Today was SUCH a successful day, and because of its general busyness, I apologize for missing pictures of certain important things. Don’t judge. I did my best, it was just an awesome day and some parts got away on me. It happens 😉

Brady had today off, which was a HUGE treat, since he hasn’t day a weekday off in a while. We had a few plans, but nothing too crazy. However, his day did start off pretty early. We woke up around 6:30am with Solly, and he headed out shortly thereafter to run a few errands. He had emptied his work van the night before so he could go gather the last couple of things we had left in our storage container and haul them off to the dump. He swept the container out, and it has been hauled away. The last shred of our move is officially done 🙂 Awesome! I had found a lovely buffet for our dining room on kijiji the other day, and the couple had agreed to hold onto it until today, so he went to pick that up as well. After those errands, he picked up breakfast and came home. We ate fairly quickly, eager to carry in our new purchase, and see how it fit in. Turns out, it was better than we expected. Solid wood, VERY sturdy, in great condition. Huge win for a great price.

Poor Brady. Shortly after we had eaten, I found yet another kijiji purchase that we couldn’t refuse! No, we are not always this kijiji-happy, but I have been keeping an eye out for very specific things, and when they finally came along, I jumped. That is how Brady ended up heading right back into the city and picking up a large dining table and nine chairs! When he brought them home and set them up, they were also WAY better than we expected! Everything was sturdy, in fabulous condition, seemingly untouched. Once again, we had struck gold! Huge wins.

Once all of the hubbub of pick ups and set ups, we took a load off so Brady could shower and I could humanize a little bit before yet another outing!

The most fun part of the drive in today was this.

We switched Rowan to forward facing, and it made this possible!!! Ok, it may have been possible before, but regardless, this set up is SO much nicer than the last one, even! And the kids loved being side by side. We loved it too. It was such a cute sight to look back on.

Dekker has been asking for a haircut recently, which is completely out of character for him! He has previously hated having his hair cut, but since he was asking, and it was more of his idea than anyone else’s, we jumped at it. I booked an appointment for today for Brady and Dekker. It couldn’t have really worked out better, honestly. My hair girl works towards the back of the salon and today, the the four chairs around her were empty!! So she welcomed us to bring our cartload of kids back there, and they took turns sitting in the different stylists chairs, making faces in the mirror, and watching Brady get his haircut.

When it was Dekker’s turn, I hiked him up onto the booster on Carlinna’s chair, and he didn’t bat an eye. She put the cape around him, and I took his glasses off. All three of these things have previously made him scream and cry. We discussed what we wanted for his haircut. Just out of his eyes. Pretty much what he already had, but just a bit shorter and out of his eyes. People can think that I let my kids get overgrown because I’m lazy, thats fine. But Dekker likes shaggy hair. When I show him pictures of little boys haircuts, he likes the longer styles. So we discussed, she began, and he started talking with her. They talked about kindergarten and Paw Patrol. Thank goodness she’s watched it! Haha! It was SO nice how smoothly it went!

While they chatted and she worked away, Laela spun me in a nearby chair. She was SO sweet, and seemed pretty relieved that she wasn’t up for a haircut, lol!

The end result…..

I think he looks awesome 🙂 We always do a treat after a haircut, since it used to be such a debacle, so we walked the mall to Booster Juice and everyone got a snack sized Scary Berry. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it.

(This is me apologizing for not taking pictures of the rest of my family, haha! Rowan and Solly were so well behaved and quiet, I just missed them! Whoops!)

Everyone was on a roll, so we decided to hit Superstore for just a couple of things that we couldn’t find or forgot when we were shopping on Sunday. Unfortunately, we clearly pushed our luck, and Laela wailed the entire walk back to the van. But we got most of what we came for, so that was a win. We drove home from there, and put everyone to bed. It has been an incredibly successful and fun day! I feel completely content with how everything went, and my strained muscle hurts SO much, hahaha! But it was totally worth it 😀 Its that good “I did a lot of awesome things today” kind of pain.

Now off to soak in the tub and eat something delicious. Have a great evening, all!

Facebook was generous to inform me, this morning, that I have been in the daily blogging game for FOUR YEARS! Maybe that doesn’t seem like a ton, but it feels like a pretty sizeable accomplishment to me! When I began writing my blog, Dekker wasn’t quite a year old, and now he’s coming up on five! A lot has gone down since then, but I think it would be fun to just briefly recap on the last year, 2015/2016.

