Cows are Scary!

Yesterday we took the kids to the state fair. They loved it! Except for the cows. Mason was purely terrified of the cows. The second we steered the stroller into the building where the cows were housed, Mason screamed and attempted to climb out of the stroller and up my leg. He then reached for his daddy and put a death grip on Damian's shirt which might have required pliers to break. We took pictures (link below), and you can see the distress on his face, poor baby!

Before we headed to the fair, we talked it up to Corey. We promised him cotton candy (a first time experience), cows, sheep, pigs, and prizes to bring home. As you might imagine, he was pretty excited to attend. The cows didn't impress him too much, even when they mooed right at him. The mooing intensified poor Mason's terror, as you might imagine, to the point where if Damian moos at him now, a day later, he'll run away and try to climb my leg. Damian finds this hilarious. Of course. He's not the one who is forced to be the tree in this cat-climbing-a-tree scenario.

After the cow experience, we struck out in search of cotton candy. Both kids were fascinated by it, but neither child seemed to actually like the taste of it much. We strolled through the pig area with our sticky fingers, and that was a success. There were piglets nursing as we walked in, lucky for us, and both boys loved seeing them.

We then strolled about looking at the various rides, and we found a big play area with a huge slide that Damian was able to take Corey through. That was a hit, although Mason was too short for that (and all the rides, in fact), so the poor kid had to stay behind with me. He was definitely jealous, so I felt alternately excited to watch my heart child having such a great time and guilty that my hh child was stuck in the stroller with a fistful of cold french fries.

Next we got suckered into paying for one of those little contest booths, but it was tailored for kids, and the guys actually loved it. There were little yellow boats floating in a shallow pond, and each child got to pick a boat and then choose a corresponding prize. Mason was most interested in the boats, and Corey was most interested in the prizes, but each child ended up coming home with a prize (little stuffed salamanders and butterflies), so we were able to check off one more item on the promised list.

Corey was fascinated by most of the rides, including the huge swings and the zipper. Of course he can't ride these, for obvious reasons, but he loved watching them. He about broke my heart, though, when we came home and he said, "When I'm 6, Mommy, then I can ride all those big rides." Oh! He kills me. Luckily, though, as we rounded the corner and passed the zipper, we discovered a whole section of rides specifically for little kids. Corey is now 38 inches tall, so he could ride them. We put him on a car ride and then an alligator ride, both of which he just loved. Again, there are pics up on the link.

Finally we ran Mason around a playground, since he couldn't ride the rides. Then we loaded the exhausted kids back into the stroller and headed for home. We knew it was a success when we later talked to Nanny, and Corey literally had his longest phone conversation ever. He couldn't stop telling her about the fair. "And then we did this, and then I got that, and then we saw this....!" Too cute. Here's the link to the pics:

State Fair Pictures

Dylan's Fontan

Another heart child is having the Fontan, a little boy named Dylan. I've been following Dylan's progress since we entered the world of heart children, so I'm pleased to say that it looks like the Fontan is a success!

Dylan had an intracardiac Fontan, whereas Corey's is expected to be extracardiac. Dylan has HLHS, but, as you all know, this is very similar to Corey's HRHS condition. As family and friends of Corey, I recommend reading Dylan's carepage (www.carepages.com, enter "dylansmith") and reviewing his Fontan experience thus far. His mother is concise in her entries, and it will give you all an excellent idea of what were are up against with Corey in the coming months.

On a secondary note, Corey has elephant ear again. Arrgh! Another mosquito bit him on the ear, and his ear is gargantuan in size as a result. It is causing him no end of annoyance, and he is getting up at night and asking to sit on my lap. This is a clear indication that he is really uncomfortable.

Today it looks a bit better, and I've been giving him Motrin/Tylenol to make him feel better. He's also less grouchy today, which is good, and he has more energy for play/a better appetite. All good signs!

Finally, Corey has decided to be The Cowardly Lion from "The Wizard of Oz" for Halloween, Mason will be The Scarecrow, and cousin Sydney will be Dorothy. This morning Corey asked me to be Glinda, The Good Witch of the North. I guess I should take it as a compliment that he didn't ask me to be The Wicked Witch of the West! Ha!

Sleeping/ Flipping the Bird/ Help with Cleaning

WARNING! Massive complaining contained in this post!

Today I've decided to use the blog to vent. I'm terribly frustrated with Mason. Since we've been home from the beach, which has been like 900 years - FOREVER - Mason has been up every single night, wailing for hours on end. This is not an exaggeration. Hours. On. End. I don't know when it will start. I don't know when it will stop. I only know that I've forgotten what it's like to get a good night's sleep, and THIS SUCKS!

