Maybe I should have named this post “Crunch Time.” But being that apparently my mind is still that of a fourteen year old, that makes me think of pooping. So…

Did anyone else realized its into the second half of November? My life is feeling pretty crazy right now. I know that lots of people are much busier than me, and I respect that. I know how much my body and I are up for, and I’m one of those people who doesn’t do awesome under stress. If I have one activity planned, I consider that day full enough. Yet, its getting to be that time of year, and I’d like to have as many of ducks in a line as possible before we want to relax and spend time with family and friends over Christmas. Brady will actually have two weeks off over Christmas which is COMPLETELY INCREDIBLE! I’m sooo looking forward to that! December won’t be too terribly busy, but the rest of November is slammed for him. This is kind of a drag for me because, not only does the average work day ending at 5:00 bring him home by 6:00 at the earliest, but it also means that all the errands that need running and appointments that need attending either need to be done by me alone, or on Saturdays. And Saturdays are nutty in the city already with Christmas shoppers. I will be one of those people soon enough.

I don’t want to be feel panicked all December. We’re having company over the weekend after next, and I started making a list of things I need to have completed before they arrive. Sort of like cutting my list of everything that needs to be done in half. Well, half-ish. I had NO idea how much there is to do! Lots of my jobs are easily doable, but its hard with a toddler and a new baby with a tummy ache who needs constant attention. How does a person even make a phone call?? My “small list” of things to accomplish has grown to over 20 things over the last couple of days. Its going to be a big Saturday in the city with the fam! Yikes.

All I want to do is Christmas shop. Thats not even on the list at this point, because there are other things that need to be accomplished before Christmas. Of course the fun job has to be last. I’m nervous, as I make my lists based on priority, knowing that I need to order some Christmas gifts, and will miss the time window if I wait too long. Yet, Christmas gifts can’t be on my list yet!! Do I just sound insane? I’m trying to be organized and it doesn’t seem to be working.

For sure in the next day or so, I need to make a ton of calls. I have to cancel Dekker’s appointment with his second opinion eye doctor, and book another appointment with Dr. Rubab in case he doesn’t get in for surgery right away in January. I have to book shots and chiropractic for Laela, and counselling for myself. Not only do I have to book these appointments, but I have to find time to go to them!  I know they’re just calls at the moment, but its hard to find the time and the free hand.

On top of all of this, I really have a desire to exercise a bit. I am very excited about those one month challenges that are all over the place, and was debating starting one about a week ago. I was put off with it being in the very middle of the month, and thought maybe I’d hold out until December 1st. But then I’d have to be squatted, planking, or wall-sitting on Christmas, which is not my ideal. So I’m thinking starting now would be super smart, because I could do a whole month challenge, take Christmas off, and start a new challenge in the new year. What do you guys think? Does anyone want to help motivate me and do these challenges with me? I could use an accountability person or two in this whole thing. Maybe then it would be easier to find the five minutes per day that it would take! Yet I feel so overwhelmed by all the things that need to get done, squatting fifty times isn’t so much my top priority. Maybe it should be? Sigh. Who knows.

I’m feeling a bit scattered, I suppose. My mom is coming over tomorrow and I hope she can help me organize life a bit. She worked wonders with my lists last week and I’m hoping she can help make sense of them this week too. November may fill up really fast, and then only 3.5-ish weeks til Christmas!!

And then anywhere from 1-4 weeks until Dekker’s surgery. Wow. Don’t think that far ahead, Hailey. Don’t do it.

Hope you guys are all feeling a bit more sane than I am tonight! Yay red wine and a bubble bath!

I woke up with a cold. Its been toying with our family for a while now. We all had the beginnings of a cold around Halloween, but seemed to recover. Then a couple of weeks ago, Laela got a cold and I knew we were all in for it. But she recovered quite well, being the trooper that she is, but not aaaaall the way. And now we all have it.

As soon as I could hear that both kids were awake, only then did I begin struggling to physically keep my eyes open. Needless to say, it was a rocky morning. But Dekker was a champ! Not one toddler meltdown and really very little correction, if any. I can’t fully remember. Laela was a bit off her game and was quite weepy. I hate to even go there in my hear, but she’s starting to drool a lot more and I think her bottom gums are flattening out a bit. It is sooo early for teeth! She’s only seven weeks today. However, at eight weeks, its considered safe for babies to start wearing amber necklaces, and Dekker’s worked wonders for him so I’m hoping to pick one up for her today. Any opinions on colors? They range from very dark brown, to reds/oranges, to beautiful light yellows. Little girls often wear the yellow ones, yet she’s a dark brunette at this point and maybe a darker one would look nicer? I just don’t want to get her the exact same one as Dekker, which is a very dark brown. Input?

