Brady’s mom is making a trip out this weekend to celebrate his birthday. Unfortunately, weather didn’t permit her trip just yet. Try again tomorrow, Elvira!

As for today, my whole house is cleaned already! We have no chore to do, no plan on the move. I don’t remember the last time we had nothing to do. I like to be busy, and don’t get me wrong, I’m happily anticipating having my mother in law out very much!

However, tonight, I will paint my nails, crochet, and watch the series finale of “Lost.”

But first, grilled cheese for supper. Exactly what I wanted! YUM!

Brady and I had planned to get some grocery shopping done yesterday. When his two hours of work turned into eight, the plan was nixed. However, as the day went on, the shopping list grew bigger and bigger, a little too big to do on my own. He got home around 5:00 with Subway and we watched a bit of Lost while Dekker slept. When Dekker awoke, we decided to head to the city even though it was late. We got on the road at 7:30. Dekker is usually in bed at 8:30. But he was a total champ, and by far the cutest road trip buddy EVER!

We filled up the car before we drove to Superstore and grocery shopped a decent sized cart full of groceries. He was relaxed and charming the entire time. From there, we hit Walmart for a few things. Brady decided to carry Dekker, as it was just a quick trip. As usual, our “few things” list grew and I ended up carrying Deks while Brady lugged our stuff. My son, he’s heavy! As in, I was sweating bullets by the time we left!

We listened to the new Tyler Ward album on the drive home. Deks was pretty zoned, but awake the entire time. Not like him. It was amazing that he wasn’t fussing.

When we finally got him in bed, it was after 10:30pm. He was pretty tired at that point, so he cried a little when we put him down, but he was out right away. Sometimes I’m amazed at how well he goes to sleep. Correction: I am always amazed at how well he goes to sleep. What did I do to deserve this kind of baby? We had very few specific methods we followed, or rules we made. He just fell into his own routine. People, if I knew what it was, I’d sell it in bottles and be rich.

Then this morning, he woke up after 10, ready to play. He is at his best in the mornings. We had breakfast and went downstairs to play. Often, playing conists of me building towers for him and then crocheting/facebooking when he wanders off to do his own thing. It didn’t really play out like that today. I built him a tower to entice him to the toys, and plopped myself down to crochet. He stood at the couch in front of me and watched. Unmoving. For longer than you would expect! It was strange, haha! I started to feel self-conscious! I appreciated the interest, buuut…

If my son ever learns to crochet, that will just be the hilarious cherry on top 😀

I felt very accomplished last week when I had two crock pots going at once. Today, there were three! Last time, it was two big batches of the same thing. Today, is was three different things! Felt very proud of myself. Like a boss. With my mom.

As soon as I posted yesterdays post, my mom called and offered to come for a cleaning/kitchen/cooking day. I took her up on it and she came over that afternoon. She made it by about 2:0opm and could only stay until about 5:15. Man, did we get a lot done!!!

Luckily, Brady and I did more laundry on Monday than I thought, so we didn’t have to wash any bedding or towels like I was expecting. We went straight into the kitchen and chopped/mixed/improvised our way to three suppers slow cooking, all the while doing dishes and starting to rearrange things into drawers that were never usable until now. Once the meals were set up and Dekker was sleeping, we started to really get into the kitchen! As in, throwing away tiny useless Tupperware and a large grocery bag collection, and bringing large boxed appliances downstairs. That lead us to the pantry. I had a crazy pantry reorganizing day earlier this year. However, all I had really done was stacked stuff up taller so I could fit more things in. I didn’t purge or tidy, I just shoved. Today, we really organized, and it was wonderful. When my mom had to leave, Brady stepped in and became the keeper of the garbage bag, hauler of things that belong downstairs (holla!), and coffee putter onner guy. We finished the pantry and put the crock pot meals in the fridge. Complete. Success.

A few realizations from today: Fresh garlic cloves are sooo much better to chop and peel than old. I finally use real garlic now, and I suppose mine has always been old in the past. It is now fresh and smushes really good when I beat it with the flat side of the knife. So satisfying! Also, it is nicer to pull something out of a drawer that it not crammed full of things that come flying out with the object I was going for originally. Space is ok. Organize things in a way that leaves room for growth. On the topic of having space, I have an entire large drawer in my kitchen with nothing in it 😀 This makes me happier than it should. While a part of me was sad to pack up so many bottles that Dekker used as a younger baby, it made nice space that I’m sure will be filled with something soon enough, and I’ll be thankful I did. We did, actually. I work so much better with the help of a friend.

Another observation is that I felt more normal today than usual. Not in the way that I wasn’t scatter-brained. So many people feel that a large project being completed is rewarding. I haven’t felt that in the past. I’ve more so just felt relieved that it’s over, almost leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Today, I feel the reward. My house smells like beef stew. I can actually walk into my pantry without tripping over stray Tupperware, a roll of paper towel, or a bottle of water. I have a spice drawer! I have replaced my kitchen cloth. I have one empty drawer and three empty shelves in the kitchen cabinets. I am happy. And accomplished.

