I spent the day with my friend Hailey and her two sons. Our families have gotten together a few times for supper but have only once spent the day together and never at our place. It was so nice to have one of my best girlfriends out for the day! We had easy lunch and had solid girl talk while our boys played. As I have said so many times, Dekker is very shy of new people, but he did great with her kids!! He just stared after the older one as he raced laps around the room and drove cars around, and he was completely taken with the baby when he would start to crawl really fast. Dekker would squeal and point and get so excited! Once, baby Z came up to Dekker, grabbed his shirt, and pulled up on him. Deks just froze, but didn’t get scared or try to get away. He just stared. It was awesome to see. When I finally made Dekker have a nap, he cried so hard when I carried him to his crib. He was so sad to leave and miss all the fun! However, he was even sadder to wake up and have supper, he after some cucumbers and crackers, he went right back down to bed and hasn’t made a sound since.

When the husbands showed up and girl time was over, we started putting together the meal they brought for us. It was my favorite kind of meal!! Courses of appetizers, basically. All the delicious stuff. Mozza sticks, jalapeno poppers, chicken wings, with rice and an apple pecan salad. Oh my gosh. It was sooo yummy! I was so full at the end, yet completely sad that it was over. You know those meals? Amazing.

We visited a bit longer but all the boys were fading and as all parents can relate to, when the kids are fading, so are the adults. So we called it a night before 10pm. Hoping to see you guys again next week maybe?? So nice seeing you!!!

Diapers in the wash? Check. Watermelon sliced? Check. Bathtub run? Pending.

Guys, its official. Mid-twenties. Mixed emotions. But not too mixed I suppose. I couldn’t be happier with where I am than I am now. I have a loving husband, my adorable son, and my sweet girl on the way. We have a house and a successful business. We have been blessed with more amazing friends than we know what to do with. We have God, and He is good. I am thankful.

As I said yesterday, today was really the only day I didn’t have things planned! And it was the best that way, to be honest. I was awake at 3:30am and that was it for the day. Dekker woke up somewhat early, clearly on the wrong side of the crib. Not literally, thank the Lord. But he was something of a handful all day. I love him desperately, and I totally feel for him. If I had an open wound on my bum and wore diapers, I would fuss pretty hard too. He struggled all day, and while I can honestly say I was more patient than I thought I would be with him, I am completely wiped just from the amount of screaming that went on in my house today. It was a challenge to say the least, but it would have been waaay scarier had we been out all day!

Brady finished work at a nice early hour, came home with red roses, and made me dinner. He even manned Deks while I put my feet up for a bit and watched YouTube videos. It was the perfect setup, and supper was sooo delicious! I love stroganoff. Somehow it feels like a guilty pleasure meal, even though its perfectly respectable! I suppose guilty pleasure doesn’t always have to mean its loaded with high fructose corn syrup.

I was also informed about our date on Friday. I knew something was up but wasn’t positive on the plans. Shakespeare, baby!!! Supper by the river, followed by a performance of “A Comedy of Errors.” This will be our third time attending a play by Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan and have yet to be disappointed. Every play we’ve seen, I have never read, but it was all so clear and humorous, I didn’t get lost once. Can’t wait! And of course, my Jerilee, I can’t believe you kept this secret from me! Thanks for watching my son for another evening 🙂 I’ll do everything in my power to get his diaper rash cleaned up before you have to deal with it!

Watermelon and a bubble bath, and catching up on the Bachelorette. Turned out to be a good day after all 🙂

 

 

* Side notes, again. Some things just don’t fit in this post but I have to include them somehow! Firstly, Dekkers cow sound is no longer “moo moo” and is now “boom boom.” Love it! Secondly, here are some pictures of the adorable clothes we bought our baby girl while in Winnipeg, and our new cloth diapers 🙂

The end. I’m finished. I can’t WAIT to dress her!

I love days like these 🙂

Its so nice to be home after a trip. I enjoy it way more than I used to actually. I have decided to find joy in small stuff.

As lots of you know, I have recently discovered a love for doing laundry. It gives me an excuse to be downstairs playing toys with Dekker while accomplishing things at the same time. I never used to find joy in completing tasks, but I think I’ve started to figure that out and its a good, rewarding feeling.

Today, however, was even better than an average laundry day. My dear Jerilee came over, bearing coffee and stories of her insane life over the last week. It was exactly what I needed! Dekker went down for a nap about a half hour after she arrived, and we chatted and sipped coffee and caught up between loads of laundry. I know I said I was going to take pictures of everything and post them tonight, but things are hang drying and I want them to be cute and laid out when I photograph them. Tomorrow it will have to be!

