Today I did something I haven’t done in quite a while. I crocheted!

I used to crochet a lot, and considered many times trying to sell my stuff, but all of a sudden lots of people around e started selling their wonderful crocheted creations and they were way better than me! And more ambitious I suppose. So I decided to just keep my crafts within family and friends. If someone wanted something, I would just make it for them. I love crocheting!

The toque I made Brady two years ago has stretched out a lot and I’ve been thinking he needs a new one anyway. I’ve always preferred to create from my head instead off from a pattern. However, I think that is probably just from my insecurity of not understanding patterns very well. I’ve never crocheted something from a pattern and had it turn out perfect, or even really nice. However, I found a neat pattern and decided to give it a go. I didn’t show Brady the pattern in advance. I have this silly worry that I’ll screw it up and he’ll laugh at me. Which he wouldn’t. But still, I doubt I’m the only person that feels that way sometimes. So I hid the pattern and crocheted in my lap while we watched TV from two separate chairs so he couldn’t see it very closely. Guess what. It turned out!

Pretty cool, right? I was super happy with how it turned out, and so is Brady. Might make a matching one for Dekker.

Toques anyone? Scarves? Anything? Yes I know, a shameless plug for myself.

Two accomplishments today.

Mine? Beef stew.

 So I recognize that I should have stirred this before taking the picture, because it actually looks delicious. Just not in this picture. But either way, it smells fabulous! Stewing beef that I sliced up on meat grinding day, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, corn, onions, and I admit, a Clubhouse mix. That’s it! Take it from me, someone who is not so brave in the kitchen, this stew is foolproof. And EASY! I’m really looking forward to it!

Brady’s accomplishment? He finished the cabinets!

 They look perfect, exactly what I was hoping for! I can’t wait to start organizing! In this picture you can also see the drawers beside the stove. They are huge and wonderful but occasionally (one more than the others) slip off their tracks, making them a little tough to use. So Brady is hoping to adjust/repair those soon too. Lastly, there is a column of four drawers out of the picture, next to the sink, that butt up against that don’t open all the way, due to a moulding being in the way. No big deal, we’ve always made do. Finally, we’ve decided to just bite the bullet and chop the side off. There is no other way to make them useable that we can think of, and no one will ever notice. So that one will happen today as well. I’m SO EXCITED to have so much space to work with! Everything can finally have its own little home instead of so many random things being stacked together.

I’m so thankful for my willing, handy husband. And my beef stew.

Brady had the day off so we decided to get some grocery shopping out of the way. If we’re going to run errands, its always on Saturday. I don’t remember the last Saturday we spent at home. Plus, shelf-clearers are out on Saturdays, so deals are swept up way too early in the day.

This was the third day in a row where Dekker slept almost until noon. Brady and I slept almost as long. The three of us has a relaxed brunch of…almost nothing…and then headed out for groceries. Its sad to try and make breakfast without milk or bread or fruit.

It was the average grocery shopping day. We spent the afternoon at Walmart and Superstore. We picked up the last door that we were missing for our cabinet project as well. Brady will install those tomorrow and hopefully I’ll get a good start on reorganizing our entire life (aka: our kitchen, pantry, cleaning supplies, linens, etc). I know all of these things don’t go in the kitchen but we’ll have more room in our pantry and everything will change! I’m very excited!

Rarely do we grocery shop and come home with every single thing on the list. We were sooo close today! Should I be surprised that Superstore was completely sold out of pureed pumpkin? No. But I was! I should have thought to look for it at Walmart first but I didn’t. Oh well. I was debating between two recipes I want to try in the near future, and I guess this made it easy to decide to try the one that doesn’t require pumpkin first. No biggie.

From the city, we headed to my parents house for the evening. Roast beef, potatoes, caesar salad and corn on the cob for supper! The one thing from our garden that survived our ridiculous weather this summer was our corn. While I’m bummed that everything else perished, the corn was the only thing that didn’t survive last year, so its a trade off I’m willing to accept. We picked the last of our corn a few days ago and this was sort of our celebratory supper, in honor of the corn on the cob 🙂 Cheesy, I know, but it was important to me. I was so depressed about my entire garden kicking the bucket, and then God gave me corn.

As per usual, the baby is in bed and the bubble bath is running. Now for a night snack… Is there really anything that is healthy to eat this late at night? I think not. But that probably won’t stop me. Good night, all!