Of course, with this newfound excitement over my new kitchen, and my new zest for domesticity, I can’t sleep. I thought usually people are exhausted at the end of a day like this. Not me. Oh well, I try not to run with the pack. Or sleep with them either, apparently.

Pretty sure I’m going to put on coffee this morning and take my time today. I’m actually surprised when I think about how much I need to accomplish before the end of the week! My house needs to be cleaned, I need to get some grocery shopping in, and I need to reorganize my whole kitchen. Probably before Thursday. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed and I’m not even out of bed yet. Yes yes, judge me. My baby is just waking up so I can.

I’m so unsure about what to put where in my kitchen. I’m not complaining one bit, I’m thrilled to have the extra space! But so far the plans I’ve had is just spreading out what is already in my kitchen, not taking anything out of my pantry to make room. I want more room in my pantry! So I’m not sure where to go. I keep having ideas and I think “I’ll just try it” but then I think that if it is sucks, I’ll have to pull it apart and start back at the beginning. Pretty sure I need to get over that and just do it. Really, if I have to dump out a drawer or two, that is probably something I can live through.

No matter what I end up doing today, I must get started.. Dekker is talking away in his crib, playing happily with absolutely nothing except a blanket, which I love. But I’ll go get him, we’ll have breakfast, and then we’ll see how well he’ll play by himself while I think of what to do. Floors? Laundry? Dishes? Bathrooms? Vacuum the basement? Tidy the entire house? Reorganize the kitchen? Shop? No, shopping is out for today. Anything else? I’m sure there’s more.

After writing this, I think it will be a full pot of coffee today.

Sometimes I look back on this year and just see it as looooong! Which is silly, I know. In a lot of ways, it has been a quick year. Dekker has grown leaps and bounds, and I’ve learned a lot! I’m very thankful to be where I am.

I’m thankful for my husband, son, and the relationship I have with God. My three boys 🙂 They get me through a lot. God gave me His grace, which is an obvious gift that I could not live without. No one else even has a similar unconditional love for me as He does. Second in that line in Brady. He takes care of me. He is my best friend in the world, and I love that the sleepover never ends, and he never needs to pack up his stuff and leave. Stay forever, my love. And then Dekker. I have said it before and I’ll say it again. Dekker is my giggles. It never takes much work to get some joy out of him. He reminds me to celebrate everything. I love watching the wheels turn in his head as he learns and absorbs everything. He is smarter and more incredible than I give him credit for sometimes. It is still surreal that he is here with us.

I am so very thankful to have a house to live in, with a big yard and a sexy car parked out front. We are so blessed to have everything we need, but in an amped up kind of way. Our freezer and pantry are full.

Today while I was feeding Dekker breakfast, I was telling him about thanksgiving and asked him what he was thankful for. Dekker doesn’t talk,  but he can show emotion and express his feelings really well. Also, I like to think I know him pretty well. So the things I can safely say he is thankful for are as follows: new flavors of yogurt, footless sleepers, the green stacking cup toy, dadadada, Cheerios, Marianas Trench, drumming, singing, oatmeal cookies, naked time, peaches, flannel, red, and sleep.

We’ve accomplished a bit today, which is pretty good for a day off after such a late night! Suitcases are unpacked and laundry is going. Dekker woke up from his nap surprisingly early, which is a very good thing because there is a solid chance he’ll still go down for a second one, putting his routine back in place! I was nervous about that, as he went to bed after midnight last night. But he seems to be doing well!

Hopefully he’ll nap soon enough, and we’ll spend that time clearing the corn stalks off of the garden and giving it a solid rototill before the end of the day.  I would be thankful for that.

The Daily Hailey is an outlet I’ve set up for myself, and committed to posting every day. It is officially 12:47 am as I begin this post, on Monday. But its my Sunday post!!! I’m still awake in Sunday mode! Does it still count?

I’m late to post as I spent out last morning and afternoon visiting with Simon, Grace, Isaac, and Charlie. While everyone napped, a few of us took of to Edmonton for some shopping that turned out to be sub-par at best. Bath & Body Works had nothing left of their fall scents, none of the jackets on sale at Target were in my size, and there were no little boy mittens to be found. Girl mittens, for sure. But boys mittens? None. I bought a belt.

From shopping, we went back to family for a huge pizza feed and one last cuddle with Charlie before we dragged ourselves away around 6:oo pm. It was a decent drive for everyone minus Dekker. He really struggled. He was hungry and overtired. When we stopped in Lloyd on the way home to feed him, he was too fed up and just cried. We took turns walking him around the McDonalds while the others ate. He was quite hands on, and would go from zero to sixty amazingly fast, and not in a good way. Getting from sixty back to zero took a lot longer.

