Visit from Gramps & Grandma Pokswinski

Riley's grandparents came the first weekend of October, and we all had a wonderful time. Riley was so excited to see them and was saying "Grandma" pretty much right away. The time went by way too quickly, but we so enjoyed their visit. Riley loves his Gramps and Grandma so much. He thought Grandma was just a reading machine, and he enjoyed giving her lots of kisses and cuddles. He was always interested in what his Gramps was up to, and wanted to play with his cellphone and computer mouse whenever he could get his hands on them. On Saturday, Bebe stopped by for a quick visit. We were in the back yard when she arrived, and Riley was glad when we went to the front and she pulled up.

On Saturday morning, we realized that Riley had a cold. He was pretty snotty but seemed to be in a good mood. That night, after he had been in bed for a few hours, we heard an extremely loud cough come from the bedroom. I went in to check on him and he was just "barking" and having trouble breathing and scared. It was really scary for me. I was so glad that Scott's parents were there with us. Grandma got the shower steam going in the bathroom while I held Riley on my lap. He was drooling a ton and struggling to breath. The steam did start to help really quickly, but he was still "barking." We ended up taking him to the ER. They gave him a breathing treatment there that really helped a ton. They also gave him two shots. That was hard to watch, since he had already been through so much. One of the shots, they called the "John Wayne shot." Just the other day, the hospital sent us a copy of what they sent to our insurance company. It is simply unbelievable how much they charge, and all that they charge for. Truly outrageous....(Glad we have health insurance!!) He recovered well from that, though he did get diarrhea from the medicine. That was frustrating, because he had just gotten over a long period of diarrhea right before this croup business. Oh well, he's all better now. No swine flu yet (and no vaccine available - seems to be the story everywhere), but lots of people we know here have it right now. Hopefully, he's one of those ones that had it already with no symptoms.

Riley's learning new words everyday. He doesn't say a lot of words totally right, but he's trying. I think there are some consonants he hasn't learned yet. He's trying to say "doorknob" lately. He learned "oven" yesterday and says it very well. One of his favorite words for some time now has been "Ri-la" for Riley (maybe I mentioned that before). Yesterday, Scott was talking about lions and imitating one. He asked Riley, "Are you a lion? Is Riley a lion?" Riley said, "Tiger!" He knows....he's already an Auburn fan! Grrrr!

The potty training really took a nose dive with the two bouts of diarrhea. I didn't want to press it then, but we are trying to pick back up now. Riley was AWESOME when he had diarrhea, especially the last time, in that every time he had a diarrhea (which was 10 times one day) or even a diaper with urine, he would come up to me and make the potty sign and "pssss" noise. That was great, because he got a terrible rash. Even though he hated changing his diaper because that rash really hurt, he still let me know right away. I was so grateful for that! Even though his rash was bad, it seemed to cause him serious pain only one day. The next day, it was there (not as bad), but didn't seem to bother him. Anyway, he's continued to tell me most of the time when he wets or dirties his diapers, especially when he's wearing cloth diapers. When we started back putting him on the potty some, he also started signing and making noises when his diaper was dry. We assumed he was letting us know that he had to potty, like he did a few times in the past. Great!! So, I would put him on the potty and read to him for like 20-30 minutes - but nothing. He did this to me several times and Scott too without any "results." Finally, he just started coming up to us, signing and making his pssss noise, sitting in our laps and handing us a book. Ahhhh!!! He just wanted us to read to him (even though we read a LOT all day). So, I'm working on teaching him a new sign for "read," so that we don't get the two mixed up. He's picking it up quickly.

When Riley makes his little "pssss" noise (really "sssss") for him, we've noticed that he makes it by putting his tongue behind his top teeth instead of his teeth together. When Scott's brother Troy was little, he had trouble with his S's, and "Sthcott" used to make fun of him....maybe it's coming back to bite him.

Last Thursday, we went to MOPS at our church. Riley loves going to the church. I told him as I unbuckled his carseat, "Riley, do you want to go to MOPS? We're at church." His face lit up and he looked at me and said, "GRANDMA!!!" So cute. I hated telling him, "No, we aren't seeing Grandma today. I wish you were. We'll see Grandma in a couple of months."