Thankful

In the rush of day to day life, I am guilty of not stopping and realizing how lucky I am. I have been so busy working on papers for grad school, cooking dinner, cleaning, laundry, reality TV, errands, and all of the other crazy stuff that goes along with life that it's hard to take a step back sometimes and just be thankful.


On a break from school work on Sunday, our trio went to my parents for a little break. Here are a few of my things on my Thankful List for the day.

A Hubby Who Cleans My Car

A New Haircut

Fajitas on the Grill

Helmets & Bike Rides

Dirty

Daddy, I Love You

Daddy, I love you
For all that you do.

I'll kiss you and hug you

'Cause you love me, too.

You feed me and need me

To teach you to play,

So smile 'cause I love you

On this Father's Day.

~ Author Unknown

A New Puppy!

Not really....

My mom gave Riley one of those old school Fisher Price puppies. You know the kind, with a string attached around it's neck and he moves his tail and legs and "barks" when you pull him along.

Well, Riley is obsessed. So much so, that she refuses to go anywhere without it. We went on a play date today and we had to "walk" the puppy to the neighbor's house --- so slowly, it was painful. He falls down quite a lot, Riley says, "uh oh," situates him again and we are on our way once more.

The first night we had "Puppy," Riley couldn't bear to go to bed without him. Mr. & Mrs. Safety (Mommy and Daddy) refused to let her take Puppy to bed because we were afraid she might strangle herself with the string. She then had, what we call a sit-in. She crouched in the corner, hovering over Puppy, grunting, with a death grip on him. It was all we could do to stifle our laughter. We (and by we, I mean Dan), finally wrangled Puppy out of her hands telling him he had to go night-night too.

We finally got her calmed down and ready for bed. In the morning, she woke up and went straight for Puppy's resting place on the chair. She will not let him take a rest. Sometimes, though, she is mean to Puppy because he keeps falling down and throws him and stomps away. That's when Mommy has to have an intervention about being nice to Puppy.

Here is a picture of Riley kissing Puppy. She really gets into it.

A Summer Day

This weekend was a chance for us to breathe a big sigh of relief after Riley's bout with the menacing virus. On Saturday, we spent the day with my parents swimming and eating yummy barbecue ribs. To finish up the weekend, on Sunday we enjoyed the day together as our little family of three.

Did I mention I hate summers in Florida? It has been so ungodly hot for June that it is just miserable outside. But, Riley insists on going "side" so we venture out for a few minutes at a time. We walked around in the yard for a bit and then convinced her to play on the back porch. Her little face turns beat red after a few minutes out in the heat. She is also very good about drinking water from her favorite cup to stay hydrated.

In other news, Riley's vocabulary is really expanding. It amazes us how we can say a word, and she repeats it with ease. Tonight while eating dinner, she kept saying "chicken" as she devoured it.

Two others things on the radar as of late: shoes and nudity

Riley has become obsessed with shoes. Mine, hers, Dan's, Mimi & Papa's...she doesn't care. She says, "shoes" and tries with all her might to get them on her feet, even when she already has a pair on.

When Riley had her fever, I let her just walk around in her diaper for the better part of the day. Since then, she has developed an aversion to clothes. She throws a royal fit when you try to put a shirt on her. Dan is worried :)

Answered Prayers

After a week's worth of worrying and protecting her from every bump and cut, we went back in to the doc today to get Riley's platelet count checked again.

Her numbers are on the rise!

She is still in the low "normal" range, but great strides up from 67!

Other than that, Riley has been fever and roseola free for a few days now. She has also came off the Brat diet as her tummy is finally starting to feel better. Doc said that her irritability is probably due to some leftover achy feelings from the virus and the molars that are irritating her gums.

Let the good times continue.

The Drama continues...

We saw the doc today. He suspects Riley has a stomach virus (put on BRAT diet), she is developing Roseola from the days of the high fever (red bumps all over) and her platelet count is very low.

