So....huh. That's why...

This morning I had my appointment with the fertility doctor.  I feel a little funny even saying that, because comparing my "infertility" to the hell that some women have had to go through seems downright laughable.  After all, I have a baby already.  I have periods and no obvious symptoms of greater issues like cysts or endometriosis.  My cycle was nearly perfect for years, but appears to have gotten confused after life with the pill, because anytime I've been off it--including prior to getting pregnant with Jacob--it's been wonky.  But there are worse things in life than a crazy cycle...until you're trying to have a baby and can't seem to track it for anything. 

Case in point--I neglected to mention in the midst of the Knighthawks' championship celebrations that earlier on championship day I had what I believe was my first-ever positive ovulation test.  Over the past many months, I'd done a lot of them.  Not religiously, mind you, but quite a few.  And during the times I wasn't strict, we were taking action just in case :)  Obviously nothing happened, and there were multiple times (including one involving a blood test from my doctor) where it just seemed like I simply wasn't ovulating.  Which is pretty problematic when you need an egg to make a baby.  Anyway, I had an idea of where my cycle was that morning, and while it didn't really matter because a) I wasn't sure we'd have time to do anything about it; and b) I didn't really want to start trying yet anyway, I figured it would be good to know going into my appointment where things stood.  Sure enough, it turned out positive.  I was shocked.  I was happy to know it was possible, but more surprised than anything.  However, my period showed up only a week later, which still indicates that something isn't right. 

So, off to the doctor I went this morning.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect, or even what to ask.  I guess I was just looking for some sort of direction--a better way to track my cycles, what the causes might be, what my options are--so I'm not just sitting around waiting for something to happen.  The doctor was actually pretty great.  She took the time to listen to my history, explain what's probably happening, and offer a solution.  She was pretty straight to the point, but still friendly.  And then she suggested doing an ultrasound right then and there to get an idea of what might be happening.  Wow.  Ok.  Not every day someone asks you on a moment's notice to step into this room and take off your pants.  Alrighty then.

On a side note, I was actually interested to experience a transvaginal ultrasound (sorry squeamish folks, no happy little code word for this one).  You may have heard that recently a law passed in Texas making it mandatory to get a transvaginal ultrasound prior to getting an abortion.  Critics of the law were likening it to rape.  I get the spirit of the law, that perhaps the woman should see what she's aborting.  It's amazing to see even a tiny baby moving around on that screen, but I'm with the critics that it doesn't need to be so invasive.  A regular old ultrasound like the rest of the pregnant women in the world receive is just fine.  So, anyway, I was interested to see how it was.  It was really fine.  Not painful, just a slight discomfort.  And hey, it's really interesting to see your uterus and ovaries from the inside.

Much to my surprise, my ovaries show some evidence of polycystic ovary syndrome.  It basically means that egg follicles start to form, but crap out somewhere before they're released.  They gather along the edges of the ovary, and show up as little black circles on the ultrasound.  Usually this leads to ovary enlargement, but that hasn't happened yet in my case. 

Anyway, that was a little discouraging to hear, but nothing that can't be overcome.  The doctor had a plan of attack ready to go--and I mean READY.  As in, starting today.  When she said something about no sense waiting around, she meant it.  Ultrasound--done.  Start of the plan--now.  I still had a few hours after the appointment before needing to put the wheels in motion, and I certainly had some food for thought today. 

Is it odd to say that setting things into motion today all felt a little sudden despite already logging nearly 11 months of trying for another baby?  Well, odd or not, it was.  While I had envisioned getting "lazy" over the next couple months, I guess I didn't assume we'd have much of shot at making anything happen so soon.  And suddenly I'm panicking a bit about all the stuff I should be doing before I'm pregnant.  We still need new carpet in two bedrooms and still need to figure out how to rearrange things for Jacob's future room.  I'm suddenly overwhelmed by the thought of the things I need to give up if pregnant--cold cuts, allergy meds, running, that bottle of wine I should really drink now.  I'm thinking about how the possible two-month schedule shift might impact things--Craig's schedule, my maternity clothes, our Florida vacation, the seasonality of the hand-me-down baby clothes, changeable weather, etc.  I'm just trying to take last-minute stock of everything and make sure that jumping into this a little early isn't screwing up anything major.  Long story short, I'm admittedly surprised at how caught off-guard I am.  You'd think after all this time I'd be more than ready.  Maybe all of this just tells me that the "you're never really ready" statement isn't just a first-baby phenomenon. 

I read back in the blog earlier and relived the early weeks of June before Jacob was born.  Given my June 30th due date, I never could have imagined that less than three weeks into the month we'd have  a baby.  Similarly, I can't quite wrap my brain around the fact that a year from now we might have an infant.  Reading those posts got me a little excited, though.  I remember parts of that time so vividly.  The fear, anticipation, the horrific heat, the random details I had to take care of...it was just so much to handle, and part of me can't quite imagine how I'll do all of that again, but with a little boy preoccupying a good portion of my time.  But the end result is so amazing that it's hard to not get excited. 

