Jacob's lacrosse practices have been tough. He's not that happy about playing on the team in the first place, and practices have been twice a week for an hour and a half. That means we're eating dinner late and everyone's a bit grumpier when bedtime rolls around. I can't fit in a good workout to save my life right now, it seems. When Jacob has had Wednesday practice, Craig is usually in Canada, so Carter and I have had a lot of playground time. I suppose that counts for exercise for me, because I am endlessly climbing and sliding and following Carter. I've made it my goal this summer to more easily do a set of monkey bars. It's really hard as a grown-up, if you didn't know, as your body grows disproportionately to your strength compared to how they compared when you were a kid. But slowly but surely I'm getting better with all of this practice!
Carter loves this little climbing tunnel on one of the playgrounds by the lacrosse fields. He climbs up it constantly, as it seems to fit well with his Star Wars/chased by zombies-themed storylines he does when we're there.
The other playground at the school has this little blue tunnel (FYI, tunnels are harder on adult knees, too), and I cracked up when I saw that he looked blue. He could be Violet's brother in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!
We had to pause for a selfie at one point, because Mama needed a break!
Craig spent last Friday and Saturday in near Atlanta for the Knighthawks' second playoff game, and while the good news is that they won and will be playing in the championship, the bad news is that he now has one week off due to a scheduling conflict, and two or three more weeks of games still to come. If it goes three weeks, he'll be in Saskatchewan when we're going to Jacob's first two tournaments in Syracuse. Yuck. So we just have to hope the Knighthawks win it in two, since they'd be at home and be done earlier! We'll see. Jacob had a rainy couple games on Saturday morning, but his team was actually competitive in one of them and he scored four goals and one assist on the day--including three goals in one game! It was nice to see him do that since it had been a pretty quiet season so far. Carter and I napped a good chunk of Saturday afternoon to offset the early morning (and I think he was still kicking the strep, or maybe dealing with a new virus that now has him coughing again). We ventured out to get some Chick-fil-A for dinner, and despite the long wait (still), the boys were good and we were all happy!
The boys and I were off to church on Sunday morning and Craig got home not long after we did. After I mildly panicked about what we were bringing to a family party, we got on the road and the rest of the day was lovely. For a change we were just hanging out with my side of the family because Craig's parents were in Florida, and my cousin and his wife planned a nice get-together at their house. The weather was absolutely perfect! And the highlight of the day? I got to hold this little ball of sweetness!
She's my cousin Jamie's baby girl Emmy, and she just made my day. There is nothing like a tiny baby sleeping on you, with their noises and faces. She's just a couple weeks old and it was so relaxing and wonderful. It's been the full five years, I think, since I've held a newborn. Absolutely heavenly, and of course a little heartbreaking/relieving that we're done with that stage.
As far as the rest of Mother's Day goes, I got these pretty flowers from Craig...
Carter painted a flower pot and planted these pretty flowers...
Jacob wrote this lovely top ten list, though he seemed to embellish a bit--not just with his adjectives, but with some of the things he gives me credit for. I don't actually clean that much, for example, but hey, "A" for effort!
It was a nice Mother's Day, though I'm sure Craig wished we could have spent time with his family. We'll have to make it up at some point! Like all weekends, though, it was much too short. It was back to the grind Monday and Carter had some library books due so we stopped there in the evening and were greeted with these gorgeous tulips!
We tried a selfie but the portrait was easier!
We had some quality playground time that night and Wednesday, Tuesday was grocery shopping, and last night was the new study with Jacob and yard work. It's been a busy week!
What else is new? Well, Jacob's been driving us nuts with his demands for a basketball hoop, and we were just about to order it (as an early birthday gift) when the price jacked up. So, we've been spending the week trying to figure out how to make it work, only to be subjected to more incessant complaining about it. Jacob is dead set that the only thing that will make him happy right now is a hoop. He doesn't want to play lacrosse outside, just basketball. And he doesn't want to do anything in the house besides play on the little hoop in his room or to play his NBA game on the Xbox. So he insists he's bored without it and there's nothing to do. As many times as we've been through Jacob's fixations, it never seems to get easier to manage. He just gets so stuck that nothing else will appease him and life is terrible until the situation is to his liking. I hope someday he learns how to manage this a bit, because I fear he will never be content with anything.
We started our new family therapy group last night, and while I obviously can't get into much because of confidentiality stuff, I will say that it was an interesting mix of families. While the family types varied quite a bit, I did get the sense that we're among people with very similar issues to ours, which is sort of a new feeling. I think we'll cover some good topics together, and hopefully it helps.
My most recent freak-out is when I realized that the date Carter's daycare changed graduation to a date we're supposed to be out of town for one of Jacob's tournaments. Carter's been working so hard on songs they're performing that it would be tough to have him miss it, so we're currently reviewing options. That trip was one of the prime options to add on to with family vacation stuff, since the following week is a quiet one at work, but clearly that won't work if half of us aren't there! Among the options: 1) One of us will hitch a ride with Jacob along with one of his teammates, and then the other parent and Carter will arrive late Friday night with the van; 2) My parents offered to come to the graduation and drive Carter and the stay-behind parent (probably me in this scenario) to Saratoga. They'd watch a little lacrosse then continue on somewhere else; 3) Just have Jacob miss Friday's games and go as a family. It's a three-day tournament so missing one day isn't a big deal, but I know it would be for Jacob so we're trying to do what we can to accommodate both boys. I know that we're going to start running into more conflicts like this as Carter gets more going on--which is probably why I've slacked on trying to sign him up for karate or soccer. He hasn't pushed, though, as he's sort of focused on Star Wars right now, but I know the time is coming.
Well, it's time to enjoy our last low-key family weekend for a bit. Between Knighthawks games and tournaments, we may not be slowing down together until about mid-July (yikes), so we'll have to enjoy it while we can--although the weather doesn't look cooperative so we'll see how this goes...
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