Today felt like a bit of a strange day. The kids were GREAT in the morning! Ate well, played well, etc. They went down to nap better than usual, which was a wonderful change from our normal. Laela woke up after a solid 2.5-3 hour sleep, and it was her who woke Dekker, rather than the usual other way around. And then the real fun began.

Brady went to get the kids up, and Dekker told him that he felt a bit sick. Now, Dekker has never said that to us. The only reason he actually knows the phrase is because unfortunately, we used it a lot in my first trimester. His mommy often felt “a bit sick,” so he picked up on it. I was actually relieved to hear that he had told Brady, since that would seem like we FINALLY wouldn’t be guessing anymore! But we’re still guessing.

Mr. Dekker refuses to tell us what kind of sick he feels. So he and I cuddled in bed a bit while Laela had her bottle and Brady heated up supper. That seemed really comfy for him, and of course, I loved it too. We had mac and cheese for supper, which he devoured. He was back to his energetic self, and even told me he felt better. He played well all evening. He was very active and giggly and seemed 100%. Until it was bedtime. Well, then he felt sick again. Sigh. So I have no idea!!! is he actually sick? Or just learning that he could maybe get out of something if he was? I absolutely don’t want to overlook sickness in my children, but he seemed quite irritable and mostly just a bear. So we told him he could have a good sleep and probably feel better in the morning. After checking on him fifteen minutes after, he insists that he feels sick.

All of that, and Laela is really struggling to get to bed tonight. She had a molar that is working super hard to poke through, and I think she’s feeling that in a pretty big way. So she’s crying periodically, and Dekker is sooo frustrated. With her, and his illness, whatever that may be.

Its just felt like a really odd day. I’m relieved that Brady will be home tomorrow. We’re really hoping for an errand day to finally get some big stuff done, but I may either be on my own, or we may leave it for another day. I’m getting my hair done on Thursday morning, so I could always finish some tasks then. We’ll see how the kids feel. Hopefully tomorrow is better than today!

It seems like I’m learning more and more every day about having two kids, and being fair. For example, Dekker is a great helper, and brings his dishes to the kitchen after he eats. Yes, they are plastic. He used to bring his dishes, and then come get Laela’s yogurt cup and spoon next. Now, he happily brings his dishes to the kitchen, but says Laela should bring hers. Huh. Obviously, when Laela is old enough, she will absolutely be in charge of her dishes, so it won’t always be his job at all! Yet, its nice to help out whether it seems fair or not. Like I said, we’re always figuring.

Our big one is learning about sharing. So far, our method has just been that we don’t steal toys from each other. Neither kid is the kid who picks their toy and holds it all day long. They swap around constantly, so within a few minutes, the other kid would be able to play with the toy. So currently, if Dekker wants a toy that Laela has, he can’t have it until she’s done. Its been a long time coming but Dekker has come to terms with it. He’s also starting to slowly work in trading her for another toy. Since she is often still holding onto furniture while she’s standing, if Dekker gives her a “new” toy, she’ll have to drop the first one, and then its fair game apparently, haha! Good system, Dekker. Today, he tried a new method that I couldn’t resist sharing on here with you guys.

Deks was building something with Duplo when he noticed that Laela had a block, and he wanted it. He went up to her and made a bit of a whiny sound, and asked me if he could have it. I told him that Laela had it right now, and he could have it when she finished, like always. (Keep in mind, we have a tub of Duplo in our basement.) He was bummed, but then perked up and put his hand out. He said “Dekker just wait til Laela gives it.” A VERY good move on his part! Laela’s great with giving me toys that she’s not supposed to have, and in situations like that. I never have to actually take anything from her. Obviously, Dekker has observed this. So he sat patiently with his hand out, right next to her little hand with the block in it. She slowly switched the Duplo to her other hand and gave Dekker a hearty high five. I burst out laughing, and so did Dekker. Once the laughter had died down, he said “No Laela, the toy for Dekker?” in the adorable little high voice he uses when he talks to her. Once again, a high five. This went on, and seemed to become less and less funny, but more and more funny to me, and to Laela, who responded more to my laughter than to Dekker’s rising temperature. Finally Dekker took the block, put it in the appropriate hand, and put his hand under her hand. She finally gave in, and he took off with it. She followed him on foot, which seemed to throw him for a bit of a loop, but he giggled the whole time. Both kids were happy, and I certainly didn’t intervene. It was a fabulous interaction to watch! One of those when I had a “Oh cmon, Dekker, lay off”moment, but Laela held her own and didn’t give him what he wanted until she had finished having her fun with him. They have a fabulous dynamic.

