Seeing Red . . .



Making his "silly face" while wearing his "snowsuit" pants

 So Riley is a pretty healthy kid.  The only sickness he has ever really suffered from is a small handful of colds.  They last longer than they would in an older kid or normal adult because he has not yet learned to blow his nose, so he has clogged-mucus-head for longer than most other people do.  (Any suggestions on how to teach a kid to blow their nose would be very helpful.)  He inevitably gets sick every time we go to Salt Lake.  I'm sure it is because when we are there he is exposed to LOTS more people than he is ever exposed to here in San Diego.  Everyone wants to kiss his pudgy cheeks and sweet little mouth, and, let's face it, he is a really lovey kid and likes to give kisses too!  This Christmas was no exception. This time he added a hacking cough to the routine.  Wonderful.  You know you have to be at least 4 years old to take any kind of real cough medicine, so little kids are left to suffer most of the time.  My sister, Ivy, gave me some cough medicine made mostly with honey and homeopathic ingredients that had worked really well for Anya.  The weird thing was that each time I gave it to Riley he would cough more.  I though that perhaps it was just thinning the mucus and it would help him get over the cold more quickly. 
This went on for a few days, until . . .
We were going to my mom's cousin's daughter's wedding reception.  (I know it sounds a little far removed, but we love these guys, and like I have said in early posts, we are really close to our families, no matter how distant.  Plus, everyone else would be there too, another family-reunion-type party, yeah!!)  We got all dressed up, like you do for receptions, gave Riley some medicine to help him feel a bit better, and headed out to Bountiful.  On the way there Riley was hacking away, but also jabbering happily from the backseat.  We went inside, congratulated the bride and groom, and made our way into the party.  The reception was at the groom's parent's house, which had a basketball court in the basement.  That is where the tables and food were set up.  In the middle of the room there was a big, tiered, cupcake holder full of beautiful red velvet cupcakes.  I needed a sugar rush, so I grabbed one and we grabbed a seat at the table that my parents were sitting at.  Riley was sitting on my lap and eagerly eating any cupcake bites that I would give him.  However, almost immediately after the cupcake was finished he started coughing . . . a lot.  Then the coughs turned in to hacking and then he started throwing up . .  a lot!  He has never thrown up in his entire life!  He hardly ever spit up as a baby.  And remember, he had just eaten a good portion of red velvet cupcake, so of course, it is red.  Very red.  Gary said that he was really concerned when he first looked over, thinking that Riley had thrown up blood!  It got all over the little guy's pants and sweater vest and a little bit on his shirt collar.  I came away fairly unscathed, considering he was sitting on my lap, and only got a little on my skirt. 
Well, of course this would happen when I am completely unprepared!  I have no other clothes to change him into.  What a blessing that we weren't somewhere on our own, but surrounded by family who immediately rushed to our aid.  After cleaning up what we could at the table we gathered in the bathroom to see what we could do.  Of course, just like a little kid, he is jabbering away again, like nothing happened.  I'm sure he was feeling much better.  We ended up rinsing his pants and vest and putting them in a plastic bag to take home in the hopes of washing out all that red.  (It actually all came out, if you can believe it!)  We rinsed his shirt collar too and put is shirt back on him.  Luckily he is little, and cute, and has scrumptiously pudgy legs, so no one minded too much that he was now attending the reception in just his shirt, socks, and diaper.  We stayed and visited for another half and hour or so.  When it was time to head home we couldn't put him in that freezing cold car with his bare legs hanging out so we put his coat sleeves around his legs and zipped it up around his body as much as we could, and made sure he had his hat on tight around his ears.  In the picture it looks like he is wearing a snowsuit.