Let me give you an example. One night he started at midnight. He cried. I changed his diaper, offered him a drink, patted his butt and made sure he was fine. The second I left his room, he started wailing until I came back in. We did this dance for two hours. Two hours. In the room, out of the room. In the room, out of the room. Each time I picked him up or hugged him, he stopped crying. Each time I left, he started crying. At 2 AM, I was exhausted, and I decided to let him cry it out.

That was a mistake. He wailed like a mad banshee for a straight hour, nonstop, and then he climbed out of his crib. I thought he'd given up, so I went to check, and there he was, running around the hall with his blankie! He nearly gave me a heart attack! He could have fallen down the stairs! So what did we do then? Well we started the dance all over again, and it went on until 4:30 AM. Guess what time Corey got up? 6:30 AM.

Every night since we've been doing various versions of the same. I called the pediatrician, who said that this is a result of the vacation. The massive change to his routine just did him in. After hearing this, Damian announced, "We are never spending the night away from home again!" I am inclined to agree. I am just so worn out, worn down and utterly exhausted that I don't know what to do. I dread the night - I just have no idea what he's going to do.

And while we're on the subject of things that irritate me, I got flipped off on the road the other day. What makes people so rude on the road? And just angry and mean? This is what happened. I was driving in the right lane on Route 32, and cars were merging into my lane from Route 295. I let 2 cars over, but I really couldn't let the third car in the queue in front of me - I had cars to my left, and cars behind me. Apparently the guy in that third car thought I was a jerk for not letting him over, however, because he flew around me from behind, shot me a dirty look and gave me the finger. What an SOB! Who gives the finger to a woman driving a minivan with two little kids in the car?

Since I had the kids in the car, I couldn't say out loud what I thought of him, either. I said something like, "Ooh! That guy....wasn't....very....NICE!" Which Corey of course followed up with, "What guy wasn't very nice, Mommy?" And then I had to try and explain that Mr. Impatience was driving too fast and being rude. All without the expletives that were burning through my brain and aching to escape my lips. Grrrr!

Finally, I'd like to talk about Mason's efforts to help me clean the bathroom. This is one of Mason's favorite activities. It goes something like this: I devote one hand to cleaning and the other to removing something dangerous or messy from Mason's hands. He grabs the toilet bowl scrubber - oh how he loves the toilet bowl scrubber - puts the toilet lid up, and starts splashing in the toilet. I take the scrubber away from him, and he starts using his hands to splash instead. I shut the lid and put my foot on it to prevent further splashing, and he grabs the toothpaste tube and puts it in his mouth. I take the toothpaste tube away and he grabs the electric toothbrush and turns it on - bzzzz bzzz bzzz!!!! Ooh! That sounds so good! I take away the toothbrush and he grabs the nose hair clippers (yes we own some) - again with the bzzz bzzz bzzz!!!! I take away the nose hair clippers and he starts banging the cabinet door - BANG BANG BANG!!!! Oh yes. Are we having fun yet?

At this point I'd like to quit and fix a drink, but since it's usually 10 AM, I can't.

I'll leave you with a cute Corey quote. Corey has a little toy cell phone that you can record messages on (thank you Sonja & Jeb!), which he loves. His new favorite thing to do with this phone is to announce, "I'm going to call you, Mommy!" He then presses record, says, "I love you Mommy!" into the phone, and plays the message back to me. This melts my heart, of course. Well, the other day, after doing this several times, he came over to me, and in all seriousness, he said to me, "Mommy, I can't actually use my phone to call you. It's not an electrical phone, it's a magical phone." I suppressed a grin and nodded my agreement.

Our trip to Cape Hatteras

Last week we packed up the minivan with enough stuff to feed and clothe a small town and headed off to Cape Hatteras, NC for a week at the beach. To break up the trip, we stopped off in Williamsburg, VA for a night. Damian and I have fond memories of Williamsburg, as we've stayed there in a romantic bed and breakfast several times. Past trips have included tours of the winery, fine dining, and strolls through historic Williamsburg.

This trip was noticeably less romantic, including trips to the pool and a miniature golf course featuring a giant pirate. I also vaguely recall a fountain and a struggle to keep Mason from pulling it down on his chubby head, but I'm working hard to forget that incident. I must say, though, that the boys loved the mini golf. Corey was excited about trying all the different holes, and both boys were fascinated by the fountains, waterfalls, sunken boats, and various other pirate decorations throughout the course. We took some pictures, and the link is below.

So, we headed off to Hatteras from Williamsburg early the next morning. After about 20 minutes, Corey started alternating between the following two phrases, "When are we going to be there?" and "I have to go pee on the potty!" I briefly considered keeping a tally of the number of times these phrases were repeated, but then I decided that my brain might explode if I tried. I aborted that mission and instead asked Damian to plug in the portable DVD player, which I think is the sole reason we remained sane throughout the remainder of the trip.

