It was three years ago that our little lady was brought into the world. I have to link up her birth story, as always, because it was just that nuts, and if you haven’t read it, you should. While I have ZERO sibling favouritism, I think her birth will always be different in my eyes. It was SO different! While the result, a beautiful child, is an outcome I’ve been blessed with four times, getting there was just different with her. It may sound dramatic, but never having felt labour the way I did with her, I genuinely thought we were both going to die as Brady drove us to the hospital. I didn’t know I was about to deliver. I honest to goodness thought we were about to die. So the relief of her being born, screaming, pink, squishy, and perfect, was very different. What a crazy time!

And how times have changed! Laela is now one of the “big kids” in the house. She is caring and kind, and loves to help. One of the special things she’s been gifted today has been allowing her to do as many of the “jobs” around here as she wants, without Dekker or Rowan “getting them.” So she’s been retrieving and removing diapers, setting the table, doing some dishes, wrapping Solly, etc. She LOVES to help.

We spent the morning baking cupcakes. LOTS of cupcakes. Seriously, like far too many. But they’re all iced and pretty and waiting for their imminent deaths over the next days. After all of that baking, and the couple of people who dropped in to wish her a happy birthday, she is wiped. Currently, she is basking sideways on a recliner, watching Octonauts. She only really pipes up when Dekker asks to switch the show, and she said “no,” because I gave her tv veto (tveto?) power on her birthday. I’m sure she’ll perk up once her usual afternoon quiet time has passed and her daddy comes home. But for now, we rest a little bit.

I should be doing laundry. I should be washing the baking dishes that didn’t fit in the dishwasher. I should be doing lots of things! But its too special of a day for chores. There’s always tomorrow.

If you’re ever reading this, I sure love you, my Laela girl! I couldn’t be happier that you’re in my family! I hope you had a blessed third birthday, and many, many more after that!

We all have titles. Growing up, like most kids, I was known by my older siblings. Simon’s little sister. Caitlin’s little sister. Frank and Jeanne’s girl. Also, like most kids (I think), I kind of hated that. I wanted so badly to be individual, and as an overdramatic little girl, I felt like my individuality was somehow taken away by people knowing me in this way. Its not their fault they met my siblings first! I get that now.

I remember when, once in a blue moon, one of my siblings would tell me they were recognized as “Hailey’s older brother/sister.” I would be elated over the news! It felt like I was making strides somehow.

This morning, as I was walking back to my vehicle after dropping Dekker off at school, I greeted a woman and her kids heading to the kindergarten room. “Good mornings” were exchanged, and we walked our separate ways, but I heard the little boy say “That’s Dekker’s mom.”

Eek!! I could not be prouder to be “Dekker’s mom.” What a fabulous title, WOW! I can really truly see how flattering it is to be identified as someone’s family member. I love that the kids know my son first.

So there you have it! I was “Dekker’s mom-ed” today, and I loved it. I hope it happens many, many more times over the years.

I sure love you, Dekker! I’m SO proud to be your mom!

In case you missed it on Facebook, I have a very exciting parcel coming to me!

As you can see, I put my order in two days ago, and was expecting it to be shipped around mid-October. Waking up to this email was invigorating.

Currently in the mail are my first four books of saved blog posts!! That is TWO FULL YEARS of posts saved! In June, I celebrated my fourth year of blogging, so I’m practically half done. I’ve been completing books and uploading them here and there to the website blurb.com, but on the 26nd, I saw a promo code for 20% off. Since shipping is pretty expensive, I was thrilled to see I could get a discount at all! However, I often find myself in the boat of jumping on a sale, and having a better one surface a week later. I decided to do a bit of research while my fourth book uploaded, which takes a couple of hours. I googled “How often does Blurb have coupon codes?” Surely someone has asked this question before, correct?

I found one better. I found an active coupon code that wasn’t advertised on Blurb, but on a cooking website. It was geared towards getting printing cookbooks, but obviously not enforceable to be used only on cookbooks. So thanks to that code, I got 35% off of my books!!! It made my decision about whether or not to order them very very easy. I cannot believe they’re actually printed and coming!

