Happy birthday, The Daily Hailey!!! I cannot believe I’ve been at this for two whole years! How long have you guys been around? Anyone read every post that I ever wrote? I honestly kind of doubt it, haha! How does anyone keep up with something like this every single day?! I certainly don’t expect it! But I’ve enjoyed these two years and hope to keep at it 🙂

Laela woke us this morning at 4:30, just bawling her big blue eyes out. She’s working pretty hard on a couple new teeth that I fully expect to make their appearance any day now, and I figure that was the problem. I got her up and fed her, and she went back down nicely, which I didn’t expect. However, as I did expect, I didn’t get back down. I tried desperately, but dozed in and out for about a half hour. It was lame and I was exhausted. But its all good. The kids slept in a bit longer than usual so thats something anyway.

We took it pretty easy today, since we’re planning on doing lots more house stuff tomorrow. Brady will make a few runs to the dump and we’ll hopefully finish up a lot of the sorting and move into rearranging and organizing. I’m looking forward to that, since our whole house still looks a mess. There are tubs and boxes everywhere, and its time to get them to where they belong, now that we know whats inside of them.

One cute anecdote from the day and then I’m onto getting myself some supper!

We’re working with Dekker currently on learning to listen to us and obey the first time we ask, rather than the hundredth. Ok, an obvious exaggeration, but if we get what we’re asking for on the third to fifth attempt, its a GOOD day! We ask him to repeast the rule “listen to mommy and dad.” So today at bedtime, Brady grabbed Dekker’s blanket and asked him to come. Dekker immediately crouched down and started whining. I reminded him how important it is to do things the first time mommy or dad ask, and asked him to tell me the rule. He put on a bit of a blank face, and since its a relatively new “rule” I gave him a hint. “The rule about listening…” I said. He confidently recited “No listening.” I had to leave the room, I couldn’t help but laugh. Brady got him to bed without much issue at all after that. I just thought that was adorable 🙂 I love my kids.

The poor sore achy one spent the evening chewing on a wipe (go figure) and is now having her nighttime bottle. Hopefully she gets a fully nights sleep tonight!

 

Thanks again, guys, for being here and reading along with me. Cheers! *clink*

After struggling pretty hard over the last week or two, I’ve been very happy to have had a few really positive days recently 🙂 Hopefully you’re all less bored when I’m upbeat than when I just lament the whole time. Haha, clearly, this positivity is all for you!

The kids were adorable over breakfast and played well in the basement like always. I was a bit nervous about how our schedule would work out, though, because we had to make a city trip in the afternoon, right during nap time. I put Laela down for her first nap a bit early and she did great. Their joint nap was quite a bit more bumpy. As soon as I left the room, Dekker got up and started jumping on his bed. He doesn’t usually make that much for a ruckus unless he’s woken up and is ready to get up. Not right when he goes down ever. So I put him back down and he didn’t get up again. Laela, on the other hand, shimmied her way all around her crib for over an hour, so she had less than an hour of sleep before we had to get up and dressed and be out the door.

We successfully made it to Dr. Mike’s on time for my treatment. Brady met me there and sat with the kids in the van while I went in. I played in the waiting room with a little baby boy named George (one of the coolest kids I’ve ever met) before heading into an exam room. There was a super obvious dusty bum print on the chair so I didn’t sit there and immediately showed Dr. Mike so he wouldn’t think it was mine. I swear, guys, it wasn’t. I was nervous for the treatment for probably the first time ever, because of my neck hurting so badly. I told him I was scared so he was really careful to tell me what was happening and that I didn’t need to be, and he fixed it! I’m not like 100% just yet, but feeling considerably better. I could actually shoulder check on the drive home, so that counts for something. Yay for being able to turn my own head!