I had to do a bit of looking back, but if you remember, when we listed our past house, we switched realtors halfway through. Two months with our first realtor before we switched to the second one. So at this point last year, we were one month in with our first realtor. Our house was on the market, but hadn’t been for long. And since then, SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED!! I’m positive a lot of you remember this whole thing, but for my own fun, let’s recap.

The first half of the blog year was the second half of 2015. We spent it with our house on the market, so most of what we did revolved around the sale of our house. We worked like dogs to keep it clean and tidy, yet we sweated and panicked over every showing. We stressed out about it a lot. In the midst of everything, we conceived and lost a little one. Sad days. I won’t delve too deep into that, but it is a VERY notable event that could not be excluded. Shortly after our loss, we were blessed to discover that we were expecting once again!

We made our pregnancy public on the same day that we were FINALLY able to announce that our house had sold! The very end of November was an exciting time! At that point, however, we had no plans for what would happen after we moved. We had nothing concrete saying we could build, and we didn’t want to buy somewhere, only to try to build a year down the road. So we began looking for a place to rent. Our house was officially sold as of November 30th, and we had to be out by January 7th.

The Christmas season was nuts. We basically moved into my parents house for the holiday days that family was out, and just didn’t go back. Well, we returned to pack and organize and make trips to our storage container and back, but we spent very few nights at our house after that. In the final days, we paid someone to come clean the place, left the next owners a bath bomb beside the soaker tub, and bailed, no looking back. It was awesome.

We were blessed to find our first rental easily, through people that we knew from before. They let us move into their acreage on January 4th, so after a few choppy days moving our stuff over and around, we had a new place to call home. While living at the acreage, we did a bunch of calculating, and basically did our taxes uncharacteristically early. We took our final numbers to our mortgage broker, and she confirmed how much of a mortgage we would qualify for. Very quickly, our dream to build became a reality. We spent a lot of time in January in and out of meetings with our builder, making plans and getting our ducks in a row. A few wrenches were thrown into the home build mix over the weeks, but thank goodness, they were all errors made by others, not us!! It helps SO MUCH when its not your mistake.

On February 9th, we broke ground. It was an epic, surreal, emotional day.

As it tend to happen, some unexpected things came up, and we left the acreage. (No love lost whatsoever ;)) My parents graciously took us in, when we had no other plans or direction. We began a desperate search for another rental, this time even shorter term. We needed April, May, and June. That was it. We found lots of short term rental options, but they were all tiny two bedrooms, which was not going to be functional for our soon-to-be family of six. God provided for us yet again, and within a week or two of searching, we were signed on to a lease in the north end of the city, in a quiet cul de sac, for exactly those three months. The cabin, we called it. If you ever saw it, you know why. It was perfect for us. We really settled in and felt at home.

In those months, January through to May, we were busy. We were at countless doctors appointments, we were sick SO regularly, and we were walking through/touring the house that was being built for us a ton. Beyond that, Brady was working, I was in a lot of physical pain, and the kids were struggling with all of the moving and constant uprooting. These were challenging months!! I am so very thrilled to be able to say that we had so much support and love from those around us, though. We fell out of the groove of going to church, not because we lost faith, but because it was HARD. And we were TIRED. Yet our friends from church didn’t forget about us. Our family didn’t forget. Our friends that we knew from outside of our church didn’t forget. People really kept a close eye on us. It was amazing. When we had absolutely NOTHING to give, people stuck around. I love you guys. You all know who you are.

After all of those insane months, we embarked on the craziest week of our lives. We were given the amazing gift of our fourth baby, Solomon Brady, and days later, we were moving into our palace.

Its been 3.5 weeks since we moved here, and 4 weeks since Solly was born. What a year. In the past twelve months, we’ve moved four times, conceived two babies, lost one and delivered another, had a house built, all the while maintaining Brady’s business and raising three kids. It has been NUTS. But I wouldn’t trade it 🙂 Its been an incredible year! And for those of you who have been along for the entire ride, I’m SO glad to have you looking in on our life. I like to secretly think that lots of you are rooting for us, even if I don’t know you read, or don’t know you at all, and its nice to have a cheering section when things get crazy. And this has been the definition of “crazy.”

