Yesterday, I realized that 14 weeks was coming up here, but it still feels like I’m in my first trimester, haha! I feel a bit trapped in the bad cycle of sleepless nights, fitful rest, drowsy medication, and nausea. They all affect each other and I don’t really have any control in the matter. As we close in on our lake trip (we leave on Saturday) I am really really hoping for some renewal in my body, and that soon, the nauseous part of my pregnancy will be gone. With that, the drowsy meds can go, and then I can have more energy during the day, as well as hopefully some more restful sleeps that aren’t altered my medication. I have high hopes for some relief at the lake. Just wish me luck as I prepare for the lake. We have SUCH a crazy week ahead, with so many unpredictable things and so many preparations to make. Yikes yikes yikes.

Size/Comparison: Apparently, the baby is the size of a beet! That’s pretty decent! I recognize that the sizes of beets can vary but frankly, the other comparison I found was that the baby is roughly the size of a house mouse. Sooooo I’m going with beets. Because gross. Though I also dislike beets. But not as much as I dislike mice.

How am I feeling mentally: I feel some relief in regards to the baby. I see my tummy continue to grow and I’ve watched my body shift and change. I used to have tighter stomach muscles, sure, and I’d show later. But I’m thankful to see the progress and the changes. I’m so happy that I can’t finally feel that good uterus bump when I’m laying down first thing in the morning. It has helped my sanity greatly. Other than that, I was able to encourage another mother today, just a little bit, over Facebook. I don’t know her personally, but she recently lost a baby into her second trimester, and is just aching to be pregnant again. While our situations are obviously different, I know that feeling of so desperately wanting to be pregnant again. Its almost taboo to say it, for fear that those around you will think you’re trying to replace the baby you lost, or that you’re just blowing past it. But I KNOW that ache so so well. The ache for your lost baby doesn’t go away when you get pregnant again. It changes, though, and it feels separate somehow. At least to me, it does. I will always ache for my baby Theo. But I also am anticipating my little papoose with the utmost excitement and attention. I am more ready for this baby than I think I’ve ever been. So my heart still hurts, that hasn’t stopped, but my confidence continues to grow, and I have peace. On a completely different note about mental health, I think my hormones are starting to level out. Woot! Its about time! I’ve been hard to live with for a while now, hahaha! Seriously though…

How am I feeling physically: TIRED. My nausea is under control but it isn’t gone yet. And my boobs still hurt. What gives, Hailey’s body?? I am starting to slowly feel a bit more like myself, so I’m thankful for the small bit of progress. Definitely can’t be picky! Like I said, I just need more sleep. Better sleep. Then I think healing will really come!

Appointments: Nope. I’ll have an appointment a week after we come back from the lake. But I did have a phone chat with my doctor the other day. I had asked her a question in my appointment and she had wanted to run it by a group of doctors in a meeting. It was about eating fish, haha! Of all the little “rules” that us pregnant ladies are supposed to follow, I know the fish one is actually somewhat legit. My love for a good tuna melt has grown over the last couple of years and I wanted to ask her just how serious the limits were. Sadly, while its not like some hard fast rule, its recommended to eat even LESS fish than it used to be!! Seriously, at MOST two tuna melts a month. Its such a bummer 🙁 I love fish. SUCH a bummed. Sooooo if anyone goes fishing and wants to share/sell off some of their catch, please let me be the first to know! Because I’m definitely allowed to have more of that, and less of the humungous fish like tuna. Help a hungry prego out!

Buys/Wish List: I bought our unborn baby an amber necklace, hahaha! Its WAY too early in the game to buy it, I know, but one that I’ve always had my eye on but has never been in stock when I’m looking was finally available!! Also, I always end up having to buy one thats slightly longer than I’d like, and this one I could actually get in a shorter, more baby-ish size. Sooo I snagged it. Also, if you remember from last week, I bought maternity shorts to last me through summer. I’m happy to report they’re SO comfy and fit great and I’m super happy with them 🙂 Wins for me!

How are the kids feeling: They’re good 🙂 They’ve been playing with Laela’s dollies a lot these days, wrapping them and taking turns caring for them. I’m really excited to see what bringing another baby home will look like for them. I think they’ll be super helpers, and very involved. Hopefully in a good way, haha!

