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.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
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!
 |
| 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!
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Recovery
Well, we're eight full days out now. It's hard to know exactly how things are shaping up, but I think we're getting there. This whole process has been a bit odd, honestly.
Carter actually seemed to do pretty well the first couple days out. It was apparent right away that it was helping his sleep, as he didn't snore and barely even moved. He still says he doesn't feel a difference, but he's also still waking up for medicine (more on that in a bit) and sleeping on a crib mattress on our floor, so I think we'll have the true test once he's in his own bed, back on schedule, and properly wearing himself out with full days of school. But the lack of snoring is shocking, and I'm so happy that's over.
He's never been a complete and total lump of sadness through this whole process, at least not since the first 20 minutes after he woke up from the surgery, but he has moments that generally last about five minutes at a time where he complains about his throat or mouth hurting. The frustrating thing is that I can't seem to get a good look at his throat to know what's going on there. He either can't seem to open his mouth because it hurts, or can't figure out how to best stick out his tongue in a way that I can see in. I think there are still some scabs there, but by now he's likely starting to lose some of them. I probably got my best look tonight and there are definitely less scabs than there were, but it's still hard to know what's normal when his throat looks so different than it used to.
The last week has been sort of torturous on the medication end. We've gone through nearly two bottles each of liquid acetaminophen and ibuprofen thanks to alternating every three hours around the clock. The alarm on my phone now makes me cringe. I've worked only two days in the last week, plus one four hour stint on Sunday, so it's been nearly constant. Night duty has been particularly challenging, as it has usually involved three rounds of waking Carter up, which is no small feat when he's now sleeping so deeply. It was really hard the first couple nights, until I figured out that we should use the syringes so I could just get him half awake, enough to be aware enough to swallow, and shoot it in the side of his mouth. But then, starting a couple nights ago, he really started fighting me. Every time I tried to wake him up, he'd cry, push away, turn his head, and make it generally impossible for me to give him the medicine without forcing it. At first I thought it was just because he was in pain, but now I think it's almost like PTSD combined with a night terror, as I don't think he really knows he's doing it, but is instinctively avoiding it. He doesn't remember in the morning that he was upset, and I have no idea how to fix this so I'm at the point of wanting to see just how little we can medicate overnight. We've also dealt with some random overnight crying, but we can't tell if it's pain (though sometimes it happens when he should be well-medicated) or if he's having a bad dream. He might not be used to dreaming much if his old sleep cycle never got him to that stage, but who knows what's really happening. Usually some back rubbing helped after a while, but it was concerning.
Overall he's seemed fine throughout the day, but at each meal he has a moment where he almost breaks down and complains that his mouth or throat hurts. He sometimes leaves the table (which appears to be so no one sees him cry), but comes back five minutes later and seems to eat without incident. It's odd. I'm encouraging him to eat as much as possible because he hasn't eaten a lot over the past week. He's had a Pediasure for the past six days, and he's had chicken noodle soup, mac and cheese, ramen noodles (a new favorite), pancakes, oatmeal (another new thing), smoothies, fruity/cocoa pebbles soaked in milk, applesauce, eggs, sausages, peanut butter sandwiches with no crusts, and Gatorade. I had a nice supply of Jello, but it turns out he mostly just likes the lime jello, so I've been eating a lot of other flavors--which may not be a bad thing because my nails need it! He also had a tiny piece of warm brownie with ice cream the other night. But the quantity usually isn't large and he's not a snacker, so it's been a bit of a struggle. He's eating, but it's a process.
He really hasn't been that miserable, which is great, but it's made it hard to measure where we are in the process or how well the medicine is working. We were advised to keep up the medicine schedule for at least a week, which we did. But now that he can go back to school in a couple days, I'm trying to measure how he's actually doing by stretching out the doses. Today he's done well, but clearly eating is still a challenge. I'm not sure how I feel about school on Friday--should I send him back and give him a small taste of getting back in the groove, or should I keep him home one more day and secure three extra days of recovery, which should be enough to ensure he's functional by Monday? I have to work tomorrow, so I will have to rely on Craig's observations to try to figure things out by Friday morning. Ninety percent of the time he seems like he could do it, but then he has a rough moment and I question everything...which makes me think he'll probably stay home just to be safe unless we have some breakthrough in the meantime.
