Night Terrors

Based on the title of this post, I bet you're all thinking this is going to be about Heather keeping me awake all night. While there have been times when I could certainly describe Heather as a "night terror," I'm talking about Cole this time.


Cole was born to be the middle child. He's the most cheerful, fun-loving, easy going of our three children. And that's saying a lot, because they are all really quite happy and cheerful. One of the things that I love most about Cole, though, is that he has always been a wonderful sleeper. As a baby, I would just put him in his crib, without fanfare or ceremony. Hardly any bedtime routine at all. Just slap on a diaper, pull on his jammies, and drop him in the crib. He would just lay down peacefully, seeming to be almost relieved to be away from Wayne's hustle and bustle. He never liked a pacifier, just his fingers to suck on, and off he would go into a peaceful dreamland. If he ever woke up at night, I knew he would get himself back to sleep without any problem.


Imagine my bewilderment, when about a year ago, Cole would start to "wake-up" screaming and crying, about an hour and a half after going to sleep. He would sit up and rock back and forth, and sometimes thrash around on his bed. Any attempt to calm him, would only make him seem more terrified. He would not respond to any questions, and he'd be trembling uncontrollably. The best we could do is just sit on the bed with him and make sure he didn't fall off or bump his head on the bunk. In about 5 to 10 minutes, he would calm down, lay back down, and go back to sleep. In the morning, I would try to talk to him about his bad dream, but he would have no memory of it, at all.


I started to read all my parenting books, and internet sites, and determined that he was not having nightmares, but something very different called night terrors. Nightmares happen during REM sleep, while night terrors happen during deep sleep. They usually happen within the first two hours of falling asleep. They are more common is boys than in girls. And the weirdest thing for me - although the child will seem to be awake and will even look right at you, he is really not awake at all. In fact, it's very difficult to wake someone out of this deep sleep, and even not recommended to awaken a child from a night terror, because it will only add to their confusion and bewilderment. Night terrors are more likely to happen when a child is overtired, stressed, or sick. I've noticed that Cole always gets them when he's coming down with something and he's more likely to have a night terror if I give him cold medicine.


Wayne had that nasty cough last week, and was kind enough to share it with his brother and sister this week. As a result, we've experienced a night terror or two. Not to mention, just plain, old coughing-all-night-sleep.


It's all very strange and traumatic for Wes and me, but at least Cole never has any memory of it.



On a lighter note, Cole and Heather have been doing a lot of bike riding lately.





I have to say, after having two boys, it's fun to have a little girl to dress up in pretty little dresses. She looks so pretty.

But this is why it doesn't happen very often.

Preschool Art Show

Friday evening was the preschool annual art show. It's a lot of work for the faculty and staff. They clear out all of the classrooms and transform the whole building into an art gallery, displaying numerous pieces of work from each student. Each piece is somehow mounted, matted, or framed and many have quotes attatched from the artist/student. The quotes are often my favorite part. It's cute to hear what these little artist have to say about their work.

This is Cole with his teacher, Brenda. She's great because she does a lot of art and outdoorsy, naturey stuff with the kids. She was also Wayne's preschool teacher for two years. When she saw him with us at the art show she told him she bets he's the smartest student in his kindergarten class. Cole is very proud of his yellow bird house. The kids nailed the wood pieces together and then painted the bird houses. He can't wait to bring it home.

The class read a story about spilled milk. Then dribbled and splashed with glue to resemble spilled milk and described images they found in their paintings - kind of like looking for animal shapes in the clouds. Cole said this one is"a frog jumping into the water and splashing."

This one speaks for itself.


Heather seems to have been a little left out in these blog entries so far, so here's the little sweetie, determined to keep up with her brothers as they ride their bikes. She looks like such a big girl. Where did my baby go?

The Smell of Spring is in the Air

The other day Wayne woke up with a low grade fever, stuffy-nose, and a nasty cough. He was bleary-eyed from a restless night. I hated to keep him home from school because he's missed quite a few days this year, but he seemed to be in quite a miserable condition, and I figured sending him to school would just spread his germs around to the rest of the kindergarten class. So I allowed him to stay home to rest. Then somehow he made some kind of miraculous recovery by 9:00a.m. and was able play a house-rattling game of Superhero with Cole. By noontime he had shed his Batman persona and was zipping up and down the driveway on his bicycle. I was regretting my decision to let him stay home, but then, if he had gone to school, he would have missed all the excitement.

It was the first day of May. The temperature never rose above 46 degrees, but there was one sure sign of Springtime in the kingdom. Something that causes little boys' hearts to race with excitement and anticipation. Wayne and Cole planted themselves by the roadside and waved fanatically, as if some big holiday parade were going by our house.