The BEST thing about being pregnant this week: Honestly, it seems dumb, but my favorite part of this week was feeling my real bump and knowing my baby’s house is growing. That brought so much relief, as I’ve been anticipating it. I know it seems like a weird thing to want and to wait for, but its always been a constant for me, and I’ve been anxious for it to make its appearance. I hope it keeps growing!

Anything else: Just a heads up, next weeks series post is going to be bumped by a day. I don’t mean to keep changing it up on you guys. It’ll just be different next week, but I have something very important to post about on August 7th. Sorry for the change.

Pictures: The bumpity bump…

Its definitely visible to me, and I know it changes throughout the day, depending on when I’ve eaten or not eaten or peed or not peed. Actually, its crazy how much bigger I am when I have to pee!! Anyone else experience that? Its nuts!

Thats it, thats all, guys! Wish me luck in the week to come! I think its going to be a bit insane, but hopefully that means it’ll go quickly. Whatever gets me to the lake faster, I’m on board for!! But first, a bit of running around today, delivering a couple of things, and getting my legs waxed. Let’s see if I can get through that appointment without fainting. Sigh.

Office reference, anyone? Please don’t let me be the only one!

It is my birthday. Aging feels so strange. I have all year to prepare for the official switch over to another year, but my late twenties have been interesting. As in, they’ve felt peculiar. I’m not suggesting life is any more interesting for me than anyone else, but I think like a lot of people, I’m hesitant to age, and to see my twenties go. I can’t decide whether I feel old or young, accomplished or stalled, or whether those things even matter or not. Lots of feelings. Lots of self reflection.

I don’t plan to go super deep in today’s post. I can’t even figure out how I’m feeling, so trying to write it out would be completely fruitless. I’m not unhappy. I feel like I should put that out there. I’ve loved my years, and I love where I find myself as I’m officially through twenty-nine years of life. I’ve felt that I’ve gone through a good heart shift in the last year or so, and while I am FAR from perfect (like far far) I feel like I’m a better person than I was a year ago. So even a little bit of progress counts as progress, right?

My day began early, with breakfast in bed, and some quiet Netflix before the kids woke up. I took my time doing my makeup and listening to music while the kids ate breakfast, and then I went down and spent the morning with my family. We ventured to my parents for lunch, as did my brother and his family, and we all feasted on yummy pizza and chips and berries and all kinds of delicious things. We had a BIG homemade birthday cake, with coffee, and chatted the afternoon away. It was lovely to all be together, and also fun, and also also delicious. Thank you, all, for coming and spending time with me. And thanks for the presents!!! Woot woot! Right up my alley!

We all headed home around 4:00, and our crew is suuuper low key, coming down from all the company and energy 🙂 Clifford is on tv and I’m online shopping with some of my birthday money. Woot! Its been a super lovely day and I’m very much anticipating a quiet evening among my favorite people!

🤴👸👱👧👦👶

I know I’m not allowed to be especially upset with my body. Trust me, I know, and I agree. My body has done some amazing things, and I am incredibly grateful for it. Its strong, and capable, and hasn’t failed me too terribly often. But, flesh does fail. I’m human, and my body is imperfect. But I’ll admit to you guys that I put a decent amount of expectation on it, and I get incredibly discouraged when it fails.

I haven’t been private about the fact that I’m not sleeping well. I’ve never had this kind of struggle with sleep in pregnancy. Yes, pregnancy fatigue is a thing, I’ve been there. I am there. But these days, I fall asleep without issue, but my night goes one of two ways. One way is that I wake up shortly after falling asleep and spend most of the night half awake, wildly disoriented, and when I get up for the day, I’m completely out of it. The other way is that I actually sleep fairly deeply but I dream constantly. The dreams range from unsettling and nerve wracking to completely scary and shocking.

So last night, I finally had a good deep sleep, but it felt like I dreamt all night of my children being abducted. It. Was. Awful. A very very hard night to get up from. But I did, and I got everyone up for the day, because YAY! They were all in their beds. Win!

My mom is the most loving human to walk the earth, and offered to bring lunch over and eat with us. We ate a good meal, and I got the little boys down for their nap. Then, I left mom with the kids and I ran off to the city to get the side of my head re-shaved. It was a GOOD drive there, with GOOD music and GOOD fresh air.

