I was hesitant to write about this here for fear that someday Jacob will read this and be mortified, but I feel like I'd be doing a disservice to my parenting experience if I left this out. It appears we're getting to the point of parenthood/tweenhood where we have to confront everyone's least favorite topic: S-E-X.
Uuugggghhhh...I'm seriously not ready for this. I know he's getting the "official" school sex ed sometime between now and the end of the school year, which is fine--I'm okay with him knowing the basic facts. He should know how it works, what body parts are going to do what, and that sort of thing. I still remember learning it in fifth grade myself--mortifying as it was. We watched some awkward video, or maybe even had a filmstrip? Either way, it was bad. I was still a good 2-3 years away from most of puberty at that point, but other girls certainly weren't so I suppose it was important. My most vivid memory was the mad dash back into the classroom to hide our maxipad sample in our bookbags before the boys could see them. Awkward.
The thing is, we've already gone through some of the puberty/sex stuff with him--just as things came up. Whether it was about how babies were made, or that girls have periods, stuff has just come up and we've tried to handle it as much as we could without getting into graphic detail--partly because I'm not sure what he can mentally process and be okay with it, and partly because I didn't want inappropriate fodder for the lunch table. I mean, if you tell a kid that a girl can bleed for a week, I can see that going really badly if the boys tell each other and decide to gang up on a girl who may or may not actually be menstruating. Even insinuating it could be disastrous for that girl. Boys are stupid at this age, and when things are happening to girls before they happen to them, let's just say that the empathy may not be there just yet. No need to add fuel to the fire or give him any extra ammunition.
But last week Jacob was sort of hinting that he had come into some new information on the topic, and miraculously he shared a bit with me on the way to basketball practice. I won't get into detail, but essentially it sounds like at least one or two of his friends have significant (read: all the way) experience with the topic. He shared a couple details he learned that were accurate--as well as one that made me laugh as it was essentially true but very much a 5th grade take on it. Regardless, I pretty much wanted to crawl into a hole and die at the mere thought of fifth graders getting it on. I mean, WHY? Being naked in front of a boy at that age would have been my biggest nightmare, not something to shoot for. The parts can't all be that attractive or functional at this stage, can they? I mean, puberty takes a few years to do its thing, and even if they started last year (which I think would have mostly been a girl thing as they go first), it seems like it would all be a bit premature.
Being that I was much older before this was a thing in my world, I have so many questions of my own. Do condoms even fit right? What kid that age has the nerve to go buy extra smalls at the store? And if they do, who took them there? And where the heck do these kids find the time to do it alone? I would have to think positioning would be awkward without a few years of random sex scenes in TV and movies as a guide (because I know I hadn't seen many, if any, at that age), but I guess YouTube or a single Google search probably takes care of that these days, eh? #losingbattle ðŸ˜
And look, I know this is probably way more common than I want to believe and there are probably pregnant tweens everywhere (or so a friend of mine who works in a city school insinuated on Facebook), but I just can't figure out why any 10 or 11-year-old thinks this is a good idea. Hormones should not be pumping that hard yet, right? Part of me wants to hope these kids are embellishing a bit, or are just insinuating that they've done things to get attention, but I know that's probably wishful thinking. I just find the whole thing distressing and sad. To me that just seems to set the stage for an all-around unhealthy relationship with sex--too many partners over time, going too far before understanding the full consequences (mental, emotional, physical), overemphasizing the role of sex in a true relationship, or even how sexualizing a tween body could impact sexual fantasies/deviancy as a grown adult.
Jacob and I talked a bit about condoms, as he correctly knew they were important, and he was shocked to hear that his father and I have actually used them. I don't know why he was surprised, but there have certainly been times where we didn't want a baby and the pill was not a valid option (mostly related to antibiotic use, which negates the effects of the pill, or when I was off the pill to get pregnant but we needed to stop trying for a while to strategically avoid the Disney trip that ended up getting scrapped anyway). Now he really wants to see one, and I'm tempted to just show him so he can get that out of his system now. In fact, we currently have bananas in the house, so I could even give him the stereotypical school lesson on use (for reference, watch the movie "Never Been Kissed"). Hahaha...but we'll see. But we also talked a bunch about pregnancy and how condoms aren't 100% effective. He wondered what would happen if a 10-year-old had a baby, and I proceeded to explain how many lives it would negatively impact. Of course, he's the boy so truth be told it would probably impact him way less, but I tried to emphasize the burden it puts on families and how awkward it would be to have a dependent, half-grown child when you're just getting out on your own yourself as a young adult. The conversation mercifully ended as we got to practice, and we've only revisited it briefly a few times since.
I've surmised that it's not like he wants to do anything imminently, which is good, but he does still want a girlfriend. It sounds like it's more because everyone else has a significant other (and who am I kidding, so did I at that age), and it seems like he just wants that special friendship. At least, he got this disgusted, "no way" look on his face when I insinuated it might have something to do with what his friends are doing, so I'm hoping that was genuine. His friend did tell him it was "fun" so I definitely have some damage control to do. We haven't really gotten into STDs or the emotional toll or even really the religious aspect of it, so all of those things will need to be discussed at some point. For the record, while the religious thing should be important, I also feel like it's the easiest point to disregard when hormones are pumping, so I'm leaning a bit more heavily on the practical reasons why it's a bad idea. I hope to work in that God intended it for a committed relationship like marriage, and that's really where it works best and is of the highest quality. If I can communicate all that and keep Craig's and my respective histories out of the picture (it's not really any of his business, and who really wants to know that kind of info about their parents, anyway? Talk about fodder for future therapy.), I think it will be a win.
Due to a scheduling snafu, I was able to have some extended one-on-one time with Jacob's therapist to discuss all of this. I figured the professional perspective might be helpful. Even she seemed a bit surprised with how early this was popping up, but she said that everything I'm doing so far sounds just right. She seemed very pleased with how he was responding and said to keep it up. That was validating, at least, but I still feel like I'm feeling my way through a very dark, very cluttered room every time it comes up. There seems to be an infinite number of things to trip me up while blindly navigating this new realm.
The thing is, I want to keep those lines of communication open. I'd rather he talk to me than his friends. Or he could talk to Craig, for that matter, but he seems less willing to do that for some reason. I want to be as honest as I can without going beyond what he needs at this point. I need him to trust me, and hopefully through that I can gauge where he's at and be there when the temptations and decisions start coming. I doubt it will work out that way because tweenhood and teenagerhood suck, but I'll try for a decent foundation, at least.
But it still blows my mind that he has friends doing this stuff...and yet I know it's only going to get worse. Kids just don't understand that they're not invincible, and that these seemingly small decisions can have some major consequences they're not expecting. Not just babies or diseases, but real emotional and mental consequences that can impact their relationships forever. As tempting as it is to value your current happiness over anything else, kids tend to forget they have a long life ahead and the things they do now can have a ripple effect on all of it. Their decision-making skills aren't great at this age, and "you don't know what you don't know", so making what is actually a major life decision without all of the details can be problematic. Jacob tends to think he's basically an adult (ugh) so I have no doubt he'll think he's equipped to make big decisions long before he actually is. He'll learn his fair share of lessons on his own (although learning from his mistakes is not his strong suit), but the stakes are high on this one so I feel like a little extra guidance wouldn't be the worst thing. But I'll be walking on eggshells with every single conversation, and just praying I say the right thing at the right time.
