Dekker is the best in the mornings. Of course I love my son at any time of the day, but he is clearly feeling on top of the world most mornings. This morning was an uncomfortably early one for me. Both Dekker and Laela were awake at 7:30. Laela was making her cute little sing-songy sounds, and Dekker was telling jokes and laughing at himself in the mirror, I’m sure. At least they’re cute, right?

So I sat down at the breakfast table with Dekker while he ate his ever-requested Life cereal. As per usual, he reminded me to make myself some tea. I say “reminded,” but he gets mildly agitated if I don’t have a drink. Creature of habit. So I made a pumpkin K-cup cappuccino and sat back down with him. He looked towards my mug, and seemed to sort of lean to look around it. It scanned the table for a few more seconds before saying “Mom’s pills?” I hadn’t taken my vitamins or my fish oil pills yet, and he noticed. Remember when I asked that someone email/text.hound me about doing these things? Turns out I don’t need you after all. I have Dekker.

I got my pills out of their container on the counter and came back to the table. Then and only then did Dekker settle in for his cereal. We chatted a bit and made funny faces and generally enjoyed each others company. When his cereal was gone, I asked him what else he was hungry for. He basically knows his options, and lately, it seems to frustrate him if I push and suggest them all. So I just asked, and he thought for a few seconds before choosing an orange. I grabbed two little mini mandarins out of the fridge and peeled one for him. I always just give him one at a time, but he always eats both. He took the pieces of the first one, lined them up in a straight line (which is a very Dekker thing to do) and then ate them slowly. The second he had the last two pieces shoved into his mouth, he pointed and asked for “more ernsh.” So I peeled it and gave it to him to line up. When he was just about finished his second orange, he held up the final piece and looked me fairly sternly in the face and said said ‘Mom. Last ernsh.” And then plunked it in his mouth. I couldn’t help but laugh my face off. That kid is becoming funnier every day, and I’m actually thoroughly enjoying the mimicking stage. It does bring to light how he views me, though. It made me think he views me as a bit of a stiff person, or very strict. I am that way about some things, and I know that. But he also got a lot of his funny faces from me, and his little jokes and mannerisms. I think we’ve struck a decent balance around here 🙂

It was an enlightening breakfast with Dekker this morning. After all the talk and food, breakfast is always ended very abruptly with a “Done!” and a “Say soo, suppa, mom!” That means “thank you for supper” around here, but I think it counts. And then my little milk mustached boy is off, running towards the living room, shrieking “Pay toys!!!”

My kids are the best way to start my day.

Caity and Stef stayed over last night, as I mentioned in yesterdays post. We had a really nice breakfast together of bacon and eggs, muffins, and fruit salad. I learned the best rule about fruit salad not too long ago, and it went like this: Don’t put in all the crap that no one actually wants to eat. So our fruit salad was made of strawberries, grapes, pineapple, and watermelon. Dekker sat in my lap and just ate out of the bowl, haha! Yup, it worked out.

I left around 1:00pm and met Jerilee outside of Hiddenstitch; a custom refinishing furniture store. I paid a flat rate for a class, and then for the materials on top of that, and Jerilee and I spent the next eight hours pouring over my four kitchen chairs. If I wasn’t quite so exhausted, I would have taken some cute pictures of them to put on here, but maybe tomorrow. They are incredibly beautiful and while they’re certainly not perfect, they turned out way better than I had even pictured. I paid a totally decent price, and had a great afternoon and evening with a best friend, a new friend, and a big beautiful dog.

That work is not light work, though. My chiropractic appointment on Tuesday couldn’t come at a better time! My body is aching, and weirdly, my fingers are killing me!! Reupholstery is not for the faint of heart. If you love a good custom piece, Hiddenstitch is the place to go!

I picked up a tea, and a coffee for Brady before heading home. Its so nice to be home, comfy in my squishy bed, with my feet up. Pulsing. Never to be walked on again.

Good night, all. I hope your Sunday was considerably less productive than mine, lol! That was a lot of work!!!

What a beautiful day today was 🙂 We spent it with my parents and sister and brother in law. We ate and played and even had a fire in the backyard. Sadly, that was during Dekker’s naptime, so he didn’t get to enjoy it, but Laela did!