I was motivated by this to keep working on saving posts, but we had a bit of a rocky afternoon with a certain teething baby boy. Once he was down for a nap, I worked quickly and got two months saved into a fifth book. Not my most productive afternoon but definitely better than nothing at all!

When I first began this process of saving my posts, I was super intimidated. I figured that if I saved a month per day, every single day, diligently, it would still take 7+ weeks. That seemed like a lot to me. I won’t lie, and I’ll admit that I still find the project a bit ominous. Daunting. Intimidating. Scary. Hard. All of the things. I’m so scared to be this far into it and then to hit a road block (I accidentally wrote “road blog” first, lol) and have all of my time and efforts wasted.

But I plan to do absolutely everything in my power not to quit! I declare that there IS value in this project, whether anyone else sees it or not! This doesn’t come from a place of bitterness, I promise. I have not had one single person tell me this isn’t worth it. I have felt support from every angle. But I want to see its value myself. Me. And I do. 🙂 I’m really, really excited about having these memories. Whether I stop blogging tomorrow, or in a year, or in ten years, or never, I will always have these two years in print for my loved ones (current and those to come) to read and laugh about/at over a good cup of coffee.

Yay for the reward from vast amounts of tedious work!!!

Today has been full and fun, and this evening it will continue!

I dropped Dekker off at school, and he was very happy to go today. While I chatted with his teacher, he got his shoes on and headed over to his table. It was SO nice for me to see other kids greet him and to hear him him say hi back. I know that seems small, but it isn’t for him. Its big.

My mom watched the kids until I came back. We visited for a little bit, and then she headed out to get ready for her day. Kim came once her middle son was dropped off at preschool, and we had a coffee date for a couple of hours. It was fun to talk school and kids and Christmas and houses and all of the things. Once our lattes were gone, she headed to pick up her kid, and the kids and I played a little bit longer. Eventually Rowan was starting to lose his cool, so he and Laela got bananas and some crackers, and put the boys down to bed.

I spent the afternoon when another friend and her two little girlies, which happens so rarely but is always a lot of fun. Definitely a guest who I can put my feet up around. She brought noodle bowls and conversation. I liked it a lot.

My mom came once again to watch the littles while I picked Dekker up from school, and stayed for an hour or so to visit. It was SO nice! Brady came home soon after she left, and we chopped up veggies and chicken for wrap for supper. Now, Jerilee is over for Bachelor night, and I am SO looking forward to the kids going down so the trashy tv and snacks can begin!

I hope you all had as enjoyable of a day as I did!

It was one of those days today. The kids were a bit off, which isn’t abnormal, but I had a hard time reigning everyone in. It was one of those days when I struggled harder than usual to be patient and soft. Rather I was grumpy and short with the kids. I wasn’t kind. It was a hard day. There were some very sweet little moments, but they were tucked between lots and lots of screaming and complaining and fight-picking.

Brady came home with an enormous cold brew in hand and sent me upstairs to take a break. Its been so nice. I did, however, surface for a few minutes to make Dekker’s lunch for tomorrow. When I did reappear, the kids were happy and fine. Clearly no love is lost. No bitterness is present. They’re still happy, and they still love me.

Because they’re still so sweet, I’m going to keep hiding, for I am not as sweet as they are, and I don’t want to ruin it. I am fairly confident everyone has days like these, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to duck away and regroup once in a while.

Once everyone is down, Brady and I will eat KFC and watch Scandal until we fall asleep, and I am greatly anticipating that! Woot!

We headed into the city for errands today.

There was a decent amount of running around involved, looking for specific things for Laela’s birthday gifts. Did you know she turns three in FIVE DAYS?! My goodness, suddenly they’re all aging and I’m not ready!