I won't go into the details of the "plan" yet (I need to have some secrets, right?), but it's pretty much what I expected with a couple safeguards that I didn't anticipate.  We've got a handful of months to give this a shot, and if things don't progress, we'll try something else.  I'm not going to worry about those steps or further costs yet...one step at a time.  But at least now I know why things haven't been working, and I'm happy to have a path to start down.  We'll see how it goes.  Let's hope this is the beginning of a fantastic journey...

Part of the Story

A few weeks ago, a repainting project was started at the old theater I pass on my way to work.  They were stripping paint off all of the window frames and doors on the outside of the building to remove the lead paint, and then repainting all of them.  About halfway through the project, they painted everything with this horrible shade of light gray.  I was hoping it was just primer, but the longer it stayed there, the more nervous I got, because it looked terrible.  At long last I noticed them painting part of it with a light beige, and then the other day the doors had finally been painted a nice cranberry color like they used to be, with a two-color effect on the trim. 

What's the moral of this story?  Well, I guess I just don't know why I was worrying about that darn gray color, because I should have known without a doubt that that color was definitely an interim step, not a finished product.  But for a few days, it bugged me anyway.  And now, in the end, everything looks beautiful and turned out just as it should have.  I should never assume that I know where anything is going, because inevitably there's a bigger picture I'm just not seeing.

I've learned that lesson a lot in the past few weeks.  I've come to understand that there's more to each moment than meets the eye, that there's more to the story than what I see in my current situation.  Each moment we live is a building block for a greater story, and far be it from me to assume the story's ending in the middle of it all.  And shame on me for assuming a moment is the end, when it may just be the beginning.  Thinking of things from this angle gives a whole new perspective to the challenges we face.

The most vivid example of this was the Knighthawks championship game.  At the end of the first half, the Knighthawks were down 5-1 and seemed to have absolutely no momentum on their side.  It seemed like it was the end of the road.  The thought crossed my mind, however, that if they could come back, it would be a heck of a story.  Instead of being a final chapter in a sad tale, that painful first half would be just another incredible circumstance in an improbable championship run.  Sure enough, it happened.  I'm not sure that win would have been quite as sweet or as memorable without the second half comeback.  In the end, it was just another twist and turn in a great story, but in the moment it seemed like a terrible hand to be dealt.

For the past few months I've been training myself to run in the Chase Corporate Challenge, which took place last night.  The race is 3.5 miles, a bit longer than a 5K, and quite a bit further than I generally run on my own.  I'd run in it two of the last three years, and always working to improve my time.  The first time I ran it I had never run much for distance before but figured I'd give it a try and see how it went.  Sure enough, despite hardcore rain, I ran the whole thing.  Slowly, perhaps, but I ran it nonetheless.  I wasn't able to register in time the next year, which was just as well as it was another stormy day.  I ran the same distance on the treadmill at the gym, though, and improved on my time just a bit.  Last year I had been running more consistently and I was aiming for a 10-minute mile pace.  I had a running buddy from the gym to help pace me, and ended up running a bit over a 9.5-minute mile pace, which was awesome. 

This year I'd been taking running a lot more seriously, and over the past few months I've been religiously running twice a week at least, always aiming for a high intensity run to increase my speed.  I was trying to run intervals and run at faster speeds for longer periods of time, if only to trick my body into getting used to that higher speed for when I no longer had a treadmill to pace me.  I was doing well, even running the 3.5 miles within the 30-minute goal I set for myself (about 3:30 quicker than last year) multiple times.  I was still unsure if I could do it outside without the treadmill to push me, and weather conditions are always a wildcard, but it was nice to know I could do it. 

But over the last two weeks, it all fell apart.  No matter what I did, I couldn't do what I had been doing.  I'd have to stop and walk after a couple miles, or slow down so much that my pace was no better than last year.  I wondered if it was our big night out after the Knighthawks championship that tired my body out, or if hormones were messing with me.  I just felt tired.  I gained a couple pounds over Memorial Day weekend, and by then I was sure that I was going to crap out in the middle of the race like I had done in recent workouts.  On the bright side, I'd been praying for a cool but pleasant day for weeks, and sure enough, God delivered.  It was a gloriously sunny evening in the low 60s, perfect running weather.  I fueled myself up before the race and hoped adrenaline would do the rest.  And you know what?  I hit my goal.  I didn't quite do it under 30 minutes like I wanted to.  I ended up at 30:11.  However, I was held up quite a bit by the crowd at the start of the race and couldn't get to the pace I wanted until after the first mile.  That one took about 9:15, and I was aiming for 8:30.  However, I must have killed the last mile and a half in particular, because I made up most of the lost time there.  Were it not for the traffic, I would have certainly been under 30 minutes.  And what's better?  I felt really good doing it.  I didn't get tired until after the 2-mile mark, and I didn't have any sort of pain in the middle of it like I did last year.  I was exhausted by the end, yes, but my recovery was far quicker and I feel more or less normal today which is a far cry from past runs.  It's great to see how far I've come, and the challenge I faced in the past couple weeks made my success that much sweeter. 

