How many years of therapy do you think I'll have to pay for just because Riley got a weekly blog and Avery is getting much less?
I could try to make excuses, but I'm too lazy. (well, actually, that's one of them)
But, for now, there is no sibling jealousy. Riley has taken a liking to his "little sister named Avery," as he tends to address and describe her.
The lack of blogging really is Mother Nature's fault, though. Riley was born deeper into Spring and we could get out and do a lot more.
Avery's first few weeks were freezing. She was mostly stuck inside, staring at a plain, white (popcorn-free) ceiling, getting dolled up or blowing out diapers.
Riley coped with winter by doing normal, sane things, like sword fighting the TV.
and turning his stuffed George into Cajuns football player.
He also started to learn the responsibilities that come with living in a house with three very large oak trees. Responsibilities destined for a firstborn son.
Ok, I lie. Actually, he just stood in the back of the truck while I loaded 20+, 55 gallon bags of leaves to drive 50 feet to the front yard.
He did help a little with stick gathering and making a fire. Ya know, safety first.
And he was also a pretty good helper when we used my Jeep to rip a few crappy trees and stumps out of the ground.
But, meteorologically, things have started to change.
Avery and Joan have had a few visitors, as it seems that many people we went to high school with have bred in the last year.
First, she met up with two month old buds Austen (son of Beth and Jude) and Ryler (son of Laci and Chris, and star of Laci and Chris on the Go )
Their conversations were riveting.
A couple of weeks later she met up with four month old Maggie (daughter of Katie and Mike and star of A Baby is Brewing)
I think they plotted on how to find out all of the bad things, if any, Katie and I may have participated in when we shared an apartment in college. They're hoping to have a stack of Get Out of Jail Free cards for their teenage years.
As for outdoors, the new neighborhood is all dead ends, and very low traffic, so we get to go for lots of walks, weather permitting. These are great lessons for Riley who learned how hard it is to ride a bike with a sword and a hook hand.
Since she hasn't learned to talk yet, Avery has had no choice but to be dragged along for the things the rest of us like to do.
She made a trip to the Baton Rouge Zoo.
And combined her first Jeep ride and first trip to Johnson's into one giant ball of overstimulation.
But she missed out on a Lake Martin hike with Granny and Caroline and Paul.
(yes, the person pushing the double stroller through the grass is the same person who just had a broken ankle and broken elbow surgery, but she didn't complain. Oh, yeah, y'all don't know that story yet, 'cause I still owe a Disney World post.)
Unfortunately, it was still cool enough that the gators weren't active and we didn't see any until we spotted a tiny one just as we were walking through the gate to leave.
That made Riley's shirt even more appropriate.
No pics of this, but, along the way, Riley got to pee outdoors for the first time. He immediately exclaimed, "It's just like watering flowers!" He was a natural.
With this temporary winter temporarily respite, our Big Green Egg has been getting a multi-tasked work out.
First, it's been cooking lots of chicken.
Since Avery started to show signs of stomach trouble similar to what Riley had, Joan immediately cut out dairy and other common intolerance inducing food, again. Combine that with some Zantac, and things on the infant digestive front have calmed down considerably.
But the Egg was also charged with the more pleasant task of backyard marshmallow roasting.
and to wrap things up, here's a couple of kooky kid examples.
First, Riley has taken to calling anything he does an "exercise."
His most recent "exercise" is to stand on the rail of his bed and the arm rest of the adjacent chair, usually nude or in his underwear, post bath. At one point he dubbed it the Captain Hook Pirate Exercise Trick.
and I promise you, the only part of that I am responsible for is that he has any clothes on at all.
Not being happy with just balancing precariously a few feet off the ground, he then added the element of stomping his foot while singing "Step In Time." Behold Mary Poppins meets Cirque. (if you've got 90 seconds to spare)
I also made the (possible) mistake of letting him watch the You Tube video of Three Little Pigs by Green Jelly. Now he wants to watch it, or at least hear the song on my phone, all of the time.
He doesn't know all of the words, but he's getting a feel for the intro, and the overall vibe.
for reference here's the original (sorry, they disabled embed. Warning- claymation violence and the word a$$ uttered once.)
That's it for this week. I would promise to post more regularly, but I don't make promises I can't keep (unless I think I'm going to get something in return)
But stay tuned anyway. Please?
