Riley and Avery

Ah, Halloween pictures at last! Riley still hasn't eaten any of her Halloween candy yet.

Yesterday I dropped Riley off at school and went to a La Leche League meeting with Avery. It was a lot of fun. They were having a party of sorts for LLL's 50th anniversary. The leader at our group has been a leader for 24 years, which means she's really knowledgable about breastfeeding, but not so much other things. Which may explain why she recommended giving a baby meat at 6 months of age. Eeek. One 10 month old boy there stood up in the middle of the circle and took his first steps and his mother started crying and then everyone else started crying. Weird. But really, it was a lot of fun. They had goodie bags with cards that state our breastfeeding rights, so if we're in public an encounter a problem, we can whip out the card. And two free samples of Lansinoh, which is a score because I need Lansinoh to lanolize the wool pants I'm knitting for Avery and can't find my tube (I think I threw it away during the move). And some other stuff too.


Rudi had to pick Riley up from school, and he got there on time, took Riley out to eat, and took her to Walmart and bought her a coloring book. They have fun together when it's just the two of them, but when you add Rudi to our normal threesome it totally messes up the family dynamic. He only spends a minute or two with Riley everyday and he's like a dictator, she must obey immediately. Of course she's not going to take him seriously if he's not active in her life. For instance, we were leaving Barnes and Noble last night and Riley was saying that she wanted her chocolate milk, which Rudi always throws away before leaving so that she doesn't spill it in his car. I thought that he should address the issue since he's the one that always throws it out. She kept asking for it, and Rudi yells at her to be quiet. I tell him that he should respond to her question instead of telling her to be quiet, and he says "what does she want?" AAAGH! She wants her freakin' chocolate milk! And he's like, "well, what do you want me to do, she always wants something." Because you never address her needs, she has to repeat herself over and over, hence the whinning, and so forth. ARGH! Then Rudi tells her that her chocolate milk was gone (lie), so he had to throw it away. Riley protests that there was "plenty left in there" (truth) and Rudi tells her to drop it or she goes in time out. What a joke! Double argh.

When I picked Riley up from school on Tuesday, I was talking to one of her teachers. She said that Riley has adjusted so well to the classroom, while the other three-year-olds are still making adjustments and getting used to the routine and the rules, while Riley took to it right away. It's nice to know that Riley is capable of being a sweet little angel somewhere at least. And that she's learning. Still no word on when her class pictures will be in. I really hope I'll have them before I come to Maryland.