Little Things

Sometimes when you're having a crazy week, you need a few of those little moments that keep you smiling.  Here were mine this week...

On Thursday, I finally got to celebrate my birthday at work.  With so many people on vacation and an unclear schedule this week on my part, the co-worker responsible for my celebration (the last one to have a birthday) and I decided that it would be safe to do it on Thursday once the kids were back in school.  Normally work birthday celebrations involve a box of bagels or donuts, or store-bought cupcakes or cookies.  Once in a while it's something from a nice bakery, or we even had ice cream pops once this summer.  The birthday person gets a card signed by everyone, and we stand around and chat for 20 minutes.  My birthday planner was the department admin, and she's a fun cougar-ish type woman infamous for not liking hugs.  She's great, but just sort of matter-of-fact-ish, which we all love about her.  So imagine my surprise when she baked actual homemade cupcakes for me, complete with homemade buttercream frosting!

They were so good!  In fact, I had two!

On Friday morning, Carter and I went out to walk to the bus stop, and I notice that my coneflowers were now full of goldfinches.  They must like the flowers now that they've gone to seed.  Well, they all flew away as Carter and I walked down the driveway--all except this guy.

I didn't bring my phone with me so I couldn't take a picture as we walked.  But guess who was still sitting in the same spot when we came back?  I double checked to make sure it was still alive, because I'm not sure I've ever seen a bird sit somewhere that long.  I could see it moving, so it was fine, although I'm convinced something is wrong with it.  Maybe fat finch disease, but hopefully not.  I even got about six feet away to take this picture, and it still didn't move, which is a possible symptom.  Anyway, I pulled out of the driveway with it still sitting there.  Funny little bird.  Goldfinches always make me think of my grandma, because she loved birds and goldfinches were one of the first I could identify at her birdfeeders because of their color.  They might also have been one of her favorites, if I recall correctly.

That night, I got stuck in traffic for extra long, which completely threw off my dinner plans.  We ended up going out to Chick-fil-A, and despite some on-and-off drizzle, went downtown to High Falls.  There was a ROC the Falls Summer Sendoff with food trucks and music overlooking the falls, followed by fireworks.  Since we hadn't seen fireworks on the 4th of July or at any baseball games this summer, I thought it might be fun.  Free parking and a nice walk across the Pont de Rennes Bridge sounded easy enough to me.  Jacob, however, was not thrilled.  In fact, he spent the entire time, literally every 30 seconds for the entire hour or so that we were there, either asking when we could leave or complaining that we were still there.  It was SO obnoxious.  I know he was annoyed because it was day one of his new NBA 2K20 game on Xbox, and after a long week he probably just wanted to sit there all night and play.  And apparently he still doesn't like fireworks, though he's been seemingly fine with them for years, so who knows if that was legit or not.  But he was super annoying the entire time we were there.  Tween snark at its worst.  Regardless, we wandered around.  The falls looked pretty with their city backdrop and the cloudy night.  I played around with my phone camera and real camera settings a bit, and with the lights on the falls and the change in angles as we walked, they constantly looked different.

Carter wanted ice cream and Craig found a food truck selling Nutty Buddies, which Carter ended up loving.  We checked out the store at the Genesee Brewery and looked at some of the historical exhibits they had throughout.

As we were finishing up in the store, we heard the first couple booms.  Once again I played with settings, and this was on my fireworks setting (which actually didn't work with the falls).  But I liked how it captured the trail of the firework shooting up...

It certainly wasn't the best fireworks show ever, and nothing will ever beat when they used to project a laser show on the gorge walls here on weekends, but it was cool anyway.

Jacob was still annoyed and was practically dragging us out of there, as it was dripping rain again and he was insisting the fireworks were too loud and, yes, too bright.  O-Kay.  So we watched the last bit walking back across the bridge, barely able to keep up with him.  Ugh.  But at least I got some pretty pictures.  Again, it's the little things!  I may have been defeated on this round of forced family fun, but hey, at least we tried.

It's a cool, cloudy, not particularly exciting weekend, but hopefully we can make the best of it.  Better than last night, anyway!

First Day, Day by Day

The start of school was a four-day process for us.  Rather than blog about each separately, I figured I'd just do a day-by-day diary of the highlights...

Day 1, Tuesday: 

Jacob had his first official half day of school.  It was an orientation day for new students to school, of all grades.  Due to our work schedules, we decided to split Jacob's two half days, since Carter was off for those same two days before the start of school in our district on Thursday.  I was going to drop Jacob off on my way to work on Tuesday and Craig would pick him up at 11am before heading into work, where I would then pick up both kids and head home for the afternoon.