Around 2:00pm, Dekker was very ready for his nap, and went down without a complaint. Once he was down and Laela was settled on my lap in bed, I took the opportunity to eat a large bowl of soup and an entire sleeve of crackers. Wrong? Probably. But it was certainly delicious. Laela and I spent the rest of the afternoon cuddled together in bed watching my YouTube videos and dozing. It was much needed. I had talked to my mom earlier and I was already frazzled over my list of things to do this week, and she encouraged me to take a day off from thinking. She’s right. Tomorrow I’ll start thinking again. Lots of my list can be done from home anyway, but certain things I need to go to Saskatoon for. Maybe Saturday. Whatever. Brain off.

Bath on. I am sooo ready for a hot bath to clear up my stuffed nose and aching body. Hopefully Miss Laela cooperated with an earlier night so we can all feel a bit more rested tomorrow.

Tips on the amber necklaces anyone? Light? Dark? Colors? Multi-colored?

Its our last full day with Cody and Jessica for who knows how long. We never know when we’ll see each other next but its always a very special time. Today was even better than yesterday, and I can only assume that a full day tomorrow would surpass today! I love them.

We decided to sleep in this morning and skip church. I love resting on the day of rest! We took our time getting ready for the day, and headed to my parents house for lunch. We had a yummy lunch of spaghetti with chicken instead of beef in the sauce, which to me always feels like a treat. We were talking with my parents about our afternoon plans and mentioned that we were going to go do a bit of shopping since we didn’t get the chance on Saturday, and my mom offered to keep the kids for those couple of hours! Dekker would likely nap the whole time anyway, and Laela is still in that nice honeymoon stage of being a newborn and is super low maintenance. So we jumped at the offer and headed out for a kid-free shop. Jessica and I split off from our boys and spent a good long while in only two stores!!! But we had good success and both made a few solid purchases. We were back in Dalmeny around 6:00pm to collect the kids and head back home. We ate poutine and chicken wings for supper before Dekker went down for night. Once the house was quiet, we split off again and finally had some solid girl talk. And not shallow, “girly girl” talk. We talked about life and struggles and challenges and family and lessons we’re learning. We both have some pretty big things going on in our lives at the moment, and it was nice to be able to finally hash them out a bit in person as opposed to text messages. I’ll miss her when she’s gone.

Thanks to the mall walking, we’re all exhausted. Yet its 12:45am and we only really headed off to bed maaaybe a half hour ago. And its not even bedtime yet. We haven’t had a chance to crack Netflix 🙂 Soon.

Hopefully Laela keeps sleeping. This “having her in our room” thing isn’t getting any easier…

Lately, I feel like I get to be around friends fairly regularly, but Brady is working and misses out on visits. However, as I mentioned earlier, we have wonderful company this weekend, and Brady gets to be around for all of their visit!

We all woke up on our own time this morning and had a late brunch. We went for a bit of a walk in the afternoon with the kids, but only made it a couple of blocks since the wind was super cold! It was only -7C but the wind was pretty biting! Dekker and Laela were total champs and had a great time it seemed, but they were red and chilly by the time we got home. It was nice to get some fresh air 🙂 We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting and just being lazy. In an effort to be a bit less boring, we opted to go to the city for supper. Brady and I have yet to try out Five Guys, so we went their for supper and to Pure frozen yogurt for dessert. In my opinion (haters be hatin’) I wasn’t super impressed with Five Guys. The burger I had was yummy, but not worth its cost. I would have been just as happy with a junior bacon cheeseburger from Wendys for $1.89. But to each their own I suppose. I’m glad we went and tried it. But the yogurt was delicious! Mine was chocolate cake batter flavored, and I loaded it up with Clodhoppers, caramel chips, Skor chips, and caramel sauce. It was ridiculous, in a really good way.

Dekker went to bed as soon as we got home, and Laela dozed in and out most of the evening. We played tile rummy and drank red wine. It was quiet and relaxing, and now we are all pretty wiped out. Time for a bit of guilty pleasure tv and sleeping.

