This morning, Laela woke up at 7:15 and bawled her little face off. For about two minutes or less. And she was back out. Dekker slept until 8:00 before waking up on his own. I watched him on the monitor for a few minutes, while he sat up, fell back over, did all the cute face rubbing that he does, and all that good stuff. Finally, when he was awake enough, he began talking and giggling and stood up to check on Laela. The second he saw she was asleep, he was quiet, and lay back down. Amazing, right?? It didn’t last too long at all before she woke up and they were both wiiide awake and ready for the day. To put it in Dekker’s words, they were “happy to be done sleeping.” That they were.

** I want to make this post about sleeping, but I have to say that I gave Laela Cheerios for the first time today and she can eat them without gagging!! She’s still clumsy and ends up losing pieces, but thats because she pushes the Cheerio up to the front where her eight sharp little teeth reside, and she actually chomps up and down over and over until she bites it in half! She gums up what stays in her mouth and eats it easily, but often the second half falls out. But either way, yay Laela!!!

Ok, back to the day and the kids naps. I considered keeping Laela up and making the kids nap somewhere between 11-12 together, but she was getting really, really vocal and high pitched, which is her telltale sign that she’s getting tired. So I put her down and she slept solid until noon. Thats when I woke her.

I know. I hate waking my kids. But if she goes later than noon, there is almost no chance they’ll go down together at their regular 2:00 time. So I woke her and fed her downstairs like always. What was awesome about today is that she is really enjoying her new ability to sit up from laying down, and she practiced it over and over and over. The whole time she was up and not eating, she was plunking down on her tummy, and then pushing herself back up. And it tired her out!! At 2:00, they were both ready, I thought.

Dekker fell asleep immediately, while Laela continued to practice her skill for the next half hour. I went up and lay her back down and she went to sleep right away. Laela slept until 4:00, and Dekker didn’t even stir when I went in to retrieve her. He didn’t lull until just before 5:00. It was a GREAT sleep day!

Now, its the evening, and the kids are pretty ready, I’d say. Deks is tucked in and Laela is just finishing her bottle. Soon enough, they’ll both be quiet. Brady is going to quickly rototill the garden, but then its snack and bath time. I love these few hours before bed.

We saw Dr Guselle for the first time in forever today, for Laela’s nine month check. It got bumped a while ago so my doctor could undergo some carpal tunnel surgery, but she is back at ’em and it was great to see her. She always takes as much time as we need, and I never feel like I didn’t get to ask all of my questions.

My mom offered to take Dekker for a few hours while we were in the city, which was actually completely wonderful. As I’ve mentioned before, sometimes he’s a bit of a handful when we’re out and he gets nervous or uncomfortable. So this way, we could all sit through Laela’s appointment peacefully, and Dekker could have a blast with grandma all to himself!

Laela had her six month shots a little late, around seven months, and she has gained a full two pounds since then, so thats great! On her growth chart, she started in the 85%, moved down to the 50%, and is comfortably back up in the 85%! I’m not too worried about the specific numbers, but its great to see that she’s really thriving. She asked about solid foods and we told her about how Laela would cry and cry and fight and wail and just hated it, so we left her alone for a couple of months, and now she wants it bad! Dr. Guselle said that sounded great, and to just keep following her cues. Its really nice to be on the second kid and to have my doctor say that she fully trusts our judgement.

The little Miss checked out perfectly everywhere. Heart and lungs, ears, throat, hips, tummy, everything is in good shape. She didn’t check Laela’s eyes because we went to Dr. Rubab so recently. I told her about Laela’s decent astigmatism and that if it doesn’t improve a lot by February, she’ll likely have glasses. She kind of made a “merp merp” face, and said “Well, that would be ok too. At least you’re familiar with it.” She’s right. It would be fine. A bit sad, but ok 🙂

Once the appointment was over, Brady and I hit up a drive thru (in our separate vehicles, since he had come from work, lol) and grabbed a bit of lunch to eat on our way to pick Dekker up.

That boy had sooo much fun, and told us all about everything he had done, but luckily, he was also tired, so going home didn’t devastate him too much. What a great day for everyone involved 🙂

Last minute question, guys, and maybe a dumb one. Does “merp merp” translate to everyone, or is it just in my head? I don’t know else to describe that feeling, haha! I have yet to find the appropriate emoticon either. Does it make sense??

When we got pregnant with Laela, I got heckled a lot about how much Dekker sleeps, and “just you wait, this one won’t sleep at all!” Jokes are fine, but it happened often. What I took from all the razzing, mostly, was that it would be great to get my kids to nap at the same time. That equalled sanity.