It's been an interesting week, though. He's probably been better overall than I expected but it's still been challenging in other ways. At this point I'm just eager for him to feel better, eat normally, and be free to run and play. His sad moments really suck and the overnight medication schedule is worse. But I know we're in the home stretch and he'll be fine before we know it. The long term benefits definitely outweigh what we've dealt with for the last week-plus. I just hope we see major improvements all around very soon.
In other news, we did end up having pretty nasty winds over the weekend. The peak gust was 69, and we had 50+ gusts for over 24 hours. It was miserable to listen to all day and night, especially since I had to be up so many times. Fortunately, there was shockingly little damage compared to the 81mph storm two years ago. Only a handful of power outages in town and just a few downed trees in the areas I've driven through so far. Buffalo got hit a bit worse. We're just thankful for no damage--though the basketball hoop and grill are still in the garage and now my car is sitting outside in 4+ inches of snow that came in today. Compared to the winds I don't mind the snow, and Facebook reminded me today about how soul sucking the frigid cold was in February 2015. We only had six hours of the entire month above freezing and it was the coldest month ever in Rochester. I wasn't working so I spent most of it either shoveling the driveway, driving to school to pick up Jacob, and holed up in the house with Carter. That was far worse, even though our crazy weather month hasn't been a joy either. But a few days in the 50s wouldn't hurt...assuming they don't come with winds like Sunday's 55 degrees did. But it's almost March so hopefully some hope is in sight. Maybe. Suffice it to say we're all over the winter weather. The kids desperately want to be outside, and I wouldn't mind a good run. We've just hit that point of the winter. But Carter's birthday party is in sight and hopefully March goes quickly after it.
With almost everything right now, I know things are just temporary and one day at a time we'll get to where we need to be--from spring weather to a healthy kid to Craig's job situation. One day at a time. One breath at a time.
Carter actually seemed to do pretty well the first couple days out. It was apparent right away that it was helping his sleep, as he didn't snore and barely even moved. He still says he doesn't feel a difference, but he's also still waking up for medicine (more on that in a bit) and sleeping on a crib mattress on our floor, so I think we'll have the true test once he's in his own bed, back on schedule, and properly wearing himself out with full days of school. But the lack of snoring is shocking, and I'm so happy that's over.
He's never been a complete and total lump of sadness through this whole process, at least not since the first 20 minutes after he woke up from the surgery, but he has moments that generally last about five minutes at a time where he complains about his throat or mouth hurting. The frustrating thing is that I can't seem to get a good look at his throat to know what's going on there. He either can't seem to open his mouth because it hurts, or can't figure out how to best stick out his tongue in a way that I can see in. I think there are still some scabs there, but by now he's likely starting to lose some of them. I probably got my best look tonight and there are definitely less scabs than there were, but it's still hard to know what's normal when his throat looks so different than it used to.
The last week has been sort of torturous on the medication end. We've gone through nearly two bottles each of liquid acetaminophen and ibuprofen thanks to alternating every three hours around the clock. The alarm on my phone now makes me cringe. I've worked only two days in the last week, plus one four hour stint on Sunday, so it's been nearly constant. Night duty has been particularly challenging, as it has usually involved three rounds of waking Carter up, which is no small feat when he's now sleeping so deeply. It was really hard the first couple nights, until I figured out that we should use the syringes so I could just get him half awake, enough to be aware enough to swallow, and shoot it in the side of his mouth. But then, starting a couple nights ago, he really started fighting me. Every time I tried to wake him up, he'd cry, push away, turn his head, and make it generally impossible for me to give him the medicine without forcing it. At first I thought it was just because he was in pain, but now I think it's almost like PTSD combined with a night terror, as I don't think he really knows he's doing it, but is instinctively avoiding it. He doesn't remember in the morning that he was upset, and I have no idea how to fix this so I'm at the point of wanting to see just how little we can medicate overnight. We've also dealt with some random overnight crying, but we can't tell if it's pain (though sometimes it happens when he should be well-medicated) or if he's having a bad dream. He might not be used to dreaming much if his old sleep cycle never got him to that stage, but who knows what's really happening. Usually some back rubbing helped after a while, but it was concerning.