I found what I was looking for (for the most part) and then we did some extra running around for groceries in general. We prefer certain things from certain places, so grocery shopping has us in and out of a small handful of places. I wish we could get it all at one place, haha! But no dice. One thing we really want to get our hands on is outdoor Christmas lights! Call us crazy, but we’d like to put some up sooner than later to avoid the tedious work with ice on the roof. If anyone has seen any great deals, please let me know! We would love to just know where to go without having to check a bunch of places out. We’ll do some measuring and research and hopefully get some soon.

At Costco, I bought a new winter jacket. I’ve had the same winter jacket since before Brady and I were dating. So a LONG time. Yes, I have a fairly newish maternity winter coat, but as I am NOT pregnant, it wouldn’t fit especially well. It was time for a new one, and I actually really love the one I got! Win for me!

I was wearing Solly through Costco. We’ve been thinking he’s been teething for a while, but today it was just so very obvious as he chomped on his hands, drooled, and cried and cried. So we gave him some Tylenol and I rocked him in the ergo. I was SO sad when our Costco shop was over, because he was fast asleep. I felt bad pulling him out of the carrier and plunking him into his seat, but he was suddenly SUPER away and sooooo cute and happy!

We got home later in the day than we expected, and the kids were actually telling us they were tired, which almost never happens. The kids had a yummy, easy, light supper, and they went to bed without any fuss whatsoever. Brady and I are now wracking our brains to think of what to eat for supper. I’m not sure why we’re all so wiped but it is a common thread this evening around here.

I hope you all had a successful day to wrap up the weekend with!

Brady and I were asked to play guitar and sing for a cafe night in town last night, and it was a very real success! Not our music, even, but the whole event!! I have high hopes that the project will move forward and that our small town will soon have a new establishment coming up!

We played for a solid hour before the presentation while everyone drank specialty coffee and ate fancy desserts and visited. I LOVED the din that swallowed our music up. We were a little bit nervous going into the event, as we weren’t able to polish up our voices and songs as well as we would have liked, and we didn’t want to make tons of big mistakes. The sounds of visiting and bustling and eating and laughing was PERFECT, because not only did it sound exactly as a coffee shop should sound, but it let us be exactly what we had hoped for – some solid background music. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

We were among some of the last to leave, as we got our visiting in after we were done playing. Meanwhile, the hired barista was packing up his station. He came over to us with a 4L jug of whole milk in his hand and said “A tip for the musicians with a bunch of kids!” Everyone still in the room burst out laughing, myself included, but I was also thrilled, haha! Being that we go through an outrageous amount of milk, that was actually a hilarious and incredibly appreciated tip!

We took our guitar and milk home to our quiet house. Hailey had gotten our kids off to bed, and had done all of our dishes! We sat and visited into the wee hours of the morning before she headed on her way and we hit the sack. It all rounded out to be a super nice day. We thoroughly enjoyed playing music together for a crowd again. Its been SO long. I hope, if this cafe comes to life, we’re asked again. 🙂

All families of the elementary school aged kids were invited to a breakfast at the school this morning. We told the kids all about it yesterday, and Brady opted to stay for it and go to work a bit later into the morning. While the breakfast was at school, regular classes still needed to commence at the regular time, so breakfast began at 7:45am.

Brady woke up feeling chipper and refreshed from sleeping in, while I dragged my zombie self up out of bed and moved very slowly getting dressed and ready. But I soon forced myself to snap out of it, and gathered up Dekker’s lunch and books, and started getting the kids up and picking their clothes. We left our house at 7:40.

With the road construction around the school, everyone has to park pretty far away now, and it was cold and raining this morning. But we made it anyway. Something as basic as rain wouldn’t stop that. We dropped off Dekker’s backpack and all kicked off our shoes, and headed to the gym. We got everyone seated, and then Dekker came to help get the food for the group. We went to the serving station run by his teacher, his french teacher, and the one teacher still working there who taught me. We chatted a bit as they heaped up a few big plates for us, and then we took them back and dispersed them between the 5 of us who were eating. Only three trips back officially fed everyone!