So! Thanks for sticking it out for yet another year!! I keep wondering how long I’ll keep this up, and I truly have no idea, but I’m still enjoying it, and it appears that I have a handful of you who have stuck around, so I want to hesitantly raise my glass and say “cheers” to another year!! *clink*

I’d like to give Dekker a serious attaboy today. I know him better than anyone else does, and I can vouch that he is an exceptional person. He tends to be standoffish with new people, or really any people, though, and it sends a different message. I think a lot of people who don’t know him and see him in passing think he’s misbehaved, and he is not. He is sensitive, and gentle, and very loving. Today was one of those amazing days where it seems he’s forgotten to be grouchy, and he just rocks at all of those skills, first try. It was refreshing for everyone, even himself, and it showed as he did better and better as the day wore on.

We had waffles for brunch, and took it easy in the morning and early afternoon. We decided to make a trip to the city in the afternoon, not because we needed a lot of things, but the few things that we needed were important. Basically, one of my medications ran out, and I can’t be without it :/ So we made a quick plan and headed in.

We grabbed lunch at KFC and went to Superstore first. It was there that we snagged a new hoodie for Dekker that just happened to be very similar to the shirt I was wearing today – white with navy blue stripes. From that moment on, that kid was mine. He opted to forgo riding on the front of the cart, and instead he wanted to walk with me. He’d grab my hand, rub his cheek on it, and kiss it. If I had to let go of him for one reason or another, he’d very obviously smile at me and say “Ok mommy,” let me go, but then grab my hand back the moment it was free and ask “Did you miss me when you were away?” It was SO sweet! I tried to take a picture of us with our matching shirts, but he didn’t want to take selfies. He just wanted to snuggle.

We did Costco next, and it was relatively the same story. He just wanted to walk with me. He was sad when Solly gave up on his car seat and I had to carry him instead. But he handled his disappointment better than usual. He really wanted to walk with us rather than ride on the cart, and he was very obedient and stayed close. We always hold hands if he’s not on the cart, so this was a bit of an independence thing, and it went well! In both stores we went to, he addressed people who spoke to him politely and without reservation. He was VERY charming and well behaved the entire time!

When we got home, life as usual resumed and the kids played and ran around like always. But Rowan had barely napped at all in the van, and was therefore trashed and emotional and basically a hot mess. Laela wasn’t far behind him, and Solly was in need of some milk and a fresh bum. Usually, in those moments, Dekker cries. Because everyone else is crying, and its overwhelming. But he didn’t.

Me: Dekker, can you do me a favor?
Dekker: Of course!

Me: Dekker, do you think you could help Ro get his water bottle?
Dekker: I’d love to do that?

Laela: Dropped my toy!
Dekker: Want me to help you, little sweetie?

Laela: (wanders outside after my mom as she leaves the house)
Dekker: Honey, I can see you’re getting cold! Do you want to come back inside?

The. Entire. Evening. It was unreal! We praised him up the whole time, telling him how responsible he was being, and how great his attitude was, and it just pumped him up. At the end of the day, I could honestly tell him he had an AMAZING attitude ALL DAY, and I told him I was SO proud of him!! He just glowed with pride, and asked “Are you so proud of me that my shirt is the same color as yours?” I laughed and said I thought it was pretty cool. He suggested we wear our matching shirts forever 🙂

Toys were tidied without complaint, and when Laela got hurt and came to me crying, Dekker initiated a group hug for her. He also couldn’t keep his hands off of Solly, whether he was hugging him, wrapping him in his blanket, or putting his soother nearby. He was on top of the affection today!

Dekker gave me a soft, loving hug and kiss before bed. Not that I don’t love the hugs that are actually wrestling matches. Those are loaded with love too, I am positive. But today was a soft day for me and him. I caught myself once or twice correcting him a bit harder than I needed to, and in those moments, he would say “Oh, thats right, you’re right, I’m sorry. I got mixed up.” But he didn’t get worked up like he does when I get worked up. Funny how we play off of one another, hey? I wonder if we’d have more days like this if I changed my attitude too. Hmmm.

