Isn’t there so much good news today?! The biggest, bestest good news is that Christ rose! Because of him, we are saved, and you guys, that is HUGE! I found myself hugging my kids quite a bit tighter today. I am so grateful for grace.

On the note of celebrating Jesus, here are some selfies I took in church 🙂 Does this make me and my family heathens? I think not. But if it does, we are very cute heathens, if I do say so myself.

Other fun/good news – my flop dessert wasn’t a flop!! Sure, it was messy and didn’t cut apart into beautiful little fruit bars, but it tasted really, really good! I don’t tend to brag up food I make, but this was super tasty. It was soft and gooey in all the right places, the bottom that I was sure would be underdone was done beautifully, and it was just super flavorful. I’m super happy with it 🙂 Several minutes after dessert, out of the blue, Dekker shouted “Thats yummy cake!!” It was great to hear from someone who wouldn’t spare your feelings. Hopefully I now qualify for the “successfully domestic” category. Hmmm…

My last little bit of good news is that Dekker continues to test the waters of potty training. Not in any big way at all, but he’s been very interested in the process and what happens. Once or twice, he’s even come and sat on his little potty while I use the bathroom. This evening, upon arriving home from spending the day with my parents, I asked Dekker if he wanted to come use the toilet with me, and he happily came along, sat on his potty, and we had our bathroom break together. I loved it 🙂 Go, Dekker, go!!

What a great day it was 🙂 So full of good things. We are so very blessed.

No offense to birds.

I posted a couple of days ago that I was going to try a new dessert recipe this weekend. Its for a meal tomorrow, so I whipped it up this evening. I made these beautiful layers cherry cream cheese bars, or so they’re called. You can find the recipe on my Pinterest account. They look delicious and seemed like they would be relatively impressive but not hard to put together at all.

So I made the batter for the base layer and put down probably three quarters of it. Then I smoothed out the cream cheesy layer with all the sugars and extracts and whatnot. Then the cherry pie filling. And then I blobbed the rest of the bottom batter on top. Once it is all cooled, I’m supposed to drizzle a thin icing sugary goodness overtop. Delicious, right?

I am not a seasoned baker. I’m pretty sure you guys all know that by now. The recipe asked me to bake it in a 10×15 pan. I thought “Geez, where are you from?!” and made it all in a 9×13, because “a 10×15 pan doesn’t exist.” Guess what. Cookie sheets are that size. Sigh. So the thing is now cooling on my counter, in glass dish that is incredibly overfilled, and certainly won’t cut into pretty little bars, but will rather be a big, messy cake. It also is more than likely under baked. But I have no way of doing the toothpick test, as every pick will come up soaked with cherry regardless of its doneness. I’m super annoyed, honestly. And I have no way of making another. I don’t have any more pie filling or cream cheese on hand. Its just a loss. And I’m bummed. I mean, it won’t kill us or anything, but it might be soggy and not super delicious.

And let’s be honest. Flopping a recipe for just your family is different. I know we’re only sharing with my parents, who are very close and forgiving family, but its still embarrassing :/ Sorry, guys!

I’ll let you know if its yummy tomorrow. For now, I will pout and do laundry. Sleep deep, all.

We’ve entered a new stage around here with our littles. They cry. A lot. Whining is obviously something we deal with everyday, but our poor kids are both in a big, wet, crying phase.

For Dekker, its often in the morning. I’ll go get him from bed, change his diaper, and when it comes time to eat, he sits at the table and cries. This kid loves breakfast. Usually, I walk into his room and the first time our of his mouth is asking for cereal. But these days, he doesn’t want his breakfast in the morning. It takes a bit of coaxing and a lot of yogurt, but he does warm up and then does ok. But in that roughly half hour span of time, he is sooo sad. BIG crocodile tears.

Laela’s teary spell is at bedtime. She goes down beautifully and has pretty well since she was quite a bit littler. But these last few nights, she just cries and cries and cries. Please don’t hate on me, moms, but I’m very pro-crying it out. But I do think there are exceptions. Certain amounts of time, different types of cries, time of night, etc. They’re all variable. The last couple of nights, Laela gets herself so fired up that she can barely catch her breath. Just last night she was up until probably 11:30, just squealing. When she gets worked up, she overheats, as we all would. So we would have to pick her up, unwrap her, burp her a bit more, check all the normal stuff – diaper, hunger – and give it another go. Over and over. It was horrendous. She eventually went down, and we had even laid her down fully awake, which is great after so many tears. But my goodness! Quite a stage!