My co-worker's kid tried to bite someone today, and as she told me the story, I realized I've officially hit the stage where the big kid problems make the "huge" little kid problems seem like child's play (pun intended). And this is just the beginning.
Hold on tight, folks...it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Sunday, March 24, 2019
That's a Wrap!
It was a big week, one where we wrapped up two of Jacob's sports! We almost won't even know what to do with our time!
Before we got to that, I want to share this adorable picture of Carter with his late-arriving birthday present from Craig's parents. He has wanted this for so long, and finally got it! And for his picture, of course he hopped right in the box! He was sort of hanging out in the box after that and it unexpectedly broke, which led to a hilarious moment of him falling out backward...which he then wanted to re-enact with me videoing it. Silly boy...
Friday night Jacob had his last lacrosse game for his Storm team. I figured I should take a couple pictures to commemorate the occasion, since he no longer wants to play with them.
They lost yet again--which made three complete seasons without a win. Last spring and this fall and winter were all duds...not a single win, and barely even close in any game. He did what he could, usually chipping in a goal every game or two, but losing that much definitely sucked the life out of him a bit. Still, it was a bummer to see it end, if only because we have met lots of great families over six years in this league, and we're not sure if we'll ever really associate with them anymore unless it's outside lacrosse itself. He's not planning on going back, but we're hoping he'll consider a new team in the fall.
It snowed Friday night (again) and we woke up to an inch or two of snow on Saturday morning. But this was blooming in my kitchen, so it must mean spring is coming!
Then, Saturday afternoon was Jacob's last basketball game. It seems like we waited forever for the tryout night (October), then forever for the team assignments (December), then forever for the first practice and game (January), and now here we are at the end of the season. It's been a bit of a mixed bag. Jacob still loves basketball, but they ended up with a 2-5-1 record and he got no points in the last two games after scoring at least a few in every game prior. He just wasn't getting the ball much, and Saturday's game was against one really tough player who scored almost all of his team's points. That kid was slick, and the first thing I told Jacob is that if he wants to go to the NBA, that's the kind of kid he's going to contend with. He was so good.
He did have to take a couple foul shots. I got the second one on video. The sun was totally in his eyes so it probably wasn't a fair shot.
Sunday was the season-ending celebration for basketball, held at the church where they played half the games.
It was amazing to see a large church overflowing with players and families, especially since we only saw a small percentage of them during the course of the season. There was a juggler named Forrest Davis who did the entertainment, and it was pretty awesome.
I remembered to take video once the plate was up and he started juggling clubs...
Then he went up on a unicycle and juggled knives!
Jacob wasn't that excited about going, but I'm glad we did! Bonus points for him that it set our whole schedule off and he got to miss his travel lacrosse practice. We're still more than two months from training camp and his first tournament, and practice is at a terrible time (Sunday evening, completely through the dinner hours), so we're not super concerned about him missing it, but we have to try to keep him on track now that this will be his only sport for a while. It's our last gasp with lacrosse as a whole, so hopefully we can find some magic in there somewhere to remind him how fun it can be. But he's anti-contact right now ("I don't want to get hit!") and still bitter about being downgraded from his previous team, so it might take a lot to get him to buy back in, even to get through these last couple tournaments.
We still have some figuring out to do for his next steps in basketball. He doesn't want to play in this league again next year because he hates the half-court games. They'd end when he hits 7th grade, but between now and then we will undoubtedly be checking out as many camps and team options as we can find. Travel is a possibility, but might not be a valid option just yet. He's got a whole plan in his head to play with a friend of his, but we need to figure out what he's capable of. I wouldn't be surprised if we were back to this next year, but we'll see!
So, now that all of Jacob's weekday sports are done, it's time to start working on Carter. Track and field seems to be his spot, but there aren't many options for Kindergartners in that realm, so we're going to try martial arts first. We have a couple places to check out, and hopefully then we can make a decision on which place and which type, which probably will be influenced by price and time. I'm excited to see him try something new, and I think he needs that kind of outlet. I'd also like to find a soccer league for him as he's been playing it around the house much more lately, but we really need to figure that one out quickly. He's so much more of a wild card, so I think we have some exploring to do to find his niche!
I guess it's a "change is in the air" time of year. Let's hope spring joins in the fun soon!
Before we got to that, I want to share this adorable picture of Carter with his late-arriving birthday present from Craig's parents. He has wanted this for so long, and finally got it! And for his picture, of course he hopped right in the box! He was sort of hanging out in the box after that and it unexpectedly broke, which led to a hilarious moment of him falling out backward...which he then wanted to re-enact with me videoing it. Silly boy...
Friday night Jacob had his last lacrosse game for his Storm team. I figured I should take a couple pictures to commemorate the occasion, since he no longer wants to play with them.
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| I even got a shot of him taking a rare faceoff--they were shorthanded so he played midfield for a bit! |
It snowed Friday night (again) and we woke up to an inch or two of snow on Saturday morning. But this was blooming in my kitchen, so it must mean spring is coming!
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| I've had this plant since Halloween, and it probably stopped blooming a couple months ago. It still looked healthy and had new growth, so I kept it around. One bloom popped last week, and now there are two more! |
Then, Saturday afternoon was Jacob's last basketball game. It seems like we waited forever for the tryout night (October), then forever for the team assignments (December), then forever for the first practice and game (January), and now here we are at the end of the season. It's been a bit of a mixed bag. Jacob still loves basketball, but they ended up with a 2-5-1 record and he got no points in the last two games after scoring at least a few in every game prior. He just wasn't getting the ball much, and Saturday's game was against one really tough player who scored almost all of his team's points. That kid was slick, and the first thing I told Jacob is that if he wants to go to the NBA, that's the kind of kid he's going to contend with. He was so good.
He did have to take a couple foul shots. I got the second one on video. The sun was totally in his eyes so it probably wasn't a fair shot.
Sunday was the season-ending celebration for basketball, held at the church where they played half the games.
It was amazing to see a large church overflowing with players and families, especially since we only saw a small percentage of them during the course of the season. There was a juggler named Forrest Davis who did the entertainment, and it was pretty awesome.
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| Here he's balancing on a ball and holding a spinning plate that's going to go on his head momentarily. |
We still have some figuring out to do for his next steps in basketball. He doesn't want to play in this league again next year because he hates the half-court games. They'd end when he hits 7th grade, but between now and then we will undoubtedly be checking out as many camps and team options as we can find. Travel is a possibility, but might not be a valid option just yet. He's got a whole plan in his head to play with a friend of his, but we need to figure out what he's capable of. I wouldn't be surprised if we were back to this next year, but we'll see!
