We’re back home after a couple of days spent in Brandon and on the road. It was good to be out with family, but as always, its good to be home. I learned a few things on this trip that I thought I’d share. They’re fairly specific to my family, so they probably won’t translate well, but its just been a bit of a ride, haha! Not counting our day trip to Edmonton to pick up our (still unnamed) van, this was our first road trip with two kids.

First, just little things we discovered about our kids.

Laela can just about sit up on her own. She really, really wants to! She can for a short span of time, and she corrects and corrects as she wobbles. Its exciting to see that all starting.

Dekker pronounces couch as crotch. It makes me laugh every time. “Sit! Crotch!”

Ok, maybe other things will be a tad more relatable.

While kids crying in the vehicle can be amazingly draining, sometimes, its really necessary. We brought Dekker tons of toys, and he would cry when he got tired of them. We scrambled to try and keep him entertained. And when we finally gave up and just let him cry, he either fell asleep, or got over it and stared out the window until he decided to try out the toys again. You can’t always have what you want at your fingertips!

With that last one, I really learned the importance of consistency. Brady and I have always made a really big effort to practice consistency in our parenting, mostly because everyone tells new parents that they have to or their kids will be complete disasters. But I really saw it work these last few days. With all the new people, and schedules, and events, he was on edge, and took to screaming his head off. About everything. And I would correct him. Over and over and over again. And it finally started to stick! This is how it would go.

Me: Dekker, do you remember our rule about screaming?
Dekker: No screaming.
Me: Right. Did you scream, though?
Dekker: Ya.
Me: So what happens when you break the rules?
Dekker: Sorry…
Me: I forgive you, its ok, but breaking the rules means you get a punishment, right?
Dekker: Ya. Time out.

From there, we would decide whether that particular occasion required a punishment or not, and we’d go from there. He was quite receptive. There were instances when he would scream and look over at me immediately and say he was sorry. In those moments, we would remember the rule and say it a few times together. It was actually an awesome system!

I learned that my kids are capable of more than I thought. We tried a lot of new things, and surprisingly, both kids adapted beautifully. Dekker started singing along to music in the car. He learned new words…

…He ate pieces of pizza by hand, instead of insisting they be cut up and eaten with a fork. Laela was social with absolutely everyone. She didn’t make strange once. She is becoming quite a little opinionated lady, and appreciates being free of arms, car seats, and clothing. In that, I learned that I need to trust other people to love my kids well. I know they are loveable, but I spend a lot of time hoping other people think so too. But they do. I don’t have to worry.

Work with what you’ve got. We had a standard hotel room with two queen beds. Luckily, Dekker just recently started sleeping in a toddler bed, because he needed to sleep in the queen bed and Laela had the playpen. This was also the very first time they spent the night in the same room. This also also meant there was no secluded spot for time-outs. We clearly haven’t been confined to one room as a family very much! But we worked with it, and it was great. Dekker loved sleeping in the big bed, and cuddled up right in the middle both nights. Our first night was a bit rough, with the kids talking in the middle of the night and waking each other up, but the second night, Laela slept through!!! It was incredible. We were sooo tired, and it was exactly what we needed. And for time outs, we sat Dekker down besides the bed. That was it. And it worked! I shouldn’t be surprised. Dekker is surprisingly obedient about stuff like that. They were awesome in a small space together.

I learned was reminded of how much my kids love each other. Dekker was always eager to see Laela, and have her near him while he played. This evening, putting Dekker to bed, he gave Laela big kisses, and she reached and reached for him. He’s fairly particular about her touching him, and she grabs with her nails, and it can hurt him, but today, it was al playful and lovely. They are so smitten with each other.

A practical thing I learned about the drive itself is that, when both kids are wailing uncontrollably, a change to completely different, and much louder music is a pretty good off switch. It worked for us a number of times, going from quieter music, to Glee, to a cappella, and so on.

Lastly, and obviously most importantly, 😉 I learned that you don’t need a stereotypical bikini body to rock a cute swimsuit!

And you don’t have to be rugged to be handsome either 🙂

Our trip was wonderful, and quite an adventure. Sorry about the jumbled post. I am seemingly more exhausted than I’ve ever been, and we still haven’t even eaten supper yet. Or unpacked our suitcases. Or the van. Pretty sure some of that is waiting until tomorrow.