I’ve gone back to this so many times, and I’ve probably put it on here in the past two, but the smartest advice I ever got about having kids was from my mom. She recommended I not spend tons of time and energy trying to figure every little stage out, because as soon as I do, it’ll be over and onto the next one. That has proven to be incredibly true so far, and I’ll continue to go by it 🙂

Big boy is down, and little one is wiped out and sleep drinking her bottle. Hopefully less drama tonight! Wish us luck!

I wanted to share a couple of new things happening in our house with you guys. Nothing particularly riveting, but worth writing down, in my opinion.

First of all, I made a new recipe for supper tonight! You’ve probably all made it, but its new to me. Apricot chicken. It doesn’t sound like something I would like, to be honest. I like the salty, creamy sauces over the fruity, transparent ones any day of the week. But every recipe/variation of it had the same minimal ingredients, and they all seemed sooo weird together – weird enough to try. I thought of it a little too late in the day to make it the crock pot way, so I opted for the oven instead. In my 9×13 glass dish, I laid out about four large chicken breasts. I cut them in half or into thirds, just because, and I salted and peppered them out of habit. Then I mixed up one cup of apricot jam, one cup of catalina/french dressing, and one packet of onion soup mix, just as is. I stirred that all up in a big ass wet measuring cup, poured it over the chicken, and baked it for an hour on 350. And it was DELICIOUS! Yum yum yum. It turned out beautifully, and made the house smell amazing. Of course, now the kitchen and dining room smell like supper, our room smells like a coffee candle, and the kids room smells like poop. My senses are so confused!

On the same wavelength, I’m making a new desserty recipe for this weekend but haven’t attempted it yet, so I’ll save that for another day 😉

Dekker latest new thing is a breakfast stage. I mentioned a couple of weeks back that he had napped so solidly in the afternoon that he woke thinking it was breakfast. However, that habit has carried over past nap time, and all the kid wants is Life cereal, toast, and yogurt. I always sneak is some fruit, and I’ve added more veggies to his lunch/snack, but he insists that he eat breakfast food for supper. I’m eagerly awaiting him to tire of Life, and I know it can happen. He recently became tired of bananas, so if thats possible, anything is possible! But all of that considered, who doesn’t love breakfast for supper? Who am I to deny him of that?

Laela’s newest development is jumping. She finally doesn’t just hang there in her standing toys. She jumps! Her jumparoo downstairs is the best for it, since there’s carpet below those little feet for her to grip onto. But the jolly jumper thing upstairs is good too, just a bit more slippery. But she does great, and has a lot of fun! She’s also started to really want her toys. Dekker has always been good at bringing her her toys when she’s in the jumparoo. He used to just drop them behind her in the chair, but now he passes them to her. Today, he had given her the Sofie giraffe and she was having a riot with it, but eventually dropped it. Well she hung there like a little dead fish, with her arm extended as far as possible in the direction of Sofie, and cried and cried until I rescued her precious giraffe. And then she was fine. I like seeing her mind start to work that way 🙂

As for Brady and I, not much is new, honestly. Bradys work with Daytona is about to boom, which is really exciting! He’s been covering us pretty well with some private jobs recently, but its good to see progress being made on a whole bunch of houses that will soon be on his schedule! And I guess my only new thing is that I’ve finally started to make a dent in the baby weight that I still carry. I know, no one wants to hear it from me, but I’ve been the same weight since two weeks postpartum, and its nice to see it begin to drop off. Yay!

Thats it for newness for us! Stay comfy in all this wet weather 🙂

We’ve been giving Laela solid food for a couple of weeks now, occasionally missing days here and there. We’ve been consistent maybe the last five days. We’re starting with rice cereal, or as Dekker calls it, milk cereal. I know, I know, its not recommended as a starter food anymore. BUT I’m confident in our choice 🙂 We’re researched up and doctor approved! I think its a great starter for us to use to train her how to swallow something bigger than just straight milk without it just spilling out.

We fed Dekker solid foods here and there, but didn’t really get too serious about it until closer to a year. I felt incredibly judged by a lot of people because of this decision, but not only was Dekker completely uninterested, but he also was a projectile vomiter. It was awful to be part of his barfing episodes, and they were even worse where solid foods were concerned. Basically, he was growing like crazy, sleeping even more so, and we weren’t in a rush. So by the time we started feeding him with a spoon regularly, he picked it up right away.