When it comes to applying this philosophy to current, unresolved things in my life, I especially hope it applies to three things: Jacob's behavior, my anosmia, and our quest for baby #2.  I obviously hope all of the work we put in to being consistent with Jacob, to having structure, to trying to teach him how to be a good boy, all turn out in the end and give us a sweet, loving, well-adjusted son for years to come.  My anosmia (lack of smell) is still a very difficult, very frustrating part of my life.  One of these days I'll do a post about the good and bad of having no sense of smell as a parent, but suffice it to say it feels like part of the puzzle is missing when I can't smell or taste anything.  I keep hoping that someday we'll figure out how to fix it, and at that point, I will certainly have a new appreciation for how things taste and smell!  And, of course, the wait we're enduring while trying for another baby has been a challenge.  In all three cases, I hope that the difficulties we've gone through are just a part of the journey, another chapter of our story.  Right now in the midst of them, it feels like the challenges will never end.  Hopefully someday they will be the battle scars that make us appreciate the good we have and how far we've come.  I'm hoping they're just a learning experience we have to endure for a greater purpose.

It's not always easy in the middle of a story to trust that there will be a happy ending...and maybe there won't always be one.  But remembering it is the middle and the possibilities are endless is something that should get us through the tough times.  God's got this one...one way or another.

Memorial Day Weekend

It's been a busy week.  So busy, in fact, that these pictures go back to last Friday, actually.  We had a great weekend, a four day one, at that.  Much needed, trust me.

Thursday night we were out at a Champion's Cup appearance with a bunch of the Knighthawks' big fans.  Jacob, as usual, decided to be difficult at an inopportune moment.  He had the chance to drink chocolate milk out of the cup with a couple other kids, but he chickened out.  Ugh.  However, Craig brought the cup home with him that night since he had an appearance at a radio station the next morning.  I taped Jacob walking into our room and seeing the cup.  It was pretty cute, but alas, a little large to upload here.  Someday I will do a YouTube thing!  But anyway...here's a picture of him hanging out with the cup...

On Friday, Craig and I had a date day.  Jacob went to daycare, and the two of us went out to lunch and to see "Crooked Arrows", a lacrosse movie.  It was fun to just be the two of us for a change.  We would have done something fun Friday night, but Jacob's behavior lately just hasn't warranted it. 

Saturday we had a picnic with my family here in town.  It was fun to see everyone (and eat!), and Jacob had a blast playing with his second cousins, as always.  We spent a good chunk of the rest of the weekend outside--playing with Jacob, doing yardwork, cleaning the pool (it's cool but refreshing!), and planting a mini-garden.  Exhausting, but a good feeling to get it done.  We actually didn't do much else until Monday afternoon. 

Monday we decided to head to the zoo.  Our zoo just opened a major new exhibit a couple weeks ago, and we were overdue to renew our membership.  The new exhibit features three lions, some goats, a new food stand, and some fun activities. Its opening also meant that the exhibits beyond it--the elephants and the baboons--were accessible for the first time in over a year. 

Looking out over the new space

The lion exhibit is pretty great.  There used to be this long, boring walk down to the elephants and baboons, but it's been replaced by a fantastic little area bringing the African theming to all three exhibits together.  There's a Masai hut, the goats, a fossil dig area, a double-decker bus observation area, some fun photo ops, and a walk up window to see the lions.  Here's where they were when we got there...

Lounging in the shade!  There is one male and two females.

After a couple minutes, the male came right up and sat next to the glass.  He's very regal, with giant paws and a gorgeous face.

Not sure how well  you can see it, but the remains of lunch were scattered about...bloody bones, including jaw bones with teeth and everything.  Gross.  I wonder what kind of animals they feed them!

Jacob loved the double-decker bus and kept wanting to go back there.  It's neat to have that sort of vantage point, though I have a feeling I'm going to spend many zoo visits dragging Jacob back downstairs!

I love watching the baboons because there's a lot of them and they're very active.  They're almost always doing something interesting--playing, grooming, chasing--and Monday was no exception!  One was playing under a blanket, and I caught this picture of a baby snuggling its mama...

So sweet...just how I wish I could be with Jacob more often!

Of course, we had one classic moment when one baboon rolled on his back and let it all hang out...literally.  Jacob's like, "I see his wiener, Mommy..."  Awesome.  I'm just glad he didn't notice the size difference between that one and the one next to him.  Let's just say I think the one we were looking at was a little...ummm....happier.  Yikes.

I can't resist including this picture that I snapped on the way back out...

Silly boys!

And this one was pretty cute, too...

Riding the alligator!

