Haunted by the Past

I'm a guy who likes to follow through on my word.

Last week my word was that this week's post would not be interesting.

Failing to follow though on that promise would only further add to the reputation of lawyers as liars, so I'm gonna craft this post around a complete lack of quality, in the name of all that is good.


There were no ER visits this week, but the legacy of the ER has haunted us (and we haven't even gotten the bill yet.)

At the barber shop and the vet's office, both places where Riley has always been good, he got upset and wouldn't let me put him down.
I can only conclude that the semi-instituational settings reminded him of the terror of being weighed and x-rayed at the hospital.

I'm guessing things will be really rough tomorrow when we actually do go to the doctor for his 18 month check up.

In preparation for the developmental questionnaire that you answer at each visit, we made a list of the words that Riley regularly uses.
To make it to the list, a word had to be supplied by him (not just repeated) and able to be understood by a stranger in context.

With those semi rigorous standards, we were able to list over 50 words, plus a few phrases.
That's a couple of months ahead of schedule, so we're not worried about him developmentally, even though we know we're going to get fussed at for him not being fat enough.


On Friday, Riley and Anna showed their Cajun spirit and demonstrated their touchdown calls/general goofiness for the camera.






There are not many things that are goofier and hammier (word?) than those two together, and it's not either one of their faults. They are just genetically inclined to be goobers.


Friday night, Mommy and Daddy got to stay up waaaaay past bedtime and go to the Blue Moon for the Howdies' cd release party.

You know life is pretty cool when you can go to a bar (which is actually a porch attached to a hotel) and meet up with your freshman English teacher (who is also a gospel singer) who is there to see his son , a tattooed up body piercer, (who is your niece's godfather and with whom you've gone to Disney World ) play western swing and country from the first half of the 20th Century (mixed in with surf guitar and murder blues)

It's a funny world.





and, as expected, they tore it up.


Since we got to bed about 4 hours later than usual, Riley was kind enough to sleep 30 minutes later than usual.

While mommy got her hair did, father and son hit the town in the Jeep.
It was a milestone because, for the first time since having control of his limbs, he kept his sunglasses on for 15 minutes. Amazing.





We first fed the frighteningly aggressive ducks and geese at Girard park before heading over to Cypress Lake.
There, he was elated to have alligators and turtles swimming right in front of him, with birds hopping and flitting about on all sides. He got to use quite a few of his favorite words.





Once the alligators had settled their territorial disputes and resumed their log poses, we headed over to Johnson's for the breakfast of champions---- boudin. (in both link and ball form)






All of that adventuring wore him out and he fell asleep on the way home (which always amazes me)

You can see that he wasn't very happy upon arriving home to be jarred awake by the horrible sleep robbing conditions of being in a quiet area and not having 45 mph wind in your face.






After a good nap, we headed south for lunch with his maternal, paternal great grandmother.
For the first time he showed a strong interest in vandalizing with the crayons.





But that morphed into sticking the crayons into his straw.





and eventually just dropping them all the way into his water.




Maybe drinking that cocktail leads to his colorful antics.

(haha, ya get it? see what I did there?)


Our lack of ER visits this week was not for his lack of trying.
On Saturday evening, Uncle Eli and Anthill came over to watch the UL v LSU slaughter.
In a search for some new way to show off, Riley figured out that he can move Jimmy's chair and climb onto the subwoofer, then over to the couch.






He only fell once, but got hung up enough on the way down that his landing was concussion free.




That's it.

But here's just a little taste of what you missed by not being at the Blue Moon on Friday.





If you wanna catch them live and don't mind (or even enjoy) a smokey bar and a burlesque strip show, they're playing at Sadies on Friday with Fleur de Tease.
If don't like female nudity or carcinogen filled air and you'd rather catch them on disc, stop by Johnson's and pick up their cd.
You can also get it on iTunes, but they don't sell magnificent smoked meat products.