Archives from 2002-2006

Nov

21

Upswing

November 21, 2006

Riley has been talking, talking, talking lately. He seems to have many important things to say, judging by the expansive arm gestures that accompany his nonstop monologue, but I can’t understand a bit of it. He continues to occasionally speak the recognizable word, like duck, dog, baby, and backpack (and, of course, of course, because he is a rotten little anklebiter who has played favorites from the time he could focus more than two inches in front of his head, Dada), but the majority of his language is an indecipherable mishmash that rises and falls like water burbling through a brook.

He’ll come up to me, toy outstretched, and chatter excitedly like a ground squirrel, and I find myself responding like I’m awkwardly trying to communicate with someone from another country: “Well! Is that…is that for me? Well thank – wait, no? It’s not for me? Do you want me to – no? I? Oh, you’re leaving. Okay, bye!”

Oh, and he is walking, walking, walking. Gone is the tentative Frankenbaby who made his teetering way a few feet at a time, he’s a bustling little penguin now, scurrying to and fro at top speed. Every now and then he lands on the floor with a startling crash, then pulls himself together and sets off again.

We put cabinet locks in the kitchen and I cannot make myself remember their existence for love or money, I yank on the cabinets every single goddamn time and go, oh yeah.

He does this thing where he suddenly stops mid-gambol and lets out this grinning, perfectly crazy, delighted “Aahhhhh!”. He shakes his head and stomps his feet a little while he’s doing it. It reminds me of how when Dog is really excited, she shakes herself all over like she’s wet, just a quick brisk shake and maybe a sneeze at the end, with her big happy dog mouth open and smiling. It’s like there’s just too much joy and happiness and it can’t be contained, it must be let loose into the world so that other people can absorb it.

That’s what I like to think, anyway.

JB has been chasing Riley lately, arms outstretched while saying, “I’m gonna getchoo!” and Riley gets all shrieky with laughter and his penguin-steps get all discombobulated and often as not he falls down in a giggling splat of toddler.

The rollercoaster is in an upswing, I feel like we’re in the high loops. It’s whooshy and there is a lot of laughter and and I am crossing my fingers all molars and viruses stay at bay for just a little while longer, because I like it up here, I love it up here.

So, I thought I would ask you, as the holiday approaches (we are driving down to Oregon today after work, which is either genius because the boy is more likely to sleep or it’s fucking insane because it will be dark and awful and exhausting and hey, there’s no guarantees the boy will sleep), what are you thankful for right now? I know it’s kind of a cheesy question but I also know I will love reading your answers over the next few days.

Me, I’m grateful for the upswing. I’m also grateful as hell for my son in general and my family and everyone’s health and for having work that interests me and I’m grateful for Diet Coke and Eclipse gum and pumpkin cheesecake and the fact that Aimee Mann has a holiday album, but FOR REAL: thank you, gods of toddler mercurialness, for this smashingly enjoyable time we’ve been having.

Talk to you later, alligators. I hope you have a wonderful week, whatever your plans may be.

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Nov

18

Saturday chitlins

Perhaps Riley has a built-in self preservation device that tracks the number of days he’s been 99% Evil, and flips an internal setting to Cherubic, in order to keep his parents from driving to the Woodland Park Zoo, circling for an hour until a parking space is finally located, bundling him into the stroller and standing in line, then walking directly to the wolf exhibit and briskly tossing him inside.

(It would be complicated, sure, but OH GOD SO SATISFYING.)

Or maybe the mysterious molars that seemed on the verge of making an appearance have somehow sunk back below the surface of his gums, or maybe we’re in a brief nanosecond between illnesses, or maybe the planets have aligned in a manner that pleases His Majesty. Who knows, but I’ll take it.

The boy has been exceedingly charming, full of good humor, and sparkling with intellect (well…I mean, a toddler-sized intellect. He’s not exactly ready for the SAT, but he’s made leaps and bounds in the general category of Aw, He Thinks He’s People!), and life is like a happy pink unicorn blowing rainbows out its gold-plated asshole, instead of how things have been over the last couple weeks, which was more like a sad brown unicorn blowing…nevermind, suffice to say things have greatly improved.

I am high on both life and dessert right now. Thanks to Swistle, I have eaten probably eight thousand calories worth of cream cheese and pumpkin and chocolate crumbs this evening, and the only reason I’m typing right this minute instead of getting yet another piece of cheesecake from the fridge is because my hands are the only things that can move.

Anyway, it seems like it’s been a while since I’ve posted a bunch of photos. Behold!

Surprisingly, the boy corners quite nicely.

Also if you are a bear than you had best be watching out because this kid is ON PATROL.

This is how Riley holds the phone to “talk”. We find it endlessly amusing, although I bet we won’t be laughing when he dials Indonesia someday and we get the bill.