It was a great day. My siblings came out to visit, to see Laela, and to attend the small baby shower held for us at a friends house. We spent the afternoon all together, getting in as much visiting (and eating) as possible. It felt like Christmas. My sisters and I even hid out in the basement for a while for some solid girl talk. I’m not sure when the last time was that we got to have that. I love having them around. In the evening, us ladies headed over to my friend Carrie’s house for the “sprinkle” that was held for Laela and I. I have to say, we had the perfect crowd. There were maybe 15-ish people, delicious baking and drinks, and conversation that never lagged. And it wasn’t just pleasantries. We discussed everyones plans for trips in the near future, people’s pregnancies, Dekker’s eyes and upcoming surgery, etc. We received an AMAZING haul of gifts!!! I can’t wait to dress Laela in all her beautiful new stuff! It makes me a little jealous. I think I deserve a shopping spree soon.

I know I’m not being super duper detailed but, my goodness, it feels late and its time for bed. It was a wonderful evening of friends and food and I felt very loved and honoured by all. Its lovely to have people come out specifically to celebrate the birth of my child. Its a proud moment.

The last unrelated thing I want to touch on is Dekker. He wore his patch this morning during breakfast and while we all got ready and we took it off before we even left to head to my parents house. My heart was warm watching him today. My boy is back. He is who he was six months ago before we began patching. That, plus he’s more grown up, obviously. Six months on a two year old is a big difference. But he is braver and more outgoing! He is FULL of laughter and energy. It was wonderful to see him rush his aunties for hugs, and not panic the second he tripped over a toy. He is back. I missed him.

I love my kids. And my husband. And the rest of my family – parents, siblings, nephews. I am so blessed today. Looking forward to another day full with the people I love tomorrow.

Today was pretty much amazing. Laela gave us a beautiful night! She was fast asleep by 11pm, up to eat at 5am, and she proceeded to sleep again until 10am!!! She’s pretty fantastic.

We all felt completely rested in the morning, and Brady had the day at home! Still feeling refreshed from yesterday, we talked about maybe going to the city for the day and puttering through some errands as a family. Yet, we opted for a home day instead. The kids and I often have squishy, comfy jammie days, but Brady never gets to join us. So we made breakfast and took our time getting up.

We moved downstairs and decided to have a musical marathon. Dekker loves the singing and dancing, and of course, so do I. We watched movies, did one load of laundry, wrote thank you cards, and ate snacks. Deks was way too happy and hyper to go down at his regular nap time so we let him stay up nice and long. We could tell he was sooo happy to have his patch off!He finally wiped out at about 3:15. The rest of us hung out downstairs while he slept and watched some mindless tv while I wrote out more cards and Brady applied for Laela’s birth certificate online, and figured out some invoicing stuff on his iPad. It was productive without being busy. I LOVE that!

I have been craving poutine like a crazy person recently, so instead of ordering from the Red Bull, we made our own. It was super delicious! Jealous, anyone?

Our original plan was to waste the rest of the day away with more musicals and toys, as the goal was to be comfy and lazy and just rest in each others company. But weirdly enough, we just wanted to go outside. I hate winter. But I wanted to go too. So after we ate, we bundled up the bebes and chucked them in the sled. Turns out Laela’s winter jacket is a bit big still…

That kind of did her in, and she wasn’t impressed when we put her in the little pink onesie snowsuit either. She got over it though.

Dekker, on the other hand, was a bit nervous of Laela’s attitude. When we first put them together in the sled, he was pretty hesitant, but it made for my FAVORITE brother/sister picture yet!

The walk was beautiful! It was only like -4C, so no one was miserable or grumpy. Dekker was thrilled with all the vehicles he could see and get close to. A big semi drove right by us to leave town, and Dekker waved madly at the driver, who made a big point to wave back. Warmed my heart. It was so fun!

This is likely the happiest you’ll see me outside all winter. I’m loving my pink boots, and my new-to-me leather jacket that my super cool auntie passed down to me. Felt pretty trendy out in the snow.

It was a fun walk, almost completely just for pleasure except for the small task of picking up a pen. I need a Sharpie. So I bought one from the man who runs the general store in town. Its a relatively new set up and I’ve never been in there, but I was happy to see that he also carries things like Childrens Tylenol. Good to know.

