Where Things Stand

So, it's been a while since I gave a full baby #2 update and I suppose it's time.  Though not much has changed...but I suppose it's okay to know that, too.

We're pretty much past our self-imposed baby-making break. Assuming I got pregnant sometime soon, I'd be big by November's trip to Florida, but not unable to fly there and get around, so we're basically back to the safe zone.  However, I'd LOVE to get pregnant in August because it would set us up for a spring baby.  Not only could I enjoy potentially decent weather, but it wouldn't be crazy hot outside and we'd avoid the glut of birthdays and other assorted holidays we're getting into by this time of year.  Of course, given the problems we've had so far, it seems a little picky to pinpoint a time of year I'd like to have a baby, but that won't stop me from trying. 

I have an appointment in less than three weeks with a fertility doctor.  At this point it's more on the reproductive endocrinology side of things, where they'll hopefully check all my levels and see if they can figure out what's happening.  My cycle isn't exactly regular but it's not quite as crazy as it was a few months ago.  However, I'm darn-near convinced that I'm simply not ovulating.  It's possible to have a period without it, believe it or not, but based on repeated attempts at ovulation tests and never getting a positive, something seems off.  Additionally, a few months back my doctor checked my blood on day 18 of my cycle, and it indicated I hadn't ovulated.  However, my period came sooner than I would have expected based on that.  So perhaps it's just not happening.  If nothing else I'm hoping they can help track things a little better.  I'm also hoping there's a better solution than just popping some Clomid and praying that only one egg gets released.  Eeesh.

I had this random realization the other day.  You know how sometimes you hear about couples who try for years to have a baby, go through fertility treatments and lots of heartache, and then suddenly, randomly get pregnant?  My realization was, "What if getting pregnant with Jacob was our moment like that, and it just happened to take place more quickly?"  So basically, instead of having to wait years, our fortunate pregnancy happened fairly quickly...and that's as good as it will get.  What if that was our miraculous pregnancy?  That was a sobering realization, considering that most of this time I've assumed that even though it might not happen quickly, having had Jacob should indicate that the machinery can work.  But what if that was a super-lucky, one-in-a-million moment?  I'm obviously hoping that's not the case, but it's something to keep in the back of my mind.

On one hand, I'm desperate to have another baby. I'm dying to see Jacob with a sibling, and I'm craving a baby that snuggles and smiles and doesn't talk back.  I know that those moments won't last long and come with sleepless nights, endless worries, and poopy diapers, but I really want to do it all one more time with the perspective of a parent who's been there, hoping I'll enjoy it more this time around now that nerves won't be so prominent.  On the other hand, I'm getting more nervous.  I'll be nearly five years older than last time, with the added exhaustion of a crazy preschooler running around the house.  We're mostly done with diapers (just at night) and we have a fully communicative child that we can take almost anywhere.  We're facing a nearly five-year gap now, and when I see other people with kids that far apart, I often think, "Oh man, they finally made it out of the baby years and had to go back!"  One blogger I read right now has a six-year gap between her girls, and that seems SO long.  But then again, her older daughter is seriously the best big sister, always wanting to entertain the baby and read to her.  That sounds pretty cool.  It's hard for me to say if Jacob will have a hard time sharing the spotlight now that he's had it for so long, or if he'll be an awesome big brother because he's so grown up and will fall right into a teacher role.  I have no idea.

