Fun Weekend!

We were looking forward to Saturday all last week because we knew it was going to be action packed! But first, Friday night we kept busy as we grabbed some dinner (love free entree coupons!) and did a little shopping at Target. Jacob was relatively good the entire evening--he didn't eat fantastically at dinner but was at least pleasant for 99% of it. Thank goodness.

Saturday we had a birthday party to go to in the afternoon, and we were planning on going to the Rhinos' game that night. Jacob has been begging for a game (any game!) ever since the last baseball game we went to, and we hadn't done a Rhinos game in a while. The weather was going to cooperate, so that was a relief. Anyway, the birthday party was for the four year old son of friends of ours. It was at the YMCA across town, and it was a pool party! Jacob fell asleep on the way there and was so cranky when he woke up. Getting him in his bathing suit was downright hellish. He screamed bloody murder. He always likes to be wearing shoes (I think it makes him feel like more of an athlete) and he screamed when we took those off. He screamed when we took off his shirt, which was a new lacrosse shirt we found at Target the night before. The whole experience was brutal, but once we got out and into the pool, he loved it! The water was warm and there were balls to play with, a dumping bucket, and noodles. We swam for a half hour or so. I wish I had some pictures but water and digital cameras don't mix so I never really got to take out the camera and shoot since Jacob was practically attached to me for most of the time we were in there. After that, we headed back to a room (I think it's a pre-K room during the week) for pizza, cake and presents. Jacob thoroughly enjoyed it all, particularly the cupcake. This picture looks a little dark on my screen, but hopefully you can see the smile on his face!
After we left Jacob stayed awake for the whole drive home and put up a bit of a fight at naptime, which I knew would happen the second he fell asleep on the drive there. If he gets that one little bit of nap, he'll get a second wind, minus the mood adjustment that comes with a good nap. Meaning, he'll be wide awake but he'll stay cranky. Still, eventually he went down, and went down hard. We had a good couple hours to do whatever we wanted. Craig napped and I tackled yardwork I'd been dying to do--I pulled weeds and trimmed a ridiculous number of plants--including the huge evergreens on three sides of the house, our massive rhododendrons, and some of the out-of-control plants by our back patio. It felt great to get it done, but I was BEAT after that. I could hardly lift Jacob because my forearms were so tired!

We had to wake him up so we could get to the soccer game relatively on time, and as a result, were stuck eating dinner there. Jacob ate a hot dog and Craig and I split a wrap. We wanted to go sit down ASAP, so once Jacob was down to a couple bites of hot dog bun left, we headed to our seats. Of course, Jacob held onto that bun forever, because once we got into our seats he was transfixed by the game. You can see both--transfixed Jacob and the bun remains in his hand--in the picture below...

Near the end of the game we headed down near the field to see Rex the Rhino (strangely, it feels so much better to know who's in the costume) and get in position to go out on the field after the game. Jacob had been talking about it all night. Here he is with Rex...

And here's a picture (sadly, the best one) of our time on the field... Jacob was constantly moving (hence, all blurry pictures) and it was hard to get a good one because there were always other people in the way. Jacob made a beeline for the opposite goal the second we got on the field (ugh...long run down) and then ignored the fact that there were numerous big kids using the net. He kicked a couple in despite the chaos, but then got nicked by a hard-kicked ball and was done with that for a while. He got hit out in the middle of the field, too, so it was a no-win situation for him. Still, he had a blast. He wants to "do it again" soon. Playoffs are coming, and hockey's just around the corner, too. Before we left the field, I wanted to try to get a good picture of the two of us. I've been jealous of the fabulous picture I took of Craig and Jacob after the baseball game a couple weeks ago, and wanted to try for one of my own. Of course, I forgot to change the video setting on the camera, so Craig's photo attempts ended up as short video. And the actual photos weren't great. But here's a cute second of video :)

Sunday we had another unfortunate church experience. We lasted until the sermon, at which point Jacob started talking (and even got in quite a yell as we were heading out) and we retreated to the family room. He was difficult in there as well, enough so that a woman walking around with a baby girl asked if he was two. Hmmm, are the terrible twos that obvious? ;-) I'm guessing she had a little boy elsewhere in the building that she was using as a frame of reference.