We went to a party at our friend's house for dinner, and managed to keep Jacob occupied at a mostly-adult party for quite a while--thanks to ladder golf, playing catch, and a couple doggies.  We were all pretty exhausted by the end of the weekend, yet no one slept well on Monday night.  Jacob was up whimpering, Craig had a headache and stomach ache, and I was up every time either of them was.  In the end everyone was fine, though Jacob did wake up with a cold yesterday morning so perhaps the rough night was foreshadowing for that.  It's made for a couple sleepy days at work, and now tomorrow I'm running in the Chase Corporate Challenge, the race I've been training for for months.  My goal is to run the 3.5 miles in 30 minutes, which I've done a few times on the treadmill.  However, my last couple weeks of runs have been very challenging and I'm not sure I have any chance to achieve that level of success tomorrow.  I'm hoping for a solid dose of adrenaline, but considering I haven't gotten close to that speed in a couple weeks, I'm concerned.  Still, it'll be a nice night out by myself (the after party is always fun!) and once I'm past it, I'll probably take a break from running for a bit--or at least explore other workout options for a change.  I'll miss the calorie burn, for sure, but I need the change.  It's been nice to have a goal, but I'm ready to be out from under it!  My bike and the great outdoors are waiting, at the very least!

Anyway, it was nice to have a productive weekend together and I'm ready to see what the summer holds!

Memorial Day Miscellany

- It never fails...I post something about how awesome Jacob is, and he responds by being a giant pain.  I know I probably sound like I'm repeating myself, but boy, are we ever having a tough time with him these days.  I can't even describe how frustrating it has been, because he pushes back on everything.  He's all about testing us and trying to be funny.  And, of course, he's not funny.  We have to tell him a dozen times to do anything, he messes around when he shouldn't (which usually means he hurts himself or makes a mess), he battles us on wearing clothes or eating food or anything else.  A couple examples from today: Jacob and Craig were playing basketball in the driveway, and at one point Jacob just rolled the ball under Craig's car on purpose, saying he was "bowling".  Once in a while Jacob starts to lean on our La-Z-Boy and rock it very hard, to the point it hits the wall.  Today he started doing it (again) and (again) Craig told him to stop.  He purposely rocked it twice more, at which point Craig gave him a whack on the butt because he purposely defied him.  We've had to plop him in his room multiple times this weekend because he gets out of control, usually over nothing.  He whines and cries over the littlest things, insists on wearing pants, sleeves, and high socks out into 80-degree weather, and threw a couple minor potty accidents into the mix today.  He talks back, purposely talks potty talk (be it poop, boobies, boogers, etc.), and says nasty things.  His behavior has been so bad that we haven't done many of the fun activity options we had for the weekend.  We're not even sure how to discipline him at this point.  He doesn't really respond to much, so we're almost at the point of needing to do something drastic--like take away his herd of stuffed animals or keep him inside all day.  I'm trying to be consistent, but it's so hard to not get emotional and generally caught up in the craziness.  We're just sort of stumped about why he's acting this way and how to stop it. 

- I'm pretty sure Jacob nearly skipped right over a size of clothing.  For years he was pretty much right on with his clothing sizes (2T at age 2, for example), but over the past year or so, he's shifted.  He wore 4Ts all winter, and his pants even started getting short by the end of the winter.  His waist is still tiny, but given an adjustable waist band, he needs the length of bigger sizes.  Now I'm buying a lot of 5T stuff for him, or even venturing into the boys' section and picking up XS sizes there.  It boggles my mind a little bit to be nearly done with the baby section.  I'm feeling like his wardrobe is a little limited right now because we can't reuse as many of his summer clothes from last year as usual (short sleeves and shorts are godsends for a gangly kid), but his birthday is coming so I'm trying to make do for now. 

- I won a prize from a blog on babble.com!  Every once in a while I enter drawings on blogs, usually ones that just involve leaving a random comment.  Well, the other day I was notified that I won a MegaBloks prize package!  Of all the ones I could win, that one wasn't the most exciting, but it was still pretty cool.  And it was a fun bonus yesterday to see the FedEx truck dropping it off.  Inside was $50 worth of MegaBloks products.  There's a small bus toy similar to one Jacob already has, a larger dump truck toy, and a big bag of blocks.  I haven't quite decided what to do with them yet.  I think Jacob is going to get the blocks because he's really enjoyed building structures with the big set he got for his birthday last year, but sometimes he's seemed to run out of blocks.  The other two are within his age range but I'm not sure either of them are toys he'd typically play with, and he's got enough toys already (including one similar one), so I'll probably keep them as gifts or something.  Still, it was fun to win.

