A Week Of Firsts

This past week has been a huge week of firsts for Riley.  Typically when you say these words, you are talking about a baby, but this time I am talking about my five year old.  Sadly I don't have a lot of pictures to show, just little stories.     It all started Friday night when Riley starts whining at the dinner table that his tooth was loose.  Riley did not get his first tooth until he was 10 months old, so I did not expect a loose tooth until at least first grade.  Here I am trying to eat dinner, and listening to him whine.   I told him to come over and let me feel it.  It couldn't have moved more than a 1/16 of an inch.  Being the ever sympathetic mom, I told him to get over it and eat his dinner.  It would probably be a month before his tooth came out.  At this point I forgot about the tooth and moved on with life.

     Flash forward to Saturday afternoon and next event.  Riley's soccer game was at noon.  I was so proud of how he looked last week.  He had been focused and aggressive.  But Randy was out of town last weekend, so I was hoping for a repeat performance.  Not only did I get a repeat, but Riley also scored his first goal in 2 seasons.  One proud soccer mom!  Of course I did not have the camera!

   Sunday morning I taught PreK Sunday school.  After sunday school all the children in the church headed into the sanctuary with the palm branches and the younger children sang.  Riley was so excited to be in front of the whole church waving his palm branches.  After church we changed clothes in the car and headed out to Lone Star Park for the kids' first horse races.  It was opening weekend and Randy and I had not been out there since before we had kids.  Our Star Telegram Press Pass got us in free for the weekend, so we decided to go out there for a few races.  We got there a little early so we headed over to the kids park where the kids got to ride a pony. 

We had hoped to see Sponge Bob but the line was crazy long!  After the pony ride we showed the kids the jockeys and race horses up close.  Then it was time for the first race.  Riley was pretty interested, but Alex was beginning to show signs of needing a nap. We placed more bets and watched another race.  Then I decided the kids needed a treat, it was getting pretty hot.  So we headed inside for some ice cream.  While this was messy, it didn't do much for how tired Alex was getting.  After the 3rd race, we decided it was time to let Riley place his first gamble.  He picked horse #3 to show.  Horse #3 came in 3rd place.  Riley won $2.75.  He thought that was pretty cool.  Never mind that the original $2 was our money.  My child is now a gambler at the age of 5!  Another first!
   Monday morning was another first.  I was standing in the hall during my co-curr about 8:30 in the morning and out pops Riley, baby tooth in hand!  Did I mention he was beaming???  I had no idea it was even close to being that loose.  I think the kids in Mrs. Adams class were all having tooth pulling lessons because 3 children lost a tooth on Monday in Mrs. Adams class alone!  Anyway I ran upstairs to get my camera phone and went to meet Riley in the nurse's office.

The funny thing was my mom's reaction was "oh darn, he lost it at school."  She didn't realize that it is actually cooler to lose your tooth at school because you get to put your tooth in a tooth container that you can wear proudly all day and put your name on the tooth tree outside the nurse's office.   Monday night he put his tooth in his A&M tooth pillow (that has been stored in the closet since his first birthday).  The tooth fairy flew in that night and left a letter and $5.  I have heard that the tooth fairy pays more for the first tooth than the remaining teeth. 

Tuesday was a calm day and not any firsts.

Today was another day filled with firsts.  Riley had his Kindergarten field trip to the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History.  I took off work so that I could go as a chaperone. 

First bus ride and it the very back seat no less!

The kids had a great time.  We explored the exhibits for about an hour.  Of course they spent the most time outside with the water tables.  Never mind that it was 68 degrees and cloudy!  So cold!

After some play time we all met up to go see his first IMAX movie, BUGS.

 When the movie was over, we had time for a few more exhibits.  This time we checked out the dinosaurs area.  Here are my three sitting in a dinosaur footprint.

 Then we took advantage of the cooler weather, and dug in the dinosaur dig.  The kids had so much fun.  I could have stayed on that bench for hours.

 But the time came to head back to the bus and head home.  I knew the back row had gotten quiet...this is what I found.

Ahh!  What a great day!