The Daily Hailey

How is that this little baby is suddenly FIVE years old!! 😧😭🥰 

Mr. Rowan Toby has had a BIG year! Being four was a year of hard work for him, and by default, us, but he continues to learn and grow and mature into a big kid! 

Its seemed for a while that Ro has been stuck in the middle between the big kids and the little kids. He is our middlest kid, and I can tell he’s struggled to find where he fits. But he never gives up, and is usually very happy to include his siblings in the games he plays. 

Rowan loves drawing, colouring, cutting, stickers, etc. Crafts, I guess. He loves preschool. He loves going to church and Sunday school. He loves soft things, most importantly, his stuffed foxy. He loves music, and wants to learn the drums.

Ro is basically the same size as Laela. He is our BEST eater. His hair is down by his bum, and while he asked for a haircut recently, he has since taken it back and wants to leave it long. He willingly lets me throw it in a braid or ponytail really any time I deem it a good idea, such as going out in a jacket, eating a messy meal, etc. He has a big beautiful smile, and all of his teeth, still. He is confidently left handed. He is less “intolerant” of lactose these days, and more so just a bit sensitive. Now that potty training is long taken care of, we worry less about little bits of dairy here and there. He can take care of that stuff easily. 

Speaking of Rowan’s abilities, just for fun records sake, I’m going to make note here that he is pretty self sufficient, which I love! He can easily get all of his winter gear on, and has just started to learn how to zip zippers! He can complete lots of tasks around the house and is an excellent helper when given a job. He likes to be responsible. He also knows most of the alphabet, and counts very easily. I can’t say perfectly, but pretty darn close. He loves to ask how to spell things, and write words. Sometimes he needs refreshers on how certain letters are formed, but he really enjoys practicing, it seems. 

I am SO proud of Rowan. He has been my first experience with a “strong willed” child, and it hasn’t always been smooth navigating those waters, but there is no one else I’d rather put that effort into than Rowan ❤️ We have a loving, smushy, snuggly relationship, with nothing but love. 

Rowan, my dear, I cannot believe you are FIVE! I wouldn’t trade our five years together for anything, and I’m excited for all the years to come, as many as I can get! What will this next year bring for you, Ro??

I love you, Rowan Toby! Happy birthday!

Yesterday, once again, felt like Saturday. We spent it with my mom! She came for a bit of the morning, and then she and I ducked into Saskatoon for some errands.

We moseyed through a couple of stores and just took our time. It was really really nice! We got back to the house mid afternoon, and everyone ate a huge taco supper! Tacos are always a bit hands-on, because as fast as you can make them, they eat them, so there is not sitting and eating for the adults assembling the tacos. We often just make a big taco salad, which is easier to serve them, but they vastly prefer to have soft tacos like we do. Wavy ate taco salad, and everyone else had wraps. All four of the other kids had two good sized wraps, loaded with meat, veggies, and some yummy toppings. I couldn’t believe how much they ate, but they all loved it. Solly kept saying “This is SUCH a nice supper.” I loved that. 

After the kids went to bed, the three of us played some Skipbo. Probably the longest, slowest, worst rounds of Skipbo ever, but we laughed through it. 😂 Two rounds of cards and almost two hours later, we called it a night. It was a really nice day. On top of all of the fun, Brady did a bunch of laundry and got started on taxes. Woot!

Of all the Saturdayish days this week, today is actually finally Saturday! We had baked oatmeal for breakfast, and I’ll be heading out for a lunch date and some shopping with Cher this afternoon. We have no deadlines or big goals to meet today. Just enjoying the actual Saturday. 

Thank you, Lord, for nicer weather, and the ability to let the kids run some energy off! 

I’ve been eagerly waiting for a parcel to come. I don’t know if I mentioned it or not, but I ordered more blog books at the end of January. They shipped quickly, but the estimated delivery date was FAR off, and apparently, because they shipped via Canada Post, they were deemed untrackable. Had I known that in advance, I would’ve just put my house number and had them couriered. Regardless, I checked the mail yesterday on the way into the city, and they had arrived!!! Five big beautiful beefy blog books to add to my collection! I now have 14! 

