Since Christmas

As mentioned before, we are moving. Scott accepted a job in Niceville, FL and should start sometime later this month. On Tuesday, we traveled down to Crestview, FL (a little north of Niceville) to look for places to live. It was a long drive - a little over 3 1/2 hours. Riley did pretty well on the way down. We arrived with a list of places to look at, places that looked and sounded pretty good online. We were soon disappointed. Things were so very different than they appeared. Thankfully, one lady helped us find a great place and helped us negotiate the rent price with the owner. The place we are moving is under two years old, never been lived in and is so awesome. We're really excited about that. Most of the town is kind of "sad," but it's growing extremely fast and is expected to continue with such fast growth over the next three years as more people are stationed at nearby Eglin Air Force base. I've already searched and found there is a MOPS group in town and a couple in Niceville too. Also, there's a Starbucks, so it can't be that bad, right?! After finding this place after a long afternoon, we ate dinner (breakfast style) at the town's Cracker Barrel then hit the road to come home. Riley did pretty well once he fell asleep.

Riley snored pretty loudly that night at home and woke up the next morning with a runny nose and sneezing. Soon he was coughing and his nasal mucus was getting darker and darker. Also, his temperature was slowly rising. He was just under 100 degrees at 4:00 pm, so we gave him some Tylenol. He was also pretty fussy that day and wanting to be held constantly. That night, he woke at 11:00 and was burning up. His rectal temp was reading 103.3, 103.4 and 103.5. I called the Pediatric Clinic who sent us to the ER so that he could be checked out for RSV. I had given him more Tylenol at 11, so his temp had started to go down by the time we reached the hospital. Riley got checked out - chest X-ray and everything. He was sooooo good. Thankfully, his lungs looked good. The doctor said it looks like he has a coxsackievirus. It was interesting bringing in 2009 in the ER. There was a lady screaming and yelling about her arm. I heard the doctor tell a nurse she had an open fracture. Ouch!! Scott heard that someone had a gun shot wound to the arm, and I saw a lady who looked like she'd been a pretty bad car accident. We didn't particularly like driving to the ER and home on New Year's Eve. This is the first time I've been awake at the turn of the year for about six years. Crazy night!

Since then, Riley hasn't been feeling too well. We're pretty much getting covered in snot and drool. Scott seems to have gotten it and is feeling really bad. It's bad that he's feeling so sick, but it has kind of helped us to know what things might be bothering Riley. Last night was rough. Riley couldn't breathe well and was waking up often. He was pretty inconsolable. When he would finally fall back to sleep, I'd lay him down and he'd wake right up not being able to breathe. I thought I was going to have to sit up all night holding him in the one position he would sleep in. Thankfully, he finally allowed me to lay down with him. We're hoping he gets better soon (and Scott), since we need to get packing. I'm also hoping he will get better soon so that we can see our mommy/baby friends before we leave town.

Here are some pictures taken before Christmas (obviously, on a warmer day). The most common comment we get about Riley from random people is, "He's gonna be a football player." Once again we heard that at the hospital from a guy who was with his grandmother in the same room as us. The nurse also kept talking about his thick legs.

"Reading" one of his favorite books - he can't be trusted unsupervised with these pages!

or these...