I would post a beautiful picture of it here, but it is actually 1:00am TOMORROW, and I’m not about to load my pictures from my phone onto iPhoto and then upload them on wordpress still. Go see it on Facebook or Instgram.

That all being said, we hung out with family until after supper, when Dekker, for the first time ever, informed us it was time to go home. He was excited to go outside to the van and drive home. He wouldn’t admit to being tired, but he was definitely ready. We went along with it, as that is SO much nicer than dragging him out the door while he cries and waves. Once home, he was happy to get into jammies and cuddle in to bed. He was just exhausted, and it worked out well.

Caitlin and Stefan are here for the night, and we just finished up our snacks, a movie, and a really good visit. I don’t remember the last time I was up this late!!! But it was wonderful. I love them. We’re all skipping church tomorrow so we can have brunch together before we all part ways in the early afternoon. They are off to continue their holiday, and I am off to the city to recover our kitchen chairs, finally! And Brady is “off” to watch the kids. It’ll be a good day 🙂

Sleep well, if you’re not already!

We had SUCH a great day with my mom and sister! We went for a walk outside, and played lots inside. We ate yummy food and built blocks and read books. It was fun! However, I have none of the pictures, so that’ll have to be a different post.

I wanted to throw up a quick post on things we’ve learned about having a van in the few short days that we’ve owned one. Pros and cons. I’ll say right off the bat that none of the cons are deal breakers at all. Just new things, or some weird things to adjust to, and just a few weirdo quirks. And I need some advice on a few of these so, van drivers, that means YOU!

Pro: The most obvious pro of the van – space! Both of our back rows fold all the way down, so our issue of ever having to haul furniture or anything else very large is solved. A couple of days ago, we purchased three of those green boxes with cloth handles from Superstore. They fit perfectly in the little well in the back of our van, and it was wonderful to be able to put everything back there and have it not roll around.

Con: Things do roll around. Not in the baskets, but f a toy is dropped, it is considered to have gone rogue. Dekker dropped a little car almost immediately as we drove off the lot, and it fell into the little crack where the seats fold down. He also dropped a container of corn pops trying to put them back into the diaper bag. They weren’t closed. Sigh. Since then, Brady and I have been trying to figure out what in the world to use to help stop this from happening. I was thinking the ideal would be one of those organizer things that can hang on the back of one of the front seats, but being so strapped back in his seat, he’d never be able to reach it. What do people do?! I’m thinking we may have to resort to an ice cream pail hooked on the arm rest or something.

Pro: I love having the kids higher up! They both stare out the windows and don’t get bored as fast. And the tinted windows are great for keeping the sun out of their eyes.

Con: Being up so high in the van and being so entertained by the world flying by keeps both of them from sleeping unless they are completely exhausted. It can sometimes be a challenge getting up to that point. And the tinted windows are helpful, but Dekker likes to wave at the truck drivers, and now they can’t see him. Such a small thing, I know, but it makes me sad.

Pro: This van has compartments EVERYWHERE!!! Cup holders, too! Our car had two cup holders. Well, four, if you folded down the middle seat in the back. This van eight in the front seat alone. I’m not sure how we’ll fit eight people in the front seat, but I like that I have that option! The salesman made the joke that, anything you’re not sure what it is, it is probably a compartment. And it is. He wasn’t kidding. We actually have two glove boxes, on top of each other. And our console is a monster. It is wonderful having space!

Con: The little area for change is sort of two U-shapes cut on in a pull-out tray. I don’t know how to describe it better, but its like it wants to hold coins as if they were in a roll. Does that make sense? Anyway, they’re kind of unbelievably small, and also, one fits loonies, and another – dimes. Perfect. I always carry a handful of dimes on me. I don’t actually. But even if I did, they wouldn’t all fit in that lame-ass tray.

Thats enough nitpicking for the day, I’d say. We are so happy with our van, so as long as we can find a way to get Dekker’s toys and snacks within our reach, we should be able to keep it 😉

This post was just going to be about some things we’ve learned about the van since its purchase, but then my kids were just way too cute this evening to be left out.