We will work on keeping her fever down, giving her bland foods, and then we have to return to the doc on Fri to get her blood tested again to make sure her platelet count is going back up and it is hopefully just related to the virus. There is nothing he can do about the Roseola.

He also commented that if she could tell us, Riley would explain that she is miserably achy. Poor Baby! This will hopefully run it's course in about 7-10 days, so until then, we are quarantining ourselves as she is highly contagious!

Say a little prayer for our "baby doll" tonight as you fall asleep.

Riley's First ER Visit

Riley had another milestone this week...her first ER visit.

She had been battling a fever all day on Friday and no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to come down. Rounds of Tylenol, Motrin, and tepid baths did nothing to relieve our little sweetie.

My mom even came over to give me a hand. She was amazed by how blazing hot Riley was and that she wasn't eating, drinking, or trying to run around like usual.

Around 4pm, I put her down for a nap and decided to get rest myself. When she work up moaning at 6, her face was beat red, she was shaking and her body was on fire. I frantically took her temperature and it read 104.1. I quickly called the pediatrician's office and reached the answering service. Within two minutes, I received a call back from someone.

After explaining to the nurse that her fever was not dropping despite my efforts, she advised me to take Riley to the ER. With my fingers shaking (and holding a shaking baby) I dialed Dan's number. He was home within a few minutes and we were headed to Healthpark. I debated on taking her to the closer hospital, but I know that Healthpark is known for it's children's unit.

After about an hour and a half, we saw a doctor. I was surprised how fast we were able to see one. He explained that even if she had an ear infection or strep, he would not give her antibiotics because he didn't believe babies needed it. Um, okay. He also added that the times she did receive antibiotics for ear infections and strep, she probably didn't even have the infections. Sure she didn't.

He had the nurses insert a catheter to withdraw some urine because he was worried about a Urinary Tract Infection. This, he said, would be the only way she would receive an antibiotic. Thank you, kind sir.

While waiting for the test results, Riley showed some interest in the few snacks that I did remember to pack for her (but still not the drink). She inhaled the zucchini/carrot muffin and Gerber veggie sticks so fast she almost choked. At least she is hungry, we thought.

Finally, the test came back negative, relieved, but still wondering what was wrong with our baby? He explained at length about seizures associated with fevers, possible vomiting, and bloody stool...all which, "should not alarm us." Awesome.

Close to 10pm, our little family of three finally left the ER with very little questions answered. Riley held her blankie and sucked on her paci and fell asleep quickly after her little butt hit her car seat. We drove through the Chik-Fil-A drive thru and continued home.

We gave Riley another dose of Motrin and she quickly fell back asleep. Her sleep was erratic and was up often, and actually right on cue, to receive her additional doses.

Saturday we went to my parent's house and let her swim three different times to get her temperature down. She was still burning up all day despite our efforts....another bad night of sleep followed.

It is now Sunday night and her fever has finally subsided. I have to call the doc's office tomorrow morning to schedule a follow-up visit from our first ER trip.

It was an eventful weekend, none of which we are interested in repeating any time soon.

Riley's First Art Project

Riley was bored. I'm not sure if one year olds are supposed to get bored, but I really had the feeling she was...because I was too.

I busted out the construction paper and crayons ready for the artist's debut. After I carefully taped down the paper to her high chair tray, I strapped her in (because that is absolutely necessary because she is a wild woman) and we were ready to get the creative juices flowing.

Well, it didn't exactly work out like that.

I guess I was picturing a mini Picasso but Riley was more interested in laughing at her crayons and calling them "Dadda" than she was in actual coloring.

After I wrote her name and "13 months" on the paper and illustrated how to draw blocks of blue, red, green, and orange, I realized she really could have cared less. I had hoped that this little activity would have taken 15-30 minutes, but no chance with my little monkey. After a few minutes, Riley was ready to get down and move on to bigger and better things.

I am going to continue our afternoon crafting sessions. I'm thinking about play-doh tomorrow...