So, now that all of Jacob's weekday sports are done, it's time to start working on Carter. Track and field seems to be his spot, but there aren't many options for Kindergartners in that realm, so we're going to try martial arts first. We have a couple places to check out, and hopefully then we can make a decision on which place and which type, which probably will be influenced by price and time. I'm excited to see him try something new, and I think he needs that kind of outlet. I'd also like to find a soccer league for him as he's been playing it around the house much more lately, but we really need to figure that one out quickly. He's so much more of a wild card, so I think we have some exploring to do to find his niche!
I guess it's a "change is in the air" time of year. Let's hope spring joins in the fun soon!
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Time Keeps On Slippin'...
This morning I had a random but startling revelation. I was dropping Jacob off at school, and as I looked at the front door I had a flashback to last June. I was coming out of school--possibly after his field trip on his birthday, which was the last full day--and all of the graduating 5th graders were coming into the school together, maybe after a ceremony elsewhere. Or maybe there were just a lot coming into school first thing in the morning, and you could tell who they were because they were dressed up. Regardless...it hit me at that moment that Jacob would be one of them in another year. It felt blissfully far away at that point, even though I knew that the year would inevitably go so fast. And sure enough, this morning it hit me that in about three months, that year will be over and he'll be done at that school. In fact, three months from today he'll be turning 11! It seems like yesterday that we were playing on the school playground right before he was starting there as a third grader. The same thing happened with the three years at his last school--from Kindergarten to the second grade moving up ceremony, just like that. And yes, I know it'll be the same for Carter. We just got our next-to-last report card for both kids, so we're two-thirds of the way through the year. I know Carter has come a long way, but I can barely believe we're here already.
I freaked out even more this morning when I realized how fast three months can go. I figured out that three months ago we were preparing for Christmas, and that doesn't seem like that long ago at all. The first few months of the year typically drag because of the weather and a general lack of highlights aside from Carter's birthday. But I suppose this year, between the surgery and all of Jacob's sports, things have kept moving right along. So in that same amount of time moving forward from now, we'll be at the end of the school year, in the thick of the awesome summer weather, and prepping for a very big year for Jacob. Crazy. It's going to be here so fast!
Mind you, the weather is still making it feel like we're in the thick of winter. It was over 50 today on the first day of spring, but it's snowed pretty much every day this week, and after a two-day respite we'll be back at it Friday and into next week. It'll be April before we get any decent weather, apparently. Easter is late this year, too, so I feel a bit like we're all just sitting here waiting for spring in any form, and by the time those triggers get here, we'll practically be launching head-first into summer. Whenever I think about April being 10 days away and realize that we've done absolutely nothing spring-ish because of the weather, I get a little nervous about how quickly it's going to happen when it finally does--and I'll have to change out closets and fill Easter baskets and clean out the flower beds all at the same time. I know that once the good weather hits, we'll be keeping busy outdoors on weekends and have more activities going on, and time is going to fly even faster. Of course, yesterday I had the realization that we never really played in the snow this year--mostly because it either melted too fast or the weather was too cold or windy to stay out and enjoy it--and I quietly bemoaned the loss of memories that were never made. They're only little once, and we only get so many winters to play.
Lately I've had a lot of those moments where I see an old picture of Jacob or think about something he did and realize that Carter is now way older than Jacob was in that moment. Carter definitely seems younger than Jacob--his size, baby face, and laid-back personality all contribute--but when I think that at this age Jacob had already been playing youth lacrosse for over a year, or that Carter's only a couple months shy of a year older than Jacob was when we went to Disney, it blows my mind. We're planning on signing Carter up for martial arts at some point soon, so I won't feel like we're so behind on the organized sports thing. With Jacob, getting him into sports was a priority, but Carter is so much more laid back that it fell off the radar a bit. Sometimes I feel like we get so busy with daily life that we forget how on-the-ball we may have been with something years ago when we had less to juggle. Funny how priorities can shift, I guess...or maybe I'm just that tired.
Speaking of lacrosse, this Friday will be Jacob's last house lacrosse game, maybe ever. He's more than ready to quit the sport entirely, but he has to slog through another few months of travel since we're already paid up for that. He's gone through three complete house seasons now without a win (Friday should not change that), and it's definitely taken its toll. Add in not getting playing time over the summer and then not making his same travel team, and it's pretty clear that any confidence he had is gone. It's just not fun anymore (not that "fun" is really in his vocabulary for sports, per my previous post), but it's still a sad end of an era. Five and a half years of time and money and effort...and while I'm sure he learned a lot along the way, it all feels a bit empty now. I really thought he'd play lacrosse forever...or at least into young adulthood. That's what made all of our efforts worth it--we were building something important and long-lasting. And maybe someday he'll go back, but I very much doubt it. Basketball has taken over, seemingly forever (again), but with a very competitive high school team in his future, who knows where that will go? Either it'll go well, or we'll find ourselves in a very similar situation in a few years when this sport loses its luster. Let's hope not, though.
Anyway, time is flying by. The days are long but the years are short, as they say. Daily life keeps us busy and I find myself wishing away time to get through work, only to struggle through tough evenings with the boys and a house full of chores. Rinse, repeat, and hope for the weekend. But all that wishing away is dangerous. I remember a story in a book I once read (in the context of physical purity in a pre-marital relationship) about a magic ball where you could pull out a string to fast-forward time. The person in the story used it to forward through the "boring" parts, but suddenly they found themselves with no more string and life was over. They had missed so much of life because those insignificant moments actually added up to something significant. I feel like that's my problem right now, too, so I'm trying to appreciate our family moments when I can--the few peaceful ones we have, anyway. It's all going fast enough even without a magic string, and I know it won't be slowing down anytime soon. I just need to settle in and enjoy the ride.
I freaked out even more this morning when I realized how fast three months can go. I figured out that three months ago we were preparing for Christmas, and that doesn't seem like that long ago at all. The first few months of the year typically drag because of the weather and a general lack of highlights aside from Carter's birthday. But I suppose this year, between the surgery and all of Jacob's sports, things have kept moving right along. So in that same amount of time moving forward from now, we'll be at the end of the school year, in the thick of the awesome summer weather, and prepping for a very big year for Jacob. Crazy. It's going to be here so fast!
Mind you, the weather is still making it feel like we're in the thick of winter. It was over 50 today on the first day of spring, but it's snowed pretty much every day this week, and after a two-day respite we'll be back at it Friday and into next week. It'll be April before we get any decent weather, apparently. Easter is late this year, too, so I feel a bit like we're all just sitting here waiting for spring in any form, and by the time those triggers get here, we'll practically be launching head-first into summer. Whenever I think about April being 10 days away and realize that we've done absolutely nothing spring-ish because of the weather, I get a little nervous about how quickly it's going to happen when it finally does--and I'll have to change out closets and fill Easter baskets and clean out the flower beds all at the same time. I know that once the good weather hits, we'll be keeping busy outdoors on weekends and have more activities going on, and time is going to fly even faster. Of course, yesterday I had the realization that we never really played in the snow this year--mostly because it either melted too fast or the weather was too cold or windy to stay out and enjoy it--and I quietly bemoaned the loss of memories that were never made. They're only little once, and we only get so many winters to play.