Have you bought a vehicle at a dealership? You know that little room they put you in and try to make you buy additional coatings/insurance/garbage? I loathe that room. When we went into it four years ago to purchase Stella, we knew exactly what we wanted and held our ground, leaving it paying exactly what we were expecting. Stella was a brand new car, and our van (who remains nameless so far) was pre-owned, so I figured we wouldn’t be offered/pushed about all that crap. But we were, and we were less prepared, not having talked about it. They were offering us an additional warranty, but wanted more than we were willing to spend for not too many extra kms. We genuinely didn’t mean to haggle, but somehow got the additional warranty for a ridiculously good deal.

It is somewhat ironic that they pushed that warranty so hard onto us, as we learned a few things about our van on the drive home. The heater fan squeaks. The brakes grind. There’s a squeal when it starts up from cold. We are sooo thankful they pushed us so hard, as that will all be taken care of at their cost as opposed to ours. We have to pay to have the vehicle safetied, which is a bit of a hassle, but we have four weeks to get there, so I’m not too worried. Even those fixes are little, but after paying  decent amount for a vehicle, you want it to work. And that, folks, is why we get warranty!

Our biggest annoyance, or frustration, is that our van was advertised that it had Bluetooth, and it certainly does not. It was the capabilities, and the buttons on the dash, but it continually just says its unavailable. I tried to get in touch with our salesman a few times and he screened me. After waiting a number of days with no response to my emails, I sent Brady on the case. Maybe that was mean, because he hates confrontation, but so do I, and I had tried! Brady called and left a message, and received a call back fairly quickly. Our salesman was very nonchalant about the whole thing and said that it was just a little typo, and that happens sometimes. Brady surprised me, and answered back by explaining that it was in the ad as a feature that we were counting on. We were accustomed to having it, and being a busy family with two kids who hope to have more down the road, it is something that we were requiring of our next vehicle. We quite possibly would not have bought that van if we knew it didn’t have Bluetooth. Well, that man back-pedalled all over the place and said he’d speak with his manager about it. It took about a day of back and forth, but our dealership has a agreed to help us out! We will go to a Dodge dealership and find out the full cost of the system upgrade and labor costs, call our guy, and they will be sent the bill. The module part alone costs over $350. We are sooo thrilled about this!!! I’m hoping to have a day in the city next week so I may make an appointment and drop in there and get it done right away here. YAY!

Ok, enough about our van. Here are our adorable kids.

 

I had a great day with these beautiful kids, and we were so thankful to have Brady home at a reasonable time so we could all spend a full evening together. Both kids are bathed and happy, Laela’s hair is lightening like crazy!!,  and she ate more rice cereal, successfully! Its wonderful to see things progressing the way they are. Thank you, God!

We’ve had a bit of a trying evening. After a great day of running errands in the city, and arriving home at the perfect time in the afternoon, we were met with two wailing children for pretty much the rest of the day. We did get Laela to nap at a somewhat ok time, but Dekker took longer to fall asleep, and was still in lalaland when it was time to wake up. That left us scrambling with him clawing and screeching and panic-crying all evening. I doubt we had a half hour without piercing screams the entire evening. It was long.

So I’m choosing to talk about something I forgot to write about yesterday, rather than continually complaining about this evening. My choice.

Yesterday, I was home with the kids on my own. As I mentioned last night, it was such a lovely and pleasant day with them. I thoroughly enjoyed their presence, and their cute little personalities. At once point, it was just Dekker and I, and he started “practicing his verbs,” which basically means he just points out everything around him and whats being done. Usually it focuses on Laela’s activities, but it was more like “Mom sit” and “Mom play toys” in this instance.” And then out of the blue, he plopped down next to me and said “Mom! Laugh!,” and waited in anticipation, with his mouth slightly open, smiling. I laughed a funny high pitched, squeaky laugh, and tickled him. He giggled, but sat up again fairly quickly and asked again for me to laugh. This time I let go a deep belly laugh and made a game of it. Its weird to fake laugh, right? Well, after he asked a third time, I suggested “Why doesn’t Dekker laugh?” Well, he threw his head back and absolutely laughed his head off. Real, genuine laughter! When he had given me a hearty laugh, he met my eyes with his big, wet, happy ones. What an incredible example!

I want to be like Dekker.

