Laela woke up to eat in the night at 3am, and sadly, that was it for me for sleep. Needless to say, I am tired. But still happy. It was a really good day!

Brady had to work a full day today, so the kids and I piled in the car and headed over to my parents place to spend the afternoon and evening with my mom. I miss those days. We’ve all gotten so busy lately, and don’t get to see each other as often. Or else we see each other, but in very brief stints. Don’t get me wrong! I’ll take what I can get! But it was such a nice, relaxing day. We shared lunch, and then played with the kids until it was nap time, and then my mom and I watched a movie in the living room. It was perfect.

Tomorrow, we are skipping church. Dekker gets so overwhelmed in the crowd that comes with church, and with his surgery coming up on Tuesday (aaaaaahhhhh!!!) I just don’t want to push him that way right now. So we’ll hide out. And apparently, around 4:00pm, my parents will come out and relieve us of our parental duties so we can go on a date! I am happy to report that I have zero idea about what we’re doing on our date night, and am fully looking forward to it. I wonder how I’ll dress for it. Is “unconventional chic” a thing??

 

** As usual, for those just checking in, our family is calling out for prayers for February 1th at 9:15am. We want Dekkers eyes healed once and for all!

As of today, my husband and I have been married for five years! I know five years isn’t a lot, but it feels like we’ve accomplished tons in those years, and come a very long way together! Its true that getting married young has its challenges, but doesn’t getting married at all have challenges?? I’d say so. I always heard people say you don’t know who you are when you’re young, and that you risk growing up into different people. I hung onto my belief that people who have entered into a marriage relationship promise to work through “clashes,” and I was confident that my husband and I would grow up together! I am proud to say that Brady and I have yet to grow up, and its pretty amazing 🙂 

Brady had to work today, and will work a full day tomorrow too. He brought me home a beautiful flower arrangement, care of Grower Direct, and some Starbucks. We ordered food for dinner and will be enjoying wine and chocolate dipped strawberries in the tub this evening. Isn’t it funny how, so often, we celebrate with food? Or maybe its just us… If you don’t, you should probably try it. I hear there is a date night planned for Sunday, but I know nothing about it yet. I feel like my mind is so full of thoughts of the upcoming week already, that celebrating is a bit of a stretch, but whether we go away on a trip or just have a nice soak in the evening together, I still love my husband just as much. 

I had a lovely, lazy day with the kids, and with Brady coming home at a good time. I’ll spend tomorrow with my mom and then Sunday is still the unknown. 

I hope everyone had a beautiful day as well.

I don’t really know what to call this post. I feel like milestones are almost always things we look forward to in a positive way. However, Laela began a stage that is very common in children that I don’t look forward to. Today, for the first time ever, my baby girl made strange. To my mom, of all people! I’ve noticed she’s become a bit more hesitant of others recently. For instance, when Dr. Mike picked her up the other day, she immediately stuck out her bottom lip. Just before she combusted, however, he noticed, and just a bit of his cuddles and talking solved the problem. But today, she just wouldn’t have it, and cried! It made me so sad 🙁 So I don’t think making strange counts as a milestone, but it is an expected stage, right? Crazy day.

I can tell Dekker knows something is coming. In the last few days, if we’re walking around the house for whatever reason, he’ll kind of rush to get in front of me, hold his hands out until I stop, and quietly request “Up?” When I pick him up, he lays his head on my shoulder and cuddles me so softly. We go back and forth between that and grumpus. He was pretty hands on all day, but the last hour of the evening was cute and fun. I went upstairs for something and I hear Dekker downstairs with Brady, shouting playfully “Mom! Mom” over and over again. I came downstairs and he begged “Run!” So I chased him around the basement while he laughed like a madman until he couldn’t run anymore. Good thing, because I was whooped too. I went to sit down and the second my butt hit the couch, “Mom! Run!” I had a moment of sighing, and not wanting to get up. But how long have I waited to hear him call me mom and request that I play with him?! Sooo long! So I got up and kicked a ball around with him until bedtime. Once we started collecting our stuff to go upstairs, he didn’t fuss. He just came up to me and sweetly asked “Up?” Of course. No tears for bedtime today. It was sweet. While Brady changed his diaper, we played with numbed and counted to ten over and over. He’s just become interested in counting, and is big on 2, 4, and 6, but thats about it. We worked and worked and finally got him to repeat them all after we said them. It went like this: “Wan. Flute. Flute. Flute. Five Sit. Sev. Eight. Nine. TEN!” He is such a funny guy. I love him.

Anyway, thats the end of my cute stories for the day. Only now are Brady and I thinking about supper, since he go home later than usual. Come to me, chicken and potatoes!