I made it to my appointment, and my hair girl began. Probably 20 minutes in, I started to get whoozy. I blew past it, though, knowing I was sitting down and fine where I was. I just closed my eyes and rested. But it wasn’t getting better. I was wiping sweat off my face and seeing spots.

She walked me out and took a picture of my hair (because its beautiful, as always!!) and then helped me get to the bench, where I blacked out.

Ugh.

I got my bearings and everything was fine, but I decided to skip the couple of errands I needed to run and just go straight home. I was super discouraged.

I HATE when that kind of thing happens. Its not the first time something like this has happened at a weird, inopportune time. I often black out in waxing appointments when I’m further into a pregnancy when I’m laying down and the baby crushes my organs. I blacked out multiples times in a Dollarama in the same visit. That was a fun one. I blacked out while getting my nails painted once. And all the time at home, though I’m quicker to just sit down and get my dizziness under control before I actually fall. It just drives me completely up the wall!! I ate a good, hearty lunch. I drank water. I did everything right. My blood pressure isn’t even that low this time around, when it has been in past pregnancies. What gives?!?!

So, rant over. I’m just feeling bummed. It was such a nice outing, and break, and breather, and I feel so frustrated that my body struggled so hard to keep me off the floor. Dang it, Hailey’s body! Keep it together!!

Maybe I’m just getting old. It is my birthday tomorrow…..

Its been a while since I talked about Dekker’s eyes on here, I think. Probably since his last appointment, lol! Well Brady took Dekker to an eye appointment this morning and I thought I’d throw it all down here 🙂 For you guys, who care, and for me to remember.

First, I’ll start with a confession. I lied to Brady about the time. In all fairness to me, the last two or three appointments they’ve gone to together, they’ve been late. They arrive at the hospital on time, but its lined up SO FAR BACK that by the time they’re checked in, they’re technically late. So while the actual appointment was at 9:30, I put it on the calendar as 9:15. Just being proactive, not that mean 😉 But of course, today, they were on the freaking ball, and were at the hospital at 8:50. Whoops. Of course, being that early, no one was lined up, and they checked in right away. So so early.

A beautiful thing happened, though! They got into their appointment early! Win!

Orthoptics is always first, where they run the majority of their tests on Dekker. He tends to do well for the first while, but is pretty over it about halfway through. Not today! Brady texted once they were out of orthoptics and back in the waiting room, and said that Dekker cooperated easily and beautifully the entire time 🙂 That being said, though, Brady got a feeling that Dekker wasn’t able to identify as many things as he was supposed to. It was looking like his eyes were declining, even just a little bit, but enough that it was showing up in his tests. Not the end of the world, but it was a bit discouraging.

It was only a few minutes before Dr. Rubab called them into her exam room for the next part. Because Dekker had cooperated SO well in his prior tests, she didn’t have to redo really anything, and said that his eyes are actually doing great!! Basically, his vision is at 20/30, which obviously isn’t perfect, but is just a line below where he’d ideally be. So not at all like it had seemed in orthoptics, but rather just likely it hadn’t changed much at all since his last appointment! It was SUCH a win.

Funny story. They were out of the hospital before Dekker’s appointment was technically supposed to start, haha! That NEVER happens. Amazing!

So, a BIG attaboy to Dekker for doing so great in his appointment, not complaining at all, and for never fighting wearing his glasses!! He’s put in some great work, and its paid off!

Another successful trip to the eye doctor done 🙂 We’ll be back in 4-5 months!

Brady spent another day at my parents house, working on their deck. Lucky me, by default, I spent the whole day hanging out with my mom and the kids! Woot! I think I can safely say that it was really nice for everyone. Brady got the trickiest part of the deck completed. I had someone to chat with over the age of five. The kids had someone fresh to read them new stories, and had toys to play with that are different from their everyday stuff. And I think my mom enjoyed the company, too, and the bustling house. Its good to mix things up 🙂

Obviously, however, tomorrow will be another deck day. Or at least  deck afternoon. Brady is taking Dekker to an eye appointment tomorrow morning, and when he gets home, we’ll load the kids up and head back to mom’s house for some more work hours. Its SO nice when you work for family, and there is no tight timeline to run by strictly, but Brady also takes pride in his work and his speed, and we don’t want to take advantage and let the project drag on forever and ever, either. So in between all of our appointments and scheduled plans, Brady will likely be at their house fairly often, trying to finish it up. He’s getting a wicked tan!!