So that was my second night of being awake until 1:00am. I know some people do that all the time, but there is so much anxiety tied to my sleeping patterns. I’m very blessed to have a husband who follows me when I try to leave the room to do something other than lay in my bed feeling sorry for myself. I’ll be getting comfy on the couch with the laptop or a book, and he’ll come hunt me down, let me rant a little bit about how I’m not trying to be difficult, I wish I could sleep, but now I feel all sorts of pressure to sleep, and blah blah blah, and then brings me back to bed, where I eventually fall asleep after some tv and a back rub.

I’m also very blessed to have a baby that sleeps in with me. However, the last two days have brought me a bit more worry than I wish they did. Dekker has slept 15-16 hours these last two nights. Yes, he wakes up and talks once in a while, but falls back to sleep right away. I’ve never been one to rush to him as soon as he makes a peep. Dekker likes his independence. Sometimes I get the evil eye if I go to his crib too early and he isn’t done chewing his blankets the way he’d like them chewed.

It was noon yesterday when I finally woke him. He was laying on his side, completely cashed out. I rubbed his cheeks and kissed him. Completely. Out. I actually had to haul him out to wake him up. He was like a limp dishrag. The heaviest dishrag ever. Like, a 27 pound dishrag. I carried him close to me and he nuzzled into my neck and whined a little, rubbing his eyes. He became more awake, obviously, ate fine, played fine, he’s completely fine! But he’s sleeping like 15 hours at night with at least one solid three hour nap in the day.

Thoughts? Help? Is he ok?

So often I post about how I’m so proud of Dekker. Hopefully no one gets bored with that. I know I don’t! As I was writing yesterday’s post about Dekker’s new accomplishment, I remembered a few other recent developments that I am sooo proud of! The world should know how awesome Dekker is, if they don’t already.

I first want to add onto yesterday’s post about his struggles with eating. Because we had to go slow, and because no one wants to throw up, Dekker eats slowly and intentionally. He will eat one Cheerio or piece of peach at a time. If I don’t realize that  he still has food in his mouth and I offer him more in a spoon, he doesn’t open his mouth until he’s finished his current bite. Or if I give him food to eat from his own hand, he takes it and holds it until he’s done. No rush. I love that he has such self-control.

Also recently, Dekker has started sharing! Just once in a while, but he’ll crawl up to me with one of those stacking cup toys (the green one, because it’s the best) and climb up on me, and either drop the toy in my lap like a puppy, or hold it out for me to have! Same idea with his crackers. Amidst his toys is a Tupperware container of Cheerios and those star crackers. He likes to shake it and occasionally eat from it. Lately, while he’s playing, he’ll bring it over to me and put it on my lap and wait. Little boy wants a snack! I’m just loving the newfound communication!

Kisses!!! Dekker won’t often give kisses. I know some kids looove giving kisses, but he doesn’t seem to have the attention span for it. He’s very busy looking everywhere else. Why would he look at me if he knows I’m there, right? However, yesterday we were playing in the basement and I asked for a kiss and made the kissing sound with my lips. He barreled towards me, hurdling toys, climber up to me and opened his big mouth, looking for a kiss. So he does know! I LOVE his kisses!!!

Something I’m really excited about is his new game. He figured it out all by himself, we never played until he wanted to!! SO the setting was again, in the basement. You know how you let your kid do their own thing until they might get into trouble, and then you go get them and bring them back? Well, Dekker was wandering around in the basement and was fine until I saw him going for the stairs. I called him back, to which he giggled and looked back at me. I said something like “Do I have to come get you?” and he started laughing like crazy. I got up and started walking towards him. He started laughing like crazy and madly crawling in the other direction. I was chasing him! I immediately took on the role of the creepy “I’m gonna getcha” guy and followed him at a snail’s pace. It was hilarious, actually. He got laughing so hard that he couldn’t keep crawling, and just kept falling over. It was probably as much for me as it was for him 😀 We had a blast, and we’ve played that a lot since.