After lunch and getting Jacob down for his nap, I headed out for some shopping. My main objective was to go buy a kitchen table. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it, but we've been using my parents' original kitchen table in our kitchen for the last six months. Our old house only had a dining room, so we used a nicer hand-me-down table in our dining room as our main table in our old house. We got it near the tail end of our apartment living, and before that I had used my parents' table. It's a small table with two drop leaves that are apparently not very reliable, though I've never had problems with them. But it's 40 years old and darker wood than our kitchen, not to mention that we're using dining room chairs in there, too. Anyway, it's a small area for a table that seats four, but it's possible. The old owners had a round table in there, and I do think they used it because she was very overprotective of her dining room table. It looked awkward, though, and I wasn't sure a high chair would fit in a setup like that. I opted to look for a rectangular table so we could put one end against the wall and sit two per side. I had found one at IKEA that was reasonably priced and had a look I liked, but as usual had the issue of finding a way to get one humungous box back here, plus dealing with things like customs and evil Canadian taxes and exchange rates. I ended up finally getting to a store here that specializes in dining furniture, and found a nice one that was the size and color I wanted, a more modern style than most, and even had a formica top, which will be a little more durable against whatever Jacob or future children throw at it...literally. It was a little more than I wanted to spend (in my cheap world), but it was way on sale (more than $200 less than the MSRP and and extra $50 off the current sale price for Labor Day) and I figured it was worth spending a little more for the quality. Let's hope it was a good choice and we all like sitting at it. I think it will be easiest if we lower Jacob's high chair to table height and ditch his tray (much like we did at our old house), just to save some space and start transitioning him into eating at a normal table just like us. It's going to be a challenge, but there's no time like the present. Maybe this way he'll learn it's not appropriate to dump his fruit out of the bowl every single time. Wishful thinking, I'm sure.

All in all, it was a nice weekend. Just one thing planned for this weekend coming up, and not much this week as far as I can recall. I'm sure that will change...like, for starters, I have to get Jacob some more pants. Most of last year's jeans are goners (and the rest of the hand-me-downs have giant waists...oh, my skinny little boy) and I don't want him ruining good pairs that I want to keep for weekends! Oy. Have a good week :)

Trying Time outs

Lately Jacob's behavior has gotten downright ridiculous at times. We've sort of come to a conclusion that the majority of the bad behavior happens in spurts. It's almost as if Jacob gets too excited about something and doesn't know how to contain himself...so he hits. Or he screams. In general these bouts begin with a very intense face and a tense body...almost like the energy is bottlenecking there and he gradually lets it out as he grabs, hits, or screams. It sounds a little more bizarre than it actually is, but I don't know quite how else to describe it. Sometimes it's precipitated by anger, sometimes not. I think sometimes when he gets overly happy-excited it can happen, as well. Jacob's an intense kid--as anyone who's seen him play sports will attest. He can be hilariously funny and can be really sweet and quiet sometimes, too, but for the most part he's full of energy and can get very serious about the task at hand. These episodes of his have been difficult and sometimes I worry there's some bigger issue that's causing them. But other than the means through which they happen--the intense face and body language--I don't think they're too far beyond the realm of a normal two year old. Even still, they frustrate me to no end and leave me with a pretty short fuse myself. I can't even express the frustration I felt at the grocery store earlier this week when Jacob started screaming bloody murder, just for fun. Add in some random hitting and I couldn't stand it. It's such a helpless feeling when your child is misbehaving badly and there's nothing you can really do about it...especially in public. You can tell them to quiet down, hold their arms, and yet, it just doesn't work--you both look like a mess.

In the middle of all of this, I'm afraid that I'm going to end up hurting him, if only in self-defense. I've inadvertently clawed him a couple times when he's been hitting me and I grab his arms, and as he gets stronger I can only see things getting more difficult if this keeps up. As I've mentioned before, we do spank, though we try to reserve that for anything related to safety (i.e., running into the street) or for times when he directly disobeys in a particularly infuriating manner. I'm wanting to cut down on that because I think with him (not all kids--it worked for me, and I hated every minute of it) it's worsening some of his hitting issues. The other night Jacob and I were home alone. Craig was working in Toronto for the evening and Jacob was driving me nuts. He was hitting me while I cooked dinner and being generally difficult. And twice I made him do a time out, which we've never done for real before. I sat him on a stool we have in our kitchen and made him sit there for two minutes, as timed by the microwave. If he got up I made him sit back down. When the two minutes were up, we talked about why he had to sit. And after at least one of them, he apologized. I'm not sure if that's something they practice at daycare or what, but apparently he knows the drill. We did it yesterday as well when we had a repeat of difficult behavior during dinner prep. We'll see how it goes, or if it works, but at least it's a way to take him out of the situation and give me a better way to deal with him than constant yelling or more spankings. Redirection is key, and so far this is doing the trick. And in case I have failed to mention it before, disciplining sucks.

