The Daily Hailey

I generally prefer to look at our family as though we’ve been a family of four for a solid mine months now. But its nice to finally be able to show off our newest member!

So today, Brady and I took both of our offspring out to the city to run a couple of errands and see a friend. And we lived to tell about it!!!

We did ok overnight, with Laela only waking twice during out actual sleep time. Yes, she went down pretty late and we were up decently early, but still! So we felt relatively rested! I, however, was in complete agony with my body. My hips and lower back absolutely suck, not to put too fine a point on it. I almost collapsed once, just getting out of bed to get Laela out of her cradle in the morning. Finding this super unnerving, I took quite a while getting up and getting ready, but it seemed that once my body was warmed up, I did ok. Not sure whats going on, but I know with my recovery after Dekker’s birth, I was much more diligent in taking my medication for pain relief than I’ve been this time around. Time to make a schedule, it seems.

We got Dekker up and fed, and were out the door by shortly after 10am, which amazed me! We’re never awake by then, but I suppose life with two kids makes things different. I have to say, my family looked amazing today!

They are all so gorgeous!

Dekker was thrilled to be able to sit beside Laela in the backseat. She just slept, no questions asked, but he was enthralled with her. I was curious to see if he would respond that way, or be angry that she was right close to him. He is definitely warming up, touching her hands, and just being generally excited when she’s around.

While we were driving towards Saskatoon, we were slowed for a decently long time for highway construction, and I was bombarded by yet another scary aspect of Laela’s birth. For those who don’t know, I’ve actually struggled pretty hard with her birth story. I toss up between it being incredible and unexpected and empowering, or it being completely traumatizing and making me not ever want to deliver another baby. I’m not being dramatic. It was truly terrifying, and I keep going back and seeing more and more details that scare me. For instance, had we had our rush to Saskatoon in the daytime or the evening, we would have hit the inevitable highway construction. It would have easily added those five minutes to our drive, and we wouldn’t have made it into the hospital. Those things still make my heart shake. My rational side says we could have done it! What did the doctors even do that we wouldn’t have done?! She just came out! I didn’t do anything! But it would have been even scarier. I don’t know. I go back and forth on all of this. Just trying to be honest. The drive in reminded of these things, and it reminded me to keep level. Its true that we could have lost those silly five minutes anywhere, but we didn’t. God was in control.

When we arrived in Saskatoon, we hit up our jeweller first. I dropped off my family ring to have Laela’s strand added to it. Honestly, it feels like I left there without my pants. I always wear it, and now I feel funny. But apparently they have a little lull and we should be able to get it back mid next week!

After that errand, we went to get Dekker’s glasses adjusted. Being extra clumsy and a two year old in general, he smacks into a lot of things and just has to get them adjusted once in a while. The nose pads were super far away from each other and the glasses were barely staying on his nose. My mom had taken him in for an adjustment while we were in the hospital but as so often happens, they needed another adjustment to get them just right. The people working there recognized Dekker and were very excited to ask about Laela. My kids are stars. Dekker did wonderfully! The woman doing his glasses was very thorough which I appreciated 100%, but that meant removing and repositioning his glasses multiple times. Deks got frustrated with it partway through but since it wasn’t very populated in there at all, I just said that if she could handle the noise, I’d rather she adjusted them to her hearts content so they could be as perfect as possible. So yes, Dekker had a meltdown or two, but every time she would ask him if she could put them back on him, he would quiet down and lean forward for her. I was so proud!

Those were the only errands we had planned, not knowing how the day wold play out, so we picked up lunch and coffee and headed to our friend Hailey’s house. We visited the afternoon away, quite literally. We have been a cross between immobile and in the hospital for quite a while now, and Brady and I both feel like we’re losing touch with our friends 🙁 I know some of it is to be expected, and will come back, but we hate it. So we caught up finally! Fun new things happened there. Firstly, Dekker LOVES her dog! Moxie actually licked Dekker’s face a few times and he squealed with delight and chased her around. It was crazy, and not something I ever saw coming!! Dekker also kissed Laela for the first time ever! He is sooo nice, and is very generous with kisses when it comes to family, but he’s been understandably shy of her. But he had given Brady a kiss, and then came over to give me on. Laela was on my lap and we all suggested he give Laela a kiss. He barely hesitated before bending down and kissing her. Right on her eyeball. I laughed, and we all praised him up. I think I was the only one who actually saw that he had kissed her eye 😉 But he noticed. Because a couple of minutes later, without being asked at all, he came back over and kissed her little lips. I LOVED that.

We left around 5:30, which is crazy but we were really enjoying each others company. But the ride home was the BEST!

Two sleeping babies. Quiet, breathing deep, content.

Since getting home, we’ve done quite little, which I think is completely fair. We are tired, but content as well. Our trip out was successful. I’m not sure how great I’ll be at doing these trips on my own right away here, but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it.

The last thing I want to write about tonight is Dekker. He is sooo much older, all of a sudden! Brady was changing his diaper before bed, and that is always their time. Brady gets Dekker ready for bed, brings him to be for some cuddles and playtime, and then brings him to his room, prays with him, and tucks him in. Those boys adore each other. Sadly, Dekker has begun fighting bedtime and therefore, their calm quiet time together sometimes is more difficult than enjoyable. This evening was one of those times. Dekker was throwing an absolute tantrum, and disobeying Brady left, right, and centre. He WOULD NOT cooperate and they were both getting really mad. Not very often, but occasionally, I’ll go in and give them both a break from each other. Like this evening. Dekker’s behavior didn’t improve at all when I traded Brady out, but I was going to deal with it for a much shorter period of time, and I don’t have to deal with it on a nightly basis, which makes that short stint of screaming a bit easier. I arrived at the diaper change after the diaper but in time to put on his jammies. And I observed something very shocking to me. Dekker is so big! I pulled his pants on, and had to really work to get them over his bum. I couldn’t just yank on an ankle anymore. I really had to pull him around, since he was in a laying down position. I say him up to put his shirt on and realized just how worked up he had gotten. He was absolutely sweating. I stroked his hair back in an effort get it off his sticky, tear stained face, and realized how strong his shoulders are, and how grown up his face has become. It floored me. I put his shirt on and gave him his blanket. I picked him up to bring him to Brady for nighttime cuddles in our room, and my goodness! I may as well have been lifting Brady. He is mondo, my boy. I had no idea. Once in our room, on our bed, Dekker lay down between our pillows, so we lay on either side of him and tucked him into his blanket. Brady went to go rescue Laela at once point and Dekker and I talked about the ducks on his blanket. He said so many things. So I asked him about his day, and he went on and on, telling stories that I couldn’t understand. I held his hands, and they were so big. His fingernails were wider. Everything changed on me! When he finally went to bed, Brady and I could hear him chatting away. We listened closer, and we could tell by the inflections in his voice, that he was telling a story. We heard all three of his car sounds over and over again. Must have been a high speed police chase or something cool like that. Either way, he certainly is ready to be a big brother to his sister. I love him so much, and only realized today just how much I missed him.

I love my kids. They are the best kids of all the kids.