Lately I've had a lot of those moments where I see an old picture of Jacob or think about something he did and realize that Carter is now way older than Jacob was in that moment. Carter definitely seems younger than Jacob--his size, baby face, and laid-back personality all contribute--but when I think that at this age Jacob had already been playing youth lacrosse for over a year, or that Carter's only a couple months shy of a year older than Jacob was when we went to Disney, it blows my mind. We're planning on signing Carter up for martial arts at some point soon, so I won't feel like we're so behind on the organized sports thing. With Jacob, getting him into sports was a priority, but Carter is so much more laid back that it fell off the radar a bit. Sometimes I feel like we get so busy with daily life that we forget how on-the-ball we may have been with something years ago when we had less to juggle. Funny how priorities can shift, I guess...or maybe I'm just that tired.
Speaking of lacrosse, this Friday will be Jacob's last house lacrosse game, maybe ever. He's more than ready to quit the sport entirely, but he has to slog through another few months of travel since we're already paid up for that. He's gone through three complete house seasons now without a win (Friday should not change that), and it's definitely taken its toll. Add in not getting playing time over the summer and then not making his same travel team, and it's pretty clear that any confidence he had is gone. It's just not fun anymore (not that "fun" is really in his vocabulary for sports, per my previous post), but it's still a sad end of an era. Five and a half years of time and money and effort...and while I'm sure he learned a lot along the way, it all feels a bit empty now. I really thought he'd play lacrosse forever...or at least into young adulthood. That's what made all of our efforts worth it--we were building something important and long-lasting. And maybe someday he'll go back, but I very much doubt it. Basketball has taken over, seemingly forever (again), but with a very competitive high school team in his future, who knows where that will go? Either it'll go well, or we'll find ourselves in a very similar situation in a few years when this sport loses its luster. Let's hope not, though.
Anyway, time is flying by. The days are long but the years are short, as they say. Daily life keeps us busy and I find myself wishing away time to get through work, only to struggle through tough evenings with the boys and a house full of chores. Rinse, repeat, and hope for the weekend. But all that wishing away is dangerous. I remember a story in a book I once read (in the context of physical purity in a pre-marital relationship) about a magic ball where you could pull out a string to fast-forward time. The person in the story used it to forward through the "boring" parts, but suddenly they found themselves with no more string and life was over. They had missed so much of life because those insignificant moments actually added up to something significant. I feel like that's my problem right now, too, so I'm trying to appreciate our family moments when I can--the few peaceful ones we have, anyway. It's all going fast enough even without a magic string, and I know it won't be slowing down anytime soon. I just need to settle in and enjoy the ride.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
A Really Great Show (with a Side of Mom Guilt...and Bonus Daughter Guilt!)
Months ago, one of my favorite bands (and pretty much THE favorite of my college roommate Mary) announced their latest tour schedule. Much to our dismay, the tour was coming nowhere near upstate New York. We've seen Needtobreathe in Buffalo twice and Niagara Falls once (and Mary saw them in Syracuse another time I couldn't), but this tour was nowhere close. However, they were coming to Lancaster, PA, which is less than an hour from Mary's parents' house. She hatched a plan to head down there, but Craig had two games in two nights so my involvement would necessitate my parents' help. I was concerned about it but figured I'd just leave it be until after we got through Carter's surgery and reassess then.
Well, we got through the surgery and it was time to decide. Even though Jacob had two games during the time I'd be gone, my parents were up for it, so we put the plan in place. On Friday I sent the boys off in the morning and hopped in the car by myself. Of course, I had a million things to do just to get to that point--packing, laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, cleaning, setting out pillows for my parents, even two burned out light bulbs...the list seemed endless! I got out the door just on time and started my drive to Mary's apartment in Syracuse.
It was a fun drive on that leg, particularly in the beginning when the sun was shining. It had been warm on Thursday (over 65--between that and Pi Day at work, it was a great afternoon!) and Friday was cooler but pleasant, so driving in that with 80s power ballads blasting was a lot of fun! Pretty sure I couldn't have looked any more like the escaping mom relishing her freedom! I got to Mary's around 11am and we headed off to pick up two friends of hers who were coming as well. We stopped to pick up a quick lunch to go, and then we were officially on the road!
It was a long drive, and we only had a couple stops--one for gas and another for a bathroom break, at which point we were able to enjoy the 75 degree weather in Pennsylvania! It was sunny but windy, and the temperature felt so perfect! We made it to Mary's parents' just before dinnertime. As we were getting ready for dinner, it randomly poured outside, thunder and all. Fortunately, while it cooled off as a result, it was still pleasant and we didn't even need jackets when we left for the show!
As we got driving, it was still raining on and off, but was sunny in another direction. That, of course, is the perfect recipe for a rainbow!
The rainbow was short to begin with, but it was periodically a double and then eventually stretched all the way across the sky! It was especially scenic when we crossed over some water...
...but by then it was apparent that we were driving back into some real rain. The skies were dark in the direction we were heading. And yet, the rainbow held out, and behind us was an amazing sunset. This picture sort of captures all of it...
As we got closer to Lancaster, it really started coming down. It was hardcore, to the point where we had to slow way down and could barely see. There was lightning and wind. It was intense! And of course, our thoughts turned to how we'd get into the venue in driving rain without an umbrella! Then, as we got to the theater, we saw their sign that said, "LOT FULL". UGH. We were already running late due to the weather, and now we had to figure out parking. Luckily, it seemed like everyone was just going to the strip mall across the street and parking there, so we did too. And just as we parked, the rain let up to a light drizzle, so we made it into the theater mostly unscathed!
We literally walked into the theater itself as the band was coming on stage. Whew! The show was AMAZING. It always is, but this show had an "acoustic" theme, so we weren't sure what to expect since their shows are usually pretty rockin'. They sat in chairs for most of it, but it wasn't entirely unplugged. The volume was a bit lower than usual for most of it (so, perfect--no ringing ears!), but the energy was still very much intact! The lead singer's voice is so awesome, and it sounds just like it does on albums...if not better!
Near the end of the show they did unplug completely and sing without microphones or amps. They've done it before and it's always pretty cool as it makes the audience stay very quiet and their voices sound so pure. They actually sang my favorite song that way, which was a complete opposite of how they performed it during their last tour. That time it was loud and bold and super high energy, so hearing it quiet and slow this time was actually a neat contrast!
We had such a great time at the show, but all too soon it was over. We had a 45 minute drive back to the house, so we stopped at a Wawa gas station to pick up some late night snacks. They had so much stuff that I felt a little like Mavis in Hotel Transylvania 2 when she goes to the place like 7-Eleven and sees the wall of "Slur-pays"! I opted for an Icee (cherry and cola mixed) and then found out that Wawa's soft pretzels were supposedly outstanding, so I grabbed a half a pretzel (they were packaged that way), and was a very happy camper!
