After getting so much accomplished yesterday, and getting the place so cleaned up and cleared out, some of the rooms are starting to come together!! While we don’t want to stock up and add yet more unnecessary junk to our lives, we do want our house to look nice and presentable. So we made a short list of hypothetical stuff we would like to “stage” our house with, and went into the city. No big deadlines, or expectations. Just a relaxed family day, with some treats and some fresh air. Maybe our “family outings” seem like something you guys would find boring, but the kids love the slow walk through Walmart, or the free cookie at Superstore. Small victories in this family! Even if one of us runs into a store for a bit and the rest wait in the van, the kids like being freed from their seats and running around the van, rolling down the windows, etc. Its easy. And its sooo much easier now that Dekker does so much better in public places. At worst, he ind of grunts and tries to hide when people talk to him. A much more acceptable form of shyness. Waaay better than the death scream. So since he’s grown up a bit in that area, we all feel more relaxed and can all really enjoy our days out and about.
I won’t run down the list of what we all got from each place, since i feel like I do that a lot, and it probably bores some of you. But we did pretty good! We got some very small, basic furniture, and a few basic things to hang up that would look nice but nothing too specific to us. Just pretty things. We returned a couple of things and bought a couple of other little things for the repairs that need doing still. We got a few little things like basic white pillow cases, and a new shower curtain, and I confess that we bought another blanket! Its one of those delicious woven ones that feels like a soft grandpa sweater, yet its a very fine chevron pattern in grey and coral alternating. Best of all, its a king sized blanket, which calls for lots of cuddling with many people under the same blanket!! For only $30, I couldn’t not buy it.
We got fast food for lunch, and the kids ate great, and loved their toys. Dekker got a Hot Wheels car, and Laela got a pink Barbie car! Our first Barbie convertible! We usually opt for Wendys over McDonalds, but going to McDonalds was great today. Not only were the toys cool, but I remembered that they actually have a grilled cheese happy meal, and Laela LOVED it! She didn’t even touch her fries!
Isn’t she such a beauty??
At the end of our shopping trip, I texted my parents to touch base with them and ask if we could drop by their place on our way home. Their Apple TV has been giving them trouble and Brady wanted to look into it, but today is their anniversary and we didn’t want to intrude on their plans. However, their evening plans had fallen through, and were rescheduled for another day, so instead of my parents just saying “Sure, come fix our tv” they invited us for supper! That is the story of how we came to eat fast food twice in one day – we brought Wendys. To my parents house. For their anniversary!! It was kind of hilarious, but it was so relaxed and yummy and we were all just happy to be in each others presence.
We got home a solid hour past the kids bedtime, but Dekker and Laela went down fairly easily, and to be honest, Rowan is still sleeping in his car seat, as Brady and I have been busy bringing stuff in from the van, putting it away, setting up a few little things, and finally fixing the toilet with a flapper that seals! He’s been a total champ all day, hardly complaining at all and just eating like a champ anytime we offer him milk. We’ll go rescue him from his seat on our dining room table soon, top him up to the brim with milk, and see what kind of a stretch we can get out of him! We aren’t being strict about sleep training of any kind yet at all, but we are seeing good patterns forming, and this evening is definitely different! But city days always are, and thats totally fine.
We have a big day tomorrow that I’ll tell you about then, but thankfully it doesn’t start too early, so even if we have a rough night, we’ll be all bright and refreshed in time. But let’s just plan on a great night anyway. I love a best case scenario!