Today seemed a bit overwhelming, I’m not really sure why. I felt bad when Brady got home because I felt a bit of relief, where as he hadn’t had the best work day, and was coming home to more chaos. He has reassured me that he prefers home chaos to work chaos, and he’s more than happy to come home to it, but still. I know he doesn’t get the same relief I get.

We spent the evening with three underwear/diaper clad children. Not because they asked to be undressed, or because thats normal right before bedtime. No. Every single kid took their turn being unceremoniously stripped down for one reason or another.

It began at supper.

Laela spilled half a cup of milk on herself. I get it, cups are tricky, but usually she’ll accidentally splash a little, or dribble some down her face if she pours it too fast. You get the drift. But she had clearly brought the cup to her mouth, not tried at all, and poured it down her body. It was all over her high chair, the floor, and of course, her clothes. So we stripped her down and figured it would be bedtime soon enough, so we’d just leave her that way.

Once Dekker and Laela had ran off to go find some fun, Brady and I visited a bit in the kitchen and relaxed a little. He decided to put a load of dishes through the washer, so I grabbed Rowan to take him downstairs to find the others. I noticed right away that his diaper was really fat. I figured he had probably wet through, so I looked into the highchair, and found poop. Because why wouldn’t I? So after that blowout, he also was just left naked. Again, it would be bedtime soon enough.

We were downstairs, and Brady had finally come down to sit with us for a few minutes before we began the big tidy of toys and the rest of bedtime routine. In that moment, Dekker got this scared look on his face and announced that he’d pooped his pants. It still happens sometimes, and it takes everything in me to just say “Oops! Lets go to the bathroom fast and finish up there!” rather than getting suuuper frustrated in front of him and telling him he knows better. So this evening, he pooped his pants, and Brady and I both right away said “Well, let’s go to the bathroom! C’mon, let’s go!” Brady got there and pulled his pants down. There was poop aaaaall down his legs. It was a big, gross, sickie poop. I could see right away how it had gotten away on him. There was compassion, but also dry heaving and preemptive exhaustion towards the upcoming task. We hauled Dekker upstairs to got him on the toilet while we ran a bath. Poop was all over the floor, the bathmat, the toilet seat, the potty seat, and of course everything he was wearing. I grabbed everything that could go in the laundry, and brought cleaning stuff for the floor and seats. Brady scrubbed and then showered Dekker off while I ran a load of laundry with Dekkers clothes, the bathmat, Rowans clothes, the cover from his high chair, and Laela’s clothes.

If I can be honest, the vibe from this evening was sort of how the whole day felt. I’m so very glad its bedtime.

My kids are lucky they’re so darn cute.

This evening, I was SO blessed by three different strangers, in a McDonalds, of all places. It reminded me how much a kind word can have an effect on someone and make their day, in some cases.

Brady and I met in the city after his workday. We planned for a quick supper at McDonalds and then a grocery shop at Superstore. Not a lot to do, but we enjoy those kind of outings.

We walked into the McDonalds a little less organized than usual. Lots of people were coming in and out and it was a tight little entrance. That, and we had Rowan in the stroller so I’d hold the door for Brady to push Ro thru, and then we’d all be backed up behind him against another door. It was just kind of a mess. When we finally made it into the building, the kids were just walking straight ahead, which wasn’t where we needed to go. So we had to go gather them and wrangle everyone to one table before I got everyones orders and went to the front counter. We weren’t at all loud or causing an issue, but we did stand out a little bit.

Right after I ordered, a woman was walking away with her order, and stopped by me. She commented on how cute my kids were. I thanked her, and told her they were really fabulous kids. She said she could tell, and she headed to her table to have her supper. It made me feel all nice and warm and fuzzy.