I was quite tired by the time we arrived back at the house, and we quickly figured out sleeping situations - one twin bed, three air mattresses, three different rooms - and settled in. I was perfectly comfortable on my air mattress, but I could not sleep at all. I don't know if it was the wind hitting the house, the sugar and/or caffeine from my Icee, or sleep aids gone wrong, but I could not sleep. At least I was very comfy and relaxed. I think I got some after about 2am, but people were up and about by 6:30 so I didn't do much more than doze until a little after 7am when I gave up. So, not much sleep, but luckily adrenaline got me through, as I wasn't the least bit sleepy by the time I had to drive home myself!
We had a nice, slow morning. Mary's mom made some breakfast (a French toast bake and pop-open can cinnamon rolls--oh, how I miss those!), and we all eventually got ourselves dressed before spending some quality time with the animals and Mary's parents. Their dog Charlie is the sweetest thing. He's quiet and affectionate, and has such an endearing face! He just loves people so much and was apparently a little mopey after we left!
We ventured out into the now-cold and windy weather to meet the horses. Mary and her mom are horse people, and the barn on their property is the perfect spot to let two old horses retire. One of them was actually Mary's horse when we were in college, and they got a chance to reacquire her a couple years back, so I finally got the chance to meet her. The other horse, Coop, was hilarious. He's very social and was right over the fence to say hi!
However, when he realized we had no treats, he took to eating the fence and pawing at the grass. He cracked us up.
The area where they live is out in the country a bit, but it was beautiful. They're a bit elevated, so the views in every direction were really pretty. You might be able to see if you zoom into this picture and look in the distance. It was a great setup for the horses, though!
After spending a couple hours just chatting with her parents (which was very entertaining), it was time to head out. We stopped somewhere around Hazleton, PA to get a late lunch, and while we waited for everyone to get their food, I checked my phone. I had a message from Craig that was telling me that he was leaving later than expected for his trip to Toronto, and then he dropped in the small detail that my mom almost BROKE HER TOE. Seriously?! So of course I had to call him and get the story. It appears that the night before, the light to our basement didn't turn on (it may have been that it's a CFL bulb that took a second to turn on, so she thought it didn't work--but I guess we'll never know) and she missed a step at the bottom. Her big toe curled under her foot. She iced it and tried to make the best of it overnight despite the pain. She actually didn't even wake up my dad, aside from him hearing the noise she made when it happened and asking if she was okay, only because he'd have worried about it all night. So she didn't sleep much, and in the morning they went to urgent care to get it x-rayed. It wasn't broken, but perhaps sprained. She spent most of the day icing it before they headed out to Jacob's basketball game later in the afternoon. Once they came back from a post-game dinner, the ice went back on until they went home. Anyway, I was feeling guilty enough when a Facebook comment from my dad indicated the kids were being a bit of a handful, so when I found out about this, I felt awful. Bad enough to have the mom guilt of essentially shirking my responsibility as a mom for something fun, but now I had daughter guilt for my parents' babysitting stint turning into such an ordeal! Ugh. I guess I'll be sticking close to home for a while!
The trip home was otherwise long but relatively uneventful. Despite the previous day's 75 degree weather, we hit patches of snow throughout the trip. Nothing to complicate driving, thank goodness, but just enough to make us curse winter yet again. Just as we got to Syracuse, however, the snow got considerably heavier, and suddenly we noticed it visibly accumulating along the side of the road! It snowed like that for probably 5-10 minutes, but miraculously, less than five minutes from where we had to drop the two other girls off, we drove out of the band and it was fine again. I ran into much the same on my drive from Syracuse to Rochester, where one minute it was sunny and gorgeous, and the next minute I was driving into snow. Thankfully, again, it never impacted the roads, but it definitely kept things interesting. I figured I'd be really tired on my drive, but I think the skies were entertaining enough that no more than a little candy was needed!
The sunset was a little more understated than I'd hoped based on the picture above, but in the end I was just happy to be close to home by the time it happened! I was very relieved to get home despite the sad scene that awaited me there--my mom's elevated foot, the usual house chaos, and a kid who (for the first time ever) didn't score in his basketball game. I should note that he actually didn't even play in his lacrosse game the previous night because he had a headache (and refused medicine for some unknown reason), and then he didn't get a basket in his basketball game on Saturday. So...not a particularly stellar weekend all around on the home front. I was hoping that the time away would be energizing, but between the long trip, the lack of sleep, and all that I had to deal with when I got home, I can't say it turned out that way. But I'm still happy I did it. The concert was awesome and the time with Mary is always important. Having a little adventure for myself is good for the soul, and not having to yell for a couple days was a nice bonus. I can't say I'll do it again anytime soon, but I'm thankful for this one and grateful for all who made it possible.
Now if spring would just get here...that'd be great.
Well, we got through the surgery and it was time to decide. Even though Jacob had two games during the time I'd be gone, my parents were up for it, so we put the plan in place. On Friday I sent the boys off in the morning and hopped in the car by myself. Of course, I had a million things to do just to get to that point--packing, laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, cleaning, setting out pillows for my parents, even two burned out light bulbs...the list seemed endless! I got out the door just on time and started my drive to Mary's apartment in Syracuse.
It was a fun drive on that leg, particularly in the beginning when the sun was shining. It had been warm on Thursday (over 65--between that and Pi Day at work, it was a great afternoon!) and Friday was cooler but pleasant, so driving in that with 80s power ballads blasting was a lot of fun! Pretty sure I couldn't have looked any more like the escaping mom relishing her freedom! I got to Mary's around 11am and we headed off to pick up two friends of hers who were coming as well. We stopped to pick up a quick lunch to go, and then we were officially on the road!
It was a long drive, and we only had a couple stops--one for gas and another for a bathroom break, at which point we were able to enjoy the 75 degree weather in Pennsylvania! It was sunny but windy, and the temperature felt so perfect! We made it to Mary's parents' just before dinnertime. As we were getting ready for dinner, it randomly poured outside, thunder and all. Fortunately, while it cooled off as a result, it was still pleasant and we didn't even need jackets when we left for the show!
As we got driving, it was still raining on and off, but was sunny in another direction. That, of course, is the perfect recipe for a rainbow!
The rainbow was short to begin with, but it was periodically a double and then eventually stretched all the way across the sky! It was especially scenic when we crossed over some water...
...but by then it was apparent that we were driving back into some real rain. The skies were dark in the direction we were heading. And yet, the rainbow held out, and behind us was an amazing sunset. This picture sort of captures all of it...
As we got closer to Lancaster, it really started coming down. It was hardcore, to the point where we had to slow way down and could barely see. There was lightning and wind. It was intense! And of course, our thoughts turned to how we'd get into the venue in driving rain without an umbrella! Then, as we got to the theater, we saw their sign that said, "LOT FULL". UGH. We were already running late due to the weather, and now we had to figure out parking. Luckily, it seemed like everyone was just going to the strip mall across the street and parking there, so we did too. And just as we parked, the rain let up to a light drizzle, so we made it into the theater mostly unscathed!