Weighty Issue

You know, my weight has really been bugging me lately. As a woman, I understand that's par for the course. It happens. I look at old pictures of myself and think how thin my legs looked and know that I did NOT think that they looked thin in any way, shape or form at the moment that picture was taken. So I understand that being female means never being completely content with your body.

Pre-pregnancy I was at a fairly happy place with my body. I was content with it--it was strong and relatively fit. I still wasn't a fan of my hips, thighs, butt (except in jeans), or stomach (unless I was sucking in and stretching my torso), but it was acceptable. Would I have been content if someone deemed that that was as good as it would ever get? No, but it could have been worse...and it's always good to have something better to shoot for. I made a serious effort to maintain my fitness level throughout my pregnancy so I would be more comfortable, have less aches and pains, an easier delivery (Ha! Though I can't imagine how I would have survived three hours of pushing had I not been in shape.), and an easier recovery. I ate reasonably well and my weight did stay in check. I only gained about 30 pounds, and most of that was gone rather quickly. I attribute that to nursing, mostly, because most of that weight was gone by the time I actually headed back to the gym.


The gym helped me tone up a bit, though my stomach appears to be a lost cause. No matter what I do, it doesn't seem like I can get rid of the pudge or regain the abdominal strength and control I once had. Apparently kegel exercises (yes, the ones in the nether-regions) help with that, but I HATE them. I felt guilty during my entire pregnancy because I didn't want to do them. Regardless, by the time I finished nursing when Jacob was 14 months old, I was about 110-112 pounds, at least eight pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight. My butt was almost too small (flat...ugh) but I was pleasantly surprised by how slim my thighs and hips were. My stomach was still a mess, but I could deal if the rest was that good. Not that clothes fit any better, but that's a whole other issue. Well...a year later I'm back up to at least my pre-pregnancy weight, if not more. I tend to go between 120-122 pounds right now, and I'm horribly afraid that it will only continue to rise if I don't do something about it. Even worse, I just don't like how I look...at all. My stomach is flabby and won't suck in, my hips, thighs, and butt are as big as ever and laden with cellulite. And it's not just my imagination. My clothes definitely aren't fitting as well, and I can't even find underwear that will actually cover my butt and stay there. The whole thing is making me nuts.

To make matters worse, I still have high cholesterol. I know that much of it is probably genetics, but I'm trying to be careful about what I eat anyway. I don't eat a lot of high cholesterol foods, though I assume that I'm probably taking in too much saturated fat, even though I generally monitor that anyway. I know I don't eat that well when I go out to eat (who can? or who wants to pay for food they don't love?), but that's not that often. I snack more than I should, but I'm trying to work on that. I need to work out more, but that has been a major challenge. Between Craig's schedule, my schedule, dinnertime, and not enough hours in the day to begin with, it's tough. I have my one day on Thursday to go to my class, and that's been it. Jacob is now old enough to be in child care at the gym, but I just haven't given it a shot yet. I know our metabolism slows as we age, but if it's this bad now, I'm screwed. Sometimes I wonder if there isn't something more, like a thyroid issue or (God forbid) something worse. The fact that it seems so much worse now than pre-pregnancy, even though I venture I spend less time sitting on the couch these days, is what confuses me. It has been three years since my pre-pregnancy life, however, so I guess now that's a considerable amount of time in which a lot could have changed metabolically. Ugh.

Over the weekend my cousin Lori asked me if I would like to be her workout buddy. She's moving closer to our side of town (and already works there), and wants to start going to the Bally's that I've had a membership at but haven't been to in ages. My monthly dues are low enough that I keep it just in case (my Thursday gym is a different one that I get a free membership to through Craig's job), because no one else is that cheap. It's practically across the street from our general neighborhood, so I have no excuse. Lori is aiming for three times a week, though I know I can only commit to one or two in addition to my Thursday class. I figure I can fit in one more evening during the week and maybe a weekend session as well. If Craig isn't around on the weekend, Jacob can come with me and hang out in the child care room. I hope he'll cooperate, anyway. Having a workout buddy definitely helps, and I would love to encourage Lori in her weight loss/health goals. And, as it turns out, now I need it too. The workouts won't be anything crazy, probably a good dose of cardio and maybe some other general toning. I can do an hour's worth of that, I think. I think it might be enough to get me back to a good place both weight- and health-wise, so it's really a win-win, as long as I can make myself do it. And I really do want to. I think it will be good for me in so many ways. It'll improve my energy and my self-esteem, give me another little break from the craziness, and release those endorphins I so desperately need. Yes, it's less time with Jacob and a bit more of a weight on Craig's shoulders, but if he could play softball twice a week this summer (well, pre-calf injury...and that included postgame festivities sometimes), then I can work out an extra time or two each week for an hour. You do what you have to do sometimes.

