We did things different today. It was time to wash our kids, we knew that for sure. They were both pretty gnarly. But bath days are the worst around here. And we have tried everything! Almost…

Brady and I have always said that our soaker tub is for us, not our kids. But in a desperate move to completely separate baths from what they have been in the past, we buckled. We started bath time right after breakfast, and we started with Laela. I bathed Laela while Dekker observed from outside. He loved seeing her, splashing and content in the water. She was less impressed with having her hair washed, but as soon as she fussed, I would pick her up and dip her in and out of the water, sort of “bouncing” her, I guess? He loved that! Brady talked to him about the fact that, while Laela wasn’t necessarily happy in the bath, that I was keeping her safe. Once her bath was done, Brady and Dekker dried her off, and he really liked that too.

He was not as happy when he figured out it was hit turn. He freaked when Brady lifted him into the tub with me. I held him so tight while he screamed and tried to get away. When he could finally hear me speak, I asked if we should sing and he said “ya,” so we did. We sang a version of “Jesus loves me” with lots of clapping and whooping, which he loves. I switched some of the claps to splashed instead, and he loved that. Even getting all soaped up was nothing compared to the great song we were singing. But as soon as I lifted that bowl up, he lost it. He squirmed and kicked until he kept almost falling and slipping, and it was just such a mess. Finally, I just leaned him back and poured water over his hair while Brady worked the cloth to make sure he got none in his face or in his eyes. Dekker screamed the entire time. The second it was over, I wrapped my arms around him and told him it was all done. Brady wrapped him all up in a towel and in no time, Dekker was dressed, happy, and ready to get downstairs to play. I think the timing of the bath was perfect, since it wasn’t straight to bed afterwards, and he got to go play toys and forget about it. It was still far from “good” but it was something. Whats a term for half-assed success?

Downstairs was fun today too. We watched Despicable Me, which I hadn’t seen since theatres. I had forgotten how funny it was. I’m thinking Laela might look like Agnes in a couple years 🙂 Dekker loved it too. He loved Gru’s car, and the minions! One little minion was making funny noises with his tongue, and Dekker would laugh and try to mimic it. It was super funny. At one point, Dekker brought one of Laela’s dollies over to where she was playing on her mat. He lay it beside her, cocked his head to get a good look at her, and then said “La sleeps.” Very observant. Once she was awake and back to her toys, he would periodically drop by her mat and check on her.

We spent the evening with some of our friends. We had never actually sat down for a meal together, and after tonight, it seems like something we should have done ages ago. It was actually quite refreshing. They have three kids, and the house is busy, so our noisy kids fit in well and didn’t seem to disturb anyone 🙂 That makes my life so much easier!! However, I have to say that Dekker really surprised me today. He sat in his own chair, where he usually sits on a lap at a new place. He ate his food like a champ, requesting more squash three times. Lots of “yum yum” to be heard from him. Also, for a treat, he got some iced tea. He had his sippy cup of water at the table for his main drink but in his little plastic cup, we pour a bit of iced tea for him. He won’t drink from a cup yet, since he’s so afraid of messes and tends to pour the drink all over himself, so we figured we could give him tiny little sips and he could get the taste of it anyway. Well, he loved the taste, of course. And apparently Brady couldn’t give it to him quick enough. Dekker just grabbed the cup in one hand and drank it. In no time at all, he was pointing to the jug. “Mo? Please?” It was endearing, and exciting that he actually can drink from a real cup. Yay Dekker! Even after dinner, he was incredibly friendly! He had maybe three cries, but two were from falling and only one was attitude. She interacted with the other kids, and with the new adults too. He initiated the interactions, tossed balloons around, asked for help, said please, and even allowed himself to be picked up by someone new! It was a huge success! Oh, and speaking of balloons, he has rarely been around balloons, and it turns out he loves them. “Bloon! Bloon! Please? Hep? Bloon!!” It was awesome.

Awesome enough that we accidentally stayed until 10:30!!! Turns out we’re horrible people for staying so long, but I feel like losing track of time is also a really nice thing, because we really had a lovely time with our friends. And it was refreshing to see Dekker SO happy in a new place with new people. Thats not especially common, and its exciting to see him grow like that.

Now, we’re all home and tucked away. Deks is in bed, Laela is having some milk, and my bath is run. I had to fight for it, though. I know, its a little late for bath time. But this morning’s bath just didn’t quite meet my relaxation standards, and didn’t include snacks. And that’s important.