I leaned against a wall and waited for my order, and a woman who ordered after me came and waited right next to me. Not two seconds of standing next to each other, she tapped me on the shoulder and said “Your family is so adorable, you should be very proud.” I couldn’t help but puff up a bit like a mother hen. I thanked her and said that I really am proud of them. We proceeded to have a bit of a sad, deep conversation about her inability to have children. It probably wasn’t the most appropriate conversation for two strangers to have in a McDonalds, but she clearly was comfortable talking about it, and wanted to talk about it! So we talked, and she said how desperately she had wanted kids, and how mine just made that desire stir right back up. I felt sad for her, but she said she had recently married a man later in his years who was past his time of child bearing, so she said she would have chosen him over babies. It was good to know she was content in her life. But I saw her look over at my family many times. She was very enamoured with them.

When the food all arrived, I brought the tray to our table and proceeded to make a few trips to and from the condiments/drinks/utensil area. Once everyone had their meal, straw, napkin, ketchup, etc., we could begin eating. The kids were all doing awesome, and honestly, making us look really good. No one was spilling, they were using perfect manners, Rowan was quiet. It was a scene out of a movie, really. It wasn’t too long before I noticed another woman headed our way. It was an elderly lady, and her husband a few steps behind. She said she’d been observing us, and that our children seemed so happy. She said “You must love them very well, and smile at them a lot.” She just warmed my heart. She asked about all of their ages, and commented on how well behaved they were. I thanked her profusely and made a joke about how they’re just hungry, and that was why they were quiet. But she insisted that they were just lovely kids, which they are. She pulled out her grandma-style little black book, filled with family pictures. Her and her husband have been together for over 65 years, and they had four children. She noticed that Rowan is big for his age, so of course we got onto the topic of my kids enormous birth weights. She was SO funny about it too! I had said “But thats what you want, right? Big, healthy kids.” And she kind of looked at me like I was nuts and said “You don’t want them THAT big!!” But she was SO loving and interested in us. I half expected her to sit down and join us, but she did move on eventually.

This post is not about how great my kids are. Though they really are great. But its about how those few little comments/conversations I had with complete strangers reminded me how a nice word (or a mean word) can affect someone’s day SO MUCH. Its hard to remember to do that all of the time, because it doesn’t feel natural. What is it in us that doesn’t want people to feel good about themselves?? I think compliments are SO important! But I know, there are lots of reasons not to, one of the biggest being that its uncomfortable to just approach and talk to people you don’t know! But I can vouch for the fact that it can feel FABULOUS to have someone who doesn’t know you, or owe you anything, to come up to you and encourage you in such a significant way. I suggest we all do the same, in whatever capacity we can muster up.

I left the house around 10:20 this morning and headed to my moms. She was already outside with her car running when I arrived. We jumped into her car and headed to the city for a day together. The plan was to do some shopping for the Christmas season and just pick up a few things that we needed that were fun rather than work. It was the perfect day, really.

Honestly, the date idea was sparked when I learned of the endless shrimp special at Red Lobster. We booked a date so we could take advantage of it. But of course, the shrimp did in fact come to an end just two days ago. We bucked up and changed course to Tony Romas, instead having riblings and a delicious shrimp appetizer for lunch. We made our game plan from there, while we ate way more than two people needs to eat for lunch. It was amazing.

I won’t list off all of the places we hit today, or all of the things we bought, but I will tell you it was incredibly successful! We didn’t buy every gift for every person on our lists or anything like that, but we had SO much fun, didn’t spend a ton of money, and we didn’t rush. We parked far and took our time and enjoyed our relaxed time together.

We were both pretty finished after supper, and headed back to her place for a bit of a rest and some last minute visiting before I made my way back home. We were both completely pooped from the day, and I called Brady and we chatted pretty much the whole way home. I LOVE those phone dates, because not only does it help me stay awake, but I haven’t seen too much of Brady today at all, and this was a really nice way to hear about his day and tell him about mine. I was thrilled to learn that Brady and the kids had a lovely, pretty much breakdown-free day together! The kids had played well, ate well, complained little, and Brady had even done all of the laundry, which I was NOT expecting! Needless to say, it felt nice to arrive home to such a welcoming place <3

Speaking of that welcoming place, a bubble bath is calling my name, and I’ve been outside in the chilly weather a lot today! I’ve earned my soak, and a little bit of Halloween candy.

