I ran errands in the city yesterday with Dekker. I was not looking my best. This is an example of a conversation I could have had yesterday. I say again, I DID NOT have this conversation, but if I did, I wouldn’t have been surprised.

What is that on your head?

Its my grease-hider, or “bandana,” if you prefer.

Is that make up I see?

No. Its not. I promise, you don’t see any make up.

Then what is that all over your face?

That would be the break out of a fourteen year old boy. Actually, the whole look kind of says “fourteen year old boy” doesn’t it?

So all of that being said, I reiterate that I was NOT at my best yesterday. But big deal. I was grocery shopping and getting a few other things done with Dekker, and he doesn’t care if I’m super pretty or not. So I was loading him up at RBC and I saw a man in his vehicle beside us kind of looking over at us. I smiled at him, figuring maybe he wanted to pull out and was waiting for us to be finished. He smiled back. I got into the car and was checking a text and choosing a song off my iPod before I went anywhere, when I heard a horn honk. Just tapped. I looked around, to see if maybe someone was waiting for my spot. And this pervy guy is still parked beside me, just staring at us, with this pervy smile on his pervy face! He made a motion for me to roll down my window, and I took that as my opportunity to drive away. Creep. I watched my back all the way to my next stop.

I will be the first to admit, that kind of thing almost never happens to me. Before, I would just laugh at it, but now I feel a lot more protective of Dekker and I appreciate these kind of creepers even less. Just because I have it, here is an example of one that I laughed at…

…until I realized that no one in the vicinity of where my car was parked was within even ten years of my age. Plus, I was clearly pregnant at this point. But I did laugh at the time.

One more random quirky story of yesterday, ok? I was in line at Superstore and had loaded my groceries onto the conveyer belt thing. There was room for the lady behind us to start unloading hers too, but there was no separator bar. Plus, there was a large group ahead of me with only a few things, so they took up a lot of space and I couldn’t really move to make room. So I casually apologized to be polite (since she and Dekker were already flirting away) and she shrugged very casually and told me not to worry. I thanked her and said “So you’re not in a big rush?” and she replies “The end is coming.” I kind of laughed, and said that its true, the end will come. And all of a sudden she starts kind of pointing around her, saying things like “These people just walk around like they don’t know, but they know. The end of the world is coming!” Not gonna lie, I loved her 🙂  Not that I necessarily “knew” that the world was ready to crash and burn in front of my eyes, but its nice to know she’s ready for it anyway.

On that weirdo note, I’m off. I need to shower and beautify and pack up Dekker before 10am so we can be at the Neufeld reunion before lunch. Should be good!

If you haven’t quite heard yet, a tragedy took place last night. In a movie theatre in Colorado, during the midnight showing of the brand new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises,” someone went to the front of the theatre and began shooting into the crowd, killing 14 people and injuring over 50, among them a six year old. The shooter was found still on theatre premisses and is in custody. That doesn’t make it better though, really. I mean, he did still kill those people.

I would really like to see that movie. However, I don’t do great with scary, or even really suspenseful movies. I’ve always had a very wild imagination and while that can be great for pretending and playing, it can be pretty unnerving in other situations. I remember, as a teenager, opening my closet before I went to bed to make sure no one was in there, or climbing under my bed to assure myself that if I could barely fit, an attacker probably couldn’t. Right? As an adult, I’d decided to phase out most “Law & Order” type of shows, just to preserve my mental health. But on occasion (almost like a special treat) I’ll watch something suspenseful, since I really love suspense and mystery. I was so looking forward to the new Batman movie. But this event got me thinking.

Remember when “The Dark Knight” came out? Heath Ledger was a spectacular villain! I knew he was the Joker going in (as did the rest of the world) but even though I spent the whole movie trying to see his face, I couldn’t! There was maybe one place where I could say “Ok, there! I saw some Heath Ledger in that expression.” He did amazing. And then he died. Did you know (the paper’s said) that he spent a large chunk of his days during filming holed up in a hotel room alone to “get into character?” Apparently he died of a drug overdose. I have no doubt that things got pretty dark all alone in that hotel room, while he got into his role as a murderous crazy person. Now I’m sure people would argue with me and say he just ODed, it had nothing to do with the film, and that’s fine, but this is my perspective so just let it happen.

Now “The Dark Knight Rises” is out and while I”m very curious to see it, I’m just not sure if I will. Don’t get me wrong. People can go see it! I don’t think its “wrong” to go see it! I would really love to! But to me, this is a chain of events I’m not sure I want to link to. I feel like the movies are getting a little too dark and creepy for my taste.

