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Last night when I arrived home Riles was in a stellar mood. Court had been watching him play on the floor by himself for some time. As the night progressed we noticed that he was being quite pleasant all night. During dinner he sat politely and ate. We happened to notice while he ate his eyes were half closed. Riles isn’t typically a tired child, he’s on the go all day long.

We started running the stats and something wasn’t adding up. He was focused and played alone, he ate without incident and appeared tired. Court gave him the ol’ Back-0f-the-hand thermometer test (much more pleasant than the official rear-end check). We debated for awhile whether he was warm or not. But by 7pm it was quite evident that he was running a temp. He was quite tired and ready for bed. There wasn’t much we could do except give him some ibuprofen and put him down for bed.

When we started this whole parenting thing I was quite afraid of knowing when was the right time to do something with Riles. How was I to know when he’s hungry? tired? sick? If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that I will never know when any of those things happen.

Over time I think we’ve learned that our best guess is probably good enough. There’s no point with struggling to get an exact temp when the forehead test will suffice.

With the rapidly changing weather patterns here in MN my allergies have been acting up. It’s never on those dreary rainy days either. It’s always on the hot and humid days that follow. For the last week I’ve been fighting a cold of as well as our diseased caring child brings home more germs than Mr. Clean can kill off. Yesterday I had to admit that I needed to see the doctor. Last time I waited for my allergies to magically fix themselves I ended up with a sinus infection. That was 5 weeks of hell that I care not to replicate.

The doc told me that luckily I did not have a brain tumor or a sinus infection. While good news, it wasn’t about to solve the 5 day headache I had. Nothing could get rid of the headache. I tried caffeine, ibuprofen, sinus medication, etc…None of them even put a dent in the pain. The doc prescribed me some Flonase and sent me on my way.

Unfortunately the Flonase isn’t a miracle drug. I shoot it up my nose for 10 days. I should see relief in about 4-5 days. But the worst and most ironic part of Flonase is it’s smell. It’s a nasal spray so it goes to work immediately upon “shooting”. It smells like flowers, the very element that sets off my allergies. Now I’m no rocket scientist, but I can tell you one thing that I think I’m having phantom sinus drainage just from the fabricated flower scent. It’s either that or I’m allergic to the smell of an allergy medicine.

Riley has been sick for the last 4 weeks. Court decided last week that enough was enough and hauled him into the doctor’s. He’s been in to see the doc 4 times in the last week alone. Good news is, he’s finally on the road to recovery.I believe his sickness was holding him back from progressing. For awhile Riles planed out on new features. Usually he was doing a new thing weekly. But while sick, he just sort of maintained. This week though we got more than we bargained for.

Let me run down the new features (They’re biggies too):

1. He started holding his own bottle. I didn’t know kids actually did this. It’s sort of odd though because the bottle is so disproportionate to him. I liken it to me drinking a 64oz beer. It just doesn’t look right.

2. He started falling asleep in our arms. He’s been a bear to deal with, quite high maintenance when it comes to sleep. But this week he started settling in when you hold him. He’ll actually check out if comfy enough. Makes our life much easier.

3. He started rolling over! I have been waiting for this one for a long time. I’m very excited about him moving around.

Here’s Riles immediately after the “big move”:

Followed quickly by frustration of actually being on his stomach:

So, I’m a very proud dad this week. It’s amazing to watch this child grow up.

After a week from hell, Riles is on the upswing. By Friday his condition had worsened to the point that the doctor put him on a nebulizer. I didn’t realize it at that time, but kids that go on nebulizers typically have asthma, something struggled with for a good portion of my childhood. At least I know what to expect if he does end up having it.

To add to the hectic home situation, I was working 14 hour days through the entire week and weekend. By all graces Courtney should have shot me. I was little to no help on the home front. But by Friday I had had enough of work and just had to tell them to cool out while I tended to the Commander.

He’s back at it today, now spending his 3rd full day back a daycare. We’re hoping it will help with his sleeping patterns. Right now he’s getting up twice a night, once at 12:30am and again at 4:30am. The 4:30am is just a killer. By the time he’s fed and put back to sleep it’s time for me to get up and get ready for work. So in essence I’m now getting up at 4:30am to go to work.

Chad and Tina joined us for a little impromptu Superbowl party Sunday night. On a whim we invited them over so we didn’t have to watch the game by ourselves. I made the world’s worst Pigs in a Blanket. I wasn’t careful enough with the biscuits. Before I knew it, the pigs were blowing out the blankets and escaping out the end.

Life has been pretty low key lately. We’ve managed to keep all the dogs warm despite the cold weather. Riles is doing well. Court and I are just getting into the swing of being parents. Weird.

Riles attended daycare for the first time last week. He was only there for two days but it was long enough for him to catch a nasty cold. On Saturday he started showing signs of the oncoming sickness. He slept most of the day and looked miserable. It was only a prediction of what was to come.

By Monday Riley was in terrible condition. Courtney had taken him to urgent care Sunday night where they told her it was a virus and Riles would have to tough it out. That didn’t really help much on Monday as he ran a fever and sneezed out of his tear ducts (a sight I didn’t believe until I saw it). Courtney spent most of the night up with him.
Tuesday was my turn at the sick kid. I had worked some very long hours over the weekend and had just finished the project so I volunteered to take the kid on. He was in better shape on Tuesday, the fever had subsided, but he still had snot coming out everywhere. He spent most of the day sleeping. When he was awake he was crabby and refused to eat. By evening he was ornery and still refused to eat. Once again, we were up a good portion of the night with him.

Wednesday is Nana Angerer’s turn. Hopefully she can work her nursing skills on the boy. We’re starting to feel a little helpless and stressed about it. Regardless of what we do Riley will scream. We can’t tell if he’s hungry, tired, uncomfortable, or just pissed.

As I left this morning both Courtney and I were coughing and sneezing. My money’s on us spending a significant amount of time on the couch this weekend.

Apparently the sniffle season moved into Minnesota this past weekend. I’ve been surrounded this morning by people unable to properly use a tissue and administer nasal decongestant. I never thought the sound of a slow, drawn-out, inhale could drive me so crazy. I’ll bring in my bottle of Allegra tomorrow and hand out some free samples.

Sinus….pressure….crushing…..face….pain….too much to bear..

No Peace, Los Angeles
If you have no idea where this quote is from then you better find Track 3 of M. Doughty’s solo album and get a clue.

Well, my ban of instant messengers didn’t last long. You can still catch me “around” I suppose. Life in general is going okay. I have food, clean clothes, and the Toy Story DVDs so my life is good for another 3 days.

Random Thought: Punk covers rock. You cannot go wrong with a punk rawk! band covering any song.