Road to the NBA, Step 1 of 1,000,000

Jacob's been into basketball for a while now.  It's been on the fringes for years, as evidenced by his 7th birthday cake and a batch of older Raptors gear in his closet.  I'm not entirely sure when it officially took over, but it seems to me it was last spring when the Toronto Raptors were on a bit of a playoff run.  At the same time, he was very disenchanted with lacrosse, and with that, basketball's takeover began.  He got the basketball hoop for his birthday, had a Raptors cake for his very belated birthday party, and finagled two Raptors' games this fall.  He played basketball for a good chunk of each day at camp over the summer, and based on everything we saw there and at home, it was clear he had skills.  And all through this time, Jacob was talking about playing on a team.  Unfortunately, the easiest basketball league to get into didn't even have signups until early fall, and it didn't begin play until January.  It's been a very long wait...but finally it got here.  But then the snowstorm postponed game one by an extra week, and finally yesterday was the big day, probably eight months in the making.

Over these past many, many months, there's been a constant dialog from Jacob about playing basketball--wishing it would get here sooner, which sneakers he should be wearing, what kind of balls are best, what Division I college he'd like to play at, and what kind of first house he'll buy with his entry level NBA salary.  All of it.  Constantly.  I kid you not.  I'd be lying if I said it wasn't exhausting and often frustrating, as there's something like a .03% chance of making the NBA after playing on a high school roster.  We're still a long way from high school, and even that will be a challenge as the school he wants to attend is a pretty good basketball school.  Needless to say, we have a long way to go and he's hesitant to even have a "normal" backup plan.  His backups currently include being a college coach or playing in the G-League, which is basically the NBA's development league.  There's a fine line between keeping it real and crushing dreams, and I'll admit it's a very tough line to walk as a parent.  But listening to all that when he hadn't even played in a real basketball game?  UGH.

Jacob is playing for an Upward team, which is part of a Christian-based youth sports organization.  We'd heard good things about it and it's right here in our town.  At the third practice of the year, we got a bit of a sneak peak of what was to come with Jacob's little three-point shooting challenge from the coach that I mentioned in my last post.  We have a very confident kid on our hands, and a talented one at that, but all bets were off until I could see him play in a game and interact with teammates.  It's easier to shoot threes in the driveway without a defender in your face, and knowing when to pass vs. shoot is also something that can't be learned playing solo.  So when the day finally came, we were looking forward to seeing it all come together.

See that blurry foot?  He likes hearing his sneakers squeak on the floor and was repeatedly scuffing his feet in order to do that. 😒

Despite decent lighting it was almost impossible to get a good picture of him in motion, so these will have to do.

He was also quite chatty on the bench.  I can't imagine what he was talking about...or maybe I can!

Considering the challenge it is to keep him moving in lacrosse, seeing him so fleet of foot in basketball was nice!

He played about half the game as there are two sets of five players and the coach is very fair about switching them out.  Jacob's team is really pretty good, which is a nice change of pace after watching 18 straight losses (and counting) with his house lacrosse team.  Yes, his FCA team won all summer, but when he wasn't playing a prominent role (or any role), those don't seem to count for much these days.  So his repeated losses have pretty much killed lacrosse for him in the meantime, and I almost forgot what it was like to watch his team win and see him be a solid contributor to that success.

I also forgot what it was like to see him feel at home playing a sport.  For a kid that has always loved sports and played them well, he often doesn't look super coordinated.  Even in his best lacrosse moments there was always a certain degree of awkwardness, although he often made it work for him anyway.  But he looked right at home out on the basketball court.  To see him dribbling up the court, passing behind his back, and darting around opponents was pretty darn awesome.  We were thrilled when he got a couple baskets under his belt, as well as a couple beautiful assists!  But then, early in the second half, he had the ball around the three-point line and didn't have a lot of space, so he shot.  And sure enough, that sucker went in!  It was the first three-pointer of the season, and the crowd went nuts!  One of his teammates got another later in the game, and they won 35-16.  He might have had more, but his coach had them back off a bit in the second half when their lead got larger.  They focused on passing to those who hadn't scored, which was welcome bit of sportsmanship.  Jacob got a nice little shoutout (again bringing up the practice incident) post-game, so I think we can call game one a success!

The bad news, of course, is that this does nothing to tame his big plans, but at least now I can confirm his talent while reminding him that he's got a long road ahead and it will take a heck of a lot of hard work to make it happen.  While he's poo-pooing lacrosse in the meantime, I keep reminding him that the pressure is off there and it's just another opportunity to keep himself conditioned, to cross-train, and to think about how he might be able to apply what he's learning to basketball, as there are similarities in playmaking and agility.  We're thrilled that he's found something to love and succeed in (even if we're sad that our pricey investment in lacrosse isn't really going to pay out), and I can't wait to see him play again this week!