I can’t wait to see the chaos that will ensue with a third kid in the mix! Jim and I are having some one on one time now as the two crazies get some sleep. I’m loving that his kicks are getting bigger, and I’m LOVING that I can know that he is, in fact, a he 🙂 I simply can’t wait to meet my little boy!

Wait, yes, I can wait!!! Probably it would be pretty bleak if he were born today. We’ll keep his little buns cooking a bit longer 🙂

So after our wonderful day of events yesterday, we ended up somehow losing a whole schwack of pictures, duplicating a ton, and mixing everything up. Brady worked furiously to fix the problem, and I worked just as hard and staying level. by 1:30am, we gave up for the night. It was during my pee break shortly after that when I had my breakdown. I bawled my unreasonable eyes out over the loss of my last ten days of pictures. I needed those pictures!

But I didn’t. Brady got me back to bed and rubbed my feet a bit while we watched Netflix. Finally, around 2:15am, my body gave up and let me sleep. I slept hard until I woke up to pee around 6:00. I went back to sleep but had bad dreams until I woke up really early, in time to get to church in time for practice. Not my best night. But I wore a cute dress and felt relatively put together, and like I didn’t look like a zombie. Somehow, that helped a little.

Brady and I practiced and everything went smoothly, so we went to my parents place. They had the kids, and had fed them breakfast and were playing toys. We hung out there until it was time for church. The morning service went really well, actually. The music went smoothly, especially considering that we needed a couple of extra songs and had only found out that morning! Thank the Lord for a husband who can just pick something instrumentally on his guitar and it can bring people to worship.

After church, Brady and I once again handed the kids off and headed to meet with our small group for lunch and our session. We ate unbelievable pulled pork on a bun and cold veggies for lunch. I could have eaten seven buns, but I didn’t. Self discipline, folks. We headed upstairs for our video and discussion afterwards, and from there, we went our separate ways.

Our kids were both asleep upon our arrival at my parents, and so was my dad. So Brady and I visited with my mom and made some plans for later in the week. Eventually everyone woke up and we had pancakes and bacon for supper, which was amazing. Our whole family loves pancakes, and Dekker was so polite and pleasant to eat beside. I always love him, but he was loving the food and was just super adorable about it. We then decided that, for a special treat, we’d go outside for dessert, make a little fire, and roast marshmallows. This was a HUGE win! Dekker raced around the backyard, got rides in the wagon, swung on swings, and ate lots of treats. The rest of us huddled by the fire, except whichever one was running around with him. Laela ate two whole graham crackers, and would likely have gone for more, but we called it quits. I fully expected a serious meltdown when we had to leave, but grandma and grandpa held Dekkers hands and ran like the wind with him to the van. They got him all buckled in and he happily waved and shouted his “bye byes” at them as we drove away. It always helps when grandma races the van 😉

We got home after their bedtimes, and Laela just finished her bottle up now, to bed she goes! Dekkers already tucked in but is definitely up waiting for her to join him. I love that boy. There are still a few things to do before bedtime tonight, but I feel weirdly refreshed. Yes, I’m tired. My body is tired. But today was busy and great and exactly what I needed. Seems like I might sleep really well!! I hope the same for the rest of you 🙂 The sleep, not the mad fatigue…

Sorry for the late post but its been SUCH a good day! Waaay too much going on, and instead of blogging immediately after the kids went down, I decided to play some games on Bradys iPad while he backed up the laptop a bit. But thats another story.