- We need to get him in the pool at some point soon, so I'm in the market for a good flotation device.  He's outgrown his full suit with built-in floats, so I just put out a request on Facebook for suggestions.  I'd like to get some real-life answers beyond Amazon reviews.  Jacob mostly just likes to play sports instead of swim, but considering we have this pool and I assume some day he will love it, now is the time to start pushing a little before he's "that kid" who can't swim at his friends' pool parties.  Now that we have this pool, it's a little more motivation to take any future babies to swim class right off the bat.  I'd rather not fight these battles again!

Anyway...we've had a pretty low key weekend.  Four days off is a glorious thing.  Craig and I were off on Friday for a date day--we went to see the lacrosse movie "Crooked Arrows" and enjoyed lunch together.  We went to a family picnic here yesterday, and otherwise I've been working on the yard quite a bit--killing weeds, trimming, pruning bushes, and hopefully planting a little garden.  Craig finally seems to have conquered our lawn and gotten it to a good length to maintain.  We installed the pool steps today and I braved the cool (but pleasant) water to vacuum it finally.  We haven't done the zoo or mini-golf like we expected to, thanks to Jacob's behavior.  Maybe tomorrow.  There's always tomorrow...

A Good Night

Sometimes Jacob's behavior is so frustrating. He can be the most awesome kid at times, and then just repeatedly drive you crazy with ridiculous behavior apparently meant to invoke a reaction.  He doesn't listen, he talks about inappropriate things (potty talk, mostly), and whines and complains about the most inane stuff.  Why he wants a reaction like that (meaning, yelling, punishments, etc.), I have no idea.  I'd much rather give him hugs and do the fun things we can do when he's being a good boy. 

Last night Craig had to go to a dinner and, you know, meet Eli Manning and stuff...which was cool for him.  Jacob and I had a decidedly less exciting meal and found ourselves with a beautiful evening and some time to kill before bedtime, so I suggested taking a wagon ride.  The ride turned into a trip to the playground around the corner, and we really did have a lovely evening.  It was so nice to have a night without battles. 

Of course, before we got to that point, Jacob was running around the house trying to find his Batman costume, which he was insisting he wear for his ride.  When he couldn't find it, he got all weepy and whiny, but I told him that it was his responsibility to take care of it, and if he really wanted to wear it (since I already told him he shouldn't) that he needed to find it.  Eventually he went up to his room and emerged in his Captain America shirt, then retrieved his mask and shield from the toy shelf.  He looked like one of those kids you smile and roll your eyes at in the store when they're dressed like something else (a fairy, a princess, a ninja, etc.), but I figured it wasn't a battle worth fighting.  If nothing else he'd give the neighbors a laugh.  I don't know about you, but this picture does it for me:

We didn't initially plan on going to the playground, but once we got going it seemed wise to have a destination rather than just walking up and down the street.  So, off to the playground it was!  He was a little hesitant to play on the same structure as another group of kids, but he had fun going down the slide and climbing up the fake mountain.  It amazes me when I see him do stuff like that how easy it is for him now.  I used to have to shadow him constantly, and he was afraid of slides for so long.  Now he's an old pro.  I credit daycare and lots of time on their playground for that!

After a while he decided he wanted to explore other parts of the playground and immediately started climbing this thing:

Admittedly, I got a little nervous because Jacob, despite being athletic, is clumsy as heck.  But he did what he could and climbed back down once he got near the top and wasn't sure what to do with himself.  In the meantime, I debated between snapping a picture and being there to catch him if he fell.  I had brief visions of a long summer with him in a cast from some sort of awkward fall.  But he seemed steady enough and I managed to snap this shot, which I love.

Later on he insisted on putting on his Captain America stuff again, presumably because he wanted to "go fast" down the slide and feel like a superhero. 

My personal favorite was when he got to the bottom of the slide and had been electrified by the static...

At one point he was stumped as to how to get up to a platform.  There were monkey bars heading there (no way...not yet), or a little climbing structure that was, in essence, a ladder, but looked far more intimidating.  After a few tries of letting him attempt it himself, he gave up.  At that point I pulled him back to it, showed him where to put his hands and feet, helped him get one foot where it needed to be, and let him do the rest.  He was pretty proud of himself once he got up, and I'll be interested to see how he does next time.  Up on the platform he was excited to find pictures of the sign language finger-spelling alphabet.  He learns it at daycare, and started trying to sing the alphabet and do the signs at the same time.  He was so happy doing it, and I happened to take this picture...

You can't really make out the signs, but I like how it almost looks like he's holding the setting sun.

I tried to take advantage of the fantastic sunset lighting to get a cute picture of him just sitting there waiting to be lifted back down to the ground, and this was as good as it got before I was afraid he'd scooch himself right off the platform...

On our way back home, I stopped to take a picture of these adorable little flowers.  I tried to get an even closer shot of one, but I couldn't hold the camera still enough to get a good shot based on the light left outside.  However, I really like this one still.  Hello, my name is Amy, and I'm a macro setting addict.  Sigh.  But flowers are just so pretty...

