Corolla: The Bad....

Hooray...we just had a SPECTACULAR trip to Corolla, NC (Outer Banks) where we spent a week at the beach with Papa T.  We had so many good memories there, but we thought it would be humorous to share some of our not-so-great moments from the week first.  Now, remember, we are not complaining about these things...we are just recording them for all of time so that we can laugh.  Someday.

1.)  TRAFFIC - Ugh, we are never renting a beach house from a Saturday-to-Saturday again!  Between accidents, rainy weather, and sheer volume, our "5-hours-of-distance" trips to NC were 11 (!) hours the first Saturday and 9 hours the second.  We don't even travel that long in the car when we head Midwest.  I think our single worst moment was when Michael announced that he had to go potty just as we were entering a tunnel.  Resourceful Mike dumped the remaining baby Puffs snacks out of their container and coached Michael through peeing into it.  (Too much information?)  He said it brought back memories of when his Dad made him endure similar on long road trips...

2.)  ILLNESSES - On Sunday, Neve was quite cranky and had a low-grade fever.  We gave her some Tylenol and tried to brush it off.  Two days (and two sleepless nights) later, she was showing all the signs of an ear infection.  So, Traci packed her in for the 20-miles-each-way road trip to Beach Urgent Care to check it out.  (By the way, if you're curious, Beach Urgent Care is PACKED all the time.  Where else do you go when you are on vacation?)  Of course, she had a double ear infection and started up a regimen of antibiotics.  Take a look at the picture above to see how her crankiness just made her "love" being at a sandy beach.  By the end of the week, several more of us had caught her sniffly nose and cough symptoms...  Isn't cold and flu season over by now?

3.)  PICTURE - On Wednesday morning, we had scheduled a formal beach portrait sitting for the entire family.  The sitting actually came free with the beach house rental, so we figured, why not?  Well, that photographer had never seen the likes of us!!  Michael doesn't sit still for anything, especially not when there is a beachfront to explore.  Neve, of course, was still sick and cranky and screaming her head off.  Not to mention that it was the hottest and most humid day of the week.  Um....the "half-hour session" probably only lasted about 9 minutes, and we were all relieved it was over.

4.)  FALLS - On one of our best evenings of the trip, we walked over to the local town center of our resort and got some ice cream as a family.  We decided to take our delicious treats over to a skateboard park to watch all of the skaters.  (Michael was FASCINATED and is now asking for his own board.  Um, no.)  Anyway, we had our two older kids sitting up on a high ledge with no back support so that they could see into the skate ramps.  Unfortunately, Katie forgot where she was and fell backward right into a picnic table.  Thank God for the table, however.  As it was, she only got a bad bruise on her back.  We don't even want to think what would have happened if she had fallen several feet back on to her head....  Shudder.

5.)  PARASITES - By Thursday, Neve was starting to recuperate and showing much better spirits.  That is, until the evening when she just started screaming bloody murder.  She was like a baby with colic:  we could do NOTHING to stop the deafening cries.  Finally, Traci started exploring Neve's body to see if there were any weird bruises, bumps, scratches or bites and found the nasty culprit.  BLECH...it was a deer tick embedded in the back of her head.  (Anybody that knows Traci's distaste for parasites realizes that she almost passed out at this point.)  As soon as we dislodged the little bugger, she promptly stopped crying and fell fast asleep on Traci's lap.  Supposedly one is not supposed to feel a tick bite, but Neve certainly begs to differ.  After that day, any little itch or twitch on our legs, arms, or any part of the body prompted a swift and hard THWACK!

6.)  MCKENNA - If any of you have young girls, you have probably seen/heard about McKenna Brooks.  She was the American Girl Place Doll of the Year from a few years ago and has her own line of books and movies.  The darn Easter Bunny brought McKenna into Katie's life through a DVD, and Miss Brooks invaded our vacation time again and again.  Not only did Katie make Michael watch the movie on the long drive down and back in the minivan, but she also forced Papa to watch one afternoon, Mommy the next, Daddy the next, etc., etc.  By the end of the week, we had had enough and forced her to hole herself up in a room with it in a laptop.  She chose watching that damn movie over going to the beach several times.  Dang you, American Girl!!!!

