If you’ve followed this blog for a while, or my Facebook, or wherever else, you probably know that this is my go-to picture when I think about Laela’s birth:

This is a loaded picture. Yes, I’m a smiling mother holding her brand new, crying infant daughter. All of that adds up. But you can also see that I’m not quite right. I’m not all there.

Laela’s birth is a very big event in my life, as are all my kids births, but yes, Laela’s was scary in a very different way. I read back to the post before Laela’s birthday last year, and I can remember feeling all of those feelings very very vividly. I’m thrilled to say that I’m even further past that point today. I didn’t fear how I would feel today. I feel totally blown away by my daughter and who she is, and who she is becoming.

Brady took the day off to spend some extra time with the family on such a special day as Laela’s birthday. We spent a lazy morning, and after nap time, got the kids dressed up a bit and gave Laela some presents. She got a fuzzy pink blanket for her bed, and two stuffed dollies, Anna and Elsa, from Frozen. I’m pleasantly surprised that she, like me, seems to like Anna better. Whats all the fuss about with Elsa anyway?? Anyway, she brought she “babies” along to the city for the evening, as I had suspected she might 🙂 It was super adorable.

We met my parents at Fuddruckers for supper, which was so yummy, and a lot of fun. We actually all hung out around the van afterwards and watched Laela open her presents from my parents. She got a sweet little tent/playhouse, a bracelet, and a puzzle. I can promise you she will love all of those things. We did a quick run into Superstore, and then were about to head home when I had one last idea!!

I took Laela into Costco and bought her some flowers. Now, for any hypothetical men reading this, NO. Women do not want to choose their own flowers. BUT a little girl really likes it 🙂 She perused the whole section, did a couple of laps, and settled on her favorites. It was so cute. She and I (and Anna) had a lovely little flower date.

After lots and lots and lots of good snuggles, I almost didn’t want to put her to bed. I could carry that girl all day long. But she now has the comfiest bed possible, and had no trouble laying down for night 🙂

Laela, you make me speechless. I hope, one day, to be able to tell you how much you melt me. I adore you. Thank you for adding so much flavor and richness to my life.

Love,
Mommy

I have to write another potty post because I am just SO proud of Dekker! I know some of you are probably over hearing about this stuff, and thats fine, but its a big part of our life, so thats what you’re getting 🙂 And for those of you who are NOT bored it, thanks! We’re excited about the progress.

Yesterday, Brady went to our storage container to dig out the footstool we used to have in our bathroom. In his search, he actually came across two footstools, as well as another potty seat. He brought them all home and we got the whole place set up. We now have a potty seat and a footstool at each toilet.

Today, Dekker has been loving the footstools. I can tell he’s feeling more independent, which is always a positive thing. But he still needs backup, which is completely fine.

I went upstairs at once point to get ready to go out. Brady and I both needed to see our chiropractor BADLY. So I went upstairs to put on a little bit of makeup and change my clothes. After maybe ten minutes, I heard Dekker call from downstairs “I poooooped!” I immediately felt drained. I knew it was a risk leaving him alone, but I wanted to give him a chance to do well. I didn’t want to deal with a poop accident either.

Maybe you can guess, but Dekker had NOT had an accident. He had gotten himself to the bathroom, got his pants and underwear down, got up onto the toilet, and used the bathroom ALL BY HIMSELF!! Not only was it his first solo bathroom visit, but it was a poop one!!! We celebrated SO MUCH, and he was completely thrilled!! I was so impressed 🙂 Suddenly my boy is getting braver.

We went to the city for a mid-afternoon chiro appointment for both Brady and I, which was a definitely need at this point. For the first time ever, really, Brady was in ok shape and just needed some maintenance, and I got in trouble for waiting too long between visits. As I lay on his table, Dr Mike loomed over my face and boomed “Two and a half months is TOO LONG.” Yup, now I know. I learned my lesson. That was a painful but productive appointment.

We grabbed some Pizza Hut for supper, and now the kids are all down for the night 🙂 It was really a fabulous day. This is just all you’re getting for today. Time to wrap some little gifties for Laela before her SECOND BIRTHDAY tomorrow!!!!!