I was very nervous about getting us up and out on time.  I was worried that Jacob would have his version of an anxiety attack--where he basically shuts down and stonewalls about something random.  I do the same thing (hence my funk on Friday), and I was fully expecting something that morning, be it with getting out of bed, his uniform, or something else.  I surprised myself by getting up immediately with my alarm, which I almost never do.  But with having to get out the door by 7:30, I didn't have the luxury of snoozing unless I wanted to set my alarm for 5:30, which would be crazy.  I'm hoping it wasn't just adrenaline, because I need to keep that up.  Maybe if I can do it for a month it will become a habit?  I was nearly dressed and made up by the time Jacob's alarm went off.  He slept through the first few minutes but woke up pretty quickly to shower once I went into his room.  He ate breakfast and got dressed without incident (yay for a polo shirt and pants he likes), although I could have done without the random mindless dawdling (like staring at his toothpaste or aimlessly looking in the mirror) that had the potential to make us late.  

Moments before we walked out the door, Carter was having some sort of difficulty in the bathroom, and when I walked in, I was speechless.  Carter had somehow managed to get poop all over the bathroom.  He was having some soft BMs, and apparently had a gas bubble while standing up trying to wipe, and the result was spots of poop sprayed all over the place.  Then I think he stepped in some, and basically it was all over the rugs, and almost everything else in some manner.  I had to wake up Craig and leave him to clean up the mess without me.  There was no choice.  I took Jacob's picture quickly (although the white board on the reverse of the chalkboard we always use didn't work too well):

We jumped in the car about seven minutes later than I wanted to, but only two minutes later than we needed to.  We made very good time and we walked in the front door shortly before 8am.  

We met some faculty, checked in, and sat in the auditorium.  Some parents were there, but I was noticing most were not, so when they had the kids move down in the seats, I took my chance to go.  Jacob seemed fine with it, so I figured I'd give him some independence on this big first day.  I wandered down to the parent room, which was basically a donut bribe to find out about the parent group.  I met a couple very nice parents and chatted about the commute from Greece.  Then the VP of Advancement, who is recognizable as she's a former news anchor in town, came in.  We talked to her for a while, and then I happened to mention that I work in advancement as well, and that set off a fun little conversation.  She said we should have coffee so she can pick my brain.  I did leave her my card, so we'll see if that happens.  But it was nice to get on someone's radar there, anyway!  I walked out of the building feeling a little guilty about leaving Jacob there alone, but I knew he'd be fine.  

My commute into work was actually much easier than expected, and between catching up with my boss on the loss of her sister's companion and trying to catch up on my work, the morning went quickly.  Before I knew it Craig called me to say he was on his way to get Jacob.  There was a little chaos with pickup, but by all accounts, Jacob's day was fine.  He didn't seem to love it, but he didn't say he didn't want to go back, so I'll take it.  He was actually more obsessed with everyone else's shoes, because a lot of kids had casual shoes on.  A lot were Sperrys, which are not his style, but he noticed some Vans, too, which he insists he'd wear.  I think most of them were students volunteering, but it's possible some new students had different interpretations of the dress shoe rule.  I told Jacob to give it a couple weeks before we assume something like Vans are okay, because between the volunteers and those who might get notified of dress code non-compliance, I think we need to wait and see.  

The boys and I had a quiet afternoon at home, mostly because I was exhausted (darn it).  But just as we were about to go to a park, Carter decided to act like a crazy person and needed to be disciplined for a while.  By that time Craig was nearly on his way home.  The boys did get some good outside time before dinner, though, so not all was lost.  

All in all, day one was fine.  As good as could be expected, anyway.

Day 2, Wednesday:

It was Craig's turn to take Jacob in and mine to stay home with Carter in the morning.  Jacob took a bit to respond to his alarm again, and once he got up he wanted to take a shower...again.  Previously he'd been showering every other day, but apparently now that school has started he wants it to be daily.  Yay.  He was shockingly okay with wearing an oxford shirt and tie, so that was a pleasant surprise.  We need to get him more ties, which is tough because he's getting taller--almost too tall for his kid ties--but isn't quite tall enough for adult ties.  We'll make the ones he has work until we figure out an ideal length for now.  I read an interesting suggestion online about cutting a few inches out of the middle of an adult tie (so as to not worry about the ends) and sewing it back together in a spot that will be hidden under the collar.  Not sure I'm there, but it's interesting, particularly if I ever get around to going to a tailor for a couple other items.  Anyway, we had joked previously that the short-sleeve oxfords might look a bit like Dwight Schrute from The Office, but Jacob totally made it work.  He looked very handsome.  He ended up a bit more rushed as a result of the tie situation, but they got out the door about the same time we did the previous day. 