Except. *sigh*

Upon just flipping through them and examining them quickly, I found BIG errors. MY errors. I am SO disappointed. 

The one saving grace is that the biggest errors are all on the same book, so likely, when I have more books to order, I’ll fix and reorder this one. I am SO choked. 

I don’t mean just basic grammatical/spelling errors in the blogs. I left those in. To go back through the books page by page would be a nightmare. I tried with the first one and I wanted to rewrite everything smoother and “better” and thats just not what this is all about. There are plenty of errors in there that I’m ok with. 

Except on one book, I made a spelling error on the spine. Which is SO frustrating!!! I am SO careful to look over the exterior of the book before I order it, so no titles or dates are messed up. I can’t believe the spine is messed up. I’m so embarrassed. 

Also, in just flipping the pages in my hands, I came across the story of Waverly’s birth, complete with pictures and details. A very important post, into which I dumped a LOT of effort. And somehow, I had overlapped photos on top of text, and lost about half of a page of her story. Of ALL posts! And this one, I came across so quickly, who knows how many more places I made that mistake?! But seriously, of all posts, Wavy’s bday post! I am just sick about it 😔 

The sooner I can reprint that book, the better. But I still have all of last year’s posts to save, and a laptop with only half of a working keyboard. (I’ve been blogging on my iPad for quite some time now, and the program I use for the blog books won’t work on it.) I think I’m at a bit of a standstill, and thats really discouraging. 

But, for now, I am content that I have such a beautiful stack of my books staring at me. I feel so happy to have these years recorded for my family to read someday, if they so desire. 

Today, once again, felt like a Saturday. This whole week, really, has felt like a Saturday. But today was an errand day. We haven’t done too many errand days recently, opting for Brady to quickly do a thing or two before coming over after work, but those trips are usually for things like milk or bananas. The rest of our list had grown, and it was time for a big shop. 

We got to Superstore as it opened! 

The kids honestly did SO good. They were happy to wander the big grocery store with us, as they always are. We don’t get much fresh stuff at Superstore, as we tend to go bulk for that stuff, but we got all of our little canned stuff, some little toiletries, creamer, dressing, and a few other things we don’t buy in bulk. It ended on an especially successful note, as we used up some gift cards that were gifted to us around Christmas, and paid less than $30! Woot!

We hit Walmart next. We didn’t need too much from there, but there are those few things that we always get at Walmart. Dekker needed a dress shirt or two, as he’s grown out of all of his. We needed some oil for the work van. A mattress protector. Stuff like that. But the biggest thing we needed was our gift for Rowan’s birthday, and Walmart was sold out. 

We grabbed some lunch for everyone and drove to another Walmart. And then the other Walmart. Finally, the third Walmart had what we needed 😅 But then we had to backpedal a bit to get to Costco. So. Many. Stores. 

We haven’t done a big Costco shop in a long, long time, and we were out of everything. Except diapers, strangely. We didn’t need diapers. But seriously, everything else. I’d try to read through our list, and it would’ve been more efficient to have a list of what we didn’t need. But we made it through, and the kids helped grab stuff and load up our cart to overflowing. We should’ve got two carts, and we thought about it, and decided against it because we weren’t getting diapers. It all fit into one cart, but the lovely people at the till repacked it into two. Because there was just SO much stuff! We were able to use a rebate cheque and knock $150 off the top, thank goodness! Also, thank goodness my medication is working and I was able to push a cart today! Yay!

Brady often rants about how we need to build shelves in the back of our van. He might be right. It gets tricky knowing what we can stack and what we can’t and what will squish and what won’t.

We got it all home and unloaded, which sounds like the work is done, but its definitely not. 

Its also late. Like, 2:30. Which isn’t late in general, but is late for naps 😳 So that might make for an interesting evening! Wish us luck! 

But hey. At least they’ll be fed!