I'm still not quite one of the fertility-challenged women who gets bitter at the sight of a pregnant woman or a tiny baby, but I probably do stare a little too long in both circumstances.  A while back I sat behind a tiny baby at church and I sort of started to understand those people who say their uterus aches for another baby.  Yesterday at work we had a woman visiting our office who's about five months along.  I spent a good chunk of the meeting she was running staring at her belly, longing for one of my own.  It's not crazy jealousy or anything that renders me unable to act normally around such people, but it just adds a little layer of longing to those moments, a little sadness at the thought that it just might not happen again.  I have yet to decide what lengths I'm willing to go to to make this happen, but all we can do is keep trying and hope that my appointment gives us some help and insight into how we can best make this happen.  And when all else fails, we'll rest in the fact that God has a plan for all of this and His timing is far better than ours could ever be.  As nuts as Jacob can drive us on any given day, part of me is grateful that we have the time alone with him right now.  As he grows into a little person, it's easier to appreciate who he's becoming when we're not completely engrossed in another child (or planning for one).  This time is special and perhaps this is our opportunity to savor it.  In two weeks I'm running in the Chase Corporate Challenge, and I've been working my butt off training for it.  Last year at this time I thought I'd be pregnant for this year's race, so I guess this is a little bonus.  I'm taking full advantage and working toward running 3.5 miles in 30 minutes.  It's a tough challenge that I fight to achieve on a treadmill, but I can do it and hope to pull it off again on race day.  Maybe this is something I need to accomplish, to prove I can do it and give myself something to aim for someday when I'm working off another round of baby weight.  There are plenty of other possibilities as to why this is not God's perfect time, so in the meantime I'm hoping He's got the best plan ever on tap when the time comes.

So, yeah...that's where the baby business stands right now.  More to come soon...     

Mother's Day, Take 4

I can't believe it's taken me half the week to blog about Mother's Day.  Apparently it's been one of those weeks.  Craig's been busy preparing for the Knighthawks' championship game Saturday and the home opener Friday morning for the summer team he works for, the Hamilton Nationals.  In fact, he's at Knighthawks practice in Canada tonight and might be in Buffalo tomorrow night so he's got a short trip to Hamilton Friday morning.  Monday night I worked out and came home to playing catch-up after a weekend away.  Last night Craig mowed the lawn and I did some yardwork, along with more catching up after Jacob was in bed.  Tonight Jacob and I went grocery shopping, ate dinner, and shortly thereafter it was bedtime.  I was working on a couple little projects tonight before finally sitting down, and I need to blog quickly because I need to go to bed at a reasonable time.  I'm extra tired today.  Yawning has been downright painful.

Anyway, we had a good weekend.  Jacob and I headed to Buffalo on Friday night and spent all day Saturday with my parents.  I got to go for a run while Jacob wore my parents out playing a variety of sports in the yard.  He was totally cracking us up with his refereeing (he's got the moves down pat) and designating me as a cheerleader and requesting my presence to dance during halftime.  While he napped I went out shopping (finally got a pair of Nikes at the outlet in time to break them in before my race later this month), and when I got back he was down playing with a little girl down the street.  After that we went out for dinner and some shopping.  Jacob commandeered the free smoothie we got and gleefully had a sip of the mocha one we got, as well.  He always pretends he's drinking coffee, so why not give him a taste of the real stuff? 

As I mentioned in Saturday's post, the Knighthawks won in Toronto to win a spot in the NLL Finals.  Craig didn't get back to my parents' house until 2am, and prior to that I had a heck of a time sleeping.  I don't think I fell asleep until 3am, and then had a few minor wakeups--enough to really mess up my sleeping in time for a really busy day.  We headed off to church first thing, and while we were waiting for church to start, I pulled out the camera to capture Jacob looking extra handsome...aside from that nasty scab under his nose...

Big boy!

Then I took a picture of Jacob and Grandma...

Yay for a good smile!

Jacob begged to use my camera again, so I let him try to take a picture of my mom and me.  It's a little blurry again, but this was the best shot of both of us...

Church was only notable because I ended up participating.  During the children's message, the woman doing it called out some moms asking if they would still love their kids if they did any number of naughty, awful things...you know, ransacking the house or running off with coyotes.  And even though we're not there a lot--though she knows who we are, mostly because we visit her office every time we're there to say hi to her doggie, who she brings with her each week--she called out to me ("Jacob's mommy") to ask me if I would still love Jacob if he did some terrible things.  Of course I said yes, though she detected a bit of a laugh in my response.  In retrospect I would have noted that those things would make me extra sad because I love him so much...but alas, not that quick of a thinker.  Totally caught off-guard since I certainly wasn't expecting to participate!