Of course, it didn’t happen right off the bat. It took time. But eventually, probably once Laela was six months or older, they started taking their afternoon nap together. They still do, but its not foolproof, and I’d love to hear from seasoned moms of two or more, or anyone with experience.:

The kids go to bed around 8:00pm, and wake up between 7:30 and 8:00am. Dekker on his own would likely still prefer to sleep til 10:00 but he likes Laela, and he gets so excited when she’s up. So they’re both up. And thats fine. Laela goes down for her first (and much needed) nap at 10:00, or shortly before, and often sleeps til noon. Then they got down together at 2:00. Laela lasts sometimes until 4:00 (if she falls asleep right away, which doesn’t happen anymore) whereas Dekker is good in there until after 5:00. Thats a bit late, and can make bedtime harder on him. Dekker’s ideal nap would likely begin at noon, and got until 3:00. And Laela’s ideal time for her second nap would be closer to 3:00. To recap our ideal situation…

Laela: 10:00 – 12:00
Dekker: 12:00 – 3:00
Laela: 3:00 – 5:00

Perfect!!! But do you see my dilemma? I feel like my kids would function beautifully with this schedule, yet I hear so often about how those few kid-free hours are a life saver. And I can vouch! I love that brief period of quiet time I get most days, to either accomplish things, or to put my feet up. Yet how do you arrange a tandem nap when they’re so different in age, and clearly on different schedules? Can someone propose a different timeline for me?

Just how important are those 2-3 hours of peace and quiet?

I was pretty excited when I put my last load of laundry in the dryer, and checked the time to see it was about 11:50am. While it wasn’t like ten loads or anything crazy like that, I still felt very accomplished. Know why? Because we have a laundry obstacle in our house. An obstacle that makes laundry take waaay longer than it should.

We have old machines, but they have great settings and I really like them. However, a long time ago already, the washer started squeaking. It has gradually become an unbelievably loud squeal. However, its only loud when it starts to spin dry. Not the whole time, just when it starts, almost like it warms up. So twice per cycle. Not a big deal. (Actually, its horrible, but I don’t want to fork over money for new machines…)

Our laundry room is in our basement, so its easy to wash clothes while the kids and I play downstairs in the day. But then the washer squeals. And Dekker runs over to close the door to the laundry room. Sooo helpful, right? But our washer doesn’t have a buzzer at the end or anything. So oftentimes, our clothes sit and sit and sit in there until I finally remember, and then I deal with them. So laundry can easily take twice as long as necessary. I’m very proud that I completed all of our wash in a logical amount of time today 🙂 Go me!!

I saw an ad on tv today that showed a bunch of people sitting in vehicles. The narrator said some stat about people spending over a year of their lives commuting. And then it said “Enjoy the commute – with tic tacs!” What do tic tacs have to do with commuting?!?! Ok so that was related to nothing but is it just me? Does this make sense to the rest of you guys?

Onto other things. I spent the morning in the city with the kids and my mom. Did a quick Costco shop, got a coffee, and finally found some awesome gladiator sandals! Best of all, they were only $20! But even better!!!, at the till they were $13!!! Success.

Laela slept on the way home, and Dekker did not. But it was actually perfect because she woke up at noon, which is a pretty normal wake up time for her morning nap. So I thought if I could keep Dekker awake, and Laela after her pretty short nap, they could go down together at 2:00 like usual. They were both rubbing their eyes by then, so it seemed perfect. They both went down very sweetly, without tears or fussing. Dekker was out like a light pretty much right away, while Laela always rolls around a little bit first. I’m still feeling nice and tired since our beach day, so instead of accomplishing stuff like I really should have done (unpacked, done laundry, swept up the sand from my kitchen, etc.) I lay in bed and watched old episodes of the Duggars on YouTube. It was awesome. Until I checked the monitor.

Laela was sitting right up in her crib, pulling at her bumper pads. I went into their room to lay her back down. As soon as I opened the door, she squealed with excitement to see me and was waving her hands at me. I walked over to her, trying not to laugh, and lay her back down. I gave her a blanket to hold and put another one overtop of her. Before I was even out the door, she was rolling around. But I can only control that so much, so I left. She was pretty quiet, and Dekker was cashed out. Probably fifteen minutes later, I checked again. Sitting up in the corning, trying to pull down the Christmas lights. (Yes, they have white twinkle lights in their room. We never use them :/ ) I moved the strand out of her reach and finally flopped her down on the ground and swaddled her. The ultimate look of betrayal. She was devastated. She cried and cried. She really hates the swaddle, so its not like I did it really tight or anything, as she used to just work herself up trying to get out of it, and then be all hot and bothered. But I just did it enough so she couldn’t roll as easily. And she was out within two minutes.