In other news, I just wanted to share what Carter and I were working on leading up to the game.  As a continuation to last weekend's fun, we successfully built a magnetic tile building (a fail from last weekend), and used it to create another epic Hot Wheels track.

In case you wondered what the inside of a magnetic tile building looked like...

Carter was pretty excited about it!  It's hard to tell from here, but that magnetic tile building is a foot and a half high!

Here it is in action, complete with multiple fun tunnels and an ending on his Stow-n-Go ramp!

It's always fun to create with him, and I can't wait to see what we build next!

Now it's on to another busy week, including Craig leaving on Thursday for a road trip and finishing off the weekend with the Super Bowl.  Oh, and let's throw in a forecast for wind chills cold enough to potentially close school, just for fun!  Never a dull moment...

Settling Back In

Well, it's been quite a whirlwind week or so around our house.  Between snow, a funeral, and the usual stuff--Craig's schedule, Jacob's sports, and keeping the kids from driving us nuts--it's been a lot to take in.

Last week was a bit of a blur in the aftermath of my uncle's passing.  It took a while for them to publicly announce it and to get the plans in order, which meant I spent a couple days just trying to process everything and plan out how we were going to work out the travel amidst the rest of our schedule.  But first, Craig had a road trip to Saskatchewan, which was stressing me out more than usual given the forecast for a major winter storm that was hitting Saturday and Sunday.  He left Friday morning and it was business as usual that day.  We had lacrosse that night--slightly edited team for the winter season, same crappy result--and then we hunkered down to see what the weekend would bring.

Saturday morning it was already snowing more than expected.  I had hoped to take the kids out to lunch that day and make a stop at Wegmans for snacks.  We had been too busy prior, and I figured it might be better to wait anyway after seeing pictures of empty bread shelves posted online.  But between lazy kids and the beginning of my to do list, we were having trouble getting out of the house when I wanted to, and by the time we were all ready, it looked really crappy out and I didn't really want to drive in the few inches of snow we already had.  So, that officially marked the start of our snowbound weekend.  By this point, Jacob's first basketball game on Saturday had already been canceled, and we had a strong feeling lacrosse practice Sunday would follow suit.  I was also not planning on going to church since digging out would probably take a while, and I wasn't about to get up at the crack of dawn for that on a weekend.  So all we really had to do was keep up with shoveling and hope that Craig could get home on Sunday.  We played with magnetic tiles, tolerated Jacob's current video game obsession (probably an entire post on that soon), and watched some movies.  I shoveled multiple times.  I tried mac and cheese in the Instant Pot.  I drank wine.

Magnetic tiles - Carter's creation in the back, and mine (a challenge from the idea book) in the front

The other side of Carter's fancy fort.  Those triangles shoot as a defense mechanism.

I really sort of loved it when the dinosaur ended up on my tower.

Unfortunately, by the time we had enough snow to play in, it was super cold and windy, and the snow was actually too fluffy to be fun.  No snowballs or snowmen, and it was even impossible to climb snow piles to sled down because you instantly sunk into the pile up to your hip.  So that was sort of a bust.  By early Sunday we had 15.5" in our backyard!  Thank goodness for the neighbor that came to help me with the apron, since a foot of snow in the road leaves quite a mess from the plow.

The window screen made this a tough shot, but this was Sunday morning's view from the kitchen.  That lump in the back is the neighbor's car drifted in, and in the bottom left is our bird feeder, which had a legit foot of snow on top.

Miraculously, Craig had no trouble getting home on Sunday afternoon from Toronto, despite blowing snow and crappy roads.  We were all very happy to see him!  It was a pretty quiet afternoon and evening, and since we were stuck at home, I experimented with easy dinner - breakfast pizza on the right, and mac and cheese pizza on the left.

Breakfast pizza was preferred, but mac and cheese was pretty fun.

The snow continued to blow and fall, and by Monday morning we had a few more inches.  Craig had some work to do that morning, so I was back out shoveling again.  I thought my back had about had it, as I had to stop and stretch every so often.  Apparently 20 inches over three days is my limit!  It had been a lot of work, though I'm thankful it was light snow.  Long story short, I'm over snow at this point, but it looks like more is in the forecast.

In addition to the extra snow, Monday started out stressful.  We had a couple mishaps involving our vehicles--one involving our garbage can and another involving a car that wouldn't start (sixth time's a charm, I guess).  We went out to lunch, got Craig an oil change, and finally restocked at Wegmans before heading off to Buffalo.  It was bitterly cold and some of the roads were still pretty awful, but Carter was cozy and content...

The boys stayed for a couple hours of funeral home time, but then Craig took them out for dinner and they left for Rochester shortly after they returned.  Craig had work commitments the next day and the boys had school anyway, so he came home with them and I stayed for the funeral the next day, with the plan to get a ride home from my cousin and aunt.