I’ll admit, after a LOVELY day of visiting and having company and some help with the kids, I am still wiped. Right. Out. Wow!! Brady told me to head right up to bed once I got home, and thats exactly what I did. I dropped the diaper bag on the floor, walked up to our room, took my pants off, and crawling into bed. No other stops were made.

My body is ready for bed. I am tired.

Or perhaps I just over ate at supper….. Thats entirely likely as well.

Worth it.

I realized I have a handful of super cute pictures of Dekker and Solly from the last few days that I can’t leave unshared. So while they’re unrelated, I’m going to do up a quick post about my oldest and my youngest boys.

Dekker is SO psyched to go to the beach!! He’s been colouring a lot recently, and today, he drew a picture of the lake that I actually thought was pretty awesome.

He told me the “top blue” was the sky, and the “bottom blue” was the water, and then the sand! To his dismay, the yellow sunshine was a tad on the green side, but he understood why, haha! I thought it was a great picture, and he was super proud of it.

Another thing that stood out to me about him today was that he is totally in baby mode!!

He swaddled his stuffed puppy (its more of a pancake at this point) and snuggled it on his chair, patting it and holding its head. It looked SO soft and SO nice. Dekker tends to be a bit of a slow starter, and while he’s never showed any issue with the new babies, he usually takes a while before he wants to be involved with them very much. I think it might go differently this time 🙂

Last, and probably least, haha, Dekker ate an apple like this today!

My mess-free boy has NEVER eaten an apple this way. He always prefers things to be sliced and as neat as possible, so this was kind of a surprise to me. An even bigger surprise was how much he loved it! Even though he was sticky at the end. It was cool to see him let go of something that he seemed to need in the past. Win for Dekker!

Then we have our Solly, who is SO sweet these days! You may or may not have seen the picture I put up of him a few days ago.

That boy loves a good chocolate chip cookie, and Rowan loves that Solly no longer tries to eat his chocolate chip cookie.

On that same day, we ran some errands in the city, but made it home just as Solly was moments from sleep. Poor baby was SO tired, but hilariously adorable and unmoving on his daddy’s shoulder as he was carried inside.

He perked up a little bit and joined the kids for lunch before going down for his much needed nap. We left the table for moment and accidentally left his plate within his reach. He pulled it over to himself and we found him LOADED DOWN with banana.

Thats a half banana, shoved into that massive baby mouth, and if you can’t tell, he is SO PLEASED with himself! Some goldfish snuck in there as well. Truly, though, it was adorable, and Brady and I laughed so hard. It was awesome. Yay independence, haha!

I love my kids to pieces. They are so incredible, on all the levels, in all the ways. It was fun to spotlight these two today.

Its been a pretty good day so far 🙂 You guys are in the know. The last weeks have been challenging in a lot of ways, and I’ve been feeling overdone. The kids are going through a really hard stage, Solly has been actively working on his first set of molars (two have cracked the surface, but we still have a ways to go,) Brady’s work has been all over the place, leaving him working more evenings than usual, I’m still sick and fatigued, and the medication I can take for my nausea is basically like taking sleeping pills all day. Its been a challenge. But today, I feel a tad bit better 🙂 Even though its a small victory, I feel like it needs to be acknowledged 🙂

While the kids ate breakfast, I did a load of dishes. For some reason, the last few mornings, I’ve woken up feeling sicker than usual, and beyond that, my arms feel like I’ve slept directly on top of them all night or something. I haven’t done that, and I know this because I spend a decent amount of time awake in the nights, but my hands and arms have been basically dead to me the last couple of mornings. They were the same again today, yet I pushed through and got a load of dishes in! Small victory, lol! And by the amount of dishes still left on the counter, you’d never know I did some 😉 But it still counts for me! I earned my coffee, that’s for sure!