#wbw

Today feels SO much like a Saturday. Partly because of the lack of school. Partly because Brady is home. Partly because we did waffle brunch! 

We all know the most important part of waffle brunch 🥓

My mom came over around 9:00am, bearing clementine oranges and a mystery bag for after. We had bacon going and waffle mix measured out. Music was on and kids were up and playing. Grandma was barely in the door before she was offered a book and Wavy began her her blind “back up and sit,” so that was where story time began. 

We ate waffles around our loud, rowdy table, until everyone was full. Of course, there was also incentive. Because a bag of some kind of present was sitting in the entrance, tied shut. 

The bag turned out to hold a new little car for both Solomon and Waverly, a book full of sticker faces for animal pictures for Rowan, and these super cool “paint by sticker” books for Dekker and Laela. Everyone was officially happy and occupied. 

It was around that point where Brady, my mom and I decided to play a couple rounds of cards before my mom had to head out for the rest of her day. And as tends to happen, everyone migrated over to join us ❤️

If this could just be our life forever, I’d be SO thankful! 

That being said, Wavy wasn’t as fond of morning cards. 

We distracted her with a granola bar, don’t worry. She was fine. 

We played two games. The first game, I barely got any cards out, and the second game, I won! Woot! Laela always cheers for me 😉 Thats probably why. She has become SO much more protective of me since my pain really kicked into high gear. So really, credit for my win should probably go to her. 

It was SUCH a nice morning. Now, nap time is in the works and Brady and I are going to take a little break to watch some Schitt’s Creek. I say again, if you haven’t heard, its about to go off to Netflix! Watch it while you have the chance!

This post is a LONG time coming! I so badly want to be able to announce that the basement is DONE, but its not. However, there are sizeable updates that are worth sharing becaaaaause *drumroll* its in official full use! 🥳 Originally, I didn’t want to do any living down there until it was DONE done, because once you settle in, the little details don’t seem as important. However, there is very little left, and opening it up for full use has been a HUGE relief to our family, and I’m SO thrilled! 

It’ll be a shorter list to tell you whats left to do, so here’s that. 

We haven’t done the drop ceiling. We will, but its oddly expensive for what it is, and we’re more inclined to save that money to put towards our fence in the Spring. 

We don’t have the hand towel bar for the bathroom. Who knew that towel bars are common but not shorty hand towel bars? So thats on order. 

Shelves!! This is a big one. I want shelving above my laundry machines, and we need shelves in our furnace room so we can properly store things off the floor in there. 

And guys, that’s basically it 🤷‍♀️ The rest is DONE! And its beautiful!!! 

Quick rundown time. 

Remember those super cozy couches we bought before Christmas? They’re perfect down here. SUPER cozy. The tv is rarely used, but we do listen to music on it, as well as the occasional movie and Bachelor night. Brady installed the surround sound speakers recently, so thats nice. The big white coffee table has made its way down there, and I like it way better!

Our laundry area is just a closet, which is not everyone’s jam. But we love it. This door track system was a large expense and kind of a pain to get locked down, but NO REGRETS! I bet Brady could write a post solely on that system. Except I wouldn’t let him. Because I”m embarrassed by how much it cost 🙈 Aaaaanyway, this place needs a a shelf along the top and maybe some super skinny cabinets next to the sink. But its close. 

I’m not going to show you the furnace room. Its still WAY too disorganized. But at least it has a door now. 

The kids toy area, I think I’ve showed you. We got that beautiful IKEA shelf recently. Again, no regrets. We have the big chair that came with our couch set turned around, so the kids have somewhere cozy to fight over 😳 I kind of don’t love it, though. Its a really big chair that I wasn’t expecting when I was looking for a couch set. I’m still hot and cold on it, honestly. It might need a new home. Any opinions on that, friends? 

We have one oddly shaped corner in the basement and were going to put a filing cabinet in there, but were given a big chest that comfortably holds our unreasonable amount of cozy blankets, and it lives there instead. Its a perfect fit. 

The bathroom is done except for that hand towel bar. 