The funeral home included the usual mix of gut-wrenching sadness and pleasant family conversation.  I truly love my family and relish any time I get to spend with them, even if the reason is the worst possible.  I had some genuinely good chats and many good memories were shared.  The pics I supplied from my scanned stash were definitely enjoyed by all.  But it was so sad seeing my uncle laying there and knowing I'd never talk to him again, knowing he'd miss his son's wedding, and generally just coming to terms with the new normal his family is facing.  My cousin's fiancée probably wins the award for the toughest position, as she's still relatively new to the family and had to meet lots of new people, accept congratulations on the engagement, and receive condolences on this loss, practically all in the same breath.  She ended up overwhelmed by the amount of love and support she saw, and seems genuinely grateful to be marrying into a family like ours, so that was nice, but I can only imagine how overwhelming this all was.  On a personal note, I very much enjoyed meeting my uncle's sister-in-law (his brother passed a couple years back) and his niece.  They were a lot of fun to talk to and I was sorry I didn't have the chance to know them while my uncle was still alive.  But the stories about both brothers were classic!

As I mentioned in my last post, my uncle was one-of-a-kind, and his arrangements reflected that.  The family wore St. Louis Cardinals attire at the wake, there was fishing gear in the corner, and he sported casual attire in the casket.  In addition, the service was filled with lighthearted recollections of his unique nature, and the recessional music was the 70s classic, "Spirit in the Sky", which caught us all off guard and led to lots of smiles and happy tears on the usually sad walk out of the church behind the casket.  It was all perfectly him.

This is on the wall of my old bedroom, and while it's been there a while, seeing it above my suitcase the morning of the funeral, it definitely took on richer meaning.  It's absolutely true.

I came home on Tuesday evening after some bonus family time, and then it was back to the grind on Wednesday.  It was a busy few days at work, and Jacob had two nights of practice and a game tonight (officially his 18th straight loss with the same team--at least he scored, but yeah, he's not happy).  His first basketball game is tomorrow, which is super exciting.  He's been waiting for it seemingly forever, and with his confidence that he can make it to the NBA, I guess there's nothing to do but take the first step.  He did sort of show up his coach last night, I guess.  His coach was encouraging them to do lay-ups and not shoot from three-point range.  But when he asked if anyone could make it from out there, Jacob piped up (of course) that he can make 9-out-of-10.  So the coach had him shoot.  Swish.  And another time.  Swish.  At which point the coach said, "Okay, we're done," and later admitted he had some egg on his face!  So, we have a good three-point shooter, it appears, but we'll see how he does in an actual game with teammates and opponents!

I'm glad to have another weekend to hopefully recharge and get back to some sort of normalcy, even if chances are I'll come out of it more tired--as usual. It was a tough week, but I'm hoping better times are ahead.

Not Again.

So, in the wake of the one year anniversary of my uncle's passing on Tuesday, I woke up Wednesday thinking about how challenging that week was last year, not just emotionally, but practically, given that I'd had off work on Monday for a holiday and then had to be off for a couple days at the end of the week (and I'm sure in between was no picnic, either).  Then I thought about how much I have going on at work right now and how I was hopeful that Carter's illness last week took care of my crazy week quota for a while.  And then, a few hours later, my phone rang at work. 

Usually when my mom calls me at work it's something of a somewhat urgent nature--not bad, necessarily, but maybe just something that needs to be worked out quickly.  While I had that momentary surge of panic I get every time I get an unexpected call from my parents number, I never dreamed my mom would tell me what she did--that my Uncle Dave had passed away.  Literally a year and a day after Uncle Cliff, now it was the husband of my dad's other sister.  Noooo.  Not again.

Uncle Dave had been having a lot of health issues lately.  He'd had concerning heart problems a few years back that seemed to have stabilized, but just recently he was having trouble again.  At Christmas we knew things weren't good, but they were looking into options.  But apparently none worked out and unbeknownst to me, he had been in the hospital for a week.  Things went downhill rather quickly, and here we are.

I'm heartbroken, obviously, for so many reasons.  I can't quite fathom how my aunt, as independent as she can be, will process this after 40+ years of marriage.  I feel terrible for my cousins, one of whom lives across the country and is probably regretting not having more time with his dad in the time he's been away.  The other was one of my best family buds growing up, and he just got engaged to a wonderful woman.  So, even without having seen them yet, I can only imagine the range of emotions they're all dealing with.