We hauled out when it was coming time to clean up, and moved Dekker’s shoes to the right boot room, hung up his jacket and backpack, etc. Our whole group was in his kindergarten classroom while he was getting settled, and Brady commented on how he wanted to just give Dekker a hug before we left. In my head, I was nervous, because the last time I actually gave him a hug and said goodbye, he cried when I left. But Brady never gets a chance to drop him off, so I definitely understand. Before we really had a chance, Dekker said he was going to go read, and started to walk away. I called him back, and he hugged Brady, and Rowan, and me. He walked up to Laela and asked “Laela, would you hug me?” She gave him a big hug, and they lingered a little. It was pretty cute. And then he said “I’m going to the quiet room to look at books” and he was off! No looking back, no tears, etc. I was SO happy!

Until we left the classroom and Laela burst out crying. “I want to read in the quiet rooooom!” I should have known she’d be sad. When Dekker was putting on his indoor shoes, she was asking which ones she would wear. She wanted to stay, and was VERY sad to leave. “Not WANT that!” she cried. I told here that in two years, she would get to stay, and that it would feel soon. She accepted it, which I was thankful for, and we headed back to the van.

Everyone is now soaked, and at home. Well, Deks is at school, and Brady is at work, but the four of us are here, drying off and playing toys. I am SO tired, for some reason. Fleece leggings are on, and coffee is brewed. Screw a latte. I made a pot.

But seriously, it was a great morning! I saw Dekker interact with some friends without any prompting from me. I met a few parents that I didn’t know before. I got to have breakfast with my husband during the week. I felt the rain for the first time in a long time. And now, I can be comfy and sip my coffee. Can’t complain!

Dekker has been doing well with school. His first day was a hard sell, and for some reason, he cried when I dropped him off on Tuesday. But he is always chomping at the bit to get there! He really likes school! He’s slowly telling us more about what he does in the day, and he even told me the name of someone this morning, which is HUGE! It may sound small, but there is progress, for sure.

In fact, I think the biggest adjustment has been pick ups and drop offs. I’ve always been lucky enough to have someone drop by my house and sit with my kids while I take Dekker to or from school. This morning was my first time bringing them all along. While it went smoothly and everyone was just fine, its showing up now. Rowan is DONE. Bawled his way through an early lunch as is down for his nap over an hour early. But that is actually going to be well timed, considering his nap will also be cut short, since I’ll have to load everyone up to pick Dekker up from school. I genuinely think this is going to be the hardest part about adjusting to school.

That all being said, today is picture day!

Since I have no idea if Dekker will actually smile for the photographer, here is what he looks like today! Wearing his favorite colors, rocking a new haircut, smiling sweetly. Here’s hoping it all went smoothly this morning!

I have to post on here about what just happened to me. I know people often have bad luck with Kijiji, whether it be crappy items, no shows, or whatever else. I’ve always had pretty decent luck with all of that. The few mishaps have been small and fixable. But not today. I’m far too annoyed over this, so I’m going to write it out here, and then keep moving.

Yesterday, I spoke for a pair of boots on a Facebook buy and sell page. Someone had already spoken for them, but I put my name in for seconds, and the first girl backed out. The seller said publicly that they were mine, and to message her for pick up. So I did. She wasn’t very quick to respond, but sometime in the middle of the night, she wrote me back and said she’d be around in the day. So I wrote her early this morning and told her to just name the time and my husband would jog over, since he was working in a nearby neighbourhood. She read my message and didn’t respond for a few hours. When she did respond, she said she had a friend over, and they wanted the boots, so “thanks for your interest.” Bah!!! Can they DO that?! Apparently making a deal and keeping your word isn’t worth too much. :/ So I’m feeling pretty merpy about that.

In other news, the framing has begun on the lot next to ours! Not only am I happy about this because I want neighbours, but because that man is providing hours of entertainment for my kids, haha! Thank you, Erictheframer.

At this point of the day, two are napping and two are quiet and playing lego. Time for me to buckle down and save some more posts. Seeing the progress is super motivating!!! Just wait until you guys see them!!!