Merry Christmas Eve - Eve

I must hurry... I don't have long. It will only be a few minutes I'm sure before Riley will tire of his "hop in the van" with Joel and Nonna and Papa and want to come back home! But seriously, that is how it feels - how much time do I have to sit here, take a breath and post on our blog?? Obviously, it hasn't been much lately. So where should I start? How about with our new nanny?! She is great! Tiffany has spent several days with Riley and I over the past two weeks and will spend all of next week with us so she will be ready to go solo on January 4. She is a trooper. It doesn't matter if it is poop or puke, she is ready! The one thing Riley is doing that does bother her (and everyone else with ears) is grind his teeth. It is the most horrible sound, unless you can convince yourself that it is the sound of someone rocking in a rocking chair and keep this image in your mind for pretty much the whole day, then it is not so bad. And Tiffany came up with that one, and she is right. If you didn't know it was Riley grinding away on his teeth, you might think you are on the porch at Cracker Barrel.

Riley is getting use to Tiffany and has started calling her "hey girl". That's a start. At least he is aware there is someone here with him other than me. Yesterday, Tiffany got to see the incredibly happy Riley. She rode with me and Riley to the airport to pick up Nonna and Papa. Nonna sat in the back seat beside Riley and he immediately realized she was there. He kept kissing her hand and said, "I'm giving you kisses." He was so happy. Papa was in the front seat with me and Riley didn't seem to notice he was there. That is until we got home. Riley was sitting in his chair and Papa sat down close by. Riley's eyes lit up and he said, "Papa, you're here! Did you come to see me? You are right here!" It was absolutely precious. Overall, yesterday was a good day. We were looking forward to the night somewhat as well. Riley began a new medication to help him sleep. We were all looking forward to a good night's sleep, but that was not to happen, at least not for me and Riley. We gave him the medicine and were amazed at how fast he was asleep. We put him to bed, but he still had 9pm meds to get through his tube. Unfortunately, when Joel went in to give him the meds, he woke up and wanted to eat. Since Joel had to get up for work today, I was officially on duty. He ate various things until about 12:30am and finally went to sleep. I followed shortly after, but he was up again around 3am. We were up until around 6am or so, or at least that was the last time I remember it being before I asked Joel if he could go in and check on him. He finally went to sleep again and unfortunately, I woke him up when I went in to give him 8am/9am meds at almost 10am. He got a nap today, but unfortunately, I was not so lucky. Although a nap would have been nice, I enjoyed baking banana bread and making other holiday goodies. I think I am finally in the spirit!

We hope everyone has a blessed Holiday. We couldn't be more happy to be home and together.