Anyway, it was just a nice night.  There was minimal yelling, minimal disobedience, minimal frustration all around.  It's amazing how much fun we can have when Jacob decides to be a nice boy.  He's been asking to go back to the playground ever since, and I just wish he'd understand that we'd do a lot more of that stuff if he behaved himself more often.  It sort of kills the fun when he always needs to change his clothes or grab sports equipment or have things be a certain way before he cooperates.  Sometimes he just has to roll with it.  He gets something in his head, won't listen to reason, and then misses out on fun.  Tonight he missed out on an opportunity to drink out of the Champion's Cup with a few other kids--chocolate milk, via straws--and despite asking repeatedly about drinking out of the cup, he suddenly refused.  I'm not sure why, but all I can say is that hopefully he'll get another chance!  If not, he let his hard-headedness get in his way yet again.

In the meantime, I'll think about last night as a fun time of mother-son bonding and proof that he can be the coolest kid ever.

The Rest of the Weekend

After our handful of hours of sleep on Sunday morning, we had to head out to Buffalo for our nephew's birthday party.  Thank goodness I controlled myself beverage-wise, because sleep deprivation was causing me enough problems without being hung over, too.  Still, we wouldn't have missed the party, so off we went. 

Once we got there, Jacob was doing his own thing, playing in a corner with a pirate ship toy.  For whatever reason, he wasn't interested in heading out to play with his cousins.  Eventually he broke into their supply of dress-up costumes and put on a Power Ranger one.  He finally got around to heading outside to the bounce house, and was happy to discover that there was a hoop in there.  After tracking down the ball, he took a few shots...

When's the last time you saw a basketball-playing ninja? :)

He also had fun bouncing...

And climbing...

Where did this brave little climber come from?

And sliding...

Don't know if you can see it, but he's got a huge smile on his face.  Later on the kids were making it a water slide, and Jacob ended up wet enough that we had to change him into his bathing suit (after the fact) because Mommy didn't bring enough backup clothes.

And here's Jacob (in a new outfit--ninja turtle, this time) helping his cousin blow out his candles.  I guess he's practicing for a month from that day, when he'll be doing the same thing.  How is my baby turning four?!

We had a great time visiting with family and recalling the events of the previous night, but I'm not gonna lie--it made for a very long day and I was never so happy to fall into my bed that night.  It's been a busy week and we've been trying to catch up on our sleep.  Apparently the old body doesn't bounce back like it used to.  I could barely keep my eyes open at work the past couple days.  Today was the first day I wasn't in agony, but rest assured, I'm still tired.  Fortunately I will have a nice long weekend to try to recover.  I can't wait! 

We Are The Champions!

So...based on the title you can see that Saturday was a good day, but here's the rundown.  Bear with me--I'm probably going to go into great detail here, but I want to document this fully before I forget the details :)

Craig was off bright and early for a big championship gameday, and Jacob and I were on our own.  He slept in until after 8am, so our morning got off to a wonderfully slow start.  We snuggled on the couch and watched "old hockey guys" on a Sabres DVD we have before getting ourselves ready and out to door to head to the library.  A book I've been waiting to get was back in at the library and I'd been meaning to get there for some new books for Jacob as well.  I picked up my book, as well as an assortment for Jacob--everything from the Berenstain Bears and two of Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny books to a hockey-themed I Spy book and an old favorite, Dino-Soccer.  We headed home for a quick lunch and Jacob went down for a very necessary nap.  In the meantime, I was all over the house.  I washed winter clothes, dusted the main floor, cleaned up the kitchen, and reorganized Jacob's toys into similarly grouped bins.  By the time I was done, my parents arrived for the Knighthawks game and shortly thereafter, Jacob woke up. 

We decided to do some geocaching before the game, so we headed downtown to hit up a series of them in close proximity.  They were all tiny ones--a few just smaller than pill canisters and two others the size of the tip of your pinkie--so Jacob couldn't really do much looking and settled instead for finding sticks and other objects, and throwing pinecones, much to mommy's dismay.  Still, it was cool to check out places I'd passed by previously and never checked out, or places I'd never noticed at all.  Here's a shot of Jacob in motion near a statue just across the way from my gym...

Captures him perfectly...he never stops!

And here's an artsy-ish shot from a park inside the preserved remains of a burned out church...

The church burned down in the 70s and they kept what they could and turned it into an urban park.  I never should have told Jacob what it was, because he was obsessed with the church having had a fire for the rest of the night.  Oops.  I guess I was hoping it would just go over his head.  Guess not.

After dinner down the street from the arena, we enjoyed a walk in the lovely weather down to the game.  By that point the nerves began to take over and I spent a good portion of the rest of the night hoping my digestive system would cooperate.  There was a great crowd and everyone was visibly pumped.  The good news about playing a team from far away (in this case, Edmonton) was that 99% of the fans in the arena were cheering for the home team.  That made it less competitive in the stands (fun in its own way, when your team is winning), but like one big party. 