Brady was home relatively quickly after Jerilee left, and brought Subway for supper. I LOVE Subway days! We watched some AFV and had super delicious sandwiches, which hit the spot completely. Yum!

We’re now just waiting for our last load of laundry to run before we can make our bath and have a snack in front of some good guilty pleasure tv, and then a good sleep! I’m so looking forward to my week 🙂 NOTHING up tomorrow! No chores or anything! Then Wednesday with my friend Hailey and her family, Thursday with my parents, and Friday with Brady! Loaded week, but wonderful week.

Anticipation!

 

 

* I realized this evening that I forgot to post an adorable story about Dekker yesterday that I was really looking forward to writing! This happens once in a while (thanks for nothing, pregnancy brain) but this one is just too cute to pass up! One our drive home yesterday, we stopped at a Tim Hortons for a nice supper of muffins and tea. Since my family always waves at the window when someone drives away, Dekker tends to wave at cars, whether he’s inside our doctors office building looking out, at our house, or simply waving at his toy cars. The drive-thru line was right next to us and he kept waving at cars, but no one saw him! And he was waving eagerly!! Sooo much hope in his face! But to no avail. He seemed to give up and give in to his muffin finally. Until we noticed a woman looking straight at us from her car, with a subtle smile on her face. We encouraged Dekker to wave at her and her smile grew sooo big! She waved back right away. Those little interactions warm my heart. I know my son is shy around new people and new places, and is pretty cautious. I think that can be really healthy, and I don’t plan to “remove” that quality from the little boy he is. But I also want him to be friendly. And I love seeing that come out of him. Special moment for his mommy to see.

We have safely arrived home and as I so often say, while we are so happy we went, it is a huge relief to be home.

We got up at a good time this morning and headed out to meet our friends for breakfast before leaving Winnipeg. We picked up some Starbucks on the way and were at their house by 9:00. They had prepared a big breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and fruit which we downed! It was super delicious. And it was also really good to get in a short visit. I’m not going to lie. I felt sick that my girlfriend lost her mom just a week ago, and was waking up early to make me and my family breakfast. I felt like a garbage friend. I failed pretty hard as a friend in this situation, not knowing what to say or how to act. But I prayed, and I went with what I felt was right, so hopefully it will all make sense eventually. Either way, it was so nice to spend a little quiet time in the morning with my girlfriend, and her husband a dad. I love that family.

Dekker wasn’t exactly on his best behaviour, and was asleep as soon as we hit the highway. I took the first shift driving and Brady had a short nap as well. I only made it to Brandon before I decided I would like a break from the wheel. I drove most of the way to Winnipeg, which I’m actually thinking was way better for my back since I was forced to sit straight, but I didn’t want to get dozey and kill off our family. So I traded Brady out and we ate lunch on the road to wake us up.

Somewhere between Moosomin and Regina, Dekker and I both had a good solid nap. However, Dekker slept a little funny and got a kink in his neck. Home could not come soon enough. Little dude was sooo sad, and holding his head all funny. I wish I knew the trick to help him learn to sleep in his carseat with his head back instead of sideways or forward but we have yet to figure it out. This almost never happens though, this was the second time, and the first time was before he was one year old. Still, he was so sad and sooo tired! On the last half hour stretch before we got home, Brady went and sat in the backseat with him and tried to read to him and distract him from his pain. It worked pretty well for the most part but Dekker kept falling asleep and then waking up as soon as we;d hit a bump. He cried and cried til he was sweaty and snotty all over his face, and drooly and hot and teary and having trouble catching his breath. I was awful for all of us.

We finally got to bring him inside, which we had all anticipated for quite some time. I put him on my shoulder and he finally rested his head on me. No movement. No celebration when we entered the house like always. Just discomfort. When I lay him on his change table, he was pretty nervous and cried, but then realized how much better his neck felt when it was all stretched out. He relaxed right away, while I changed his diaper really slowly, with lots of tummy tickles and kisses in between. He started to cool off finally, and his hair dried off a bit. Sitting him back up to change his shirt wasn’t popular, and normally we would have just left him in a sweaty shirt for the night to just avoid the pain it caused, but he had food all over it as well, and I’ll likely be catching up on laundry tomorrow. The first load is always his. It just needed to be done. But he recovered and came into our room for bedtime cuddles like always. I miss bedtime routine sooo much when we’re away! But having him lay on my chest and play like always was completely out of the question. So instead I lay him back on his back, and played peekaboo with his blanket. He loved it! So peekaboo turned a bit more aggressive with lots of sneaking kisses and tickles and munching. We got to put him to bed happy instead of teary and distraught. Sooo much better!