Overall he's seemed fine throughout the day, but at each meal he has a moment where he almost breaks down and complains that his mouth or throat hurts. He sometimes leaves the table (which appears to be so no one sees him cry), but comes back five minutes later and seems to eat without incident. It's odd. I'm encouraging him to eat as much as possible because he hasn't eaten a lot over the past week. He's had a Pediasure for the past six days, and he's had chicken noodle soup, mac and cheese, ramen noodles (a new favorite), pancakes, oatmeal (another new thing), smoothies, fruity/cocoa pebbles soaked in milk, applesauce, eggs, sausages, peanut butter sandwiches with no crusts, and Gatorade. I had a nice supply of Jello, but it turns out he mostly just likes the lime jello, so I've been eating a lot of other flavors--which may not be a bad thing because my nails need it! He also had a tiny piece of warm brownie with ice cream the other night. But the quantity usually isn't large and he's not a snacker, so it's been a bit of a struggle. He's eating, but it's a process.
He really hasn't been that miserable, which is great, but it's made it hard to measure where we are in the process or how well the medicine is working. We were advised to keep up the medicine schedule for at least a week, which we did. But now that he can go back to school in a couple days, I'm trying to measure how he's actually doing by stretching out the doses. Today he's done well, but clearly eating is still a challenge. I'm not sure how I feel about school on Friday--should I send him back and give him a small taste of getting back in the groove, or should I keep him home one more day and secure three extra days of recovery, which should be enough to ensure he's functional by Monday? I have to work tomorrow, so I will have to rely on Craig's observations to try to figure things out by Friday morning. Ninety percent of the time he seems like he could do it, but then he has a rough moment and I question everything...which makes me think he'll probably stay home just to be safe unless we have some breakthrough in the meantime.
It's been an interesting week, though. He's probably been better overall than I expected but it's still been challenging in other ways. At this point I'm just eager for him to feel better, eat normally, and be free to run and play. His sad moments really suck and the overnight medication schedule is worse. But I know we're in the home stretch and he'll be fine before we know it. The long term benefits definitely outweigh what we've dealt with for the last week-plus. I just hope we see major improvements all around very soon.
In other news, we did end up having pretty nasty winds over the weekend. The peak gust was 69, and we had 50+ gusts for over 24 hours. It was miserable to listen to all day and night, especially since I had to be up so many times. Fortunately, there was shockingly little damage compared to the 81mph storm two years ago. Only a handful of power outages in town and just a few downed trees in the areas I've driven through so far. Buffalo got hit a bit worse. We're just thankful for no damage--though the basketball hoop and grill are still in the garage and now my car is sitting outside in 4+ inches of snow that came in today. Compared to the winds I don't mind the snow, and Facebook reminded me today about how soul sucking the frigid cold was in February 2015. We only had six hours of the entire month above freezing and it was the coldest month ever in Rochester. I wasn't working so I spent most of it either shoveling the driveway, driving to school to pick up Jacob, and holed up in the house with Carter. That was far worse, even though our crazy weather month hasn't been a joy either. But a few days in the 50s wouldn't hurt...assuming they don't come with winds like Sunday's 55 degrees did. But it's almost March so hopefully some hope is in sight. Maybe. Suffice it to say we're all over the winter weather. The kids desperately want to be outside, and I wouldn't mind a good run. We've just hit that point of the winter. But Carter's birthday party is in sight and hopefully March goes quickly after it.