Best. Day. Ever. Thanks, mama.

But I can’t help it! I love the Christmas season! Part of me is nervous that I’m going to struggle with Christmas a bit when I come to terms with still living here when I was so confident that last Christmas would in fact be our last Christmas in this house. However, I’m currently super gung ho about Christmas, regardless of where we’re living, so I’m rolling with it! If my emotions want to be positive, I’m going to let them!

For some reason, I’m feeling like I’d really like to send out family picture cards this year. We made them once, but I never ended up sending them out. People who I saw got them, but I didn’t mail any. Total fail, I know. Either way, I’m kind of out of the loop. People still send pictures out, right? I’ve been trying to build a picture on vistaprint like usual, but I can’t find anything that looks quite like I want. Also, I don’t have a good family picture of us! I mean, I have one from this summer, but I had to crop it kind of funny because somehow I had an unreasonable amount of cleavage in it. So with that, it doesn’t fit very nicely on cards. Ugh. I think I should get a picture of us, then address all of the envelopes so I’ll for sure send them out, and THEN try to design and order them! Is anyone else as bad at this as I am?

Other than that, I’m already compiling ideas for what to bake for the season, what gifts I’d like to give to who, and where we’ll be when. I’m so excited to plan for the Christmas season! I feel like I need to get a move on this Christmas picture thing, though, or I’m just not going to do it. Please! If anyone has good tips, design skills, etc., pass them on! I have never successfully done this part of Christmas!

Well, mostly normal. Part of today was back to our old traditional Sunday, and part of it was not.

Traditional Sunday was always church, visiting until we were basically the last people at church, and to my parents for the rest of the day. We haven’t had a Sunday with my parents after church in what seems like forever, and we were SO looking forward to today!

Unfortunately, the kids were in rough shape. Dekker was being incredibly disobedient, and was getting much too loud and upset in the service, so Brady had to haul him out. Meanwhile, Rowan was getting louder and louder, as babies tend to do when they’re tired. Its not uncommon. But the little back room specifically set up for napping babies was already occupied, and while there is room to nap more than one baby, we knew adding Ro at that volume would wake the little sleeping love already there. So while Laela was very well behaved and staying relatively quiet and entertaining herself, Rowan was twitchy and exhausted, and Dekker was SO over it. Brady had to stay, because he had committed to drum, but I loaded the kids up in the van and we left. We just sat for a while in silence, because Dekker was actually in a decent amount of trouble because of how he had handled himself that morning. Dekker and Laela say perfectly still and quiet, and Rowan was asleep within a minute of being buckled in, no word of a lie. Finally, I had to do something other than just sit and be pissed, so the kids and I drove to the edge of the city to get some Tims for Brady and I. I drove back pretty much right away, and we just lurked in silence outside the church. We had probably been back for a solid 15-20 minutes when I heard Dekker from the backseat break the silence. “I’ve changed my bad attitude,” he said. I admit, I kind of snapped back at him that I hoped he had, and he nodded profusely, and said “Yup, yup I really did. I’ll be happy now. I’m all done being grouchy.” It amazes me how he can really turn it around after that. He’s not all talk. He tells me he’s changed his attitude when it is in fact changed. In this case, I was the childish one. After he’d told me he was happy again, I recapped the entire situation, and kind of explained to him how he had really wrecked part of the morning. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t just “happy” because he was bored, or because he had forgotten. So I recounted all of the events where he had disobeyed or broken rules, and he teared up while he listened and nodded and said “I remember that” and things along those lines. He really took it. In those moments, I know things are sinking in, and I’m SO proud of him! SO PROUD. It was actually a decent end to a really difficult morning.

