News & Notes, TGIF Edition

It's been a long week.  Well, it's been a fast one, but I am TIRED.  And that's even without having to cook a proper dinner all week!  Craig and Jacob were gone Monday, we had baseball Tuesday and Thursday, and Wednesday I worked the concession stand at baseball.  That meant a lot of snacky evenings with very little real cooking.  It had been so long since I cooked that I didn't have to do dishes, so I ran out of the cereal bowls that I take to work, as well as Carter's little snack cups that he usually takes in the car in the mornings to eat cereal on the way to daycare.  Since he's been staying up so late recently, he's been sleeping in and that's about all we have time for once he wakes up.  I can't remember the last time I ran out of either of those things, so it's definitely been an odd week.  Plus we were gone for most of last weekend, so I'm feeling all sorts of disconnected from home life.  On top of it, work life has been crazy.  We're in the last week of our fiscal year now, with looming goals to be met and lots of work to do to achieve them, and everyone's exhausted and stressed out, despite lots of fun diversions to keep us motivated.  Next Thursday we're celebrating with four food trucks (including my favorite) coming to the office for a (free) lunch, and then we get a bonus day off Friday.  That can't come soon enough at this point.

Yesterday we had Jacob's first appointment with the new behavioral specialist.  I think it went well.  I had a massive scantron (you know, those test things where you have to fill in the circles) that needed filling out, and I immediately became thankful for my relatively short name as a kid.  Not only did I have to do a couple names, but a few pages worth of behaviors and their frequencies.  It will provide them good information and give us some direction, but it was a lot to process!  But the woman we worked with was good.  She asked good questions and related to Jacob pretty well.  He was actually pretty good, all things considered.  He answered most questions clearly, and he sat normally for a good portion of it.  He was vague on some questions, such as what I do that makes me mean (sorry, Jacob, making you go to bed at 9pm is not mean).  But as a whole I think it was pretty pleasant.

We had baseball last night, and at the end there was a pizza party courtesy of the coach for the kids meeting some goals this year, and the kids were having a blast running around after.  Carter got in on the action, too! 

They look like they're having a meeting at the mound, don't they?

Very long shadows that time of night, as you can see!  The kids were running the bases and Carter was having a blast doing it with them.  And unlike his brother, some of the other kids were including him and cheering him on!

Craig took this one, and it's really a sweet picture!  Such a cutie.

Yesterday was also Jacob's first day at camp.  He complained about a couple things when I picked him up, but when I asked if it was okay and he had fun, he said yes.  But of course this morning he was griping about it and saying he didn't want to go back.  However, he also screamed and growled at me for the first half hour he was awake because I was mean enough to wake him up.  He slept later than usual but we had his physical this morning, and he was mad at me for waking him up because, according to him, he was already waking up himself.  Sure.  Anyway, I think the camp will at least be tolerable, and I think once the field trips start and he bonds with the other kids through that, it will be better.  Of course, he's off most of next week because of lacrosse camp, and now Friday is in question.  I already paid for him, unaware that Craig was considering keeping him home since he was off anyway.  But now I'm off, too, and I would really like to have a belated anniversary day with Craig, during which we can finally go looking at new vehicles (minivans...yikes!).  But now Jacob will blame me if he's not off that day, which will only compound his anger with me, and I'm not sure what to do. 

A few days ago I had the realization that last week I forgot to acknowledge the anniversary of the culmination of the minor fertility treatments I had to get pregnant with Carter.  That was right around this time of year, and four years ago right now I was in that awful two week waiting game to see if it worked.  The thing that struck me, though, was that it was four years ago already.  That doesn't seem possible on its own, but when you realize it also means that Jacob has doubled his age since then, it is truly unbelievable.  He was turning four at the time, less than a year older than Carter is now!  We've covered so much ground since then--three grades of real school, four years of sports, and more than three years with two kids.  I can barely remember what it was like to just have one.  But I just can't believe that the time between Jacob's birth and fourth birthday has equaled the time between Carter's conception and today.  Doesn't seem possible, but it is!

As I mentioned, Carter is still staying up too late.  It seems that it's really starting to impact his behavior, as he's gotten bad reports two out of three days at daycare, which has never happened before.  I just don't know what to do.  This week hasn't helped with all of our late nights, but even if I put him to bed early it seems like he's still going to be awake for far too long.  Most nights he's in bed around 9, but he'll be awake until at least 10, if not 10:30-10:45.  He's gotten better about getting up and bugging us, but he's still awake.  Short of getting rid of his nap, which seems counterproductive in its own way, I don't know what to do.  I will try an earlier bedtime, but I'm not confident.  I tried laying with him tonight (since I hadn't tried that yet) and I thought it might be working since he seemed to be trying to sleep, but he was still tossing and turning and eventually started talking and playing again.  I hate that it seems to be impacting his behavior, and now I wonder if Jacob's problems were all based on chronic overtiredness, since he's never gone to bed particularly early either.  Crap.

We don't have any games this weekend for the first time in months, but we do have Jacob's baseball picnic.  It's going to be a hot weekend, but hopefully we can squeeze in some fun, some pool time, and maybe even some productivity....