Laela is a bit more of a go-getter. I mean no slam against Dekker, but he was very laid back, and she is much more adventurous. She is very grabby and puts everything in her mouth. Sitting on my lap at the table, my plate has to be really far from her. I figured it was time to get her table acquainted maybe a week before six months. I think I also jumped on this process a little sooner because of all he judgement I felt the first time around. However, being that this is a completely different situation, I’m not sure how its supposed to look.

The little miss is getting much better at being able to eat without spitting her food everywhere, but her concept of opening her mouth for the spoon is not there. At all. Its very much in her character to be easily distracted, so we feed more on a schedule than on demand, since she’d always rather be playing. That being said, am I getting on this too soon? Is this what lots of babies do when they start solids, or is she not ready? I know that every baby is different, but I’d like to know how long it took your babies to anticipate the food, and want it, and open their mouth for it. Anyone??

Looking pretty unimpressed, if you ask me 🙂

It was a big day with the kids. They were both pretty sad most of the day. We all have off days, so I get it, but its hard when you can’t just say “I’m upset at _____” or “My feelings hurt.” That will be sooo much easier! However, we’re not there, so we did our best.

Dekker requested immediately to go play outside. It was snowing, which is not ideal for playing outside, so we wanted to cater to him and help him feel as good as possible, so after breakfast, we bundled up and went outside. Guys, I gave it a solid effort, but that kid cried for the next ten minutes or so. He wanted to sit on his chairs but not in the snow that was on them. So I cleaned one off but he then just wanted to sit in my lap. So I sat in snow with him in my lap, unmoving, and screaming that there was snow on his mitts. It was horrendous. I asked him multiple times if he wanted to go in, and he would just get angrier. It sucked, so we went inside.

Now, at the end of the day, he is so wiped, that for the first time ever, he requested bedtime. Both kids are whooped, but playing downstairs is always a win, and its almost always sad to go up to bed. But this evening, he came out with “Detter, upstairs. Bum change. Jams. Blankt.” We inquired and actually asked if he wanted to go to bed, and he said “Ya!” in his high, squeaky little voice. So up we went. He is officially tucked in a half hour earlier than usual and Laela is having her bottle.

I feel like I’ve been complaining about Dekker’s fun new behaviours a lot recently, and I don’t mean to seem unhappy or angry at him. I know he’s little, and he’s figuring stuff out, just like I am. We’re learning, and will probably continue to learn for the rest of our lives. But to change my tune, I’d like to brag my big little boy for a few minutes. In the recent past, he has showed me all kind of new skills he has and things he’s excited about and good at, and I’d like to share them with you! He is SUCH a big helper all of a sudden!

Dekker has been great at helping me with Laela for the last few months. If I’m getting ready to change her bum, he is always happy to get me a diaper, or wipes, or whatever I need. If I’m feeding her and she spits up a little, he announces “La. Barf.” and wanders off to find a burp pad. The other day, we were downstairs when Laela needed a diaper change, and he went all the way upstairs to fetch me a diaper. Happy as a clam. Never once have I had to convince him to help me in that way.

I was pleasantly surprised the other day when he wanted to help with laundry. Once I’ve sorted the clothes, I always put one load into a hamper to bring to the laundry machines. Dekker often pushed it there for me, and then heads back to his toys. But lately, he hangs out a little longer, watching what I do. I tried to convince him to pull the stuff out of the dryer for me but he didn’t want to. I don’t blame him, honestly. Its dark in there, and it shocks you. So I emptied it out myself and started chucking the clothes from the washer into the dryer. I guess I dropped one piece and Dekker swooped in right away and put it into the right place. It didn’t seem to bug him that it was wet and cold. So I handed him each piece of clothing and he put it in the dryer for me. When it came to hanging the things that weren’t supposed to be dried, he took each hanger and shirt, one by one, to the rack for me. Never once did I have to hunt him down and ask him to come help again. He was happy to! He was mildly bummed when his job was over, in fact! And in the entire laundry experience, he only unfolded two things. Pretty impressive!