On a broader level, our family will certainly never be the same without him.  He was definitely a different sort of character--an outdoorsman, sports lover, a little rougher around the edges than some, or at least of the no-frills variety.  He was never afraid to speak his mind, though sometimes at family events he tended to quietly stick along the fringes.  I think he liked to observe the rest of us crazy people and interject when he felt it was necessary.  You never quite knew what he might say.  I would say that as I got older, I feel like most conversations with him ended with him encouraging me in some way--either supporting me in parenting or very simply complimenting my appearance.  It was all very subtle--to the extent that I didn't really realize that tendency until now, thinking back on what I remember about him.  He probably knew I was stressed and just wanted to give me that little boost.

He loved his family fiercely, and his boys' pursuits were always at the forefront.  He loved sports, especially baseball, and could frequently be found umpiring back in the day.  He was a teacher by trade and very much enjoyed his retirement by taking on a much more "relaxed" look once he was free of Catholic high school standards!  The flannels and ponytail he sported in later years were an interesting look, but hey, past a certain point whatever works for you!

One thing I will remember most, though, is how he was with Carter.  I remember numerous times when Carter was little, when he was being a little fussy or needed some attention, and Uncle Dave would swoop in and grab him.  Sometimes I think Carter initially wasn't too sure what was happening, but inevitably he was oddly cool with it.  I say oddly because out of all of the warm, sweet-talking folks in the room that he could have cozied up to, he was so content in the arms of the bearded, rougher-voiced guy that scooped him up without a word.  And interestingly, my cousin Brian (his son) had much the same effect in those days.  Must have been a family thing.  But I always remember being grateful for the diversion and amazed at how Carter took to him, especially given he didn't see him as much.  There must have just been something about him that clicked.  I feel so much sadness in thinking about those times now because with the recent engagement he was likely a mere couple years away from grandparenthood, and I know he would have loved it so much.  It's a tragedy he never got the opportunity, but I hope any moments he had with Carter gave him a little bit of that joy.

On Wednesday I spent my lunch hour looking through my parents' scanned photos to find some classics to send to Brian.  It was once again a bittersweet process, much like it was to scan them in the wake of Uncle Cliff's passing.  To see a young, cool dude and a new father, and then think about today's reality...well, it stinks.

Just a couple kids...

This one with baby Brian on Christmas melted my heart.  That chair was my grandpa's chair for so many years.  Ahhh, memories.

Spoon hanging was a family pastime at weddings!  On the far left is my Uncle Bink, my dad's oldest brother, who we lost in 1997. 💔

I loved this one because big smiles were rare from him and I see both his boys in his face.

50th Birthday - closer to his look in later years

With a snowstorm coming through this weekend, we have to wait until Monday to start our official goodbyes.  As usual, I'm not looking forward to facing the sadness and finality, but I love my family and always appreciate time spent with them.  Heck, the funeral home run by family friends, we probably feel far more comfortable there than we should.  Regardless, I still can't believe he's gone.  I'm thankful he's no longer in pain or dealing with chronic health issues, but I'm so sad about the good stuff ahead that he'll miss.  Life just isn't fair sometimes, and this is definitely one of those times.  Rest in peace, Uncle Dave.  We'll miss you.

Eviction Notice

Yesterday Carter's tonsils and adenoids officially got their eviction notice!  In just over a month, they will come out, and hopefully our sweet little boy will finally be able to sleep soundly!

This has been a long time coming, although we didn't necessarily think we'd end up here.  We noticed a couple years ago that Carter seemed to snore more than would be expected, especially since he's such a skinny kid.  He does tend to be congested more than I'd like, but then again, so am I, so maybe it's genetic or an unfortunate allergy thing (I'm on allergy shots and medicine and my nose still trickles constantly).  Sometimes I've wondered if it had anything to do with how deformed his nose was when he was born.  It was smooshed to the side a bit, probably because he came out sunny side up and possibly could have gotten it caught up on my pubic bone or something.  Perhaps his septum is super deviated as a result?

We did the sleep study over a year ago, and at that time he was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea.  I noticed him snoring a little that night, but the bigger issue ended up being that he moved around a lot.  He was basically slightly rousing himself constantly, which meant his sleep was not good.  They thought it might be a restless leg thing, which was potentially validated when his ferritin levels came back low, since low iron can contribute to restless leg.  No one has really explained why his ferritin levels might be low, though friends of ours had the same issue with their son, so maybe it's more common than you'd think?  On a related note, I'm getting concerned about Carter's lack of weight gain even though he's continuing to get taller, so that will probably be the next thing we chat with the doctor about.  Is he just skinny, or is his body not absorbing what it needs for some reason, ferritin included?

Anyway, it's hard to say if the constant motion has gotten better since we've been supplementing for the past year, but I do think the apnea has gotten worse.  The snoring happens every night for at least a few hours, and is terrible when he's on his back.  He can't seem to breathe through his mouth despite his nose being stuffy, so he's constantly struggling to breathe properly.  He tries to inhale so hard that his whole body is jarred, and if he can't get the air in, his body will wake him up just enough to roll over and take a breath through his mouth in the process.  It's painful to watch and impossible to sleep through.  When I was in a hotel bed next to him I constantly rolled him on his side, as it seems to get better that way.  That's what makes me think it's not just congestion, but something internal that moves out of the way when he's on his side.

