Baby got back....

.....to walking.

After a week long hiatus, he proved to us again that he can walk.
He also proved to us again that he can easily turn it back off.
Maybe he just walks on Fridays. I don't know.
But I predicted that he would be walking by Mardi Gras and technically he is, so I win.


The weather was actually nice enough on a couple of afternoons to break out his swing that he hasn't been able to use much yet.



which also prompted me to mow the yard which you can see was looking pretty shabby.


Saturday we made it to another softball game, where he tried to steal the show by demonstrating how many plastic keys he can fit in his mouth at once.





and, as usual, he made friends with the person sitting behind him (Uncle Jake this week.)





He also put on his best mid-80's rapper impression





Then when it got a little chilly, he hung out with Poppy in the football team's indoor practice facility.







But once Poppy's attention was diverted, he just had to see what the metal rail tastes like.





Most importantly though, he got to see Anthill (Amanda) take the "mound."


(And for anyone who actually looked at the scoreboard, it was a tournament and UL was the guest that game. Just don't want you to think they got stomped when they were actually the stompers.)

Riley extends heartfelt congratulations to Uncle Eli and Anthill for being profiled in this week's Valentine's Edition of The Vermilion as UL's Cutest Couple.

I'd post a link to the story but, despite having a reputation as a good computer school, UL isn't modern enough to post their weekly student newspaper online. How pitiful is that?


Saturday evening, he braved the weather to catch his first Mardi Gras Parade.

Given that it was well past his bedtime, he didn't really care much about the parade and continued the new phenomenon of being scared by loud noises, which we really need to fix.






He did have thrown to him one of the Krewe of Rio themed, upper anatomically correct dolls.





Around the house he's learned to get into the pantry cabinets and I robbed him of a nice glass jar of spaghetti sauce that he was about to pull off of the shelf.
He's also been taught by Granny Lynn how to play with the fridge magnets.






He figured out that he is too lazy to crawl all the way around our gigantic queen size bed, and realized that there is a shortcut under the bed if you keep your head down.






I really need to give a big "thank you" to Paul for suggesting that Caroline might like a play table for Christmas, which spiraled out of control, once in my head, into me constructing tables for Caroline and Riley.
I really don't know what we'd do without ours. Riley uses it all the time.

Thanks for planting the seed.




And finally, for a little laugh, here's our celebrity visitor of the week---Riley Kardashian. (for you pop culture junkies. Watch The Soup Fridays at 9 on E!)

Walkin' and Sighin'

It's official, Riley can walk.
He currently chooses not to, but the genie is out of the bottle.

One evening late in the week, he just started taking smaller steps than normal which helped him stay upright.

Three or four times he would take 4 or 5 steps, pause, then start up gain and take 5 or 6 more. It was far more purposeful than his prior stumbling just to keep from falling.

Unfortunately though, now he refuses to even try again, and sits down every time we stand him up. Oh well.

He's also started to develop good dental hygiene and loves playing with the power toothbrush that I don't use anymore.




Saturday morning he got to hang around with Mommy while Daddy headed up to Chicot with the boys to find out how out of shape he is.
No surprise, I found that I have the speed of cold molasses, the balance of a 10 month old and the endurance of a bottle rocket.

(L to R: PK3, YJames, Pec, LT, BW)





Then the whole family headed to a Lady Cajuns Softball game, a first for all of us.








He, of course, sported a cool Cajuns shirt.





Unfortunately, the crowd noise upset him a few times (which never happened at football games or festivals), so we did lots of walking around.
He even offended Amanda's mom by crying every time she held him, but it was just bad luck on her part.

Granny Lynn found him a softball that distracted him for a while.





and after I cleaned it up, he tried his best to eat it.





then he showed us his Robert Barone like tick, in which you must touch everything to your forehead before throwing it.





After the game, we triumphantly returned to Coyote Blues for the first time since the whole dairy thing went down.

While he still can't have cheese directly , Joan did go straight for her Shrimp Diablo Quesadillas.

Riley, not to be outdone, put a whoopin' on some poblano rice and charro beans.