I will admit that I've fantasized about being pregnant again and being able to eat (mostly) what I want and not worry about my weight as much. I also dream of miracle weight loss thanks to nursing again. However, nothing's a given. I could be so sick that food will be the last thing on my mind, or nursing just won't work next time around. God forbid, on both counts. And I know it will only get harder after another baby, so I'm trying not to use that as my escape route (though if it happens, I'll deal). The weight thing is tough, no doubt. I know I still look normal and am active enough that it's not a dire situation, but I don't want to get to the point where it is a major problem. I want to be the best mom, wife and woman I can be, and it's going to take a little work. I hope I'm ready.

Labor Day Weekend

Well, we had a pretty good Labor Day weekend. We had quality time with both families and some time to ourselves as well, so it made for a nice mix. We decided to head out of town on Friday night to get a jump on the weekend. Of course, I hadn't packed a thing as of Friday at 5pm, so it was definitely a challenge. We had a quick dinner and then I packed as quickly as I could. We ended up not leaving until well after Jacob's bedtime, probably 10pm, but it was probably just as well as he hadn't fallen asleep yet anyway and the car lulled him to sleep within about 10 minutes or so. Of course, he woke up when we got to Craig's parents' house and I had the unenviable task of getting Jacob back to sleep when Craig headed out to meet up with his brother and dad, who were celebrating his dad's birthday. I ended up letting him fall asleep in bed with me, and transferring him to his pack and play once Craig got back. Once in a while it's ok, but we definitely have to make sure we don't ever let it become a habit!

Anyway, on Saturday we had some shopping to do to replace a birthday gift that was left at home in a bag that Craig forgot to grab on his way out. More on that later. After our shopping, we headed to a restaurant called "The Warehouse" that's along the Thruway (exit 51) in an old Cracker Barrel. We'd wanted to go there for a while, and this seemed like a good time. It's a sports bar with a bunch of family-friendly games. They had great pizza and we had a blast with the games. And with the promise that we could play games if Jacob was good, he was an absolute angel for the entire meal! He was particularly interested in the basketball games, but they were full size basketballs and Jacob could hardly throw them over the plexiglass partition, let alone get them near the hoop. Still, he enjoyed trying and watching Craig finish off his game. I let him help me with Skee-ball, but despite all his ball experience, rolling seems to be one thing Jacob isn't quite sure of at times. Even still, we figured that the mini bowling lanes they had might offer some fun. So, we gave that a try... To be honest, we were all pretty bad at it! It was fun to try, though!

Next we moved on to bubble hockey, which Jacob was just fascinated by. Craig pulled up a chair for him so he could see all the action, and I did my best to actually play for him, since he's not quite clear on how it all works. You'd have thought there was an actual hockey game in front of him, though. He loved it. We ended up playing two games and Jacob wanted more!

Saturday night we celebrated Craig's dad's birthday with the immediate family, and Jacob once again had a tough time going down. It took some maneuvering and some serious bargaining, but he finally went to sleep. See, the issue lately has been that if we're around, Jacob will want to play and talk and laugh, rather than actually try to fall asleep (regardless of how tired he might actually be). The big problem this weekend is that the monitor (among other non-essential but useful things) was in the bag that accidentally got left at home. So, we didn't really want to go far when Jacob was having pre-bedtime freakouts, but he wouldn't sleep if we were there. And he really wanted us there. So...I told him that if he didn't stop messing around, I'd leave. But if he laid down and stayed quiet, I would stay with him. When he didn't abide the first time, I threatened to leave. When he didn't abide the second time, I left. And of course, he freaked. When I came back, I told him again how things would work, and sure enough, he laid down, stayed quiet, and was asleep right away. I had to use this method again for bedtime on Sunday, and it worked pretty well again. Not ideal, but you do what you can. Traveling changes all the rules!

The next morning we headed off to North Tonawanda to hang out with my parents. We got there shortly before they got back from church, and did a quick run over to my grandma's for a visit. She doesn't get out a lot anymore as she's not feeling great these days, so it's always nice to bring a little bit of sunshine (in little boy form) to her house. After he ate her grapes and played with her beanie babies, we headed back home for lunch and a nap before heading off to a Labor Day picnic at my Uncle Jeff's house. It was a little cool at times, but it wasn't too bad of an afternoon/evening. We all took turns chasing after Jacob and eating lots of insanely good food! We stuck around into the evening and enjoyed a fire in the firepit before heading home for bed.