We made it back home around 7:15 and decided to chuck Dekker in the tub. He’s doing so much better in the bath these days, but getting him in is the challenge. Once we finally got him to sit down and play, he stayed in for a half hour, splashing and playing like crazy.

It was a truly great day. I’m looking forward to tomorrow even more though! My siblings are all driving out tonight and we’ll head to my parents in the morning to spend the weekend with my whole family!

Bath time. And snack time. And sleep. Hopefully Laela gives us another night like last night!

 

 

A couple of days ago, I asked for help from my readers. We are seeing two ophthalmologists for Dekker, and need to decide which route to take. I read all the comments, private messages, and texts. As I was fairly clear about in that post, our decision was made already to see the doctor we had sought out for a second opinion. I was primarily tossed up on taking Dekker back to his first doctor at all. After reading everyones thoughts on the matter, Brady and I decided to go see Dr. Rubab again and see if she had similar findings. We did lots of research, thinking, and a lot of praying. We forget to pray about the big stuff around here sometime, but speaking for myself, I prayed a lot. I prayed for peace, and wisdom. I want to be able to be 100% confident in whatever decision we make regarding Dekker’s health. So we prayed, and decided to go to our appointment this afternoon.

We arrived in the waiting room exactly on time for our appointment, and I didn’t even have time to fill out the form they asked for before we were called in to the testing section of the appointment. Our previous two appointments there, we had seen a student for the tests. She was good at her job, but a bit impatient and stern. The woman we saw today was very warm with Dekker. He responded beautifully to her, and became very talkative and interactive early on in the appointment. She talked with Brady and I during the tests as well and kept us very much in the loop of what she was doing and finding. She spent lots of time with us and at the end, gave us the opportunity to ask questions. I was so relieved!! I pulled out my list, as per usual (lol), and asked a few. She answered my questions with information that I hadn’t known, which I always enjoy! We talked about possibly bumping Dekker’s prescription first, among a few other things. She assured us “Dr. Rubab is a confident and competent surgeon, but she is cautious. She will exhaust all other options first.” I liked hearing that, and felt much better having been able to ask my questions. Then, she put the drops in Dekker’s eyes to get them started dilating. In previous appointments, we had to wait to see Dr. Rubab, then she’d put the drops in, then we’d have to wait at least a half hour, and then go back in for more tests. So this was a much better set up. Dekker cried and said “Stop! Stop!” over and over again. But guys, if you’ve heard him say “stop” before, its super cute, and it actually lightened the mood.

Deks was very patient and calm while we waited in the waiting room for that half hour. He sat on Brady’s lap for a while and ate a banana, but then asked to go play toys! I was happy he was confident enough to go play on his own. We waited almost exactly one half hour before Dr. Rubab called us into her room. She didn’t seem put off by us bringing Laela as I had been under the impression she is sometimes. I felt like she softened up a bit, more than anything. She ran Dekker’s tests, and kept cool when he started squirming and fussing. It was, after all, around 3:00 or 3:30, and he hadn’t gotten a nap in. And his eyes were blurry. She confirmed what Dr. E’s office had said – his eyes are almost exactly the same! She said they likely are exactly the same strength, but he is still favoring the right eye. The two offices really did find the same things. His vision is great, but the alignment needs some help. When the tests were all done, she asked Brady to come sit next to me. Then she came and say right in front of us and, very intentionally face to face, went over surgery. We talked about everything. She explained in layman’s terms basically what would happen. Where the incision would be, what it would look like, how long recovery would be, etc. We talked about the risks and benefits of having the surgery at this point versus waiting a year or two. We talked about statistics and percentages and possibilities that things could go wrong, or just not go perfect. Under correction, over correction, perfect correction, re correction. We covered it all, and she was crystal clear.

I have to make a new paragraph for this 🙂 Guys, my little boy only needs to wear a patch for one hour per day. One hour. I cried. That was easily my favorite thing we talked about. There has been that much improvement that he only has to wear it for such a short period of time, and if he goes through a successful surgery, the patching might be over. My heart is light.

Brady and I felt warm leaving the office. We had gone into the appointment with the plan to leave Dr. R for Dr. E. Our minds were made up. We were attending this appointment as a formality only. Yet, we had been praying. And everything at this appointment reminded us of why we loved her so much the first time around. I feel peace there. 100% peace. If I didn’t feel that way, we would have done what we had originally planned to do, and walked out of there for the last time. But we know that this is the doctor to trust with our sons health. Feel free to agree or disagree, but we are confident.