We literally walked into the theater itself as the band was coming on stage. Whew! The show was AMAZING. It always is, but this show had an "acoustic" theme, so we weren't sure what to expect since their shows are usually pretty rockin'. They sat in chairs for most of it, but it wasn't entirely unplugged. The volume was a bit lower than usual for most of it (so, perfect--no ringing ears!), but the energy was still very much intact! The lead singer's voice is so awesome, and it sounds just like it does on albums...if not better!
Near the end of the show they did unplug completely and sing without microphones or amps. They've done it before and it's always pretty cool as it makes the audience stay very quiet and their voices sound so pure. They actually sang my favorite song that way, which was a complete opposite of how they performed it during their last tour. That time it was loud and bold and super high energy, so hearing it quiet and slow this time was actually a neat contrast!
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| Unplugged |
We had such a great time at the show, but all too soon it was over. We had a 45 minute drive back to the house, so we stopped at a Wawa gas station to pick up some late night snacks. They had so much stuff that I felt a little like Mavis in Hotel Transylvania 2 when she goes to the place like 7-Eleven and sees the wall of "Slur-pays"! I opted for an Icee (cherry and cola mixed) and then found out that Wawa's soft pretzels were supposedly outstanding, so I grabbed a half a pretzel (they were packaged that way), and was a very happy camper!
I was quite tired by the time we arrived back at the house, and we quickly figured out sleeping situations - one twin bed, three air mattresses, three different rooms - and settled in. I was perfectly comfortable on my air mattress, but I could not sleep at all. I don't know if it was the wind hitting the house, the sugar and/or caffeine from my Icee, or sleep aids gone wrong, but I could not sleep. At least I was very comfy and relaxed. I think I got some after about 2am, but people were up and about by 6:30 so I didn't do much more than doze until a little after 7am when I gave up. So, not much sleep, but luckily adrenaline got me through, as I wasn't the least bit sleepy by the time I had to drive home myself!
We had a nice, slow morning. Mary's mom made some breakfast (a French toast bake and pop-open can cinnamon rolls--oh, how I miss those!), and we all eventually got ourselves dressed before spending some quality time with the animals and Mary's parents. Their dog Charlie is the sweetest thing. He's quiet and affectionate, and has such an endearing face! He just loves people so much and was apparently a little mopey after we left!
We ventured out into the now-cold and windy weather to meet the horses. Mary and her mom are horse people, and the barn on their property is the perfect spot to let two old horses retire. One of them was actually Mary's horse when we were in college, and they got a chance to reacquire her a couple years back, so I finally got the chance to meet her. The other horse, Coop, was hilarious. He's very social and was right over the fence to say hi!
However, when he realized we had no treats, he took to eating the fence and pawing at the grass. He cracked us up.
The area where they live is out in the country a bit, but it was beautiful. They're a bit elevated, so the views in every direction were really pretty. You might be able to see if you zoom into this picture and look in the distance. It was a great setup for the horses, though!
After spending a couple hours just chatting with her parents (which was very entertaining), it was time to head out. We stopped somewhere around Hazleton, PA to get a late lunch, and while we waited for everyone to get their food, I checked my phone. I had a message from Craig that was telling me that he was leaving later than expected for his trip to Toronto, and then he dropped in the small detail that my mom almost BROKE HER TOE. Seriously?! So of course I had to call him and get the story. It appears that the night before, the light to our basement didn't turn on (it may have been that it's a CFL bulb that took a second to turn on, so she thought it didn't work--but I guess we'll never know) and she missed a step at the bottom. Her big toe curled under her foot. She iced it and tried to make the best of it overnight despite the pain. She actually didn't even wake up my dad, aside from him hearing the noise she made when it happened and asking if she was okay, only because he'd have worried about it all night. So she didn't sleep much, and in the morning they went to urgent care to get it x-rayed. It wasn't broken, but perhaps sprained. She spent most of the day icing it before they headed out to Jacob's basketball game later in the afternoon. Once they came back from a post-game dinner, the ice went back on until they went home. Anyway, I was feeling guilty enough when a Facebook comment from my dad indicated the kids were being a bit of a handful, so when I found out about this, I felt awful. Bad enough to have the mom guilt of essentially shirking my responsibility as a mom for something fun, but now I had daughter guilt for my parents' babysitting stint turning into such an ordeal! Ugh. I guess I'll be sticking close to home for a while!
The trip home was otherwise long but relatively uneventful. Despite the previous day's 75 degree weather, we hit patches of snow throughout the trip. Nothing to complicate driving, thank goodness, but just enough to make us curse winter yet again. Just as we got to Syracuse, however, the snow got considerably heavier, and suddenly we noticed it visibly accumulating along the side of the road! It snowed like that for probably 5-10 minutes, but miraculously, less than five minutes from where we had to drop the two other girls off, we drove out of the band and it was fine again. I ran into much the same on my drive from Syracuse to Rochester, where one minute it was sunny and gorgeous, and the next minute I was driving into snow. Thankfully, again, it never impacted the roads, but it definitely kept things interesting. I figured I'd be really tired on my drive, but I think the skies were entertaining enough that no more than a little candy was needed!
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| Driving into snow, although it's harder to see than it was in person. That bright dot is the sun filtered by the snow. Two minutes later, it was still snowing but the sun was visible again, and two minutes after that I drove back out of the squall. |
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| After the snow, the skies were pretty magnificent between the sun, wispy clouds, and snow clouds. The snow cloud is off to the left. |
Now if spring would just get here...that'd be great.
Sunday, March 10, 2019
Just a bit belated...
Considering Jacob's June birthday officially got celebrated in October, having Carter's party three weeks after his actual birthday doesn't seem so bad. We originally wanted to have it the weekend right after his birthday, but due to another family event and other schedules, it ended up being better to postpone for a few more weeks since Craig had another weekend off coming up. Thank goodness we did, because with strep and everything else that happened that week, I was happy to not have party planning on top of it.
So, successful tonsil and adenoid surgery behind us, we had another busy week--our first full week in a while--to get ready for the party. A lot of times we do parties on Sunday to work around various schedules, but Saturday worked this time. It was a challenge to get ready, especially with basketball late on Friday (Jacob had a great game with an all-time high in points--either 8 or 10, depending who you ask), but with a good team effort, it happened.
Carter and I settled on a dinosaur cake theme, and with some browsing on Pinterest and some brainstorming on our last grocery trip, we came up with some ideas. They culminated in this:
The dinosaurs are from Lego Jurassic World sets. The waterfall is candy melts (last used for the base of Carter's first birthday cake), and the dirt around it is gluten-free oreo-type cookies. There are a couple Lego plants, but I did the grass and tried to do some leaves out of frosting (moderately successful). My favorite part was the chocolate-covered rice krispie nest, complete with Cadbury mini-eggs (the fancy new shimmer ones).
This is the back view. Notice that we used Legos to rig up a way for the raptor to hold the Happy Birthday sign.
