Opera Fever

Last week wiped me out. Chad worked LONG days all this past week and so Riley & I had to fend for ourselves. On Monday night we went to dinner with my parents, which was a nice start to the week. On Wednesday my parents picked Riley up from daycare and spent the evening with him, putting him to bed at our house that night so that I could go watch the final dress rehearsal of the first opera Chad was working on, Carmen. When I got home I had to straighten up the house for the housecleaner, who was coming the next day (Those of you who have a housecleaner, you know what I mean!) and I also had to take out the trash because trash day was the next day. I tried to do these things as quietly as I could, but before I could finish, I heard Riley cry out “Mama?” When I went to pick him up he was BURNING UP! I took his temperature and it was in the low 100s, so gave him Tylenol and put him back down. He ended up crying out again so I ended up sleeping in his bed with him for the rest of the night. Our power also went out that night for about 30 seconds before I fell asleep, so the clocks were off and I was so confused in the morning. Thankfully, at the time I should have been getting up, Chad came in Riley’s room where he took his temperature and it was still high so I knew then and there that I was staying home with him. At about 9am his fever was 102.7 and I knew that with our schedule I couldn’t wait and see to find out what was wrong, so I called Riley’s doctor and made him an appointment for noon. At the doctor they ended up taking blood to rule out a bacterial infection and Riley’s white blood cell count came back normal, so we were dealing with a viral infection, which meant no antibiotics, just Tylenol and time. Thankfully my Dad offered to work from home on Friday and watch Riley so I could get back to work.

On Thursday night, even though I had a sick kid, I had made an appointment that I did not want to cancel. Chad and I have been talking about getting a puppy for Riley and on Wednesday I found that puppy online. Her name is Princess and she is an almost 4 month old spaniel/Labrador mix and she is currently in a foster home through a rescue organization, Paws and Claws Rescue. When I found out she was still available I didn’t want to chance losing her at the Petsmart adoption she would be taken to on Saturday so I asked if I could see her at any other time before then. They said I could come out the next day and so we set a time…this was all before Riley got sick….So we went to the foster home to visit her and brought my dad and she is a cutie!!! The foster mom was kind enough to agree to let us hold off on actually taking her home and adopting her until Chad is done with the opera festival and so on May 10 we will be welcoming our new addition to the family. Here are pictures!

Just before bathtime on Thursday night, after going to see the puppy, my parents were at my house eating a quick dinner with us and Riley requested to watch, you guessed it, The Wiggles. He asks to watch it multiple times a day. I think the most episodes I have watched in a day is 6!!! Anyway, he has also gotten to the point where he tells you “No” and shows that he wants you to fast forward until you get to the song he wants…..and sometimes that song is not on the episode you are watching. This happened about a week ago regarding “Turkey In The Straw.” At that point I thought to grab my laptop and find the video on my computer and have been scouring the episodes each day on TiVo to see if that video was on and if so to save that episode to the TiVo indefinitely. Well, my mom wanted to see the song on Thursday night and so we turned it on and Nana started dancing to it and Riley soon joined in:

Now whenever we watch this episode, Riley dances like the Turkey and makes the Turkey sound.

On Friday night I spent the evening with Chad at the opera again, this time watching the final dress of Cinderella. I really enjoyed this opera. It was funny and fast-paced and even though I didn’t recognize any of the music, like I did with Carmen, I really enjoyed it. Before the opera I took Chad to dinner for our anniversary at Ruth’s Chris, where we ate some really yummy steak off of 500° plates! Riley spent the night at my parents’ house that night and they brought him home the next morning as they had some meetings to go to. When they dropped him off they informed us that Riley had started saying “Bless You” after you sneezed and we were able to test that soon thereafter when one of us sneezed and he did in fact bless us! Smart boy! Chad left around noon for work and I put Riley down for a nap. After his nap I decided to take him to Prairie Fest, which is a local festival that happens right in our neighborhood. Here’s a pic of Riley in his stroller just before we headed out from the car to go to the festival. (the hat lasted about 5 more seconds after this photo was taken)

We didn’t last very long at Prairie Fest either as it was REALLY hot and humid, so I loaded Riley up, much to his disappointment and we went to run errands. One of the errands was to the bookstore to pick up some CDs of children’s music to listen to in my car. I of course got one that had ‘Wheels On the Bus’ on it and I also got one of The Backyardigans, which I have found myself singing to when I am not in my car. (eek!) I was in a hurry to leave the store as Riley needed a poopy diaper change and I totally forgot to look for a Wiggles CD. So now I am going to go back and return one of the CDs I got and try and get a Wiggles one instead.

Riley also showed me this weekend that he knows how to get on and off his bicycle. I snapped this picture of him when he showed me. You will notice that his feet are not on the pedals as he prefers to push himself around with his feet on the floor:

Of course, he had to prove me wrong and the second after I snapped the above picture he put his feet on the pedals, just to show me how much I knew! So I took another picture!

On Saturday night Riley thankfully had a fever for the last time so he seems to be over the worst of it! Sunday was our usual day of laundry, lunch with Grammy, napping and grocery shopping. We were very excited to have dinner at home Sunday night with Chad as we have been eating out a lot since the opera started. I am excited to get back to trying out new recipes again once life gets less hectic.