His tonsils traditionally haven't been huge, but when he got his strep diagnosis last week they were large, and the ENT seemed to indicate they were still big yesterday.  I think his issue is more the adenoids, since they would seem to impact the nose more, and that's where he's breathing.  It's been worse since around Thanksgiving, culminating in the return of nighttime wetting accidents, which hadn't been an issue in years.  Everyone seems to be in agreement that this is the cause, and that surgery will help.  Originally with the "mild apnea" diagnosis and the unremarkable tonsil size, we were given the option to do the surgery, and for a while it didn't seem necessary.  Now we think it is.

I can't help but wonder how noticeable the improvement will be.  Lots of friends insist their kids are so much better.  But, I mean, I know he should sleep more quietly, and I assume it will be higher quality sleep.  Will it change when he needs to wake up?  Will it change his behavior?  Will he learn better at school?  I read somewhere once that interrupted sleep like that can basically make you have that awful, overtired, almost drunk feeling, so I can see how that would be a bit distracting and disorienting.  Carter seems to have great long term memory, but sometimes his short term is lacking, and I can't help but wonder if this could be part of the problem.  Someone even mentioned their kid could hear better, so maybe that's an issue, too, as his speech probably isn't as clear as I feel like it should be right now.  Heck, maybe his lack of weight gain could be aided too, if this makes him feel better, burn less calories overnight, and just generally helps his body properly recharge.  Who knows?

My biggest fear, of course, is that we'll go through this whole process and it will be for nothing.  Well, my real biggest fear is that something goes wrong, but my second biggest fear is that we'll go through all of this and find out later that it was, in fact, a deviated septum or something like that.  This is going to be a lengthy recovery--two weeks out of school and another week with very limited physical activity, and soft foods throughout.  You'd think in the 35 years since I had my tonsils removed that they'd have improved this process, but it sounds every bit as miserable, lengthy, and painful as it was then.  I'm dreading having to feed him such a limited menu, and figuring out the work-life balance to be home with him will be a challenge (though my job is very understanding and supportive).  We managed to schedule it during winter break, which means he'll miss less school, but it's only four days after his birthday, so that will be a bit of a bummer--though at least he'll be home for two weeks with new toys!  I really would have liked to do it sooner, but between the school issue and Craig's schedule and Jacob's sports, this really ended up being the best option.  But another month of anxiety and bad sleep isn't ideal either.  I worry that some sort of permanent damage is being done while he sleeps like this, but I'm just not sure there was a better way to get it done without turning all of our lives upside-down.

Committing to send your kid into surgery really sucks.  Jacob's been put under three times (and it's never easy), but this will be Carter's first time so you just never know how he'll respond.  Craig and Jacob both take extra long to come out of anesthesia, and it always makes me extra nervous.  As much as I know this is a routine surgery, I can't shake my worry.  And the aftermath can be a little crazy with the bleeding risk, so the whole thing just has me anxious.  It's always been tough with Jacob, but there's something about Carter--he's always been my peanut, and he has this sweet, innocent personality--that makes it harder to know we're actively doing something (somewhat voluntarily) that's going to cause him pain.  A couple weeks of it, in fact.  It makes my heart hurt, but I know--based on all the info we currently have in front of us--that this is important.  I want him to sleep well, breathe easily, and grow up big and strong.  This is a necessary step to that.  It still stinks.  We have a month to prepare and pray, and I just hope we're timing it out well and everything will go smoothly.  To be continued in 35 days...

Une autre anniversaire...

After all of the anniversaries yesterday, I realized there was one more fun one I didn't mention.  Twenty-three years ago right now, I was in Quebec City on a trip that was literally a dream come true.

When I was in high school, I was obsessed with French Canada.  It was mostly a hockey thing, but I loved speaking French and wanted nothing more than to go to Quebec.  During my senior year of high school, the National Honor Society was trying to think of a trip to take (after a New York City trip a couple years earlier that caused some problems), and a French teacher shared that they were looking for more people for that year's trip for the advanced level French classes.  Here was the opportunity I was waiting for--I was going to get to go to Quebec!

We left on the Friday before MLK Day, and drove overnight.  It was one of the worst nights of my life, between kids wanting to watch movies until 3am and not being able to sleep in a bus seat.  When I finally grabbed a couple hours of sleep, I woke up to the scene of early morning Montreal passing me by.  It was so cool to see French everywhere and see the beautiful city skyline.  I was in awe!

When we got to Quebec City a couple hours later, we immediately went on a walking tour of Old Quebec.  It was freezing!  But the city was completely enchanting!