Monday we decided to stick around for a little while and have a little fun before heading home. My parents suggested we go to the Herschell Carrousel Museum in N.T. and take a ride. Unfortunately, you have to pay full admission to the museum to ride the carrousel. Now, that would have been $5 for each of us and $2.50 for Jacob. We weren't looking to do the full museum--just take a quick ride and then head to a nearby park to go to the playground and have a picnic. So...that didn't happen. But we'll go back someday when we have more time (and coupons from the Entertainment Book!). We headed over to Pinewoods Park, where I haven't been in YEARS. I think the last time I was there was when our church used to have church picnics there, and I have only vague memories of that, which gives you an idea of how long ago it was. Jacob had fun playing on the playground while we waited for the guys to come back with our pizza (no, it wasn't your traditional picnic, but it was awesome!), though it was back to some slide phobia and a lot of random running around. The playground was really high, as you can see here.

Jacob and I later went down a steep, curved slide that was that high, and I probably nearly broke his ankle when his foot got stuck between me and the slide. Not good. He recovered quickly, but it was a little scary. Why do they make them so crazy sometimes? Jacob did take a liking to the rock wall, but of course he needed some help getting up there.

After our picnic we walked around the park a bit (my parents wanted to show us a geocache they found before), and then we headed back to the car. Jacob fell asleep almost instantly, and we just drove back, packed up, and took off. Unfortunately he only got in about an hour of sleep on the way home, but what can you do? We took care of some things around the house (Craig tended to the pool, which was still clear, and I tried putting together the cart we got with our lawnmower...unsuccessfully. Can anyone help with a stripped screw that I can't remove?), and tried to relax for the rest of our last day off. Back to the grind today!

I did take Jacob to the doctor tonight to see if there was anything they could do for his terrible congestion and runny nose. Sure enough, he's still got an ear infection, so he'll be back on medication again (something different this time) to see if we can clear it all out. Poor kid. At least he hasn't been too crazy with it--as usual, we'd never have known. We have a busy month ahead of us, but it should be a good time overall. We'll keep you posted as usual!

Random Updates

Since my birthday, it's been a relatively low-key week...quiet dinners at home, weather too hot for much baseball playing outside, and finally a victory in the battle against our pool...for now, anyway. Too bad it's going to be in the 60s this weekend and we won't have a chance to swim in it before that. Figures. I guess I can just provide a handful of updates on the latest happenings with Jacob. Lately we've been hearing, "I want to help!" a lot. Jacob wants to help buckle himself into his car seat or highchair, or wants to help in other ways...though generally they're things that he can't safely help with, like when he wanted to help me put the little holder in his ear of hot corn-on-the-cob last night. I guess it's nice he wants to help, and I try to indulge him as much as I can and praise him when he does it, just so he feels loved and important. Sometimes I wonder if his acting out is a result of wanting more attention, even though I try to give him positive feedback as much as I can...so letting him help here and there is an easy one.

We've also been hearing, "Don't say that" or "Don't do that" quite a bit. I'm not entirely sure he understands what he's saying, though it's usually in a reasonably correct context. He's probably more on the mark with "Don't do that," though. "Don't say that" usually comes up when he hears something he doesn't like...that it's bedtime, that we can't stay in his bedroom too long at bedtime (last night it was "Don't go anywhere, Mommy," which was too cute!) or when we explain to him that he hurt someone.

And lately, he has been hurting people. In addition to hitting me quite frequently lately (I know...so BAD) and generally accidentally hitting Craig in sensitive regions with his sporting equipment of choice, he had a couple iffy days at daycare. He only got "50/50" in front of the term "Cooperative", which for ages had always been a simple checkmark. Sounds like he's getting to be as difficult with them as he can be with us. Great. He got in some trouble the other day specifically because he pushed down a little girl. He told us that he fought with her because she took his toys, and of course we told him he shouldn't do that, especially with a girl. At least he told the truth (we think) when we asked him what happened.