Perhaps the shooter in Colorado last night was just a lunatic who knew there would be a big turn out and wanted to take the most lives possible. Who knows. I’m not saying that all Batman fans are ticking time bombs. HIs actions could have been completely unrelated to scary movies!

While I don’t think we should live in fear of anyone other than the Holy Ghost, I think we need to be good to ourselves and guard our hearts. And we need to pray.

God, cover those families who have been affected by this event in Colorado last night. Bless the families of those lost, and cover those who are injured. Bring those who don’t know you to you. And cover the shooter. Be real to all of these people, so much so that they can’t live another day without feeling your comfort.  While I know this shooting is such a small thing in the world of war that we live in, I’m just feeling it close to home. Keep my family safe. Help me raise my kids in a way that honors you.

 

Keep my son gentle and loving. Amen.

My poor little boy got one of his chunky thighs stuck between the bars of his crib again. He started crying at 7:00. He would give a good wail, and then be quiet. We’ve never opted to rush to him as soon as he started to cry, so I waited a bit. With the on and off crying, I assumed he was falling back to sleep and was just crying because he was tired. So I waited until about 7:30 before I decided to go get him since we have stuff to do today anyway, so if he’s up, he’s up. From across the room I can see he was in a weird diagonal position. He looked at me kind of upside down and smiled like always. I got closer and saw his face was red and soaked with tears. His breathing was shrucking a little. His leg was at a different angle than the rest of his body.

This is maybe the forth time he’s gotten himself stuck like this, and I’ve been learning that if I can move him to a good angle, it makes it less painful for him to get out, but he was so far into a corner that I had to just pull him out. He screamed and wailed. My only reward form these situations is after. He cries and cries, and just drapes on me. No holding on, no looking around, no squirming. He just lays on my me and cries until he feels better. I love that I can make it better.

Behold – the dents in his leg (probably ten minutes later after I pulled him out)

 

Just hanging out while I take pictures of him…

 

and already looking over to his toys.

 

Since the drama of waking up, he has had a big bottle, lots of tickles, a photo shoot, and now he’s playing on the floor. Farting away and just laughing at himself 🙂 Such a boy.

He’s so resilient. I’m so proud of him, and how he bounces back so fast! He is happy as a clam plying toys, while I’m still lagging from waking up at 7:00 am. I’ve got a thing or two to learn from my smarty-pants son.

 

I’m really loving this morning. At first, not so much, but now for sure. Dekker has a new fun thing he does, where he wakes up at 8:00. I know, I know, 8:00 am is great right? Not when it used to be 10:00. Either way, I was awake earlier than I usually prefer to be. Not a huge deal. I got up and got dressed. Its kind of strange how sometimes real clothes feel better than jammies. I got Dekker up and he ate and played like a champ. I discovered that, as of today, Dekker claps when asked! He’s clapped for a while but as soon as you would clap back, he would stop or get distracted. But while he was playing, I just asked “Dekker, would you clap?” and no hesitation! He just clapped and clapped! Such a big boy 😀 That brings his commands to two. He can clap and high five on demand. I had him on my bed and he was clapping away, with me growing more and more proud of him every second, when suddenly he made a sad sound and looked up at me with his big lip out. I went to stroke his hair and realized his forehead was wet. No, that doesn’t necessarily mean our house is warm. Its irrefutable proof that he’s tired. The sleep sweats, we call them. So I picked him up, brought him to his room, put him to bed, and he hasn’t made a sound since. That was two hours ago, so it will end soon.

While Dekker has been napping, I’ve been accomplishing nothing at all. I’m laying in my bed, watching guilty pleasure TV, eating leftover spaghetti, and switching between Pinterest searching and crocheting. Yes, I know its lazy. But then I checked my calendar. July is officially slammed for my family. Today will be my last day of pure relaxation. There is a task, event, or plan for every single day of the rest of July. Lots of them are great, or will only be a few hours, but even so, every single day we will be busy with something. I suppose thats not a bad thing, just seems overwhelming to look at it that way.

Could be a good thing. It will likely make these posts a little more interesting.