With almost everything right now, I know things are just temporary and one day at a time we'll get to where we need to be--from spring weather to a healthy kid to Craig's job situation. One day at a time. One breath at a time.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
News and Notes, Recovery Edition
So, we're a couple days into post-tonsil/adenoid life, and all is well. Carter has been doing great, though I think we're starting the downhill slide as he was complaining this morning about his throat being sore. I'm hoping it's just that it's worse in the morning (as it was yesterday, as well) because he hasn't been drinking water most of the night so it's drier than usual, which can cause it to hurt more. I've been trying to at least have him sip water after his medicine overnight, but I'm not sure it's helping. Most of the time he says it feels fine, but every once in a while it seems worse. And each time that happens now, I'm getting nervous that he's heading into scab territory that everyone says is the worst. Time will tell, I guess, but thankfully we have a low-key weekend ahead with no sports, so that will make things a bit easier. Of course, the forecasted 75mph winds on Sunday might complicate that low-key weekend a bit. I actually grocery shopped tonight with a thought toward what might happen if we lost power like we did last time winds got that high. God forbid we go through that again, because this time it would mean an extra long winter break for Jacob and two kids to occupy with no power. Yuck. Pray it somehow avoids us. In the meantime, if you need us we'll be figuring out how to move Jacob's basketball hoop into the garage.
Instead of fixating on the anxiety-fest ahead, I figured I'd rewind to before the surgery. We had a nice weekend with Craig, who finally didn't have a game. He got to see a full basketball game for Jacob for the first time. It was a hard-fought game where Jacob's team lost a nice lead, but in the end they tied. Jacob had four points, including a three-pointer. The game included a lot of fouls and Jacob is once again feeling like he's not getting passed to enough, but he's playing well. I think we just have to be patient. I figured out a decent setting on my camera to take action shots of him, so here are a couple...
I asked Carter if he had any last requests before his surgery, and he wanted brownies. So, brownies he got on Monday.
The boys were both home and it was a typical crazy day trying to keep them apart. At one point I heard them both laughing maniacally, and eventually they pointed to the ceiling, where I saw this:
That, my friends, is a sticky cross. It's basically like a sticky hand. Carter flung it, apparently just a little too much, and it went about 12 feet up on the living room ceiling. For years my fear has been mylar balloons, but it turns out the sticky cross was enemy #1. I have no idea how he got it up there, let alone how it stuck so well. My first attempt was to throw a stuffed animal at it to try to knock it down. Nope. My second attempt was with the tape measure, as it seemed like one of the few things that would reach that high. But it was hard to keep it from folding over when it was that tall, and then it definitely wasn't sturdy enough to scrape it off. Finally, I grabbed the Swiffer Wet Jet and climbed on the chair (a La-Z-Boy rocker--not ideal) and balanced just long enough to get the handle up that high and scrape it off. Thank goodness--both for my sanity and the boys' well being!
I tried to appreciate my time with Carter on Monday, since we didn't know what lay ahead of us with the surgery and recovery. He did such a nice job on building this house!
Yesterday we enhanced the setup by building a train track and ticket booth. He's so creative when he gets himself away from a screen!
I also wanted to share the loveliness that is my Valentine flowers from Craig. Still hanging in there a week later!
Instead of fixating on the anxiety-fest ahead, I figured I'd rewind to before the surgery. We had a nice weekend with Craig, who finally didn't have a game. He got to see a full basketball game for Jacob for the first time. It was a hard-fought game where Jacob's team lost a nice lead, but in the end they tied. Jacob had four points, including a three-pointer. The game included a lot of fouls and Jacob is once again feeling like he's not getting passed to enough, but he's playing well. I think we just have to be patient. I figured out a decent setting on my camera to take action shots of him, so here are a couple...
I asked Carter if he had any last requests before his surgery, and he wanted brownies. So, brownies he got on Monday.