*Yawn* Have a good sleep, all.

I spent today with family and friends, celebrating the life of my grandma, Mary Friesen. The funeral service was very tastefully ran, consisting of singing, tributes by the grandkids, and a eulogy. Its quite something to look upon a woman who used to be my grandma, laying in a box in the church. She is now merely a shell, and her soul is somewhere far better, with my grandpa. What a relief she must feel!

Our kids were so terribly tired, tho 🙁 They stayed in the car with Brady while I rushed out to attend the burial. Thanks for that, babe. We sang a hymn and rejoiced in her freedom. Then we all took a rose from the arrangement on her casket and she was lowered into the ground, dust to dust.

We didn’t make it to the lunch at the church. Dekker and Laela just needed a break. Dekker was so excited to eat on the bed and run around the hotel room, and Laela was just thrilled to lay on her own in just her tights. Simple pleasures 🙂 We did branch out to have pizza with the whole family, which was nice. People were eager to hold Laela and meet the family. Very literally, someone generously offered to hold her so I could at least get a plate of food together, and I didn’t get her back until we left.

We spent a good amount of time in the pool afterwards, which went wonderfully! Dekker enjoyed himself sooo much! Its a really tame pool, and there was no one else in it. Plus, my mom had bought him a football that could go in the water and that thing provided entertainment for the entire swim. It was awesome. When Dekker was droopy and had blue lips, we decided to call it. Now, as we lay in our bed in the dark, Brady is feeding Laela next to me, and Dekker is in his bed, talking away, saying words I thought I’d never hear! “Back! Pool! Swimming. La swim. Mummy swim. Da swim. Detter swim. Pool! Football!” It was a huge win. Hopefully we’ll get in there one more time tomorrow morning before hauling out!

All things considered, it was a good day. Thanks to everyone who was praying for and thinking of our family today. We feel so cared for and loved.

Well, we are officially in Brandon for a gathering of family to celebrate the life of my grandma. The trip went better than I thought it would, actually. It was not without its bumps and tantrums and frustration, but it was also filled with good music, funny new phrases from Dekker, and laughs. We took our time while making good time. And now we’re here, in a hotel room, trying to figure out how the layout is going to look. Dekker hasn’t slept with us in the same room since he was in a playpen, so this is not only his first night in a real bed, but also his first time having to maybe fall asleep while we’re in the room and still up. Should be interesting! Prayers would be welcomed, haha!

Can’t doddle on her too much. I’m needed by my family this evening 🙂

For those who want to know, we got our Bluetooth installed today, and the quality blows. Its fairly useless for music. We’re pretty disappointed, and exhausted after being at the mall, waiting, for 4.5 hours, but there’s nothing that can be done at the moment, so we’ll just go on our trip over the next two or three days, and get into it all again once we’re back.

On a completely unrelated note, I just wanted to fill you in on yet more little details about my kids. I write this bog for my own verbal diarrhea, a bit for your reading pleasure, but also to keep record of my life, and my family’s life. So I guess this is more towards the last bit there 🙂 Records of my cute kids.

Laela is crazy. She’s a roller. I know, she’s over six months, and only really starting to enjoy rolling now, but Laela is rarely laying down. She’s almost always in a standing bouncy toy of some kind. When she isn’t, she’s rolling. Its exciting 🙂 She’s also started sucking her thumb. Well, chowing it is more like it. Just the one, and just the end of it. Its adorable. I’m not worried about it either. Dekker chewed his fingers and stopped when he was done teething. So if she’s four year old and sucking her thumb, then we’ll talk about it.

