Beat Up

We have family all over the country and world.
Lots of times we wish we could see those non-Lafayette-ians more often.

Not this week.

Cousin Hailee in Connecticut, along with Paul, Liz and Caroline in Baton Rouge all have the pig flu.
so let's just go with "absence makes the heart grow fonder" or some other platitude, because we want nothing to do with any of those folks right now. Call us when you feel better :)

Despite not having swine flu, Riley had a pretty rough week. Literally.

He got beaten up, and has his first black eye.
Worse yet, his enemy, the aggressor, is one that is ever present-- the floor.

Here's the skinny. (i figured it was appropriate wordage.)

Thursday, I found Riley in his room, sitting on his bedside step stool which he had inverted.
That led to the creation of a new game, carpet sledding, wherein he is slung around the room on the stool until he either falls off or Daddy's knees/back/shoulders fail.

I have included this recreation to keep your mind in check. The meatball filled mouth is optional to the game.






Unfortunately, $10 wooden stools are not made to be used as sleds by 22 pound 11 ounce babies (that's what he weighed at our anti- starvation check-up this week).
Structural failure ensued.

Being in possession of wood glue, I stuck it all back together and left it on the counter to dry.

Now, the counter happens to be where Riley is most likely to eat.
Because of the constant pressure to make him gain weight, we have allowed some less than ideal habits to form in order to get food into his mouth.
Counter eating is one.

It allows him to do fun things like see out of the window and put batteries in kazoos.



He's usually really good at sitting up there and I have no fear of him falling.

Not so much, though, when he is playing with the wooden stool, which weighs more than a battery filled kazoo.

He was holding onto the stool, which fell off of the counter.
He wasn't smart enough to let go , so he went down with it, face first onto the ceramic tile.
He cried for a few minutes, but seemed ok.

Within a few hours though, he had some swelling.





By the next morning, the purple set in.





By Saturday, it just looked like he had odd taste in make-up.





He showed no signs of concussion or impaired vision, so no doctor's visit.

That and the fact that his bruise would probably have to be reported to Big Brother, and I'm not a big enough fan of government to subject myself to proving that I don't abuse my kid.

Now it's Sunday, and he has already fallen once on that side of his face (while crawling on tile in jeans) and also run into the corner of our footboard, hitting his cheekbone, just below that eye(for the first time in 9 months walking).
Poor kid.





I guess he was embarrassed by the shiner, so he kept his sunglasses on all day Saturday at tailgating. Either that or he has already learned it's easier to stare at people when they can't see your eyes.

Maybe he just didn't want people asking his mommy if she beats him on her 30th birthday.





He had fun playing with Ms Bennett (sp?), but was also subjected to the brain scarring experience of "dancing" with Mr Pec. (he was safe though, Ms Daisy was there as back-up)






Even after that, all of the kids, and many of the adults had fun with Joan's cookie cake.




That evening, Riley hung out with Nonnie and Poppy while his parents got all dressed up went to Ms. Katie's wedding. We have a picture of us all dressed up, but I don't like it, so i ain't posting it.

Now Joan and I are packing up for the last of her birthday presents (after the funnel cake making kit, measuring cup, and 30 satsumas.)

We're heading to the House of Blues to see Our Lady Peace.


But before that I will dazzle you with my psychic abilities.
I can predict, based on demographics, your response to our evening plans.

If you are under 25, over 40 or have no taste in music, you said, "Who is Our Lady Peace?"
(Joan's boss is an exception, because he recently started listening ot them)

If you are between 25 and 40, and had good musical tastes in the late-90s/early- 00s, you said, "They're still around?"

Either way, you're missing out.

Who dat aksed for you?

This won't be a blog for the whole week.
It'll only be for the last 2 days.
But there's enough in the last two days to fill a good bit of space.


Sunday through Friday are lost in space, as I spent a week at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy near Boulder, Colorado. For that same reason, my brain is spent and this may be a humor-free zone.

As for NITA, it was lots of work and lots of learning, but there was snow on the ground and the views made you not want to leave.






Plus, I got to try an Orange Julius, which Professor Smith (our fave law school prof) always talked about. It was pretty good.





Because no airline could get me into Lafayette on Friday night, and we were heading to New Orleans on Sunday for a Saints game anyway, I flew into NO and we made a weekend of it.

Riley was nice enough to stay up late and meet me at the airport.
He said "Hi", then whined about being in the car seat.
Instant home feeling.
But instead of saying he didn't care to see me, we'll just say he was ready for bed because he knew Saturday would be big. Sounds plausible.


Once he woke the next morning, we went on down to the Audubon Zoo...... (please contact me if your brain doesn't automatically complete that sentence.)


It was pretty cool and windy so he bundled up/thugged out.