My hopeful plan from yesterday was shot in the foot very early on :/ I don’t know what happened with those doses I missed, but literally, I cut back ONE pill on purpose that afternoon and I could feel it by the next dose. Every four hours, I take medication. Every eight hours, its a bigger dose with a couple extra things in there. With removing ONE pill from the bigger dose, and the next dose being smaller and not as strong, I was in pretty good pain in the night. That paired with Solly not sleeping especially well was enough to knock me back to my original pain plan. I won’t lie. I’m really discouraged. I thought we were really onto something there. But now, I’m back to wondering how I’m going to know when to start weaning off, or when to even consider cutting back to see. Its an awful pain. The second I feel it, I’m a day behind in getting it back under control. Its a HUGE challenge that I was not expecting to have to deal with. Fun surprise.

Thankfully, we had a really nice day planned. We took our time getting up for the day, had cinnamon buns for breakfast, did a load of laundry, and took our time. We spent the afternoon at my parents place celebrating my nephews sixth birthday, which included ice cream cake, presents, a treasure hunt, etc. The kids were completely sugar buzzed for the majority of the day. They found some dance party kids show on Netflix to watch and jump around to, which seemed to wipe everyone out to a degree. We also learned, during the dance party, that Rowan has a pretty good twerk, and that Laela’s hair gets SUPER curly when she’s sweaty. I’d call it a successful day 🙂

Now, our exhausted kids are in bed, except Solly, who is having his wakeful time of the day. He had a really rough night, and then didn’t nap much in the afternoon at all. He fell asleep mid afternoon and slept through supper and into the evening. Now that he’s all caught up, he’ll have some wakeful time, which is actually pretty perfect. Maybe we’ll even get a stretch of sleep longer than two hours! Eek! How spoiled would we be??

Tomorrow is expected to be a quiet day at home. Likely a bit more laundry, maybe planning a bit of house stuff we want to get started on, and not a whole lot else. Quiet, playing, restful. I’m looking forward to it!

Happy weekend!

I really don’t care to take medicine if I don’t have to. Its not a big conviction, or that I feel its wrong or bad or harmful to me to take medicine, but plain and simply, I’m terrible at swallowing pills! If all medications were chewable or liquid, I’d probably be quicker to take something when I’m in pain. Even as a young teen, folded in half with menstrual cramps, I fought taking Advil until I absolutely couldn’t get it together anymore. I’d finally try to swallow those stupid things, and I’d gag and shiver and cry and it was pretty much worse than the cramps themselves :/ I’m just bad at meds, and I’ve come to accept it.

With this fun strained muscle I’ve been dealing with, I’ve been taking upwards of twenty seven pills in a day. No lie. Twenty seven. And that is what I’ve been considering “standard.” Every once in a while, I’ll take my dose, at the right time and everything, and it just doesn’t touch me. When that happens, I have two prescriptions that are “take as needed” medications. Depending on the time of day, and who I’m with, I make my choice, and take something extra. So you can imagine how much fun I’ve been having loading my body with pills over the last few weeks. None at all. Two upsides, though. One is that I’m getting much better at swallowing pills! And the other, more important, upside is that I’ve been relatively pain-free thanks to my medicine. Wednesday, while I was out shopping, I fell a half hour behind in my dose, and I felt it immediately. It made me wonder when this crappy pain would end, and how I would even know when to consider possibly weaning off of everything.

But something curious happened to me yesterday. While one of our guests was over, I missed a dose. And I didn’t notice until 3.5 hours later when it was just about time for the next dose! I was incredibly shocked! Not wanting to fall super far behind, I took my full dose of meds right away (just a little early), and I took the next one four hours later. Aaand then I slept through another dose that I was supposed to take in the night! And I didn’t notice that one until it was almost time for the next one!

While I would love to just throw my pills out the window right now, I think we all know how bad of a decision that would be. But it did give me some hope that healing is coming! So I did some math, and chatted with my mom on the phone about it all. I think now is the time to start weaning off of at least some of these meds! Very, very slowly. That way, if suddenly I’m wrong, and I’m not ready to be off yet, I can catch back up faster than if I just went off of everything cold turkey. The change I plan to implement over the next two days or so will only remove three pills from the current number I’m taking, but its a start. I’m sooo hesitant to start going off, because guys, this pain is pretty much unbelievable, and makes it VERY challenging to do much of anything. Forget laundry and unpacking boxes! What about lifting my new baby from his bouncy chair, or just being in a sitting position long enough to read someone a story? Almost impossible, no lie. This cannot get out of control again!