After church we packed up and headed out to Craig's family's celebration, with a detour to Wegmans to pick up a bunch of fruit, some corn, and some flowers.  We had a fantastic meal and some good quality time with his family, though Jacob refused (yet again) to go in the pool (where most of his cousins spent most of their day).  Someday we'll get him in, but it's going to be quite the undertaking.  We need to force him, though, because he needs to learn to swim and enjoy our pool.  Near the end of the day he grabbed his lacrosse stuff to play with his big cousin Walt. 

Always on the run!

This picture cracked me up because Walt and Jacob are doing a faceoff, and little cousin Jackie was standing there like the referee, even though she had no idea that was the role she was playing.

Handsome little man.  That boy made me a mommy.

There was a possibility of heading back to NT that evening to treat my mom to Mother's Day ice cream (carrying on a bit of a tradition she had with her mom), but I knew it was possible that between a big meal and a long day, it might not make sense to go all the way back.  Sure enough, it didn't seem like a good idea.  I felt bad but she understood (and undoubtedly would rather know I'm driving home safely than risking being overtired), and I will make it up to her another time.  Because Craig had to drive to Toronto separately, we ended up having two cars heading back home that night.  I ate a ton and was working on very little sleep, so the drive home was a tough one.  I was very happy to be home, for sure.  And as I indicated, I've been playing catch-up ever since I walked in the door.

Overall, Mother's Day was busy but good, full but generally unremarkable.  We had a busy day full of food and family, but there wasn't really anything of note to make it extra special for me specifically--at least not along the lines of the usual Mother's Day pamperings.  As I've said before, we defer to our mothers at this point.  Someday perhaps it will be "my" day, but I'm not rushing it as I'm glad we have two moms to celebrate ourselves.  But it was a perfectly fine day, just not one that did any favors for my sleep deficit.  Speaking of which...off to bed I go, far too late, again.

More Randomness

Have I mentioned that Jacob is growing like a weed?  I've pretty much taken to buying him 5T or Boys XS these days--though pants are still a crapshoot because he's tall and skinny.  Shorts are probably going to be 4Ts still, since they run long and his waist is tiny.  But everything else, as long as the waists are adjustable or the body isn't too wide, is at least 5T now.  Where did my baby go?  I can't even fathom that I'm almost to the point of passing by the baby section altogether!  It was a big switch when we were out of the tiny baby stuff, and now we're almost out of the baby stuff completely.  I can't even believe it. 

Jacob took a beating this week.  Wednesday I got a call in the afternoon that he he gotten kicked in the face while in a playground tunnel.  He had a little mark on the side of his nose near his eye.  That pretty much faded by the next morning, though.  Thursday I got a call that he bonked heads with another kid and had some pretty sizable marks.  Sure enough, he had a big mark on his forehead and a smaller mark under his nose.  The big mark faded overnight, but the mark under his nose has gotten progressively worse--to a dark red to scabbing over and crusty.  It's pretty nasty looking but it looks like it might be changing rapidly enough to heal relatively quickly.  It's just a challenge to get him to keep his hands off it!

Friday afternoon I left work early and went to Jacob's daycare for a Mother's Day Ice Cream Social.  It was pretty low key--just vanilla ice cream and sprinkles--and only a handful of other moms came, but it was nice nonetheless.  Jacob saw one of his friends using his mom's camera, and Jacob asked to use mine.  Given that we were sitting at a table I figured we were fairly safe and I coached him through it.  This was the first one he took.  Unfortunately they got worse from here, but...

Not a bad picture of me, actually :)

He also got to give me his Mother's Day gift:

In case it's hard to see, there's a little clay pot with colored tissue paper "soil", a pipe cleaner stem, and a handprint flower.  The bag had a nice handprint poem on it.  Jacob laughed when I made the hand wave.

 I tried to get him to pose with it, but it didn't go well.  This was probably the best I got...