 

For those who don’t know, my kids are awesome at sleeping. I know some people get tired of hearing about it, but I’m so very pleased with this phenomenon. Laela still wakes up once in the night, which I think I can forgive her for, at four months old. Dekker was sleeping through but two months, but he was much bigger and ate way more. Laela has started eating like a horse before bed just in the last few days, so we’re hoping and praying we’re almost at the point where she’ll sleep through! Now would be the best possible timing, little girl!

This afternoon, around 2:30pm, I noticed both kids starting to whine while we were together in the basement. I decided to try something different. I carried Laela upstairs, wrapped her up wiiide awake, and put her in her bed and walked away. (Of course, we have a monitor set up downstairs.) Then I went back down to collect Dekker. He cried when I told him it was time to go upstairs, but instead of throwing a fit the whole way up, he asked to be carried. So I carried him upstairs, took of his glasses and tucked him in. I asked him to just lay still and have a rest, and I walked away.

And they slept. For three hours.

I am completely blown away by my kids. No, Dekker didn’t jump around and put his nap off like he does some days. And no, Laela didn’t have to cry herself to sleep. They both just did their thing for three hours!!! I couldn’t be more proud 🙂 Or rested, I suppose.

On a separate note, I have talked in the past about bedtime cuddles and Dekker coming into our room to jump on the bed before bedtime. I’m not sure if I mentioned before that we were slowly phasing that out(?) I miss it sooo much!,  but the change has worked wonders. Deks no longer cries when he sees we’re coming into his room instead of taking him out. We have a few little games that we play that involve lots of love and hugs and kisses, so I get my cuddles and he gets his playtime. We have the same fun with less devastation when he has to leave. Does that make sense? We’re really happy with the result – tantrum-free bedtime!

Ok, done bragging about the littles. Hopefully they have a nice, long night.

Hopefully you all do too 🙂

In one week, Dekker will have had his complete surgery, recovered from the anesthetic, come home, eaten supper, and will be in bed. I can’t believe its coming so fast! I have great anticipation for that day, as opposed to apprehension. I genuinely trust that the doctors know what they’re doing and that God will guide their hands and keep my son safe. I’m more nervous about the recovery but am doing everything in my power not to focus on that just yet. Its a reality. It might end up being a challenging two weeks, but its only two weeks. At that point, Dekker will be recovered and who knows what else! I know lots of people, including lots of you guys, are rooting for us and anticipating news of a successful procedure. Well, so are we! I promise, we’ll keep you in the loop.

As for news of the day, there isn’t much to report, and likely won’t be this week. Sometimes I wonder if I should continue the “daily” part of this blog, because I really don’t lead a super exciting life at all. Its not that I don’t want to write every day, because I LOVE this routine of recapping and recording. That is probably enough of a reason to keep going. Anyway, this will likely be a boring week of posts, as we are hermitting it up in here. Dekker thrives in his routine of being at home in his jammies, playing toys and being relatively quiet. I feel like we’ll have to push him quite a bit in the next little while, so I’m happy to keep him comfy and feeling as safe as possible as long as I can.

One thought from today – I began to dream of summer. Waskesiu Lake. I didn’t get to the lake once last summer. Granted, I was very pregnant and very sore and the drive alone probably would have been a bit miserable. But I’m itching to get there as soon as summer comes. I’m thinking we should buy our season pass already, as we’d get early bird prices, but then what if we don’t get there? We’re about a 3 hour drive away. What do you guys think? Worth the risk of wasting $75? Its hard to know, but I had SUCH cabin fever last summer and I’m not doing that again. I cannot wait to get to the lake!

I can’t wait to get him back out on the beach.

Our family all met up at the doctors office this afternoon for Dekker’s pre-operative appointment. As per usual, we headed to the same general area in the waiting room, hung up our coats, and I checked him in. Like clockwork, Dekker went to our diaper bag and requested a snack. That room was the first place he got hooked on goldfish crackers, and he counts on them at every visit, so we come prepared. However, today, Dekker gave his first even opinion. He looked att eh goldfish critically, ate a couple, announced “Done!” and passed them back to us before inquiring “Pops? Apples?” Pops is corn pops, which he had eaten for breakfast. And honestly, we haven’t had apples in our house for over a month. Crazy kid. So he was unimpressed, but he lived.