Let’s be honest. No doors are ever closed in this house, including the bathroom door. If I go to the bathroom, Dekker is there with me. Especially now! He likes to witness the whole thing, and participate, in the way of flushing the toilet and closing the lid. Its cute, and I’m hoping it’ll turn into potty training interest. I’ve had his little potty in the bathroom for several months now, and all it does is provide a spot for the basket of bath toys to sit in their basket. This morning, I went to sit on the toilet, and Dekker moved the basket, opened the lid, and sat on his toilet. He sat with a curious look on his face for just a few seconds, and then got off and closed the lid. Now, to be clear, he was fully dressed, so no, he didn’t pee in the potty. But when he got up from his toilet, he looked over at me, sooo proud of himself! I gave him a bunch of high fives and we cheered really loudly and made a big scene. The same thing happened again, when I went in to do my makeup. Again, he looked to me for approval. I whooped and hollered all over the place, and he was thrilled. It was awesome 😀 I see hope of training in the future. Not like tomorrow or anything, but its nice to see it start. Yay Dekker!!!

Well guys, I’m super tired after today and we still have to eat and pack all four of us up for the next few days. So thats all you get!

Sleep well, all.

I have to laugh. This should really be a post written by Brady, as he was present and I was not, but I’m just going to relay the story as this is my blog 🙂

Last week, we had our van at a dealership for two days. They fussed with our original dealership and got everything in order for one day, and did the work the next. It was a huge hassle, but its over, and I don’t care anymore. No matter how good this Saskatoon dealership is, they are still a car dealership and felt the need to rip us off a bit. So they ended up charging us for a wheel alignment. Who knows whether it was necessary or not, but they wouldn’t pass us on the safety inspection without one, so we let it happen and didn’t complain too much. Such is life.

When we got the van back, we noticed a wobble. Seriously?! An alignment and no balance? Ridiculous. But believable. So we tried yesterday to get them balanced. Costco is insane this time of year, and our other place sort of leaves us stranded in a sketchy area of town. So this morning, Brady drove into the city and hit up Canadian Tire, of all places. Luckily, he got in pretty quick and didn’t wait as long as he would have anywhere else. We read reviews about the auto department of that particular Canadian Tire the night before, and they were pretty awful. But they were based on crappy service, not workmanship. So we tried it in desperation.

So Brady walked around Canadian Tire for about an hour and a half. He checked back regularly and finally saw the van off the lift and safely back on the ground. He then doddled and waited around for fifteen minutes before going to ask if it was ready. They were technically supposed to get in touch with him and call him when it was ready. I guess that would have been too easy. The man at the front desk went to check and said a mechanic should be pulling it out of the bay right away. Brady headed outside and waited for a few minutes. He was eventually met with the man from the desk backing it out. Seemed scattered. Either way, things were paid up and over $120 later (insane, right?) he was out of there.

About twenty minutes later, while stopped at a Timmy’s, Brady got a call from Canadian Tire. Brady was informed that the mechanics were now finished with his van. Rich, hey? He was also told the mechanic “strongly recommends” a wheel alignment, of all things. They’re really out for your money, I guess! Like, more than I thought!

Its good that they were speaking to Brady and not me. I probably would have been considerably less polite. For instance, Brady didn’t tell them he had the van for the last half hour. I would likely have been quite sarcastic, but I’d say that would be justified! He did mention that the wheels were aligned two days ago. “I’ll let the mechanic know” was all he got. Probably smart.

Brady brought home coffee and we had a good laugh about it all. What a mess.

Tomorrow, we’ll hopefully get the Bluetooth figured out, and then I’m sooo over all of this. No more. Done.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was super grumpy, as was everyone in my home. Brady and I had a big argument in the evening, which certainly didn’t help the day. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, so to speak, and the day began very rocky. It wasn’t looking good, I won’t lie.

We decided to go into the city and get at least one of the few things on our list done. Our list for the van, that is. We were really hoping to get the Bluetooth installed before driving to Manitoba next week, so we called ahead to the dealership, but they weren’t available to us. They said technically the service area is open on weekends, but only for oil changes and little things like that. So we were out of luck. Its ok, though. We rolled it off and drove in anyway. One down.

We headed for Costco to get the tires balanced. The dealership had a lot of nerve to do an alignment and not a balance, in my opinion. But there’s as wobble, and we don’t want to drive a long trip and wear the tires out funny. Upon arrival, we found a spot in the tire centre parking area and went in to give them our keys and tell them what we wanted. And they said no. Too many people already lined up today. We had never been sent away there! But ’tis the season for taking off winter tires, getting summer cars ready, etc. It makes sense that Saturday isn’t the best time to try and do this. We called our other tire place, A1, and they said that we would have about an hour wait before we could even potentially get our van up on the lift. And then for sure a half hour for the balance. It wouldn’t be so bad, but this place is way in the ghetto, if I can be so bold, and we would have nowhere to release Dekker to run around. No tire balance today. Two down.