Tonight was a big night--the Knighthawks won their second round playoff game, against all odds, and are headed to the NLL Finals next weekend!  They hadn't beat Toronto in years, and had never won in Toronto in the playoffs, yet they beat them tonight.  Part of me wishes I had gone, but I know that it would have been too complicated to take Jacob and going without him would have been tough, too.  When I do stuff like that I always feel a little like an irresponsible parent.  Still, the championship game is a different story--I already priced out a flight to Minnesota, but as of now it's a little too expensive, particularly considering I had the trip of a lifetime the last time they were in the finals.  Of course, if the team that's winning the other semifinal game right now (12-2!) continues to win, the game will be in Rochester!  Good news, bad news, I guess--a home game against a hot team.  It's been a long time since the Knighthawks were in this situation (their championship win was five years ago today), so it's exciting, but it's going to make me a bundle of nerves and Craig a ball of stress for the next week.  The opportunity to win is always awesome, though!  Perhaps now that I don't work there and we've actually won one that I was present for, my perspective will be a little different.  I can always say I've seen them win, and it was amazing. 

Since it was five years ago today, here's a sampling of some of my favorite shots from the trip, the infamous "best $450 I ever spent": 

Outside the hotel in Phoenix--quite the sight to see for a Rochesterian in the middle of May!  It was in the 90s when we were there!

Some of the cool foliage outside the hotel...saw a cactus later, too!

The boys raising the Cup on the turf.  It was amazing to be down there.  Of course, most of my pics from those first few minutes were blurry because a) everyone was moving a lot; and b) my hands were shaking so bad from nerves and excitement!

Craig rushed down to the turf as soon as he could.  I love this picture and it's still the first picture on the memory card in our old camera, the one Craig now carts around with him.

In the locker room after the game.  After watching years of Stanley Cup celebrations on TV, it was surreal to be in there.  Lots of champagne and beer all over that room, let me tell you.

Craig and me outside the locker room...I never did drink out of the Cup (felt weird since I wasn't an employee), but it felt great to hold it knowing Craig was finally getting his ring.

One of the best players in the world, John Grant, sitting poolside with the trophy.  The mere fact we could sit poolside with the trophy still blows my mind.  The weather was perfect, and everyone was so happy.  It was such an amazing feeling to be there.

I'm the farthest thing from a Captain Morgan drinker, but this is proof of just how much fun we were having that day.  It just seemed like a good photo op...and yes, I was a little tipsy, but sober enough to know it was silly.

My favorite Knighthawk of all time, Pat O'Toole--and a guy I was beyond happy to see win.  He'd suffered through enough tough losses as a Knighthawk that this one was well-deserved.

The next morning in the hotel lobby.  Everyone was eating breakfast and waiting for the bus to the airport, and I found the scene of this random but coveted trophy sitting among the bags to be quite comical.  The fact it was coming home with us (well, them...I was on a separate flight) was still unbelievable. 

Thanks for indulging me.  I recently admitted on Facebook that that weekend beats out my wedding day and the day Jacob was born as the most amazing experience of my life.  My wedding was awesome and I wouldn't change a thing (well, maybe a couple things), but it was one great day in the midst of a long life together.  Jacob's arrival was life-changing, of course, but the pain and stress surrounding that event didn't make it particularly enjoyable.  Special, yes...enjoyable, not really.  The championship weekend involved such unique circumstances--a last-minute decision, my first solo plane ride, a trip to an exotic place (well, compared to here), and a long-awaited celebration of a lifetime--that it's tough to top.  And five years ago right now, I was in the midst of it.  Wow.  Let's hope we can add another happy chapter to that one next weekend...

And before I forget, Happy Mother's Day to the other mamas out there!  Hope you have the wonderful day you deserve, for all that you do all year long!

Wednesday Randoms

- So remember in my last post where I mentioned that Jacob is spelling out things?  We were at Lowe's tonight waiting to pick up an online order I placed (the mulch I needed was on sale through Monday but it was rainy that night so I just ordered it online and picked it up today), and Jacob was reading off signs like crazy.  I couldn't help but wonder if the clerk was impressed as he listened to a not-even-four-year-old read off all of the letters on multiple signs.  I thought it was pretty impressive.