I woke up this morning when Brady dropped the monitor, haha! Not the best way to wake up, but convenient, considering I wanted to make my new recipe today and it needed to be in the crock pot for nine hours. Brady was lovely and got up and helped me put it together while the kids were waking up in their room. Once it was assembled and the slow cooking had begun, I was sent back to bed to play free cell and try to sleep. I didn’t sleep, but I did take time and rest while the kids had some one on one time with their dad. When I did venture down to the family, we talked about what we might want to accomplish in the day, and realized we had a few things to do in the city. It wasn’t much though, and would likely not be stuff we would haul the kids in for. So I got all ready and went by myself. I love my shorty trips into the city on my own. Its nice to be hands free once in a while.

I started at the mall closest to my end of the city and grabbed Starbucks, and booked a hair appointment for next week. I actually need some help with some ideas but I’ll bug you about that in another post. I bought a Christmas tree ornament and some cookie cutters from Frenzy, and picked up my replacement phone. Not a new version, just a 4s, but time for a new battery.

*Sorry if the rest of this post is less happy. I’m trying, but just learned that through restoring my phone since getting home, about 400 pictures are lost, as well as all of my videos of the kids :*( They were not all on my laptop, and I’m really, really bummed. Damn you, something or other…

While I waited for my phone, I had a really nice visit with the girl at Telus. I actually dated her brother years back, so we knew each other in high school. Its always nice to catch up with friends from back in the day.

When I was done at that mall, I hit up Value Village. Its so silly, but thats something of a guilty pleasure for me. I love to peruse all the same sections every time I go – maternity, shoes, and housewares. Sometimes I get into kids clothes too but I can kill hours there. Plus, the vast majority of kids stuff is diaper shirts, and I’ve sort of stopped buying into those.  Today, I added a couple of other sections to my list and had a WONDERFUL haul! Not anything huge, but I’m very happy with my purchases. They include some boots, and a fall dress and denim jacket for Laela, a dressy little vest for Dekker, a work shirt for Brady, a really pretty dress for me that shows off my Jim bump really nicely, and a measuring cup/container thing. I’m not sure how to explain that, but I really like measuring things that are 4 cups or bigger. I seem to always need them and they’re always dirty. This one isn’t just a cup, but a Tupperware ish thing with a lid. I like it.

Post-city trip, I hit up a nearby town for the best buns in the world to bring to church tomorrow, as our small group is having pulled pork on a bun. Plus, buns with the soup I had made for supper made sense. So I bought buns, picked up coffees for Brady and I, and went home.

The kids were just waking up as I got home, but we worked with my phone and laptop and actually, had a really lame time of it. Our laptop is about to die, and therefore wouldn’t restore my phone, much less stay powered up. I think we’ve got the laptop mostly worked out for right now but the phone not yet :/

Brady and I weren’t super hungry for supper, thanks to our massive coffees, so the kids ate honey chicken on rice happily while we did dishes and assisted them as much as needed. Brady offered to bathe them afterwards, and Dekker was itching to get in there. He wasn’t even completely undressed before he started to climb in. I helped him get there, and yes, into swim shorts because thats how he rolls, and then into the tub. They played happily at first, fussed a bit during the rinse, but hardly. Dekker is always so pleased afterwards, and we have a big long talk about how much fun the bath is. As the kids were getting dried off, Dekker said he didn’t want to wear a diaper. Brady asked “Did you want to wear underwear?” Dekker heartily agreed! So I rushed over and pulled out the one and only pack of underwear we have for him. I pulled out each pair and laid them on the floor so he could pick. He picked the ones with the skateboarding turtle. I slipped him into them and he was sooo proud! We took a bunch of pictures, but I know some people think those kinds of pictures are super offensive so I don’t want to piss anyone off by posting. It was pretty awesome though! I got him into a shirt and said she should go play a bit. He insisted he wanted pants too. I was a bit bummed, since I was expecting him to pee and I wanted to save his jammies. But, no luck. So I got him all dressed how he wanted, and we went downstairs. The timing was no good, as it was an hour before bedtime, but I certainly wasn’t going to say he couldn’t wear underwear!! And that whole hour, he didn’t pee! Not going to lie, I was in my underwear and a shirt as I tend to be, and Dekker pointed out that I was wearing underwear. It became the “lets see your underwear” party, and we all showed our gitch off. It was pretty hilarious, but he was so pumped about it.