That boy just cracks me up…

It was a genuinely pleasant day for me. Brady slept in a bit and got to go to work for a normal time, instead of ridiculously early. So he was well rested, which is always nice to see. I, on the other hand, am struggling with the earlier hours my kids are choosing to run. I know its silly, but anything before 9:00 is still painful for me. I knew our beautiful 10:30 wake ups couldn’t last forever, but they were lovely. The kids were both awake and moving around a bit before 8:00, which was tough. Luckily, Dekker still doesn’t leave his bed until I go to his room, so he’s contained and fairly happy. And Laela isn’t a tough job in the morning. All she requires is some milk and a snuggle. I love that in the morning, too! Once I was up and at ’em, I felt good. I was decently rested, and both of my kids were happy.

Once Dekker had eaten his breakfast, and it was time to venture to the basement, Laela was ready to go for a sleep. Its always nice to have a bit of one on one time with him, for some more hands-on playing. Deks is really good at playing on his own, and sometimes even gets annoyed if I mess with his toys or his games too much. But I like being available, anyway. What I’m loving about the cycle of waking up earlier is that he gets tired earlier. So we had lots of really good snuggles in the late morning. When he was really fading, and I could hear Laela starting to fuss a bit, I went upstairs to get Dekker’s lunch, my smoothie, a bottle, and the little lady. There was much rejuvenation, and the afternoon began well.

They were both silent and dead to the world in their beds at 2:00pm. Thats a bit too early for my taste. I mean, its fine for Dekker! Then he gets in a full evening of playing instead of just an hour or two. But Laela waking up around 5:00 is too early. She’s not at the point yet where she stays awake for three hours at a time yet, and she goes to bed at 8:00. I don’t know. I don’t worry too terribly much about scheduling, and I’m certainly not complaining that my kids napped at the same time, but the evening was a bit touch and go with L.

I think I’ve mentioned in the recent past that Dekker has been struggling with supper. He’s thron fits as we sit him at the table, and he’ll refuse to eat the food. He’s not normally a picky eater at all, so we’ve been a bit stumped. Since he’s been napping a bit earlier/shorter, and he’s had more playtime, we’ve been giving him more playtime between his nap and supper, and thats helped for sure! However, once we’ve finally got him sitting at the table, he only wants breakfast food. I haven’t fought that too hard, as I can appreciate breakfast for supper as much as the next person! But today, I suggested toast and cheese, and he was thrilled! So he had grilled cheese and cucumbers for supper without a single complaint! I know its not exactly the food of a clean eater, but it worked, and he devoured it happily. I was so relieved!

We spent the evening downstairs, trying to cheer Laela up while waiting for Brady to get home. Finally, the little girl had just had it, so we went upstairs to Dekkers room and stripped them both down to diapers. Laela always gets a little happier when she’s naked. So I sat on the floor with Laela and Dekker very literally ran circles around us. Brady finally arrived home around 7:30, and joined the fun for the last half hour. We did some diaper changes and put them both in fresh jammies, and said goodnight. Dekker was really, really sad when it was nighttime, but that actually made me feel like today had been super successful, and he had a lot of fun, and was sad to have to stop. I get that, and it makes me feel like, today, I did my job well!

I have a lot of encouraging friends, and I’m not trying to put myself down in some huge way. But I definitely have days where I don’t try as hard. I’m less involved in my kids games, or I watch too much tv, or I’m less patient, or soft spoken. I think we all have days where, if we were brave enough to look at ourselves, we would see that we had dropped the ball. Yes, there is always room for improvement, but it doesn’t feel like a day that I totally screwed up 🙂 I had real, genuine FUN! And so did my kids!

I really loved today. I can’t wait for many more like these 🙂

We had such a comfy day today. Myself and the kidlets drove to my parents’ house for the day to spend time with my mom and sister. Its so nice to have her out visiting, and we plan to take every opportunity! We did a lot of visiting, eating, and playing toys. Laela napped relatively quickly after we arrived, and Dekker stuck it out until just before 3:00pm, which is often his nap time. The one positive in the earlier mornings is that he is more ready and tired for his nap. Since this cycle has started, we have yet to have him jump in his bed for an hour, or cry and not fall asleep. He is nice and tired, and falls asleep sooner and for longer. It makes for a happier evening usually as well. That being said, nap time is hard when you’re having fun 🙁 He was pretty sad to go down but didn’t fight the power much at all.