In the meantime, I was fully awake from trying to help pack his bag with supplies and gelling his hair, so after a bit of relaxing, I did a half hour on the elliptical.  After adding in some weights and abs, I came upstairs at 9am and had to wake up Carter!  He was up a little late the previous night but not a lot, so it left me a bit concerned we would have a monster on our hands the next day when he had to be up bright and early to catch an 8:09am bus!  Perhaps an earlier bedtime should be in order--which would actually be better so Jacob's earlier bedtime has one less reason to be contested!  He has not been appreciating his 9pm bedtime after stretching it to 10pm all summer.  I've been aiming for 10:30 myself, so the earlier we eat and the earlier the kids are in bed, the more doable that timing is.  Anyway, Carter and I had a lazy morning because I knew our 11am departure would come quickly!  I did get a text from Jacob mid-morning that he had spotted one of his basketball teammates at school, which was a pleasant surprise.  He's a couple years older, but it's nice to know he could have a friend, particularly if they end up assigned to the same "house" group, which he'll find out on Thursday.  He seems most concerned about lunch, as he's nervous most kids will be buying lunch and he's worried that he won't have anyone to sit with.  He'll be eating with his house, as opposed to his class, so I'm sure the unknown has been extra challenging there.

When we picked up Jacob, the first thing he said was, "I love this school!"  I was very happy to hear that, but of course his reason was typical Jacob!  He found out he can wear sneakers on Thursday, apparently because they'll have time in the gym (possibly as part of their house assignments) and dress shoes would ruin the floor.  He's still having issues with other kids wearing casual shoes, but I guess someone did ask about Vans today and a teacher indicated that they're sneakers--essentially insinuating sneakers aren't allowed.  So, I'm sticking by my "give it a couple weeks and we'll talk" statement.  But he seemed in good spirits, and my hunch was that a lot would get settled on Thursday when he gets more significant time with his class and finds out his house.  He seems to be getting to a point where the little details, like what to do with his backpack or where he needs to go first thing, ae bugging him a bit.  He seems to feel like he doesn't have any friends or anyone to ask, but I keep trying to tell him it will take time.  I remember those feelings from when I went to public high school after nine years in a smaller private school--trying to figure out lockers, feeling alone in home room (and every other class), the panic of the lunch room before you find your crew, figuring out how to change classes, etc.  It's a lot.  He'll get there, but it's a process.

Two days in, the transition has been sort of odd for me, too.  I realized on Wednesday how out of the groove I felt.  With Jacob done with camp last week and only a couple days of work, followed by a long weekend and two half days, I've felt totally out of sync.  Work felt a bit discombobulated, grocery shopping/dinner felt foreign, and the thought of packing lunches was overwhelming.  I've been afraid to get too comfortable because we aren't running on all cylinders yet.  Carter hasn't started school yet, there's no homework or paperwork coming home yet, and we won't even settle into our usual routine until next week for various reasons.  We're just feeling things out all around and it remains to be seen if it will all work.

Day 3, Thursday:

Because I'm the pro at the first day of school photos, we decided that Craig would take Jacob again and I would handle Carter, whose bus wasn't until 8:09am.  It's still making me a little crazy that I still have to wait until next week to see what our real morning routine will look like, since I have allergy shots on Friday that will force me into Carter duty again.  So far the earlier bedtimes are going relatively well (complaints and melatonin aside), but I want to be sure that the early wake-ups are sustainable and that the time I've allotted will be enough to pack lunches and ensure everyone is in a good place before Jacob and I need to leave at 7:30.  It's making me a little nuts, but much like Jacob and his settling in process, I just have to be patient.

Even though I didn't have to take Jacob, I got up rather early to ensure everything was covered.  Jacob was excited to wear sneakers, but still needed a recommendation on his outfit to coordinate.  Carter was sound asleep when I went in to lay out his clothes, so that was a bit of a process to get him up and moving.  Then I had to pack three lunches for the first time in months.  The previous night I had to pack up the rest of Jacob's school supplies and print out his summer reading project, but that made adding his lunch bag to his backpack in the morning a bit of a challenge.  Luckily everything else went pretty smoothly, and Craig and Jacob were out the door on time.  Carter and I headed down to the bus stop a few minutes early, after pictures, of course!

Our across the street neighbors, who Carter has been playing with a ton, were both there.  The oldest is going into second grade, and his younger sister is a Kindergartner.  As we waited, the house where the stop is opened up and three more kids came out--a third grade girl, a second grade boy, and a Kindergarten boy.  The two Kindergartners were happy to find out they're in the same class, and the second grader has Jacob's second grade teacher, so I told him she's great!  Oddly, while the second grader was at the stop last year, I don't ever remember seeing the girl, so I'm not sure if she's a friend who happened to be hanging out there, or what.  They took pictures together, but the girl didn't have the same type of biblically-inspired name the boys did, so I'm still not sure what's up there.  But it was fun having a whole crew out there--so much so that the next door neighbor even came out to enjoy it!  The bus ended up being more than 10 minutes late, and it seemed like perhaps we were one of the first stops because it wasn't that full.  We used to be one of the last before it stopped at Jacob's school.  I drove by one of Carter's soccer teammates who lives around the corner, maybe 10-15 minutes after pickup, and he was still waiting.  So who knows what the route is like now?  But there were no tears at our stop, and Carter didn't even look back!