Our last thing on the van list is to fill a chip. Yup. We already have a chip in the windshield. For those of you who don’t know, our car’s windshield was split across completely within a few months, and we drove it that way her entire life with us. The last thing we need is a repeat of that. But we don’t have the safety certificate yet, so we don’t even have it officially registered to us yet!!! The plan was to get that extra comprehensive insurance, and I’m just going to be pretty much super annoyed if its too late. Anyway, that rant is over. We called a couple of places and they either were only open for appointments, or were closed for the season. Three down.

We were all pretty frustrated at this point. However, the thought of coming in and trying to do all this van stuff was what frustrated me initially. So we made the best of it. We stopped for fries and Starbucks. I bought some makeup brushes. We visited Jerilee at work. Dekker got a shoulder ride. It was warm!! We left one of Dekker’s books in a shopping cart and drove across the city, and someone turned it in! It really was a good day 🙂 It was almost its own little relief, having all our van plans fall through. Exactly what we needed.

Being that today was so fun and busy, neither kid napped and they were both exhausted, so this evening was a bit hectic. But they’re both on their way out, and I am sooo ready for perogies and wings, and some good tv. We’re watching through Parks and Recreation, but just discovered House for the first time. How will we choose now?!?!

I’m not going to lie. It was a super grumpy day for our entire household. I don’t want to write about super negative stuff on here, as I’ve always tried my best to focus on the positives, but the fact is there are days when we’re all just feeling under the weather in a few different ways.

Brady was working today, while keeping in touch with the dealership that had our van in its shop. He was in a decent mood, but there was a bit of figuring and researching that needed to be done that the dealership wasn’t doing, so it fell to Brady. And that was annoying. We came out of the service department with almost everything done. They didn’t get to the Bluetooth, so of course we have to try and get in there again. I have no idea how thats going to work, or when. We will be driving to and from Brandon next week and it would be lovely to have before then, but I don’t really see it happening. Also, they did an alignment but not a balance, so now the stupid thing wobbles. Grrr. An easy fix at Costco, but we only have so many days to bring it in, leave our family stranded somewhere, and get these things done. That is annoying.

Both kids were in a state today. Laela was just sort of serious, and only slept very shot amounts. She’s also very easily distracted, which is no fault of her own, but that of just being a baby. However, she would go forever between feedings and then be too distracted to eat. It resulted in me continually taking the bottle from her when she would try to move around, and she would cry and cry. It sucked. And Dekker whined all day. No exaggeration. He was never happy, but when I would ask him what he needed, or if I could help him, it seemed to upset him further. That got old fast. I informed him early in the day that, if he continued his whiny behavior all day, it would be clear to me that he was very tired, and he would go to bed early.

Those last two paragraphs are pretty much what made me grumpy, so I don’t really ned to expand on that. I had a bit of a break when the kids napped, and when I did dishes in the early evening.

Being that we are all grumpy, I went ahead with putting the kids to bed early. Dekker was in his room by 7:30 and Laela is having her nighttime bottle now. She won’t be down and asleep by 8:00pm or anything, but its already quieter, with one in bed and one with a bottle in her mouth.

And then food, and a tub. I’d love to say that we’re laying low tomorrow and having a lazy home day, but we’ll either be taking the van into the dealership and getting shuttled around, or we’ll go kill time at Costco while we wait for a balance. One of the two.

Sorry to be a super-downer. I’m just trying to be real with you guys. Today was a really big challenge. Yet before bed tonight, instead of Brady helping Dekker and prompting his prayers, Dekker prayed out loud all by himself, and thanked Jesus for  me three times. So I guess we came out of it on top, and still totally in love with each other. God is certainly good.

