Gimme an X!

So we’re having another baby. And today we found out that it’s a girl! My parents have five grandsons already, so I imagine she’ll be something of a princess. :) I feel a little more overwhelmed than I think I would’ve been with another boy; I feel like I’ve got a lot more to learn this way. But I am thrilled at the thought of a daughter.

She’s due the first week of August. Riley came two weeks early, so we’ll see. She’s perfectly healthy, from all ultrasonic indications.

Her name is still very much up in the air. We didn’t give girls’ names much thought after we found out Riley was a boy. “Grace” is a strong candidate at the moment, but we’ll be mulling it over for a while. I remember we didn’t really decide Riley’s until he was a couple days old.

Riley went to the ultrasound with us. He got nervous in the darkened room, and seeing mommy lying on the examination table and inaccessible, he cried. So I walked him around the halls outside for most of it. I briefly got to see the heart beating, and then later the baby’s face in realtime 3D. Riley and I found a wagon sitting in a hallway corner, and that kept him pretty entertained while we were waiting. Laura’s mom came too, and we all went for brunch afterwards. Just the thing. :)

Dear Windows Vista:

I can smell how badly you wish you were MacOS. But you’re getting it all wrong. Please stop acting like Word, thinking you know better than I do what I want from you. It only counts as “ease of use” if you’re actually correct in your assumptions. Go ask Clippy.

Thanks in advance,
etc.

Riley Tooth Crisis

This morning, Riley tripped over a toy on the floor. That’s a fairly commonplace event for our gung ho little guy. But this time he happened to be holding a sippy cup in his mouth with both hands. He continued holding onto the cup, which hit the floor squarely and transferred all the force of the fall straight to his mouth.

Long story short: two of his teeth will probably end up darkened and remain crooked, but at least they’re likely to stay in, and of course they’re just baby teeth anyway.

Happy Birthday to Riley!

They say that time is relative, and I believe it. In blatant defiance of my own temporal perception, Riley turned one year old today. I can’t believe he was ever that small, and yet it can’t have been more than a few weeks ago, can it?

I’m really enjoying being at home with him. I’m so glad I have the chance.

He’s doing great. I could say he’s walking, in that he does take some steps without support, but he’s not yet stable enough to walk everywhere he goes. It won’t be long though. His main problem is that his steps are too big.

He’s pretty vocal, and he likes communicating with us. He parrots us a lot without knowing what he’s saying, but he also clearly and consistently uses words to communicate. He recognizes even more words than he uses himself.

A beginner’s guide to Rilese.