Blue backpack, fancy red shoes!  And yes, it was cool enough for the hoodie!

My "out of sync" feeling continued today, since I was looking forward to taking my regular route to work, but then got rerouted because of crazy traffic.  Nothing can be quite normal this week, apparently!

It was a blissfully ignorant day at work until about mid-afternoon.  I noticed Jacob's school posted pictures of the house ceremony, and when I saw that it looked like each kid sat on a throne on stage and was crowned, I figured Jacob pretty much died from mortification right then and there.  Attention is SO not his thing, unless it's sports.  That made me a bit nervous!  A little after that, I saw Carter's teacher had posted a couple pictures of his class in the app she's using.  He looked happy and like he was fitting in just fine!  Then Jacob texted me asking where his key was.  I answered and asked him about his house assignment, which he answered back positively (more in a second on that).  Around 3:30 I went into a meeting and didn't take my phone.  Around 4pm, my cube neighbor knocked on my boss' door and said that my phone was blowing up so I might want to check it.  Jacob had called me 10 (!) times, left one message, and texted me.  Laughably, he mostly just wanted to tell me a little about his day, although he was also having trouble getting his key into the door lock to get him in the house.  That happens to me, too, though.  He did eventually get in.  Of course, because Craig went to the gym and I got in later taking Carter, I couldn't yet get home early like we're planning for most days--hence his urgency.  However, he had a great day!  He ended up in House O'Dea.  Their color is green, and he was extra excited because both his first friend and his basketball teammate are in that house.  It sounded like they were inclusive at lunch and he even got a little attention from a couple girls in the house!  Haha!  Overall, so far that part of school seems to be going well.

On the academic side, he brought home all of his syllabi for us to review and sign.  That made me a bit nervous because of all of the supplies he needs to remember for each class, and all of the assignments and late policies he'll have to keep track of.  He's not an organized kid, so this will be a challenge.  I assume other 6th graders will have a similar learning curve, but perhaps more motivation to learn and improve.  My inkling with Jacob is that he just can't be bothered because he has too many other things filling his mind.  He'll need to, though.  Just remembering folders/binders by color, pens, pencils, paper, notecards, books, etc., it'll be a lot.  I didn't have to master that until high school when I finally had a locker.  Until then, everything was in my desk and I sat in one room most of the day.  It'll be a lot.  But hey, at least summer reading is done--and believe it or not, apparently a few kids didn't have it to hand in!  Yikes.

As far as Carter, he had a good day, too.  He seemed to have a couple more kids than expected in his class that he knew, and he was very happy to see his best buddy at the afterschool program.  He likes his teacher so far, too.  He's rather stubborn so he doesn't have a lot of positive stuff to say, but hopefully we'll get there.  I think he was mostly just happy to get home and run across the street to play!

Day 4, Friday:

At long last, it was Jacob's first actual day of school.  After a considerably more relaxed atmosphere for the first three days, I was concerned about what "real school" might bring--hour-long class blocks, real homework, vivid reality of the next seven years of his life...?  I figured reality might hit a bit more for Carter, too, since two days of having to wake up early might be starting to compound his regular "tolerance" of school.  But both boys had decent days--nothing bad, nothing great--which I guess is as good as anything.

So, the dreaded first week is done.  Next week will obviously be a challenge, as we'll finally get on our regular schedule.  Five full days.  Three lunches to pack.  A daily 6am wake-up for me, and a shift in my work schedule.  Probably the first round of real homework.  I'm actually a little nervous about leaving the house so early compared to Craig and Carter, because I fear my brain won't be awake enough by then to remember random stuff Carter needs for the day, and then I'll have to make Craig scramble when I frantically call his cell.  I really need to get better at doing an inventory in the evening, for both kids, and I REALLY need to get better at making Jacob more responsible for his stuff.  I want to be gentle since sixth grade is a huge transition--particularly in the manner we're doing it--but I also don't want to fall into bad habits because he desperately needs to learn to pack his own bag and track his own homework.  It's definitely a process.  But at least we made it this far.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Before I get into this post, I need to share for posterity the cutest thing going right now, before the phase ends and fades into our memories: Carter has "kids".  At first it was just Patrick the Hedgehog (from Christmas) and Colin the Bear (Jacob's gift to him when he was born).  But then a blue and white dog that was a hand-me-down from Jacob and a red dinosaur that I think was originally Craig's made it into the mix.  He puts them to bed each night, making sure they're covered and have a pillow.  It's so stinking cute.  Hopefully that means he's in training to be a great dad!  I just happened to catch them in my bed, where he tucked them in to watch TV on Saturday morning, and figured that cuteness needed to be shared.