But, with all of these misadventures, we swear that we did truly have a fabulous time.  More of the good tomorrow!!!

 

Fairy Brew

What to do?  What to do?  Now that everybody is out of school, it seems like we need to have something to do the vast majority of the day or the household devolves into a loony pit of pushing, shoving, and TV watching.  This was only our first day on the job, but we didn't do too badly.  In the morning, we had a playground play date with some old preschool pals.  And, we stocked up on a load of books at the library in the afternoon for the kids' Summer Reading Program.  (When Michael heard there were prizes for reading 15 books over the course of the summer, he nearly drove himself to the library.)  But, our most difficult period is the dead middle-of-the-day period when we are stuck at home for Neve's nap.  She now takes a solid 2-3 hour nap around lunchtime, which constrains us to the downstairs of a condo with no yard, no sizable deck, and not a lot of indoor space.  We're sure that we'll rely on good, ol' Mr. TV here and there; but, at least for today, we put our creative caps on and had some fun on the sidewalk outside.  Mom grabbed some plastic bowls, soapy water, and food coloring, and let the kids have at it.  They designed absolutely gorgeous concoctions of "fairy brew," blew "colored" bubbles all over each other, and washed the sidewalk when all was said and done.  By the end, they looked like Easter eggs themselves, with the food coloring all over their faces, hands, arms, and legs.  (Now that I think about it, perhaps I should have washed them before heading to the library...)  Both kids said it was the most fun part of the day.  So, that's one day down...many more to go...

First Grader!

Sniff.  Is it really possible that Katie is done with Kindergarten already?  Today was her last day, complete with a family breakfast and song-and-dance show.  We can't say enough how fabulous Katie's teachers (especially homeroom teacher Mrs. Rimando, pictured, and aide Mrs. Comstock) were this year.  Mrs. Rimando was new to the school, and we feel like we hit the jackpot.  As a matter of fact, Katie kept saying that she doesn't want to go to first grade unless she can take Mrs. Rimando with her.  We wish, Kades, we wish.

Anyway, we are so proud of our not-so-little one.  She learned so many valuable things this year, like reading, writing, addition, and subtraction.  She also learned intangible things like facing new fears (the bus!), persevering (MUST...CONQUER...MONKEY BARS....), and making lifelong friends.  If this year is any indication, she is truly going to blossom into whatever she wants.  Congratulations, Katie!  Now bring on summer!!!

Rides for the Rascals

It's here, it's here!  The annual carnival has returned to the town next to us, this time with a giant ferris wheel so you can't miss it.  That being said, we took the kids over yesterday evening for a few rides before bedtime.  We also took one of Katie's kindergarten buddies, Alex, who was a spirited little bugger that even dragged Mike on some of the faster rides.  The kiddos, as always, had a blast.  Michael is still talking about his favorite ride, the "Monster Trucks," pictured here.

She's a Survivor

It was a procedure that we were hoping could be avoided, but it had to be done.  Ever since she was born, Nevie has had a right clogged tear duct, which basically made her look like a perpetual pink-eye sufferer.  This morning we took her to a surgical center to have the duct probed and irrigated.  Because she was going to have to go under general anesthesia, she could not eat or drink anything after midnight last night.  You can just imagine how well that went over from 6-8AM....  Anyway, she was a champ who alternated boisterous screaming jags with ones of quiet observation.  Above, you see her dressed in her over-sized (but super-cute) hospital gown, playing with the new giraffe provided by the surgical staff.  (Nice touch.)  The actual procedure only took about 15 minutes before she woke up screaming her head off.  Once she got to finally drink her milk and eat some banana, she was such a happy camper.  She is currently in the midst of taking a 3-hour nap, perhaps to shake off all the excitement (and drugs) from the day.  The doctor said it would take a week to judge whether the duct will clog back up, so we'll keep our fingers crossed!  

