Surviving in a Male Dominated Household

Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails...

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Our State Fair is a great State Fair....

Don't miss it, don't even be late....

Going to the Iowa State Fair is a family tradition of mine. Every summer, whether we liked it or not, we'd trek to the State Fair. One year my family even camped there (it rained...that was no fun). When I worked in politics, I was given the task to work the fair, 9-9, every. single. day of the fair. Spot the mullet was quickly becoming my game of choice. It's still a fun game we play today.

Traditionally, we've gone to the fair with my folks as it was tradition. However, we're quickly realizing that there are many things we'd love to do with our children...just our children. I don't want them to be grown and gone and look back and say, "We never did (insert event) with just the kids." So we've decided that we're going to start doing things, just the five of us.

We decided that Sunday would be the day as Beckett (our cat) had a vet appointment on Saturday and Sunday seemed to be the best day for temperatures. Usually it is scorching during the fair but Sunday was going to be 83 and nice.

I had planned on getting everyone up early...Sean usually gets up at 5:30-6 so that wasn't going to be hard. But this happened to be the one day of the month Sean decided to sleep in. We finally got out of the house around 10 (rounding up three kids is a task) and made it to Dave's co-workers house.

We had made a list of food we wanted and things we wanted to see...I was kind of hoping to stick around long enough to see the Vanilla Ice/Tone Loc free show. Yes, free Vanilla Ice and Tone Loc. Unfortunatley we didn't make it that long. But how cool would that have been?

First on the food list, deep fried cheese curds.

Cheese curds. Check. As you can see, getting three kids around the fair can be a task. Our double stroller worked nicely and Liam was very good about staying where we told him to stay. Brendan slept most of the day but Sean LOVED to see the sights.


 I kind of wish I would have had someone include me in the picture...



 After the cheese curds were in hand, we went to the Varied Industries building to see the Iowa State booth (where I got my yearly ISU football shirt), the GOP booth (where the kids were a big hit), and Dave's work booth where Liam REFUSED a temporary tattoo.
We also made sure to get cookies. I wanted the bucket of cookies, Dave got the cup. I figured you'd get more cookies for the money, plus have a bucket left over. Looking back, there were a lot of cookies in that cup and we didn't really NEED a whole bucket of cookies. But they were sooo good. Right Sean?



After the cookies were devoured, we ventured out of the Varied Industries building (that place gets CRAZY once it gets warm at the fair) and we stopped by the Iowa Wine Growers (my old employer) booth and tried gelato. It was alright. Next up on the fair food stop, corndogs. You can't go to the Iowa State Fair and not get a corndog. Liam insisted on the footlong.

YUM!

Once the corndog was gone, it was Gyro time! Noticing a trend here? We caught a bit of the Bill Riley talent show while eating and walked a bit more. We saw the biggest Bull (a mandatory at the fair) and the One Man Band...he was really entertaining!

It was getting pretty warm (I'm convinced that the fairgrounds are at least 10 degrees warmer once you enter the gates) so we decided to let the boys cool off at Pella Plaza. Sean hated it. Liam loved it and it gave me a chance to nurse Brendan.

 A couple of people walked by while I was nursing and pointed (oh hey, how's it going) but whatever. I was covered and sitting on a bench in a shady area. I was using my nursing tank and nothing was visible.  If you can walk around the fair eating a turkey leg, I can sit on a bench and feed the baby.
We stopped to get the mandatory tenderloin and fries basket (we ate a lot) and once that was finished we continued viewing what the fair had to offer. It was at this time that some idiot made the comment "THAT'S what's wrong with the fair," while pointing to our double stroller. I spun around and saw the moron making the comment. Carrying a beer. At noon. It took everything in me NOT to yell back. But I'm classier than that. And prepared for next year.

Liam had been really well behaved the whole fair so we made good on our promise. One ride down the giant slide. Liam was such a big boy that we allowed him to go by himself and Dave took Sean down. Liam LOVED it.

We were only there for four hours but that was enough. Next year we'll be sure to go on a weekday to avoid some of the crowd. I didn't get to see all that I wanted to but I was exhausted. 5 weeks after giving birth that was the most walking I had done...we were all tired. Sean was asleep before we got onto 235. All in all, a great day at the fair.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Bug...

Last weekend we had Brendan's first trip to Ma'am and Papa's house. While we were there, Liam was complaining that his hips hurt. I thought they were just growing pains (he was walking around with ice packs on them to make them feel better).

We got home on Sunday afternoon and on Sunday night, Brendan threw up (not spit up, but projectile vomited) on me. I thought maybe he was just over hot from the long ride home (even though I had the air on high). On Monday, Sean was acting feverish and lethargic. After his nap, he was cuddling with me and I could see his reflection in the doors of the fireplace. And then he threw up...all over me. I put him in the bath and changed my clothes. I laid him down and he threw up again. Not awesome. When Dave got home from work we started to eat dinner (not Sean, he was sitting on the couch) and Liam threw up. Great. Then Sean threw up on Dave.

I had been thrown up on so many times I was down to my high school prom shirt for my "around the house" shirt. I was pleased it still fit, but those lime green fish and "Glidden-Ralston Jr/Sr prom" staring up at me was a reminder of just how much laundry I was going to have to do.

It seems everyone is feeling better today...well, Dave is feeling a little under the weather. I have informed my own immune system that I am not allowed to get sick because, well, I'm mom. Moms can't get sick. Right?