So today, I signed a form and gave my permission to put Dekker on a surgery list. She is aiming for January. We are looking forward to Dekker having a bit of a break until then. A break from his patching, from doctors, from eye drops, from frustration really. We’ll have Christmas, lots of family time, and in the new year, we’ll have a whole new adventure.

My family is happy this evening. I never thought I would feel this refreshed after today. I have no doubt in my mind that we are making the right choice. God is good.

I only realized it a couple of days ago, but today will be my 500th post!!! I cannot believe this blog has gone as long as it has. I can’t believe I enjoy it as much as I do. I thought for sure I would drop off the map once I ran out of things to talk about, but those of you who know me outside of this blog know I can talk. A lot. So maybe you guys knew. Reading back to my very first post, I am proud to say that I have accomplished what I came for!! I have not missed a day, unless you count the days that the posts ended up coming in after midnight. I’ve used the blog as an outlet, to release verbal diarrhea once in a while, and to get advice from readers. And I certainly have recorded many, many memories on it. I’ve loved having you guys along for the ride. I even know of one or two of you that have read every single post from day one, and that just thrills me.

I’d like to let you guys in on a little secret, since you’re all a part of my life now. The real reason I started blogging. Brady and I were trying to get pregnant, and it wasn’t working. We were horribly discouraged, but it was worse for me. I know there are women out there who can relate to that feeling. While no one is pointing fingers or placing blame, I felt like I was somehow failing in my responsibility to be able to carry a child again. I decided to start blogging in an effort to focus on other things, and not just write off 2012 as a year of failure. It worked. I don’t claim that every post has been incredible, or deep, or even interesting, but c’mon! Who can say that every day of their life is a wild, crazy, unpredictable event? Not me, and I’m glad! I have many beautiful memories from 2012.

In the last 500 days, a lot has happened! You’ve seen both of Dekker’s birthday parties, and been excited as he’s started walking, talking, and generally growing up. You’ve been with me while I’ve tried to figure out parenting for my very first time! You’ve celebrated anniversaries with Brady and I, and gone on trips and to concerts with us. You’ve been at our Christmas. You’ve supported me like crazy in my crocheting, and made me feel like a real artist instead of just a shut-in with a ball of yarn. You’ve tried recipes that I’ve recommended, and given me others to try. You were with us through a spell of having no water, and then contaminated water, and then a flood. When I did get pregnant the second time, but hadn’t made the news public, you guys toughed out those two or three months of the worlds more BORING posts! And when I did tell you finally, you celebrated with me and warmed my heart! You gave advice and prayer while I struggled with mounting anxiety, and even though it was through the computer, you guys listened. You’ve been with our family when Dekker’s eyes started crossing, and you followed us to doctors appointment after doctors appointment. You kept me level. You guys just showed up and encouraged me constantly, and I feel like my friendships with a lot of you have grown. Not only do I feel like I’ve made myself fairly vulnerable, but many of you have opened up to me as well. You guys were with me through my entire pregnancy, and were the BEST SUPPORT I could have asked for those days that I went overdue. Now, you’ve been through a labor and delivery with me. I never expected the feedback from Laela’s birth story that I got. I felt loved, and that you guys were and continue to be interested in our lives.

I’m so excited for the next leg of this journey, and I hope you guys are on board for more. I still have tons of lessons to learn, and new things to try, and I could really use the backup. I’m back at square one with a newborn so I’m gonna need to be reminded of what in the world I’m supposed to do with this kid! Plus, Christmas is around the corner and I need some projects to get my hands on. And ideas of traditions to start with my kidlets. Please stay on my bandwagon! I can promise lots of new and exciting things are still coming! We expect Bradys business will grow pretty significantly in the coming months. We’re hoping to move in the next year or two. We’re still hoping for more kids eventually. It isn’t going to slow down. However, please expect lots of mistakes, emotions, pj days, and failed desserts. Babies, belly laughs, and burnt toast. Thats us.

So. Here’s to another 500 posts, and to the loyal readers!! *lifts glass* Cheers!!

Gulp.

I apologize in advance. This post may be all over the place, but I need a place to expel my thoughts on this coming Thursday. I’m sort of using you guys as a sounding board. So once again, I ask for feedback and opinions from anyone who feels they have some to give.