Many moons later, we arrived on the cape and walked through the doors of our awesome vacation house, which was called Grand Slam. It's a massive seven bedroom house, complete with a pool, hot tub, theater room, pool table/game room, and fabulous view of the sound. It was so big that it even featured an elevator. The place was certainly gorgeous. And packed with people - every bedroom was filled, and every bed was accounted for. We even added a few Pac N' Plays for the babies.

We spent our days on the beach, in the pool, or on the floor playing with the kids. And eating. Did I mention the eating? Oh yes. Lasagna, steak, homemade pizzas, Emeril's mac n' chesse - you name it, we ate it. And drank it. Each couple was in charge of dinner one night, and everyone took their night seriously. So seriously, in fact, that when we came home and Damian hopped back on the Wii Fit, it chastised him for gaining 6 pounds. There's nothing quite like being put in your place by your video game system!

The kids certainly seemed to enjoy themselves. Corey's favorite feature of the house was the elevator, and he spent a lot of time asking each adult, "Will you take me in the elevator?" He suckered a lot of people into going up and down, up and down. Soon Mason learned the word "elevator" also, and when he heard Corey say it, he'd run over to it as fast as his chubby legs would carry him to make sure he was included too. On the beach, Mason and Sydney seemed to naturally love the sand and the water, whereas Corey was a little bit fussier, but he still enjoyed collecting seashells and hanging out with his grandparents.

The funniest moment for me at the beach was seeing Mason running around naked as a jaybird. He had terrible diaper rash one day, so we sprayed him thoroughly from head to toe with sunblock and sent him out to run around in the buff. He loved it! Watching his little naked white tush splashing around in the waves was really priceless. I also loved watching Sydney tear around with her mini boogey board and fashionable sunhat.

Peyton turned one during the trip, and we had a little celebration for him, complete with cake, balloons, presents, and a rendition of "Happy Birthday" that was apparently so off-key that it made him cry. Sorry, dude! It was actually very funny to watch Peyton with the birthday cake - if I had to use one word to describe Peyton's personality, it would probably be "mellow", but the cake inspired facial expressions and babbling noises that were definitely not mellow. Corey didn't like his first cake, either, so this was pretty funny for Damian and me.

One night, long after everyone had gone to bed, we had a massive storm. It wasn't a hurricane, but it was loud enough to wake me (and a few other members of the house), and it was strong enough to shake the house. I woke to thunder booming, wind whipping the trees, and lightening of biblical proportion. OK, so maybe that's an exaggeration, but it sure felt that way. To top it off, our bedroom's sliding glass door wouldn't lock, so I worried that our door would whip open any moment to let the raging storm in. I had to remind myself, as I glanced out the door to see the trees whipping around mercilessly, that these houses are built to withstand hurricanes. Thankfully the boys were locked securely in their room, so I tried not to worry about them. Where was Damian through all this, you ask? Snoring away beside me, totally oblivious to Mother Nature's 2 AM wrath.

Finally, when the week was over, we packed the boys into the minivan and started the long drive home. It was still slightly dark, the mosquitoes swarmed our car, and we raced to shut the doors to keep them out. There was nobody about, save a few joggers and one or two other cars on the road. Highway 12, stuck in the middle of the ocean and the sound, felt long and empty. We were half asleep, but not for long. We experienced our second moment of Mother Nature's fury.

And that's when we saw it. Off to the left in the water.

"What the heck is THAT?" I said.
Damian said, "It's a tornado!"
"OH MY GOD!" I replied.

It certainly looked like a tornado. It had a funnel that reached from the sky to the earth. My mind raced. Was it coming our way? Would it hit our car? Should we turn around and try to seek safety in the house? I thought my heart would thump out of my chest.

Damian, clearly not on the same page as I was, said, "Let's take a picture!"
I replied, "Are you INSANE? My babies are in the car!" The only thing to our left was water. The only thing to our right was water.

I put the pedal to the metal.

Later we found out that it wasn't a tornado, but a water spout, though it's in the same family. While they pose more of a hazard to boaters, they do sometimes touch land. I hope to never see one that close again.

Now we are home and attempting to get back into our regular routine. Since we've returned, Mason has learned how to climb out of his crib, which I find very helpful. While the week in Hatteras was nice, it was frankly exhausting, and the day we came home, I slept around the clock. We joked that we need a vacation from our vacation. It's good to be home!

There are pictures in the gallery (heavy on the mini golf), and here is a link:
Outer Banks 2008 Photos