The kids played pretty well through the morning, and I’ve been able to do a teeny bit of sorting and organizing. Solly burst into tears, however, right around 11:00 and that was just it. He went from playing happily to wailing as though he’d fallen or gotten hurt, except that I was with him when the crying began, with no incident to speak of. I did everything in my power to calm him but he was right pissed. I finally plopped him in his high chair, got a bit of food into him as fast as I could, and he went RIGHT to bed, no struggle. Poor teething baby.

While this went down, I chatted on the phone with my mom and we made a pickle plan! I’m so stoked to can some pickles this summer!! Its been a few years since we did our last pickle day, and we’re both completely out. However, after doing a bit of research, we may have a wrench thrown into our plans :/ We’ll have to see how that all winds up, but we have high hopes of making pickles in the VERY near future. And somehow, that plan with our tight timeline doesn’t feel overwhelming for me. Yet another thing that’s giving me a tiny bit of hope that my first trimester craziness/moodiness/everythingness is potentially on its way out. I can dream!

The one bigger thing on my list is getting hyperorganized for our lake trip coming up, as our days leading up to it are full, and are getting fuller! But the biggest part of that was getting organized food wise, and I did that yesterday! I planned our meals and even snacks, so all that’s left to do for that is a quick grocery shop right before we go 🙂 Look at me over here, accomplishing tiny unimportant things!! Go me!

The big kids are currently eating popcorn and watching some tv while I’m researching, blogging, organizing, etc. Its relaxed around here. Brady won’t work a super long day today, since he has physio in the mid-afternoon, which is so nice. Its been a successful day so far, where I feel like I have things a teeny bit more together than usual. Its all pretty minimal, but these last couple of months have really given me a run for my money, and I’m starting to see little improvements.

I’m feeling really thankful today 🙂

Second trimester, baby!! We have arriiiiived! Haha! I am SO ready for that promised burst of energy, the disappearing nausea, the better sleep, etc. Not that I’m not optimistic 😉 But I’m not holding my breath that any of that is directly around the corner. Even in my past pregnancies, where I’ve had FAR less sickness, I’m still sick for another couple of weeks at least. Such is life. Such is having babies. I’m willing to take that hit!

Comparison/Size: Apparently, the baby is roughly the size of a Hot Wheels car this week! When I told the kids, Dekker just burst out laughing like it was the funniest thing he’d heard all day. I love the thought of it, though. Thats a decent size! I’m pumped. Also, I hear my uterus has grown from the size of a grapefruit to the size of a softball. Are those even that different? Lol! I’m not good at sports…..

How am I feeling mentally: I’m feeling fairly at peace about my pregnancy. Not all the way, but pretty good. There was so much relief with my recent appointments, and there was a definite shift that came with that. I feel better overall. Yet I feel like the chase for the next milestone will never end until this pregnancy does. Or at least until I can feel movement. That is SUCH a wonderful reassurance to have every day once it starts. I’m anticipating it very much. I still feel a bit nervous, as my body hasn’t grown the same way it has in the past. I can finally feel my uterus, but its not the good sizeable bump I can cup in my palm when I’m laying down. I used to be able to feel that exact thing right around 10-11 weeks every other pregnancy. But I have no real reason to think things aren’t going smoothly. Besides these things, we are swiftly approaching the due date I was so anticipating in my previous pregnancy with Theo. So that is definitely heavy on my heart, but it feels a little bit different. Separate, almost? I’m not sure.

How am I feeling physically: Things are still trucking along. My meds have kept me alive and well, as well as kept my nausea under control. However, I did dry heave my face off yesterday to the smell of coffee brewing, so I’m clearly not out of the woods yet. On a separate note of physical feelings, let’s talk about boobs for a minute. You can take it, don’t worry. They have been hurting like there’s no tomorrow for a solid 7 weeks now, and they have FINALLY grown a bit! Any chance they won’t keep hurting? Like its not looking good, they still hurt 24/7, but maybe the end is near since they finally did their thing. Maybe? I can dream.

Appointments: Nothing new here. I’ll see my doctor mid-August.