Anyway, after freaking out about our weekend plans on Friday evening, I finally hatched a plan and we enjoyed some Friendly's Wattamelon Roll that Jacob insisted we get to celebrate my birthday early.  I woke up Saturday determined to have a good day.  We had a lazy-ish morning (well, if a run and some packing counts as lazy) and then went to lunch at Red Robin to get my birthday burger...finally.  Everything took longer than planned--getting packed, out the door, and having lunch--but luckily we weren't really tight on time and I was able to stay pretty chill about it.  We had a very nice lunch--so nice that the people next to us (probably in their 50s or 60s) complimented us on our well-behaved children!  Haha!  Admittedly, Jacob was pretty good that day and they probably didn't see Carter on a phone until after they spoke!  But we were having a particularly good family conversation, so I guess we looked good!  After lunch it was on to Minnehan's down near Geneseo to enjoy some mini golf on a beautiful day.

I did terrible, which I pretty much always do there since it's a really hard course and something about it makes my short game mysteriously awful.  Maybe how the cups are set into the green?  Carter even beat me--though of course we give him a few assists here and there--but Jacob killed us all.  He won by eight strokes!  It was also his day in the arcade, as he beat the basketball game high score twice!  First he hit 68, and then he got 73!

After golf, it was on to the main event--probably one I could only get family approval of on my birthday!  We headed to the New York Festival of Balloons in Dansville, which is about an hour from home but less than a half hour from Minnehan's.  I had never been before and really wanted to go last year, but with a family wedding on my birthday weekend, it didn't work out.  I almost forgot about it this year, but then a friend of mine went on Friday night.  It took a while for it to pop back into my head after our other plans fell apart, but then it all fell right into place once that became the centerpiece of the trip.  Even better, our route to Buffalo that night would go right through Geneseo, and was the same route I took home from school.  I'm always up for a little college nostalgia!

The balloon festival was fun!  In addition to the balloons, there were a bunch of food and craft vendors, so there was a lot to see while we were there.  The balloons were just starting to fill when we arrived, and we walked around a bit before launch.  At one point we found ourselves near the Nunda Mustard booth (selling all different mustards), and I did a double take because I know my boss moonlights as a booth attendant for them at events.  Sure enough, there she was!  However, it became apparent pretty quickly that she was having a tough time.  She'd been spending a lot of time lately helping her sister's companion (who Craig and I knew because he played for the Amerks decades ago and was a big part of their alumni association), as he'd been ill, and he had passed away that morning.  So she was clearly having a tough time, and was happy to see me and get some hug therapy.  She offered up awesome suckers to the boys while we chatted, and then eventually we had to let her go so we didn't miss all of the balloons.  I felt terrible for her to have to be there in the midst of all of that.

The balloons were so beautiful.  They took off one at a time over about a half hour span or so.  They were so colorful!

What started as just a few in the field suddenly turned into a colorful batch of bubbles popping up all over.

With the sky so clear and blue in places, they almost looked fake!

I loved how they just filled up and took off with barely a sound, aside from the cheering crowd, and just magically floated up in the air.  It was almost like when a bubble catches the wind and floats upward.  So serene and beautiful.

I loved the variety of colors and patterns.

This pig cracked me up and was the only oddly shaped one that actually flew.

It was so neat to see them all dotting the sky.  It almost looked like it should have been a mobile in a baby's nursery or something.  They seem to defy gravity when you don't see anything propelling them upward.

A couple vendors were selling fabric ones that hang and spin around on your porch, and seeing the real ones flying almost made me want to buy a bunch and recreate this view.

The sun behind them was so bright that I was surprised my pictures even turned out.  I liked the way it lit this one from behind.

After the launch, we grabbed the kids some snacks--lemonade and kettle corn for Jacob, and a hot dog and cotton candy for Carter.  Craig and I opted to grab a sub in Geneseo on our way through there later.  I grabbed a selfie with Jacob in line for kettle corn...

Photo credit to Craig on this one - he made the cotton candy look huge!

While we were getting food and looking at vendors, I saw some character balloons get inflated.  I could only get a sun glare picture of this one, as it was already starting to deflate by the time we walked back over to that side of the site.

I spotted this contraption flying high through the sky after all the balloons had passed.  Not sure you could convince me to do that!

Hard to see in this picture, but there is a plane towing a glider near the top of the glowing clouds.

There were more character balloons, too.  I missed the one that looked a little like Woody from Toy Story, but caught these...

The boys each wanted to do an inflatable--Carter picked an obstacle course and Jacob picked a basketball themed one, of course.  I guess they didn't take Carter's ticket on his, so he got to do a bonus slide.  I grabbed my selfie with him while we waited there.  And yes, it was getting cool out...darn you, ending summer.

This was Jacob's choice.  You can see him shooting...

This balloon was a tethered one.  It went up in the air a bit, then came back down.  A little higher and it might have been tempting!

I would love to ride in a balloon some day, but much like bungee jumping or skydiving, I'd really like a guarantee I won't die.  So many obstacles and not a lot of steering capability.  That makes me nervous!

