Although my boys are a bundle of energy, and many days they wear me out, I can look back and be thankful that there are stages we are THROUGH. I found a letter I wrote to a friend just before Tate was born, late in 1998. I was hugely pregnant with Tate, Wyatt was almost 2 1/2, we had been trying to get rid of skunks that were living in the crawl space under our house, I was having a bad case of spacey "pregnancy brain", and it had just been quite a week!
It’s only Thursday and the last few days have been just insane... I’m wondering what will happen next! In general, Wyatt has not been himself. I know it’s partly because I don’t have the energy to run off HIS energy, and Kerry has been gone almost constantly (trying to get the bank project at a stopping place before the baby comes). He sees Wyatt in the morning while he’s getting ready for work, but often isn’t home until after 10pm. But this week has just been crazy on TOP of the normal insanity.
I think it started Sunday morning when I looked out the window and saw a donkey walking down the street, headed towards a busy intersection, while we were trying to get ready for church. I know all you farmers probably wouldn’t be surprised by something like that, but it’s a little out of the ordinary in a neighborhood like ours! I - being the only one dressed - chased it into the backyard and caught it... but then what do you do with a donkey? Our neighbor Debbie keeps a horse and I figured she would have more of a clue than me, so I woke her up and fortunately she took it off my hands. (I think she found out who the owner was through her vet, or the woman that shoes her horse or something like that.)
By then we REALLY had to rush to make it to church and Wyatt was completely wound up. He usually enjoys being in the nursery and plays well with the kids... USUALLY. I guess he was not being very good about sharing, even hitting and trying to bite! (MY lovely little angel!)
Then we noticed the our fairly-new-to-us van was making a strange clicking noise. It was OUT of oil (but no warning light). That’s rather unsettling. It doesn’t seem to have done any damage, but what about the warning light? The oil level wasn’t even SHOWING on the dipstick! Wyatt and I went home with my folks because Kerry was going to go into work for the afternoon and then come pick us up. He didn’t get to their place until about 9pm (a bit late for the kid!) and by the time we got him home and to bed it was after 10 (plus we saw the northern lights! - you should hear Wyatt try to say “aurora borealis”).
And that was just Sunday...
Monday was semi-normal for Wyatt and I, but poor Kerry. He is working SO hard to try and get the bank plans ready to go in for permit. The bosses keep promising him drafting help and then “stealing” the guys back, but have finally committed two “drafting slaves” to Kerry for this week. That’s great, BUT he has to stay ahead of them - prepare work for them to do. That meant he could NOT come to my Doctor appointment (as promised) and help corral Wyatt while I was being examined - fortunately a couple of other morning appointments didn’t show so the nurse sat in the little video room with him and watched the Pooh video I had brought! Kerry also, instead of taking Monday night “off” and going to our couples’ Bible Study, had to work until about 10:30. Anyway, Wyatt and I had a decent day, but then came Tuesday...
The good (no, make that FANTASTIC!!!) news is that we caught a second skunk - this one larger than the first. This supports my suspicion that there was a PAIR living under the house... perhaps the first, smaller one was the female and this one was the male (I wasn’t interested enough to confirm their genders up close and personal!) I don’t know much about the specific habits of skunks either, but I’m hoping that if they had a litter this spring they would’ve already kicked the babies out of the nest.
Anyway, ... I called Grandpa Lee to come over and shoot it with his little .22 pistol, which he was glad to do, but of course it sprayed. For some reason, even when they spray in the yard, it just oozes into the house and gets absorbed into everything, making it really unbearable here. I think it’s a fabric thing - the carpets, drapes, furniture etc. The one thing that seems to help the most is sprinkling a whole container of “carpet fresh” or something like that around and leaving it (not the usual 5 to 10 minutes, but all day). Of course, what that accomplishes is soaking up SOME of the smell, but leaving our house with the aroma of “skunk-scented-potpourri”. Just lovely.
Of course, as far as getting Wyatt wound up, this little episode left “the donkey affair” in the dust. When I ran Grandpa back home after shooting the skunk, my aunt, who was visiting, was awake and I offered to take them both out to breakfast - there was no way I was going to be able to eat in our house. They agreed to come by in about an hour. In the meantime at home we had to turn off the furnace (on our first truly cold and frosty morning!) because that seems to suck in and circulate the smell more thoroughly, so the house was getting cold!
I was trying to think where we could go for the day and what to bring to occupy myself and Wyatt, who by then was bouncing off the walls. I threw a bunch of stuff in the van and went to Denny’s with Grandpa and Myrna then decided to run some errands. Then I realized that all the windows were closed, due to the cold nights, but the smell dissipates a lot faster outside and getting some fresh air through would help inside.
Went back to the house for the first time. Ran some more errands. Decided to take Wyatt to the park to play and run off some energy. Of course all the play equipment was still wet with dew and his first trip down the slide got his pants wet, so I took off my sweatshirt to try to dry the slides. After being there an hour I packed him up and headed for Tami’s (my sister's) apartment - she lives nearby and I knew she wouldn’t mind if we hung out there while our house aired out. As I loaded Wyatt in the van he announced that he was poopy. No problem, I assured him, I’ll change you at Tami’s apartment. Got there, couldn’t find her key - thought it was in my bag. Also realized I had left my sweatshirt at the park.
Back to the park to pick up the sweatshirt, and back to our house for the second time to pick up the key (which WAS in my bag, after all). Of course, it didn’t occur to me to go to the trouble to unload Wyatt from his carseat and change his diaper at home. Back to Tami’s, pulled his pants down and WHAT A BLOW-OUT. There was poop everywhere. And of course, at this age I don’t carry spare outfits as a rule! Had to put him in the bath-tub and hose him down. I was so tired by this point that I decided to just give him lunch in the tub... (he loves the tub and he was about an hour late for lunch... why not?!) He took a nap on Tami’s bed and I thought I would finally have an hour or so to just breath, (and fresh air too!), but Tami came home on a late lunch break all wound up about some work-related stuff she wanted to “unload” about... glad to oblige, but was my head spinning!
Then we got invited to dinner with Grandpa Lee, two of my aunts, Tami, Mom and Dad (which was a blessing, as Kerry had to work late again, but could come meet us and I didn’t have to cook!) But we had to go back by the stinky stinky house a third time to get a clean pair of pants for Wyatt to wear! I feel like I have not been able to finish one coherent thought all day long!
THEN, the icing on the cake... I was violently ill in the night. I can only guess food poisoning - not flu...no fever, no achiness, etc. Fortunately it seemed to pass quickly. Well, isn’t family life fun? I hope I never smell another skunk as long as I live!
See?! Isn't life simpler now?
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