The sad part was bedtime. He likes underwear, but will not sit on the potty. So I told him that underwear are for big boys who sit on the potty, and if he can pee on the potty, he can even sleep in underwear! But he wouldn’t, and had to be put in a diaper. And he was devastated!!! He bawled, but I don’t think there was a way around it. We don’t have mattress covers, or more than four pairs of underwear. But at the very, very least, we are close! I’m sad thinking that he’ll probably want to wear underwear again tomorrow, and we’ll be away all day with no way to really let him be. But, we know that he’s interested, and likes the feeling of it 🙂 Yay Dekker!!!!! I love you in your cute underwear! “Dekker likes these shorts!”

After the kids went to bed, we ate the soup that had been simmering all day, and guys, it was sooo yummy! It lacked a bit of something that I haven’t totally placed, but it could be as simple as salt. There was no salt on the recipe at all, not even “salt and pepper the chicken,” and while I don’t require a salt flavor at all, it was missing a bit of something. But it was delicious, and we will definitely make it again! We ate a bunch of that, and now have been fighting with the laptop and phone ever since. Not the best evening to wrap up a beautiful day but I’m trying to stay positive. I have SO many great things in my life to be thankful for! Yes, I love it when my electronics work, but I also love my family and the things we can enjoy and look forward to and laugh about. Its been a truly marvelous day.

Still time for a bath?? Hope so!

How lucky am I to have friends over two days in a row? Very. Brady ran around and completed a bunch of small jobs for friends all day while I stayed home and visited with Hailey. She came with coffee and warmth, and we had a great visit all afternoon. Dekker was comfortable with her right off the bat, which was a great surprise! He hasn’t seen her in a while, and while I had high hopes, I didn’t know how he’d respond to having someone else in the house. That doesn’t always go smoothly. But he greeted her with smiles and showed off all of his mad running and falling skills. He did great, and only was sad at nap time. He didn’t fight it though, and cried for less than five seconds after I left his room. Both kids slept like logs for almost three hours.

While the littles slept, Hailey and I caught up. She leads a crazy life, as most of my friends do, so there is always tons to talk about. We cover life, friends, school, work, and we even talked Christmas. I’m getting really excited for Christmas!!!

I guess the question is what do you guys do for Christmas? We have our regular traditions with my parents, and siblings if they’re around. We are just really wanting to build traditions within our household, and its hard to figure out what we can do with such little kids. Can you guys fill me in on some activities that you do with your kids that are three and under? Here are some ideas/thoughts that I had:

Christmas tree cookies: As a kid, I loved making these chocolate cookies in the shape of Christmas trees. We’d stick two cookies together with minty green icing. I wouldn’t even say they were the yummiest cookies in the world, but I loved the tradition when I was little. I know the activity of icing cookies is still over Dekker’s head, but I know he loves when I bake and use the mixer, and he loves to be up on a chair, right in the middle of the action. So he might enjoy it, right? Laela would be the eye candy in the high chair eating icing, so I doubt she’ll complain either.

Maybe dipping treats in chocolate? Marshmallows, pretzels, etc. Really easy, and we have lots of good sprinkles and stuff that little fingers could decorate with.

I was contemplating cutting snowflakes, but even as a bit of an older kid, I remember making that mistake and cutting that one side just a little too much and having it all fall apart. Thinking that might not work.

Do we just color Christmas pictures?! Thats not too riveting hey?

What do you guys think? I love the idea of making Christmas cookies and bringing them to neighbours and learning about giving and all that good stuff, but I just feel like Dekker would find that so scary still, with the way he is with strangers, and I’m not sure that would be a great activity for him just yet. Please, all, thoughts and ideas are welcome!!! What do little little ones like to do for Christmas???!