Those kids can sleep, wow! Over two hours later, Brady was home and the kids were still out! We ate supper before they got up. It was honestly one of our best days in the recent past. My sunburn hurts less, and I’m feeling refreshed. Hopefully I can be productive tomorrow and get some of our house back in order soon 🙂

We skipped church and spent the day at the lake with my parents 🙂 We were at their place just shortly after 8:30 this morning, loaded up the van, and headed out. We got to Waskesiu by 11:00 and headed for the beach. The water was too cold for swimming, but the sun was out and nothing was too populated right away.

Laela hung out in a diaper and her sun hat, while Dekker wouldn’t give in to swim shorts, much less take his shoes off. But he had a blast! We build sandcastles and took pictures blew bubbles. The wind started to really take the bubbles off in the directions of a few blankets of people, but they were awesome  and made a point of telling us they didn’t mind. Dekker ran out near their blankets to chase the bubbles and try to knock them out of the sky. It didn’t bother anyone. It was awesome.

And then all of a sudden, it was pouring!! So we rushed everyone in and got the stuff in the van. It was too early to go eat supper, and frankly, everyone who was outside would probably now be inside, and we don’t always do great in big groups. So we decided to go for a nice drive and see some of the scenery. And the kids napped 🙂 it was perfect. Short, but enough!

Once we got to the restaurant, it had cleared out quite a bit so everyone was comfortable. Dekker and Brady took selfies while the rest of us went to order food.

We played at the table while we waited and when the food came, Dekker didn’t even scream at the waitress! He ate his whole meal and was very happy about it. I had easily the best fish and chips I’ve had in I don’t even know how long. It was sooo good! I fed Laela most of her bottles and Brady finished it up before we decided onto the next thing!

Which was ice cream. Always a hit. I forgot to take pictures of the last bit, but we grabbed some ice cream and walked the kids in the stroller down to the water. The pier was completely flooded over so we pulled up on some sand and skipped stones. After a few minutes, Dekker climbed back into the strolled, leaned back, and said “Detter done.” So we left.

We drove home with the insane storm coming and going. But the kids are now safely tucked away, hopefully to sleep for a very, very long time. I am off to nurse my sunburn with vinegar (did you guys know that?? Just spray your burn with vinegar. Gone! Smells like salad, but worth it!) and sit in a lukewarm tub. An episode of The Mindy Project won’t hurt either.

Hope you all enjoyed the photo post! I did.

Nope. Not the ice cream.

It was a rough day, I’m not gonna lie. You know those days when your whole family feels out of sync? We had one of those. We got some tidying and organizing done, which is great, and we grilled burgers for supper, which was delicious. But those were pretty much the high points.

Tomorrow will be better. We’re headed to the lake with my parents for the day! I’m thinking it’ll probably not be swimming weather, but it will be town walking, bubble blowing, ice cream eating weather! Laela’s first time there, too. Wish us luck!

Sleep deep, all.

I’ve had a decent amount of productive days over the past couple of weeks, but the other day I had a fail day, where none of the tasks I started I completed. I stripped diapers, only to discover that I hadn’t stripped half of what needed to be done. And I sorted through a large pile of paperwork thinking it was the last of its kind, only to find a much larger second pile. I was sooo bummed at the end of that day that I didn’t try and finish the tasks up.

I saved them for today, apparently. It was a good day, really. The kids were in great spirits when they were up, and both slept beautifully for all of their naps. I can’t complain at all. In the morning, I stripped a ton more diapers. I still have ten more to strip another day, because I didn’t feel good making the laundry load so large. But I got most of that done anyway. It wasn’t so bad. And I finished up that large stack of paperwork! I discovered most of it was garbage and I threw it out. Yay!! I felt quite productive in the small way of having two tasks. I had a nice visit with my mother in law in the afternoon, and the whole fam went to visit my parents for a couple of hours in the evening.

Today felt refreshing and like I wish every day felt. Happy kids, got a couple of things done, but nothing labour intensive, I could rest for part of the time that the kids rested, and we didn’t have screaming over supper. Couldn’t have asked for more, really.

I hope everyone else had as good a day as I did! Any good stories?

I think I’ve talked about them before, but my friend, Willa, gave me some daylilies a few years back. They were beautiful and enormous and I was so happy for them. And then I doddled and doddled and they were dead by the time I planted them. I felt guilty and yucky. Low and behold, they bloom beautifully every year, and the ironic part is that Willa’s don’t. I’m sorry!! If mine have babies, you can definitely come steal from them! That’s kind of a scary thought. Stealing babies is frowned upon. Maybe we’ll call them the neighbours instead. That seems slightly more socially acceptable.