After chiro, we drove to the mall and Brady dropped Laela and I off. She and I did a bit of shopping while Brady took Dekker to go get his new glasses. I’m pretty sure I explained it before, but he’s getting the same glasses exactly, just replaced under warranty, because we can. The little girl and I hit up Bath and Body Works for 3 wick candles, and then headed to Starbucks. They had a really good offer up for only a few hours, and to make a long story short, there was sort of a debacle getting there. I left the Target location empty handed and hit up the Co-op location instead, and ended up with a free drink! No, its not like I complained and she gave me free stuff to shut me up. We chatted and I was completely happily ordering a drink when she gave me a voucher for a free shaken tea! So I tried the blackberry green tea. Yummy. Light and refreshing.

We met the boys shortly after. When I opened up the van to put Laela in her spot, Brady asked Dekker to tell me what he had done at the glasses place. Head down. “Detter screamed.” The whole time. I’m so sorry for Brady that he had to do that, because its awful, but I am completely and utterly thankful that it didn’t have to be me this time. That aside, the glasses look fresh and new and seem to fit him way better. We ditched the arms that wrap around so severely, and went with the normal arms just bent a little, and they stay on great. On the drive home, Dekker told me numerous times “Glasses comfy!” He’s never really talked about them like that before. At most, he would say “ya” when asked if he liked his glasses. But today, for the first time that we know of, they were comfy. That made me feel warm and fuzzy.

We were going to eat in the city, but since Dekker screamed and acted up so much, he forfeited his (and our) right to french fries. So we came home and had eggs and toast, which was delicious and Dekker actually gobbled it up. The kids went down hard but they’re quiet now anyway. So ready for a bath and some Netflix. Even after a really good day, I can still use the comfort of a bubble bath. Anyone else?

Jerilee came over to spend the day with me and the kids. It was actually perfect, because my neck is funky and she has a squidgy eye infection (sorry, dear) so we were sickies together. It feels like its been months since we got together, so we had a lot of catching up to do! We talked ourselves silly before just sitting and watching the Duggars with Dekker. He loves them. He wants to show Josie all of his toys. Its adorable.

Poor Laela struggled pretty hard today. She didn’t sit on her own very much at all, which is a big change from her usually fairly independent way. Instead, she cried and wined and squealed. I worked with her all day, but she was really struggling. I finally sort of pinned her down and can see that she’s working on a couple more teeth. Two bottoms, around her little front ones. That paired with not having a good poop in two days (sorry sweetie, don’t hate me for sharing this when you’re older!) was enough to really upset her. Poor munchkin. Through all of the drama though, Brady came home and all of us has cucumber salad, perogies and wings for supper. I LOVE that meal sooo much! We watched Frozen while we ate, and once we got the kids down, we had ice cream cake for dessert. Thanks for your delicious contribution, Jerilee! Yum! I can still taste it, and not in the “oh, I burped” kind of way. It was such a good day for food.

Sadly, after all of the goodness today, my neck is still iffy, and I can’t look very far left without weird twinges and stabbing pains. So back to Dr. Mikes we go! I saw him just a week ago, but this is incredibly painful and needs to be fixed. Then Brady is going to drop me and Laela off at the mall so I can go get my fill of Bath and Body candles while the semi-annual sale is on (3 wick candles are sooo cheap) while he and Dekker go and pick up little Ds new glasses!! They’re the same, but new frames and lenses on warranty 🙂 I was originally turned down about it, but all has been fixed and they agreed to order him a new pair. So he’ll get those fitted tomorrow while I’m shopping, so thats awesome all around.

Today was good, and tomorrow will be good, and I’m feeling optimistic that my funk is over. For now, anyway. Ice cream cake tends to have that effect on me.

My mom came over for the majority of the day, which was sooo great! We haven’t had a solid day together in a long while, so this was a nice, much needed visit. We caught up on all our recent happenings, I showed her everything we’ve changed about our house, and I told her what I still want to change. She played with the kids and we watched some TLC. There were almost no tantrums or time outs! It was the perfect morning. The kids went to bed around 2:00 and then she did a HUGE job with me!

