Riley is a hard charger at every thing he does. One day he helped me fill up the bird feeders. While Grandpa was building the well house he was right there with his little tools working side by side with him. There was a lot of grass that needed raked up and hauled to the burn pile from today's mowing. You guessed it, Riley was right there with his rake helping Grandpa with that chore.
The other day he had played and worked pretty hard. After lunch he walked into the living room and laid down on the love seat to watch a little TV with Grandpa. He was awfully quiet and I thought I had better go check on him. There he was sound asleep. I thought I should get a picture of that since it doesn't happen very often.
We made today a play day and went to town so Riley could play at the park. They recently made a section of it into a skate board park and added ramps and rails. We went by Riley's house so he could get his skate board and helmet. We looked everywhere and couldn't find his helmet. A call to his mom didn't help us locate it, but we did find out that Oop's helmet was in the shed with her bike. I gave Riley the bad news that if he was going to skate board he had to wear his sister's helmet. Needless to say that didn't go over real well. He very quietly said, "Grandma do I have to wear that helmet...... Everyone is going to think I am a girl." Grandma's rule is if you skate board, you wear a helmet. If you ride your bike you need the helmet. There was no argument. He accepted his defeat and hopped out of the truck when we got to the park with skate board and helmet in hand.
I sat and watched this little 5 year old doing his skate board thing with other boys that were 9, 10 years old and teens. It struck me just how much self confidence he has. He wasn't intimidated by the older boys in the least. Even with his girly helmet on his head (take note here that he was the only one even wearing a helmet). He walked out there and claimed his space and went with the flow. It wasn't long before he found his way to the top of one of the larger ramps. Grandma got a little nervous about this time, but I stayed back and watched. Riley sat his skate board down and gave it a little push with his foot. Zoom..... His skate board went down the ramp while Riley stood there and watched. He then asked one of the bigger boys if he would bring his board back to him. I thought to myself....... "Sure Riley, like that is really going to happen. Those big boys aren't going to stand around and chaise your skate board for you." I no sooner thought that then one of the boys runs down the skate board and brings it back to him. It wasn't long after that we gathered up the "King Of The Ramp" and took him to Burger King for lunch. It was a good day.
Wishing you a blessed Friday.