A lot of pictures ended up with fluffy gloves blocking the lens!

Part of the walled section of the city

The view from the Plains of Abraham was gorgeous. There was once a battle here in the French and Indian War.

We got to walk through the Chateau Frontenac, and it was gorgeous.  I wish I had pictures, but I seem to have missed a lot on this trip!

In this row of shops was an "adult" shop, and it got quite the bunch of giggles from a crew of high school kids!

The city was on two levels, and you had two options to make the shift.  Either take the Funiculaire...

...or L'Escalier Casse Cou (Breakneck Steps)...

The streets were so cute.  We stopped in little shops and ate chocolate croissants at a café.

It's sort of fuzzy now, but I think that was the night we went to an Italian restaurant in the city that let us grill our own garlic bread, and then we went to an Imax movie.  It got a little crazy because one kid fell asleep and had his face painted with makeup.  He had no idea and ended up totally embarrassed.  It led to some unfortunate shenanigans later in the trip when he tried to save face by going out and getting drunk, but it was funny at the time.  That night I enjoyed watching my favorite player, Pierre Turgeon, playing for the Montreal Canadiens on the French Canadian version of Hockey Night in Canada...and then I fell dead asleep after a crazy day!

On Sunday we stopped at the Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre shrine, which was so beautiful.  I wish the inside pics would have turned out, because there were mosaics everywhere.

We also stopped a little sugar shack, and I was obsessed with this hockey wall!

We spent most of the day at an amazing snow park going tubing.  It was below zero cold, and with multiple layers to keep warm, it was so much fun!  I'd never seen a place that tows you up the hill, and the runs were huge and exhilarating!  We even went on a tube the size of a white water raft, and it was amazing!

That night we went to a wonderful dinner at a sugar shack that based most of the dinner on maple syrup!  We were encouraged to put it on everything!  After dinner we went on a sleigh ride and ate maple taffy fresh out of a trough of snow.  It was so good!

I loved Quebec so much and hated to leave.  But Monday morning, it was time to go.  This was a view from our hotel that morning.

We stopped at a mall on our way out of town, and my favorite memories from there were getting another chocolate croissant, buying a stuffed Kermit from McDonald's, which was selling NHL-themed Muppets at the time, and finding a La Presse newspaper in the stairway with an article about one of my favorite hockey players at the time--and being able to read it!  It was a very long trip home, but it was the trip of a lifetime for 17-year-old me.  It took me three years to get back, that time to Montreal during spring break, and 13 years after that to go back as a family of three.  I still love it there and am sort of hoping we can make a trip there when we travel to Watertown this summer.  Time to make more Quebec memories, I think!

I got nostalgic this morning because the CD in my car was the Canadian techno CD I listened to non-stop at the time, including on those very long bus rides.  And now that all my photos have been scanned, I figured it might be fun to share.  Thanks for bearing with me on a little trip down memory lane!  See, January isn't all bad!

News and Notes, Anniversary Edition

Another weekend, down, but at least it was relatively productive.  Craig was on the road so it was just me and the boys.  We had lacrosse on Friday night, a quiet day on Saturday with just a trip to Walmart, and church, Aldi, Hot Wheels track building, and lacrosse practice today.  I even made some homemade chicken noodle soup in the Instant Pot (although how does Carter not like chicken noodle soup?!).  The time in between was spent finally taking down the Christmas tree, rearranging furniture, and getting some final homes for the toys that had been sorted a couple weeks ago.  It felt good to get the house back into some sort of decent shape.  I mean, it could still use some tweaking, but just getting a third TV-facing chair back in the living room felt good.  The slightly pared down toys seem to be good enough for now.  I think I still have a few things to bring back up from the basement, but so far so good right now.

It's been a little bit of a long weekend since I was off with Carter on Friday.  Craig left mid-morning for San Diego, so I had no choice but to stay home with a still-feverish Carter.  After the stomach bug on Tuesday night, he had a solid 101 fever until midday Friday.  I got him into the doctor on Thursday morning because I had a sneaking suspicion that he might have strep throat.  Jacob has had vomiting as a symptom of strep before, and when the fever stuck around, it got me wondering.  The doctor said his tonsils were really swollen and red, and sure enough, strep it is!  The fever stuck around through three rounds of antibiotics, so that left us home on Friday.  He was actually feeling pretty good by then, and by early afternoon I could tell his fever was done.  Thankfully now he's doing well.

Today is the four-year anniversary of losing my job.  That was such a difficult day--pure shock and fear of the future.  Clearly I shouldn't have worried, but for a while it was very scary.  In the end I look back on that time fondly, as I enjoyed having some time at home--both with Carter and to have time for myself.  I could work out, run errands, and get all of my house work done during the day, which made dinner and evenings far less stressful.  It was nice while it lasted, even though it was really important to get back to a paycheck by the time I actually did.  Four years later, I'm happy where I am.  Even though I don't always love the thought of going into work, it's a good fit for me and I feel thankful to have ended up where I did.