Since that happened, I’ve been making a point to see how he could help in everyday chores. I’ve never really gotten on him about things like that, but I feel like thats ok, because instead of battling with him and making him do it, now he likes it. I even started him on dishes! Not too much, obviously, but a bit! I give him all the cutlery, minus the sharp knives, of course. And being Dekker, all the forks end up in the same spot, same with the spoons, and everything else. When he had finished that, I gave him his big stack of plastic cups and he actually reached over into the top rack of the dishwasher and put them all on spikes. I only had to move two to make the space make more sense. He did so great, and he is so proud when he’s completed his job! I love seeing that desire to help grow in him.

Lastly, a big surprise that we got while we were in Brandon was while we were washing Laela’s bottles. It was just your average hotel room, so they were washed in the bathroom and dried on a towel next to the tv. We use Dr. Browns bottles, so the entire bottle is a six piece contraption. We had all the parts laid out on the towel drying, and Dekker put them together. No lie. I’m not even suer how he would have learned that!! We usually wash bottles in the evening, or first thing in the morning while he’s eating breakfast. So who knows! It was awesome, and we celebrated him up big time. He is wildly wonderful, and growing leaps and bounds these days. He is becoming less of a toddler, or even a little boy, and becoming a kid! And Laela just adores him. It is incredibly heart warming.

My kids are simply the best kids of all the kids.

Ok, I’m off to the tub for a small snack and some House. I hope you all have great nights!

Auntie Jerilee came over today and brought presents!!

We had a completely lazy morning and afternoon, while Brady was out and about, having meetings for work and running a few errands. He brought Subway home for supper, and we all sat in the basement, frozen in blankets, chatting about houses coming up and trying to convince Jerilee to buy one. We also talked about doing a murder mystery dinner party. I think the idea is hilarious and awesome, but didn’t know if people would actually be interested. Lucky for me, Jerilee has attended one and said it was super fun! So hopefully we’ll set one up one of these days! Who wants in??

Dekker got up around the time that Jerilee was leaving, and was listening to us talk about supper. One of us ended a sentence with “subway” and Dekker said “Eat fresh!” We all burst out laughing at him, to which he responded by repeating it over and over. It was hysterical! No, he didn’t pick it up from watching hours and hours of tv commercials, but its said around our house whenever we toss around the idea of eating there. He is getting funnier and funnier.

Once Jerilee had left for her evening plans, and Dekker had eaten some supper, he requested to get dressed in jeans and a shirt. This is sort of unheard of around our house, as we hang out in jammies almost exclusively. But he was insistent. So we dressed him, and he headed for the entrance, saying “Coat and shoes.” I guess he really wanted some fresh air! So he and I got bundled up while Brady fed Laela. Dekker had his coat and shoes on, and I was tying his toque under his chin when he threw up his hands and said “I. Love. You. Jeez!” My heart stopped for a second, before I just gave him a big kiss and a hug. My little boy. He loves Jesus. I knew he did! My mother-heart couldn’t be happier or warmer.

We played outside from 6:00 until 7:30. Brady and Laela come to play partway through, and they are just the cutest kids!

I brought Laela inside around 7:00 and fed her some cereal. She is getting better and better at that every day. We played upstairs until it was finally bedtime, and both kids were wiped out completely. They’re now fast asleep and I’m so ready for the bath. Looking forward to a day of nothing tomorrow! One of these days, we’ll need to get Laela her six month shots, and she’s a bit late, but not tomorrow. Tomorrow is home day. Jammie day. Nothing day.

But likely a bit of outside time, weather permitting. C’mon, weather, keep permitting!!! You make my kids very happy.

We have been very intentional about hiding out the last few days. We turned down invitations, and skipped church. We needed a breather. We didn’t have the nicest night, so when Dekker slept until 11:00-ish this morning, and Laela had already had an entire nap by that time as well, we decided we were more than right to make that call. However, cabin fever was setting in, and the Walmart flyer looked good, so once the fam was awake, we all piled into the van and headed to the city. See our tough little guy?

The goal was to oniy hit one place, get some air, and go back home.

And it worked! We hit up a lot of super good deals, and enjoyed just being out of the house. We didn’t see anyone we knew, and that was perfect. Nothing against people we know and like, but it was nice to be under the radar and just be together.