Sweet dreams!

Last night was probably my worst night yet since Laela was born. Not only did I not fall asleep until 2:00am due to my racing mind, but she woke at 4:00 and we couldn’t get her back down until 6:00. And then she was back up at 7:00 (I would know, I was still awake), rocked back to sleep, and then I was brutally in and out until we finally gave in and got up. Maybe this is a normal night for parents, but not for us. I’m doing my best not to pour over this took much. Laela has had the pattern of being awake for two hours in the night for the last few nights, but I’m hoping its just a stage, and I know Dekker would whip through those stages so fast! Hopefully Laela is similar in that way, and is past this before I even have a chance to try and figure out how to remedy the situation.

Needless to say, I was pretty much a zombie for most of the day, which wasn’t especially conducive for the day we had planned. We did our stuff in the city on Wednesday, and had more of a relaxed family day yesterday. We did accomplish some stuff yesterday, but not enough apparently. We didn’t realize how much there was left to do to get our house ready for company. Its not as though our friends have some issue with the cleanliness of our home. Its just us 🙂 It always feels so great to have the house looking good. So today, I was kind of in panic mode.

We did some more laundry, dishes, cleaned the floors and kitchen, and tidied all the toys upstairs and downstairs! Yes, Dekker did spread the basement out a little bit this evening, but he should! We also cleared up a few spots that are just consistently messy and drive me bananas. We actually have counter space now!!! We took out tons of garbage, and wrapped Christmas presents. Now, I’m about 70% sure everything is done and thats as sure as we’re gonna get because I’m bushed. It was a great, successful day though. It feels good to have it in order. I find that when we really get down to it and get things looking beautiful, they tend to stay that way a little bit longer than they would if we just rushed through it and did the job sort of half-assed.

The one room in the house that suffers is our room. Of course. Doesn’t everyone sort of have that issue? Well, maybe not, but when we don’t really have time to go through every single thing, the extras just get chucked into our room for another day. Luckily our room is so large, because it has three small disaster areas that need attention. Maybe next week. I’m actually looking forward to that!

I believe we still have an hour or so before our friends arrive, so I’m hopping in the tub! Sleep tight everyone!

I sort of just vented on you guys yesterday about my doctors appointment, but I skipped details on the rest of the day. The afternoon was actually pretty awesome! While I can’t go into crazy detail about everywhere I went (since we’re doing our first Christmas celebration this weekend and I can’t give anything away!) but there were some nice parts of the day that I left out and just really want to add, more for the sake of my records than anything.

We were in one store where the employees were just ogling over our double stroller full of cute. One of them even brought a cookie out from behind the counter for Dekker. They waved at him as we were leaving and, even though Dekker had never seen them before, he waved back. It was super adorable to watch him interact with people he’s never met, and to see him respond well instead of in fear. Progress like this has been made since we’ve pulled the plug on almost all of the patching. Luckily, we live an hour from everything, so if he has his patch on first thing in the morning, wears it over breakfast, and on the road to wherever, he can still have it off before he has to go anywhere new. I love that.

Another thing that I really enjoyed was my appointment with Dr. Mike. I hadn’t actually put it on the list initially, but as we were driving by, we figured I could just duck in and see if he was available. And he was! I waited just a few minutes before he came in. I have always spoken pretty highly of him, and how much interest he shows in our kids. Maybe its just been a while, or he was particularly caring yesterday, but he asked about everyone individually, and of course about me and how recovered he was feeling. I became “that person” and I told him what my doctor has said about PTSD. Dr. Mike is usually pretty fast moving, but he seemed to be a bit surprised, and leaned back in his chair and asked more about it. He asked about Laela’s delivery, and was very encouraging about the whole thing. He also gave me a few tips on things to do to help myself stay as healthy in the mind as possible. I trust his judgement, and will follow his tips as soon as I am able. As I was leaving, he rubbed my shoulder as I passed him out the door, and he said “I’m always here, pop in anytime.” I love my doctors. I am truly blessed to have the BEST medical professional in every field.