- Bedtime prayers have been interesting.  He's been a little less forthcoming and focused in the past week or so, but we've been working on refining his content a bit so it's more in line with bedtime.  Even though it takes a little prodding and there's often some conversation in the middle of it, Jacob's series of thank yous (which is really all the prayers are right now--good habit to get him into, right?) are quite entertaining.  Sometimes he thanks God for all of the things in his room, right down to the curtains, table, and clock.  Sometimes he thanks God for body parts.  Tonight it was hair, noses, and eyes.  He's thankful for his animals, sports, and sometimes for Mommy and Daddy.  He thanks Jesus for dying and rising.  And tonight, he was thankful for robots.  Nope, no idea.  It's a funny little insight into his world on any given day, though.  I definitely look forward to it each night.  We'll continue to improve his technique, but I think it's awesome right now.

- Interesting doings at daycare this week...they're working on Mother's Day gifts, have a field trip tomorrow, and there's a Mother's Day event on Friday.  Jacob got all upset today when I talked about getting Mother's Day cards at the store, because he wants to give me one from daycare.  Of course, I explained to him that I was getting cards for other people, not myself.  Must be one heck of a card he's making!  Tomorrow he's got a field trip to a typical kid place with climbing strcutures, bounce houses, etc.  He got a bit of a bruised eye today on the playground, so let's hope it doesn't get any worse tomorrow!  Now that he's a little braver, those things make me a little more nervous!  Friday they're having a Mother's Day ice cream social, and I'm leaving work a little early to get there on time.  I'm looking forward to it!  Now that Jacob is older, I don't want to skip events like that, because he's well aware that other kids' parents come and I think he'd be disappointed if we didn't.  Happy to do it, though. 

- It's a busy week in general since Craig was at Knighthawks' practice in Canada tonight and he's off to Toronto Friday for a playoff game on Saturday.  We'll probably spend most of the weekend in Buffalo.  I was tempted to take the free bus up to Toronto for the game (provided by the team owner), but the thought of being stuck on a bus with Jacob for hours didn't sound so appealing.  Our DVD player doesn't hold a charge, so without an outlet we wouldn't have that.  I think my computer would only last so long with a movie loaded on it, and the thought of being stuck at the border for any reason (there are supposed to be seven busloads!) is downright scary.  Someday I'll have the guts to do it, but for now I'd probably rather drive myself (in theory).  Would have been a fun adventure, though, if all went well.

- As I type I'm watching The Hub, a cable channel that shows a lot of classic TV shows, and the old Batman show came on.  Jacob spent a good chunk of time obsessed with this show--to the extent that we have about 10 episodes on the DVR just in case--though lately he hasn't asked to watch them nearly as often.  His favorite episode, however, is the first one featuring Batgirl.  Penguin kidnaps Barbara Gordon, the police commissioner's daughter, and later it's revealed to the audience that she's Batgirl.  I was interested to see which episode came on tonight, just for a change of pace from the ones we have recorded.  But when it started, it sounded all too familiar.  Sure enough, it's the same exact episode we've already seen a few dozen times.  What are the odds?!

- Still dealing with a lot of listening/focus problems interspersed with moments where he's the coolest kid ever.  It's so frustrating having to ask him to do things multiple times and either have him ignore us or start to do something only to get distracted by the littlest thing.  I can't tell you how many times I need to tell him to get dressed or get up from the potty when he's done.  There are times I wonder if there's a bigger issue at play here--be it ADD or hearing problems--but I feel like he has enough moments where he's such an awesome kid that I'm just not convinced that those things could be an issue.  If he'd just listen even 60% of the time, our lives would be exponentially easier.