We attacked the dishes. We’ve had a boil water advisory on since Saturday, and our dishes have been piling and piling. To me, they seems unbelievably impossible. I didn’t even know where to start. But she is such a good motivator, and got me all set up, boiling up a huge pot of water. About an hour and a half later, the dishes were done, dried, and put away!! She left fairly quickly afterwards, and about one hour after that, the stupid advisory was lifted. So while I’m partially miffed at all of that, its still very nice to have it done, and it was extra nice to get a visit in as well.

Brady actually left work and was home at a good time today, which was lovely. We had plans for him to haul stuff away to the dump but I just wanted him to be home instead, since he’s so rarely home so “early.” So we had pizza for supper and played toys.

Unfortunately, sometime in the last hour, I did something funny to my back and can’t really turn my head one way :/ Hopefully a shoulder rub and a bath with epsom salts will do the trick!

And a snack. A snack always helps.

Sleep deep, all!

 

As the title might suggest, today was thoroughly great! Not one time out for Dekker, which is a pretty big accomplishment actually! He didn’t want his diaper changed in the morning, so I made a song out of it and he played along!! If you’re happy and you know it, change your bum!! We played toys and ready books and watched the Duggars 🙂 Dekker loves “19 Kids and Counting.” In the intro, it reads out all the kids names, and he always incorporates himself after Joseph, and then laughs hysterically. He really likes Josie, and gets frustrated during the ads. “More Josie show! Josie, come back! Detter likes Josie,” followed quickly behind with “Detter likes Aynty Jerry. We all had a good lunch (you know when you eat soup and you can physically feel how warm your tummy is?? Ya…) and I put the kids down at 2:00 for their nap. They both seemed decently awake but with Dekker needing so much sleep these days, I didn’t think it would hurt him to go down nice and early so he wouldn’t sleep so late into the evening.

While the kids slept, I did some work around the house. First, I went through our junk drawer. It is now so light that it tries to come out at you when you pull it out because its sooo light! It used to be filled with tons of stuff that belongs downstairs on the workbench and now its not much more than a few pens, tape, scissors, and post its. Best of all, it went way quicker than I thought it would! I also started the process of sorting through the many boxes of baby clothes in our furnace room. They’re all stored in diaper boxes, but completely haphazardly, without any particular sizes together or anything. Now we have some tubs and I had the time, so I got on that. It was a bigger job than I expected, so its tidied up for now, and hopefully I’ll finish it up tomorrow. So some success there. Not tons, but a bit. Hopefully Brady will get home with enough time tomorrow so bring some more stuff to the dump for me, and then we’ll really have some space downstairs!! Can’t wait 🙂

I made my delicious and super guilty pleasure supper of cheesy chicken and rice tonight. I know for a fact that Dekker loves that meal, but of course, he screamed and screamed. We told him he could eat with us right then, or he could choose a time out for his screaming. He chose the table. And he cried and cried and cried. I snuck a couple of bites into his mouth while it was hanging wide open, and he would slowly chew them between shrieks. And then, after we left him alone for a few moments, he pulled it together, and ate! Not lots, but no more complaining, and no more asking for something else. He probably ate like five bites on his own. So no, not a full meal at all, but he did it completely on his own without whining, and even told me it was yummy. And he didn’t ask for food at all for the rest of the evening. So I’m going to call that pretty successful!!! And I’m sooo thankful that his volume doesn’t work Laela up very often. She just sat across the table from him, watching, and chewing her stuffed toys ears. So she’s basically adorable.