Tomorrow is the three-year anniversary of Jacob's leg surgery.  What a time that was.  It was such a crazy few months of limbo--waiting to see what would need to be done, then waiting for the surgery, and then working our way through the stages of recovery--weeks in a cast, and then the steady progress of getting back to normal life and eventually sports.  We still wonder what the long-term impact of the surgery was on his lacrosse career, as he was really starting to come into his own when it happened, and it took him a while to get back up to speed.  Sometimes I feel like everyone else grew by leaps and bounds during that time, and maybe he got left behind a bit.  But he's had a lot of ups and downs since so it's hard to tell where he stands now.  Still, I'm so grateful he came through it okay and it wasn't more serious in the long term.

On a related note, we've continued having trouble with lacrosse lately.  Jacob is just sort of over it.  After being stuck on a terrible team with younger kids in the spring and not winning a game, he ended up on the lesser of two teams this fall and once again did not win a game.  We heard that the teams were getting reorganized for the winter season that starts this week, but once again it seems he ended up on the short end, so it could be a challenging couple months ahead.  He's also grumpy about his travel team practice, and I can't really blame him on that either.  It's months of practice (right through the dinner hours every Sunday) for literally two days of games in the spring.  It's far from ideal for any of us.  

On the bright side, he started basketball this week.  He had practice on Thursday and seemed to enjoy it.  His first game is next weekend, and it should be really interesting to see how he does.  For a kid who has big NBA dreams, it could be the first game of a long career.  I do worry that it won't go as well as he thinks, and potentially he could end up going down the same road he has with lacrosse, where he loses interest when things start getting harder.  But I know he has talent so hopefully it comes through and he can be a good teammate on top of it.  Stay tuned!

Also, I wanted to share this funny picture of Jacob from my phone.  Last week before the Strong Museum visit, we went to Burger King for dinner and Jacob got a black cherry Icee.  It was actually black in color, and he was pretty amused by how his mouth looked afterward.  I let him use my phone so he could see himself, and this is what happened... 

As I mentioned, today Carter and I took advantage of a less cluttered living room to set up a pretty fun Hot Wheels track with a few obstacles.  He started narrating it so cutely...

And take 2...

It was fun to have some playtime with him again after a couple months of holiday planning and a full living room and every other excuse in the book.  He can be really fun to play with, and I told him today when the tablet wasn't an option (I was saving the time for Jacob's practice) that it's so nice to watch him play like that because he's so creative!  He can be so silly and so imaginative, and if I have to put up with his funny little "office" under the dining room table to keep it going, so be it!

Tomorrow is Carter's follow-up with the ENT to start the process on the tonsils and adenoids.  I'm looking forward to getting their thoughts on where we go from here.  I have the video I took in Niagara Falls of his snoring, which is so much worse than it was when he did the sleep study.  He struggles every night and I know this is getting damaging for him with the lack of quality sleep.  I wonder if he should have a C-Pap in the meantime, so either way I'm hoping we can get this show on the road soon.  Last time they told us it could be a three-month wait, but maybe the video will convince them otherwise?  We have a lot of stuff to figure out in the coming months with school, breaks, work, grandparent availability, etc., so I'd like to get this scheduled so we can plan around it.  The thought of a healthy, well-rested, easy-breathing Carter is so appealing that surgery seems like a mere speed bump, but don't hold me to that the morning of surgery!  I just hope great things are in store for him once he recovers.

One last anniversary is coming up Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of my Uncle Cliff's passing.  It's definitely a sad milestone.  I miss his booming voice and his laugh.  I know the loss is still felt so strongly by his family and beyond, and some days I still can't believe he's gone.  On a better note, his death sort of spurred on my picture scanning project, which I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to do, and in the process I gained a whole new appreciation for the younger him.  Life just isn't fair, but I hope his heavenly birthday party is awesome.

I'm actually finding myself thankful for the slightly slower, less complicated pace of the January doldrums.  The cold weather still sucks, but our busy-enough schedule keeps things moving while the absence of the holiday chaos is a nice relief.  January is almost half over and it actually hasn't been too bad.  It also hasn't snowed massive amounts and this week's cold is really the first bad stretch we've had, so I suppose that helps, but whatever gets you through, right?  One day at a time.

So, it's definitely an odd time of year with all of the anniversaries (not to mention the constant stream of sicknesses that pop up in my Facebook memories at this time of year), so I'm always a little on edge during this month.  Even still, I'm hopeful for positive things ahead! 