My kids have never been the kids who snuggle when they’re sick. They cry, and then go to sleep, and sleep and sleep and sleep, and then sleep more, to a point where I become alarmed. Usually, they wake up better. Today was a different kind of day.

I snuck Dekker out of the big kids’ room this morning in an effort to try and let Laela’s feverish little body sleep a bit longer. Little did I know it would sleep until 12:45pm!!! No word of a lie. It was ominous. I paid close attention to the monitor, and she rolled and talked for a few seconds here and there, but when I’d go check on her, she would be fast asleep. I finally went in loudly and woke her just before 1:00pm.

Laela was the cuddliest she has ever been while she was sick. She stayed on my lap, and rested her face against my arm. I convinced her to eat a few crackers and drink some water. She took a bite of an apple slice but it didn’t go past that. Not a fan, I suppose. She was so zoned. She didn’t move off of my lap for a full 1.5 hours. It was so out of the ordinary for us, but of course I secretly enjoyed her exhausted cuddles.

On top of Laela’s fever refusing to break, Rowan cut his fifth tooth! I think I forgot to put it on here, but just a day or two ago, he cut his fourth tooth. So the kids is working like CRAZY on his teeth, which is actually really funny to watch. He will go from hysterical laughter to crying and back to laughter in seconds flat. He is always red and drooly and sweaty and watery eyed. He’s a total trooper tho.

And still on top of all of that, we have Dekker potty training still. He had a few days of accidents over the weekend, but seemed to find his way back on track today. He had no accidents, not even poop ones! He was so very proud of himself, and he’s getting more confident. Not about every aspect, but even just the toilet in general. He was fine upstairs, but he DID NOT like the basement toilet at all. Today, it was no problem. He’s doing awesome. Even more interestingly, he complained about wearing a pull up to bed! “I don’t like my nighttime underwear!” He’s woken up dry for quite a while now, I’m just not quite sure I’m totally ready to lose the pull up. If he peed in the night and cried for it to be cleaned up, we of course would clean it up for him, but he’s on the top of the loft bed, and it would obviously wake Laela completely. So we’ll see. I might hold out just a little bit longer.

All I’m trying to say is that the kids are sort of all going through something big, and they are ROCKING it!! All of them! I’m a very proud mama. In amongst all of the weirdness of today, its been a great one. All of the dozy snuggles helped too 😉

We had planned to go to church this morning, because its been so long since we’ve been in a good scheduled habit of going, but the little Miss got a fever last night. You would have never known by watching her or being around her, but touching her was a dead giveaway. Not ideal. So we gave her some meds and put her to bed.

This morning, however, Brady got up with the kids to let me sleep a little longer, and Laela was fine at first, but burned up again pretty quick. So we officially decided against church. I slept until 9:45!!! But I woke up to happy kids, and a happy husband who was THRILLED with our new dishwasher. I know its just a material thing, but MAN its nice to have it working so well! Its super quiet when it runs, and it sort of decides on its own how heavy it needs to wash, which is nice. And there’s a child lock on the buttons, which is awesome!! Our kids don’t mess with any of our buttons too much, but these ones are new and begging to be pushed, so I’m thankful for that. Either way, Brady is super pumped about it, and I’m very happy too. It fits way more than our last one, which is truly the cherry on top.

I know its tacky to say, but we ate SO WELL today. We had this delicious baked chicken spaghetti for lunch, and a really good faspa in the evening. For those who don’t know, faspa is one of those things I grew up thinking was common everywhere, and I learned embarrassingly late in life that its actually a german mennonite thing. Its just a light supper on Sundays. So we had buns with a few different kinds of sandwich meat, cheese, lots of veggies, etc. It hit the spot, at least for me, surprisingly well. Once supper was done, we went to sit in the living room for a few minutes before my parents were going to head home, and we witnessed an enormous moose (enormoose?) walk right past our house and on down the road. It was kind of crazy! We ran out onto the deck to see if we could watch it a bit longer, but it was freezing out there, so we didn’t last too long. It was cool tho 🙂 Definitely not a sight you see everyday.

