An Update

Well, as usual, the end of the school year got busy and I wasn't able to post as much as I would like! Summer is coming up (one more day! Whoops! Started the post and didn't finish it until a week into summer!) and I hopefully will have time (and the desire) to post more. So many fun things are happening! Here's some random things that have been going on at the Riley house...

First of all, remember this guy? And this one? He's back! We hadn't seen any signs of him doing that in awhile, but one morning we woke him up for school and found this:

What's different now is that he can tell us about it. Jonathan asked him what he did to get his shirt like that. He replied "I didn't do it! I was just sleeping!!" As usual, Andrew has been cracking us up lately! Here's a funny story from recently:

We are very into timers at our house - Andrew works well with boundaries, and is usually very willing to do what we ask if we give him a few minutes to prepare. On the way home from dinner one night, I told him that he could have five minutes to play when we got home and then it would be bath time. He asked if he could watch a show. I said that we didn't have time to watch a show. He then asked for ten minutes. I said that he could have ten minutes, but that still wasn't long enough to watch a show. He then asked how long a show lasted. I laughed and started to tell him that he wasn't going to have time to watch a show before bath time. He interrupted and said, "Mommy, no! I'm just asking about the numbers, just tell me the numbers!" So I told him that a show lasted about 24 minutes. He then quickly asked, "Can I have 24 minutes before bath time?"

He's been really into Legos this summer. He was gifted an amazing Lego table for his birthday as well as a couple of Lego sets, and it's literally become ALL he wants to do! He loves to build firetrucks and fire stations (shocker!) all day. We've spent a lot of time building Lego creations, and I predict we'll do a lot more before summer is over! 

Busy building

The Lego Oshkosh Striker (an airport firetruck that he is obsessed with)

Benny has also been so much fun lately! And busy! As of mid-May, he's walking, and it's amazing how fast they progress from a few stumbling steps to all-out, fast walking all over the place! His favorite places to walk are Andrew's room (to raid all the fun toys), the bathroom (it's where the tub is!), and the pantry (to snack!). It's pretty difficult to accomplish anything with Benny around, but the good thing is that he's pretty entertained by just walking around. Give him something to hold and let him walk around and he's good for awhile! He's also started to get in the really cute phase - he claps, waves, and can give kisses. I love this age! He's babbling a lot, and although I'm not sure exactly how many real words he's saying, I know that he's said Andrew (it sounds like Ah-dah). He was looking at a picture of Andrew and repeated the same "word" multiple times. He does sign "more" (when you ask him to, usually he'll just scream and slam his hands on the table or tray) and "all done". I need to work on more signs with him. I do remember that communication is difficult at this age - he can't really tell us what he wants, so he does get frustrated fairly easily. I think I've also forgotten/been surprised again at how much he understands. I know that just because he can verbally communicate things to us, doesn't mean he isn't understanding what we are telling him. He's still a pretty good eater, although he's had a slight ear infection/cold for the past week that has caused his appetite to decrease slightly. He definitely has his favorites - any kind of pasta, especially macaroni and cheese, peas, and any kind of fruit. He also LOVES snack type foods. As I said earlier, he's discovered the pantry and will walk in and pull out a box or bag of something that he wants. He'll drop it on the floor - I think he's trying to open it! He loves goldfish, teddy grahams, and graham crackers. Like his brother, he loves to snack! 

Standing at the front window, one of his favorite places

Post-lunch hair

Sick, sad no-nap Benny!

I'm so excited to see what this summer has to offer! I know it's going to be busy (the first summer of really doing activities with two kids!) Last summer Benny was really easy just to bring along in the carrier or stroller. This year I can tell he's going to be an active participant! I'm excited for the fun we're going to have, and I'm going to TRY to keep up blogging - I don't want to forget these wonderful days I get with my boys! And now for a couple more pictures - these aren't technically from summer, but they do show an activity we will enjoy a lot this summer. We finally brought the pirate ship water table that my parents got the boys for their birthday outside. The boys love it! What a great way to cool off this summer!