I feel like I should just specify that nothing that I’m taking is too crazy. All over the counter, except the stomach protector I’m taking to avoid the possibility of developing ulcers from – you guessed it! – taking too many pills! My “as needed” meds are stronger, but I’ve only had to use them a couple of times. Definitely not abusing anything, I promise!

This is kind of a weird, jumbled post, but I’m writing it because I feel HOPEFUL that there is an end in sight! I expected some postpartum discomfort, of course, because its reality, but I never expected something like this, and I am SO anticipating its departure from my life!

Cheers to taking twenty four pills every day rather than twenty seven, haha!

My morning went by fairly slowly, but not because of anything bad. I slept pretty well (thank you, Brady, for doing so much for Solly in the night!) and the kids were in good moods. They were polite and ate and played well. Everyone was happy and low key. I even tidied a teeeeeny bit in the early afternoon, which I have been itching to do. The funny thing about this muscle strain is that I’m not really supposed to do much at all. I have no specific “don’t lift more than x lbs” rules, per se, but the only time my meds even come close to lasting four hours is if I am doing almost nothing. Or actually nothing. So these days, I feed kids, snuggle them, help them, be as much of a mom as I can from a couch or chair, and when I really feel wild and crazy, I do the dishes. But otherwise, I see boxes that I can’t move around, laundry that I can’t do, and furniture that I can’t move around. Its making me a bit bonkers. But I’m trying to follow all of the rules!

So while I spent this morning sitting, I was really anticipating the rest of the day! My art teacher from high school sent me a message the other day, and said she had some questions about our new home. We made the plan for her to drop by to visit this afternoon! I haven’t seen her for about 4.5 years, when I dropped in at school to show baby Dekker off 🙂 It was SO nice to see her again, and to have her in my home. Though I realized later I never invited her to sit down!! Kicking myself over that now, lol, but maybe we’ll have another chance down the road to sit for a visit 😉 She brought us some desserty treats, and we talked about home building and school and family and where life has taken us over the last ten years. I kind of loved the dynamic. It felt like friends catching up.

Around supper time, a friend from church dropped by with a supper for us. Our church has really pulled out all of the stops for making us feel cared for in this crazy time, and we’ve had meals every other day for two full weeks. Tonight was our last one, and it was really quite perfect 🙂 She had asked a lot of questions in advance to make sure Dekker and Laela would like it, and she succeeded! The kids ate it without complaint, as did Brady and I, obviously. It was all delicious, and as per usual, we felt totally blessed and loved by it. We REALLY appreciate all of the effort you put in! We are SO lucky to have so many people taking part in welcoming Solly to the world!

Shortly after supper, Jerilee showed up for Bachelor night!! She had made a stop at M&M first, so we had some treats and dessert while we watched the Bachelorette. We started a bit later than usual, though, so we’re still not caught up all the way, and of course, we’re on a total cliffhanger! Its ok, though. Next weeks date is already in the planner 😉 It was a really nice wind down to the evening though. Good food, good company, and trashy tv.

I’m calling today 100% successful. I had a nice time with the kids, Brady came home at a good time, we caught up with friends, felt loved and supported, we rested, and ate SO MANY GOOD THINGS! Haha! It was a really great day 🙂 We feel SO much more at home here, and days like these are just so very special. Thank you, everyone who made today great <3

Today began earlier than usual after an already short night. Solly has developed the fabulous new skill of being awake for long periods of time, and he’s testing it out in the night, so Brady and I are feeling pretty zombie-esque today. But such is life with a new little one, and we are certainly grateful for him, so no one is complaining too much 😉 So Solomon and I took it slow leaving our room this morning. For a few minutes, I had him propped up against my legs, and the moment he “found” me, he broke out into big happy smiles!! I worked tirelessly to get a few more smiles out of him so I could get pictures, but no dice. In that moment, he just wanted them to be between he and I, which I can appreciate.

The kids woke up in shifts, so I spent most of the morning feeding someone. At first, this system drove me crazy, but its a nice slow pace which I’ve come to appreciate the few times its come around. With that, the boisterous playing starts gradually as well, and I can get into the swing of the day slowly.