I was on Pinterest today (of course) and saw that someone had pinned something called “The Mom Challenge.” It claimed to provide a challenge for mothers once a week for a year, to bring you closer to your kids. I followed the link to see what it was, and loved that the first “challenge” was to eat together. One week of meals, with no TV, no phones, just good old fashioned talking and laughing and loving. I was like “This blogger thinks like me!” So I looked around on her blog to try to find the rest of the challenges. I saw the list and immediately felt a little bit smaller. They were things like “Slow Down” and “Leave the laundry alone.” I do those things every week, who am I kidding?! But one that jumped out at me was “Hugs and Kisses.” I went to the post and was a little sad. The “challenge” was to hug and kiss your kids. Well, not even that. Just hugs. Three hugs a day, “even if you have to sneak them.” It suggested that if your kids are teenagers, discuss with them that hugs are not optional. WHAT?!?!?! I still adore hugs from my mother! Hugs and kisses are not something I would ever pass up! It just made me sad to think that some people don’t get hugged and kissed. People need to be told and showed that they are loved! Now maybe someone will comment and tell me that it gets harder later or something, but so far, I don’t see it! I don’t expect I will ever run out of hugs! Or kisses! I suppose not everyone comes from a hugging family, and in that case they may have to make more of a point to hug their kids, and maybe the post was more geared towards that kind of situation. Who knows. I just was so surprised that it was considered a “challenge” to hug your kids three times a day.

All parents do things different. Some have the routine of bedtime stories every night before bed. Maybe some go for a walk every day together. My children will have to cuddle with me 🙂 Every day. For…at least ten minutes. Even when they’re teenagers. And you know what? I think they’ll like it!

At least this one isn’t objecting yet.

My son just popped his eighth tooth a couple days ago. I know it seems strange to be celebrating teeth as far as the eighth, but its the last of his front teeth before we have to address things like eye teeth and molars. I guess technically the easy part is over.

To me, this tooth is a reminder than time is flying. When Dekker was a week old, I had people say things like “Isn’t it crazy that he’s already a whole week old?” and my response was always “It feels like he’s always been here.” I never was completely floored by his age until he was six months old. That milestone almost bowled me over and took me out. And now, with his first birthday approaching (August 21st to be exact) I’m finding myself really emotional and reminiscent. Its taking everything in me to not post pictures of the day he was born on here. I should save that for the inevitable birthday/birth story post, right? Oh who am I kidding? I can’t NOT post a picture or two!

Day 1:

And now, just short of 11 months:

He is SO GROWN UP! And he’s not even one! Yikes…

Not a lot to say today, sorry to those who are looking for entertainment. I do have one update for those who have been following.

Yesterday on our way into the city for grocery shopping, we stopped to get the mail and found a letter from the town office. In a very short, formal message it told us that we essentially lost our appeal on our deck permit 🙁 It does say, though, that one of the guys on the council will be contacting us to meet and discuss the details. The details likely being that we will be allowed to build our deck separate from our house and then would not require the piles. If I’m correct and this is the case, it means that they called our inspector, he confirmed his stipulations, and they don’t want to step on his toes. This is all just what I’m suspecting. I could be wrong, and I’ll be interested to see how the meeting goes with the guy from the town council. Frankly, at this point I just want it to be over! I don’t care how we have to build the stinkin’ thing, I just want to have the meeting so we can build the deck before Dekker’s birthday! And as soon as the deck is built, we want to build our picnic table. And a few chairs. So we have a deadline and a lot to accomplish before then! Grrr! What a hassle.

I’m going to end this anxty post with an adorable picture of my son, because it just makes it better. This is him saying “I don’t care about the deck mommy, I’ll turn one either way!”

I made a list yesterday of three things I wanted to accomplish. One was painting Dekker’s present, another was planning a supper that didn’t require a stove, and third was to cut up some old jeans to one day make into an outside blanket. So after I wrote that, I got a call from my mom. She said “Guess what, we got an air conditioner!!!” So plans changed and we went for a visit. I didn’t paint Dekker’s gift, and my ovenless supper plan was to have supper at their house. But be proud of me here! I opted to leave the laptop at home and brought all the jeans and supplies I needed to start cutting squares! I still have maybe 3 pairs left to chop up but have over 100 squares. Random fact: Its nice to be skinny but it is annoying when your denim squares can only be 5″ across. Lame.

This morning our house is 22 degrees 😀 which is actually a pretty huge accomplishment! Now to keep it that way. Brady will go mow the lawn soon in blazing sun and I will play with Dekker downstairs. Our grass is so long! Its been so wet this year, our push mower would just get clogged if we mowed. So we don’t. Until its really bad, like today. Brady saw a snake in our grass a few days back so I’m pretty sure its time!