I won't bore you with a catalog of every animal we saw, but he was pretty nonchalantly interested in the elephants.








We had fun in the petting zoo.







Shortly in though, it was nap time.
We found a semi-quiet and shady spot by the anteaters and he slept on my shoulder for an hour while I paced the same 50 yard stretch of sidewalk.


(my back is still reminding me of it)


That was all he needed to be in full cheesy mode.

The highlight of his day was when we stopped to eat lunch.
There was an empty stage in the dancehall themed room that tended to attract small kids.
He spent at least half an hour running dancing and playing up there, and held his own among some much bigger kids.






He then had fun poking at the face of a bronze gorilla, but was wise enough not to do the same with the real thing.







He even semi-cooperated for a pic with Nanny.





Since we bought a membership to the zoo and aquarium, and we want to feel like we're getting as much out of it as possible, we bypassed part of the zoo and headed over to the aquarium later in the afternoon.

The penguins and otters were tired and resting, but fish always swim, so Riley had a blast.
As soon as he realized where we were, he ran to the first display.
We could have stayed there for hours and he would have been fine.





He cooperated for a shark jaw pic with Nanny, but tried his best to be sure that none with his parents came out any good.





The really cool thing about being there later in the afternoon was that he had the kids' area almost to himself. Usually there are dozens of big kids keeping skrimps like him off of things, but not this week.





His favorite part was the fish tank you can stand in the center of.






He's still a little short to do it on his own, but Daddy's always willing to sit down for a little while.





On the way back to the car he got his first (non ring pop) sucker, and made the appropriate mess.





He was spent at the end of the day and didn't care how goofy he looked in his sleep clothes.





Sunday we headed back downtown for the most anticipated game of the NFL season thus far.

Saints v Giants, both undefeated.




Unfortunately, his nap time started about 5 minutes before kick off.
That's fine though, because he got to miss this incredibly ignorant digital display while the Pride of Acadiana was playing the pregame show.


go ahead, read it again, it took me a second to catch.


Speaking of the band, they also played a Halloween themed show with the Saintsations and a bunch of high school dancers.
About halfway through I said to Joan, "At least they aren't even attempting Thriller, since the Southern band has already played here."

I know, I know, that was an obvious jinx because were were promptly ?treated? to the whitest, feeble-ist version of Thriller ever seen. It almost embarrassed Riley right out of his UL hat.





Once he was awake, he had a great time, as long as he wasn't in a seat watching a football game.
He is now a big fan of riding escalator rails.

We switched out entertainment duties and were each able to catch good parts of what ended up being a completely unexpected blow-out.

It's work bringing him to things like that, but still worth it to me.
Even though he didn't watch the game, Riley had a great weekend being among some of the most important people in his life.




and we had fun too.

Chill

For reasons that will not be revealed (even i care a smidgen about internet security/privacy), i have very little time to post this week, so this should be quick and dirty.
You know, like brain surgery, but more important.

Riley is expanding his vocab exponentially and is using lots of sentences. There are still some things that we just can't figure out, but, for the most part, we can react properly to his verbal communication.

Reacting properly sometimes included leaving him to figure his way out of a self induced dilemma when he lets you know "I stuck."







He's aiming for more doctor visits by trying to swallow plastic ice cubes.
It's his choice.






Our big event of the week was the UL v North Texas Game.
Because of the heavy rains on Friday, Riley scored his first pair of boots (and eventually re-learned to walk properly)







That rain came along with a "cold front" which gave Joan a good reason to dress the kid in her old, super-retro USL hoodie.






His sunglasses have now become his favorite accessory





For the game, Joan made spirited brownies.





As usual, for tailgating Riley ran around and tried to avoid Mr Ryan's threats to eat his face.





unlike usual though, he planted himself firmly in a fire ant pile.
it either took him a while to notice or at least to inform someone, because by the time we got to him, he had ants all the way up inside of his shirt, thus necessitating a complete stripping.






He didn't seem terribly bothered by the bites, and seemed to be quite pleased with being semi-naked. Didn't even bother him enough to drop his treasured rock and washer entertainment combo.
Special thanks to Ms Daisy who is a well prepared parent and had a bite relief stick that helped us out.







Once he was dressed, he just laid low, literally.

He spent a long time just hanging out under the table.






Finally, it was game time.
I don't know if it is just our section or the stadium as a whole, but it felt like we were in a wind tunnel.
The adults were completely unprepared for the chill, but he was ready to be warm and look cool.







The cold weather even made him hungry, which is amazing.







We stayed through halftime to see Anthill and the softball team get some recognition for their accomplishments last year.




after that, we had to bail.
It was just too chilly to stay.
Not as cold as it is in Boulder, Colorado though. (from what i hear)