The Daily Hailey

Laela woke up at 7:30am. That is way too early for this mama.

Good thing she’s cute.

After a super emotional, heavy Sunday, followed by two days of swimming and crying toddlers, we stayed home today. Even better, we had Jerilee over for the day. She came bearing treats and beauty, as per usual 😉 I’ll be honest, though. I was the most boring hostess ever. But she was gracious as ever, and we still enjoyed hanging out. Plus, this was the first time in forever that Brady could actually be home to visit with her too! It was a nice day.

Our day was really nice and low key. It was exactly what we needed. We recapped a lot, since we hadn’t seen each other in weeks, and I started dreaming again about our house that we are aching to build. It was fun to get excited about all of that again. I had a great day.

Jerilee left before supper, and Brady wasn’t feeling awesome, so we made our favorite go-to from years back. Our big salad. Its not as lame as it sounds. If you’ve watched the episode on Seinfeld, you can appreciate the wonder of just a “big salad” in general. Ours is lettuce and cucumbers that have been coined and quartered, chicken strips chopped up, cheese chunks, bacon bits, sunflower seeds, and my homemade honey mustard dressing. We make like half a lettuce head and a whole cucumber, and tonight we had I think six tiny little chicken strips from the bottom of the bag. I hadn’t made my honey mustard for a really long time and actually had to look up the amounts again, but it turned out beautifully. The meal really hit the spot. Dekker isn’t great at salad yet since it doesn’t poke on his fork nicely, so he just had a chicken strip, some cheese, and a bunch of cucumbers. When Laelas protests grew from her mamaroo, we brought her to sit on Brady’s lap while he finished his salad. Dekker gleefully announced her presence. “Hellooooo, La!”

He struggled pretty hard after supper. We went downstairs to play toys and as soon as he’d take a step away from me, he would fall down on his knees and start to cry. I would just hold my hands out and he would come up on my lap, hug me, and lay his head on my shoulder to finish up his cry. Poor boy. He eventually just wanted to sit on my lap, and right towards the end of playtime, he would go wander a bit on his own. But he was tired. Laela was very happy to be in her new-to-her toy!

We’re still trying to figure out the perfect height to build up the bottom. This method was too high. Its a work in progress.

Dekker was sad to go upstairs but not sad to go to bed. He was ready. I even ducked back into his room for something and he didn’t stir. It was definitely bedtime. Now, Laela is crashed as well and I am so ready for my soak in the tub. I’ve been chilled all day. Even as I blog from my bed, I am tucked under the covers fully dressed, including socks. Its time to be warm.