He's also been going through a big "daddy" phase. Craig steps out of the room and Jacob panics. "Where Daddy?" he'll ask, over and over. And if Daddy isn't in the immediate vicinity, he will cry and scream hysterically. Distracting him from his quest isn't easy, and usually it takes Craig walking back into the room from upstairs, downstairs, outside, or out of the shower that calms him down. When we were in Pittsburgh, Craig would be in our hotel room bathroom for a minute before Jacob would freak out. He was on the other side of the door and yet Jacob would flip. I keep wondering what I'm going to do when hockey season gets going and Craig isn't home nearly as much as he is now. When it's not a matter of him walking upstairs, but rather driving 20 minutes home (or not coming home at all until Jacob's long been in bed), I have no idea how that's going to work. Lately Craig's had to do a lot more bedtime duty and things like that, just because Jacob doesn't want to let him out of his sight. We have no idea if this is some irrational fear, or just a straight desire to spend as much time as possible with Daddy (or as little as possible with me, perhaps as evidenced by his hitting issues mentioned above). Interestingly, and maybe this is wrong of me, but I figured out this morning that I might be able to get Jacob's daily requests to go to a Knighthawks game to stop because more Knighthawks means less Daddy. I mentioned to Jacob this morning that he shouldn't rush the lacrosse season here, because when lacrosse starts, Daddy has to work more and won't be around the house as much. Now, maybe this is bad because he's already attached enough and I shouldn't reference the fact that Craig will be around less, but then again, a little bit of honesty isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm trying to be gentle with the news, but chances are it won't stick anyway.

Sleep has been a bit of a hit-or-miss proposition in our house lately. Some nights, Jacob sleeps great. Some nights he has a really hard time going down. Some nights he just wakes up once screaming for one of us, then drifts back off with a little backrub from one of us, or on his own. Or sometimes he manages to torture us for a good portion of the night, like the other night when he woke up four times. Often he'll wake up in the middle of the night, wide awake and ready to play, but usually goes down relatively quickly with a little backrub and a reminder that he can play tomorrow. Wednesday night we were starting to think we should call the doctor. While we were getting Jacob into his pajamas, he started crying...and wouldn't stop. For a while we thought it might be gas or constipation or even the remnants of teething. No amount of consoling or holding him worked, and he wouldn't tell us if something was hurting him. We tried Tylenol but that didn't seem to help either. Later he said that he was scared, and even said something about people under his bed (NO idea where that came from), but it took a lot of time and energy to get him to stop...and even then he was hesitant to stay in his crib. He finally went to sleep but ended up waking up a bunch overnight, including one other time where he was crying uncontrollably so we gave him more pain reliever, just in case. I don't want to drug the kid unnecessarily, but when nothing else seems to work, you do what you can.

We're managing, but it's not easy. If you want to know how I feel about discipline, read this post by one of my favorite bloggers. She really describes the discipline conundrum perfectly. I am right there with her.

Well, off for a hopefully pleasant, albeit cool, Labor Day weekend. Have a great one!

Baseball, Batavia Style

As I mentioned yesterday, over the weekend we took a trip to Batavia to see the Muckdogs play. They're in the same league as Auburn, but a good 45 minutes closer to us. The team may fold after this season due to low ticket and sponsorship sales, so we figured we should try to get there ASAP, just to experience it. They had a game Sunday at 5pm, so we figured that was a good bet to work around naptime and still get home at a reasonable time. We ended up getting there right around gametime, and found a long line waiting to get tickets. Apparently everyone else figured they should get one last taste of Muckdogs' baseball, too. Here's Jacob playing while we're waiting in line...He was a little hot and cold behavior-wise during the game. Luckily we had friendly people around us that didn't mind Jacob's craziness sometimes, and he managed not to crank anyone with his mini-bat. For a while he insisted on sitting on the ground, and eventually worked his way down into the crevice under the seats in front of us.
Near the end of the game we got up to walk around (and, admittedly, seek out ice cream, but the concessions were already closed), and Jacob had a blast running around this one area of the concourse. Here he is apparently catching a pop fly :)
And now batting, with Craig as the "pitcher"...

Jacob absolutely loved their mascot, Homer, and thankfully Homer was beyond friendly every time Jacob ran up to him. I actually missed meeting #1 when I was in the bathroom, when Homer signed Jacob's mini-bat. Meeting #2 was on the way out to the concourse before the pictures above, and Meeting #3 was while we were playing in the concourse. I finally got a good picture in meeting #3. That's one patient dog :)

At the end of the game, it was time for another round of baserunning. As you may recall, it didn't go so well in Pittsburgh. This time around, Jacob did fantastically! He needed a little directional help from Daddy, but ran great! AND I got this awesome picture of the boys when they were done! One of my favorites EVER.
We stopped at the Target in Batavia afterward to do some quick shopping--I'm panicking about the upcoming cool weather because the first handful of pants I tried on Jacob last week when the weather turned cool were all too short on him--and then headed home a little before 9pm. Jacob miraculously stayed awake for the entire 45 minute drive home. I have no idea how.