One last thing. While Dekker seems pretty mild-mannered, it would appear that he has a flair for the dramatic! I went to get him from his room the other day, and I peaked in first, just to see how awake he was. He stays so quiet for so long, its hard to know sometimes. Anyway, he was in the corner of his crib, sitting up, playing with the snaps on his sleeper. I sat and watched for a few minutes. And then out of the blue, He threw his hands above his head, heaved a big sigh, and flopped over on his side. It took everything inside me not to burst our laughing. He lay there quietly for maybe twenty seconds before pushing himself back up, and getting back to his snaps. What a card!

I love Deks. For everyone else who does, hopefully you enjoyed this post almost as much as I enjoy the new things he’s doing.

Anyone who spends time with kids can likely relate to me on this. We celebrate everything, big and small, right? Yay, the baby pooped! Yay, the baby clapped! Yay, the baby reached the top of his head finally! We celebrate everything around here. I love it. All the more reason to be happy.

We had a brand new celebration yesterday. But before I tell you about it, I’m going to fill you in on history.

Some of you probably know some or all of it already, but I’ll just put it out there really quickly. Dekker has struggled with eating solid food. I know, he’s a big boy and looks like he’s been eating steak since birth. He was born with terribly weak stomach muscles, causing him to throw up regularly. As in every day, with every bottle. I found it very difficult. I was always nervous for someone else to hold him, as he would throw up anytime, whether it was right after a bottle, or two hours after. When he finally started rolling a little, his muscles started to improve, but when we tried to start basic solid foods at six months, he seemed to regress. So we backed off. He wasn’t ready, and all the health care people said to start at six months at the earliest. So I figured we had some time. All of a sudden, people were on our backs. Why weren’t we feeding him solid food? No one could understand where we were coming from. I shouldn’t say no one. Lots of people supported us. But those that didn’t really hurt me. Did they think I was doing a bad job with Dekker?? I was doing what I thought was right with what I had to work with! So we didn’t end up really jumping on the solid food bandwagon until around nine months. Even then, it was thin purees, and he would still gag them up and throw up often, maybe a couple times a week. It was just awful. I spoke to public health nurses and his doctor, picked and chose what I wanted to take from it, and kept working. It was a huge process for us. Finally, still on thin purees, we got to a point where he hadn’t thrown up in about a month. He waited until we had  family over visiting, and chose then to wretch and gag and throw up several times all over himself, the carpet, his chair, me, everything. I raced him to the bathroom and burped him like a newborn until he was finished, cleaned him up, and then bawled like a baby. I actually tear up a little bit just writing this out. This was so hard for me. Were we back at square one?

At Dekker’s one year appointment, his doctor asked how he was doing with food. I told her about the few episodes of throwing up and that I was nervous that it was still happening. She was so encouraging and made me face the fact that he had gone from throwing his food up several times a week to a couple times a month. HUGE improvement! Very true. What a relief! She mentioned that we could go see a speech pathologist, not for his speech but to look into the shape of his mouth/throat and see if that related to his gag reflex at all. However, she took it back and said she trusted us. It was nice to feel that support. She could see the improvement, even though it was slow. Of all the people you want to impress most, its your doctor, right?

So all that yucky history aside, Dekker has been getting better at eating things that we eat. Not everything, not by any means, but more than ever before. He’s still a little burp sensitive though. He’ll actually stop eating in the middle of his meal for a burp. Weird, I know, but we do what works.

So, to the celebration. Yesterday, I was baking in my kitchen with Dekker in his high chair. He was starting to get antsy and fussy towards the end so I put an oatmeal cookie on his tray. This was something I did fully expecting him to throw it up. Oats are something that don’t really break down much when you chew them, you know? And considering that most of his teeth are front teeth, I figured he’d end up swallowing the pieces whole. He always throws up chunky things. I ripped the cookie up a bit and hoped for the best, leaving him alone to do his thing, but being close by, ready and waiting to pull him out of his chair and get those pieces out of his throat like I’ve done so many times before. He put a little piece in his mouth, and sat with that look on his face that he always has with new foods. His “figuring it out” face. He made a very good, long effort to chew up the piece, swallowed it no problem, reached over and took a drink of his milk, and went for another piece. My son ate an oatmeal cookie!!!!! I am so proud of him!

Like I said, we celebrate silly things over here. Like eating cookies and milk. But I could no be happier 😀

Anyone who spends time with kids can likely relate to me on this. We celebrate everything, big and small, right? Yay, the baby pooped! Yay, the baby clapped! Yay, the baby reached the top of his head finally! We celebrate everything around here. I love it. All the more reason to be happy.

