Tonight was so weird!

***Warning this will be boring- but I think his grandmothers and aunts will find it interesting. 

It was almost storybook like.  Maybe Riley was just particularly happy or maybe Michael and I have not been giving him enough credit.  Anyway it was just a dream of an evening.  When Michael and Riley walked in the door (riley carrying his lunch box) I wanted to avoid the begging for Thomas the Train scenario that takes place everytime we enter the living room, so I had Michael bring him into the kitchen.  He immediatly got frustrated and knew what we were up to.  Michael put the baby gate up so Riley could not get back in the living room.  He stood by the gate and protested.  I repeatedly told him we were not going to watch Thomas and he repeatedly let me know what he thought about that.  Finally I said, "Riley do you want to go outside with Daddy instead?"  He immediatly calmed stood and looked at me and contemplated his options, and turned to follow Michael out the back kitchen door.  Outside he was thrilled with his freedom and grinned from ear to ear, at first I do not think he knew which way to go.  I was sitting on the swing and asked if he wanted to and he gave a happy sigh and b-lined it to join me.  Then we went on a cat hunt- Velma was not as good of a participant as Roxy normally is.  Then eventually I said, "Riley, do you want to eat dinner?"  He ditched the cat and followed me to the fence. I said, "Tell Daddy bye bye" and he turned and waived.  Then with the observation that Daddy was not coming to he looked back at me worried and back at Michael.  I said Daddy is coming in in a few minutes, and Michael said he would be in soon and he joined me at the gate.  He walked up the stairs into the house and we went to the high chair.  He ate a fantastic dinner of brown rice, carrots, brocolli, and black eyed peas, and even used the spoon to feed himself a couple of times, as well as his fingers!  This was a huge feet, for the most part he would just rather sit there and be fed by me.  But tonight I saw some independance.  He got upset half way through the meal and wanted out of the high chair, but this time I waited him out and said over and over "you cannot get down until you finish dinner", and he finally turned around sat back down and ate.  Eventually he seemed to be finished and I said, "Riley, do you mean to say, 'no more'?"  And he shook his head and said, "no more".  I asked him if he wanted out of the chair and he nodded.  Next I told him he needed to get out of his dirty clothes and he put his hands up in the air so I could take his shirt off.  And this morning I was putting his shoes on and he said "mm-mmm" and shook his head no, and then I picked up the pair with the giraffes on them and he grinned. 

When did my baby learn how to communicate???  It is like it happened over night.  How bad have Michael and I been not to ask him more questions.  He is constantly doing more...I am just amazed!