As I wrote on Facebook earlier today, we began the daunting task of saving each post as a pdf in my documents. I made a folder called “Blog Book” and have a separate folder for each month. I began this blog at the very end of June, 2012. Well, we finished July and August. The only way I could figure out how to do it from my laptop was to save the print preview, which lost the header and was just generally messy. Brady used a pdf converter app on his iPad to convert each post, and then save it in google drive, and then I saved each pdf into my files on the laptop. After not too long, our brains were fried and our eyes sore. Brady figured that he could push it and keep going, but we opted not to risk messing it up, or missing posts. Hopefully we’ll go again one of these days. It felt great to finally get some of that stuff saved, but I want to get caught up, and then throw it all on one of our external hard drives.

That was the only thing we had up today 🙂 It was sooo nice! Brady had the day off, and we didn’t have to go to the city! So we just hung out with the kids, and did the blog thing while Deks was napping and Laela was dozing in and out in her bouncy chair. It was such a relaxing day.

Scanning through old posts, I came across really adorable pictures that I couldn’t resist bringing back! Behold – my adorable son! He was SO big when he was little!

This was from the days of building our backyard deck. I just want to munch those arms!!!

While you can’t tell actually in this picture, this was the first morning that Dekker got one of his chubby little thighs caught between the bars of his crib. I brought him into our room after his diaper change to photograph the dents in his legs. This was taken once he had all recovered and had become more interested in the direction of the kitchen. I just can’t believe his little blonde hair and those cheeks!

He is JUST beautiful in this picture! We had recently discovered our love for him in muscle shirts 🙂

He is so peaceful here. And sooo much smaller than he is now!

Hahaha! This cracks me up! His first birthday party. Doesn’t he look thrilled? His birthday party post is not only seventeen pages long, but it reminded me that he didn’t wear pants, and he didn’t wear a shirt during his whole second birthday party. Gotta get this kid dressed one of these days!!! (And look at those legs!!!!!)

Thats all for me tonight, I think. We had such a nice day, just being a family, quietly at home. And its Friday only! I hope you guys enjoyed a bit of a throwback post. I sure did!

 

 

 

I had a great day 🙂 Weirdly enough, it was a dentist day, which is NOT something I look forward to. Brady stayed home with the kids and I took Stella out, heat working and all!, to the city for the day. I left quite early since I haven’t done much driving yet this winter and was unsure of how the highways would be. I got to the city way too early, so I made a stop first.

I went to City Hospital and bought what could possibly be our last box of patches. We won’t know for sure until after his surgery, but that will happen in just over a month! Crazy. I’d love to not have to be in that hospital quite as regularly.

I made it to the dental office over a half hour early!!! I did a little bit of emailing and headed upstairs. Luckily, my hygienist came to get me early! I’m a bad patient, and usually end up booking a second appointment to finish the cleaning, so it was great to get in early. I’ve booked specifically with the same hygienist the last few times, because she doesn’t just gouge me like some tend to do. Anyway, she remembered me, and we had a little visit before the work began. She was so gentle and apologetic (even though the pain was indirectly my fault), yet she worked nice and quick and actually finished my cleaning in our allotted time, plus those extra fifteen minutes we got. My checkup was also successful. I had been having a bit of sensitivity but have no cavity!!! What a relief! I was optimistic when I left.

Instead of going home right away, I hit Superstore for a few small groceries and came out with everything I needed plus two new shirts 🙂 This was the part where I realized I still had leftover money from my last shopping day, so I broke it out. And hit the mall.

I don’t know if others find this, but I have been so blessed by people today. Customers insisting I go ahead of them in line, and even paying less! For instance, today I bought a hoodie that was on sale for $20. I hemmed and hawed over it for a while, since I had already bought a hoodie. But a woman saleswoman pointed out that it was an additional 30% off. I was excited about that, of course, and figured I could justify the sweater for $14. And then at the till, I was only charged $10! Believe it or not, this was not the first time this has happened in the recent past. So crazy! But its also really fun to get to the till and to be charged less than you were bargaining for 🙂 Love it!

I made it home safe, despite the fog and slightly icy highway. I was greeted by my husband, my happy boy who missed me, and my noisy, squawking daughter. The perfect welcome wagon.