Unfortunately, poor miss Laela is still fevered pretty hot. Its easily controlled with Tylenol but it comes back within 4-6 hours. I hope she’s better soon, as her birthday is coming up in a couple of days, and I want to celebrate her beautiful self! I’m not sure how yet! She’ll have her bday party in October, but we’ll see what our little family will do this week to celebrate. Last year was the zoo, but I’m cold just thinking about that!! I’m sure she knows we love her, regardless of what activity we choose.

I know, its hard to imagine that there is anything too much more exciting than breakfast out with the kids, but today has really been good so far!!

The plan was to go to the city this morning, and on our way there, we hit up the post office (after driving around for fifteen minutes waiting for it to open) to pick up our NEW PHONES!!

I won’t pretend the phones aren’t awesome. They really are. They’re an enormous step up from the 8h 4s we were rocking before. Before anyone judges, no, the issue isn’t that our phones were just old and we wanted new ones. Mine was requiring regular hard shut downs, the screen kept blacking out, apps were glitching constantly, it sucked. We now have fully operational phones, and yes, they are SO pretty. We love them. You can see it in my crazy “cheshire cat” face in the first picture.

We took the kids out to McDonalds for breakfast. When we do a family breakfast out, we usually try to go somewhere a bit nicer, but I realized the other day that the kids have never had breakfast there! I knew they’d like the pancakes, but especially the novelty of eating at a restaurant. We were right. They liked their food, and their chocolate milk. They were really well behaved too, which is always a treat for Brady and I! Once breakfast was done, we ventured over to the mall to find some basic cases for our new phones. We’re waiting for Lifeproof to release their cases for the new 6s so until then, we just both got clear silicone cases to give us at least a little bit of a buffer zone if they’re dropped. I am already considerably less afraid to use my phone, lol!

Our last stop was to Costco. I’ve been complaining recently that our dishwasher is caving and has some serious plug that we cannot find. We have finally come to terms with the fact that the pump is shot, and our dishwasher could overflow at any moment. So to Costco we went to buy the lovely stainless one they have on for such a good price. We were quite a sight, actually. We should have taken pictures. Dekker and Laela were in the cart with me and the rest of the stuff we bought, and Rowan was in his umbrella stroller, parked on top of the orange flat cart things that Brady had loaded up with the dishwasher. So if you can picture it, Ro was between the handle and the dishwasher, just tucked right in there really nicely. It was adorable. We often attract some attention at least, just having three young children. I’m sure it helps that they’re so cute, too. But today, we drew a LOT of attention with Ro like that. But truly, it was our only option, and it worked well.

Conveniently, the people parked beside us in the lot were leaving right as we got to our van, so Brady was able to sort of park the dishwasher in the extra space, so he could load it in the side door. Otherwise he would have had to pull the van out a bit and block traffic for a bit. Not the end of the world, but not a low pressure situation either. So glad it worked out that way!!

We dropped in to say a quick hello to my parents on the drive home, but as soon as we arrived at our house, the kids were ready to help with the dishwasher installation! Well, two out of three. Rowan is asleep. But the others are in there like crazy with their toy tools and the few real we’re comfortable with them playing with. Pleeeaaase kids, don’t scratch the screwdriver along the wall!!

Anytime we go to the city on a Saturday, we get home much later than we expect. Its usually past their bedtime. But today, we were home shortly after 1:00pm!! So there is lots of time left in the day, and I’m excited to fill it with the installation of a dishwasher that FINALLY works well, good food, setting up our phones, and maybe even some Dance Dance Revolution in the evening 🙂 Because we’re cool like that.

Its been such a good Saturday. And theres still lots of Saturday left!

Kim brought her three kids over today to play with me and my three kids. Its always a full but lovely time. Not too many people would believe that, with six kids under the age of five in a small space, but we do great together 🙂 Dekker was super duper social, which was super refreshing, but Laela was super tired very early, so she napped most of the afternoon away. The babies were cute and agreeable, and us mamas were pretty agreeable too, I’d say. I was so pleased to witness such a sweet selfie opportunity…

When they headed for home, I tidied up the dishes and got a few things upstairs organized. Our house is a super mess, so I did my best. When Brady got home, we opted for a supper of easy comfort food, so the kids had cheese pizza and he and I had corn dogs. No judging, unless you’re just jealous. Then I don’t blame you. It was all delicious.