We eventually got on the road to Geneseo, and I very much enjoyed my Aunt Cookie's sub.  They are just so good.  Turkey, mayo, lettuce, and banana peppers - simple yet perfect!  The ironic thing is that I ate too many subs in the dining hall at college (out of necessity since a lot of the other food was gross) so I almost never ate at Aunt Cookie's when I was a student.  But I feel I've made up for it since!

Geneseo truly is my happy place.  Had to say hi to Emmeline the Bear (on top of the fountain) as we passed by on the way back to the van...

I drove around campus a bit and pointed out a couple of my dorm rooms and some other landmarks.  I really do love it there.  Ironically, when we got to my in-laws the next night to celebrate Craig's dad's birthday, our niece was talking about Geneseo because her best friend just started there and she's considering going there.  She was even supposed to go with a friend on Saturday night to visit her best friend, who's a freshman, but that fell through.  She ended up getting a call while we were there to reschedule the trip for that night.  Hopefully she enjoyed her trip!  I would love to see her go there because it's a great school and just the right size for her.

I enjoyed taking my old route home through all the little towns en route to the Thruway in Batavia.  So many memories and mixed emotions of trips on that route--excitement to see my friends, dread of going back for another semester of classes or getting back in town for a Sunday night of questionable dinner and catching up on the studying I didn't do at home.  Still, I love it there.

On Sunday morning we got to go to the baptism of this sweet little nugget, Lucy.  

As usual it was a little odd being back at our old church, which is now just a shadow of its former self.  Just a small group of the remaining members, but nice to see familiar faces nonetheless.  I was disappointed that the hallway down to the gym was locked, as Jacob really wanted to see it.  The playground was looking a bit rough, too, but there aren't many kids (and no school) to use it anymore.  It always breaks my heart at how it has all gone downhill from the thriving, active church it once was.  Anyway, Lucy was an angel, and we had a very nice time at the party in the early afternoon.  I always love getting time with family.

After that we went to Craig's parents, which was surprisingly low key since his brother's crew (minus our niece) was at our sister-in-law's parents' place for the weekend.  We were also surprised to find a new little buddy there.  Say hi to Hank...

He was a rescue of sorts, and the absolute sweetest little guy.  Look at that tongue!  He seems to fit in perfectly with their other two dogs, and just made me smirk with his crooked teeth and expressive ears.

We had a lovely little mini-celebration there...

They sang to me, and then we sang to Craig's dad, and then we had a bonus visit from Craig's aunt and uncle.  Soon enough it was time to come home, but it was a very rainy drive.  We had a rather quiet day on Monday, our last day of freedom before Jacob's orientation days started.  We all started very slow in the morning, and then I finally worked out, did some laundry, washed Carter's backpack, blogged, and once again helped Jacob through editing his summer reading write-up.  I finally had to pass him off to Craig because I felt like Jacob was tuning me out after hearing the same thing over and over again.  I think he's pretty much done now, and thank goodness because it has been a bear.  They better teach him some critical thinking skills this year because I need this to be easier next year!

This morning began a new era in our house, but I'll save all that for one all-encompassing first day of school post, so you'll have to wait a couple days!

Clutch

It was an interesting week around our house, with Jacob done with camp and Carter finishing up.  I was home for three days and Craig was home for two.  We tried to find a balance between giving Jacob "true" summer vacation (i.e., letting him just relax and fill his time as he wished) and being productive.  He had a lot of summer reading work left to do, so it couldn't be all fun and games!  He and Craig did some fun basketball stuff while they were home, though.  I had a lot to accomplish myself during the time off.  I finally sorted through and photographed the rest of the artwork that came home from school and camp, and tried again to clean up some of the baby stuff.  I never did get back around to our donation pile, but hopefully eventually.  At least I got in a couple workouts!

Tuesday night Jacob had basketball, the first night of the playoffs.  It was a tough game against a higher seed, but Jacob's team won and secured their spot in the championship game on Thursday!  We celebrated by hitting up our new 110 Grill for dinner.  It's a full service restaurant that caters to those with allergies, particularly gluten issues.  Nearly their entire menu can be altered to be gluten-free!  It was Kids Eat Free night, so we figured we'd at least get one kid fed for cheap!  Unfortunately, the thing Jacob decided to try, totchos (tater tot nachos) ended up not being to his liking, but he did love their dinner rolls and he very much enjoyed his flourless chocolate cake dessert.  The rest of us enjoyed our meals as well, so we'll definitely go back and try again.

Yum, berries and chocolate!

On Thursday, Carter had his school meet-and-greet.  It was nice to see his new teacher and check out his classroom.  We were also able to scope out his classmates.  It turns out he only has two repeat classmates, the pair of twins whose bowling birthday party he went to last year, and one other kid he knows from one of his camps this summer.  Three is better than none, but I know he will miss his old classmates.  I realized that it has to be a bit jarring going into first grade like that, because for his entire school experience, he's always been with the same kids, and now it'll be different.  He should still get to see his best buddy Ben at the afterschool program, and we actually got to see him checking out his classroom next door that day.  Hopefully Carter will make a lot of new friends this year so he'll know more kids going into next year's class.  I also really hope this teacher will be as good of a fit for him as she was for Jacob.