Around 1:00am last night/this morning, I woke up to Dekker crying his eyes out. Brady and I sort of fumbled with the video monitor before I just rushed into his room to see if he had fallen off the bed. He hasn’t yet, and I fully expect his first experience with it to be traumatic for him, lol! He hadn’t. I’m still not totally sure what happened. I’m suspecting a bad dream, but he didn’t tell me. As soon as I was by his side, he calmed. I sat beside him and rubbed his belly and chest for a few minutes while he calmed, and then suggested that, while I had him up, maybe I should put some more cream on his bum. As I mentioned before, he’s battling a pretty awful irritation on his bum, and we take every opportunity to apply coconut oil to it. He was game for it, so I carried him over to his table and put a fresh diaper and some oil on him. I didn’t want him to have to walk around and wake up too much, so I picked him up to carry him back to his bed. Unprompted, he told me he loved me, and gave me a kiss. And then back to bed for the night. It was pretty lovely.

My original idea for todays post was going to be about that and all the kids’ cute antics today. Dekker rushing me for kisses in the morning. Dekker referring to himself as “sweetie.” Laela sleeping until 6am, and then going back down. It was a really sweet night and morning for us! But then Dekker fell into a chair and got a fat lip. It was sort of downhill from there.

Brady took our van in to a dealership to get everything taken care of in one day. We need to get it safetied, checked for Bluetooth capabilities, and to get a few things fixed that came broken-ish. The brakes grind, a fan squeaks, and something squeals like a banshee when we start it. Who knows. So he brought it in at opening so it could be home at the end of the day. Well, the dealership we purchased it from said they wouldn’t pay for it without quotes and such. At the very end of the day, nothing had been done. Grrrrr! However, we left it there overnight and we have a plan for things to work out tomorrow. It will be in the shop and worked on tomorrow for sure, and the man we’re working with is fairly confident that it should all get done tomorrow. If our original dealership hadn’t dragged their feet so badly, we could have at least gotten the brakes fixed today. So that got old fast.

Also, sad news. My grandma passed away today. While I am sad to lose my loved one, and my last grandparent on the Friesen side, I am relieved for her. She was quite old, and alone, and had just very recently found out she had cancer. I am happy for her to be in Heaven and to not have had to suffer through some horrible battle with infections and illness. We will be doing our best to attend her funeral next week. Prayers for the family are welcomed 🙂

It seemed like the day was a bit lost, but my mom drove Brady home at the end of the afternoon and agreed to stay for supper! We had a yummy supper of macaroni and our favorite battered fish, and then took the kids out for a walk around town. The mild weather is making that more and more enjoyable, and its going to be better yet when the mud is gone and I can wear sandals. Oh, sandals, how I miss you!

Bedtime was hard for Dekker, as it often is when he’s had a fun evening. But he is now down, and Laela is on her way out, hopefully. The bath is run and my new blisters on my heels are begging for a soak in the tub. Its time to let down a bit and watch some Parks and Rec.

Sleep tight, my friends.

Miss Laela had a rough time falling asleep last night. She was up on and off until about 11:00 until we finally got a burp out of her and she fell asleep. Dekker didn’t make a peep the entire time, but watching him on the video monitor this morning, he stayed laying flat on his face for quite a while, but awake and seemingly annoyed when he would hear noise. He was awake, but very tired.

It didn’t help that he has another diaper rash. This time, I’m pretty sure its because of his newfound love of tomatoes. I think I mentioned before that he has discovered grape tomatoes, and eats them regularly. After the first little while, he got a bit of a diaper rash. So I held off on giving him tomatoes for a while and figured it was just the acid in his dirty diapers doing the damage. Once it was cleared up, I began giving him tomatoes again, just in much smaller quantities. But his diaper rash is back, and furious. Easily the worst I’ve seen since his yeast cleared up. Poor boy. So his morning diaper change was horrendous, and he was very fragile during breakfast. Once he was finished, he went for the stairs and suggested all by himself “Watch Cars movie?” It was actually kind of a bummer, haha! Brady and I were planning on watching “How to Train your Dragon” with him, but he insisted on the Cars movie, so we watched it. He sat unmoving with me for the first half hour. That never happens 🙂 Lucky me!