As for purchases that I made yesterday that I’m pumped about, I bought a few seasonal KCups! I called Timothy’s on the 12th and asked if they had anything seasonal come in yet. They told me they had white hot chocolate and a blend of coffee called Winter Carnival. I said that those were the ones I was hoping for, and mentioned that I’d be by the next day for a both of each. When I arrived, I couldn’t find either. They helped me and spotted a box of the hot chocolate that I had just missed. They then said sorry, but they didn’t have any Winter Carnival. I was very polite, but said I was disappointed, as I had called the day before and was told they had a box or two. The two women kind of smiled at each other and pulled out a box from behind the counter. The one lady had clearly had her hand on it while we were talking. She said “I wasn’t sure it was you! We saved you one!” I thought that was pretty lovely of them. Positive customer service, anyway. And the coffee is delicious, by the way. Go buy some.

I recently bought a pair of jeggings from Bluenotes, but they ripped when I brought them home 🙁 Sad. So I went to exchange them yesterday and they didn’t have the same color in my size, so I perused the other pants and found some other jeggings, same price, and almost exactly the same, but they actually had a zipper, not just a button. They fit beautifully and while I couldn’t get the same cool eggplant color, I got burgundy, and they are completely gorgeous. Love them! I also went to Ricki’s and bought a beautiful shirt I’ve been eyeing for a while. I realized after that I can’t wear both my new items together, which is sad. The shirt comes in grey too. I’d buy both, but at $40 a pop, I’m thinking I’ll just get over it. Still, both great purchases, in my opinion.

So yesterday was a good day, all things considered. There were a few bumps, of course, but there are always will be and I can choose what bothers me and what doesn’t. Self control, baby.

And I did my best with today. I was quite wiped out from yesterday and had a pretty slow start to the morning. I did two loads of laundry and actually got it all put away, as well as some laundry that been clean in a hamper for several days. Brady caught us up on dishes as well. While both kids were awake, they were decently hands on. Dekker was tired and acting out a bit, while Laela was sooo gassy! Lots of tears.

When Dekker went for a nap, Brady went out to fix the Christmas lights around the house. He’s just over halfway done, so hopefully that will get finished tomorrow. I tried to nap Laela, but she is most content tummy to tummy when she’s so gassy. So while I held her, I caught up on the YouTube videos I like to watch. Do you know those people who vlog regularly make money from YouTube? Maybe I chose the wrong soapbox here… When Laela would lay on her own for five or ten minutes, I tried to get stuff done. Nothing crazy. I’m not one of those moms while lofty household chore goals everyday. I prefer to rest so I can be a better player in my kids games. But I’m in the midst of a huge closet purge right now, so I was throwing some stuff out and trying to make the place beautiful. I forgot to take a complete “before” picture but I’m taking progress pictures and will take some good “after” pictures once I finally reach that point. I”ll make a post about it someday.

We all shared a pizza for supper before bundling up and going for a walk outside. It was beautiful outside, around 0.5C, so we chucked Dekker in the sled and put Laela on his lap. Last time, he was nervous and asked to come out, but got distracted once we started walking. This time, we put Laela on his lap and he made his little high pitched sound of greeting that he always makes around her. He rested an arm on top of her head most of the walk, and we heard him make a kissing sound at her every once in a while. It was lovely.

 

Now the day is done. I had a nice phone call with my mom while Brady ran a tub and got snacks together. Tomorrow, Jessica and Cody are driving out to spend the weekend with us!!! I am highly anticipating some quality girl talk with laughs and tears, as well as celebrating Christmas, and some shopping on the side.

It was a pretty loaded day today. We hit the post office, went to the doctor, to the mall for several different stores, Superstore, chiropractor, another mall, and Costco. I was the geek with the typed list, but it was only sanity. Lucky for us, we accomplished everything, and won’t have to make the trip in again tomorrow!!! The only things we didn’t get from the list were things that weren’t at the stores for whatever reason. And luckily, none of them were exactly “do or die” so I’m still calling our day productive and enormous and successful 🙂

I wanted to let you guys in on our doctors appointment. It feels weird to share quite so much with you, since I don’t really know who all of “you” are! But hey, why stop now? Laela and I celebrated six weeks together on Monday, so we had our check up this afternoon. Dr. Guselle checked Laela out first and confirmed that she is quite perfect, just as I suspected. She has already dropped in her weight curve from the 85% to 75%. She’s not too choked about it, but the regular process is to watch her a bit closer, and if she drops another percentile, they’ll want to check her over more thoroughly. However, I know how I grew as a baby, and it was much slower than Dekker! So I don’t expect her to exactly “bulk up” right away here. I was a whopping 28-ish pounds when I started kindergarten, and Dekker is currently about 33 pounds. Point made.