Now Brady and I are anticipating the rest of the evening. We’re whooped. I will likely unpack everything tomorrow, so nothing too crazy tonight. Dekkers rash got sooo much worse in disposable diapers over this weekend so we used a few cloth for the drive home today. Those are already in the wash and once they’re through, we’ll have a soak and watch some zoning out tv before bed. So looking forward to it!

Ok, a few cute random photos from this weekend and we’re done here. Have a good rest everyone!

Tomorrow I’ll post photos of all the new diapers we got this weekend, and all the new baby girl clothes we bought at Target!

Its our last day here in Winnipeg, and we have spent it well if I do say so myself. Caity and I did some running around this afternoon and accomplished a pretty great haul at Target. We both bought my baby girl some clothes that I’m SUPER excited about! I’ll take pictures when we get home 🙂 I also picked up some BB cream. I only halfway know what it is and I don’t know whether or not Rimmel was the right brand to try out, but the brand I was looking for was out of their lightest shade, which I most definitely am. Either way, I’ve wanted to try this face cream and I’ll post on here my thoughts once I actually use it for a while. Fuss-free makeup is what I’m hoping for! While us ladies shopped, the boys stayed home and played video games. Probably not as much as they would have liked though. Dekkers nap schedule was wildly off kilter and he was quite hands-on the whole time he was awake. But I’m still thinking they had a good time. Just maybe less relaxing than we had.

We came home and read Dekker books while the guys got in a few more games. We had burgers for supper, which really hit the spot in my opinion. We have only eaten super delicious food since we got here. No complaints whatsoever. After supper we put Dekker to bed, and watched The Hunger Games. Brady and I had never seen it before, or read the books, but it was a pretty intense movie! I was scared it would be a lot more graphic and gruesome and that I wouldn’t sleep, but it is now past midnight and I’m pretty sure I’ll fall asleep soon 🙂 As a sidenote, towards the end of the movie, Dekker was waking up quite regularly. I figured it was because we were watching a movie and just making a bit of noise. Sometimes it happens, and he always falls right back to sleep. But the wakeful times were getting closer together, and Brady pointed out that they were sounding sadder and sadder. So he took a risk and went in to pick Dekker up and give him a cuddle. We almost never disturb him until morning as it tends to wake him more than relax him. But poor little man had pooped 🙁

We opted to use disposable diapers on this trip, as we didn’t have all the supplies we felt we needed to comfortably use cloth. However, his rash is insane! Its amazing how such a short time in cloth has made such a difference, and now he is absolutely suffering in his disposables. Tomorrow we’re going to pick up some more cloth diapers that our friends purchased for us off of kijiji, and I know the woman who sold them freshly stripped and washed them, so we may already use them tomorrow for the drive home to try and save his poor bum.

Time for bed. We have to be up bright and early! Big plans to meet our friends for breakfast before hitting the road and heading home. If anyone thinks of us in their prayers tonight or tomorrow, please pray that our ride home can be as smooth as our ride out was. Such a blessing!

Brady and I spent the afternoon celebrating a life cut short much too quickly. One of my best friends lost her mom recently. Her sister lost her mom, and her dad lost his wife. I can’t imagine being in their shoes, and I’m thankful to not have to. The emotion in the room was raw, but it was not all sorrow. I had definite feelings of celebration and love. It was a beautiful service. And honestly, I miss my Jessica very much. It was nice to see her for a few moments and be able to hug and kiss her. I know I can’t bring comfort, but she has God and He is the ultimate comfort. Their family will go on living, just as Pam is still living with our Heavenly Father. We all have lots to be thankful for.

While we were at the church catching up with friends from work, Dekker spent the afternoon playing with Auntie Caity and Uncle Stefan in a blanket fort. Apparently he didn’t cry or fuss at all, which is a huge relief. But I felt confident leaving him alone with two completely loving and totally capable family members. Plus, he saw us leave and didn’t eve seem to care, which was awesome!

Deks went down for a nap around 5pm and we arrived home at 6. We let him sleep until 7:30 with the intention to put him to bed around 8:30. I know, it seems short but theres usually only about an hour in there. However, he was out cold and waking him didn’t go over well. He ate pretty well but was completely pissed right when he was done. We made a valiant effort to keep him happy until about 8:15 when we finally bit the bullet and put him back to bed. He proceeded to chat and sing for probably an hour before he actually fell asleep. Funny boy. Whatever makes him happy!