We took Dekker to get our second opinion about his eyes on October 25th. We didn’t actually get to see Dr. E but we had all the preliminary testing done by a lovely woman, Heather, who discovered that his eyes have improved in the way that they are now the same strength. He doesn’t have one dominant one. They are on an even playing field. If you want to reread that post, its here. It was confirmed that Dekker does, in fact, need surgery. Also, she told us that we needed to now start alternating his patch each day, so one day he’d wear it on the right, and the next day on the left. We should do that until our appointment with Dekker’s initial ophthalmologist, Dr. R and see what comes of that. However, we were told that if we were in fact full time patients at Dr. E’s office, we would likely be instructed to patch Dekker for two hours per day. Two hours. Versus every waking moment. Sounds like a good set up. Heather was clear in saying that, just because they don’t ever prescribe full time patching like Dr. R doesn’t make it wrong. Its just a way to make the process go really fast, and if its not closely monitored, it could cause the covered eye to suffer, which I had been nervous about. So it worked well, but it was a riskier move.

We haven’t even met Dr. E yet, and we won’t until mid-January. Yet, after that single visit to her office, I feel like I would be more comfortable putting Dekker in the care of a doctor who isn’t rushed and doesn’t take unnecessary risks.

So now, we have a Dr. R appointment scheduled for Thursday. And I’m really tossed up about even going! So this is where my post will get jumbled and out of order.

My biggest reason for going to the Dr. R appointment is curiosity. I want to know if she’ll have the same findings as Heather. If she does, will she tell us to patch less? Or will she still recommend that we patch all day, every day? Yet, if she has a different finding, will it even matter? We have found so much more peace in whats been said at Dr. E’s office, I don’t see us dropping it all and going for Dr. R just because she has a different finding. If they find and recommend different things, who will we go with? Dr E, I think. Then why would I subject Dekker to this appointment? I know Dr. R is going to dilate his eyes with those stinging drops that he hates so much, that affect him for the rest of the day. Is it worth it? Or it selfish of me, as a parent, to put him through more tests and tears just really to test Dr. R? It feels so mean! Yet I’m looking for that peace of mind, that both doctors agree. It would be so much easier to just call, cancel, and avoid the whole awkward “Um, no, don’t put us on your surgery list…” conversation, since we know we prefer the other office’s methods already. Yet I really want to know what she thinks! I know Dr. R will want him in surgery as the next step, yet I was told Dr. E would first try him in a stronger prescription and go from there. Dr. E wants to try every option before putting him under the knife, while Dr. R just wants to get it done. So why would I go??! To see if she agrees, and to see what she says about patching. It seems so unnecessary, yet then we couldn’t get in to see Dr. E until January, and I don’t want to patch Dekker every waking moment until then if I don’t have to! Yet what stock does Dr. R’s opinion hold? We’ve been diligently patching him full time since the Dr. E appointment, planning to possibly change that all up after Dr. R. If we don’t go to Dr. R, we’ll be patching full time until January 13th, just because we’re not confident. We elected to see Dr. E as a second opinion, and even though we like that office better, I want them to agree on everything, and maybe I just won’t get that. Is it unreasonable to want that?

I feel heavy hearted when I think about all of this. I say over and over that Dekker has had enough. He’s struggled with this for a decent amount of time now and I’m tired of him struggling. He’s two. Its hard to be two. He has enough going on besides all of this. I was born cross eyed. I had my eye patched, I had surgery. I had glasses. I still have a prescription. And I lived! Its not the end all and be all! I know I went through all the same things at an even younger age, but I can’t exactly remember. I’ll be able to relate when he’s older but right now, I’m struggling to know what a toddler would prefer, or just what would be best. What do others think? Would you take him to the appointment, take in the opinion, get it over with, and just not ever rebook? Or would you scrap it all together, and sort of always wonder? What do you guys think?

Lastly, I’ll leave you with a happy example of his eyes 🙂 The pictures were taken seconds apart, and in each one, he’d focusing with a different eye. I feel like that would be more frustrating for him, but it is concrete proof that his eyes are of the same strength and he can use them both!

He sure is gorgeous.

Any thoughts/prayers/opinions/advice/input welcomed.