We played toys downstairs in the evening. We found a few sheets of stickers in our current purge, and Dekker saw them in a box of stuff to go upstairs. He held them up like they were gold, and squealed in delight “Oooooh, STICKERS!!!” Then he flopped down on his stomach to stare at them. He positioned himself in front of Laela, who was sitting on the floor. She leaned forward, her face right up to his bum, and screamed at him. Or his bum. However you want to see it. You probably had to be there, but it was hysterical 🙂

Dekker was pretty sad when I told him it was bedtime, but I distracted him with tickles and when we were over by the stairs, he asked me to hold hands with him. So we held hands, and he was cute and happy through diaper changes. Lots of hugs and kisses later, he’s in bed and we’re just finishing up with Laela. My bath is already run, and filled with a scented bath salt thing I found among all the stuff I’d forgotten about, so it smells amazing in here. And I believe theres an iced coffee waiting for me in the fridge. As long as the sky doesn’t crumble in on me right away here, I’m going to chalk today up to a 10/10.

I really hate making jokes about mental illnesses, so I mean absolutely no disrespect, but if I were to call any day “bipolar,” it would be today.

We began the day with the BEST night we’ve had since Laela was born. No wake ups in the night, and they were still asleep when I woke at 8:00am. Both kids started stirring soon afterwards, but it was quite wonderful.

After the best night even came probably one of the worst mornings. Dekker was thoroughly unhappy to be at church and after three or so time outs, he and Brady spent the rest of the service in the van. Yes, we could have all left, but that was exactly what Dekker wanted. He wanted to go to grandmas. Which I understand! I wanted to go to my moms too! But we came to church, and we were going to stay. So it was rough. Laela was tired through church, but adorable and very playful. She wasn’t loud or obnoxiously crying, but she played on the floor and growled and smiled at people. It was endearing.

Right after church, we went to my parents and fed Dekker s0me lunch before the rest of us ate, and put him to bed. He was acting up so badly, and he obviously needed to sleep. So he cried and cried but fell asleep fairly quickly. Laela also went down fairly quickly. Just in time for the steaks to be ready! We had a delicious and massive lunch of mashed potatoes, steak, and hot veggies. YUM!

My mom and I left for the city in the afternoon and did a quick grocery shop, threw all of our cardboard into a recycle bin, picked up coffee, and a big jug of water so we can actually make bottles and brush our teeth while this ridiculous boil water advisory is on. We drove along the river in the rain and got in some good visits. I feel like I haven’t talked to her in weeks. It was good.

The evening went much smoother. Dekker has slept a solid three hours, and Laela took two naps, so everyone was in better spirits. We left at a good time without any whining, but lots of buh-byes and loves. Now, Deks is in bed and Laela is having her bottle. The bath is run and I’m trying to think about a snack.

Oh! Snack!! Guys, I lost a bit more baby weight!! I’m not sure I’ve talked much about it on here, and I probably shouldn’t, but just a little bit of a success story first. At two weeks postpartum, I weighed myself and was decently happy with where I was at. I’ve been at that same amount since then, which feels less and less like a number I’m happy with. Happy news, I’m now down five pounds from that!!! I technically still have eleven pounds to go to get to my pre-pregnancy weight, but would actually be happy with only losing three more. I’d love to lose it all but I’m not sure its a great idea. Hard to know :/ Doesn’t really matter. I’m just feeling encouraged and happy that I’m making some of the right choices.

The end! Today was confusing and all over the place, but it turned out to be a relatively seamless day. I’m pretty happy with the turnout.

 

Would you believe that I picked working?!?!

This week felt very long to me. I talked with Brady last night and he suggested I take Saturday away and go to the city. We’re not rolling in cash and the weather was crappy, so I was hesitant. Its not like I could shop, or go walk by the river. My best Jerilee was at work and my mom had just returned from a trip. Whats a girl to do?! And then Brady lovingly said “Just go buy like $50 worth of makeup or something!” That juuust about sent me into the city last night! I LOVE trying new products, and that would have been enough to buy me a couple new lipsticks from places other than the grocery store! I haven’t bought a Mac lipstick is a very long time. What a treat that would have been 🙂 Makeup and Starbucks.