Strong...Part 2

Back in October we went to the Strong National Museum of Play for our annual free night through a company that handles an investment my grandma set up for me.  It went so fast and it felt like we barely had time to do anything that night.  I told Carter we'd have to come back another day and try to hit up the rest.  Turns out we didn't have to wait long, or figure out how to do it on a day that wouldn't be completely overrun with kids.  We got another opportunity for a free night through the national brain study that Jacob participates in!

My first priority this time was to get in to see the butterflies, since we didn't get to in October and there was a special event happening with extra blue morpho butterflies and some Christmas decorations.  I was skittish as usual as the butterflies flew by my head, but I soldiered on tried to get some good pictures!

This butterfly wouldn't stop moving, but you get the idea...

This one was on an ornament...

These butterflies loved the white orchids.  There were a few of them in this area.

We also saw a toucan-type bird...

Sort of hard to pick out the butterfly in this one, but it's clinging to the twine-looking stuff.

There were a bunch of these birds there, too.  I believe they're some sort of quail.  They were little and made me nervous as they darted across the walkways!

Still bugs, but cool ones...

More ornament fans...

I chased this one down for a while until it finally landed...

We liked watching the chameleon, too.  Those eyes are shifty!

This flower made me wish I could go somewhere tropical.

Note the blue body on the underside of this one...

These are the blue morphos.  There were a bunch around, though they mostly liked to sit and eat here.  They're probably my least favorite when they sit like this, but when they open their wings, the iridescent blue inside is so gorgeous.  Of course, none of them would do it for me.  Carter was delighting in telling everyone that the "black thing in the middle" (among the legs and antennae) was the tongue.  According to him, it's really long and they use it like a straw.

It was time to go back out into the museum, so I grabbed a couple last pics before we left...

I took one last picture of Carter in front of the little waterfall, where he loved looking at the turtles.  Ignore his hair--it just got cut a month ago but we're having a heck of a time getting it to stay in place!

Carter's first priority was to go to Wegmans.  He did a round of shopping and scanning, and then wanted to serve me in the prepared foods section.

Then he wanted me to serve him!  Check out his steak!

Next up was one of the newer features.  We looked at it a little last time but spent a bit more time this time.  First he crawled into a nearby tunnel (and later on, so did I) to see some live cockroaches (ewwww), and then we worked on creating a long tunnel of PVC pipe for balls to roll through.  Someone else gave us a great head start, and we worked on perfecting it to go the entire length of the magnetic panels, and addng another section that fed into it halfway down.

Did it work?  See for yourself (sort of)…

It did!  Next it was up to the space ship.  Carter was so cute (and comically serious) about flying it, and I couldn't resist capturing it!

Then we decided to go into a room we visited last on our last visit and didn't have much time to explore.  We played a little with the kinetic sand that we found so cool last time, but on the other side of the room was Carter's absolute favorite part of this trip.  There was a crooked room that made you completely dizzy.  It was tipped at a very sharp angle, so it took some effort just to walk into.  Then walking across it was very disorienting--hard to keep your balance (notice the mats to the left) and very quickly makes you dizzy.  I don't even know if it explained the science behind it, but it was crazy!

This is a little hard to make out, but I tried to take video and of course a bunch of kids ran through.

After making a quick trip upstairs to wander through the video games, we tracked down the Slinky stairs that Carter wanted to find (where you can make a Slinky go down stairs) and ended up hanging out there when Craig and Jacob came back from their stint in the pinball room.  We got into watching people play this interactive motion game, and I couldn't help but snap a picture when Jacob had to do the hula with G.I. Joe!

It honestly seemed like we didn't get to do that much on this visit either, but the boys were satisfied so we comfortably headed out just as the museum was closing.  It was nice to have the chance to check out a few things we didn't see last time.  I swear you could spend days there, and yet now they're building an expansion!  They'll need multi-day passes now, I think!  We're so lucky to have this here in town.

Unfortunately, I think Carter brought home a souvenir - a nasty virus that brought on a stomach bug last night and a 101 fever and sore throat today.  I feel so bad for him because it's sad to see our happy boy so wiped out.  The puking episodes were rough because it's been so long since his last bug and he had some relearning to do.  He actually first did it in the van on the way back from Jacob's lacrosse practice, and he initially just thought he was hungry.  Luckily the damage was minimal--mostly on his coat and pants, and just a little on his seat--and not much overall as it was.  We got lucky.  It took a while for rounds 2 and 3 to hit--he napped right after he got home, and a couple sips of water got the ball rolling again--but it was all over by 11:30.  Thank goodness, because he was so pathetically miserable in the middle of it.  If it's not better tomorrow morning, we might take him into the doctor for a strep test because our kids seem to have odd symptoms most of the time.  Hopefully it passes soon and no one else gets it.  Between Jacob's first basketball practice, Craig's roadtrip, two doctor appointments, and a lacrosse game and practice, we have just a few things going on over the next four days.  But for now, it looks like the curse of early January has hit us again!