As Dekker slept, the four of us headed outside for a fire. I think most of us were feeling pretty wiped so it was a relatively quiet event, but so nice to be outside getting some air. Caity also surprised me by making a birthday cake. No, its not my birthday but its coming up, and since we were all together, she made a super delicious pumpkin bundt cake with a cream cheese icing drizzled overtop. Cake and coffee was served outside, which was wonderful.

We packed it in at 11pm and as I can no longer seem to find the right position that allows me to breathe, I’m going to call this good enough for tonights post so I can finally lay on my side with a pillow between my knees.

Sleep deep.

This is our second time in Winnipeg in just over two months. I will be honest and say I was apprehensive about this visit. If you remember the last time we came out this far, it was over May long. Dekker cut four molars and his eyes started crossing over that weekend. No, I don’t think its Winnipegs fault 🙂 But it was a stressful trip anyway. I also remember that he was crying less than ten minutes into the drive, and it never really improved. I was very nervous about the drive this morning.

We packed almost everything this morning since we baked late into yesterday evening. Then while Brady loaded up the car, I got Dekker who had been lulled awake by our movement and seemed happy to be up. I changed his bum and his clothes and we piled him in the car, having packed him a full breakfast of special treats. Extra fruit, and a new cereal. Lucky boy.

Another thing we packed was toys. Of course we always have some toys along, but I was determined to have him enjoy the trip as much as possible, and even though there are more than enough toys here at my sister and brother in laws to entertain him, he needed the fun in the car. I walked through our home with a large lululemon bag this morning and picked out all his favorites to bring. Yup, even the annoying ones. The singing dog, about five or six books, pans, hammers, a firetruck, etc. LOTS! And you know what. It worked!!

Dekker had one meltdown the entire trip. Right outside of Brandon. We thought maybe he had pooped and while we weren’t planning on stopping, we decided to anyway, to check his diaper. He hadn’t pooped, but the break was exactly what he needed, and he was positive the rest of the drive. For only napping 20 minutes all day long, he surprised Brady and I. I should expect these kinds of things by now. Dekker truly is extraordinary.

We arrived at my sisters place in better time than we thought we would! They had a nice hot supper waiting for us, which was perfect after a day of driving. Dekker wouldn’t have it though, and we didn’t really give him too much heck about it. He had been confined all day. No wonder he just wanted to run around and play toys. So instead of rice and curry, he ran free and came to the table occasionally for grapes and crackers. I felt like his emotional health was more important than forcing him to sit strapped into a seat for yet more time when he had just been chasing a ball around the living room.

He ran out of steam at his usual bedtime, which was perfect. He went down easily while the rest of us stayed up for snacks and a movie. Now Brady and I cuddled into bed, anticipating an episode or two of our latest show on Netflix, and then hopefully a nice sleep in (please Dekker?).

Tomorrow we will celebrate a life well lived and well loved, cut much too short. If only we could understand why things happen. But I’m relieved to finally be able to be near my friends and support them in person.

God is greater.

So far today I haven’t accomplished as much as I was hoping to. I don’t want to be lame and complain about normal things, but I’ve reached a point in my pregnancy where my legs are just achy and tired and its hard to find motivation. Anyone else know that feeling? Well after having Dekker up for a few hours, I spent his whole nap in my bed resting my body. It was awesome. I loved it. However, when he woke up, I got to work.

While Deks ate lunch I baked a pan of brownies. They’re currently in the freezer in an effort to cool them off so I can ice them yet tonight. Then I played with Dekker until Brady got home, which was just before his bedtime. So Dekker is in bed, the diapers are in the laundry, and I’m writing this blog in the kitchen standing at the counter in an effort to stay out of bed. I still have two batched of cookies to bake and then supper and possibly packing. Not sure yet if we’ll pack tonight or tomorrow morning. Brady has been working his crazy butt off and deserves a soak and an early bedtime so we’ll see about that. But for sure baking cookies and icing brownies. Oh and supper. Starving. I need food! Plus I forgot to take Zantac this morning again so I’m anxious to get this cruddy taste of of my mouth as soon as possible.

Randomly, does anyone elses kid poop way more once their in cloth?! Dekker literally poops 4-5 times a day now. Its like he knows its grosser to clean up. Thanks man.

I accomplished virtually nothing today.

Ok, not nothing, but not a lot. My Jerilee came over and was completely whooped, so we spent most of our day together sitting in the basement while Dekker played toys. She has been so busy with work recently that I’m completely out of touch with whats going on in her life, so it was nice to catch up.

