Adios adenoids!

The day has come and gone that we were all counting down till - the day that Riley said sayonara to his adenoids.  I know that we were all looking forward to the procedure for many reasons, but mainly so that Riley will feel better and that we could get the day out of the way.

Overall, everything went pretty smoothly.  We were afraid that it would be a tough morning with Riley not being able to have breakfast or lunch, but we brought him to the hospital and he was in great spirits and just wanted to play!  There were so many toys that he hadn't seen since his ear tubes in October, that he got to check everything out all over again.

It was easy for us to mentally prepare for the day because nothing was really too new for us.  We knew the drill and what rooms we would be going to, so the question of the unknown wasn't really an issue.  When it was time to go into the OR, I donned the gauze jumpsuit that I had missed so much, and carried Riley back into the same operating room as a few months ago.  They let me stay a little longer this time, so I was there as Riley was sedated and got to kiss him goodnight before his operation nap.

This procedure took a little longer than the last one but pretty soon, the ENT was there telling is how smoothly everything went and that he was very happy with everything.  He said that the adenoid was completely blocking the nasal passages and that it was 100% the right decision to go through with the procedure.  We got to go back to see Riley and mad it just in time as he was waking up from the second dose of anesthesia.  He was woozy and sleepy but happy to see us and ready to drink some juice!

And drink he did!  That bottle was his best friend for the next 24 hours.  We kept filling it up and he kept downing it - something that made the nurses very happy!  We went up to our room where we would stay overnight and settled in.  There was another family staying the night too, who's son had the same procedure as Riley and was the same age.  

So we spent the evening drinking, eating, taking laps around the infant floor and timing out medicine doses.  We knew that bedtime wouldn't be so great because we weren't just trying to get one baby to sleep in the room, but tried to time it out so that both boys would fall asleep at the same time, in a hospital room, not feeling 100%.  Needless to say, it took a while, but by 9pm, the room was quiet.  Until 3am...

That's when Riley thought it was time to play!  So we took some more laps, drank some milk, sang some songs, watched some movies, read some books, played with some toys, and tried everything we could, until finally, Chris got him to go back to sleep at 5am.  

So the night at the hospital wasn't great, but the fantastic news is that Riley seems to be feeling well, he is eating his favorites and will be going back to school in the morning.  

As for me, I am going to sleep in my own bed and looking forward to no nurse check-ins!

Bounce house

This weekend, the JCC had a birthday bash that we all attended.  There were cupcakes, games, and a balloon artist that made Riley a balloon AND an elephant!  We had a fun time walking around and playing in the gym - and then we found the bounce house!

There were a couple of crazy kids jumping around so we decided to wait our turn until the very end of the party and then took over and had the bounce house to ourselves!

BiBi even joined in the fun and we all had a great time jumping around, chasing balloons and testing out the new experience!  At times, Riley tried to escape, but lucky for us, there were nets.

Since we were the last ones out, when we were putting on our shoes, they started deflating the bounce house.  Riley looked over and saw the house collapsing on itself and all he had to say was "uh oh"!  

Play date

This past weekend, Riley had his first play date with his friend from school, Hunter, who is 10 months old.  We were invited over to play and we were all excited to see what would happen.  We weren't sure if the boys would play with each other or just play with toys in the same room, but despite the 6 month age difference, they played really well together.  

They each had some exploring to do with new toys and Riley claimed some of Hunter's toys as his new favorites.  They played together with the toy house and threw a ball to (at) each other, but their favorite place to play together was in the dogs bed.

Riley walked over to the dog bed and hopped right in.  Hunter crawled over and decided to join the party.  So here are the two boys, wrestling around in the dog bed, and having the best time ever.  Then, Riley decided to climb on top of Hunter and try to ride him...  

We may have to work on appropriate play date behavior but we had such a great time playing together and look forward to many more play dates in the future!

Here comes trouble

Well, today is the day that Riley had his first Time-Out.  I came to school to pick him up and when I didn't see him in the play area, I asked if he was napping.  The teachers told me that he was in his crib but not sleeping - he was having some alone time... aka Time-Out.  Turns out, he was not very nice a few times today.

He threw his cup so hard that the plastic cracked and he was going around smacking a few of the kids.  Riley is the oldest kid in the class now so I guess he is trying to show those babies who's boss.  Maybe it's time to move him up to the next class so he's not the big man on campus anymore.

This is obviously something that we are going to have to keep an eye on, but in the meantime, keep your eyes open and stay on your toes, cause this kid comes swingin'.

Fort Riley

This evening before bath time, we found a secret clubhouse right in the middle of our living room!  The boys scouted it out and found that they can both fit in there perfectly together.  Problem is, there was no room for Mommy!  Every time I would go in, Riley would jump out and then Addison would run around licking one face after another.

BiBi and Zee had a great fort set up in their dining room last weekend from the new crib box and everyone had a tun playing in it.

I have a feeling there will be a slew of forts in our future!

Sweet 16

Today marks Riley's 16 month birthday.  No, we didn't get him a car, but we did let him watch a movie during dinner!  And to celebrate occasion, we had a dance party!

Riley has an ever growing vocabulary and source of energy and it's always fun to talk to him to see what he is going to say and figure out the new things he is learning.  Here is a list of things he can say:

1. hi
2. bye bye
3. daddy
4. kitty
5. uh-oh
6. up
7. down
8. juice
9. socks
10. shoes
11. he can hiss like a snake
12. he can moo like a cow
13. truck
14. choo choo
15. he can make tractor noises
16. beep beep
17. stars
18. it's cool
19. baby
20. bath
21. addison
22. aunt stacey
23. pee pee
24. diaper
25. thank you
26. please
27. yes
28. turtle
29. he can roar like a lion/bear/dinosaur
30. bottle

What is he not saying?

1. mommy

I have faith that it will happen one day soon!

Afternoon at the museum

Today was cold, rainy and gross, so we picked an inside activity and headed to the museum.  Riley had been to the History Museum with BiBi and Zee, but we hadn't gone with him yet.  We walked through the front doors and we were off on a tour of Riley's favorite rooms.

We started out in the gem exhibit.  There were brightly colored rocks, buttons to push and walls of gems to run up to.  Riley picked out his favorites and asked if we could take some of them home.  Luckily, he got distracted by the next exhibit and forgot about his pending personal rock collection.

Next up were the dinosaurs.  There were big ones and little ones, bones you could touch, models up the the ceiling and so many animals to say hi to.  Riley kept looking up at the dinosaur displays and saying "ooooohh" - so much so that people were waiting for his reaction because its just so cute!

There is an area where you can play with toy dinosaurs and Riley and Chris had a great time at that station.  By the end, there was a trail of dinosaurs on the ground and Riley was ready to make his way to the next room.

The museum is very kid friendly and has a whole section set up where you can dig for fossils and play with bones.  Their only rule is that you have to wear safety goggles at all times to protect you from flying dust.  Riley really wanted to dig and play but had no interest in wearing his goggles.  We tried to explain that if he wanted to play, he had to wear the glasses, but he didn't quite get the correlation.  Needless to say, that was the exhibit that we had to carry him out of, crying and making a scene.

But all was forgiven when we went to the Hall of Animals.  We saw lions and tigers and bears, oh my!  Riley would go up to the windows and say hi, then move to the next window and point out the animals he knows.  Lots of the animals were either kitties or horses (because those are the animals that he knows best) but he had a great time looking around.

We only spent about an hour and a half at the museum but because of our new gift membership, we don't feel bad about missing some of the exhibits.  It just gives us something to look forward to on our next visit!