I hope I can speak for both Jerilee and I when I say we had a hysterical day together! She came around noon and brought coffee. We played with the kids and visited about Vegas, work, plans, etc. Brady had a short day today, which was perfect since he had some paperwork and stuff to do, and he brought lunch! I saw this new pizza on a Little Caesars ad the other day, that bragged up pepperoni pizzas with pretzel crusts, and Brady was a doll and brought some home. Guys, those things are unbelievable, and they’re $6. The sauce is pretzel cheese. Boom. The one bummer was my very first ever experience where my pregnant mouth screwed me up, and for some reason, the crust tasted a bit metallic. It was actually super off putting, which was sad, but I still managed to eat four pieces so obviously it didn’t set me back too much. All in all, it was a super delicious lunch.

The kids went down shortly after, and Brady came and sat with Jerilee and I to do his quarterly report while she and I visited and watched “Say Yes to the Dress.” It was a super relaxed afternoon, where we laughed our way through baby name lists, trying to pick what to name our beautiful Baby Jim. There are some crazy names out there 🙂 We had a good laugh. I’m open to ideas!! What would you name a baby boy if you had one today?

For supper, we just had a yummy big salad with chicken chunks in it. I make a really yummy (but very basic) honey mustard dressing that we smothered it in. It was delicious, honestly. Dekker loves salad, and chicken, so that helped. Oh, and garlic bread. Yum.

The kids went down just shy of an hour later, and the three of us left had coffee and dessert. Well, we tried to anyway. I don’t know if I’ve said on here recently that our awesome water cooler/Keurig is officially done for. Waaay too many glitches and overflows and troubleshoots later, we gave us and returned it. We purchased a totally different water cooler and set it all up today, only to discover that he water pump was broken. Back to the store. All that aside, we pulled our old Keurig out from the basement to make coffees, and it glitched a solid ten times before we gave up. It seems the water pumped wasn’t working. Irony. However, a half hour later, I went and ran it through and it worked, so who knows. But we definitely need a new water cooler and coffee maker soon. Hopefully tomorrow for the cooler anyway. So we had our drinks and some little individual cheesecakes from the freezer while we had what would normally be a nice quiet visit. But it wasn’t. It became a time of eating hilariously inappropriate candy, naming our child Bora Bora Born, the word “Hutterarchy,” and so much more. Probably none of this translates as funny to any of you, but my gosh, we were all just about falling over! We probably looked ridiculous (or hammered) if anyone were to observe us, but I think we were all just tired and old, hahaha! It was pretty much awesome. I’m sad we only see so much of Jerilee, but I’m so thankful we snag her on her occasional day off. And that she even wants to come, after living here for a week with the kids!! But they love her and were on pretty good behavior while she was around, so I’m sure that helps. Plus, she didn’t have to touch a poopy diaper or feed anyone, so maybe that helped too.

What a great day 🙂 I had such a good cozy day with a friend, and I have company tomorrow too! The lovely miss Hailey is coming!! I can’t remember the last time she visited, and I’m SO happy to have her over again! Gosh, I have great friends…

Ok, I’m tired. And funny, obviously. Time for bed.

I have had this unsatisfiable craving for asian food for the last couple of months. I want really, really good chow mein, and while I know Brady would happily drive wherever I asked him to within the city and pick it up from any restaurant I so desired, it seems really frivolous to keep trying out different chow meins for ten bucks a pop, over and over again. Laaame. But yesterday, we took a stab at some good chinese. Not chow mein, but it still counted.

We ordered from Genesis. We’ve eaten there once before, but didn’t really remember what everything was or which items were yummy. So we ordered a ginger beef, lemon chicken, and a vegetarian birds nest, which was like hardened noodles in the shape of a bowl holding sautéed veggies. Brady picked it up on his way home, and texted that it smelled really good anyway.