I think tomorrow we’ll go to the city, maybe get breakfast, maybe not, and likely buy a dishwasher. Ours is so very pooched, and its just time. Ugh. Maybe after we put just a liiiiittle bit (and by little I mean a lot) more money into this house, it will finally sell!! But until then, its bath time. Yay for Friday night bubble baths followed up by mad libs. I know. We’re cool.

I really solidly enjoyed today. I am trying really hard to make the best of these early mornings, and running a peaceful day. Its not always especially successful, and potty training has added its own special challenge, but I think we’re succeeding in a few aspects that I’ve very happy with.

This morning, Dekker had stayed nice and dry again. Yay! He and Laela had a really adorable breakfast together, where Dekker constantly told his sister how sweet she was, and he teased her into taking bites when she was getting bored of being in her chair. They did great. After breakfast, they played while we waited for my mom to arrive. They have missed her SO MUCH the last little while!! Its so funny. We’re never this busy, but now, it always seems that the times I’m free, she is busy, or gone, or both. So today, we spent a good few hours just visiting, reading books, celebrating potty successes (lots of them!) and eating lunch together. It was so lovely to finally just be in each others company again without any reason other than just wanting to be together. She’s a special lady.

Shortly after she left, Brady arrived home and we took the kids to the city for the evening. I had carefully put together a LONG list of places we needed to go and what we needed to get. Lots and lots of places!! Luckily, our kids love those days 🙂 It was Dekker’s second outing since potty training, and the first that wasn’t to a friends house, so we were curious to see how it would go. We did Costco without anything crazy happening, and I picked up a mug I had ordered from Indigo. We ducked into Carter but they didn’t have what I was looking for. It was when we stopped at the mall to go to several stores that Dekker decided he had to pee. THANKFULLYYY!!!, they had a family bathroom and it had one of those teeny tiny little toilets!! Dekker was right on board with that, and peed twice while we were at the mall. We had a successful shop there, and we had supper in the food court. Laela had a crazy sauce meltdown on the way out of the mall, but otherwise, it was pretty delightful!

I stopped by a friends house to do a little makeup swap, and upon opening her mailbox to make the switch, I found a whole little treat bag made up for me, with extra products I wasn’t expecting!! It was so sweet, and its all RIGHT up my alley!! Thank you, Steph!! I’m so thrilled to have new products to play with 😀

We did Superstore last, which is always the big ticket item for the kids, because of the cookie in the end. However, poor Laela was struggling SO HARD. Brady said he would just take her and Ro to the van and I could finish the shop with Dekker. I actually tried to switch him out, since he often ends up in the van with the kids while I run in places, but he insisted. So I let him, and I got some very special one on one time with Dekker. Best of all, Dekker seemed so happy to have that time with me too! He was pleasant and engaging, and just talked with me the entire time. We had fun, and no whining or fussing AT ALL. He earned his cookie at the end easily, and asked with his manners, without missing a beat. He even made conversation with the cashier. He was feeling good.

We ran down the ramp leaving Superstore and went back to the van. We made our way home from there, and everyone is tucked away now. It was a FABULOUS evening in the city. Despite Laela being done a little bit sooner than was ideal, I could tell that everyone really enjoyed their time. It was nice to go as a family, too. Its easier, yes, but its so much nicer. I know I have people in our lives that are willing to take the kids so we can shop alone, and its a lovely offer! But I’m very proud of my family, and I like taking them with me!!! Call me crazy, but shopping with three is lovely, and feels much more normal to me than two ever did.

This is good. Today was good.

Today was Dekker’s SECOND day IN A ROW with no accidents! Also, Jerilee was over for a good chunk of the day, and I was curious if that would distract him and bring on accidents, or it would be business as usual. He did FABULOUS!! And it helped that Jerilee is so comfortable, and celebrated the successful trips to the potty with the rest of us.