And then, I stayed home. I know, I couldn’t believe it myself! The kids slept in a bit longer than usual and we all had breakfast together.

We immediately headed downstairs afterwards. The weather was cold and wet, like I know it was for most of you. Our upstairs was freezing, and we try to keep it that way since it tends to heat up really hot really quickly. Once we got downstairs, Dekker started playing toys and I asked Brady to haul out a few boxes from the furnace room for me to start going through. Since I pulled all the empty ones out the other day, it was time to deal with all the full ones. The area underneath our stairs was full to the brim with all the boxes we moved with but never really did anything with. Brady joined in and we really got in the groove. It was actually really fun going back through old pictures from when we were dating, all of our wedding stuff, childhood toys, and lets be honest – tons of random crap.

I found my old jewelry box and little trinkets that I am now putting away for Laela. I have little sparkly stones, some jewelry, and other treasures of mine. We found some really fun toys that Dekker will love once he’s a bit older too. We have a big box of things we’re storing specifically for the kids, one smaller box with things we’re saving for sentimental reasons (letters Brady and I wrote each other back in the day, pictures, gifts, etc.) and then one big box of stuff we’re storing just to store. Yup. One. It is incredible!!

We’re not done. The shelves in our furnace room are still really full, but that will be a considerably less gruelling job. When I go into the room, it still looks awful from the entrance…

but its in way better shape!

I know, this part is still messy, but that pile was WAY bigger and much higher before! Those of you who have witnessed our furnace room know what I’m talking about!

This is another way to look at the progress we made today! My gosh, hey?

We were so thankful to the guy at the dump! He charged us a really amazing price to get rid of all of this trash. I am amazed that Brady could fit it all into his van, and even happier than $15 later, it was out of his van!

Our basement is still a mess. We have one box of things we are taking out of storage and adding to our life/house, and they still need to be dispersed, and there is of course still work to be done in other areas of our house, but it was an incredibly productive morning/afternoon.

The kids woke up shortly after 4:00pm and came for diaper changes on our bed.

Isn’t she gorgeous?

It obviously wasn’t supper time yet so we played/sorted a bit more before having breakfast for supper. It was a delicious day for it, and its a meal that Dekker likes, so that made is taste sooo much better!

Unfortunately, today we had a couple of decently power outages in town that included our plant. Because of those, we are now under a boil water advisory. Its not the end all and be all, but its a huge hassle and makes me grumpy. The notice this time (this has happened before ) said we shouldn’t even wash our dishes! Fighting against the grumpies currently. After such a good day, I can get over the water.

What did you guys accomplish on your Saturday?

Today was worlds apart from yesterday! The kids were happy to get up and have breakfast, and we played and played in the basement. Dekker took me from one activity to the next. We played ball, we raced cars, we tickled Laela (yes, thats an activity), we ate snacks, we lay on our tummies, we read books, we did puzzle, we did whatever he wanted. He fussed a bit here and there, but I would remind him that we weren’t going to whine today, and he would get over it pretty quickly. I was so relieved about that. I still felt exhausted from yesterday. But it went really smoothly.

The kids lasted longer than usual, but I figured it was ok, since Dekker especially had a very long night last night. They went down for a nap around 2:30. Laela only slept until 4:00 but I worked my butt off!!

I tackled the furnace room today. I admit, I have yet to complete a whole room, but I’ve completed tasks anyway. Our furnace room is stacked waaay up and I had no idea what it all was. When the two men came in the other day to help with our clogged pipe, they had no choice but to really move it all around, and it became a much worse mess. So I attacked it at the only place I could really access, and started moving boxes out.

Boxes. Yup. Thats all I found. Over 70 boxes. Ready for the kicker? Empty boxes. All in box form, too. Not flattened, or storing anything. Just an incredible pile of boxes. By incredible, I actually mean infuriating, but I just kept moving. Empty boxes were going to be much easier for me to clean up than heavy ones! I had considered saving some for potential moving boxes down the road, or some smaller one wrap gifts in, but there were just too many and I’m so over having random crap cluttering my home. So I stacked them up for Brady to haul away next chance he gets. Our furnace room is far from done. Its still a mess. But I can get to my freezer again, and that makes me happy. I worked up a good sweat too.

