A First Look at First Cousins

Can you tell I am a little behind in my blogging???

About a month ago, Missy's brother, his wife and their two kids, Luke and Abby came out to visit us. They also came to see Riley for the first time. It was the first time Riley had met his first cousins. Two days after they left, Missy's two sisters came in, one of them with her son Scout. Scout is the closest to Riley's age - they are about 3 months apart. As it stands right now, Riley has five first cousins. In a span of one week, he got to meet three of them.

While Riley didn't seem overly moved by the experience (other than being hungry and sleepy not too much gets this kid excited yet), I thought it was great to see him with his cousins. I have six first cousins. I have countless memories of playing with them as kids. Whether it be at holidays, during the summer or at family reunions, I loved the times I had with my first cousins. Now they are all (at least legally) adults. I have enjoyed great conversations with all of them about kids, marriage, jobs and life in general.

Those memories get me excited to see how Riley will connect with his cousins a few years down the road. I have visions of Riley being required to play house with Jamie, football with Charlie, trains with Luke, something that involves the color pink with Abby and with Scout - he is a little young yet but in seeing him so far, knowing his father and knowing Riley's father, I could see them getting involved in some sort of criminal activity. Look out Family Reunion 2016!!

Small Victories

Before I was a parent, I heard people with kids say things like, "Billy is eating solid foods now" or "Susie smiled at me yesterday". My ignorant thought was, "So?" What was the big deal? I cleaned out my closet yesterday. No one is giving me an award. However, now I know what they are talking about.

We made the decision recently to move Riley from his very comfortable (though awkward looking at times) position of sleeping in his car seat to sleeping in a crib. Pre-parent Ryan would have listed this about as significant a move as finding an M & M under the couch cushion (why is it always an M&M or a piece of popcorn? Why can't it be a $100 bill?). However, Ryan the dad (and his wonderful partner in crime Missy the mom) devoted an ENTIRE WEEKEND to this endeavor. We approached this adventure with the fear and trepidation. We developed a shift schedule - one of us would be on call while the other slept then we would rotate. We prayed. We stressed. We begged Riley to adjust quickly to his new sleeping environment. Once again, we felt like we were on the eve of D-Day.

And you know what? We survived. Riley had a few cries here and there but he slept for the most part right through the night. A small victory in the Delp household. Now, while I deem this to be worth mention to the entire world wide web community, those of you reading probably wish you had the last 3 minutes of your life back. But once you have kids you realize - those small victories are enormous triumphs in the world of parenting. The fact that I have heard my son LAUGH for the first time is huge. The fact that he can hold his head up and not look like Stevie Wonder all the time is incredible (though if he had put on some sunglasses and a braided wig - that might be worth regressing his development for a little while).

So our son now sleeps in a crib. Now that that hurdle has been crossed, I can only see one more in front of him - getting a job.

A Trek to his Namesake

This past Memorial Day weekend was one that I had been looking forward to for almost a year. Not because we were gettting a three day weekend (which was nice by the way) but because Riley was going, for the first time, to the place for which he was named.


Our family has had a house in Grasonville, MD since before I was born. I have spent countless summer (and some spring and fall) days down there fishing, crabbing, playing wiffle ball, enjoying messy crab feasts and just hanging out with family. Some of my earliest and fondest memories occurred while down "at the Bay". To this day, one of the highlights of my year is arriving at the Bay house on Friday night ready to enjoy the first Bay weekend of the summer. Conversely, even as an adult, leaving the Bay for the last time that year brings about tremendous emotions. In short, this place means the world to me.


Over the past few years as a married man, this place has brought even more meaning to my life. It is here that I proposed to Missy (for the second and last time). And more recently, it is here that we first learned that we were going to be parents. These moments, in combination with the many memories that we have collected over the years at the Bay house brought us to the decision to name our son after the town where our house resides - Grason. We knew that we were not cool or artsy enough to pull off Grason as a first name so we decided to use it as his middle name. We may be the first parents in history to have the middle name set before the first name.


And so it was with great anticipation that we took Riley Grason down to our Bay house. True to form, he slept through most of the "firsts" of the weekend. First time inside the house - out. First time on the boat - gone. The one time he was not asleep was when we walked on the dock for the first time. The brutal sun pretty much prevented that. We feebly attempted to cover his face but because he squirms more than a morey eel, it was pretty much impossible. Though, Missy humored me by taking several dozen pictures of this momentous, if not short lived, event.


So now that Riley has his first trip to the Bay under his elastic diaper band, I look forward to many more for him. My hope is that he can experience beautiful and life changing memories at the Bay house the way his father and mother (and grandparents and great grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins) have. He already has the boat ride down. He has made a mess while eating - though his was formula, not crabmeat. And he has learned the important rule that it is ok to burp out loud. Why? Because it's the Bay! We will have to wait to experience fishing and wiffle ball. Maybe next weekend......