On the note of mowing, we have this new guy. He lives kitty corner to us, and he has a ride-on mower. Nice guy that he is, he mows the open lot next to our property. First thing in the morning. About every other day. I’ve debated going to the town office and asking what the quiet hours are, but who am I kidding? Our “first thing in the morning” is very different than everyone else’s. However, today, Saturday morning, he mowed and woke all of us up. Me, Brady, and Dekker. Thanks for nothing, new guy.

I woke up at 6 am to Dekker. Of all people, my son was up at 6:00! I know I’m repeating myself but for the past week-ish, the earliest he has woken up has been about 10:00. Either way, this morning was different. Kind of. He woke up and gave a few good wails, and was back to sleep. Juuust enough to wake me up completely. At first I was a little irritated. I’ve had trouble falling asleep recently so we’ve been getting to bed later, and waking up at 6:00 just doesn’t fit into my schedule. Plus, our house didn’t cool off as nice as it did the night before and I woke up with sweat on my face. Not my favorite. However, I got to wake up with Brady. He got up and did his own thing to get ready for the day, but came and had breakfast with me in bed. We almost never get our mornings together, except on the weekend. It was special and quiet and sleepy. I loved it.

Now I’m sipping my ginormous coffee (remember the coffee cups from Luke’s Diner in Gilmore Girls? Yup.) and wondering what today will bring. Our house is so hot, but outside is hotter, and unlike many young families I’m in touch with, I don’t live a hop, skip, and a jump from a spray park. While lots of ladies are getting their kids out in the sun, covering them in cool water, and playing hard, we’re finding ourselves more cooped up than anything. Being a lover of summer, its strange to have these feelings towards the heat. I looove the sun! But its exhausting to be so warm for so long! Maybe Dekker and I will take a nice cool bath together if it just gets too unbearable in here!

Either way, I’ll probably spend a decent chunk of today playing with Dekker in the basement where its a bit cooler. Remember a while ago, I posted about planning to build Dekker’s birthday present but I didn’t want to bring it up in case it flopped? Ok, you still can’t know what it is, but it definitely didn’t flop!!! It looks great actually, so that being said, maybe I’ll add another coat of paint to it today, since my “creative space” (also known as a piece of plywood on the floor) is set up downstairs. At least that way we’ll accomplish something! Actually, I plan to accomplish…three things. Yup, I can come up with three.

1. Paint Dekker’s birthday present

2. Plan a supper that doesn’t require a stove

3. Wash jeans (Not just do laundry, but I probably have 15 pairs of old jeans lying around and I’m thinking I should make them into a denim outside blanket or something. Either that or get rid of them. Today is decision day!)

I hope others have as chill (sick joke) of a day planned as I do!

I feel like today is just the deep breath I’ve needed. My house cooled down to 23 over night and has only warmed up a little. I feel light.

It always helps to have a great day the day before a deep breath day. I had one! I had a great time in the city with my mom and son. Its my entire last post if you haven’t read it yet. One thing I forgot to add, I’ll just quickly make up for right here.

We were in line at Old Navy, and there was a group of women with a couple kids in front of myself and Dekker in his stroller. One of the women was holding her young son, when he saw Dekker. “BABY!!!” he squealed, and wriggled hard to get out of his moms grasp. He came right up, no fear, and patted Dekker’s face, saying “Cheeks cheeks cheeks!” It was so great! I laughed while his mom tried to pull him away and reminded him that people have personal space and boundaries and all that good stuff, but he would not be contained. He came racing back, took Dekker’s little sippy cup from his lap and tried to give Deks some water. It was just adorable. I felt loved by that little boy 🙂 He loved Dekker so much!

Anyway, back to today. I woke up after 10:00 and got Dekker out of his crib, fed him, and put him down to play on the floor. He really didn’t want to be alone and cried and cried when I put him down. He spun around and tried desperately to get back into my arms. So I hugged him and cuddled him and kissed him until he noticed all his toys nearby and wanted to play with them. He bowled over at one point, right into a wall. He sounded a little concerned, but didn’t panic or cry. He just lay there on his belly with his face pressed against the wall, waiting for me to come save him.

He played happily and loudly for about two solid hours until I noticed he smelled baaaaad! I went to take him for a diaper change and he just snuggled into my neck and rubbed his eyes. I put my freshly cleaned up boy to bed giggling (literally) and went to get myself some lunch. Leftover salad (with my home honey mustard dressing) and leftover honey chicken on rice. I’m sooo full!

I’m resting so comfortably, taking a load off, and doing a bit more planning for Dekker’s birthday party. Would you make burger and buns from scratch or just buy it all?