After purchasing a good haul of groceries, we headed home. We grabbed a little lunch and ate on the road. Dekker was quite a card today…

 

We got home around 4:30 and no one napped for the rest of the day. By 7:45, the kids were sooo ready for bedtime, which is actually awesome. It gives us a bit more of  hands on evening when they’re so tired, but its wonderful to have them go down so nicely. Its currently 8:20 and they’re both in their beds. Laela was especially pooped during her nighttime bottle.

It is not easy to burp a baby that is this asleep. Just squish those cheeks!!!

I’m pretty sure we all feel like Laela looks in that picture. Supper time for Brady and I first. Then sleeping like we’re dead. So read for both of those things.

Laela gave us a full nights sleep 🙂 I am so thankful! She did surface around 7am, but she ate a full bottle and was back to bed within the hour, which was crazy. Crazy awesome, that is.

We are continuing with our promise to keep the kids bored and comfortable for a few days, and spent most of the day snacking, playing puzzles, and watching How to Train Your Dragon. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. There are definitely action parts that some could find scary, but Dekker really liked it, and he is ultra sensitive, so use your discretion.

Laela took a couple monster naps today, and I actually took one as well! Not a monster nap, but a nap in general. I never nap, but it would appear I was exhausted. Who knew? It was wonderful. I woke up to Brady telling me he had made dinner and it would be ready in fifteen minutes. Lucky girl, I am. We ate supper upstairs and took it easy for a while. I fed Laela some rice cereal, which she finally got into! She liked it a lot better this time, and I think that’s because I made it with warmer milk. She used to cry when I’d feed it to her, but she ate the entire amount this time, for the first time! Its only as much as you put in one ounce of milk, but she’s still learning to move it around in her mouth without spitting it out. Does that make sense? Anyway, it was a big success and I’m so proud of her! I can’t wait to get a bit more into her in the coming weeks, and to start other foods as well! Starting Dekker on solids was so scary for us, because of the amount that he threw up, plus his lack of interest. But I’m much more excited about it this time! So often, my instinct is to give Laela little tastes of things, but I can’t yet. I guess I’m used to sharing my food with Dekker 🙂 Looking back at pictures of our days in the hospital with Laela, I see Dekker coming for a visit and eating all my hospital food. I love that boy.

** Side note: Has anyone gone the route of complete baby led weening? I’m curious about it but would love to hear what other mothers have found.

Sadly, the evening ended with a sad bath time for Dekker and a less than impressed bath time for Laela. We’re still trying to figure Dekker out, but Laela will benefit greatly from a bath seat, I think. She wants to sit up but she slides all over the place. Either way, both kids are down (hopefully for the whole night?!) and I’m so ready for the bath and a snack! Aren’t I always?

I spent a large portion of today crocheting, which hasn’t happened in a very long time! I tried a new pattern out the other day and it flopped miserably. I filled an order for a friend, and it was my favorite kind of order. She brought me a pattern (this one from Etsy) and asked me to make it. Having bought patterns from the same shop in the past, I knew they were very clear with their instructions and that I liked their style. I can honestly say that my fingers hurt after all that, haha! I crocheted so tight with such a small hook, and now I’m feeling it. But its a good kind of ache. I finally accomplished another piece! And better yet, a festive one!

Easter bunny booties!! Aren’t they cute?! Their eyes look a little “stealth mode” from here, but they’re cute little softies in person, I swear.

I’m pretty bad for starting a project and not completing it. Especially when its a pair of something. Slippers, mittens, etc. I’m bad for tweaking the pattern or making it up along the way, and then not being able to replicate it exactly. So in this case, I made both little shoes, and then four little ears, and two pom pom tails. And I think it worked out! Maybe Laela needs some, too.

We gave our kids the “gift” of a boring day at home. They needed it, and so did we, frankly. Gonna do the same thing for a few more days so we can all recover a bit from being gone. Come Monday, things will go back to normal to a degree, so we’re going to keep a low profile until then. Maybe I’ll make a cake. Thats pretty exciting, right?

Other than that, our one funny event was Dekker learning about his nipples. One of us said the word and he immediatelt began repeating it. “Nipples. Niiiiipples. Nipples!!!” It was hilarious. So we showed him his nipples. He asked about Bradys nipples next, so we showed him that daddy had them too. We stopped the lesson when he came over to me and asked to see mine. While I’m still not too choked if he sees me naked, thats still not a polite question to ask a person, and for sure not a girl, so we’ll figure that one out as we go. I just thought it was funny, and something I’ll potentially bring up at his wedding one day.

Always learning.