It was my turn next, and she left the room so I could change into a lovely paper sheet. While she was gone, both children melted down, and Brady took them all to the car to get them entertained with toys, music, and a bottle. Brady loyally comes to each and every appointment, so this was probably my first one alone. But I have to say, it was quite perfect. I love my doctor, and she and I did great together. She loosened up quite a bit. Its fun to see someone so professional let her hair down the way she did. I don’t want to make people feel weird, but I can’t NOT include this story! She was squirting out that gross lube in preparation of my cervical exam, and the tube made a farting sound. I honestly barely even noticed but she burst out laughing and commented that it was the bottle, not her. I hear her say a bit quieter “I may be old, but I’m not that old!” I laughed out loud and said that just because she couldn’t hear it doesn’t mean I couldn’t. I have never seen her laugh like that 🙂 She could barely regain her composure, it was sooo funny! We eventually pulled ourselves together and got on with the appointment. I’m healed up pretty well. Not perfectly, but pretty ok. My stitches look great, my ab muscles are already back together, and my tummy feels normal. My uterus is still a bit softer than it should be, so the fact that I still have occasional contractions is a good thing. I beg to differ, of course, but now at least I understand. Physically, I’m cleared. But after quite a bit of conversation, we agreed that I have what appears to be the beginnings of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This makes me pretty sad, if I’m being honest, but it also doesn’t come as a big surprise. I am not where I would like to me, mentally and emotionally. I’m confident I don’t have Postpartum Depression, as I don’t fit that bill in the way of fearing for my kids lives, or laying awake without sleep, or having no appetite. I struggle with the delivery, mostly. It replays. It’s fairly consuming, and I don’t want it to be. For the moment, I declined medication. Its still very early, and while I’m not someone who is sworn against medication, I would rather start with counselling. The risk with this is that the meds would take 4-6 weeks to kick in, but I’m trusting God. I feel very strongly that I need to vent a bit to someone who doesn’t know me, or have any real loyalty to me. I’m hoping I will gain some tools and ideas on how to cope and move on from what happened. My doctor told me that its not uncommon for women in my shoes to struggle with PTSD, but it usually doesn’t show up until their next pregnancy when they start to worry that it could happen again. Mine is already very present so I’d rather figure things out now so I can be prepared if I feel these feelings again in a hypothetical third pregnancy. She has already told me that Laela’s delivery paired with PTSD gives me all the reason to ask for a scheduled induction in the future. Obviously, nothing is decided as of today, but that already relieves some stress. God is good.

I was thinking I would leave all the info as a separate post for another day, but it all came out today, so there you have it. Verbal diarrhea I suppose. Thanks for listening and loving. Today was successful and productive and great in a lot of ways, but it was big in a lot of ways. Too big. I’m pretty finished. Stick a fork in me. I’m done. But actually, don’t stick a fork in me. I can’t take a whole lot more today.

What I can take it some apricot brandy and sprite, My Name is Earl, and mini chocolate bars.

And therapeutic baby cuddles.

 

That smell alone is healing.

So, yesterdays post was pretty pathetic. Why can’t a grown woman just get organized?! Well apparently I’m not ready to be a grown up, because I found my growing, messy list super overwhelming. Aaaaand then the night sucked.

Laela slept a beautiful stretch from 11:00 until 4:45am. And it took two stinking hours to get her back to sleep! It was mostly just frustrating because our fan was going in our room and I was frozen as I rocked her. When I finally got her down at 6:45 I was shaking, so I burrowed my head under the covers and crashed back to sleep. Thankfully, the plus from all of that was that she let Dekker and I both sleep until 10:00! So I did sleep well, but the stretch in the middle was rough. I know, I know, we’ve been spoiled with our son who sleeps wonderfully, and Laela having a two hour wakeful stretch is hardly a “hard” night for lots of moms. But its hard for us.

But we lived. I got up and put on real clothes instead of sweats, and got Dekker up for breakfast. We had our regular morning of cereal, toast, bananas, and milk before heading downstairs to play toys. Laela was pretty dozey most of the day, so I’m a bit nervous about how this evening will go. We’re still trying to figure out sleeping patterns with her at this point. Deks played until it was nap time, and then came up with me completely willingly, had a diaper change, and gave me a BIG hug and kiss before he went down. Dekker is notorious for jumping in his crib. We’ve never given him too much heck for it, since its so terribly cute, but its started really delaying his naps and messing up his days. So today when I lay him down, I asked him to just stay put, stay lying down all still, and to just go to sleep. And he did. Not one jump. I love him.