I lay it all out on the table in front of my hungry family. Dekker asked for macaroni instead. I told him that this was all really new food, and that if he didn’t like it, we could easily warm up some leftover honey chicken. I put nooo pressure on him whatsoever. I told him we had rice, veggies, and some different meats. “Want veggies!” Well, ok. He surprised all of us by not only liking, but devouring multiple servings of everything. He LOVED it! I mean, its all saucy and hot and so yummy, why wouldn’t he? It was all really delicious, and we’ll definitely order from there again. I mean, it was a tad pricey, and we’d definitely have to order another rice along with it, but we learned. And I mean, we could just make our own rice too. Not a big deal. Overall, it was super yummy, and hit the spot, and the leftovers in the fridge smell great! I’m still on the hunt for great chow mein though! I like the thinner noodles, and nothing dry. Juuuicy please! Do any of you make your own asian food? My gosh. This all makes me hungry. I should have a snack.

*goes to fridge for pickles*

I have a recipe I’m hoping to make this week still. Probably friday. I feel like a lot of the food I grew up on is the cats pajamas, and I’ve found myself intimidated when it comes to trying new recipes, since I have more of an attitude that nothing will even come close. But after I’ve found a few delicious ones that are now regular meals in our home, I’m excited to try out some new ones! The latest is a creamy chicken tomato soup, loaded with the obvious, as well some spices, and coconut milk and chicken broth. I’m really curious how it’ll turn out, but excited at the possibility of having found a new delicious soup to warm us up through these next months!

It would appear that my pregnantness has taken this post over, as I had other things to talk about, haha! But, food is calling my name. I’m out! Have a great evening!

I felt as though I was at the end of my rope yesterday. Strangely enough, I don’t think it was just me. I think my whole household was going through the same feelings. Because today felt so much better. For everyone!!!

I woke up to pee around 6:00ish and realized that Brady had forgot to set his alarm. So I woke him up in a bit of a panic. therefore, I was awake. My kids were still asleep for another 2.5 hours but I had no such luck. I was a bit bummed but felt surprisingly rested. I figured that really counted for something considering the last couple of days. So I ran with it. I was fully prepared to be as boisterous as possible and super patient. Today had to be better than yesterday.

And these kids are just sweet as pie. You can tell a switch was flipped, even just for today, and everyone is feeling better.

Dekker is positive and making jokes and playing really well with Laela. When her water bottle ran out, he gave her his. He brought her crackers and helped her eat her lunch. Things like that. He didn’t scream, and hardly whined all morning!

Laela had taken two steps in a row a number of days ago, but not much else since. Today, she has been working tirelessly at walking. She accomplished FIVE whole steps!!! At one, she walked from one chair to another, grabbed hold, and then let go and just headed into the middle of the room on foot. I feel like its a pretty big deal when she’s not even necessarily going towards a destination, but just feels like walking. She fell on her bum after a few steps but I went to attack her and praise her up, and terrified her! She jumped out of her skin and started speed crawling away, until she realized it was a game, when she fell over onto her back and gave me her tummy to tickle and nibble.

Jim has made his very first visible movements for me today! They’re still pretty little, but they’re getting bigger, and can finally be seen on the outside! I’ve never had the experience of feeling movement inside but not being able to feel it on the outside until there was Jim. He’s kept me guessing a lot, but now I can finally see it and know I’m not making it up. I better not be after 21 weeks!

So many cool accomplishments I had to share today 🙂 Dekker was sad to go down for his nap but he did waaay better than I thought he would! He was sad, but went upstairs on his own, took his glasses off and put them on the dresser and crawled into his bed, all without being told! So I’m calling it a success, whining or not. Now that the kids are in bed, so am I. Just because I can, really. I don’t have much soreness or any chest pain today, but I’m still taking it easy. Yay for comfy, successful days where you don’t feel like pulling out your hair!!