Both kidlets are in bed now, and I’m about to hit the tub. I feel like I was on an adrenaline rush all day, and now that I’m coming down from it, I’m completely freezing. The bath should really hit the spot.

Sleep well, all!

 

We bought our beautiful Mazda3 brand new in May of 2010. Her name is Stella. She is part of our family.

In over three and a half years, she has been perfect. We have changed her oil regularly, done her spark plugs only once, replaced a few fans, and new tires a couple of times. I say again, she has been the perfect car for us!! Yes, we even make her work with two kids. I’m not sure how long that will last, but she has become a permanent fixture in our family.

Until today. My faith in her was shaken. I went out to start her this afternoon, for the first time in a while. She was plugged in, but started very hard. As in harder than she’s ever started for me. She turned over probably ten times, started, and stalled. I gave her a second and tried again. Again, a hard start, but this time she held strong. I checked to make sure all the heat controls were cranked and ran back inside to start getting the kids ready.

You know that joke that seems to be everywhere that points out how some people/mothers would rather carry ten overfilled grocery bags inside at once, than to make two trips? I am that mom in the sense of bringing kids out to the car. I hate making two trips. So I have Laela in her bucket, my huge diaper bag over my shoulder, and Dekker beside me, reaching up, saying “hands?” Hold hands. So needless to say, I awkwardly hobbled out the car with the kids. It took longer than I was bargaining for, so once we were all settled, I got out of the driveway and took off pretty quick. I dipped into the post office to pick up a parcel – our new laptop battery!!!!! Finally! So I picked it up, flew out of town, and once on the highway, Stella betrayed me.

No heat. Not a sound. Freeeeezing! And I smelled electricity. I was so mad. How dare she?! I mean, I know its winter, and its really cold. She deserves to have a lame day. But no heat? Seriously, of all things to go during such a cold spell. How dare she.

I considered that maybe something glitched, with the weather being what it is. Everyone acts up sometimes. So I pulled over at an approach and turned her off. Waited. Turned her back on, just as far as accessories. Nothing. I was completely at a loss. I didn’t want to put my kids in any danger, and I didn’t have a lot of extra warm clothes or emergency stuff in the car. But Laela really needed her chiro appointment. Poor little dear is so crooked 🙁 So I called Brady and my mom, and eventually decided to keep on keeping on. The electric smell stopped, and it just stayed cold.

We made it to my moms in good time and I walked the kids in. I had parked really poorly, way too far onto the street, so as soon as I got the kidlets inside, I ran back out to move the car. And Stella was warm inside!! So weird! I told my mom and we decided that I likely had heat, but no fan. Of course that was it!! I was just in panic mode before, and hadn’t thought that far. I just knew there was no heat moving and we were all cold in there. But that was why it was so quiet in there.

I was a bit ripped about that too. We had just replaced a couple fans a couple months ago. How dare my Stella girl blow a fan so fast? I sent the realization to Brady and he was confident it was just a fuse. So our plans for the late afternoon changed. Instead of Brady getting a chiro appointment too, as planned, he came straight over after work. He moved Laela’s carseat into my moms car, and we left for the city to make her appointment. Dekker was napping, and Brady took that time to check the car over. He was going to figure out the problem, text me the info, and I would go purchase whatever part was needed after the appointment. On the road, he texted me and said the fan worked fine. Likely, Stella was SO COLD that the fan froze. The electrical smell was probably the fan trying to turn, and not being able to. SUCH a mess! I went from being somewhat frustrated and annoyed, to being relieved that we could drive our kids home that night in a warm car.

This is Stella’s first infraction. Our trust is broken, and our relationship strained. Hopefully she NEVER tries this again!

Might have to trade her in for something new if she keeps this attitude up…

We were supposed to have company today, but since a certain someone bailed and I’ll never forgive them ever forever until the day I die *cough Jerilee cough* I have nothing to really write about today! So I’ll go back to the post I was going to write a few days ago. Big transitions for Dekker.