We spent the better part of the day at home, being lazy. The kids hung out in their diapers in our hot, hot house.

I put them down for their nap early, because we were going out mid-afternoon. They went down at 1:00 and Dekker was out immediately. Laela, however, rolled around happily for over an hour and a half!!! All of a sudden, she burst out crying, and moments later, she was asleep. Twenty minutes later, I woke them both, got them dressed, and we headed out the door.

Yay for getting your legs waxed! I hadn’t had a chance to welcome summer yet due to the grossness of my legs. The wind in my leg hair felt like spiders. I know thats a lot of information, but its true. It was this morning, when walking up our carpeted stairs and feeling the static electricity pull my hair towards them that I knew I was overdue. So that was a huge relief, and I feel considerably more comfortable now than I did then. Yay!

Brady dropped me off at the mall after that. I went to Bath and Body Works while he went to pick up some food. Dekker loves his fries, and since he’s been so misbehaved in the city lately, he keeps losing that privilege. That means we lose it to, which is a super bummer, haha! So this trip, he didn’t get to go out anywhere, so we all got fast food for supper. Yum! On my trip to the mall, I returned a bunch of product I wasn’t happy with, paid $3.50 and got eight candles!!! It was a great haul, and my bedroom will smell like earl grey tea for MONTHS! I love that smell.

We quickly hit up our banks drive-thru ATM to grab our weekly savings (is anyone else doing that?) and were on our way home. Not tons of errands, but we got out of the house, which was the most important part.

When we got home, the kids played in the living room, Brady played guitar with them, and I did a bit more work in our bathroom. Brady put up a shelf above our bathroom door to hold all of our extra things that kind of sort of go in a bathroom but have no real place, like extra hand soaps, candles, cleaning supplies, etc. I don’t have a picture of the shelf with the stuff on it, but here’s the shelf anyway.

I highly recommend that everyone gets one of these. It is incredible.

Kids are tucked away, and a not-too-hot bath is waiting for me. But first, Brady and I are going to wander around the garden for a few minutes. Its all weeded and tilled and doesn’t require much past watering right now, but I’m curious to see how much its grown since the huge job of getting it so cleaned up!

Off to get some sun before it goes down  ☼

Our day was like any other day, except that the kids woke up at 6:50am. They were happy in their room for a little while, but not long before I had to go in and get them up for the day. Thats a really early day around here. I knew I’d have tired kidlets on my hands. No big deal. It wouldn’t be the first time. Plus, the little miss popped her eighth tooth! All of the front ones are officially through!

Laela went down beautifully for her morning nap at 10:00, and I woke her shortly after noon, since the kids go down for a nap together around 2:00pm, and I wanted her to be able to sleep.

The cruel joke was that she didn’t. I’ve never had a problem with “quiet time” as opposed to actual napping, so she climbed around her crib and cooed for about an hour while Dekker slept through the whole thing. She started crying and I figured she’d be out right away. If she cries before bed, its never more than a minute or two. But she did not give up. Because she normally goes down so easy, I went to check on her and cuddle her a little, and tuck her back in. I did that on two separate occasions. She just wailed. Wasn’t having it. When I went in a third time, Dekker rolled over and looked at me through his squinty exhausted eyes and made a sad “I’m about to cry” sound, so I took Laela out. Poor kid. Deks slept like a log after that.

Laela, on the other hand, could be consoled for a moment here or there, but otherwise she basically cried for the next 2.5 hours. It was intense, and not in a good way. Once Dekker finally started to move around, I went to get him and put Laela in bed. She was wiped and dangit, she was going to sleep whether she wanted to or not!

She obviously wasn’t sleeping very deeply because she woke up when Brady came home. She didn’t lull awake. She woke up and bawled her eyes out until I finally went to get her. It was clear she wasn’t going back to sleep. So in total, she got about a half hour.

So this is a big long whiny post but guys, I’m exhausted and grumpy and I spent the last hour of the kids awake time running around the house getting things done just because I was so frustrated at the day.

*deep breath* I don’t need to be upset about today. I did all the laundry, and its all put away in its respective places. Can we all agree that he putting away is the worst part?? Yup, its all tidy. I fed the kids well and even ate lunch myself. I changed a lot of poopy diapers. I did dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. I moved around some shelves and got our dvd collection looking good. I did my hair!  And best of all, I was available to my crabby kids when they needed someones full attention.

I always love my kids, but somedays the job seems to get to me. Today was one of those days. Please don’t judge me. I assure everyone out there, I am doing the absolute very best I can!