That night, it was off to the championship game.  They were playing against another higher seed, a team that they'd battled hard twice this season. 

Jacob warming up

Pre-game huddle - notice the difference in height between a couple players on the left vs. Jacob on the right!

It was a very close game, back and forth throughout.  Jacob's team worked hard to keep pace, and in the first half Jacob got two beautiful three-pointers to give his team the lead each time.  It was amazing to see him contribute like that in such a big game.  In the second half they were on the losing end of a larger deficit, and had to battle back.  Their tallest player and best rebounder went on a fantastic run as time ticked down, and they got it close.  They took advantage of some foul shots and took the lead late, and by this point everyone was on the edge of their seats!  This team had only been together for a month, just eight games, yet the stakes felt so much higher than that!  It was a nerve wracking last minute or so, but it was so wonderful to see them pull off a victory!

Jacob was mid-celebration here...you can almost see the bounce in his step!

Getting ready for handshakes

Imagine our excitement when we saw the box of trophies come out!  Jacob has received medals from a couple lacrosse tournaments, and small participation trophies from baseball, but a real trophy was a new one for him, and it was a big one!

Getting his trophy

Team picture!

Jacob was so excited to have won, and everyone was really complimentary of his contributions to the team.  The head of the league actually thanked Craig for bringing him there and was super impressed with how he saved his best performance for the championship!  He even called him "clutch"!  We were so proud, and he couldn't stop talking about how awesome it was to win.

Two handsome boys with fresh haircuts!

Overall, it was a successful season because Jacob learned a ton and benefitted immensely from the consistent in-game playing time twice a week.  He got so much more comfortable in his role, excelled defensively, and found a better balance between looking to pass and taking a shot when he gets the ball (since he'd almost always look to pass in the past).  He's doing the same league again this month, and this time he's on a team with a bunch of players from the travel team he'll be a part of in the spring.  It'll be nice to start building those relationships now.

We finished off that night with some celebratory ice cream at Dairy Queen, and even ran into another teammate (the tall rebounder whose late-game heroics won the game and earned him MVP honors).  Carter (and his crazy hair) really enjoyed a cookie dough Blizzard!

It was a great way to start heading into the long weekend, although I was still pretty stumped on how we'd be spending that weekend.  I got into a bit of a funk on Friday, in fact, because the easiest option--doing touristy stuff in Niagara Falls--seemed like it wouldn't work with how our timing was playing out.  I had actually hoped to get a head start to Buffalo on Friday, but because no one was giving me any feedback on any of the options I kept presenting, I didn't feel comfortable starting to pack.  That left too little time that evening to eat, pack, and get to Buffalo before it was too late to have an early start the next morning.  Then I started to panic about timing and long waits for the things we would have done, and I realized we had to scrap the whole plan because there just wasn't time (or probably energy) to accomplish all we needed to do to make the purchase of the activity pass worthwhile.  On top of everything else, I was too full from Friday's lunch with Jacob (trying out Core Life - not particularly successful) to use my birthday dinner at Red Robin like we'd planned, which messed up our evening even further--both because of timing and because I didn't have anything else planned.  In general, nothing was seeming to work out, and I was convinced my birthday would be spent sitting around the house listening to the kids fight and complain about boredom all day.  After a couple hours of moping, I finally formulated a plan, and it seemed like it might actually work!  Stay tuned to find out whether or not it did!

Early(-ish) to Bed, (Really) Early to Rise

I've known since we started this private school journey last fall that it would probably mean a lot of changes in our lives.  Tuition, uniforms, more homework, farther distance, different schedules, new subjects, totally different classmates.  Based on what we had been told at open house, I knew that he'd probably end up on a bus with high school kids and that it would be early.  I figured he'd have to be up an hour or so earlier, out the door by maybe 7:00 or so.  Even still, I worried about it all summer, and yesterday the letter finally showed up.  Both kids' letters did, actually.  I was disappointed enough to see Carter's pick-up was earlier than last year, at 8:09am, and his stop moved up the street about five houses to where Jacob's used to be, rather than at the closer corner.  But nothing prepared me for opening Jacob's.

It took me a minute to hone in on the pick-up time, probably because it seemed completely foreign: 6:36am.  Six-thirty-what-now?!  I'm not even conscious at 6:36, at least not for anything more than snoozing alarm #2.  How am I supposed to get an 11-year-old boy who never hears his alarm up, showered, dressed, fed, packed up, and off to the bus stop (which is WAY around the corner--at least a five minute walk, so he'll probably be driven) by 6:36?  It'll still be dark, for Pete's sake.  School doesn't even start until 8am, which means he'll be up for a solid 2-1/2 hours by the time he makes it to his desk.  The bus routes through the high school on the absolute opposite side of the town from us.  I have no idea why, but it seems ridiculous since no kids in our neighborhood should be going to that school.