In the afternoon, the kids ate and Rowan went down for a nap. Solly dozed a bit and I did dishes. As soon as I was done dishes, Solly wanted snuggles, so I spent a full hour with my feet up while he slept on my chest. Good for the soul, the strained muscle, and the baby. My brother dropped by to pick something up at one point. Its nice having him living locally, all of a sudden! We haven’t shared a town for probably almost ten years. Big event of the day! I washed my hair!!!!! Hahaha!! Guys, I’m convinced that, if I was open about how little I actually wash my hair, I’d have no friends left. No lie. (Consider that I have a soak just about every night! I’m not super filthy or anything. Just my hair is…) But I wash my hair rarely enough that its significant enough to put in the blog, haha! Aaaaanyway, that felt good. I even blow dried it, but being that I can’t do too many things for myself in a day, straightening it was out of the question. So its just huge. But I’m ok with that 🙂 Biggest event of the day was getting a picture of one of Sollys smiles!!

Now that Brady is home, my spontaneous afternoon plan is being put into action, and Kim and I are ducking into the city for a couple of hours to shop for a small list of things. Why would we both go in separately in the next few days if we could go in together, kid free?? So I’ll be heading off soon, but its been a nice, relaxed, hygienic, snuggly day. I really have loved every minute 🙂

I love our big front window. It provides beautiful light, and the kids and I take way more pictures together when we’re near it, haha! This morning, as Solly slept in his bouncy chair and Rowan played toys, Dekker and Laela both asked to come sit on my lap, and the selfies began.

 

After about twenty or so pictures, Dekker opted to go hang with Ro for a bit, and Laela lay across me like a baby. I snuggled her all up and we had some nice face time. She asked me if Bobby Baby was still in my tummy. If you missed it, we always have a nickname for our babies while they’re in utero, so our kids can call them something, and also partially to avoid calling the baby “it” more than we need to. And because we think its cute 🙂 When we were pregnant with Solomon, we named him Bobby Baby, because it was something that Laela could say (she wasn’t quite two when we found out we were pregnant, so her language was somewhat limited.) While none of the kids had questioned what happened to Bobby Baby when we brought Solly home, it was clear that was still a bit up in the air for Laela.

I explained to her that when Bobby Baby was born, he was actually baby Solly. She accepted that without argument, and then inquired about “another Bobby Baby.” That was how the conversation started.

I asked if she wanted another baby, and her and Dekker both answered “Ya!” right away. I asked them each what they wanted, and these are the answers I got. 

H: How many more babies do you think we should have?
D: I think maybe like four. Four boys only. Just boys.
H: Well, I don’t get to decide if the babies are boys or girls. Jesus decides, because He knows exactly what our family should look like.
D: Ok. But just boys. Remember what I said, mommy? *holds up four fingers* Four boys.

H: How many more babies would you like?
L: Two babies!
H: Boy babies or girl babies?
L: Boy babies and girl babies.
H: One boy and one girl baby?
L: One two three babies!
H: Oh, three? How many boys and how many girls?
L: One two three babies!
H: Ok wait, six babies? I don’t understand…
L: One two girl babies, and boy baby and girl baby!

Sooooo what I gathered from this is that both kids are open to more siblings, haha! Some of the rest of the info is still a little unclear, though. I’m thinking that Laela is voting for twins, but I can’t read that complex little mind, so who really knows. I know they’re little and their understanding isn’t the same as an adults understanding of the subject, but I am thrilled that they both jumped in joyfully to the conversation about more siblings, rather than getting upset at the mere possibility.

Open doors of communication rock my socks. So do my kids.

Our little Solomon is growing. We are quite confident he is right smack dab in the middle of a power growth spurt, though I’m not sure he’s stopped growing yet. This kid is seriously bulking up quick! But recently, his feedings are amping up like crazy! With that, however, he is VERY sleepy, and can’t seem to stay awake for his feedings. Therefore, he is up more in the nights, drinking less in each feeding. He’s getting more milk, but its all broken up because he is just SO pooped. This is a common thread with our kids. Especially Dekker, who he definitely takes after in bulk 😉 Our kids sleep through everything, including growth spurts, sickness, bad moods, etc. Its really nice for us, as their parents.

With Solly waking up a bit more often, Brady and I both feel a bit more tired than we did a week ago, but we’re more than fine. However, babiest boy (just specifying, since Ro is still a baby, lol) is a bit more tired than before as well. So today, all he wanted was to be snuggled.