We had a brand new celebration yesterday. But before I tell you about it, I’m going to fill you in on history.

Some of you probably know some or all of it already, but I’ll just put it out there really quickly. Dekker has struggled with eating solid food. I know, he’s a big boy and looks like he’s been eating steak since birth. He was born with terribly weak stomach muscles, causing him to throw up regularly. As in every day, with every bottle. I found it very difficult. I was always nervous for someone else to hold him, as he would throw up anytime, whether it was right after a bottle, or two hours after. When he finally started rolling a little, his muscles started to improve, but when we tried to start basic solid foods at six months, he seemed to regress. So we backed off. He wasn’t ready, and all the health care people said to start at six months at the earliest. So I figured we had some time. All of a sudden, people were on our backs. Why weren’t we feeding him solid food? No one could understand where we were coming from. I shouldn’t say no one. Lots of people supported us. But those that didn’t really hurt me. Did they think I was doing a bad job with Dekker?? I was doing what I thought was right with what I had to work with! So we didn’t end up really jumping on the solid food bandwagon until around nine months. Even then, it was thin purees, and he would still gag them up and throw up often, maybe a couple times a week. It was just awful. I spoke to public health nurses and his doctor, picked and chose what I wanted to take from it, and kept working. It was a huge process for us. Finally, still on thin purees, we got to a point where he hadn’t thrown up in about a month. He waited until we had  family over visiting, and chose then to wretch and gag and throw up several times all over himself, the carpet, his chair, me, everything. I raced him to the bathroom and burped him like a newborn until he was finished, cleaned him up, and then bawled like a baby. I actually tear up a little bit just writing this out. This was so hard for me. Were we back at square one?

At Dekker’s one year appointment, his doctor asked how he was doing with food. I told her about the few episodes of throwing up and that I was nervous that it was still happening. She was so encouraging and made me face the fact that he had gone from throwing his food up several times a week to a couple times a month. HUGE improvement! Very true. What a relief! She mentioned that we could go see a speech pathologist, not for his speech but to look into the shape of his mouth/throat and see if that related to his gag reflex at all. However, she took it back and said she trusted us. It was nice to feel that support. She could see the improvement, even though it was slow. Of all the people you want to impress most, its your doctor, right?

So all that yucky history aside, Dekker has been getting better at eating things that we eat. Not everything, not by any means, but more than ever before. He’s still a little burp sensitive though. He’ll actually stop eating in the middle of his meal for a burp. Weird, I know, but we do what works.

So, to the celebration. Yesterday, I was baking in my kitchen with Dekker in his high chair. He was starting to get antsy and fussy towards the end so I put an oatmeal cookie on his tray. This was something I did fully expecting him to throw it up. Oats are something that don’t really break down much when you chew them, you know? And considering that most of his teeth are front teeth, I figured he’d end up swallowing the pieces whole. He always throws up chunky things. I ripped the cookie up a bit and hoped for the best, leaving him alone to do his thing, but being close by, ready and waiting to pull him out of his chair and get those pieces out of his throat like I’ve done so many times before. He put a little piece in his mouth, and sat with that look on his face that he always has with new foods. His “figuring it out” face. He made a very good, long effort to chew up the piece, swallowed it no problem, reached over and took a drink of his milk, and went for another piece. My son ate an oatmeal cookie!!!!! I am so proud of him!

Like I said, we celebrate silly things over here. Like eating cookies and milk. But I could no be happier 😀

I know, its a gross title. But I figure its fitting since I don’t have much to share except an update on the sickness in my house.

Yesterday I missed church and stayed in, watched movies, had a bubble bath, drank soup, and thats about it. Brady and Dekker came home and babied me as long as they could until Dekker went down for a nap and Brady started to feel worse. We had an accidental 45 minute nap which felt great for me, but Brady woke up with a fever. So we worked on that and brought it down pretty quick, but at that point we both felt crappy. Dekker slept a solid three hours, which was perfect! He woke up at 7:00pm, and ate supper. He ate pretty well, not too fidgety, which was a relief for his parents who were pretty much at the end of their ropes. Then we took Deks downstairs to play until bedtime.