He's already giving me trouble about his proposed bedtime--8:30.  It's a far cry from where it was last year (9:30) and where it's been most of the summer (10pm).  But if he's going to have to be up early, he needs to get some earlier sleep to counteract it, or we'll have a crazy, overtired kid on our hands.  The thing is, between sports and ADHD, I'm not sure 8:30 is even possible.  Some nights we're not getting home from basketball until nearly 8, and then we still need to eat dinner.  It's pushing 9pm by the time we're done.  In addition, he's long had trouble falling asleep, probably because his ADHD tends to ramp him up at night.  Sometimes he'll lay there for an hour or more before he falls asleep.  I have a feeling I'll have to take his phone at bedtime to reduce temptation, and we might have to rely on melatonin for a while to get him in the habit of falling asleep earlier.  Even then it might not be realistic to do lights out any earlier than 9pm, but we'll have to try.

Realistically he'll have to be up before 6am, and since he never hears his alarm, that means one of us would have to be up by then to get him moving.  We'll probably have to pack his lunch at night (unless any one of us wants to be doing it at 6am), and somehow get ready soon enough to drop him off at the stop, in the dark, at 6:30.  And if he misses the bus, someone will have to get completely ready before 7:30 to take him.

Of course, we could just skip all this and take him every day.  7:30 sounds better than 6:30, no doubt.  But it won't always work, especially when Craig is traveling.  Carter's bus is at 8:09 and he can't be dropped off at school until about 8:45, so that would be a lot of back-and-forth, and I'd still be late to work!  But on normal days, getting out the door a full hour earlier than we used to and driving a lot of extra miles each day doesn't sound great.  But I suppose I'd rather do it myself than have Craig do it.  He usually needs more sleep and he shouldn't put any more miles than necessary on the van, since it's only three years old and has nearly caught up to my almost-seven-year-old car in mileage.  But his trip to work from there is quicker and he's supposed to be at work at 8:30 anyway.  But it might behoove me to do it because I could possibly shift my work day earlier by a half hour or so, which would let me get home to Jacob sooner (he'll be home by 4pm) and ideally get a head start on dinner, which would help us shift our entire evening earlier and make earlier bedtimes more feasible and less noticeable for all of us.  I'm probably leaning toward this option right now, but I have a feeling next week will include some experimentation to figure out what works.

But the big question mark in all of this is how we'll all do with getting up at an ungodly early hour (at least in our household) on a regular basis.  We've never had to do that before, and it's concerning to me that it could break us.  Yes, maybe we'll adjust just fine.  But what if the long bus ride/extra commute/lack of sleep/general change in schedule is too much for us?  I mean, sure...you push through and make it work.  But what if, in the end, it just doesn't work for us?  What if the upside isn't enough to make this significant disruption worth it?  What if Jacob hates the schedule so much that he just shuts down?  What if the time shift just makes us miserable?  I don't want him to miss out on this opportunity because we're struggling with seemingly insignificant stuff--even if Jacob's the one struggling the most--but it's possible this could be too much for any one of us.

Maybe we should have asked more questions and been more realistic about what made sense for our entire family, not just Jacob.  I'm currently kicking myself for not pushing harder to look at the Christian K-12 school (also with a great basketball team) that's literally less than 10 minutes down the road, right on a direct route to work.  I guess that's our backup plan if this whole thing implodes, but it would stink to go through this transition now and worry that we'll need to do another one a year from now.  I'd hate to be all-in on this school and then have to leave to maintain our sanity.  It feels sort of like the letdown of our FCA lacrosse experience--thinking we were just starting a long run, buying the merchandise, touting the mission, and then suddenly being done far sooner than expected.  I just hate not finishing things, so the mere thought of this not working out (no matter how premature) makes me nuts.  I was already worried enough about Jacob's academic transition, but adding this complete change in schedule is now scaring me even more.  I know I'm worrying prematurely and we'll need to give it time, but I know how important sleep is in this house and I'm just concerned that we'll all tire of this craziness--particularly knowing it could be our reality for seven years.  Can we sustain that?  I truly have no idea.

I don't know why this particular challenge is worrying me so much more than any of the other adjustments we have ahead.  Maybe it's because we're all impacted and it involves an area (sleep) where we already struggle.  I just don't like going into this with the deck stacked against us to this degree.  It makes me worry that if Jacob has any other struggles, they're only going to be compounded by there already being one area where we're feeling pushed to our limits.  I guess we won't know how bad it is for at least a couple weeks, to see if we can settle in or if it just keeps getting harder.  It's a time to turn over a new leaf and make some new habits.  I just hope we're strong enough to keep them going.