of use out of the cabinet we recently cleared in the kitchen to house more toys (because the one in the living room just isn't enough)







Most of our week is spent trying to get him to eat so the doctor doesn't take him away for being too skinny.
One evening, he ate guacamole covered tortilla pieces. Typical baby stuff right?






Despite not eating much, he seems to enjoy mealtime.






but when he decides he's done-- game over.






On Friday, I met Riley and my Mom at Posado's for lunch. I hadn't been there in a few years, and was reminded as to why (that place was really good about 10 years ago)

There, with no prompting, Riley reached right over me for a chip and went straight to the salsa. He continued dipping chips and his hand into the salsa until his plate arrived. He then switched over to beans and molten cheese which didn't seem to bother him.

In the process, I learned a valuable lesson: Never eat Mexican food with a toddler if you plan to go back to work. Unless, that is, your office accepts beans, cheese and salsa as appropriate work-wear. Luckily, mine does.






Saturday morning we hit Another Broken Egg for Granny Lynn's birthday.

Despite having a plate full of biscuits, banana pancakes and cheesy spinach, Riley was more interested in eating a lemon wedge and drinking water. What a foodie.






But the highlight of any Egg trip, for him, is the fountain (which also happens to lie conveniently under an approach path for the airport.)







Riley then spent the morning with Mommy while daddy drafted a fantasy football team and hopefully took the first step to winning a couple hundred bucks.


Saturday afternoon was spent running wild with Gabe and playing with friends at Mr. Pec's house.
Riley and Gabe provided cheerleading for their Mommies, who went head to head in Wii archery.






and Riley watched in awe as Mr. Turtle got beat by Ms. Traci at Basketball.





Sunday morning we met up with Nonnie, Uncle BA and Anthill at Meche's.
As usual, Riley stuffed whole holes into his mouth.






He then made a trend out of a behavior he started Friday, that being that he is at his most lovey and huggy when he's got a face full of food.





Next, with perfect weather, we headed over to Thomas Park for some playtime that included males of all ages doing stupid things to test their strength on playground equipment.







There was plenty of sliding.







and climbing






and spinning (complete with wannabe juggalo graffiti)





Riley used a day's worth of energy, but had fun, climbing a 15-ish foot hill.
But he was not having nearly as much fun, and spent a years worth of concentration trying to get back down the hill, while remaining upright.







and since we've started, this week, "training" to try a 5k next month and hopefully a 10k in November, we responsibly picked up a healthy lunch at Rouse's.





didn't do quite as well with lunch dessert though.





In closing, here's Riley Gabe and Anna in the most fail-arific photo on my hard drive. Probably taken after they read this post.