Aside from the architectural complexity, it wasn't a bad cake to put together. Stacking it was a little precarious, and trying to get the dinosaurs to stay standing was a bit challenging, but it held up better than expected. The candy melts weren't as flowy as I expected but it ended up being like working with frosting--just without the fear it would flop down the side of the cake. Otherwise it was fun putting down grass and leaves and letting the chocolate frosting be a little rough around the edges! In the end, I was very happy with it, and so was Carter!
We kept the party pretty low key, as usual for his mid-winter birthdays. We were happy to have some of Craig's family, as they were fortunately in town for a hockey tournament, and my parents, two aunts and an uncle. We had a very nice time, ate well, then dug into the cake!
He ate the nest right away, as well as a chocolate "6" candle that he wanted but ended up not working on the cake, along with a small piece of cake. Right after the cake, almost everyone had to go. As it turned out he only had a couple gifts to open. My parents gave him money (just as well, since he got tonsil gifts and needs nothing!), and his gifts from Craig's parents didn't arrive yet. He ended up loving this giant Jurassic Park blanket from Uncle Brad and Ciocia Andrea...
...and another Lego Jurassic World dinosaur to add to his collection!
My aunt and uncle brought him a bag of fun stuff--a dry erase hangman game, a pack of those little capsules you put in water and release foam shapes (marine animals), and appropriately, a fossil egg. You had to dig into the cement-like egg with a tool to uncover the fossils. The egg was about 2-3 inches long and there were seven tiny pieces (one as small as a quarter inch long) that could be assembled into a little dinosaur skeleton. He dug for quite a while (and made a huge mess!) and only dug out one piece.
But he did it again today and very quickly found most of the pieces...although the tiny head ended up in a bigger piece he had chiseled off, so we were lucky to find it! It's a cute little stegosaurus! He did a few of the foam capsules yesterday, too, and was very entertained by all of it.
So, all in all, it was a successful belated birthday! I'm so glad we got to finally celebrate him and share some time with family. It's always special to have people here (as it doesn't happen often). Now on to another windy night (seriously, this has to stop) and a busy week leading up to about 30 hours away for me this coming weekend!
So, successful tonsil and adenoid surgery behind us, we had another busy week--our first full week in a while--to get ready for the party. A lot of times we do parties on Sunday to work around various schedules, but Saturday worked this time. It was a challenge to get ready, especially with basketball late on Friday (Jacob had a great game with an all-time high in points--either 8 or 10, depending who you ask), but with a good team effort, it happened.
Carter and I settled on a dinosaur cake theme, and with some browsing on Pinterest and some brainstorming on our last grocery trip, we came up with some ideas. They culminated in this:
The dinosaurs are from Lego Jurassic World sets. The waterfall is candy melts (last used for the base of Carter's first birthday cake), and the dirt around it is gluten-free oreo-type cookies. There are a couple Lego plants, but I did the grass and tried to do some leaves out of frosting (moderately successful). My favorite part was the chocolate-covered rice krispie nest, complete with Cadbury mini-eggs (the fancy new shimmer ones).
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| We noticed later that one of them was cracked...looks like a baby pterodactyl was on the way! |
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| See those black spots on the left? They were supposed to be rocks but I realized as I did them that they looked a little like dino poop. When Carter was looking at the cake, he thought the same thing. So, I left it as "they're rocks...but maybe they're poop!" |
We kept the party pretty low key, as usual for his mid-winter birthdays. We were happy to have some of Craig's family, as they were fortunately in town for a hockey tournament, and my parents, two aunts and an uncle. We had a very nice time, ate well, then dug into the cake!
He ate the nest right away, as well as a chocolate "6" candle that he wanted but ended up not working on the cake, along with a small piece of cake. Right after the cake, almost everyone had to go. As it turned out he only had a couple gifts to open. My parents gave him money (just as well, since he got tonsil gifts and needs nothing!), and his gifts from Craig's parents didn't arrive yet. He ended up loving this giant Jurassic Park blanket from Uncle Brad and Ciocia Andrea...
...and another Lego Jurassic World dinosaur to add to his collection!
My aunt and uncle brought him a bag of fun stuff--a dry erase hangman game, a pack of those little capsules you put in water and release foam shapes (marine animals), and appropriately, a fossil egg. You had to dig into the cement-like egg with a tool to uncover the fossils. The egg was about 2-3 inches long and there were seven tiny pieces (one as small as a quarter inch long) that could be assembled into a little dinosaur skeleton. He dug for quite a while (and made a huge mess!) and only dug out one piece.
But he did it again today and very quickly found most of the pieces...although the tiny head ended up in a bigger piece he had chiseled off, so we were lucky to find it! It's a cute little stegosaurus! He did a few of the foam capsules yesterday, too, and was very entertained by all of it.
So, all in all, it was a successful belated birthday! I'm so glad we got to finally celebrate him and share some time with family. It's always special to have people here (as it doesn't happen often). Now on to another windy night (seriously, this has to stop) and a busy week leading up to about 30 hours away for me this coming weekend!
Monday, March 4, 2019
Back to Life, Back to Reality
I'm pretty sure I've used that title before, but it definitely applies here. It's been a bit of a crazy couple weeks, for sure, and today we're finally all back to normal. It's now March, and we're officially past the crazy month I was freaking out about four weeks ago. We made it through the build-up to the surgery, and we got through the recovery. The pre-surgery strep mess I could have done without, but everything went very smoothly on the back end. Aside from the overnight medicine wake-ups and three-times-daily mealtime whimpers from Carter (which were short-lived each time), it was pretty shockingly uneventful. I'll take it. I do wish I had made better use of my time while I was trapped at home, but it is what it is. Maybe it was my body's way of telling me to take a break and just hang out with my kid.
Carter is doing great. I was happy my workload cooperated and I got to stay home with him Friday, just to get a better handle on how he was feeling. I gave him medicine at bedtime Thursday and he slept through the night, and when he woke up feeling fine, I figured I'd see how far we could go. And we never looked back--no medicine since. We even snuck in a lunch trip to Taco Bell, and he ate a couple nacho chips "like a mouse" since he's been dying for chips ever since his surgery. He did great! It seems like his throat is still just a little sore at times, but I can tell he's ready to be running and jumping again. Technically we're still supposed to wait another week for that, but considering how healed he looks inside his throat, I'm not too worried. It's hard to tell at this point how the better sleep is impacting him, but at the very least I know he's not struggling to breathe in anymore, so that's a huge win. I guess I'll just have to wait until our first hotel room stay (possibly June, if not sooner) to determine how much he's still moving in his sleep, which could indicate the restless leg-type symptoms he had are still persisting. It has to be heads and tails better than before, though, when his breathing was making things even worse.