- Not much to report on the baby-making front.  We're still on a break, though we're getting ever closer to being past the Florida window we were avoiding.  I have made an appointment with a reproductive endocrinologist just to investigate some things and check out our options--none of which I'm probably going to be excited about.  There are times lately where I feel like we're so nicely settled into life with a preschooler that I can't imagine going back to sleepless nights and all of the hard stuff we've already been through.  But then I see a baby or hear about a pregnant friend or think about Jacob with a sibling and there's nothing in the world I want more.  I'm getting a little intimidated by the thought of going through it all with an active child and potentially five years older than I was the last time, but I know it's just something I want to do.  Now if we could just get the show on the road...

Current Obsessions

Jacob is currently has a couple things that he is totally obsessed with--spelling and time.  I guess those are good things to care about since they're both foundations of our existence, but apparently even really intelligent, useful obsessions have a tendency to wear on you after a while. 

He's gotten to be pretty good with his letters these days, and he's constantly reading off letters one by one, of many words he sees.  It sounds pretty impressive for a three year old, but I know he's still not fully understanding that those letters make up words.  I mean, he knows that they're words because he asks what they spell, but he has no concept of how the letters actually form words or how the words form sentences with meaning.  Sometimes he knows which sounds make which letters, but it's still a bit of a work in progress.  He also has a tendency to to read from right to left, so if he's pointing to letters as he says them, he'll start with the last letter of the word.  We're working on that.  He can spell his name now, and he took great delight in sitting with me the other night and typing letters on my computer.  He randomly typed, and then we spelled his friends' names.  He loved it and has asked numerous times to do it again.  He's working on writing letters at daycare, but I haven't really asked him to show us his skills too much.  I probably should do it more to make sure he's practicing, but it's not always easy to remember.

Another obsession is time.  He is constantly asking when things happened or when they're from.  Music, TV shows, movies, pictures, events..."When was that, Mommy?  Was that a long, long time ago?"  It's not easy to explain time to him, but he's now aware of the various decades that have existed for most of the 20th and 21st centuries.  Again, he has no concept of what that actually means, but it's funny to hear a little kid refer to "the eighties".  He seems fascinated by the idea of things being assigned to a certain time period, but I haven't quite figured out why.  Just trying to figure out his world, I guess! 

We get interrogated with questions associated with these types of issues all day, every day.  I'm seriously ready to go buy one of those clicker things that people use at low budget events to count attendees, to keep with me all day and count his questions.  Some days they don't seem to end.  I'm finding it hard to keep my patience at times because I can't think straight with the constant barrage.  I don't want him to lose his curiosity, but holy cow--I need a break sometimes so badly that I directly ask him to stop asking questions.  It's pretty crazy.   I guess it's good that he wants to learn about his world and actually acknowledges that things even existed prior to his birth.  Hopefully years down the road he'll put it all to good use, be it in school or some random pop culture trivia game.  But man, it's exhausting trying to get there one question at a time.

Novelty

Jacob is a funny kid.  He's definitely quirky.  One thing that stood out to me for a long time was that he didn't get genuinely excited by too many things.  He's always been one to take things in and observe.  In the last year or so, he's begun to get more excited about certain things.  A lot of it revolves around opportunities to go outside and play sports with Craig.  He's super-excited to go with Craig to the arena tomorrow, prior to Knighthawks practice.  They'll have the turf to themselves, and he's been excited about it since the possibility arose the other day.  However, I still feel like his excitement is hard to come by.  I think it's part of the reason I want to have a girl next time around, because they tend to get all squealy and excited (ok, not loving the squealy part, but it seems to go hand-in-hand with girly excitement) all the time.  And I love that.

Today I read a blog post by Matt Logelin, who I mentioned here last year after I read his book.  His wife passed away the day after giving birth to their daughter, and three years later his book was published.  Four years later he has an amazing little four year old and he wrote a blog post about taking her to a Dodgers game.  He hyped it up all week, and other than a couple minor hiccups, it went well.  The passion within each of them was so fantastic to read about.  It almost made me realize that I wished I could go back in time and take Jacob to less games so he'd be more excited about them now.  I know that's probably a little silly, because I really appreciate those times and I'm not sure it would make a difference now anyway.  Going to games just seemed like a natural part of our lives, particularly since it gave us a little extra chance to see Craig in the midst of busy streaks of games.  But being able to have the sports experience be a novelty now, when he's more capable of excitement, would be cool.