Its really one of the best problems to have. At first, I kind of cringed, because I had actually woken up with a bit of motivation to do things around the house. I figured I’d let the kids play around my room for a bit so I could get some organizing done. Ok, let’s be honest. I figured I’d start the process of organizing our room. But with this kid not settling unless he was on me, there was no hope. BUT!, then I turned my cringe off and decided to snuggle that little Solly boy until his head was sweaty and my shirt was wrinkled because of it. To snuggle him and be able to hear him snore, as he sleeps deepest when he’s on me. To snuggle him and smell his head the whole entire time. My motivation to clean my room was nothing compared to fulfill my childrens desires to be close to me.

People like to tell me to enjoy snuggling my kids while they want to snuggle me, because they won’t want that forever. And I suppose thats a possibility. I still love to snuggle with my mom, as an almost 28 year old woman. Maybe thats just my personality, or maybe its the relationship that we have. I really can’t be sure, but I don’t see it stopping anytime soon. I know my kids may change their tune on the subject in the upcoming years, but I’m not going to count on it. I hope they always love to cuddle.

But they will not always sleep on me. I will not always be able to listen to them breathe so closely. I likely will not always be their literal soft place to fall. So while I can, I will put off cleaning for another day and hold my kids for hours.

Brady is officially a daddy to four kids this time around! Sadly, I don’t have any creative crafts to share with you, or even any cute pictures of Brady and all four kids. Its been a full day, though, and I feel like I can confidently say that the father of my children feels celebrated and loved. Brady has a special relationship with each of our kids, and I figured I’d touch on that in this post.

Dekker is SO interested in Bradys job! “How was your work day, daddy?” he often asks when Brady gets home. “What did you build?” Dekker probably knows more about Brady’s work than I do. He knows proper terms, names of tools, and since the house build, he notices everything. He knows a ton, and thats all been Brady. Another thing that Brady has passed on to Dekker is his work ethic. Obviously their capacities for hard work are a bit different at the moment, but Dekker loves to help, and is very happy to do whatever he can to keep things running smoothly. His daddy is not one who believes that the home needs to revolve around him, or that he is entitled to perfection, because he is the man of the house. And I’m THRILLED that Dekker is learning that from him. He will make a great husband for some lovely woman someday!

Laela and Brady have the token “father daughter” relationship that is very different from the boys. There is no sibling favoritism AT ALL, but its a different kind of bond. She is his little lady. Her “Peas, daddy?” gets her juuust about whatever she wants. Laela is a very busy little girl, but she will drop everything to sit on Brady’s lap and cuddle with him in silence. I know that one of Brady’s favorite interactions he has with Laela is when he first arrives home from work, she peeks through the spindles in our railing and squeaks “Hi daddy!” at him in the entrance. I am positive that Brady is the reason that Dekker calls Laela “little sweetie” when he speaks to her, because thats what Brady always calls her. I hope she learns that there are good men out there, just like her dad.

Rowan is VERY attached to Brady! The moment he gets home, Ro bursts into tears, and heads for him. Brady picks him up and all is right with the world again. Something special that Brady and Rowan share together is a bit more of a rough and tumble relationship. Ro is a tank, and I find it hard to juggle him too much anymore. He’s just really, really big!! Hanging him upside down or tossing him around doesn’t work much for us anymore, but Brady is still totally capable or manhandling him like that, haha, and he LOVES it! If Brady is every laying on the floor, Rowan takes that a a prime opportunity to wrestle. Its very sweet to watch them play together. I’m so glad Ro has a big strong daddy to rough house with.

Lastly, Brady and Solomon. Realistically, so far, everyone’s relationships with Solly are fairly practical, including Bradys. Brady is a diaper changer, bottle feeder, bum sniffer, swaddler, cuddler, medication administrator, etc. Brady is an experienced father, yet his bond with Solly is growing beautifully. He is so very gentle, yet not hesitant one bit. He is confident in his role, and I think babies can sense that. Beyond the practical side, though, Brady is an affectionate, soft, loving dad. He strikes up conversations with Solly, whether at home or in public. He gives him lots of kisses and nuzzles, and is a strong place for baby to sleep when lots is going on and the little guy just needs a soft place to fall.

Brady is really the ideal father for his children. We are completely blessed to have him leading our family.

So very happy I picked YOU to be my baby daddy 😉 Love you, Brady.