Now he’s tucked safely away in his bed, hopefully for a very long time, and Brady and I are getting ready to pass out in front of an episode of Community. Of just while I finish this blog…

* Everyone forgive me for technically missing Sunday? There will be a better post coming Monday/later today!

We are having such a nice time visiting family this weekend, meeting the new baby.

Charlie is teeny tiny compared to Dekker. He makes little growly sounds, and sleeps a lot. We celebrate things like  making eye contact with him. He is completely precious. Takes me back.

Last night, Brady, Dekker and I shared a room with Caity and Stefan. Since having Dekker, we haven’t shared a sleeping space with others. I was a little nervous, wondering how Dekker would do overnight. In past hotel experience, he’s woken up in the night, and it takes a diaper change and a bottle to put him back down. Not the end of the world, I know, but out of character. Plus, with his current horrendous diaper rash, I thought the chance of him waking in the night was greatly increased.

We had the hilarious idea to sleep him in the bathroom. Brady had to close the door in order to assemble the playpen, and could barely get out. But it worked! Dekker cried for a few minutes falling asleep and didn’t make a peep for the rest of the night. We had to wake him at 8:30 in order to meet family for breakfast in good time. He’s so squishy and funny when he’s just freshly awake.

It was a total success, and I anticipate a similar night tonight. Mmmmm. Good sleeps away from home. YES!

Some of you probably know about the sickness that has rocked our household in the recent past. Brady and I got pretty terrible colds that I think (hope) I’m safe to say have finally passed. Along with that, Dekker popped six teeth in September, all eye teeth and molars. That was an adventure in itself, but obviously we’re happy he’s getting them all out relatively quick, and that he’s such a trooper. There are a few other small things ailing our family, but nothing really new or important enough to post here. Life goes on right?

Dekker began to sleep 16 hours at night. I know a lot of people thought I should have been happy about it, but I was nervous. I know the sickness and the teething explained it but I wanted to check in at his doctor. As I posted previously, he was dropping weight because he wasn’t eating as much. So now we’ve changed things up, and he’s in bed more like 12-14 hours in a night. However, the brief spell of crazy long nights has left him with a pretty decent diaper rash. I called his doctor yesterday to get a prescription for a strong diaper cream, as little while yeasty bumps were forming. While I waited for Brady to bring it home at the end of his work day, I bawled my way through his diaper changes right along with him. He would just shake and wail, crying big crocodile tears, looking so confused. He even had some of the bumps start bleeding a little. It was horrendous.

When the diaper cream (and husband) were home and we were all settled down, I went to use the bathroom. (Ok, if you don’t want to know my pee habits, stop reading now.) I sat down to pee, and barely anything came out. Huh. Interesting. So I left and did something else for maybe five minutes before I had to madly pee again. This time even less came out. Now I’ve never had a bladder infection, but I didn’t know what else that could have been! So I drove into the city on my own (Dekker was napping, Brady was putting up our baby gate) to get checked out. I was completely miserable, having to pee so bad that I was bloated right up, but being unable to.

Tiniest urine sample ever later, I was in a room talking to a really nice doctor whose last name I wasn’t able to catch. It was long and sounded like it had the word “giggly” in it, which I liked. Because I’m a dork like that. He said they found blood and protein and all sorts of fun things in my sample, and prescribed me something right away. He was very kind and sympathetic. He even commented how sad it was that this was happening so close to Thanksgiving. We talked plans, probably to lighten the mood. He’s going to Toronto to eat turkey with family. I left feeling lighter and encouraged, but I still really had to pee. I had to wait a half hour for my antibiotics to be filled, dropped about $100 at Superstore (no, it wasn’t as frivolous as it sounds) and went home.

And now we wait. As we drive to Edmonton for the weekend so my entire family can be together, prayers would be greatly appreciated. For myself and my first ever aggressive bladder infection, for Dekker’s diaper rash gone yeast infection, and for Brady’s strength to put up with us and take care of us while we pout once in a while.

Get it? Get it? The play on words there, long instead of wrong. Yup, pretty witty when I’m this tired.

*DISCLAIMER! This post is a little mushy and romantical.

Yesterday evening was really nice. Brady was home at a decent time, we had leftover stew for supper, it was all-around successful and delicious. Once Dekker was in bed, we ran a bath as usual, and watched some “Community,” specifically that episode about chicken fingers. In the episode, the study group is talking about how all the chicken fingers in the cafeteria are gone by the time they get in the lunch line. Chicken fingers are the only good thing in the cafeteria. They decide to get one member of their group on the inside as the new chicken fry guy, to ensure they all get chicken fingers for lunch. Anyway, I won’t give away the ending but they all learn a valuable lesson. Lesson aside, I began to want, no, need chicken strips while we watched. When it was obvious that the urge wasn’t going away, we gave up on the bath and preheated the oven.