Yellow

We were finally able to get Michael in for his real cast today!  No pink for this guy...oh no.  For some reason, his favorite color has always been yellow, so guess who got the brightest cast possible?  (We love the perpetual thumbs-up that he can now give.)  We elected to get him a water-proof cast since we are bordering so closely on our upcoming beach trip and because 3-year-old boys do not have enough impulse control to keep casts out of swimming pools, bath tubs, etc.  The bad news with a water-proof cast is that it does not have the soft, cushiony layer built in to prevent friction burns.  Therefore, a Lightning McQueen band-aid already resides on his inner arm.  But the GREAT news:  if all goes well, he can get it off in 2 weeks...the day before we leave for the beach!  (Knock on wood, sand, and every other surface!)  Now, we just have to keep him from knocking out his sisters cold with his new battering arm.  Only 13 more days....

Motorcycle Crash

So, um...yeah.  Did you hear the story about that family whose kids kept breaking their bones?  You know...arms, wrists, fingers...  Breaking them so often that their name is well-known within the ER?  Perhaps we may have another chapter to add to that story.  Yes, our little dude Michael broke his thumb today.  (Siggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh.)  How did he do it?  Well, ever since he became obsessed with motorcycles, he has gained a new sense of daredevil never shown before.  (C'mon, this was the kid who wouldn't go down a slide until he was about three.)  Since he doesn't have a motorcycle of his own, he has adopted his ride-on toys as motorcycle stand-ins.  And, he shows no fear when riding them.  (See video above.  And, please note that this is not the incident in question, in spite of the spill at the end.)

Today, at one of our favorite playgrounds, he started taking his jet ski ride-on down a rather steep sidewalk toward a big concrete area.  I only let him go halfway up at first, and he had to demonstrate to me that he could apply his foot brakes at will.  He was executing everything perfectly and with caution, so I finally let him zoom the whole way down from the top.  He was in such heaven that he must have done it at least 100 times.  Unfortunately, a group of older kids joined in, with a lot more reckless abandon than that which I had previously drilled into his head.  Once he saw them going down the hill as fast as they could go, he had to do it, too.  Unluckily for all of us, I had moved on to tending to Neve and didn't see his derring do skills.  Lo and behold, I suddenly heard him bawling and holding his hand.  I have no idea what happened, but the thumb must have taken the brunt of the fall.  Poor little dude.  He chose Daddy to take him to the ER, and all reports show that he was so brave and never cried at all.  We have now drawn a motorcycle on his temporary splint and await the real cast.

So......does anybody have any suggestions on what to do with a kid in a cast at the beach?

Compare and Contrast

Who would like to engage in a simple exercise of compare and contrast?  On the right, we see a sweet, mild-mannered toddler (Gracie), who, in spite of the fact that she had not had the greatest night of hotel sleep and was visiting a new state, greeted us all with sweet smiles and laughter.  She was up for anything, including picture time.  And, on the left, we have Neve.

In all seriousness, we were delighted to host a couple of great pals (Brent and Lisa) and their gorgeous baby girl for brunch this morning.  All were in town from Boston for a baptism.  Gracie seriously charmed the pants off of us as she toddled around the house, playing with all of the toys, snooping in all of the nooks and crannies, and growling like a lion.  (No, really, she does a great impersonation!)  Of course, catching up with Mom and Dad was a highlight as well.  (Their stories ranged from their experiences in Boston during the recent bombings to one about a  friend who delivered her baby on the side of the road.  How can you top that?)  We so wish that they all lived closer, but these fun, short visits will have to do for now.  Maybe Neve can be a better hostess next time...