 

I really feel blessed to have the friends I have. A few years ago, Brady and I felt alone. When we had Dekker, it felt like we had my parents nearby to support us, and that was it. They were great, and we love them for it, but we didn’t have friends. Since then, we’ve learned that a solid chunk of that was because we weren’t investing in friendships. We figured it out, and my goodness! We have incredible friends 🙂

Laela had a really hard night, but luckily we played it right and she went back to bed after her 6am feeding, and we got some more sleep. Our plan for the day was to have Jerilee over and do some catching up. Its been snowing pretty decently for a while and there were highway warnings for a few of the highways going north out of Saskatoon and I was worried she wouldn’t be comfortable making the trip. But she was!!! And she survived her drive here 🙂 She arrived with Starbucks around 11:30 I think. Insanely enough, Dekker was silent! So we drank our coffee in the living room and visited. I’ve been nervous about losing my good friends, since they all have incredibly busy and exciting lives, and I can’t keep up with them the way I’ve tried to over the last couple of years. But luckily, they all, Jerilee included, have understood, waited patiently, and filled me in when the time was right. We discussed work, friends, kids, church, etc. Dekker woke up around noon and I got him up and fed him brunch. He was way too excited to sit at the table and desperately wanted to play toys, so food didn’t last too long before we hauled downstairs. Jerilee and I caught up while Dekker offered us tastes of things, drove his cars, kissed every toy he could find, and pressed all the buttons. I also finished laundry that we started yesterday, so Jerilee had to be present while I folded Brady’s gotch. Sorry guys. She lived.

Deks went down for a nap around 3pm and Laela was fairly in and out all afternoon, but mostly in, honestly. She was quite wakeful most of the day and only now, around 10pm is she starting to doze. I think thats pretty perfect, as long as we get a bit more milk into her still.

Being the terrible host that I am, Jerilee and I talked nonstop until 7:15pm, and I never even fed us. The worst, I know. But there was SO much to talk about! Her life is insane and I’ve missed so much, and I have a bunch of decisions and new stuff on the go as well. Its easy to lose track of time with good friends.

Lastly, on the note of my incredible friends, my Hailey is coming over tomorrow, my siblings are all coming out for Remembrance Day weekend to meet Laela and come to our baby shower, and my best Jessica and her husband are coming to visit the following weekend. I am truly blessed.

Brady is home now and Dekker is in bed. The bath is run, and Netflix is cued up. No snack in the tub, since we only just ate a half hour ago, if that. Time to get comfy and ready for sleep.

I hate today. I know, I call myself a recovering pessimist, and I am still working on it, I promise. But I think we all have days that just suck the bag. Today was one.

I woke up to snow. Brady made the mistake of showing me a picture he had taken of the show before I had left the bed. Needless to say, it took a lot more effort to drag myself out of it. Dekker fought breakfast pretty hard, which only happens once in a while. Not a huge deal, just a little annoying more than anything. We got both kids in the car and on the road to church just after 10:00. We were aiming to be a bit early since Brady had been asked to drum for a new song and he wanted to play through it with the band a few times before the service. Unfortunately, the highway was completely ridiculous. It was super slushy and every gust of wind tried to push us into the ditch. It was not a fun ride at all. I was nervous the entire drive.

We did make it to church early, though, so we got everyone inside and Brady headed to the front of the sanctuary. Dekker didn’t do great with that, and I had to pass Laela off for the whole first chunk that Brady was up front. When Brady came back, he took Dekker and comforted him and I took Laela back. Everyone was recovered until it was the part of the service where we all kind of schmooze and greet each other for a few minutes. One of our good friends touched Dekker’s leg and said “hey bud” and he lost it. He whipped himself back and threw a container of goldfish crackers everywhere. It was horrendous and we were super embarrassed. Of course, everyone within an arms reach of a floor cracker was part of the cleanup and it was over in no time, but it was absurd. Dekker is not adjusting well to alternating his patch to the other eye, and he is completely off his game on the days that its on the left eye. Days like today. Brady sat in the back with him for most of the service, and then I traded him out when the service was coming to a close and Brady would have to go drum again. It was nice to hang out on a comfy chair and be in a quiet place with my son. He was so much more at ease back there, and we could talk a little and play and be relaxed.

