Interesting morning

This morning we discovered that someone had missed the turn at the top of the hill and drove through our fence. Then they proceeded to drive along the fence on our property and go through our white metal gate perpendicularly. At that point they must have either woken up or come out of their drunken stupor because they tried to get back on the road but succeeded in going over the road and into the ravine on the other side. The ravine is deep enough that John completely missed seeing the grey truck still in the ravine. I happened to look in the ravine after dropping Riley off at daycare. I called the sheriff and they sent an officer out. He reported that the truck had been reported stolen last night. So, now we have more fence to fix. Careful what you wish for - John and I had just been talking about moving the entryway to make it easier for trucks and trailers to get through!

On a much more fun note, our "Auntie Jill" came and visited us recently. Jill and I took Riley to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth where Riley got to ride a bucking bronco. There is live footage in the attached video. Y'all enjoy!

Potty Training

And yes, that is a Pull-Up on his head.

My ever so resourceful son has designed new headwear.

Potty training is going very well considering we've had some odd problems - like getting the concept that pee actually comes from him and is not provided by Mommy. I decided to try a trick I heard about where you pour warm water on him when he is sitting on the potty to cause him to go. Yeah, that one backfired.

Now our biggest problem is getting Riley to tell us when he has to go instead of us taking him to the potty every hour. We visited a really neat new preschool today, and we explained he has to go potty all by himself before he can go to this school. I think he actually understood, but I think he also felt a lot of pressure. We had the biggest meltdown I've ever seen shortly after when we couldn't play on the preschool's playground. So, we went to a city playground and then had pizza at the place right next door. We ended the night on a good note, so we'll see how tomorrow goes...

One day you're on top, then next day...

This morning Riley told me "Mommy I am mad at you". I go from getting coffee brought to me, to this. Granted this was my own undoing because I made the mistake of mentioning we were going to Grandma's house this weekend. "This weekend" is not a concept easily grasped by a three year old. So I immediately made the black list when I insisted we had to go to school one more day and then go to Grandma's house.

Fortunately life was OK when he got home from school in the afternoon.

This picture is from earlier in the year, but I thought you might get a kick out of seeing The Cool Dude.

Hello Again!

Surprise! The Ereno family has not disappeared!

I got really, really busy, but I am hoping to make this blogging a habit. To get started...

Riley brought me "coffee" this morning. It was so sweet! He now has a big boy bed and no gate on his door, so he is in the habit of coming to my bed to wake me up in the morning. This morning I kept telling him I was tired and "five more minutes". He left for a few minutes and came back with a Playdoh container full of little plastic toys and told me he made me some coffee. How cute is that!!!

Mardi Gras 2009

Once again, our family trekked to Shreveport, Louisiana to enjoy the Mardi Gras parade put on by the Krewe of Centaur. The whole group included Lainie, John, Riley, Vickie, and Gary (Granddad). Every year we have a wonderful time catching beads, cups, and toys. This year was just as great as before with Vickie winning "best beads" contest with a rubber ducky pendant on a set of beads (and no, she didn't have to flash anything - this is a family friendly parade!). Riley was really tired because he didn't take a nap until 30 minutes before we had to leave. He spent most of the parade with his head on someone's shoulder, but as each float went by he would perk up, raise his hand, and say "Throw me, Mister!". We caught him a stuffed dog (quickly named Mardi), a stuffed bear, another stuffed dog, a football, and a ball. Granddad in his wheelchair also managed to leave the parade with his fair share of beads.

We also enjoyed some really great food. At night, the adults took turns watching Riley and having fun losing their money in the casino. All in all, a wonderful trip and we all swore we'd be back again next year!

I Share With You!

Lately, Riley has been learning about sharing and he really enjoys practicing. If he's drinking something, he'll say "I share with you" and then "You sip" and then "I sip". It's really pretty cute.

The funny thing is we discovered there are hidden nuances to the concept of sharing. I was eating a cookie and I meant to hide it from Riley. However, I was talking to John and not paying attention. I sat down right next to Riley with the cookie in my hand. All of a sudden I hear a forceful "I sharing with you" and the cookie was yanked out of my hand. Technically he was right, but the finesse and etiquette was lacking.