Once he was in bed, I brought my laptop, lists, notebook, and phone downstairs. Organization time! I called my mom and she listed with me. I actually typed my list for tomorrow out on Word, haha! Dorky, I know, but it worked! I have tomorrow laid out so specifically and carefully, in order, that we might even be able to get it all accomplished instead of having to go in again on Thursday!!! We’ll hit the post office, go to the doctors appointment, lunch, five stores in Circle Mall, Superstore, Midtown Mall, Costco, and the post office again. Its going to be massive, but there aren’t hours and hours worth of things to do at each place. Lots just involve grabbing one thing. Those trips are so annoying with kids! I swear, I spend more time getting kids in and out of cars and strollers than I do in the actual stores! But with the two of us, Brady and I just may be able to whip everything together quick! I’m looking forward to the challenge actually 🙂 Then, thursday can be a home day! Although we learned yesterday that my back is really tight, so maybe I’ll be able to justify a trip into Saskatoon on my own tomorrow to see my chiropractor for my first time in six weeks! Could be a nice treat for me anyway. We’ll see.

So I spent the afternoon getting super organized and hanging out with Laela downstairs. Brady came home and we decided to be lazy and order in supper from the Red Bull. We all had a lazy evening downstairs until it was Dekker’s bedtime. He was so sad to go upstairs and get ready for bed tonight, but he recovered and was very sweet. Now, he’s down and the bath is run. I took a bit of time and wrote out five thank you cards. Gotta keep working on that list of people to thank! But now its time to wind down. Our latest bad trend is Halloween candy and Doritos in the tub. And I had promised myself that I was going to stop snacking so badly after Laela was born. Ya, that didn’t happen.

Sleep tight, friends! Thanks for being such loyal readers 🙂

I am sooo disorganized!

We had a rocky morning before Brady went to work, and I felt like my whole day was put off. I was super grumpy. However, we all recovered and had a decent day. Dekker is so energetic once his patching hour is over, and he’ll do laps around the basement, say tons of words, blow kisses at Laela, and pretend. Laela was my smiley princess today. I think she can see further now, and it seems that as soon as she can focus on someone, a smile isn’t far away. She is sooo pretty!

We spent our day playing toys downstairs, eating Christmas oranges for snacks, and napping. When Dekker napped, I tried to get Laela to dose off in her U-pillow, but no dice. Not that she was a handful really at all. We caught up on my YouTube videos together before going downstairs and testing out my Just Dance Wii game. Fact: I am a terrible dancer. But she was entertained anyway. Brady brought me an Earl Grey double double from Tim’s, and we had comfort food for supper. I felt a bit better until I realized how slammed my next few days are going to be. Those of you who lead super busy lives probably think my “crazy busy week” is relaxed, but I don’t do busy very well at all. I feel wildly disorganized already.

Tomorrow is my day to figure stuff out. I need to make some serious lists, for starters. Does anyone else have that problem with making lists where it gets messy and they have to rewrite it? If I mess up one line, I have to rewrite the whole stinking thing! So I’m thinking I’ll be that person who types it all out. We’ve been so busy the last couple of weeks that a lot of things have fallen by the wayside for too long. Time to get them fixed up. So I need to make a really detailed list of where we need to go and what we need to get. Also tomorrow, I have to write out the thank you cards, at least for the hospital staff that we want to thank. I know, I said a while ago that I had written a bunch out. Thats another “issue” of mine. If you haven’t noticed by my writing on this blog, I write as I talk. Kind of strange and garbly. And I make up words, I guess. I want my cards to truly convey what I’m thankful for, and I don’t want them to sound jumbled. So I actually wrote out what I want to say in a notebook and I still have to transfer them to the cards. Is that overkill? Whether it is or not, thats the case, and I need to get started on some of the writing. Thats tomorrow.

Wednesday is my doctors appointment. Laela is officially six weeks old today!!! So she and I have our six week check up soon. I’m a little nervous about the appointment, to be honest. I’m not loving my mental/emotional state right now and while I know my doctor has always been supportive and understanding of me, its a somewhat scary thing to admit and talk about in detail. She’s wonderful though, and will get me the help I’m pretty confident I need. I love her. After our appointment, we have to get started on my list! Its one of those lists that has us going to like ten different places for one thing at each place. Not my favorite kind of errand day but it’s gotta be done! And knowing how long my lists can and will get, we will be in the city again on Thursday, finishing it up.