The boys were both home and it was a typical crazy day trying to keep them apart. At one point I heard them both laughing maniacally, and eventually they pointed to the ceiling, where I saw this:
That, my friends, is a sticky cross. It's basically like a sticky hand. Carter flung it, apparently just a little too much, and it went about 12 feet up on the living room ceiling. For years my fear has been mylar balloons, but it turns out the sticky cross was enemy #1. I have no idea how he got it up there, let alone how it stuck so well. My first attempt was to throw a stuffed animal at it to try to knock it down. Nope. My second attempt was with the tape measure, as it seemed like one of the few things that would reach that high. But it was hard to keep it from folding over when it was that tall, and then it definitely wasn't sturdy enough to scrape it off. Finally, I grabbed the Swiffer Wet Jet and climbed on the chair (a La-Z-Boy rocker--not ideal) and balanced just long enough to get the handle up that high and scrape it off. Thank goodness--both for my sanity and the boys' well being!
I tried to appreciate my time with Carter on Monday, since we didn't know what lay ahead of us with the surgery and recovery. He did such a nice job on building this house!
Yesterday we enhanced the setup by building a train track and ticket booth. He's so creative when he gets himself away from a screen!
I also wanted to share the loveliness that is my Valentine flowers from Craig. Still hanging in there a week later!
Not much else to report since we're doing a lot of hanging out these days, but we did find out Jacob's entrance exam results were good enough for a small but nice scholarship to his new school next year. We can now start the enrollment process. Next year is going to be quite the experience for all of us!
Well, I'm getting very sleepy but medicine time comes again in an hour so I guess I'm going to go get it ready and take a nap before my night's sleep! Yawn. More soon!
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
T-Day
After months of deliberating, weeks of waiting, and days of "will we or won't we", the big day is finally here. And as I type, a giant piece of my heart is sitting in an operating room. I'm not gonna lie--part of me wants to curl up in a ball and sob. My anxiety has been working overdrive for a couple weeks now and every worst-case scenario has passed through my mind. But I know that he needs this--and if there was any question when it was just the snoring, there wasn't once round two of the strep hit last week. But it's still so hard to send your child into an operating room with all of the unknowns of anesthesia and painkillers, and know they're going to come out with the worst sore throat of their life...and that it will stay like that for a while. Knowingly doing that to your child is hard, no matter how positive the long-term end result is.
I was nervous when Jacob had his leg surgery, but I might have been even worse when he had a mole removed when he was two, if only because that was his first round of anesthesia. So when he went in for his leg, even though it was a much bigger deal, I felt better about it in general because he'd already gone through anesthesia twice--once for the mole and once for his endoscopy to diagnose his Celiac Disease--so that part of it didn't concern me nearly as much. The stakes of the actual surgery were bigger, though--hoping that they didn't find any surprises once they got in there and knowing we had a very long recovery ahead--but for whatever reason this surgery just has me on edge. Carter's never been put under before, and actually never really had a major illness that has challenged him like this one. Oh, and add in that an informal Facebook survey of how my friends' kids fared after surgery elicited a couple "fine after a couple days" responses and a few more "expect to watch a lot of movies for a few days" to contrast with a couple other "watch out for days 5-10" from Carter's teacher and someone else...I truly have no idea what to expect. And that alone has me on edge.
We've stocked up on soft foods, and two flavors of Jello are gelled in the refrigerator. We will experiment with smoothies and lightly pigmented popsicles and eggs and pudding and yogurt. He's never had oatmeal but we'll try that. We'll sleep with him in our room and stick to the infant-like every-three-hour medicine schedule. Whatever he needs, we'll do it.
Someone just brought a phone out with the surgeon on the other end. He's out and did fine!