Sunday he got his first birthday present a little early when Granny Lynn got him/us a membership to the Zoo of Acadiana.






He is still a little too young to pay attention to most of the animals, but did give them his stare when they fit into at least one of a few categories.

1. They were close to him





2. They were huge.




3. They were audibly fighting over food; or





4. Daddy dangled him over the enclosure.





We didn't drop the $2 on the train ride, but he did get to ride a concrete deer. Quite an adventure.





while there, we had the good fortune to see, and even photograph the rarest beast known on the planet, scientific name Cuddluponus Rileyevans, known to the common folks as "The Cuddly Riley."





Since we have the membership, we'll get to see how much more he fills in the lion cut-out 12 months from now.




For anyone interested, Zoo memberships are $10 off this month.
And a membership here is honored at the BR Zoo too, along with other small zoos around the country.


Mr. Active has also learned how to reach from his bed to pull books off of his bookshelf, but hasn't quite figured out how to, or doesn't want to, bring them into bed, so he just drops them and expects you to pick them up.






If he damages his 20+ year old Brer Rabbit book that I had to scour the internet for, I'm gonna have to throw him in the briar patch.


Now for the random pics that I like this week.


Here he is pointing to his favorite toy, the electrical outlet.
His hair looks like he may have already had some contact with it.






Checking out Mom & Dad's old law school pad in BR, now inhabited by Caroline's fam.






Riding cousin Caroline's manly pony.





Jamming some tunes





and reading Freakonomics with Uncle Paul.




and in closing, I usually try to make the title make sense in some quirky, ironic or sarcastic way. Not this week though. This week's title is a Bluerunners song. If you've never paid attention to them, you should really check out Live at the Triple Door, or Honey Slides.
If you can't get into either of those discs, you are dead inside.

Ongoing Recovery

This week was spent mostly just trying to be unsick for most of the characters you see on this blog. Fortunately, everyone is almost back to normal.

Riley's big adventure this week was a Saturday spent in BR. He and Joan visited with Paul, Liz and Caroline while I squeezed in my first off road bike ride since he was born.

Next we all went to Nagoya sushi buffet, where Caroline showed off her big girl eating skills by cleaning off her plate and then eating ice cream.





Riley, on the other hand, showed his ability to make adults feed him a small amount of food before deciding he is bored and trying creative ways to escape the high chair.




He did show some involuntary culinary adventurousness when he ate a piece of raw salmon. That's 24 years earlier than either of us tried it.
We weren't worried about any sickness because we figured he could eat a bowl of e-coli right now and still be ok since he's on antibiotics.


At Nagoya, Joan got to eat ice cream for the first time in almost 9 months. Observe the sheer joy.






Both of the babies also got to try a Jello-like product for the first time. Riley wasn't a big fan of the flavor. Caroline though, found it to be an excellent toy.





She also demonstrated an inclination toward eating Jello out of small cups. So, if she's ever at a party you're at, be sure to hide the jello shots.





Before leaving town, we visited Heather's family where Riley honed his flirting skills amongst the many girls there.

on the way back home he slept for over an hour. We couldn't ask for anything more, because, usually, that would have made it all the way home. Sadly though we ran into a sight well known, and dreaded by anyone who travels in South Louisiana.



Traffic Stopped on the Basin



Movement was stop and go so we gave him a little freedom from the carseat until we got going again.




Sunday night he attended two Super Bowl parties. (I hope i dont owe the NFL royalties for using the term Super Bowl)

First we stopped by Judge Bouillion's party, where he spent most of the time being held by two women we've never met before. They were nice though, and he didn't mind a bit.

Next we stopped by Brad & lindsey's where he got to play with his friends Gabe and Eli D. They mostly just threw toys at each other, but in a nice way.






Earlier in the week, I found a very appropriate onesie for him at Old Navy.





Around the house, his latest hobby is throwing toys out of the dog door. I can only assume that throwing himself or Gabe is next.





His favorite toys are definitely his table and Jimmy, who has started following him around more.







Finally, to keep his Cajun credibility alive, here's a couple of photos every baby should pose for---- in a crawfish pot.