Dekker is really starting to show signs of needing to potty train. Woah. Just pictured a train of small potties. Anyway, for a while now, he’s been telling us once he’s pooped, which is so great! We praise him up and make a huge deal out of it every time so he keeps doing it. On a few occasions now, he’s told us he’s pooped, but hasn’t. I’m pretty sure that means he needs to poop. Here’s the kicker. He is terrified of the toilet. Or the little potty. Both. He has his own little potty, and a potty seat on the toilet. We’ve tried them both on different occasions and he’s cries in both scenarios. Its not like I was expecting him to do anything there. I just hoped to familiarize him with the concept. But no. He hates them. Just yesterday, he started making suspicious sounds, and I asked if he needed to use the bathroom. He pointed to the bathroom and said “Pookie?” I was so happy! I got up from the table and took two steps towards the bathroom, and he had a HUGE meltdown! Screaming like crazy, absolutely freaked. So the dilemma is clear. I don’t want him to be scared of the toilet the way he is of the bathtub, and I also don’t want to miss this opportunity where he so clearly is letting us know what he needs. I don’t know what to dooo! I’m not in a big rush to potty train, and if we waited another six months, I would be fine with it! But he’s definitely ready to start, he just seems to have missed the memo.

Another big thing we’re trying to figure out is putting the two kids in the same room. We were hoping for Laela to be sleeping through the night first, but she isn’t, and we still want her out, haha! I know, it sounds cruel, but its the goal anyway. We’re thinking Dekker will eventually get used to the one wake up call in the night, and just go back to sleep. Well, and the obvious, eventually Laela will sleep through the night. Now, the question is, do we transfer him to a bed first and get him used to that, or do we let him get used to the wake ups while still contained in a crib? I honestly don’t think he’ll give us much trouble at all, but its still tough to decide which road to take.

All of this, and now he has a surgery coming up in just over a month. Do we start any of this before then? I hear this surgery is actually super quick and easy and that kids bounce back almost immediately, so maybe I’m overthinking the whole thing. I don’t know. I would really appreciate some opinions and people’s takes on these things. I’m a first timer at all of these things! Help me!

^—–Laela is just a messy girl today. Thats all the title is in reference to, I promise.

Thanks everyone, for the lovely encouraging messages you sent me via Facebook. I felt relieved and loved and normal. I’m pleased to tell you all that today was so much better than yesterday! It was productive and full of lots of positives.

I did a load of dishes while Dekker ate breakfast. Lucky boy got corn pops, so he was very content to just sit and eat and  talk with me. I would tease him and he would giggle and say “love” to me. He started answering “ya” just today, which has been wonderful already! He would say “Mom. Nose. Help. Please.” and sniffle until I brought a Kleenex over and wiped his nose. Poor sickie. But his communication is just incredible. After the dishwasher was started, I went to sit with him at the table for a few minutes, and I offered him a sip of my tea. I know, caffeine, sugar, all that stuff. But he had never had it before and I thought it would be a treat and sooth his throat a tiny bit. I offered him some and he immediately shook his head and said “Its hot!” True that. My smart boy.

I brought the kids downstairs after breakfast for toys and, lets be honest, some tv. I dragged down all the cloth diaper laundry as well. I’m pretty sad about our failure with cloth this last time. Laela doesn’t fit our diapers yet. Her legs are too skinny. I know smaller diapers exist, but I have lots of diapers and can’t justify going out to buy more than will last such a short time. So no cloth for Laela. And two days back in cloth for Dekker brought his yeast back. I’m very discouraged, but trying not to be. Disposables are nice and easy, and they really aren’t a problem for me. Its ok. I’m blessed to have any diapers for my kids in general.

I made a few phone calls while Dekker and Laela played. I booked Laela chiropractic for Wednesday, and left a message with public health about shots for Laela. I called to ask for a surgery date for Dekkers eyes and was given the regular response of “Nothing yet, we’ll notify you.” I expected that, to be honest. I’ve worked for surgeons in the past and I know how patients never get their procedures when doctors say they will. Life goes on. About fifteen minutes after that call, the surgical bookings woman called me back. She said that normally, Dr. Rubab write “3 months” on the surgical forms, and right now its taking about four months. For whatever reason, she wrote “January/February” on Dekker’s forms. Because of that, she has the authority to bump someone and put Dekker in their spot. I immediately felt guilty. But surprisingly, she was sooo happy to give me the date. She said that, without this, we would have waited until April, and she was thrilled to get us in earlier. She said “Consider it a new years present!” And I do! So, February 11th it is! She’s going to send us a big pack of info this week and we’ll get up to speed on what will happen. After that call, I called Dr. Guselle’s office to make an appointment for her to fill out a form on his behalf about a week before his procedure. There were no openings so I have a message left there for her. Things are in motion! I’m not feeling as excited or as peaceful as I had hoped, but I’m also not especially scared. Maybe a bit nervous. Mostly just anticipating the result. Eager, perhaps.