The game topped off a pleasant weekend. As I recall Saturday was pretty low key--some shopping for me (household stuff, nothing particularly fun) and then dinner out with one of my birthday coupons, this one for Red Robin. After dinner we did some quick shopping and made a visit to PetSmart to see the animals. We saw baby fish born that day, a bunch of kitties, and a huge group of big dogs in their day camp. Jacob loved it. I also picked up the most random early birthday present for myself. It was something that was on clearance at the Christmas Tree Shop for about $9. It looked a little like a sea monkey aquarium or something, but it holds "magic marbles". They're little gel-like balls that start out looking like the round head of a pin, but expand when you put them in water. Here's a picture of the "aquarium" and its contents. The little ones on the bottom haven't expanded yet. The button in the middle shoots air bubbles into the water to move the marbles around.

Here's what they look like out of the water. They're very colorful and are squishy and smooth. If you let them dry out they will shrink back to their original size and you can expand them again.

The package came with like, 500 of these things, and I've maybe used half to fill up the aquarium. I want to play around with them a bit--put some in a jar for my desk at work, keep some around for Jacob to manhandle, and who knows what else. Lots of places can always use a pop of color :) I think these might be pretty much the same thing that I've seen recently at craft shows used as soil, so maybe I could even do something fun there. It was such a random purchase, something I rarely do, but I thought it would be fun to play around with. And I just wanted to share :)

My birthday ended up not too bad. I did spend most of the day frustrated by Jacob's behavior the previous night, and he wasn't much better that evening. It had also been a quiet but stressful day at work, which didn't help. Lori came over a little after 7pm to watch Jacob so Craig and I could go out to dinner. I wanted to go to a hibachi place, because I haven't been to one in years and had really wanted to go again. After taking suggestions on Facebook, we decided to go to Plum Garden in Pittsford. I'd been there before but not for hibachi. We left Jacob screaming bloody murder, but Lori insisting he'd be fine. Apparently it took a little bit for him to chill out, but eventually he did and the movie Air Bud (the baseball sequel, not the basketball one) saved the evening. He was just getting to sleep as we got home. We had a wonderful dinner (Craig had chicken, I had steak) and I've enjoyed leftovers of the fried rice, veggies and steak for the last two days at lunch. So good. And very entertaining as well! I highly recommend going to one if you've never been. We finished off the night with cupcakes and some TV watching. A pleasant end to an otherwise so-so birthday. Now Labor Day is upon us. One last ditch effort to enjoy the summer (and our pool--it looks almost normal for the first time since about mid-July) this weekend, and then we're officially headed toward fall. Crazy!

Vacation Recap - The Final Day and Recap

After our late night the previous night as we returned from Pittsburgh, it felt good to sleep in the next morning, which we did until about 9am. We ended up having a relatively lazy day at home, as much as we could with Jacob around. We ate home-cooked meals after days of restaurants and caught up on things, including unpacking. After Jacob's nap we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and check out a park that's practically across the street from our neighborhood. We knew there was a dog park there (drove by--turns out Jacob isn't old enough to go anywhere near it, though it might be fun watching some days) and we figured there had to be a playground. Sure enough, there was a nice area with a lodge, soccer fields, and a big playground. Jacob played for a while on the playground, which had two sections and quite a few slides and other activities. Jacob seems to have a bit of a slide phobia, as it takes a lot of convincing for him to do one. Once he does he usually wants to do it repeatedly, but he seems to freeze at the top of slides. He'll get there, I guess.

After he tired of that, we moved along to the grassy fields. He ran to the soccer nets and pretended to be a goalie, and then we grabbed his baseball tee out of the car and he played with that for a while. Here's some video...

After quite a few rounds of that, we took a water break, and Jacob discovered he could do this--though it usually fell within a second :)

That night we headed to the mall so I could do some shopping. I had a couple things in mind to get and we had promised Jacob a ride on the carousel at some point...so we might as well chalk it up to the loose rules of vacation. It is only a buck, after all, and the parent gets to ride free. We didn't get any good pictures because Jacob refused to look at the camera when Craig tried to take a picture from the floor. Oh, well. He liked it a lot and has definitely improved his outlook on carousels since that first ride.

