School Days

Riley is well and truly back into school this year and really enjoying his new class and the new challenges he faces. Last week I went in to Riley's school to answer a call for help from the Library to help with repairing old books and covering new books. Riley was very excited that I was at his school and at morning tea he ran in to give me a cuddle and then kept on bringing friends in to prove that I was really there. I also went back in later in the week to help his class do some cooking. I like to be involved with his school life and to know what he is doing at school each day first hand and so far Riley loves having me there too.

Every week Riley's school has a theme for the week and all the children are encouraged to bring in items from home for the theme table. Last week the theme was "People who help us" so Riley took in a book (as we do most weeks) and also his Fireman Raincoat. He was a bit of a hit in the playground (especially seeing as how it was a rainy day) and so the principal took a photo of him. The second pic is of Riley on "Messy Day" last Friday. All the children had to bring in old clothes and swimmers and they got to get all muddy and play with food and have water fights with each other and the teachers. It is a smart way to see what children may need monitoring for "Sensory Defensiveness" I think you can tell by this picture that there is no need to monitor Riley.

Riley's Art

This is a drawing of a traffic pointsman that we see each morning on our way to school. They are employed by one of the local insurance companies to help ease traffic congestion during peak periods. They do a wonderful job and are always happy and smiling and obviously take great pride in their work. They wear fluro green shirts and caps (I suppose in an effort to avoid being run over). Riley drew this one on Monday morning before school whilst I was getting dressed. On the way to school he had me wind his window down and he showed the man his drawing. Although the man was some distance away he could not miss seeing or hearing Riley and seemed excited to have had his picture drawn.

Riley has been spending a lot of time lately doing some wonderful drawings and creating road signs and putting them up on the walls for us. A couple of weeks ago Riley really wanted to go out for dinner (mostly because he loves getting dressed up etc), this was at about 6:30pm in the evening and I was just putting a really tired Emily to bed and dinner was already cooked and waiting to be served so I said no. Of course he was upset but then we decided to do some role playing (which he loves). So we decided to turn our Brekky room into a restaurant. Riley created signs with the name of the restaurant "The Dinner Room" and also "Montecasino" and also some signs saying that we were not allowed in the kitchen and that everyone must eat all their dinner. He is really enjoying writing these days and often gets me to write something on a piece of paper so that he can copy it. This is what he has done on this drawing above.

Just Chillin....

Daddy and Emily chilling out together on the couch on Saturday morning. She was very happy to be laying with her Daddy and they stayed there for quite a while watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory together.

20 Weeks Old

Emily and Peter. This is one of 3 guys that came to our house last Friday to install our PVR (it's a TV thing). One of my friends had an incident involving a light post on my driveway so I put Emily on the floor on her mat and told the men to watch out for her. As I was walking away I heard one of them (Peter I think it was) tell the other two that they were 'watching the baby'. When I walked back in this is what I saw. Emily and Peter having a nice time getting to know each other. When I held out my hands for Emily to come to me she just buried her head in Peter's shoulder.

So our little angel is now 20 weeks old (well almost 21 at the time of this post). She is growing so fast and her personality is really shining through (drama queen mostly). Here are a couple of shots from around home lately.

Emily's Giggles

Just a quick vid of Emily in the bath last night. Riley and Emily are bathing together and no matter how many toys are in the bath, the most entertaining thing for her is her big brother.

Valentine's Day

Riley chose my outfit this morning as well making sure that I was wearing Red & White.

This is Riley's teacher Samia with Emily. Riley also chose Emily's outfit to ensure that she was in the spirit of things too.

This year Riley is really into the spirit of Valentine's Day. This morning when he woke up he wished me a Happy Valentine's Day (which was very sweet) and then he asked me what people have for breakfast on Valentine's Day. I think he was a tad disappointed with cereal this morning so we are planning on a nice family dinner out at a nice restaurant tonight to make up for it. He was also really sweet and wished Motshabi a Happy Valentine's Day also when she started work this morning. At school today all the children had to wear red and white in honour of the day and so Riley got himself all dressed and we both thought that his shirt needed 'a little something' so we got out the felt pens and drew some hearts on his shirt. I figure the rate he is growing these days he will have outgrown that shirt before he needs to wear it again. He was pretty chuffed at the whole idea and gladly posed for a couple of quick pics at school before the bell rang.

Camping Out (In)

So this weekend Riley's school was holding a camp out night where the kids and parents could come along and pitch their tents in one of the paddocks at school for the night. Riley really wanted to go with Brad but since the only tent we have is Riley's Spiderman tent and the only sleeping bag we own is Riley's Spiderman sleeping bag we really couldn't do it. So the compromise was to pitch the tent in the front yard, set up a camp fire (aka BBQ) and camp out -in. Both Riley and Brad had a lovely time and it also meant that Emily and I could be a part of some of the fun like cooking snags over the fire and toasting marshmallows.