Another point of interest for Dekker is that his scare from yesterday is already looking up, so thats great! Thanks, everyone, for your prayers and concern for him last night. He doesn’t seem to be in any pain and I believe I’m seeing improvement. Good healing, little bud!

Once Deks went to bed, I made myself a ham sandwich out of the yummy ham I made last night, with some delicious pineapple honey mustard from Hickory Farms on top. Sooo delicious! I’m not big on lunch, but I could eat that every day. I even did another load of dishes. I hung the diapers and dried the rest. We only did cloth for two days, but had about thirty diapers and inserts, about 20 cloth wipes, and a few wet bags. SO much for such a short period of time!

Brady came home and we had a surprisingly yummy supper of leftovers, and then played toys with Dekker until 8:40, which is definitely past his bedtime. But he was up and happy and it was so nice to see him feeling a bit better. Now, he’s in bed, and Laela is WIDE awake, but we’ll likely put her down in about fifteen minutes regardless and see how it plays out.

I still have a different post I really want to write and ask for help on, but this one was necessary. You guys were all so loving yesterday, and I’m truly feeling much, much better today. Thanks, everyone!

I had a very different post planned for tonight. I post where I was going to ask opinions about all sorts of transitions that we’re about to throw at Dekker. I need help with that stuff! But all of a sudden, the post has changed.

If you were to google “overwhelmed,” you would see a photo of me. Weirdly enough, today was wonderful! Brady went to church in the morning while the kids and I slept in. My mom is sick and also missed church, but got in the car and came over around noon. Brady and my dad arrived just over an hour later and we all had lunch and spent the afternoon together. I served a lunch of another new recipe I tried out, and it turned out to be pretty yummy! We played toys with Dekker and he went down for a nap after a while. It was a really good day! Except that Dekker gave us a bit of a scare that got progressively bigger throughout the day. By 5:00-ish, we decided to take him to a walk-in clinic in Saskatoon. We bundled up our two hungry kids and took them out in the FREEZING cold to get Dekker checked out.

We didn’t wait to long before we were seen. The results weren’t awful but he needed a prescription. Plus, his yeast is back. That hit me harder than what we came there for. We have been battling yeast since Dekker was 13 months, and we’ve only just kicked it a month or two ago. And it has the nerve to come back. I could have cried. So we got ithe prescriptions sent to our usual pharmacy, and when we called to get it filled immediately after the appointment, they were closed. So we went back to the clinic and got it faxed to the pharmacy next door. They claimed they were slammed with orders and it would take about an hour. So plans moved around and we went out for dinner. So much for not spending unnecessary money this month. We didn’t even make it a week. *sigh* We grabbed some probiotic yogurt for Dekker, and the prescriptions at 8:00 and headed home.

On the drive home, Brady and I had a heavy discussion about something completely unrelated to the evening, but still very important. I hope no one thinks its rude to write about this, but I feel like we’re pretty open about our life, and this is just a very real thing in any relationship. Having to correct one another. I HATE correcting Brady, or making suggestions for improvements. I know he hates doing it to me too. So I don’t usually open those cans of worms unless I really feel its important. So I did, and while it was well received enough, it took a lot out of me. Every time, I backpedal as soon as I’ve spoken and then just feel guilty about it. So our drive home was fairly silent, with my anxiety building all along.

When we finally reached home, we raced the kids inside. In those thirty seconds we were outside, I got a toothache. It is so cold. Once we were all in, both kids began crying, Dekker exhausted and Laela hungry. We got Dekker in bed amidst many, many tears and a lot of snot. He is so sick. I went to rescue Laela. But bottles needed to be washed. I waited for Brady to be done in Dekker’s room, but he needed to go plug in his work van and take out the garbage from the kitchen, so I waited and held Laela. Well she was furious with the way I was holding her. She is so terribly twisted that we can’t hold her in her comfy position anymore, until she’s straightened out. So I was holding her on my other side, and we were both uncomfortable and angry. She was arching her back and wailing and kept slamming her face into my collarbone and bawling her head off. I finally just found a safe little corner of my house to lean in, and we both had a cry. Like I said, the picture of “overwhelmed.”

