Our Big 4th Grader!

Posted under Riley by coryelvidge

Our little guy is not so little anymore. In July he will be 10 years old! TEN YEARS! Jared and I always have an easy marker to know how long we have been together because Riley was 1 year old when we started dating. It makes life a little simpler when you have a child to measure your anniversary by. Wow has time flown. His 4th grade school pictures sent me tumbling down memory lane as I remembered the first time I met our little Riley. He was sitting on the grass outside of Macaroni Grill with his daddy. I didn’t know either of them. We were being set up on a blind date (courtesy of Courtney). Jared had told her that it was his weekend to have his little boy and she told him that it would be totally ok to bring him and that I wouldn’t mind at all! Only… she forgot to tell me. lol So my first date with Jared was also my first surprise date with Riley.

Those of you close by will remember Riley’s famous crab scoot: a bizarre method of transportation that he opted for over crawling. lol When he was first learning to talk, he loved the word “light.” Only he would always get so excited when he said it and it would sound more like an out-of-breath… “LIE!…. LIE!….. LIE!” When our little guy would find a long stray hair on the carpet he would pick it up between his chubby little fingers and say, “Tory hair”. Very matter-of-fact like but always looking for positive confirmation. He never ceased to impress us. When he was about 3 years old, we were driving in the car and Riley hadn’t said a word the whole time. Then a fed Ex truck passed us and out of the blue, Riley’s little 3 year old hand shot up out of his car seat and he said “Fed Ex!” lol Jared and I burst out laughing. He could shoot a basketball (and make it!) before he could walk. He either didn’t like, or couldn’t chew, meat… so he would just store it in his cheeks until we noticed it (sometimes hours later lol). Eventually we caught on and stopped giving it to him. He loved seeing horses, jumping on the bed, wrestling with dad, trying to chew on ice (to imitate me), and pointing out trucks.

When I am telling someone a story that I was startled in… I have always relayed it like so: “That scared the crap out of me!!” Like most sayings, they are just passed along and adopted as a way to express a thought, feeling, or occurance. I had never ever paused, even for a moment, to think about and understand the literal translation of this saying. That is, until our 4 year old brought it to our attention after shouting, “That scared my crap out!” lol. I have never laughed so hard. Jared’s steady glare at me only spurred it on. I laughed so hard, I cried. There were tears. Lots of tears.  

Riley is such a wonderful boy. We love him so much. He doesn’t have a mean or dishonest bone in his body. He tries to always do what is right and has such a good head on his shoulders. He has always had a strong natural talent for sports. It is amazing! ANY kind of sport. Going to his coach pitch games a couple years ago was the start of the official team sports. And last year he was finally old enough for Little League! Jared and I got to go to his games as cheerleaders, and his other dad was the coach. He got the best of both worlds! We love supporting him in anything that he loves to do. Dad and Riley get in LOTS of practice in the backyard during the summers and they are VERY patient with mom as they try to teach me how to throw a football, how to throw a baseball, how to kick a soccer ball, and how to bat lol. I have to say proudly that I have finally learned how to throw a football and kick a soccer ball, but for some unknown reason, throwing a baseball in a straight line is physically impossible for me to do lol.  

Riley loves hanging out with friends but it has always warmed our hearts that more than anything he loves it when we do things together as a family. No matter what he is doing, he would always rather do it with Jared or I. We are so proud of him. He absolutely adores his new little brother and sets the perfect example. Our family just wouldn’t be the same without him. xo