The game started out very competitively.  Our goalie was making awesome saves and while we weren't getting a lot of shots, we had a few great chances.  Craig had told me that if we stayed close early on, we'd have a good shot at taking it.  Apparently Edmonton's style of play lends itself to tiring out later in the game.  Unfortunately, Edmonton scored first.  When they scored another goal, I started to get nervous.  We just weren't getting chances, or many bounces, and that usually spells disaster.  This was reminiscent of the 2003 Championship Game against Toronto, which a friend and fellow co-worker likes to remind me was the night I slammed my clipboard on the desk in frustration.  That game ended up as an 8-5 loss, and one of the hardest games I've ever had to watch.  I literally couldn't bring myself to watch the celebration on the floor afterward. 

Anyway, by the end of the first half it was 5-1 and the way the game had been going, I was pretty sure it didn't bode well.  Lacrosse is a funny sport--a game of runs--but there are times when no matter what you do, a run never comes.  Usually the Knighthawks run into that at the most inopportune time, so I was pretty sure we could add this one to the list.  However, when I ran into the Knighthawks' biggest fan (and a good friend of ours) on a walk around the arena at halftime, he was genuinely confident that we had them right where we wanted them.  I hoped he was right.

After Jacob played his usual halftime lacrosse game in a corner of the arena, we headed upstairs to change up the luck.  We had brought with us Jacob's little stuffed hawk, who seemed to be a strange little good luck charm after Craig bought him before a game about a month ago.  We'd brought him to every game since (and Craig took him to Toronto, site of the improbable win that sent us to the finals), and I decided that it was time to leave the Hawk with Craig, just in case it did more good in his care than in ours.  Craig was mid-broadcast so I dropped the Hawk on his table with nothing more than a look, and then Jacob and I walked down to the arena production booth.  Usually we try to stop in and visit a few old friends, and for whatever reason, the Knighthawks tend to score more when we're up there.  Go figure. 

I think the rest of the arena had ideas to switch things up and change the luck, as well (Craig has examples from behind the scenes, too), because collectively it seemed to work.  Either that or it was one heck of a halftime speech in the locker room.  During the course of the third quarter, the Knighthawks chipped away at the deficit...and suddenly, we were WINNING.  Of course, somewhere in the middle of it, my friend (the clipboard story guy) said, "You can't leave now!" as I was sitting there thinking about my parents waiting for us down in the seats.  However, by the end of the third I believe we were up by two goals and it seemed like the tide had officially turned.  I never trust any lead in lacrosse, but it seemed like we were finally getting bounces, consistently scoring, and still seeing great saves by our goalie.  So, down we went, with full intentions of heading back up if the situation warranted.  If, indeed, the Knighthawks could pull this off, I wanted to be down in the crowd to experience it.  After all, among all the reasons I wanted the Knighthawks to win this time, the top one was that I wanted the fans to experience it.  Nothing could beat the win in Phoenix (for many reasons), but knowing that the fans had been cheated out of that one (because the circus was in town and the game had to move), I really wanted this for them.

The Knighthawks clung to their slim lead for the entire fourth quarter, and I can't even describe the nerves I was feeling.  I was already in shock that the Knighthawks were even in a championship game, let alone in our own arena, and the fact that we were losing so handily at the end of the first half made the slim late-game lead that much more amazing.  I was in total disbelief that we could actually win this game.  Sure enough, though, time ticked down.  Near the end of the game the Knighthawks scored one more which pretty much clinched it, and I spent the last minute or so savoring the moment.  The crowd was going nuts.  I picked up Jacob to make sure he could appreciate it (though later handed him off to my dad so I could take pictures and video), and thought back to those last moments in Phoenix five years ago when I realized that my dream was coming true and we were actually going to be the champions.  And now it was happening again!

The game ended, the crowd roared, and the celebration was on!

Jacob was apparently just taking it all in, because despite our best attempts, it was like pulling teeth to get a smile out of him...

Closest we got...

Jacob and I had passes to go on the field, so shortly after the initial celebration, we headed down.  It took a couple minutes, but eventually we found Craig and got a good spot for the cup presentation.  It was great to see it all happening again.  Here's one of the veterans hoisting the cup:

Mike Accursi was on the 2007 championship team, then ended up with Buffalo the next year.  He won a championship there in 2008, and eventually ended up back in Rochester, much to my delight.  I swear the guy is a little bit of playoff magic.

 And here's the traditional championship photo:

Craig is in the back row, just to the left of the middle.

Jacob cracked a couple smiles while we were down there, but I think mostly he was taking it all in.  It was pure chaos, so I can't blame him.  I probably should have picked him up more, but I suppose I felt like it was more important to capture the photos for posterity so we can both have a way to remember the events of the night.  He did get a chance to touch the cup, with the promise that he'll get to drink out of it sometime this summer.  Milk is apparently his beverage of choice! 