When Brady was finally available to me, I gave him Laela, cleared a sink and some counter space, and washed bottles. As I did so, I looked around my house. It is out of control. Yes, the kitchen is messy, like always. The dining room has been worse but isn’t great. The living room is not only a huge mess, but we need to take down Christmas soon. Our room is horrendous, with piles of bags and yarn and laundry and everything else all over the floor. Our fridge is packed with random Ziplocs full of unidentifiable leftovers that I could barely fit the yogurt into it. My house is a metaphor for my emotions right now.

Frazzled. Out of control. At a loss. Messy. Weepy.

Overwhelmed.

Its starting!!! If you remember my goals for this year, they were to save some money, and then to make a new recipe every month, make/do something new every month, and do something to bless someone every month. I think I’m doing pretty well for January 4th, because I started!!!

I made a new recipe! Ok, its probably the kind of recipe that most people just throw together off the top of their heads, but I can’t cook like that. I need recipes and ideas and instructions. I made Cheesy Chicken Rice. All it entailed was putting chicken, onion chunks, and cream of chicken soup in a crock pot for a few hours. I didn’t have an onion, so it was even quicker. Then, I was supposed to add in a cup of shredded cheese, a can of drained corn, and some prepared rice at the end, stir it up until it was warm, and serve. Suuuper yummy comfort food, right? What was super convenient about it was that I had leftover corn and rice! I didn’t measure the corn or the cheese as I added it. They’re both delicious and putting in too much would not upset this household. The chicken was fall aparty and creamy and yummy. The only downfall of this recipe was that the chicken and soup was so thick, almost as if it had boiled down. It was too thick for me to feel comfortable adding the rice into the crock pot. So instead we just zapped the rice and poured he chicken overtop of it on our plates. It didn’t look like much, but it was actually super delicious for such a cold, sick day. Yum!! Make it.

I also sort of half-assed my “make something new” resolution. I started making some tshirt yarn. The concept is just cutting up a stretchy old tshirt and rolling it up into yarn. I haven’t made it into anything yet, so I guess I’m partially completed the task of making something new, but its not over yet. I began a closet purge over a month ago and I had a lot of fun sifting through the garbage bags of clothing that we were going to throw out, making it into yarn or dreaming up crafts I can do with it. (PS: I know its better to donate clothing, but ideally clothing that is donated shouldn’t have discolored armpits or holes.) So I made around five balls of yarn, and I’m thinking I’ll need a lot more to actually do anything with! We’ll see. Its an attempt anyway. On the note of old clothes, does anyone know any solid websites with patterns for childrens clothing? I’m all over Pinterest but there is too much on there to sift through, and so much of it costs. I need free! Anyone??

My friend, Hailey, just challenged me tonight to a 30 day fitness beat down starting Monday, so I suppose that will be my monthly exercise program this time around!

And my last money saving goal is nice and easy in the beginning. All I really need to do to begin is find a place to stash our growing cash. I’d like to decorate the jar or whatever we end up using, but I’m not sure how to make it cute. Back to Pinterest, I guess!

Ok, the LAST and completely unrelated thing I can’t resist adding on the end of this post is about Laela. And Dekker. They’re both in cloth diapers, which we’re actually quite thrilled about. I missed cloth bums! Dekker is still in his same diapers from before, but Laela is new to cloth, and we’re just trying to get into our groove with her, figuring out how each diaper fits her. This one did not.

If at first you don’t succed, try try again.

 

I so rarely see my girlfriend, Hailey, anymore. She came all the way out today so spend time with us, and it was sooo nice to catch up a bit! We text often enough, but its so much easier to really get into deeper conversation in person. We hung out in our jammies while the kids played and napped.  Brady was sweet and made us lunch 🙂 Thanks, beb. It was such a sweet morning/afternoon with people I really love. Again soon, please.

Somehow, though, I caught a chill in the afternoon and haven’t been able to shake it. My feet have been freezing for hours now! Everyone in this house has a cold, so we already feel crappy and could do without the chills. I’m a bit grumpy about it, but hopefully the bath will help me shake it off sooner or later.

