Feels Like Summer...

The calendar still says mid-May, but by all accounts things are feeling quite summery around here.  Memorial Day is right around the corner, so I guess the unofficial start of summer really is just about here.  Perhaps I'm still somewhat traumatized by how bad February was and how long it took for the cold to really be done once spring hit, because I keep thinking it's going to get cold again.  I have been working on stripping the heaviest clothing out of our closets for the summer and bringing in the warm weather stuff, but I keep leaving a decent supply of long sleeves just in case we get a week-long cold snap.  Again.  But realistically, I think we're in the clear, save for a cool-ish day in the 50s here and there.  We've got a couple days this week, in fact, where the high is 60, but today it's 80 and humid...so it's clear that good weather most likely won't be far away and the ample supply of long-sleeves isn't really necessary to keep handy.

This weekend felt a lot like summer, with or without the good weather.  Well, first, let me get back to last week a bit.  I just didn't get around to posting much.  So, a couple of the highlights:

• Jacob finally got a long-overdue haircut and I was thrilled to have convinced him to go short.  While the mop of hair he'd grown was pretty impressive and his cowlick laid flat most of the time, the rest of it was a little harder to control and I told him that until he bothers to take care of it himself, it's gotta stay short.  He didn't love the short hair but did like it better when we spiked up the front.
• I participated in the local United Way Day of Caring on Thursday through work.  We went to a cemetery and raked leaves and cleared brush from the one side of the property.  We raked for more than three hours straight, which was a little exhausting but fun.  Fortunately, our group and two others managed to be so efficient that we finished before lunch and I got a half day off in the end.  I used it to get an overdue oil change.  I took a run while my car was being worked on (got in 3.5 miles ahead of the Corporate Challenge next week), and then came home and did yard work since the weather was perfect.  I was sore on Friday, not surprisingly.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for Jacob's first baseball game.  It was a slightly dreary, humid morning, but we only got dripped on a couple times so it wasn't too bad.  The team has some young kids that definitely need more experience, but it was nice to see some of the older kids do well.  Jacob got four hits and looked pretty good in the field, too...

Up at bat!

Leading off at first base

Running to first after another hit!

Watching the game from the bench.  His hair makes him look so grown up!

Carter is a giant handful right now.  He has absolutely no fear.  He will walk away from me without a second thought, no matter where we are.  He'll weave through people in the arena concourse.  He will ride his bike halfway down the block.  And at baseball, he keeps trying to run on the field. The fact that Craig is usually out playing first base coach doesn't help, but he's so fast and impulsive and I'm petrified he'll get hit with a ball.  I had to drag him off the field twice during the game and he was so bad at practice when we stopped by on Tuesday that I had to take him home!  It's exhausting.  At one point when there was some chaos going on just off the field (two kids crying for different reasons) and I looked away for 30 seconds, he worked his way around to the other dugout!  UGH.  At one point he became rather engrossed in watching Jacob's teammate's 10-month-old brother, so that was a nice break.

He said he didn't want to join him, but he was intensely watching!

My parents came in on Saturday just after lunch to spend the day and go with us to the Knighthawks second-round playoff game.  Jacob kept my mom quite busy over the course of the afternoon while Carter slept, wanting to play sports and ride his bike outside.  We got Carter up after almost three hours and headed downtown, where we dropped Jacob at the arena to do ball boy duty again.  The rest of us headed to College Town on the edge of the U of R campus to wander a bit and find somewhere to eat.  We settled on a burger joint (yum!) and Carter discovered the joy of chocolate milk.  I could barely pry it out of his hands!

I reclaimed Jacob before the game and we had a good time watching a close game.  Well, Jacob was sort of cheering for Toronto and was disappointed that the Knighthawks won.  Seems crazy, but he has liked Toronto for a while and feels that the Knighthawks need to give other teams a chance to win the championship!  The final game of the series is this coming weekend in Toronto, so it should be interesting to see if they can advance to another championship! 

I ran into a former co-worker at the game and got a little more insight into life at my old employer in my absence.  I must say, I'm not hearing a heck of a lot of good things right now from anyone, which makes me even more relieved to be where I am.  I actually told him that they really did me a huge favor!  I miss a lot of the people and certainly don't wish them any ill will, but even I'm surprised how quickly I've been able to confirm that this was such a great turn of events for me.  The more I hear, the less I miss it, that's for sure! 

Sunday we were up for church and then home for lunch and Carter's nap before heading out to the Lilac Festival.  Our Mother's Day weekend is always too busy to hit up the first weekend, and usually weather washes out the rest of the festival.  Well, this year the second weekend weather was looking fantastic, and I really wanted to go.  I probably should have gone alone and wandered at my leisure, but I sort of wanted it to be a family affair...so off we went.

We wandered through the craft show and came across this cannon...

We got to see the reservoir, which none of us had ever seen...

We wandered through some beautiful rhododendrons and stopped to try to take a picture of the boys.  We were overdue on one of them together, but more urgently, my mom had asked for one of them to put on a shopping bag (the other picture is of my brother's kids).  The outtakes were pretty classic, but this one's a keeper...

Here's one of the rhododendrons...so pretty!

We wandered further and came across the pansy bed...

...and then continued on our search through the rest of the festival to find the Icee stand.  Jacob wanted a slushie and that seemed like a safe bet.  It's very challenging to wander through a festival like that, past food trucks and countless booths of delicious food, and know that almost none of it is safe for him.  It would have been so easy in the old days to pick out food for all of us and eat dinner there.  But instead we made do with our Icees and pushed off dinner a little longer.  Carter is a big fan...

Before leaving we walked through the Veterans Memorial section of the park.  It's primarily focused on Vietnam, but there are other monuments throughout paying tribute to other veterans.  It's very moving.  It's hard to see with the picture at this size, but along a winding path are 280 markers, one for each Rochester area soldier lost.  You can see them lining the path if you look closely.  They're in order of date of death and included the soldier's name, birth and death dates, town/high school, and the shield for their branch of the military.   

We eventually made it back to our car and headed off to dinner at a new restaurant.  It's called Pi Craft, and they cook their pizzas in a special stone oven.  There was a location in Buffalo that I heard good things about, and I was excited to hear one was opening here.   I knew they had gluten-free dough, but I wasn't sure how they'd handle cross-contamination, so we ventured there to find out.  We were comfortable with what we saw, so we went for it...but due to a slight diaper malfunction, we got it to go.  The pizza was good, but we were cautious about how Jacob might be feeling afterward.  Everything seemed good until this morning when he complained that his stomach hurt.  I was very skeptical, but in the end we relented and let him stay home.  He was not allowed to do anything except lay on the couch.  He seemed much better by the time I got home, but then got cranky again when he felt like I gave him too much dinner (but he wanted ice cream after, so...).  Parenting a kid with Celiac disease is a challenge because you just never know what's up.  I think he lets his mind get the best of him sometimes.  We went on the safe side today, but you never know about next time.  The question is, do we let him eat the leftovers?

I'll finish this off with a cute, random shot I took of Carter last night.  This is how he spends a lot of his time...a boy and his cars.  He's so cute with them.  Such a goofy kid!

Another busy week ahead before the long weekend...though lacrosse got postponed so my dreaded single mom crazy night won't be happening, thank goodness!  But there's just a lot on the schedule and it's a lot to juggle in my brain!  At least it keeps things interesting! 

And there is no doubt...summer is on its way!