Riley plays, Riley eats, Riley sleeps

Friday night Riley came over with a BIG bag of toys and a smile. He was dressed in Cars pjs and was ready to P-L-A-Y!

Lately he's really into books. I read him a book about Limu (a sea turtle) and as I attempted my best sea turtle voice Riley scrunched up his sweet little innocent precious face and said: "That's not how the voices sound."

Next book went to Anth -

It went somethin like this...

Anth: Lyndy's the main reader.

Me: Good grief honey, it's a short book.

Anth (as he flips through a few pages): That's a lot of words.

Riley: You can do it!

Anthony and Riley have the ball throwin' thing down pat... whether it's a football or a basketball... he thinks he's so BIG when he goes up to the first landing of the stairs. That's my limit for him. He likes to stand there while we throw him the ball. He's careful and I'm close by so don't go thinkin' we're irresponsible.

No kids = not many toys.
Thus, the BIG bag mom & dad must pack every time Riley comes.
But I was proud of us this visit - I thought the round laundry basket could double as a basketball goal. SCORE! Cuz the kid loved it! He and Anthony took turns shooting.

And it doubles as a bird cage apparently - he literally said LOOK, it's like a bird cage!

Thankfully nothing has been broken so far with our little game of living room basketball, but.... Anthony got all fancy and threw it WAY TOO HIGH and it went up on the balcony at the top of the staircase. I'll give ya one guess who was quick to volunteer to go get it...

About halfway up the little dude got feathers on him (chicken) and started kinda crawling so Anthony went behind him for backup. Ha!

He was so proud to be up there, but he kinda crept/crawled backwards the whole way back down. Still a little iffy.

The fancy no look backwards shot - Anthony taught him that.

Once he figured out if he got closer to the "goal" he could "score" more, he was all about some hoops.

We took a break at one point because Riley suggested that we go REST. So we went to the bedroom and laid down for a few minutes. Riley quickly realized he needed his CUDDLY. So he went and got the puppy beanie and stuffed shark he had brought. As we curled up, he said I only have two cuddlies. So he gave Anthony one and kept one for himself. He said I don't have a cuddly for you. Then he said I'll be your cuddly and pulled my arm around him. AWWW
Then he started telling me about sharks and how they eat small fish and that they're predators. I guess a science lesson was in order.

Round out the night with some Nicktoons. A little Wonder Pets here, Yo Gabba Gabba there, topped off with some Spongebob & Patrick. Recipe for bedtime. He fell asleep on the couch with me and Anthony carried him to bed. Slept like a rock til about 7 am. Woke up and his first question was Where's Anthony?

I see the handwriting on the wall. Happened with my nephews, too. As these sweet boys get bigger, they get closer to Anthony and I become the cook and cleanup crew. That's okay. It's a job I think I'll keep.