I'm so proud of him. He was such a big boy, so happy and brave heading in and so sweet and patient even when he was in pain afterward. He struggled a bit when it was hard to breathe and talk, but he reached out for my hand and hung in there until the medicine kicked in. Such a sweet boy. I feel so grateful things went so smoothly today, and I hope and pray that continues. It'll be an interesting week and a half, no doubt. But I'm so happy to bid those pesky tonsils and adenoids farewell!
I was nervous when Jacob had his leg surgery, but I might have been even worse when he had a mole removed when he was two, if only because that was his first round of anesthesia. So when he went in for his leg, even though it was a much bigger deal, I felt better about it in general because he'd already gone through anesthesia twice--once for the mole and once for his endoscopy to diagnose his Celiac Disease--so that part of it didn't concern me nearly as much. The stakes of the actual surgery were bigger, though--hoping that they didn't find any surprises once they got in there and knowing we had a very long recovery ahead--but for whatever reason this surgery just has me on edge. Carter's never been put under before, and actually never really had a major illness that has challenged him like this one. Oh, and add in that an informal Facebook survey of how my friends' kids fared after surgery elicited a couple "fine after a couple days" responses and a few more "expect to watch a lot of movies for a few days" to contrast with a couple other "watch out for days 5-10" from Carter's teacher and someone else...I truly have no idea what to expect. And that alone has me on edge.
We've stocked up on soft foods, and two flavors of Jello are gelled in the refrigerator. We will experiment with smoothies and lightly pigmented popsicles and eggs and pudding and yogurt. He's never had oatmeal but we'll try that. We'll sleep with him in our room and stick to the infant-like every-three-hour medicine schedule. Whatever he needs, we'll do it.
Someone just brought a phone out with the surgeon on the other end. He's out and did fine!
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He came out of surgery pretty quickly. In fact, Craig was still off getting us lunch when they brought the phone out with the surgeon on the other end. He made it through just fine, with pretty big adenoids and very big tonsils. I went back to see him and he was very, very pathetic. He was in a lot of pain, and could barely talk. He was crying and was making a noise like he was having trouble breathing. He was fine, though, as his oxygen levels were high, but he had a tough time for a while. Craig came back with food and ate his lunch before I took a turn. When I came back he seemed a lot better--much more relaxed and trying to rest. He was drinking water but still refused a popsicle or juice. He tried to rest for a bit and when he woke up he slowly got back to being his chatty self. We got to leave around 3pm.
He's been content since he got home, just sitting on our bed and watching TV. He ate a very decent dinner--jello, a banana, some gnocchi, and half a sausage without the skin. He doesn't seem to be in pain--at least not unless he swallows, and even then it's not bad. We'll have to keep up with the medicine at all hours, but it seems like it will be worth it. He went to sleep without an issue, but I'll definitely feel better being able to wake up and shine a flashlight on him to be sure he's okay. I'm sure we're not out of the woods. Maybe he'll be sorer tomorrow. Maybe it will be when the scabs come off in a few more days. I've already had to tell him more than once not to run through the house. Every time he gets up from the bed, he scampers to wherever he needs to go. It's going to be tough to keep him down, that's for sure. Lots of shows and some tablet time, and hopefully some Legos and Hot Wheels and magnetic tiles when we can. I'm looking forward to the snuggles, regardless!
Just a few pictures to share from earlier today...
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| Hanging out pre-op with his buddies, Colin the Bear and Patrick the Hedgehog |
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| He got to decorate his mask with stickers and was so cute practicing with it. The surgeon pretended Carter was blowing him away when he blew into it, which made him giggle and try even harder! |
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| Post-op and pathetic :( Trying to rest with an ice pack across him. |
I'm so proud of him. He was such a big boy, so happy and brave heading in and so sweet and patient even when he was in pain afterward. He struggled a bit when it was hard to breathe and talk, but he reached out for my hand and hung in there until the medicine kicked in. Such a sweet boy. I feel so grateful things went so smoothly today, and I hope and pray that continues. It'll be an interesting week and a half, no doubt. But I'm so happy to bid those pesky tonsils and adenoids farewell!
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