Remember when I used to watch my YouTube channels all the time? I definitely don’t get to keep up with a few of them anymore, which is disappointing in a way, but also makes perfect sense. They are NOT priority at all. My favorite YouTube mom fell off the map for a couple of months, and has just reappeared. This evening, she put up videos detailing her experience delivering her son. He was born over a year ago, and she had never shared the birth story on YouTube before. The story was told in a series of maybe fifteen five minute videos, and I have to say, it broke my heart. No, she didn’t get a lot of things that she had hoped for. Her birth plan went out the window. I can’t blame her for not sharing the story sooner – it had clearly rocked her. While I still run Laela’s birth over and over in my head everyday, I am thankful for how she came in comparison to this mom’s story. I was not physically abused by hospital staff. I had my husband with me every second of my delivery. Nurses weren’t impatient with me. No, Laela’s birth didn’t go according to my plans either, but I was not treated like a piece of meat.

I’m so thankful this evening for how things played out three months ago at the hospital. 

Brady’s parents left this morning. We all got up mid-morning to have a breakfast of eggs and toast together. It was so nice to be together for those few days, catching up in person. It so rarely happens with the ten hour drive between us. We sure love you guys!

Once we were on our own, we decided to head to the city and run a few mundane errands. You know that list of things to pick up that just sits, because its neither urgent nor unnecessary? Yup. That was us. Getting new water jugs for our dispenser, more patches for Dekker, things like that. The deciding factor was permission from our friends to come to the hospital and meet their beautiful new baby girl!! I didn’t know babies were made so teeny tiny! So we got the kids ready, played toys for about an hour, and then headed out.

The first place we hit was Babies R Us, for bottles. We use these great bottles, but they’re fairly pricey, and we only have a few. As in we don’t have enough to get us through a full day. We don’t usually end up at Babies R Us, but we had a great time! We had $100 in gift cards for Laela there, and since we are sooo stocked up for the moment on clothes and baby toys, we purchased a few more bottles, pink car seat strap covers, and one of those mirrors so we can see her from the front seat. We have just enough left over for a Jonny Jump, but they were out of stock, so we’ll either wait a bit or order online. Thanks for the gift cards!!!

We went to the chiropractor afterwards. Laela is twisted worse than I have ever seen her. She is LOVING standing, and is quite insistent that she should be that way 95% of her waking moments. When I stand her on my lap, facing out, I can see just how sideways she is. Its sad 🙁 So I called for an appointment this morning and got one for mid afternoon. She was asleep in her seat when Dr. Mike came in to treat her. It was so sweet! She was bobbing all over the place, and slowly woke up, giving him a big smile. It is just so heartwarming to watch him nuzzle her and love her the way he does. It feels so safe and family oriented. He treated her for quite a while and gave me some tips on how to hold her differently. We need to bring her in within a week, so she’s obviously pretty messed up. I’m on it, though! I learned.

We did a quick stop in at Walmart to pick up one or two things for our friends new baby, and I don’t know if you guys have been there recently, but the lines are INSANE! The “express” checkout seemed considerably less effective with only three tills open and the line three times as long as the regular lines. Oh well. It moved ok. Its not like I wasted a half hour standing in a line. Life goes on.

I deserted my family in the car while I went to meet new baby Lexie. Laela has a cold and Dekker’s voice is a bit raspy, so I didn’t feel right about bringing them in to meet such a fresh little life. Thanks, Brady 🙂 It was so nice to see our friends happily holding their baby girl, all tucked away in a private room. Baby was squawking with me, and only quieted when she was back with her parents. I loved it. She knows she’s safe with them. Can’t wait to hold her again! And again. And again…

That was pretty much the end of our day in the city. We filled the car with gas and bought a box of diapers for emergencies, but both kids are officially in cloth diapers tonight!!! Yay us! I know, call us crazy. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m optimistic.

Our kids slept on the drive home, and were fairly groggy for the rest of the evening. We were home in enough time for Dekker to get some playtime in after supper, but he was starting to feel pretty sick. So he had toast and fruit for supper, and then we played cars and watched a bit of tv downstairs. Brady paused the show at one point to ask me something, and Dekker immediately started saying “Bum. Bum. Upstairs.” and started heading up. Of course he started to get sad immediately, but he was clearly ready for a fresh diaper and bedtime. So he’s in bed, Laela’s having some milk. She is surprisingly awake for being so sick, but she is incredible these last few nights! We lay her down wide awake, and she sleeps. No crying, no fussing. She either gets still and falls asleep right away, or she flaps for a bit first. Even this sick, she’s an excellent sleeper. So once she’s down, I’m getting into my tub and turning on Netflix and having a NORMAL evening!! I love Christmas and all the hubbub that comes with it, but I’m looking forward to Netflix and a bubble bath tonight.