We had a really lovely lunch of pancakes and bacon with my parents, and then we put the boys to work. My parents’ basement fridge is pooched, so the job was to haul the old fridge away and go buy a new one on sale at Costco and bring it in. They ran the errand in great time, but upon unwrapping it, found it had dents and scratches, and even one little crack in it. So back to Costco they went and exchanged it for a fresh one. While they were gone, mom and I talked about Christmas and upcoming excitements while the kids played tirelessly for hours, all afternoon! It was wonderful, and surprisingly meltdown-free!

Once the boys were back, the fridge was downstairs, and the doors were back on (big fridge + small doorway) we had a yummy supper of pizza and salad, with brownies for dessert. SO yummy. When the kids were done, they were excused, and the rest of us sat at the table and visited until it was pretty much time to go. But it felt like the perfect Sunday. No card games this time, but lots of great visiting, happy kids, and good food. Hopefully there are many more Sundays like this coming up in the future. Without the morning meltdowns would be ideal, but we’ll take what we can get 😉

I had no idea how unsettled Rowan was until he was settled. You know how, usually, when babies cry, you can carry them against your tummy and warm up their tummies, and they settle and sleep, all wrapped around your body? Rowan never did that. He was always wiggly. Which was fine, because he was a wiggly baby, and some babies are just wiggly! Right? But obviously, it has turned into something more, and while Rowan is still solidly active and loves to jump and roll and play, he is now a content baby, for the first time ever.

This evening, as I fed him his bottle, he lay perfectly still and drank it, playing with his hands the whole time. He had one point in the middle where he twitched like crazy under it, and spat it out really quickly. I teased him a bit and managed to get the bottle back in his mouth without any tears or much of a fight. And he continued drinking, easily finishing his bottle.

When I took the bottle out of his mouth, he was staring up at me, milk down his chin, with a big dopey grin across his face. From my perception, he was both proud of himself, and had a nice full tummy. It is amazing for me to see those reactions for him. Not long ago at all, his feedings ended with everyone sweating, himself all teary and soaked in milk, and everyone exhausted. This is SO much better. Its funny how successful feedings bring me to tears, but they really do. Its one of those things that I didn’t realize how difficult it really was until there was improvement, you know? It was our norm. Like how Dekker would vomit every time you’d pick him up. No word of a lie. It didn’t matter if he had just eaten, or not, or just burped, or not. It was just always. He barfed all the way down my back and into my pants multiple times a day, every day, for about eight months. And it was BRUTAL. But it was truly amazing when he started getting stronger and it became less. This is one of those things. As things improve, I am just extra grateful for them.

Rowan still has those panicky twitches, and he still sometimes struggles VERY hard during a feeding, so I think I’m going to go along with my doctors recommendation, and bump his medication juuust a bit. As in another half mil, twice a day. If he can be completely reflux free, we’ll be able to start improving a few more things and making life easier for him, and in turn, for us. We just have to help him get comfortable first.

I’m SO thrilled with the progress Ro is making. I’m sorry to those of you who are bored of hearing about this. I understand many other people and their children have much bigger fish to fry. But I’m all for celebrating all victories, big or small, and I believe that since we’re celebrating our own victories over here, I’m deciding that they’re all big 🙂

YAY ROWAN, FOR NOT TASTING ACID WHEN YOU EAT!!!!! THATS SO GROSS!!!!!

The title of todays post is based on my feelings today. I’m not sure whether my brain is fried, or I’m just toast. For some reason, last night, I was awake from midnight until sometime after 3:00pm, when I stopped looking at the time and just pretended to sleep in an effort to fool my brain. I did eventually fall asleep, but I was pretty zombified first thing this morning. I decided to adult after all, and got it together for the morning and afternoon! The kids had a lot of fun, they played together really well, and Rowan ate really really well! All things considered, it was a successful day! But I am completely. Wiped. Out.

Praise the Lord, we have learned about our kids well, and bedtime routine starts NOW! Tidying toys, brushing teeth, potty break and diaper changes, prayers and lights out by 7:00! So. Ready.

