21 Things About Riley

Yes, I'll admit I'm a copy cat. Here is my list of 21 things about Riley. Rex is going to help me write it.

1. He has an amazing big brother named Rex!

2. He was born on Nov. 30th 2006 - 4 weeks early - (ask Justin why he will never mop the floor again - no my water didn't break)

3. Riley spent two week in the NICU where big brother and family visited every day. He was kept company by the baseball bear that Rex picked out for him.

4. He babbles and talks all the time and rarely is quiet. Except when he says his cousin Cheyenne's name is a whisper Chey Chey.

5. His favorite snack is gold fish crackers. Complete with the sign and blither blither sound that fish make.

6. Rex tells me that Riley's next favorite food is raisin.

7. Riley loves to wrestle with Rex. They make Grampa very nervous when they do this routine. They roll around and flip and flop but Riley always pops up. It is amazing.

8. Riley's only tv show he is interested in is Signing Times. He loves the music.

9. Riley loves most music. Right now his favorite song is Isty Bisty Spider. He has great hand motions - but you have to sing quickly to keep up with the signs.

10. He loves to "help" me on the computer.

11. Riley can sense when we leave the gate to the kitchen open. He usually goes straight to the basement door when he sneaks in. If not he stops to play with his Leapfrog animal noise maker barn door thingy. Occasionally he sneaks over to unroll the garbage bags in the bottom door.

12. He can also hear us the moment the bathroom door cracks open. He loves to take baths so he is obsessed with getting in there. Thankfully he usually goes past the toilet and moves on to the tub when he sneaks in. If you shut the door before he makes it over he folds himself in half and trys to look under the door. Then you see his fingers wiggling under the door. It is a little like having a cat.

13. Riley has a smile that will melt your heart. There are several versions of it but our fav is the squishy face.

14. Rex can always make him laugh and smile. The current favorite tactic is to flip him upside down and shake him and Riley giggles and giggles and giggles.

15. Riley was born with two syntactical fingers. He had them separated this last May at Shriner's here in Spokane.

16. Riley thinks that Da Da's bald head is a bongo drum. He gets a nice slapping sound from it. Sometimes he also likes to lick the bald head. YUCK

17. He had a great tickle spot under his chin.

18. Riley laughs on command most days. When you ask him if he is a funny boy he laughs.

19. Riley is a wonderful sleeper. He usually is good for 12 hours a night an a minimum of a 2 hour nap. This is cut back dramatically from the 2-3 naps a day he would take.

20. Riley doesn't walk quite yet but he does crawl everywhere and tries to climb most everything. There are some good things about having those short legs.

21. Hurricane Riley leaves a path of destruction behind him where he goes. I can only imagine what a category 4 Hurricane Riley looks like when he starts walking. Good thing he is so stinkin cute. It saves him each and every day.