Meanwhile, I fed the two of us and Dekker, so that counts as something right? And I changed sooo many poopy diapers! Crazy Dekker boy. Now that he’s in cloth he poops way more, which is not my favorite. But hey, he’s happier probably.

I also did laundry. We didn’t have much but are heading out for the weekend and I figured we could use all the fresh clothes we can get, so I did a couple loads of mainly sock and gitch, and Dekker’s stuff. It was pretty chill. And I’m doing his day of diapers right now, so that should count towards my total of things I did today as well.

That was pretty much all I did! I’ve felt quite fatigued for some reason, having trouble getting up the stairs, lifting Dekker, etc. Not every day is like this and I’m banking on tomorrow not being that way at all!

While I accomplished not a whole heck of a lot, Brady was at work before 6am, and worked until 6pm. Couldn’t be more thankful to have a husband who works so hard for his family!

Baking tomorrow. And packing and planning and listing.

Dekker and I went on a date with my mom today. We only had a few places to hit so we met just shortly before noon and took our time. The main goal of our shopping trip was to buy some flannel to make receiving blankets for baby girl. My mom has made blankets and burp pads for all of her grandkids so far and Dekker still loves his!! He doesn’t have one specific favourite necessarily, but he cuddles a blanket at night and chews the corners. Still. He has loved them well and they are comfortably worn.

So we hit up a little fabric place first off. Its considerably lesser known than the chain stores, but because of that it tends to have totally different stuff. We found so many beautiful flannels! We left with enough material for six different blankets. My mom already has some at home for  couple of blankets and all the burp pads. We are set up, and the blankets are going to be sooo pretty! The only downer was that our favourite one only had 1.2 yards left, just enough for a blanket, and if there had been more, we were hoping to make a couple crib sheets out of it too. Therefore, I will duck into every fabric store for the next little while in a desperate search to find the same stuff and buy it out!

In that first stop, Dekker was acting out pretty well. The woman cutting our fabric kept letting people overpower her and we kept getting pushed further back in the line. We waited and waited, and Dekker was starting to fuss. He would not go down and I couldn’t hold him! He started hitting, and that was it. So I left mom in the store (sorry mom!) and took Dekker outside for a talk. I stood him up in front of me and crouched down to his level. What I didn’t expect was that being as near to the street as we were terrified him. He was grabbing for me and had me in a headlock basically. He was sooo scared to have the traffic that close, even though we were still a good ways from the road. I didn’t rescue him right away though. I held onto him nice and tight but made him keep standing there while we talked. When I had said our peace, I easily got my hug and we went to sit in the car. He was silent right up until mom came back to the car. Success!

After the fabric store we headed to a nearby mall to take advantage of a sandal sale. 75% off! However, there was next to nothing in our sizes. And it wasn’t even due to pickiness, like color. No flip flops. Weird. So that was an epic fail. We were heading towards Target when I decided to quickly duck into Thyme to try and find a dress for this weekend. I tried on every dress I own last night and nothing fits my newly mondo belly. So I checked out the dresses there and actually found one I feel super pretty in, plus a pair of capri jeggings on sale for $20! That helped me feel less guilty about how expensive the dress was. But its a great dress and it’ll get a lot of wear. After buying clothes, chasing Dekker around playing with their toys, and changing his diaper, we left Thyme and went for Target. Target is new here and while I expected it to be really busy, I was actually kind of disappointed. Besides being totally picked through, it was mixed up and haphazard. I was on the hunt for muslin blankets and asked the wrong employee for help. By the end of our ten minute interaction, I knew all about her disorders, her unruly liars of children, her ex-boyfriend, and a lot of other things that I personally wouldn’t just share with a potential customer at my place of business. But hey, we all do things differently. Either way, we left empty-handed. Lame.

We grabbed a quick lunch after the mall and made our last stop at Fabricland. Weirdly enough, they had nothing even comparable to the first store! Everything was kind of ugly and overpriced. The only sale stuff was Christmas themed, which I’m not particularly going for, so it was also kind of a bust, but I think we’re all just happy that we didn’t hold back at the first place and bought all of our favorites. Those blankets are going to be sooo pretty!!

Dekker slept the whole ride home and again in his room when we got there. I rested in bed and watched some YouTube videos while researching how to make crib sheets and bumper pads. It was a solid day of events but not in a rushed, stressful way at all. It was fun and comfortable, and I’d love to do it again soon.

However, its just about 10pm. I have to go pull the diapers out and hang them up, and plan out my week a little. And then have a bath and watch How I Met Your Mother. And then sleep. Was it a full moon last night?? We all slept weird. Don’t tell me its actually tonight. I’d like to sleep all night.