Dekker slept until almost 7:00!!! He was obviously completely exhausted. We had cheated and picked up KFC for supper. Yummy bowls of mashed potatoes, chicken, corn, and gravy. Sooo yummy! And Dekker loves all of those things. So I scooped some into a bowl for him. He was so hungry. But freaked out. Not like, he whined a bit, but had an absolute throwdown. He is more than welcome to cry, but he will now thrashed and kick at the table, which isn’t acceptable in our book. So off to his room to cool off. He cried for a solid ten minutes, no word of a lie. We brought him back out, only to have a repeat of the situation. These are rules he absolutely knows, for those of you thinking we’re cruel. He knows he needs to take a few bites of his food at least, and that kicking and screaming at the table is not permitted. So he had two time out that took up about twenty minutes all in. I finally went in and we had a very tough talk and some punishment. He knew what he had done, and seemed very remorseful. So I asked him what happened now, to which he replied “Detter eat potatoes and corn!” Perfect. Brought him out. And he screamed. And screamed.

So my boy went to bed without supper 🙁 Early bedtime, too. After such a long night, and a huge nap too, I have no idea what tonight will even look like. I feel sick about it, but I don’t know what else I could have done! When he was crying the last time, I even said to him “You can eat this food, or you can go play, but you can’t have other food.” But he was just yelling away. He was beyond reasoning. So he’s in bed. Poor guy. I feel awful. Ugh.

Trying to keep a positive attitude though. It was a successful morning with the kids, and a productive afternoon with the furnace room. Just the evening was rough, and that was really only a rough half hour. Its just a hard thing to shake off, you know? I may take the day away tomorrow, but I’m not sure what I’d busy myself with. Not sure yet.

Once again, I feel the need to say that I love my son more than life!!! We’ll figure all this junk out soon. Maybe an earlier nap, maybe just learning about self control, maybe it’ll just take time. But I’ll be here, hell or high water!

<3 Dekker! Come rub cheeks with me!!

To my dearest Dekker Thomas:

I would be so honoured if you chose to read back through these writings one day. Please know how much I am completely and absolutely in love with you! We have had trying time, but YOU are incredible to me, and are stretching me s a person, making me stronger and stronger. Today was a hard day, but I LOVE YOU exactly the same as always, if not more. I adore you.

Much love, your Mommy <3

It was a long day. Dekker had a pretty solid attitude problem all morning. I tried everything. And he hated everything. I was starting to lose it, and decided I needed to change up our environment. Dekker loves outings. So I quickly did the dishes (don’t want to end my cleaning kick already!) and then got all three of us ready and out the door. I don’t take the kids out on my own too terribly often, since Dekker can get explosive sometimes and its nice to have someone to haul him out of wherever he is screaming at everyone. But I know him, and I know he loves to go out. So we went out. Dekker hit the panic button on our keys for the first time. I was downstairs. He patiently waited for me at the top of the stairs and when I came around the corner, he announced “beep beep.” I laughed it off 🙂 It gave me the opportunity to learn how to use the function.

We wandered a mall, and got some fries, and brought Brady an iced coffee at work. I had a chiropractic appointment booked for 4:45, giving me enough time to do Walmart and Superstore first. We didn’t have a long list at either place.