Last night I was actually having a similar conversation with a work associate of Craig's.  Last night was his annual fundraiser, Tip-A-Knighthawk.  We won a cool jersey and the charity (CURE Childhood Cancer Association) made a couple thousand dollars.  The representative from CURE is a great guy, and he even brought Jacob and me some lacrosse shirts from an event he did.  Later in the evening we were chatting, and he said something about Jacob having quite the life...meaning, the opportunity to meet players and go to games on a regular basis.  I agreed and said that I do try to remind Jacob once in a while that his opportunity to go to games is very special, that not all kids get to do things like that.  Whenever he shies away from the players, I tell him that they want to talk to him and that should be a really cool thing, so he should really take advantage and talk back to them while he can.  The two of us exchanged cherished sports experiences from our childhoods--his two Yankees games a year with his dad, my annual Sabres game.  There was such an excitement for those, and it's really something Jacob doesn't have a concept of because he's so used to going to games. 

Our new jersey, a Rochester Greywolves (semi-pro team) jersey with former Knighthawk Pat Cougevan's name on the back.  The bottom of the jersey is the Rochester skyline, which I love.  Jacob even pointed out my work building right away!  With him is a Knightingale dancer who was helping out with the raffles.

I guess it just forces us to up the ante and try to expose him to other, new sports experiences.  I suppose that's why we try to hit up games in other places--be it a baseball game on vacation, a lacrosse game in Toronto, this past winter's Sabres game, or a couple different college games.  That excitement is in there somewhere, but we need to get him out of his element enough to bring it out.  It's no small challenge, but when it happens, it's worth every effort we made to get there.  That smile and excited giggle inspire me to be a better mother and remind me to see the world through his eyes...because the view is much better from there.

"Wild" Saturday

In my last post I mentioned that we had a little visitor in our backyard at the end of Jacob's Saturday nap.  We've known for a while that we have a groundhog living under our shed.  I had yet to actually see him.  While I was out doing yardwork on Saturday, I noticed his little nose peeking out from a hole under the shed.  Later on, when I went to wake Jacob up from his nap, I saw this...

Sorry, it's a little fuzzy because it was majorly zoomed through a window screen.  No idea what he's doing with his little paws...

This is what I found when I went in to wake Jacob up.  We had a busy morning so this scene didn't surprise me at all...

Yes, he's still sleeping on the floor.  He's getting the stiff-arm from that brown monkey, right across his eyes.  He was OUT and had a hard time waking up, even after 2-1/2 hours of rest as of 5pm!

Once Jacob finally woke up, we were tracking the groundhog's movements from our windows.  I caught this picture a little after the first.

He's so big!

Then, as we were looking out one window trying to follow the groundhog's movements, this bird caught my eye!

It's a female cardinal!

The orange beak was striking, and the coloring in general was pretty.  It's hard to see, but she has a pretty red patch of feathers on top of her head.

After watching the wildlife, we headed out for a bit of basketball in the driveway.  Keeping with the theme of the day, Jacob was a "wild" man out there! 

After grabbing a quick dinner, we headed to the Knighthawks game.  Usually we park right across from the arena, but that night the lot was full and we couldn't get the guy to let us in (we are on a list there and are supposed to be able to park there), so I had to drive to the garage I park in for work.  As we walked across the Broad St. Bridge over the Genesee River, I looked down and saw this:


Pretty sure that's a Blue Heron!

It's not too often you see a bird like that in the middle of a city!  It was so elegant and beautiful that I could have sat there and watched him all night.  Of course, we were late for the game so we had to get going.  Still, it was neat.

Anyway, it was just a funny day of random wildlife.  Not too bad for a bunch of suburban dwellers, eh?