Today was worse than yesterday, to the point where I ended up in bed with chest pain. Its just s big stage we’re all trying to survive, and its fine, but I anticipate nap time. All is well now, though. The kids slept until Brady came home, and Dekker came into our room and asked “Be close to mommy?” So we cuddled together for a bit before supper. All is well, and we love each other. No worries 🙂

So instead of talking about today too much, I realized I haven’t kept you guys as much in the loop on all the fun new things that Laela is picking up! We are late on her shots this month (oops!) so I can’t tell you what she weighs at the moment, but she just feels tall! She stands up all on her own in the middle of a room now, and walks around holding onto couches like she’s been doing it her whole life. I don’t even specifically remember when that started, but she’s a pro. She is now my second child who will NOT walk while we hold her hands. Absolutely not. She wants to walk all by herself. That being as it is, she’s been on the verge of walking for a little while now, without too terribly much progress. However, she took her first completely stable unassisted steps a couple of days ago!! Two in a row. Before she just sat down and crawled to her destination. We coax and play and do everything we can to convince her to walk, but so far she opts to plop down and crawl. But its coming.

Laela plays all kinds of fun games! She loves to clap and click her tongue, and sing and dance. She dances all the time!! Its adorable. On laundry day, she likes to root through the piles in the basement and try to wear the clothes. She’ll actually pile socks by her feet and have shirts wrapped around her shoulders. However, since we started laughing at her because of it, she just tries to pull everything over her head. Beware. If she succeeds, she’ll cry until someone saves her.

She and Dekker play this hilarious game where they make eye contact from across the room, and once they decide in their secret language that its time, they speed crawl towards each other. They both squeal and laugh, and Dekker bails out almost immediately. But when Laela speed crawls, her puts her head down and just motors, so Dekker stops and stands up, and Laela stops when she eventually runs into something. Its so fun to watch.

The little miss has an ever-growing appetite, finally!! She loves to eat at the table and is slowing down on her milk intake. This will be the last can of formula that she eats from, we think, and will throw her into homo milk any day now. I remember that transition with Dekker, and how he drank so much less. I worried about it before asking other moms, and hearing lots of them say that they figure it out pretty quick. And they did! Going from the bottle to sippy cup with Dekker was a breeze. Here’s hoping it goes similarly with Laela!

I think thats pretty much it for the moment. I’m feeling pretty achy and sleepy after yesterday, so I’m thinking a nice long sleep and a few more quiet days will do it! Sleep well, all!

Our small group had its first actual bible study this afternoon, and we had to miss it. I was pretty bummed about it, but the kids were just shot and in no shape to play with the other kids or to sit up in session with Brady and I.

Our family was up for food though, so I prepared two enormous batches of honey chicken yesterday and figured I’d just warm it up in the kitchen during church. I realized a bit late that I had made a pretty excessive amount, but its yummy and reheats well so I wasn’t too concerned. It heated up in time, and since our angry kids had to eat regardless of where, we were able to still stay and have lunch with our group. Luckily, Dekker loves honey chicken, and rice, and salad. So he ate well while Laela slid around in his chair and wept bitterly. After we had eaten, I helped with dishes in the kitchen, and Dekker played out in the gym area with the kids sooo well! When it came time, I told him that mommy and daddy were going to go upstairs to a bible study, and I asked if he wanted to come, or to stay and play toys. He responded with one solid high pitched scream about ten seconds long. Deep breath, and he gave it again. So we left. I was pretty miffed, but neither kid would have survived the next hour or two.

Laela was asleep before we were out of town, and Dekker stayed awake the entire drive. He went to bed when we got home, but Laela was sooo upset to be in her crib after already sleeping a half hour. So she came and hung out with Brady and I, but she was unhappy the entire time.

I won’t pretend it was a smooth evening. It was actually a total bust. Both kids were pissed and basically wailed all throughout the evening. Supper was unbelievably delicious, but again, kids screaming in between bites doesn’t make for an especially enjoyable family time. If I’m looking at it honestly, I’m sure we’ve had worse evenings (the first couple of days after Dekkers surgery probably rank pretty high up there…) but this kind just leave me fully exhausted. I’m trying to be positive and dwell on the good, but today felt like it would never end. Lucky for us, it has. The kids are in bed and I am sooo ready for a bubble bath! We finally cracked open the pickles that my mom and I made this summer and I could just eat them all day all night, but we’re going through them way too fast anyway. Merp merp. I guess I’ll be an adult and just be full of supper instead of overfull of treats.