I won’t go through every detail but, all in all, he checked out. He is clear for surgery as long as he doesn’t pick up any illness in the next eight days. He weighs 32 lbs, his lungs and heart sound great, and his ears and throat are wonderful. He has no sign of that little skin infection he had a few weeks ago, which is a relief as well. He is a picture of health, which I am relieved about. I was thinking of running another errand or two, but opted to go straight home instead. Which turned out to be a good thing, since my mom was driving home from visiting family and was near our house around the time I was home! It was sooo nice to see her, and Dekker was thrilled to have her visiting too. Once Brady was home, we all sat down to supper together before mom headed home to get settled in for the night and week to come. It was such a nice way to come home, though. Missed her.

Both kidlets are in bed now, and I’m ready to come down from the day and relax in the tub. I’m relieved and thankful that everything went well today. Let’s continue to pray that they continue to move in that positive direction.

 

** Surgery is February 11th at 9:15am, for those who would be willing/like to pray for him/us.

I have been feeling really blessed recently. I’ve felt blessed by people asking and praying about Dekker’s upcoming surgery. I’ve felt blessed by the incredible health care providers we have to care for our family. I generally feel blessed by my husband and kids, and how we all seem to really need each other, just in different ways. And I was blessed again this morning.

I was asked to sing for a friend who was leading music this morning at church. My family took a break from leading worship the last few months to give us a chance to settle in with Laela. I was sooo pleased to be asked to participate again! At this point, it can either be Brady or I up helping with music, instead of both. As I’ve said before, Dekker is very uncomfortable being left with anyone besides Brady, myself, or my parents, and even sometimes they don’t work out! Brady was asked to drum the first song if we could find a way to pass Dekker off, but he would have none of it. Lucky for us, the worship leader is wonderful and accepting and said Brady should feel free to bring Dekker up and let him participate. So he did! The song they were at the drums for was a loud, upbeat song. As soon as it started, and Brady started drumming, Dekker joined it. From Bradys lap, he just wailed on the floor tom with the sticks Brady had given him to avoid Dekker taking his. And honestly, guys, he did great!! And he was thrilled! When the song was over, our leader shouted “Isn’t Dekker the best drummer ever??” from her piano, and the church clapped and cheered for him. My little boy who gets sooo overwhelmed in situations like that just beamed! After that set, he was a happy camper, and lasted a nice long while in the service before his short attention span took over and it was toy time. But my heart just warmed watching him. My eyes welled up as he sat on Brady’s lap and drummed through the worship music in front of the whole church. One day, he won’t need a lap to sit on, and he’ll be contributing to the church in his own way, whatever that will look like. I can barely picture him being so grown up, so soon, but on the other hand, I can see it perfectly 🙂

Tomorrow we will be taking our drummer to the doctor for his pre-operative physical, and after that, we’ll probably hide out for the rest of the week. I don’t want to be paranoid, but I need him to be in perfect health for next weeks surgery. I don’t know what I’d do if his procedure was cancelled or postponed. Let’s all pray against that, ok? Health for Dekker! And even better health afterwards! I know I’ve said it before, but for those who would like to know, his surgery goes down on Tuesday, February 11th around 9:15am. I know, its still a ways away, but I’m thinking prayer in advance sure wouldn’t hurt.

I love my boy.

Our baby girl is quickly becoming our bouncing baby girl! I suspect she will be on the move before we know it. She has yet to roll over but has recently been giving it significant effort. She hangs out on her side a lot, and if we put her on her tummy, she arches her back like crazy and tries to go over. So its coming. Also, something weird that we’ve noticed is that she tries to sit up. As in, from laying down. We discovered this in the car a little while ago. In that little mirror, we saw her sitting in her car seat, with her head up as if trying to sit up! We figured we were making stuff up, but even from flat on the ground, she lifts her head up and tries to sit. Crazy. Like I said, in no time, we will have a mover.

A source of entertainment for her has been her Jumparoo. For those who don’t know, its just a massive exersaucer that is stationary and doesn’t make dents in the floor if the baby jumps. Today, however, playing in it proved to be too much for our little babe.

Watching her fade in there was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while. I love her. Oh, and don’t worry. I didn’t leave her there. Once the photo op was over, she went upstairs to bed.

I mentioned a while ago that we ordered a Johnny Jump, which is a different brand of a Jolly Jumper, basically. Too bad we had to get the boy one, but who says our little girl can’t rock an electric guitar?? It finally arrived in the store yesterday so Brady picked it up and installed it today. Again, one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen!!!

She would not put her arms up!! It was sooo funny! She was completely adorable in it, and actually lasted longer than I thought she would. She’s not at a point where she’ll play in any of her toys for too long, since , number one, she’s a baby, and number two, her core strength isn’t awesome and she gets tired holding herself up! But she loves to be up, so the toys are winners for sure!

Bouncing baby is quickly becoming bottled and burped and bedtime baby, and I will then become bath and bad snack baby…