Our Riley at 16 months

 Sweet boy, you are one of a kind! You are the epitome of "little boy," and we love you for it, but man are we going to be in for it. You are such a mix of things...a mix of perfect things. You LOVE cuddles, and we are never surprised when you lay your head down on our chests and take a break from the world; or when you are  the middle of playing and come by, lay your head down on our legs for a quick check in, and then head off again. We love that that is you, and we are spoiled by you.

But we can also not take our eyes off of you or there is going to be a mess in this house. You love water, and if there is a cup of water, or Sawyer and Mumfords' water bowl, you will find it. You will play in it, you will dump it all over the ground, you will dump it all over yourself. And then you will sit in it and splash around. You don't discriminate when it comes to water. You are not afraid to toss things into the toilet or the bathtub, and you are not even afraid (much to our disgust) to reach in and take something out.

You could spend an entire day playing in your water table on the deck, and I think that when summertime comes, you just might. We have not had many hot days yet this Spring, but you are soaking up every wet moment of the ones that we have had. We turned the hose on the other day, to water the flowers, and you followed that stream of water all around the backyard, just trying to touch it and trying to get right in the middle of it. You stormed around that back yard, on a mission to get it.
Gramma and Grampas basketball hoop is filled with water in the base, and Ava has figured out that if she stomps on the back of it, the water will shoot out of the hole, and it brings you so much joy to watch that water squirt out.

Pinecones. You could collect and throw pinecones, and rocks, for hours. In fact, one day I am going to just set you up outside with a bucket of water and a bowl of pinecones, and see how long you can go! Your sweet sister does not let a pinecone pass her by without picking it up just for you. You are lucky to have her.

Sweet boy, you are a mess maker. A HUGE mess-maker. If there are things on the table, they will soon be on the floor. If there are toys in the bin, soon they will ALL be on the floor. You love to open the tupperware cupboard and throw out EVERYTHING that you see. You enjoy dumping the cat food into the cats water and letting it get juuuuust soggy enough so that's its disgusting, and then dumping it on the floor. You thoroughly enjoy emptying the bathroom cart of its contents, into the toilet and the  bathtub, and if there is 1/5 toothbrushes where it belongs, it is too many - for they don't belong in the toothbrush holder, they belong in your diaper bag, in Daddy's shoes, in Ava's underwear drawer, and on the stairs. When we are getting ready in the morning, you love to bring everyone their shoes, but it wouldn't be fair for them to have just one pair to choose from, so you empty the shoe shelf of every pair and scatter them about - we are sure it's just to be thoughtful.

Darling boy, you are funny, and you man on man do you love to get a rise out of people. You like to take things that belong to other people, but not to make them mad, just because you like to take things. BUT, on the off chance that they don't want you to have it, and they give you a "RILEY!" - you REALLY like that, and you run, as fast as you can, in the opposite direction. You have recently found a passion for climbing on top of high things, and flashing your pearly whites. You like to stand on the couch, the coffee table, the bed, the foot stool, any chair, and most recently, Ava's rocking chair - because that's a challenge, of course. If we happen to look away for a moment when you are just getting into the good stuff, you feel sad that we might miss out, so you yell "Hiiiiii!" and smile your biggest smile, as if to say, "look what I did while you weren't looking. Pretty good, huh?" You did that yesterday as we were playing in the backyard, and you made it to the third stair before we realized you were actually going up them.

Riley boy, you have soooooo many words now, and you are quite particular to animals. You like to make sheep noises, and horses, dogs, cats, cows, and lions - and I am certain your lion roar is from THE sweetest, most soft-spoken lion that has ever lived. You LOVE trains and could watch trains go by for days, as you yell "choo choo!" You are quite partial to your Thomas the Train pyjama shirt and you get SO excited if you see a picture or a video of a cow.

I have two favourite Riley things right now. One of them is your pre-bedtime crazies, and I hope they never end. You are the definition of "overtired" when you start to run around the house, barely able to stay on your feet and falling down every few steps. You don't cry, you just get up again and are on  your way, trying to go as fast as you can, until you fall a few steps down the hall. You will run in circles, over and over again until we finally scoop you up and take you to your bedroom. When you get REALLY tied, you will lay on the ground or the couch, and say "na-night," with your head down.
My second favourite are the times when you fall down and decide that it is less work to just lay down and get comfy, right where you fell, rather than get up and get on with things. It is such a simple thing, but I feel like it just teaches all of us to just slow down and take a minute, an I adore you in these (and all) moments.

Sweet boy, we love who you are, and who you are becoming, and we can't wait to watch all the crazy thins you will get up to once the sunny days arrive! We love you!