Before her current teaching job, a while back, she worked in retail. Occasionally, she would come our way on her day off, which we LOVED over here! Her new job is obviously more of a structured schedule, but today, she had the afternoon off, and spent it with us 😀 The kids haven’t had a chance to really play with their auntie in the afternoon in so long, so they got their fill, making her read story after story after story. It was adorable to see them miss her so much tot <3

Our kids go down so beautifully now. Honestly, their schedule is probably the worst it could be for me, but it is PERFECT for them! I loved the novelty that was getting them all to nap at once, and I had it down to a science. I had a lovely long break every single afternoon. It was awesome. Now, we’re getting up as soon as Dekker lulls so he can go to the bathroom, he’s not napping (mostly so that I can keep an eye on him), Laela is napping a bit earlier, and they’re actually going down a bit earlier because of all of these things. And Dekker doesn’t even complain. He is nice and ready for bed when its time. I love that so much.

So they went down without too much fuss (Laela still hasn’t bought into the whole “bedtime is a beautiful thing” belief) and Brady, Jerilee, and I had dessert and coffee. Thank you, Jerilee, for bringing ice cream sandwiches!! I’m sorry we accidentally kept the leftover ones! We’re sealing them up tight and we’ll have them again next time we’re together 😉 Jerilee always brings the yummiest desserts! We watched some trashy tv while we had dessert. It was so nice and comfortable. I love my people. Like a lot.

Tomorrow will be wonderful too! My mom is coming over for the morning, I believe, (come anytime after 8am, mama!) and then we’ll go into the city for a pretty big shop. Groceries, a few clothing things, some gifts, etc. It’ll be one of those shops where we go to lots of places. It will also be Dekkers second outing, and the first where we’re not going to a friends house where he feels a bit more comfortable. Hopefully we’ll be able to convince him to pee in a public toilet!! If not, his bag of emergency stuff is already packed!! Oy! Wish us luck!!

I’m so happy to report than Dekker had a totally successful potty training day!! Saturday was technically his first accident-free day, but he didn’t poop that day either. Today was his first TOTALLY successful, accident free day, including number two!!! He persisted, going to the potty probably three or four times within a ten minute span before he finally got things done, and he was SO proud!! What treat did he request? Banana pudding. Easy to please.

After that specifically, Dekker was in a fabulous mood for the rest of the day. He was proud, and clearly feeling well physically. I left for the evening when Brady got home, and had a lovely send off from the family. Kim and I spent the evening eating pasta, drinking yummy hot Starbucks, and shopping. I did fabulous, in my opinion. I got Laela some cute boots, Dekker his whole Halloween costume, a work shirt for Brady, a dress for me for an upcoming wedding, and a few other things. We grabbed one last snack before taking a backwards way home. It was a really nice date.

I called Brady on the drive home and we just visited about our evenings, as it felt like we’d hardly spoken all day. It was really really nice. He got some jobs done around the house and reported that the kids had been super adorable and cuddly with each other, had tidied toys up well together, and had gone to bed beautifully. And yes, best of all, no accidents!!! I’m JUST about at the point of putting Dekker to bed in underwear rather than pull ups. He knows what he’s doing and is almost always dry in the morning. We’ll see, though. I’m not sure I’m ready for the midnight pee accidents…

This has boiled down to a beautiful day 🙂 And I have so many nice days coming up this week still!! I hope the rest of you had as lovely of a day as I did!

Today I saw a post on Facebook where someone was saying its about to become fall and all women will now stop shaving their legs. This is a true statement. But besides that, it reminded me that September 21st in 2013 was my due date for Laela, and it was right on the line of having a summer baby or a fall baby. For one reason or another, I so badly wanted her to be born in summer. Likely, mostly because I love summer, and Dekker was a summer baby. When her due date came and went, my new “goal” (because us mothers get to have these kinds of goals) was to have the baby in September. October just felt too wintery to me. As things would go, I was induced on September 29th and had her very early the next morning. If you’ve been reading on here for any length of time, I’m sure you know the story. I’ll go more into that as her birthday comes closer.

Because ITS COMING! Just writing this is making me realize how fast her birthday is coming up. She is just about two years old, and while she is still teeny tiny and seems so small, she is SO grown up and mature for her age. Such a beauty for only being two. Not even two!

Just feeling reminiscent today, as her milestone draws near..

Just one year ago <3