Riley's Greatest Hits

Over the past week, Riley has really started to walk. He took his first steps a few weeks ago and has slowly gained confidence in walking from point A to point B. Now, he cruises all over the place. And he falls. A lot.

So in honor of our son's newest form of transportation, I thought I would make a Top 5 list of his best crashes, falls and injuries thus far. These are made up of the one's I witnessed AND remember. He has bumped his head more times than I can count but these stuck out to me. So far, his injuries have been very minor and his pain tolerance is pretty impressive. And after a minute or two of watching traffic go by outside our house, he is back to his old self. That is why I am making this list. I am not making light of his falls - though some are quite humorous. I just thought I would honor him as he makes the transition from crawling baby to "toddler". And now the list:

5. His first "official" injury on record. He was standing in between Missy and I and he made a move toward our glider ottoman and missed. He crunched his head on the corner of the wooden ottoman creating the first "ouchie" on his head.

4. This was not a specific instance but the #4 spot is given to our coffee table. He has hit it from every angle and every corner. We have rubber guards on the corners but he pulls them off with his teeth.

3. This happened last week. We were at his friend Carter's house. Not two minutes after we got there, he cruised up beside their stone hearth and cracked his head on the corner. I saw the whole thing unfold. Within two minutes, he was back to playing.

2. This happened tonight. He was walking around our room and wanted to play peekaboo behind one of our curtains. Then made the mistake of combining the two. He walked into the curtain and kept going. As he kept walking blindly through the curtain, he tripped and faceplanted into the side of our dresser. I have a feeling we will see that one tomorrow.

1. This one doesn't have to do with walking but was impressive none the less. I had the brilliant idea of putting him on our bed while I got something out of my dresser (The one he collided with tonight). Two seconds after I turned my back, I heard Missy gasp. I turned and saw two little legs go over the side of the bed. Missy sprinted across the room and caught his head but the rest of him crashed to the floor.

So those are the best falls thus far that I can remember. In the future, we will continue to do our best to protect him and he will do his best to make that job difficult. We hope and pray that these little bumps and bruises are the worst of his injuries. We have put him in God's hands and that is all we can do. So far, we have been able to laugh at (most of) his falls. Now we can look forward to when he learns how to ride a bike......

A Beacon of Light....

What better way to get back at it after a month than with a little post about a ray of hope in a dark place. With this writer's strike, we have entered into a cest pool of TV. However, through the vast wasteland of reality crap is a ray of light - a beacon - a little show I like to call, "Lost".

This show came back on this past week after what I thought was a year but was actually about 6 months. I looked forward to it like a kid waiting for Christmas. I realize that this sounds kind of pathetic and maybe in the grand scheme of things it is but this show is unlike any other I have ever seen before. I didn't start watching this show when it came out. I actually got interested after seeing promos on TV (yes, I fell victim to the marketing machine) and discussions I heard on morning radio shows. I willfully got myself addicted and roped Missy in as well - after season 2 wrapped up. Missy and I (this was BR - Before Riley) borrowed Season 1 from a friend (and fellow addict) and shotgunned the shows 3 or 4 at a shot. Within a week or two, we had Season 1 down and were official addicts of the show. We watched Season 2 at our friends house once a week (usually a few episodes at a time) until Season 3 kicked off. When Season 3 ended last May, we painfully waited 6+ months for Season 4 to start.

And apparently we weren't alone. In the last week, I have talked to no less than 15 people about the show - at church, at work, at a Super Bowl party, over email, in a public restroom. Yes, the show is THAT good. It is also ridiculously complicated.

If you are ever in a conversation with someone about the show and there is another person there who has never seen the show, they have an expression on their face that is similar to how my grandmother would look if I tried explaining TiVo to her. It is sort of a pained/confused/overwhelmed look. If you watch the show, try it. Talk to someone else about the show and make sure someone else who doesn't watch it is in on the conversation. Say something like, "If the people on the freighter weren't sent by Penny then who are they and how did they find the island and how does Ben know that they are bad? Do you think they were part of the Others and broke off or do you think they might be a new group from the Dharma Initiative?" That should do the trick.

If you watch the show, please feel free to post anytime about the show. I would love to talk about it with you and find new addic.......I mean fan. If you don't watch the show and have several hours to kill - uninterupted - this is not the kind of show you can watch with distractions - we have a no talking rule when we watch it - rent or borrow Seasons 1 - 3 and take a few weeks and watch them. Once you are finished go onto ABC.com and watch the episodes from this season online. I promise you will not regret it.

There is NOTHING on TV right now and it doesn't look like the writer's strike is close to over. This is the best thing on. I promise once you start watching, you too will get Lost.......