Brady has a side job lined up for the next couple of days, but thanks to the supplier not getting his finishing supplies to site until roughly 2:00pm, our schedule changed and we decided to go into the city for a bit of an outing. The idea was, after we did our stuff in the city, we’d stop by the job site and he could check over the materials, so any errors had extra time to be corrected.

We didn’t have tons to do in the city, but we did stop at a lot of places for one thing, or to check for something. So lots of stopping and starting, but without too terribly much success. But we did stock up on a few staple groceries, and have a really nice time just being out and about with the kids. They were super positive all day, in great moods, which was super refreshing!!

We got supper and Brady went and checked his materials at work, which seem to be in order. Everyone ate well, and we listened to my new favorite music on the drive home. Now, the two big ones are tucked in, and Rowan downed his bottle!! Bradys mixing up a few more ounces to see if he’ll willingly drink more still! But Ro seems so happy to be home, laying on our bed, soaking up the attention and being able to roll around. He is at that stage of life where he doesn’t like to be held or contained constantly, yet he’s not really able to go very far on his own, if you know what I mean. So being free to roll and be on his own is a huge gift for him.

He’ll be down for the night soon, and we’ll rest up in the tub and hopefully have a good nights sleep before he’s back at work tomorrow. So glad he didn’t go in today and just putter while he waited for the materials to show up. That would have been a pretty unfortunate time suck. But he’s learned that lesson the hard way before, and thankfully, this time, it turned into a great family day.

Ro continues to improve every single day. While he’s been a royal pain to feed today (oh. my. gosh.) he slept so well at night! He woke up for milk at 1:15am, and not again until 7:00!! He still eats much better at night, but we’ll take what we can get.

Since I got home so late last night, and I was kind of wired, Brady and I stayed up together for a while so I had a chance of getting sleepy. I admit, I’m somewhat dependant on him for this. We always go to bed together. Always. So on nights like last night, of course I said we needed to go to bed sooner than I was ready, so that he could get some sleep before his inevitably early morning, but I lay awake until Ro woke up at 1:15. I was able to sleep after that, thankfully, and sleeping until 7:00 was beautiful! Shorter than I’m used to though. Tonight will be a much, much earlier night!! My mom always says any hours you get before midnight count for twice as many, and I think she’s onto something.

I’ve got to get my soak in first, though. I missed it yesterday, though my entire evening out was completely worth it! But I think anyone who also has a soak every night can appreciate how much I miss it when its not there. Halloween candle and bath time!

I’m old now, and I’m rarely up late. Ask the friends that I usually text in the evening. Lately, I’m closing up shop and cuddling in for bed slightly before 10:00pm.

Tonight, however, I had an outing with Kim. We did a bit of shopping, got some supper and coffee, and had a nice little date in the van while her baby boy slept in his car seat. We had such a nice time! But when the baby lulls, we head back home. We were met with an absolutely dark town. The power was out everywhere. The only lights we saw were those of headlights of the other few vehicles driving around. Thankfully, Kims husband met us in the driveway and helped carry everything inside. We said our goodbyes, and I drove off.

I decided to quickly duck in on my mom. I know she doesn’t need any “taking care of,” but I was around and wanted to have a quick visit. Our visit quickly became a two hour affair, which was honestly completely lovely! I’m sure lots of you can relate to how things change once you have kids, and when I get to spend time with my mom, I feel like I’m always competing for her attention with my children. I’m pretty familiar with that scene, and its fine, but it was such a treat to just sit in the living room and have a little candlelit visit.

I don’t even feel tired, but I left at 11:00, and am only home now, around 11:30. I feel fine, almost refreshed even, but my body is tired and angry, so I’m heading off to bed. Brady ran a bath 2.5 hours ago, so thats sad, hahaha! It was worth sacrificing it this time, though. I had such a lovely evening with Kim, and my mom. An outing is always a treat, but I sure have some wonderful people in my life. I wish I could have roped them all into the same evening, but these two are pretty high on the list, so I count myself lucky 🙂