We hit Walmart first for a few groceries, some file folders, sandals for Dekker, tubs (for $3 each!!), and whatever other trouble we could scare up. And my goodness, did we ever scare something! Dekker, to be more specific. The poor man behind us in line 🙁 I felt awful for him. He simply said “Hey buddy” and the shit hit the fan. I’m sorry, I don’t like to swear on here, but there is no other way to describe it. The world ended. He screamed and screamed and whipped around and flailed and screamed and slapped and cried and screamed and screamed and screamed. And there was nothing I could do. No one was there to haul him out, or to pick him up to comfort him. In the next few moments, employees rushed us from every angle with the goal to help, but just overwhelming him further. Offering stickers, singing songs, asking if someone was hurt, everything. The man behind us apologized over and over. The cashier (I’m assuming) put my bags in the cart. I didn’t see it happen. It was awful.

To speak for myself a little, I was incredibly calm. I didn’t raise my voice at him, I spoke firmly and on his level, into his eyes. And he had just bugged them out at me and continued screaming. As I walked the cart out of the store, I scolded him. I told him how incredibly unacceptable his behaviour was, and how he cannot ever scream like that. I explained that he wasn’t hurt or threatened, and that someone was being polite to speak to him. Because of his behaviour, he would get a time out in the van. And thats the part that ticked me off. He was so relieved. It wasn’t a punishment or a lesson. It was him getting exactly what he wanted. Drove me up the wall.

We all sat in the van for probably the next fifteen minutes in silence. No music, no nothing. Just air conditioning. I hadn’t had the nerve to go near him in a while, so he wasn’t buckled in yet. When I’d hear him shift around and try to slide out of his seat, I’d tell him to sit back. And he would. That was it. Finally, I gave up and buckled him in, and got ready to leave. But then I bawled. The thought of having the same thing happen again at Superstore was just too much to swallow. I called Brady, and he agreed to pack up his stuff a half hour early. I called my chiro clinic and got an earlier appointment.

Chiro was great, and my neck was sooo out of whack, so its good to have that back in order. Dr. Mike really encouraged me to try and get a day away from the fam. He said its very important for stay at home moms to have breaks sometimes. I’m not too choked about “me time” so much as I need “away time.”

Dekker slept on the drive home and went down for another rest upon arrival. Now, he has whined and cried all through supper, and Laela has been crying for the last half hour too. It would appear everyone is completely wiped out, myself and Brady included. Pretty sure both kids are going to bed. Now. (yikes! didn’t publish! Bedtime happened about a half hour early)

So. Apparently today was an epic fail. I’m so disappointed. I was hoping for an outing where we didn’t accomplish a whole lot and just took our time and enjoyed each other company. But instead, I got a hellish fit and a lot of tears. It was incredibly discouraging. And I am tired.

I hope you guy had a better day!

After breakfast, I knew I had to make todays post about my kids and their food. But then I was productive and I have to share that too! Often, in this predicament, I just make it into two posts, but I know I’ll forget everything by tomorrow! And I’m hoping to continue to be productive with my house and it’ll all run together.

The kids slept in a tiny little bit this morning, which was nice. 7:30 ish. But the kids talked and laughed at each other for a while before I felt the urge to go into their room and get them up. They were both happy to be up and at their spots at the table, watching the rain outside the patio doors. I got Dekker his breakfast and Laela some toys, and went to do some dishes. I talked back and forth with Dekker, and he continually requested that I come sit with him. I almost always do, so I would tell him I needed to quickly wash bottles so Laela could have breakfast too, but then I would come. He accepted that, and continued with his cereal. Until he said “Detter wants smooch.” I looked over at him, and he was peeking at me coyly over his glasses. So I made a mischievous face back at him, whipped my towel down and raced towards him. He giggled like crazy, but met me with big pursed lips, results in a LOUD smooch! It also resulted in my face being covered in butter. Worth it.

Dekker asked for a fruit cup afterwards. We discovered we had some in our pantry so Dekker’s been enjoying them once in a while. Turns out the jello ones look exactly like the not-so-jello ones, so Dekker accidentally got jello for breakfast. He was sooo excited, but he was so annoyed with how flimsy it was that he gave up halfway through!! Kind of blew me away, but its not like I was planning on force feeding him breakfast jello.