For those that think its gruesome that we often have Dekker downstairs, let me clarify. On warm days, its cooler down there, and on cold days its warmer. So it was perfect yesterday for my fevering husband to be in the coolest part of the house. Also, the carpet makes it easier for Dekker to pull up and walk around on the furniture. He’s a bit of a late mover, so he’s still unsteady on his feet. He walks along things well but I can tell he is still a ways away on walking on his own. He doesn’t have the balance for it yet. So when he pulls up on a couch upstairs, he often slips on the hard floor. If we ever want him to play upstairs we have to change his clothes. Not the end of the world, but I’m not putting him in jeans for that 1.5 hours before bedtime. Crazy. My kids loves sleepers!

At around 8:30pm we gave Deks his last drink of milk and put him to bed. And the little nerd chatted and chatted for probably an hour. Happily. So strange! I knew that we could go in there and lay him back down and he’d cry and cry, and then fall asleep. But he wasn’t crying to get out or anything! He was just talking and playing. So why not let him? Its not like his crib is loaded with toys to keep him awake. In fact, he doesn’t have one toy in there! Two blankets. His version of “playing” in the crib is reaching between the bars and pushing the crib away from the wall. Not to self: take wheels off crib. Geez, now I’m just babbling! All things aside, he eventually fell asleep, we had a hot bath, watched some tv, and went to bed. Usually an afternoon nap screws up my whole night, no matter how short it was, but not this time! We clearly both really needed it.

So this morning, my cough has loosened, which is sooo much better than the horrible dry cough that makes me dry-heave. However, we know that with a loose cough comes an outpouring of…well…snot. And lots of it. I am a gross person right now. But its not about me. Its about my son, who started coughing yesterday. He thinks coughing and sneezing is hilarious and laughs like crazy every time. Oh how I hope he doesn’t get this cold to the degree we have! And on the selfish side, if he’s going to get it, I hope he gets it soon. If he gets it in a week, then I’ll re-catch it and I just don’t want to 🙁

We need to be better by thanksgiving so we can go meet baby Charlie! Prayers would be welcomed!

In my last post, I optimistically stated that my cold was on the upswing earlier than usual. I was terribly wrong.

I agreed to sing with our worship leader this week at church but backed out last minute after waking up without a voice. Now I’d like to just clarify that for my readers. I didn’t wake up raspy or groggy, or with a sexy voice. I had very literally no voice. I could hardly whisper even, but when I tried to use my actual voice, it sounded the same as the whisper, just with additional choking and gagging. So I m spending my morning at home.

Brady took Dekker to church so the house is quiet. I already had a hot soak and watched a chick flick. I’m drinking honey water and I ate some crackers to give my throat a scratch. I really don’t see my day containing a whole lot more than that! However, I do have a strong desire to bake cookies. That type of urge comes around very rarely so I’m debating whether I should go for it or not. I have a whole bunch of yummy new desserty recipes from my mom that I’m eager to try.

Whether I bake for fun or not, today will be my day of rest. I’m looking forward to it.

Brady and I are both down with colds. And we went out. Hence the title. Witty little play on words there for ya.

I am praising the Lord for today! My cold is miles better than is was a day or two ago, which almost never happens. Brady’s cold hit its worst this morning but cleared up significantly in the afternoon. We’re thinking we may already be on the upswing!

We felt well enough to head into Saskatoon for a few things. Starbucks (obviously), oil for the car, and groceries. Brady and I always try to guess how much the groceries will cost before they’re scanned. We never put any money on it or anything, it is just a game. Brady has actually guessed within the dollar once! So today, I looked at our purchases (potatoes, soup, fruit cups, oats,milk,  butter, etc.) and guessed $60. And they came to $56! Not only was I close, but I looove it when I pay less than I was expecting! Same thing happened at Walmart. Not specifically that our entire purchase came to less than I thought it would, but we bought higher quality oil for the car for less than we normally pay for lesser quality oil at Canadian Tire. Not sure why I hadn’t thought of trying Walmart before! Even the filter was cheaper!

After our successful shopping trip, we arrived home before 3:00pm, fed Deks and played with him downstairs a little bit before putting him down for a nap. Of course, he’s still talking away. He hasn’t napped at all yet, and we all know how much he sleeps! I think he’s just happy 🙂 And that makes me happy.

Such a nice family I have. Looking forward to a comfy evening at home with them.