The front bedroom is our “extra” room right now. Sometimes it has a spare bed set up in it. Other times it has the drum kit set up. It depends on the day. 

And the basement bedroom we use every day currently holds Dekker and Solomon! Its a nice fit. And because I know some of you are thinking it, yes, Solly is actually still in a crib! It seems crazy, but it isn’t. He never tries to climb out, and Dekker can easily lift him out if needed. Solly’s big boy is actually not so far behind at all 😉 Its possible we got it just the other day and haven’t made the switch quite yet. 

Thats basically it, folks. We hired out carpet, and taping. We had help with electric and plumbing. Otherwise, credit goes to Brady! I’m SO thankful for all of his hard work and drive to make this extra space for our family!! I still really want to decorate, even just a little, and make things a bit more us, but one thing at a time! We’re on our way!!

Who else wants Spring to come so we can start on the fence??? 🙋‍♀️ I can’t wait!!

I am so relieved to say that today has been a noticeably better day for our family 😁 It started with an early morning date with Cher, involving poor mans London fogs. The kids got up and ate real amounts of breakfast with little fight. Even Wavy, who has been boycotting most meals for about a week, ate lots and drank lots. It was awesome. And after a good breakfast, the kids played well, with very few arguments to break up or interference needed. They coloured and wrote up unused valentines cards. They read a lot and made paper airplanes. They snuggled a lot, and we listened to lots of music. It was really, really nice. 

Lunch went smoothly, without fight. Everyone ate great, and the younger ones went down for naps painlessly. It was oddly perfect. Then the big kids played lego together at the island and Cher and I took a bit of time to indulge in guilty pleasure Netflix. 

Everything has been nice post-naps as well. Solomon napped a little longer and was a bit disgruntled when he awoke, but thats not uncommon, and he’s rallied pretty easily! Waffle grilled cheese is on the menu for supper, because, delicious. 🤤 

I am SO thankful for such a smooth day! Thank you, Cher, for the role you play in our family ❤️ You are a huge part of why today was smooth. A big, giant part, even 😉

Often, on days that are “supposed” to be stat holidays, or days where we “should” be all together, the kids are super off, like they know Brady should” be with us. And today was just sweet, even though, of all days, Brady was not with us on Family Day. But now he’s home, and he CRUSHED his house, and even has a little bit of time at home ❤️ How perfect is it that his break falls over the kids break?! Thank you Lord! Your timing is ALWAYS aces!! 

I missed worship leading in church today, thanks to my oddly persistent sore throat, but mostly, my consistently ill children. The older three managed to get to church with Brady, but Solly and Waverly were in bad shape. It was clear who was well enough and who wasn’t. 

Solly always begs for a friend to come downstairs to play with him, so once Cher and I both eaten some toast and drank some coffee, we went down with him and Wavy. We spent a lazy morning down there, though this kids mostly just shared a couch with us, snuggled, and generally lived that ill life. It was relaxed and coughy. It was actually really nice, though.

Brady and the three kids came home after church, had some lunch, and the littles went to bed. Same ole, same ole. We often spend Sunday with my mom, but this weekend, she had so much going on and so much work to do, she couldn’t commit the time. Instead, Brady and I had some lunch with Cher before she drove me over to my moms so I could spend some time with her while doing stuff! It was also really nice. 

Now, it’s the evening. My kids are down for the night, and Brady and I are just trying to figure out supper. My poor throat hurts SO badly, but it was marginally better earlier today, so I’m hopeful than healing is on the way! Its amazing that it can actually hurt this bad, considering the absurd amount of painkillers I’m on 🙄 I digress. Soup is on the stove and a bath is run. I really couldn’t ask for a whole lot more. 

I imagine the evening will also be very nice ❤️ Have a lovely end to your weekend, friends. 

As I mentioned earlier, Rowan and Solly both have ear infections. I half expected Waverly to have one, too, but thank goodness we’re still in the clear on her. However, she looks the worst 😬

Music perks her up, but she doesn’t want to eat or drink or play, really. Poor baby. 