When church was over, everyone went downstairs for a soup and bun lunch that was put on in an effort to raise some money to help a group of nine from our church go to Mexico to serve. We hadn’t made any plans, so we could have attended, but we decided that we would instead head straight home in case the snow starting coming down harder and the highway got worse. We survived the drive, but arrived home to no power.

Its hard to be optimistic on days like today.

I had plans for this afternoon. Comfort food – mac and cheese – for lunch, then putting Dekker down for a nap, and watching a movie with Brady and Laela, while puttering around and getting laundry done. But having no power or water changes plans. We made Dekker a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, which he actually seemed to really enjoy. Unfortunately for us, Deks had napped on the drive home from church and wasn’t especially tired. But we tried. So we put him in his room and figured he could play in there for a bit, and hopefully he’d get tired. As soon as that happened, the power clicked back on. Yay!!! We ate macaroni and watched an episode of My Name is Earl. It was already a good ways into the afternoon and I really want to watch this movie all the way through if at all possible. Not even a whole episode later, the power clicked back off. And stayed off. By this point Brady and I were both pretty frustrated. We were cold and couldn’t do anything we had hoped to do.

Lucky for us, some friends had invited us over for dinner, and THEY still had heat! So we Facebooked them and told them of our predicament, and they said to come on over. So we packed up our sleeping newborn and our nap-free toddler and headed to a nearby town with better power lines. Thanks for nothing, SaskPower.

Now, our dinner date was easily the high point of the day. We like our friends 🙂 And weirdly, they felt the same way about today as we do. It sucked. The kids were all a bit off and nothing was going perfectly right. It was nice to know we weren’t crazy. We ate hot food and caught up, and afterwards, we sat in the living room for a visit. Eventually the boys meandered downstairs to check out some finishing work that needed to be done while I visited upstairs with Nikki and the kids. It was really nice and comfortable, minus Laela barfing all over their couch. Babies are unpredictable, it would seem.

We left at a decent time, right about 7:15, which was perfect. Their girls go down right around 7:00 and Deks goes down around 8:00. Yet again, lucky for us, Dekker dozed most of the drive home, so now he is jumping on his bed, happy as a clam, NOT asleep. Not surprising. Its been an off-day for him for sure, and I’m honestly more happy to hear him be happy than I am annoyed that he’s not sleeping. He will. On the other hand, Laela has been sleeping all day long, which does not bode well for the night. I know she seems flawless every other day, but I guess she glitched today.

My favorite part of today:

Ok, my REAL favorite thing 🙂

Definitely time for a soak and a snack. Maybe a drink.

No, I don’t claim that myself, nor the members of my family, are “normal.” What I mean is that I think we’re making that effort to feel more put together and less scattered and bedraggled.

We went to the city today for an appointment and a few errands. And it felt like it used to! Not as scary as taking two kids to Saskatoon felt for me a week or two ago. We got to the city about 30 minutes before my appointment so we drove to Extra Foods and I ducked in to grab a couple of things, including KCups. When we first bought our Keurig, we bought like ten different flavoured coffees, teas, and hot chocolate to figure out what we liked. At this point, we have a couple randoms left and a ton of Kirkland Breakfast Blend (which is delicious, by the way) and thats it. On Halloween, we were given a whole box of lemon zinger tea and it reminded me how much I enjoyed having tea from my Keurig. So I snagged a box of my fave – Earl Grey, and also a box of the Starbucks medium blend decaf. Always good to have a decaf option, and its actually a really nice blend. I was in and out of there very quickly and made it to my appointment just a minute or two early.

WAXING!!! It has been exactly 50 days since my last wax. Just over seven weeks. I like to go every four. So not that you all needed to know, but I needed my legs waxed in a big bad way. I wasn’t feeling brave enough to let anyone reef on my legs really yet, but it was getting too gross and I am plenty recovered, so I went  for it. It was luxurious. I always feel like I’m being pampered as they tear my hair off of my body. Which is strange. I have always had a zero pain threshold and still do, yet waxing is really my form of beauty treatment 🙂 Love it. Plus, I saw a new girl there who was very meticulous and checked her work very thoroughly so as not to leave one hair behind. I really appreciate that. There is something to be said for newbies.