He and my sister, Caitlin, have always got along well, but he has grown a new love for his Aint Kayee. She even got added to his evening prayers, per his request! Pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Once he was down and Laela was awake (gotta love naps that alternate!) all the ladies went downstairs. I fed Laela while Caity and my mom put some work into a furniture project they started the day before. It was really nice to see it starting to take shape and to just have some space to chat. Not that we don’t completely adore Dekker, but its also nice to talk without having a toddler requiring attention the whole time. Does that sound mean? I don’t mean it too. I love my kids, I really do.

Brady came by on his way home to have a quick visit and help me load the kids up. After he had only been around for maybe fifteen minutes, Dekker requested to go outside. We took that as a prime opportunity to get everyone out to the van. It worked great, and he wasn’t upset to leave either, which made it sooo much easier. He really likes our new wheels, which I think makes a difference. We made it home around 7:00 so we fed him a quick supper and played toys until bedtime. Now time for our supper. I’m thinking perogies and chicken wings. For those of you who appreciate a good box of wings, I HIGHLY recommend Pinty’s Whisky Mustard. No, they’re not really mustardy, but they’re just incredibly flavorful, and everyone should eat them. Again, no, you don’t have to like mustard. They are so delicious. Now I’m drooling. Time to eat!

Today, my mom and sister lovingly offered to come over this morning and watch our kids so we didn’t have to drag them out of bed super early when they were so tired. We, however, needed to be at church for 9:00 am to practice music for leading worship at church. We haven’t lead since before Laela was born, so its been roughly six months! We were a bit rusty but I think things worked out.

I really enjoyed taking out van out on the road, though. I was exhausted yesterday and probably drove it for all of 20 minutes, as I feared dozing off at the wheel. So I drove us to church and back home, and I have to say, I love the van. I will definitely miss the zippy little car, and the kick it had, but the van feels safe and comfy. I love the backup camera, the climate control, and the absurd amount of compartments and cup holders. I love the height, and that the kids can see out of the windows in the back. I love that my passengers can sit comfortably. I really, really like it a lot. And honestly, for a van, it looks pretty sharp. I don’t have a super great picture of it yet, but you get the idea.

Isn’t it pretty? We’re in the process of trying to name it, and could really use your help! Anyone?? Please comment with ideas, as we’re a bit stumped thus far. Some info for your pleasure…

This van is definitely a boy. My first impression from pictures was that it was a big, busty black woman. Hopefully no one takes that as a racist comment… Brady thought more like a secret service agent. However, the van is definitely a boy, and theres a bit too much chrome inside of him to be secret service. So we’re thinking a well dressed, maybe preppy man. Anyone? We’re sort of thinking of characters from shows we like this time around. In the past, our vehicles have been named Stella (Mazda 3), Mr Whittaker (Grand Prix), Gord (Windstar), and Bruce (Venture). I’d welcome any suggestions 🙂

Anyway, that aside, here’s a couple of other pictures from Saturday.

What a crazy day! I’m so glad we went, and I’m so glad we bought our van. And I’m sooo glad we’re home!!

Brady and I have been talking about upgrading our vehicle for a while. Not seriously, just looking at what was out there. But then I found a really good vehicle. So we bought it today.
We got on the road this morning at 8:00 and got to Edmonton around 1:30. We were thinking we’d go test drive next week maybe, but today seemed more suited. So we found out salesman and went to sit in the vehicle and check it over.
Guys, it’s beautiful. And yes, it’s a van. It’s a shiny, black 2012 Chrysler town and country. It sounds like a van for old people, and maybe it is, but it looks sharp and drives like a dream. I know brady would be able to tell you all the gorey details but I don’t know them all, and frankly, I’m exhausted as don’t have the energy to think. We’re just driving through Lloydminster right now. The kids aren’t sleeping and I did something funny to my neck. Somehow, I already have morning voice. But it’s good. I’m very happy with our purchase and had a lovely goodbye with Stella. Onto bigger (definitely bigger!) and better things!