The Daily Hailey

We’re back home after a couple of days spent in Brandon and on the road. It was good to be out with family, but as always, its good to be home. I learned a few things on this trip that I thought I’d share. They’re fairly specific to my family, so they probably won’t translate well, but its just been a bit of a ride, haha! Not counting our day trip to Edmonton to pick up our (still unnamed) van, this was our first road trip with two kids.

First, just little things we discovered about our kids.

Laela can just about sit up on her own. She really, really wants to! She can for a short span of time, and she corrects and corrects as she wobbles. Its exciting to see that all starting.

Dekker pronounces couch as crotch. It makes me laugh every time. “Sit! Crotch!”

Ok, maybe other things will be a tad more relatable.

While kids crying in the vehicle can be amazingly draining, sometimes, its really necessary. We brought Dekker tons of toys, and he would cry when he got tired of them. We scrambled to try and keep him entertained. And when we finally gave up and just let him cry, he either fell asleep, or got over it and stared out the window until he decided to try out the toys again. You can’t always have what you want at your fingertips!

With that last one, I really learned the importance of consistency. Brady and I have always made a really big effort to practice consistency in our parenting, mostly because everyone tells new parents that they have to or their kids will be complete disasters. But I really saw it work these last few days. With all the new people, and schedules, and events, he was on edge, and took to screaming his head off. About everything. And I would correct him. Over and over and over again. And it finally started to stick! This is how it would go.

Me: Dekker, do you remember our rule about screaming?
Dekker: No screaming.
Me: Right. Did you scream, though?
Dekker: Ya.
Me: So what happens when you break the rules?
Dekker: Sorry…
Me: I forgive you, its ok, but breaking the rules means you get a punishment, right?
Dekker: Ya. Time out.

From there, we would decide whether that particular occasion required a punishment or not, and we’d go from there. He was quite receptive. There were instances when he would scream and look over at me immediately and say he was sorry. In those moments, we would remember the rule and say it a few times together. It was actually an awesome system!

I learned that my kids are capable of more than I thought. We tried a lot of new things, and surprisingly, both kids adapted beautifully. Dekker started singing along to music in the car. He learned new words…

…He ate pieces of pizza by hand, instead of insisting they be cut up and eaten with a fork. Laela was social with absolutely everyone. She didn’t make strange once. She is becoming quite a little opinionated lady, and appreciates being free of arms, car seats, and clothing. In that, I learned that I need to trust other people to love my kids well. I know they are loveable, but I spend a lot of time hoping other people think so too. But they do. I don’t have to worry.

Work with what you’ve got. We had a standard hotel room with two queen beds. Luckily, Dekker just recently started sleeping in a toddler bed, because he needed to sleep in the queen bed and Laela had the playpen. This was also the very first time they spent the night in the same room. This also also meant there was no secluded spot for time-outs. We clearly haven’t been confined to one room as a family very much! But we worked with it, and it was great. Dekker loved sleeping in the big bed, and cuddled up right in the middle both nights. Our first night was a bit rough, with the kids talking in the middle of the night and waking each other up, but the second night, Laela slept through!!! It was incredible. We were sooo tired, and it was exactly what we needed. And for time outs, we sat Dekker down besides the bed. That was it. And it worked! I shouldn’t be surprised. Dekker is surprisingly obedient about stuff like that. They were awesome in a small space together.

I learned was reminded of how much my kids love each other. Dekker was always eager to see Laela, and have her near him while he played. This evening, putting Dekker to bed, he gave Laela big kisses, and she reached and reached for him. He’s fairly particular about her touching him, and she grabs with her nails, and it can hurt him, but today, it was al playful and lovely. They are so smitten with each other.

A practical thing I learned about the drive itself is that, when both kids are wailing uncontrollably, a change to completely different, and much louder music is a pretty good off switch. It worked for us a number of times, going from quieter music, to Glee, to a cappella, and so on.

Lastly, and obviously most importantly, 😉 I learned that you don’t need a stereotypical bikini body to rock a cute swimsuit!

And you don’t have to be rugged to be handsome either 🙂

Our trip was wonderful, and quite an adventure. Sorry about the jumbled post. I am seemingly more exhausted than I’ve ever been, and we still haven’t even eaten supper yet. Or unpacked our suitcases. Or the van. Pretty sure some of that is waiting until tomorrow.

*Yawn* Have a good sleep, all.