The cause for all this excitement?

Brian driving by on his tractor hauling the manure spreader.



After he drove by, they would race up and over the stone wall (Heather frustrated with her hat and at being left behind),and up onto the knoll in the back field to get a better view of the fertilizer spewing out of the spreader. In all of about 10 minutes, Brian would have emptied his tank and would be on his way back down the road, headed to the barn for a refill. He did this all day long, back and forth, back and forth. Spray the field, back to the barn. Every ten minutes or so.



"Why do farmers have to spray the grass?" Cole wanted to know.

"The manure is fertilizer for the hay. It helps it grow. It's like food that helps the hay grow really tall and thick, so the cows have a lot of it to eat in the winter." I explained.

"What is manure made of anyway?" Cole, at 4, is just a bottomless pit of questions. Every answer you offer just leads to more questions. Actually, I was a little surprised he didn't already know all about manure.

Wayne stepped in to answer this one. "It's cow poop!"

Cole's face lit up with delight. I don't know how it is for those of you who raised (or are raising) little girls, but with little boys, any mention of the word "poop" is cause for celebration. "NO IT'S NOT!!" he shouted gleefully, his huge smile showing that trademark gap between his front teeth. "MOMMY, IS IT REALLY?"

"Yes, it is," I admitted, knowing this would be all they'd talk about for days.

Every time Brian went by with the tractor, Wayne and Cole would race out and wave. Cole, now knowing the whole truth of the situation, ran even faster to the road and waved even harder. They never actually admitted to hoping for a ride, but they reminisced about rides he'd given them in the past. Wayne constantly boasted that he has had three rides, Cole only one. Brian would wave back and toot the tractor's horn but didn't offer a ride, just wanting to get his work done, I'm sure. I couldn't help but feel it must be a very long and tedious day for him. I hope seeing his little cheerleaders out there by the road at least gave him something to smile about.

All evening and during dinner they talked about Brian, the tractor, the manure spreader, and of course, the main ingredient - poop. Nearly forgotten die-cast John Deeres were resurrected from the bottom of the toy box, and the livingroom floor was transformed into a hay field. They constantly argued over who's turn it was to be Brian. At bedtime they wondered if they'd be able to watch the tractor again tomorrow. Would he spray our field? Would he spray Grammie's field? Wayne plans to set up his little roadside stand and sell refreshments, just in case Brian needs a cold drink or a snack to keep him going. I'm sure they fell asleep with happy tractors buzzing around in their dreams.

Move over Batman. There's a new Superhero in town.

Sap Season

Some call it mud season, which is certainly accurate, but in our family, we like to think of it as "sap season." Or even sweeter, "maple syrup season." Wayne looks forward to tapping trees all year long. After the trees are tapped, he checks the buckets everyday before school, and then again when he gets home from school. Keep in mind, we're still playing catch-up, so these pictures were taken a month or so ago, when we still had plenty of snow.






Here's Cole checking a bucket.

Cole and Daddy boiling.

Boiling sap isn't always as exciting as it sounds.

After boiling outside for a long time, Wes and Wayne finish the syrup inside. Wayne tests the syrup with a hydrometer to see if it's ready.

The best thing about fresh maple syrup? Pancakes for supper!

Catch-up

Since I haven't been able to send e-mails lately, I feel like I need to play catch-up, so theses first few entries will cover the past few weeks.

While driving to Grampa and Gramma's house a week or so ago, we came across the world's largest snowman. This was in mid-April during all that warm, sunny weather, so I was surprised to see this still standing. I hadn't seen it during the winter, but had heard about it on the news.

This is Wayne at a lake within a short walking distance from my parent's house. I spent huge portions of my childhood summer life here.

Cole loves when I do this crazy hair style at bath time. He always tries to leave it this way so he can go to preschool the next morning looking like this. Luckily, it gets pressed down a little while sleeping. He was tickled when Brenda, his teacher, noticed a new look one morning when it had remained pretty spikey. He's such a little show-off.



I tried to make these pictures a little bigger this time. Is it better?

Welcome to the Fairy Tale

Because I've had so much trouble with e-mail lately, I decided to take a cue from Julie and use a blog as a way to share photos with adoring grandparents and aunts. I don't really know what I'm doing so you'll have to bear with me through a trial and error period. Here are some photos to get us started.

Wayne and Cole taste sap right from the bucket. The buckets have since been taken down, of course.

Heather adornes sunglasses in the glare of the sun at Grampa and Gramma's house.

Wayne singing with his class in the school's spring concert.

If these images appear very small, I apologize. Because we have slow dial-up, it takes forever to upload a larger file. Stay tuned...I'll work out the bugs sooner or later.