And Then His Head Spun Around

Yesterday started out so well. And ended so miserably.

Church was good, the band was tight, Obi did a great job leading (Christopher took the week off) and the message was great.

Filled up my gas tank afterwards ($32 at Costco!!!), got some Wendy’s fast food and went home.

Put CootieGirl down for a nap, then CootieBoy, and was able to watch “Alias” on Tivo while Denis raked up leaves in the backyard. Then Denis came in and got ready to head over to a wake in Queens. About 20 minutes after he left (around 3 p.m.) the kiddies woke up, and after feeding CootieBoy a bottle and CootieGirl some mac’n’cheese the three of us settled in for some fun time. CootieBoy alternated between the walked and the exersaucer, and I played the piano while CootieGirl played in the messy toyroom. At some point she pulled over her little 4-key “piano” and propped it up on another toy, pulled up her chair and mimicked me playing piano (I managed to snap a pic and she was very unhappy when she realized I was taking pictures).

The day was gorgeous, so our bay windows were open for the breeze and I was contemplating taking the kids to the park. Well, around 5:30 p.m. or so I heard a REALLY loud noise in front of the house – almost like gunfire, which totally freaked me out. CootieGirl also heard it and said, “Uh oh” with much concern as we walked over to the front window to look outside.

Apparently some kids were tearing down our street at breakneck speed (literally) and when another car misjudged the speeding car and pulled out, the kids slammed the brakes and swerved, rear-ending my neighbor’s truck and pushing it about 1.5 parking spaces forward, which pushed the truck into the car parked in front of my house (not my car, thankfully).

Part curiosity, part concern had me going outside to make sure no one was hurt. And I wasn’t the only one – the entire neighborhood came out. And no wonder – the kid’s car was totalled but he miraculously walked away.

Now, my street is really dangerous – it’s a really long street and the teenagers that live on it love going 40-50 mph down the long stretches, despite the fact that we have a LOT of young kids and toddlers that live on the street. It really is only a matter of time before a young child gets killed because some hot shot roadie is racing with his buddies.

I went back inside, grabbed CootieGirl and CootieBoy and proceeded to sit on my neighbor’s stoop watching the madness for about an hour. My neighbor’s truck (Grand Cherokee Laredo) had virtually no damage – the back fender was bent a bit, his rear wheel was slightly bent, and his front fender was scratched, but that was it. The kid’s car – his front end was reduced to about 18″ and his airbags deployed. The car in front of my house that was rammed by my neighbor’s truck – their trunk was pushed in about 6 inches and couldn’t be closed because of it.

Cops were called, tow trucks were called, and the entire neighborhood (well neighbors from at least 10 houses) just sat on their steps and watched. CootieGirl kept pointing out the mess on the street (various pieces of car parts from the kid’s car and the Mercedes he was trying to avoid). “Mama – mess!” she’d say, pointing at the street.

When things finally calmed down I took the kids back home and found a voicemail from Obi saying that a bunch of people were invited for quesadillas at someone’s house. I called him back and thanked him for the offer but told him that I was taking care of the kids while Denis was out at that it was nearing bedtime. After a bit of cajoling they talked me into going. So I cleaned up CootieGirl, packed up a diaper bag and drove over to Joe’s house. I got there about 7:45 p.m. and stayed until 9:30 p.m. There were about 15 people there and so CootieGirl was well occupied (she loved their black cat). We left when CootieBoy got a bit fussy.

A bit fussy. Little did I know what was in store.

When I got home CootieGirl went straight to sleep, as did CootieBoy. Denis and I stayed up for a couple more hours, just chilling in front of the tv. At about 11:45 p.m. we headed to bed, and I think it was about 12:30 a.m. that CootieBoy woke up. And stayed up. Screaming and wailing and with much gnashing of gums. Denis fed him a bottle, but that didn’t help. We played soft music, but that didn’t help. We changed his diaper, but that didn’t help. We gave him medicine, but that didn’t help. Finally, at about 1:30 a.m. we set him up downstairs with Baby Einstein. By then I was trying to catch some sleep on the sofa and so I was in the room and can attest to the fact that about 15 minutes in he got restless because he wanted to lay on his side, not his back, and the bouncey seat wouldn’t let him turn. So I took him out but then he didn’t want to be held and started crying again.

So Denis took over – holding him on the sofa. At 1:50 a.m. I recommended taking CootieBoy for a drive – surely he’d fall asleep in the car. I went upstairs and threw on some clothes. Denis had come up with CootieBoy at that point, so I took CootieBoy from him and headed down the stairs to go load him in the car. Just when we reached the bottom of the stairs he puked all over me.

Nice.

CootieBoy and I went back upstairs while Denis headed down to clean up the stairs. I stripped off my drenched clothes and then Denis returned and changed CootieBoy as well. We laid him in the bassinet and within five minutes he was asleep. Little bugger.

Denis and I collapsed in our bed for some blessed sleep – and that lasted about 20 minutes. Because at 2:30 a.m. CootieBoy woke up again. Both Denis and I laid there, paralyzed with fear that if we even breathed loudly CootieBoy would start screaming. Well, it didn’t even take that because within seconds he was screaming again. At this point even the dog was desperate to get out of the house and escape the child’s noise.

And so on and so on it went – I don’t know what time I officially fell asleep for the night, but the last time I remember looking at the clock it was 3:34 a.m. When I woke up this morning at 6:30 a.m. CootieBoy was in his crib in the other room, still crying and fussing. Don’t know how Denis managed to get him to sleep in there, but I’m grateful for Denis taking over so I could get at least a few hours sleep before coming into work today.

And the most amazing part of the whole evening? CootieGirl slept through the whole thing.