We went downstairs afterwards so Dekker could play and I could give Laela her bottle. Not only is she getting so much better at holding it herself, but She drank very hungrily at a good pace. Once she was done, I celebrated her and what a great job she had done, and Dekker came running up, passed me a burp pad, and said to her “G’job Laela!” I like that he likes to celebrate her small victories as well.

My last fun food news is about Laela’s progress with solid foods. I’m not sure how much I’ve talked about it on here, but she was sooo no pumped about spoon feeding around six months, so I just left it. She’ll eat eventually, and I didn’t want to stress. But the other day, in giving Dekker a mandarine orange fruit cup, I snagged one orange slice out and broke it into tiny pieces. I snuck one into Laela’s mouth to see what would happen. I knew she wouldn’t choke, since those oranges crush and immediately become juice. She winced a bit at first, with the strong flavor. But when I offered her more, she leaned into it and opened up her mouth. She never once opened her mouth for a spoonful of food before!! So this evening, I sliced a chunk off of a banana and mushed it up pretty good. and she LOVED it! Took it from me on the end of a fork, no sweat. So I cut off another slice ad mushed it considerably less. And she ate that too! I’m so excited! Its finally starting, and you know what, waiting was the best think we could have done. We didn’t have all the tears and fussing and frustration. Instead, we waited until she was good and ready, and now we can confidently get started. I’m pretty pleased with that. Solid food was really hard for us with Dekker, so this is looking like it might not have to be such a challenge.

So. As for organizing, here’s what I’ve got!

Last night, I cleaned out the magazine wrack in our bathroom and threw out over a years supply of several magazines. Then, upon deciding that a magazine wrack next to the toilet gets incredibly dirty, I threw out the wrack. Clean!!

This morning, I did dishes.

I moved the cradle and change table downstairs. That was mildly treacherous…

I tidied up a bunch of yarn laying around our room. Sadly, there is still a bunch downstairs that I have to deal with.

I did probably eight loads of laundry. I just kept finding stuff. I washed old linens for the baby cradle so I could fully pack that up.

I sold (pending pick up on Friday) the first double stroller we bought that we didn’t end up loving. Cha-ching!

I went through our snack cupboard and threw away over half of it. Because a) we don’t need to eat all of that, b) it takes up way too much space, and c) I don’t remember getting most of it.

I tidied up the basement. No, not completely, as I still have two little playful ones, but its better than usual.

I took out the downstairs garbages.

I actually put the laundry away!!  Anyone else think that is just the worst part of doing laundry?

I threw out a ton of stuff! It was garbage day, and our dumpster is almost already full. I threw out tons of gift bags, old boxes from things we’d purchased in the past, candy, shoes that don’t fit or that I never wore, and just general garbage. Its amazing how I could walk into a room and just looking around, I would spot multiple things to throw out.

I currently have Brady doing a couple of jobs too 🙂 He’s finding a place for his old Handyman magazines that he doesn’t want to throw out, spraying spider stuff around our windows and doors, and he said he’d sweep the floor. To me, sweeping the floor after a clean like this is the worst part. Our room is tidier, but its waaay grosser. I hate all the disgusting dust bunnies that have been hiding underneath all my garbage. Its awful. So he’s agreed to do it. Thanks Brady!!

If I can come up with the motivation to keep going, I may try to tackle the bathroom drawers tonight. I recently cleaned my makeup drawer, but the “medicine cabinet” drawer in overflowing and in pretty rough shape. But honestly, I feel like I’ve done enough for the day so I’m not going to beat myself up about it. Maybe this was enough. Whew!

So as I reread this, it really doesn’t sound like lots. But it sure feels like lots! I don’t often spend my days doing housework, so this is a big change for me. It feels big and exciting and I feel better about my house. Or at least I will once its swept.

All I need now is a filing cabinet and some tubs, and I’ll be ready to go! Donations are joyfully accepted.