Two chicken fingers later, I was so happy. But still hungry. I had another little snack but couldn’t shake it. Sooo hungry! I know the idea is to drink water when you’re hungry at silly times (like 11:00 pm) but chugging a glass of water before bed is not my friend. Not since having a baby. I’m sure lots of people can relate to this. I tried to just get over my hunger. It is not as though I didn’t eat enough in the day, I was just awake late and my body was calling for a second supper. Instead, I just woke up more. Brady rubbed my back for a while, which always makes me a bit more comfy and sleepy. However, then he decided to rock my world by informing me that Mark Wahlberg is Marky Mark!!! To those who already knew this and think I’m ridiculous because I didn’t, shut up. We watched “Good Vibrations” on youtube and had a good laugh 🙂 A bit risque for ’91 if you ask me, but it was funny! Needless to say, this did not help me get tired. I woke right up and was back at square one, with my husband fading beside me.

A big virtual hug for Brady who stayed up with me until after 1:00am. I lay in bed quietly, trying to just let my body rest, until about 2:00. I finally buckled and left to go to the living room to find a way to zone out besides just laying in my bed sulking. I lasted until about 3:30 before I was freezing and went back to bed.

When I entered our room, Brady shifted a little but stayed asleep. When I crawled into bed, I could tell where he had been laying because it was sooo warm right beside where he was now resting. I couldn’t resist, and I tried to be as “in that spot” as I could be without crowding him or anything. You know how in movies, couples always sleep while spooning? I don’t know anyone who actually does that. We don’t need to be worlds apart by any means, but we are usually turned away from each other during the night. Hahaha, just in case you wanted to know how we sleep! Geez, too much info you think? If you wanna know who sleeps on which side, just ask, haha!

Ok, anyway!!… I tried to move into the warm spot and my foot bumped his leg. I wasn’t even there for a second before I heard “Oh my goodness, you’re freezing!!!” Literally, I woke him up from that deep of a sleep with the touch of my toes. He immediately turned around and wrapped me all up, with his feet around my feet and his arms around me, trying to warm me up. Aaand he promptly fell asleep. Bahaha! It took everything in me to not laugh out loud. I was completely bear hugged, and now there was literally a nose touching my nose, snoring away. I loved it. I was finally warming up, which was a bonus, but I love how we could sleep wrapped up like that. It is quirky, like we are. I was dozing in and out finally when we both shifted apart about a half hour later.

I woke up around 9 this morning, Not tons of sleep but I’ve definitely done worse. Then I had a friend over for coffee and cookies for breakfast. Really needed the coffee today, haha! I will now spend the rest of the day making my oh-so-delicious honey chicken, and packing for a weekend away with family.

My long, quirky night turned into a pretty nice day so far. I’m a happy camper.

I was productive today! Not alone, of course. I’m rarely productive on my own. I invited my friend Melissa over, made coffee, and we baked about 6 dozen monster cookies together! Voila!

Yuml My mom wasn’t kidding when she told me this was THE BEST monster cookie recipe in the world. And the biggest.

I’m so happy with how these came out! Compared to the last batch anyway, sheesh! I made this recipe a couple of weeks ago, but as I’m not especially kitchen savvy, I did a couple things wrong.

1. The recipe calls for 9-10 cups of oatmeal. I used 9. That was wrong. 10 was right. I know that now.

2. You know how chocolate chip cookie recipes often call for WAY too many chocolate chips? This one asks for only one cup of chocolate chips. Silly me, I just went with it. Some cookies had no chocolate chips in them. I have nothing against plain oatmeal cookies, but when you’re expecting chocolate chips, it seems extra bland when you don’t get any. So this time around, I put in roughly a cup of chocolate chips and a cup of m&ms. Sooo much better!

3. These cookies spread like you wouldn’t believe. Last time I was impatient and put a full dozen on a cookie sheet, so it turned into a cookie sheet cake. It wasn’t as yummy as it sounds. So today I took a bit more time and put only three cookies on a sheet. Believe it or not, some of them still grew together, but they look waaay better!

4. Last time I made them alone, sweating in my kitchen with Dekker fussing in his high chair. This time I made them with a friend, a cup of coffee, while Dekker napped. So. Much. Better.

Now, Dekker is waking up and chatting away in his crib. I’ll probably get him up soon and feed him his lunch of…I’m not sure yet. But he’ll get a fresh cookie for dessert! My house smells sooo good, I couldn’t not give him one. And then we’ll go play toys until its time for nap #2, when I’ll go put the leftover beef stew in the crock pot to heat it up for when Brady gets home.

It has been a pretty successful housewifey day!

*Happy 100th post to me!!!