Somewhere in the next few days, we also need to clean up the kitchen and dining area of our house. With my siblings out visiting this weekend, we’ve spent almost all of our time at my parents with them, so our breakfast and evening snack dishes are just piled high. The dining table is a huge mess, and the floor hasn’t been swept in forever. And let me tell you, toddlers and toast make a HUGE mess together. We need to pull the house together before I lose it.

Lets not forget our Christmas lights! We have white lights on our house all year round, and we love it! However, when we put them up a year or two back, we had never done it before, and didn’t do it quite right. We didn’t put up one of those clips at every light at all. More just every ten lights maybe? Needless to say, the wind has taken a bunch of them down. Not to mention, one of the strands came unhooked several months back so we’ve had no lights for quite some time. It didn’t matter when it was bright outside late into the evening, but now, we arrive home at 5:30 to a pitch black house. Not our favorite. So Brady wants to “quickly redo the lights.” Because that kind of thing happens quickly. *sigh*

I know there isn’t a legitimate reason to put a rush on these things, but I’ll go nuts if we don’t at least tidy up the house, and I know that if we don’t do the lights soon, they won’t get done. Now, with just this little amount of show, is the best time.

Writing this is making me anxious. Time for my evening list. Bath. Snack. Netflix. Pee. Sleep. Feed the baby. Put her down. Put her down again. And again. Sleep.

Visits with my siblings always feel so short 🙁 Everyone is hauling out tomorrow morning. However, we made the best of our day together. The kids played hard, together and separate, since they run completely opposite schedules. But they got along great 🙂 The rest of us, as usual, ate and talked and ate some more. It seems like we don’t require a lot of activity when we’re together. Its nice to just be in the same room. At one point, everyone wanted to go for a walk, but both my kids were sleeping, so mom and I stayed back and did some potato and carrot peeling for supper. We celebrated Stefans birthday over a supper of golden chicken, mashed potatoes, cooked carrots, and salad. We had a super delicious pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing for dessert, and the kids were bouncing off the walls after that! It was fun and busy and eart warming. It was sad to leave this evening, but we’ll all see each other over Christmas again. I love my family.

I’ve missed sharing a couple of things with you guys over the last few days, so I’m randomly adding them now. One thing I’m kind of excited about is…I bought my domain name! See the page name you’re on? No more “wordpress.com”!!! I know, I’m not some business or some successful money-making blog, but I like how it looks 🙂 I feel like 500 posts makes me a big enough deal to have a real website, haha! So there you have it. With the domain name came an email too, so I can now be reached (for whatever reason) at hailey@thedailyhailey.com. Go me!

Secondly, I was talking to my sisters, Caity and Grace, about how we all feel in a bit of a fashion funk. We were discussing whether or not it was worth it to put some solid money aside and go buy a wardrobe, or at least a few solid pieces. I found it weirdly motivating, and got really excited about it. As a shower gift, Grace had given me some money to buy some great new jeans, which is SUPER exciting for me! Besides that, I saved about $50 of birthday money from this summer, so those two cheques combined would already give me a great start! So I went on a rampage last night and this evening, and purged my closet. It was a fairly aggressive purge, if you will. Everything I own is sooo boring, but its hard to throw stuff out when it still fits. I hemmed and hawed over my plain, solid colored long sleeved shirts, and was almost relieved to find that the armpits on every single shirt were absolutely disgusting. Clean, but threadbare and stained. I was so relieved to throw them away, and that just amped my motivation! I easily got rid of over half of my clothing! However, now I have nothing to wear… I guess I’d better go shopping soon!

The last thing I’ll babble on about is Christmas. We have our first Christmas celebration this coming weekend with some friends. My best friend, Jessica, and her husband Cody are spending next weekend with us, and since we never seem to get together around Christmas, we celebrate and exchange gifts whenever we get to see each other! I’m excited to at least try to Christmasify my house. I’ll have to add some decorations to my shopping list.

The end. I’m tired, and we were home so late last night that I didn’t get my soak in the tub. So I’m thinking it’ll just have to be twice as long tonight. Better get on that. Sleep well, friends.