I broke down and shopped for Laela. If you’ve missed the memo and want to be invited, there is a “sprinkle” celebrating Laela next weekend. While I know there are people who will want to bring gifts, I couldn’t resist buying her a couple things. Old Navy had a deal on today taking 50% off dresses, including baby dresses. Since we had no idea how big she would be, we have lots of three month stuff but all her cute sweaters and dresses are 3-6 months, which she doesn’t fit yet. So we grabbed two dresses for 50% off that are 0-3 months so she would have something to wear for church and also to her sprinkle 🙂 Yay for long sleeved dresses! I agreed not to cross the street to Carter’s/OshKosh, as I’ve seen some adorable little dress/cardi combos there as well. She got enough today.

We realized the other day that Bradys one good pair of jeans has a hole in the knee. Bradys jeans last FOREVER. I think his current pair he wore to the hospital when we were having Dekker, so…yup. It was time. We hit up Circle Mall to check Bluenotes, who was having a decent sale too. We hauled our two kidlets in our new-to-us beautiful BETTER double stroller into the store that I’m thinking is maybe closing?? It was fairly bare, but they still have what we needed! He decided on these beautiful slimmer fit jeans, and we should have left. Should have. I saw jeggings. I’ve been intrigued by them for a while but was too pregnant to buy any. I figured it was worth it to try them on and maybe ask for some for Christmas. I think we can all see where this is going. I bought a pair. Eggplant ones. They’re actually super pretty. I want a pair in every color. Except the weird green. So Brady and I both got some new pants that we feel way better in!

I feel like I should add in here that Dekker isn’t wildly left out of the clothes shopping. We bought him a great haul of new shirts and sweaters about a month ago when I had some free Old Navy money. So he’s all decked out for Fall too.

We drove home, fed ourselves grilled cheese sandwiches (yup, we were tired), and watched Glee until Dekker’s bedtime. We even put in a load of laundry. I haven’t been caught up on laundry in a while, and while I actually really enjoy laundry, it is almost comical how life just fills when one has two kids! Even a lazy, at-home day fills with emotional toddlers or gassy babies. As a kid, our house wasn’t spotless. We didn’t go out tons, or get everything done on time. Because cuddling and talking and playing toys was just more important. I LOVE that, and I plan to do the same with my family. For those reasons, laundry gets left, dishes pile up, and the floor gets fuzzy. Whatevs. We’ll get there eventually. But the kids are running out of clothes. So their laundry happens today and hopefully at least a chunk of ours will get done on Monday. But who knows what tomorrow holds anyway? Tomorrow can worry about itself.

I’m so ready to soak my shiny new legs in the tub! And then sleep. Big day. Great day.

I had a fabulous morning and early afternoon with a friend, making jam. I know, it seems like a somewhat weird season to make jam but it was awesome and easier than I remember! Of course, she was there to help, which likely made the difference. However, our efforts only produced five jars. I’m thinking we need to do this again soon…

Poor little Laela didn’t have the best day, unfortunately. While Willa held her and rocked her and talked to her and completely doted on her, she would cry as soon as she was laid down. Most of the time, she was WIDE awake.

I hear thats common of babies, but not mine really. It carried on after Willa left. She didn’t have a legitimate nap until she fell asleep around 3:40pm. She lasted over two hours, which was wonderful, but it took some time getting there! Now I just hope she stays up decently late still so we can all get a good nights sleep. Once the jam and dishes were done, and my company had left around 2:00pm, I hung out in bed with Laela and watched YouTube. I played some Minesweeper, and marvelled at my new lock screen on my phone. Isn’t he just the most beautiful boy you have ever seen??!

When Dekker woke up from his nap, Laela was having hers, so I fed Dekker supper and we set up the monitor so we could go downstairs afterwards. Dekker hadn’t gotten to go play downstairs during the morning “jam” session so he was thrilled to go down. Brady worked later and only arrived home shortly after 7:00pm. But a long day today and Monday makes it possible for him to not work tomorrow. Yay!!! (Side note: Tomorrow is going to be a quick day in Saskatoon. I haven’t had my legs waxed since September 12th. So…yup.) Laela woke up minutes before Brady arrived, so he got to come home to a toddler playing toys and a baby, yes, still crying. Not sure whats up with her today. Our whole house is just on the brink of being sick, so maybe her throat hurts too. 

Deks is now in bed, and Laela is laying on the bed, just chilling, not crying for seemingly the first time all day. Now its time for supper for Brady and I! I’m thinking we’re going to take the easy road and have a freezer cheese pizza. That is exactly what my belly wants today! Yum.