Here's another unsuccessful attempt to capture Jacob enjoying the celebration.  I can't remember what goofy thing Jacob did to elicit the look on Craig's face, but rest assured it was pure Jacob.

During the trophy presentation Craig flashed open his suit coat and showed me Jacob's hawk inside his pocket.  Maybe that hawk does have a special gift!  Jacob was happily reunited with him, and here he is showing him off...

This is what I get when I tell Jacob to stand there, show me his hawk, and smile!

I think this picture just captures our little boy better than maybe any other...animal in hand, quietly checking out the turf in the midst of a giant, chaotic celebration...

Notice he's wearing his special pass...and the same t-shirt and jersey he wore for just about every other game this season.

After a while the arena started to clear out, and I dispatched Jacob to my parents' care (my mom stayed over).  At some point both Craig and the cup disappeared.  Craig had a press conference to run, and the team had retreated to the locker room to celebrate.  The families and staff were left on the turf for a pizza party.  Understandably, the staff was a little disappointed.  After all, in Phoenix we had a small, intimate group--a handful of staff and a few wives/girlfriends--and pretty much everyone was in the locker room for the champagne spraying scenes you see on TV when major league teams win.  That didn't happen this time, and the staff was visibly worried they were going to miss all the fun.

A little while later, Craig returned and so did the cup.  We all took turns getting the pictures we wanted...particularly this one...

Craig had to finish up some work before he could officially get back to celebrating, and we ended up spending some time at the office, where the staff had retreated with a couple cases of beer.  We looked at some of the awesome pictures one of the photographers had captured, had a couple celebratory beverages, and finally wrapped up the working part of the evening. 

We headed off to a local bar/restaurant whose owner is a huge fan, and Craig called one of the players to check the status of the cup, knowing that the fans at this place (the die-hards) would be jonesing for a chance to party with it.  Shortly thereafter, the players and hardware arrived, and we had a great time.  We caught up with the players, saw a couple blasts from the past, and just enjoyed the general merriment.  The local 24-hour TV news station was running a story every half hour on the bar TV that just happened to have Jacob and me VERY clearly in the background during a player interview.  Lovely.  It reminded me of my TV hosting days when we'd be out after Knighthawks' games and the replay of my show would come on at the bar (on the same channel as the game) at midnight, and half the bar would do a double-take as they looked at the TV and back at me.  Awkward.

Anyway, we also got to do this:

This photo (taken by someone else) got quite a response on Facebook.  I guess people aren't used to seeing me drinking anything, let alone something that big.  Rest assured, though, there wasn't much champagne left in the bowl.  It was leaking out of the handles, and between the weight of the trophy and the angle it needed to be tipped at to get close enough to slurp, it was the most awkward drink ever!  Oh, and I didn't drink out of it last time, so this is my first-ever championship drink!

It was a pretty low-key celebration, with just enough odd randomness to make it the unique evening I'd expect for a championship celebration.  We were out until after 4am and didn't make it to bed until 5am, when it was just starting to get light!  We had to drive to Buffalo Sunday afternoon for our nephew's birthday party (dropping my mom off on the way), so we fit in as much sleep as we could and relied on adrenaline to get us the rest of the way.  I was tired by the end of yesterday and absolutely exhausted today.  I had to buy a 20 oz. Diet Mountain Dew around noon because I could barely keep my eyes open.  Still, it was all worth it.  We had a blast.

That said, this one was quite different than the last one.  The last one was my first real championship (by a team I really truly cared about), and after all of the losses that that core group of players had endured, that one was well-deserved.  It was a fantastic team that earned every win, and the championship was long overdue.  I had worked with all of the staff that made the trip, so there was a special family element to it all.  We were celebrating in paradise with a small, intimate group in the midst of a whirlwind fantasy weekend.  It was all surreal and is literally one of the most amazing times of my life.  This time around was so different.  We were at home, and the celebration included countless family members, friends, and fans.  The no-alcohol policy that had surrounded the team all year (especially following the fight in Minnesota that saw players get arrested) kept things a bit lower key than before.  This team wasn't nearly as successful as the last one (15-2 record vs. 7-9), but the team they beat was even worse (6-10), so it was an odd final to begin with.  I don't know as many of the faces on this team (as I said, the core of the last team had been intact for a long time and after working there, I knew most of them), so it wasn't quite as personal of a win.  However, this one was all about the fans, and honestly, that's who I was happiest to celebrate with at the end of the night.  Still, the improbable playoff run and the second-half comeback made this one special in its own way.  And as always, I'm so happy for Craig.  A championship is pretty much the best payoff you can get after a long, difficult season.  It was an unforgettable night, for sure.  There's nothing like winning the last game of the season, and I'm thrilled we got to experience it again. 

I'm also happy we got to share the experience with Jacob this time, and look forward to a couple more encounters with the cup soon.  The photo ops are endless!  Something to look forward to, for sure!  But until then, pardon me while I go marvel a little more at the fact that this all actually happened...