All in all, it was nice to have time off, but it was far too quick. Last year I took off one solid work week, and had two weekends bookending it. That meant nine whole days away from the office. This time I took off mid-week, not only because it worked better in our schedule but because I liked the concept of a couple short weeks bookending my time away. It does soften the blow of coming back to work when you only have a two-day week to contend with. However, it was only seven days away and seemed so much shorter than last year. Granted, there was another quick-arriving weekend this time around, which we tried to take advantage of, but it wasn't quite the same. One crappy day at the beginning and one day in Buffalo (much of which felt like it was spent in a car) probably didn't make the time feel any longer either. The break was sorely needed, though. It had been a long time since we'd spent time like that together, and work was definitely starting to get to me! Of course, Jacob slept like crap on Wednesday night, so by the time I got back to work on Thursday, I was practically as exhausted as I had been when I left AND I had an extra large pile of work to dig through. Awesome.

Much like last year, the solid week of full time Jacob care wasn't easy. We had a lot of difficult moments over the course of the week--tantrums about almost anything you can imagine--and I can't help but wonder the cause. Is it just him being two? Is it some stage of two-ness that is making things worse? Was it because he still wasn't feeling well from his ear infections? Is he thrown off being away from daycare or his daily schedule in general? Was he lacking sleep from our all-over schedule? Was he just difficult because he was with us, whom he constantly feels the need to test? It's probably all of the above, to some degree. And you know, that makes it hard. Jacob can be the most awesome, amazing kid. He's smart and passionate, and can be so sweet and so cute. But he can be a nightmare as well, so ridiculously difficult that it makes me crazy. During those sweet, engaging moments, you want to do all you can for him--spend time with him, show him new things, encourage his interests--but then when you go to do those things, suddenly you have a crazy child on your hands. It not only makes you wonder why you tried, but it also makes you question doing it again.

Baseball games are the perfect example. Jacob LOVES baseball. After a winter and spring of hockey and lacrosse, Jacob gradually became obsessed with baseball as well. He asks about going to baseball games (and hockey games, and lacrosse games...) every day. And we've been going a lot. We went to one Red Wings game a few weeks back because they were playing the Braves' farm team (the Braves are Craig's favorite team), then to the game in Auburn the night our vacation started. Then we went to the game in Pittsburgh the following Sunday, and Craig took Jacob to the Red Wings game for a little while last Thursday, my first day back at work, mostly because there was a cool giveaway (and we do get free tickets, by the way). Then this past Sunday we went to Batavia to see the Muckdogs (more on that soon), just because they might fold this off-season. That's a LOT of games in a few weeks. And we do it because it's fun for all of us and we know Jacob likes it. But so many times, once we get there, we wonder why we bothered. Jacob won't sit, won't eat, only wants to run around swinging his bat (bad when there are so many people around), complains when he can't get a bat/ball/helmet in the team store, collapses in random anger in the middle of baserunning, etc. If he likes baseball so much, why does he give us so much trouble at games? Should we stop taking him, even though it's something that he talks about constantly? Fortunately, Sunday's trip to Batavia had a happier ending, but we still had a tough time with him for a good portion of the game. It's just hard when you want to do fun things, but end up more stressed out than "funned" out.

Still, I think it's important to have those long spans with Jacob. It's good for him to get some quality Mommy-Daddy time. Hopefully it gives him some perspective (can two year olds have that?) on his daily routine--helping him to realize what he likes and that he should appreciate certain things. His time with us is scarce, so he should make the most of that, and his time at daycare is special in its own way as well--many people that care about him and always something new with crafts, foods, songs, books, and other activities, all settled into a nice, comfortable routine. Daycare is all he's known, really. Five days of that, followed by two days of weekend, and so on...for all but the first month and a half of his life. It's sad, in a way, as some kids get ALL of that time with their parents and don't have to separate themselves until at least preschool. It's always interesting this time of year on Facebook as stay-at-home moms send their kids off to school for the first time. I'm sure I'll have my share of "my baby's all grown up" moments when Jacob finally goes off to kindergarten, but considering I've been sending him off somewhere every day since he was seven weeks old, I'm not sure it'll be the same kind of angst. On the bright side, aside from it being a separate setting, Jacob will already be used to spending the day away so hopefully we can avoid any crazy separation anxiety issues.

I'm still not sure when I'll feel prepared to deal a real vacation. I dream of us all going out to Portland to visit my brother and his family, but I can't even fathom Jacob on a plane ride right now. I'd love to go to the Jersey Shore, or maybe the Adirondacks, or even up to Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec, but all of those are long drives and I'm just not sure when Jacob will be ready for that. DVDs work wonders, but even still, that's a long time and we can only stop so much. And if you add in the thought of another baby at some point, it gets even more complicated. We can barely fit in a car as it is. At least the baby would sleep most of the time. We have another year to worry about that, I guess, so now the countdown begins for my time off around Christmas...I can't wait!