Fortunately, the weather has chilled out over the past few days (well, maybe too much--it's supposed to be in the teens all week) and I was finally able to chisel an inch of compacted snow from our driveway yesterday...before we got a couple inches of fresh stuff. Of course, downstate they got over a foot, and it's not last weekend's 65mph winds, so I'm good. I did the chiseling while Craig took the kids to see their cousins play hockey across town (which the kids and I did on Saturday night, too), and then I came in the house and scrubbed the kitchen floor, washed all but one of our living room blankets, did another load of rugs (thanks to a minor toilet overflow on Saturday night), and then a load of towels. In the meantime I picked up around the house a bit and then did six months' worth of filing--mostly because my desk was overflowing and I needed to get our tax stuff together. But of course, the overriding reason for most of this is that we have Carter's birthday party on Saturday and I have a million things to do before then. Usually we end up with parties on Sundays because of various sports schedules, so I'm used to having Saturday to prepare. Not this time. And I can't take off work again, especially since I might be taking next Friday off, so I'm pretty much stuck doing as much prep as possible in the evenings this week. I got a good start but will have to be productive every single night this week.
If that isn't enough, Carter's well visit is Wednesday afternoon and Jacob has his monthly therapist appointment on Thursday, so I'm already leaving work early twice. I have my allergy shot tomorrow morning (unless I dispatch it to Friday since I had it late last month--decisions, decisions) and we have basketball Friday (skipping lacrosse since they overlap). Thankfully Craig is off this weekend, so at least I have that going for me. Clearly there's never a dull moment, at least not until the end of this month when basketball and lacrosse are both over (aside from Sunday practices for travel lacrosse, which Jacob complains about endlessly). Both teams are struggling currently (okay, lacrosse is dreadful) but Jacob continues to contribute. He's generally had between 4-7 points in basketball and is usually good for a goal or two in lacrosse. House lacrosse can't be done soon enough for him since the team is so bad--a few kids quit going into the second half of the season so it's been even tougher to stick with it. It culminated in this week where each town with two teams in the league had those teams playing each other, and even though it was supposed to be a schoolyard pick to choose teams (since one team is clearly better), that never happened and the other team beat up our team pretty good. Even one of the moms from the other team was pretty mortified with what was happening. So, yeah, bad. Hopefully someday Jacob recovers his love for lacrosse, but for now, he is all basketball. He talks about it incessantly, which is exhausting, particularly when the refereeing is as bad as it was last game. He actually almost lost his temper after he went down hard at the end of the game and no foul was called, but thankfully caught himself just in time. But he's been obsessing over it ever since. For that reason, Friday can't get here soon enough so we can move on to the next game!
It's more challenging than I expected facing a full week. You'd think that nearly two weeks off would leave me well rested and ready for routine again, and to some degree I guess I was, but between the weird sleeping schedule and having appreciated a slower pace, it's hard getting back to normal routine. I was so bummed when my alarm went off this morning, and it was harder than I expected to focus at work. I'm hoping I'll get back in the groove soon, but today was tough. I'm so thankful to be past the surgery and on to better things...but apparently things aren't much easier on the other side. But spring is coming so hopefully we can just focus on that and hope for better things ahead!
Carter is doing great. I was happy my workload cooperated and I got to stay home with him Friday, just to get a better handle on how he was feeling. I gave him medicine at bedtime Thursday and he slept through the night, and when he woke up feeling fine, I figured I'd see how far we could go. And we never looked back--no medicine since. We even snuck in a lunch trip to Taco Bell, and he ate a couple nacho chips "like a mouse" since he's been dying for chips ever since his surgery. He did great! It seems like his throat is still just a little sore at times, but I can tell he's ready to be running and jumping again. Technically we're still supposed to wait another week for that, but considering how healed he looks inside his throat, I'm not too worried. It's hard to tell at this point how the better sleep is impacting him, but at the very least I know he's not struggling to breathe in anymore, so that's a huge win. I guess I'll just have to wait until our first hotel room stay (possibly June, if not sooner) to determine how much he's still moving in his sleep, which could indicate the restless leg-type symptoms he had are still persisting. It has to be heads and tails better than before, though, when his breathing was making things even worse.
Fortunately, the weather has chilled out over the past few days (well, maybe too much--it's supposed to be in the teens all week) and I was finally able to chisel an inch of compacted snow from our driveway yesterday...before we got a couple inches of fresh stuff. Of course, downstate they got over a foot, and it's not last weekend's 65mph winds, so I'm good. I did the chiseling while Craig took the kids to see their cousins play hockey across town (which the kids and I did on Saturday night, too), and then I came in the house and scrubbed the kitchen floor, washed all but one of our living room blankets, did another load of rugs (thanks to a minor toilet overflow on Saturday night), and then a load of towels. In the meantime I picked up around the house a bit and then did six months' worth of filing--mostly because my desk was overflowing and I needed to get our tax stuff together. But of course, the overriding reason for most of this is that we have Carter's birthday party on Saturday and I have a million things to do before then. Usually we end up with parties on Sundays because of various sports schedules, so I'm used to having Saturday to prepare. Not this time. And I can't take off work again, especially since I might be taking next Friday off, so I'm pretty much stuck doing as much prep as possible in the evenings this week. I got a good start but will have to be productive every single night this week.
If that isn't enough, Carter's well visit is Wednesday afternoon and Jacob has his monthly therapist appointment on Thursday, so I'm already leaving work early twice. I have my allergy shot tomorrow morning (unless I dispatch it to Friday since I had it late last month--decisions, decisions) and we have basketball Friday (skipping lacrosse since they overlap). Thankfully Craig is off this weekend, so at least I have that going for me. Clearly there's never a dull moment, at least not until the end of this month when basketball and lacrosse are both over (aside from Sunday practices for travel lacrosse, which Jacob complains about endlessly). Both teams are struggling currently (okay, lacrosse is dreadful) but Jacob continues to contribute. He's generally had between 4-7 points in basketball and is usually good for a goal or two in lacrosse. House lacrosse can't be done soon enough for him since the team is so bad--a few kids quit going into the second half of the season so it's been even tougher to stick with it. It culminated in this week where each town with two teams in the league had those teams playing each other, and even though it was supposed to be a schoolyard pick to choose teams (since one team is clearly better), that never happened and the other team beat up our team pretty good. Even one of the moms from the other team was pretty mortified with what was happening. So, yeah, bad. Hopefully someday Jacob recovers his love for lacrosse, but for now, he is all basketball. He talks about it incessantly, which is exhausting, particularly when the refereeing is as bad as it was last game. He actually almost lost his temper after he went down hard at the end of the game and no foul was called, but thankfully caught himself just in time. But he's been obsessing over it ever since. For that reason, Friday can't get here soon enough so we can move on to the next game!
It's more challenging than I expected facing a full week. You'd think that nearly two weeks off would leave me well rested and ready for routine again, and to some degree I guess I was, but between the weird sleeping schedule and having appreciated a slower pace, it's hard getting back to normal routine. I was so bummed when my alarm went off this morning, and it was harder than I expected to focus at work. I'm hoping I'll get back in the groove soon, but today was tough. I'm so thankful to be past the surgery and on to better things...but apparently things aren't much easier on the other side. But spring is coming so hopefully we can just focus on that and hope for better things ahead!
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