I figured I’d update on the boys. They’ve both had two days worth of their banantibiotics (see what I did there?) and there is definite improvement in their pain, thank goodness! I hated pouring all four little cups, two of amox and two of Tylenol, but it had to be done for a bit there. It seems we’re out of the super pain part, and now we just work on the healing!

Unfortunately, as I mentioned also, Solly’s eardrum is perforated. I feel pretty discouraged about that, because there was NO warning! He woke up after a long nap, around 4pm, crying about his ear. I got the soonest appointment I could – the next day at noon – and his eardrum was perforated 😔 Feels like a total mom fail. Regardless, it happened, and now we’re dealing with it. While he’s in less pain, he is a BEAR! He doesn’t want to do anything. He doesn’t want to eat or drink much at all, but don’t worry, I’m pushing fluids and making at least that happen. He is SO tired. Yesterday, he woke up for the day at 10am and was back in bed, fast asleep, but 11:30am. He slept until just before supper, and easily went to bed at 7pm. He must be feeling just so so crappy, poor guy. 

Rowan is definitely doing better. His eardrum was red and bulging, according to his doctor, but it seems like we might have avoided it bursting! He’s not on the same level of “out of sorts” as Solly is, and he’s eating better. 

Both boys, however, are deaf as posts. So thats fun, lol! 

This morning, Dekker is noticeably happier 🙂 He was already in better shape yesterday, but today he barely looks sick. Just that raw red nose needs to heal. And Laela is going great still. 

Brady and I aren’t 100% at all, but we’re moving forward! Brady has a full, gross, congested head cold. I, on the other hand, feel pretty fine except my throat is on FIRE! If I didn’t know better, I’d think I have Hand Foot Mouth. Because its just my throat and absolutely nothing soothes it. As in, drinking water burns. And with all the pain killers I’m taking, its pretty ridiculous that I’m still in this much pain 😳 

If you’re the praying type, please pray for our family, that health and wellness is in our near future. We are a bit struck down at the moment.

Do you remember last years Valentines Day post? It was funny, if I do say so myself. This years post is going along those same lines. A meme/gif battle. There were times I wondered if Brady realized what was happening, or if he remembered last year, but I wasn’t going to help him!! No way, man. So it just began. 

My kick-off:

He followed up with this gif. I get a kick out of her. But, only alright?? 

I countered with cheese. Thats a big deal. 

He countered with James Marsden. He is also a big deal.

I tried to express the level of my love…

And he seemed confused, and unsure of how to reciprocate my love.

Maybe we both felt awkward. 

Then he told me he loved me and decided to be a grown up and go back to work. I gave him about 15 minutes. 

He wasn’t upset. 

I thought this was funny…

But he called my bluff and told me it wasn’t true. He’s right. Hashtags filled with lies followed. 

Eventually, I left him alone, and he texted here and there about work stuff. Ceiling paint. So naturally, I felt neglected. 

He reassured me

And then I made a dirty joke.

He was ok with it. 

Later on, he sent me this one. I didn’t like it. I don’t love rage 🤷‍♀️ 

But he probably doesn’t like pathetic either. 

Then this happened. I’m not sure the goal, but it was cute. 

I made it funny with sexual innuendo, as I do sometimes. 

He was into it. 

Twice. 

I took it too far.

He wasn’t put off.

I sang him a love song.

He countered with Ryan Gosling. 

And Parks and Rec.

But I retaliated with Jim Halpert, so naturally, I won that exchange. 💁‍♀️

Especially since he took it from romance to a wiener doing flips. 

I liked it tho. 

Finally, the work day was done and he was on his way home. 

And as the classy lady I am, I propositioned him. 

And now thats on the internet. *sigh* Its ok, though. We love each other. 

I hope you all had equally dorky, funny, days 😁 Not everyone likes Valentines Day, but I think we can agree this is a fun way to “celebrate.” The chocolate covered strawberries that walked through my front door don’t hurt, either! ❤️