Our entire morning was quite low key, and then the afternoon was cut short by nap time. Both kids slept, I crocheted in the basement, and Brady made a drive out to my parents to drop a few things off. More on that in tomorrows post 😉 When Brady got home, we talked about what the evening would look like. We had originally planned to “dip our children in the basin of cleanliness.” Yup. We have to be that secretive. I know the water of a baking soda bath would be sooo good for Dekkers bum, but I also feel like the bath and the fear that it brings wouldn’t be worth it. His bum will be better in a day or two regardless of a baking soda bath. I’m pretty confident there’s just still tomato in his system, and its something he can’t tolerate right now.

So instead of subjecting our kids to the basin of cleanliness, we opted to go for a walk outside. Dekker was thrilled at this idea. As he was getting down from the table, I said “Dekker, should we go for a walk?” and he said “Ya! Coat.” and headed for the landing. We had to wrangle him back and get the kids and ourselves dressed for outside.

The walk was great. The fresh air was wonderful, and it seemed to help everyone feel better. And guys, my kids are just the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen!

The walk was a really good move, which always makes bedtime a little bit harder. Dekker cried and that upset Laela, so we had two sad kidlets on our hands. But they’ll sleep well. Dekker is already quiet in his bed, and Laela is drinking her bottle. We started with the new bottle nipples today and her feedings are going sooo much better!!!

Get these kids to bed so I can get my bath. And a cookie. Bathtime cookies and milk. Yum.

I am so grateful for my days off. I scheduled today last week already, and have been anticipating its arrival. I got to feel very pampered and cared for today. As per usual, it was a lot of fun 🙂

Our new van has a pretty decent sound system, and I put it to good use on a playlist I created yesterday of all the random songs that I’m enjoying right now. It spans from covers done by unknowns, to some Glee, to some Pitch Perfect, and then my random guilty pleasure top 40 hits. I grabbed a latte and headed to my hair appointment. I got my hair redone and my hair girl even styled it how I’ve been wanting it to look. Poof!! Hopefully I’ll be able to replicate it! I even bought a round brush, so clearly I’m invested.

I perused the mall quickly after my hair was done and bought a blazer to wear over a dress that I only just found out fits! Always nice. I headed to my waxing appointment next and left there feeling amazing, as usual. I know it seems strange to celebrate having my hair ripped out of my body, but its quite a luxury, and it really feels like a spa treatment now, after so many years!

I had an hour to get to my next appointment so I doddled a little bit and dropped into Carters. I bought Laela and gorgeous little dress that will be cute for easter without being an obvious easter dress. From there, I headed to the chiropractor. Our trip to Edmonton the pick up the van did a bit of a number on me, and then recovering those chairs on Sunday just did me in. He fixed it and I told him about our van. Apparently we did good! He said the year and number of kms on it were great, and that we probably could have paid a lot more for it. He’s right. Its a good vehicle. For a van.

I hit up Walmart last, just for a couple of little things. Cheese, dish soap, dress shoes for Laela, and some nipples for Laela’s Dr. Brown bottles. We’re starting to get frustrated with how long it takes her to drink her milk, and I just realized a few days ago that she is still drinking from newborn bottles!!! I mean, its not a huge deal, but its unnecessary, and takes forever!!! So I headed over to that section and couldn’t find any. I asked an employee where they were and she said Dr Brown was discontinued. I clarified that Walmart just wasn’t carrying them anymore, and she sort of hesitantly said “Maybe… but I think the line is over.”

Lucky for me, she was completely and utterly dead wrong. I had to go pick some up from Toys r Us, but which was an extra stop, but big deal. For anyone who cares, Dr. Brown still exists. I can’t wait to try those things out tomorrow and see how much better Laela eats. And hopefully she eats more. She’s such a little eater and I just want to get more into her and get her sleeping through the night!! She gets so distracted while she eats, so maybe she just needs it to be a bit easier. I can hope, anyway!!

I was happy to come home to my loving husband and excited children. Dekker was thrilled to see me, and while Laela took a second to figure out who I was, she livened up too. Its so incredible to have those happy faces greet you at the door. And now, the happy faces are on their way to bed. The big one, who finally says his own name (Detter!) is down for the night, and the little one is having her bottle that never ends. And then maybe Brady and I will get some supper into our stomachs. And then sleep. Home day tomorrow!