Buys/Wish List: Ok! I bought something, finally!! Remember a while back, I mentioned that I ordered some jean shorts from the Gap and was eagerly awaiting their arrival, since my current shorts were getting SO tight and pinchy and cutting in? It seemed like they took forever to come, and when they finally did, they didn’t fit. Now I KNOW some people will hate me for this, but I’m allowed to be annoyed, so don’t hate on me. They were the smallest size that exists. Size 0. For the record, I am NOT a size 0. Ever. But Gap clothes fit on the larger side, and I am actually quite annoyed that their smallest size is too big on me. I KNOW there are LOTS of pregnant women who are smaller than me. What a pain. So I need to send those back, but in the meantime, I went to Thyme Maternity yesterday and bought two pairs of shorts to last me through until the end of summer. They were already all on sale, and then as an added surprise, they were an additional 50% off, so I got two pairs of shorts I really like, that fit really well, for less than I expected to pay for one pair. Win for me!! I prefer the style of the Gap shorts better, but they looked boxy and wide on me, and my butt crack would never be concealed. I’m really thankful to have found what I found. They are much nicer and more comfortable than I was expecting. Thank you, tiny Thyme location, for not being sold out of my size!

How are the kids feeling: The kids are less interested at this point, haha! To their credit, they mention the baby every single day, and they LOVE calling him/her “little papoose.” Its really caught on, which I love. But I don’t think they’ll really show much new interest until they can know the gender. Thats the big question. Is it a boy or a girl. Over and over and over again. I hope we can actually find out!! There has been ONE time only that we weren’t able to find out at our anatomy scan, and we went for a 3D ultrasound about eight weeks later. If, for whatever reason, we can’t find out at our anatomy scan, I doubt we’ll be waiting eight weeks! We’re all so eager this time around, haha!

The BEST thing about being pregnant this week: I think I could say the best part of being pregnant this week was going to a baby shower. Not mine, but my cousins. She is pregnant, I am pregnant, and another guest at the shower was pregnant. It was so much fun to be part of the excitement for her, and to be part of the group of pregnant ladies. It was a safe space to talk babies and pregnancy and all the ins and out, with views from a handful of seasoned moms. Its SO fun for me to be able to talk about my love for my children and child bearing, unabashedly, shamelessly, joyfully. I really enjoyed that. It brought up more excitement in my heart, and an even stronger anticipation for my little papoose. I am SO excited!!!

Anything else: I’m into the fun realm of terrifying pregnancy dreams. Sigh. I’m still quite fatigued, even though I’m technically in my second trimester, and the bizarre dreams are not helping me feel more rested!! Also, I’ve been eating a TON of cinnamon toast crunch, and I’m so hungry for pastry, haha! Turnovers, danishes, the fruit sticks with the big hunks of sugar on top, things like that. SO hungry for that! I may have to buy a bit of it for our upcoming lake trip. Or just buy them from the bakery there, when everyone else is getting sticky buns. Mmmmm…

Pictures: Behold, as per usual, the bumpity bump. Forgive my messy, fluffiness.

I’m really just thickening, haha! I can see the bump, but I’m definitely still at that point where I just look like I just ate recently. I’m ok with that, either way. I know what’s going on.

And these are my shorts!

I admit, the first pair are more comfy because the panel is soft and comfy, but I don’t love the embroidery. The second pair are lighter and more simple, which I like, but the panel isn’t my fave. So they definitely have their trade offs. But both fit really well and I’m SO thankful to have found them for less than $20 each!!

That’s it, that’s all! Its been a nice week. I still feel sick and tired, but I feel happy and excited. Summer is moving quicker than I thought it would, but I’m eagerly anticipating whats all to come. Dekker and I had a great chat this morning over breakfast about whats to come. My birthday is in a few days, and then his is three weeks later. Soon after that, we’ll have a special weekend away, and then school will start. Grade one for Dekker also means preschool for Laela, and a month or so into that, Laela will turn 4! The next thing is thanksgiving, and then halloween. Christmas will creep up fast after that, and only a few weeks after Christmas, we’ll get our brand new baby. There is SO much to look forward to, and while I’m not wishing time to pass, I’m so happy about all that’s to come! I’m so ready for it all.

I try so hard to stay positive, but Brady and I had a bit of a heart to heart and decided that, unfortunately, last week was just really hard, and really bad. For lots of reasons, it was just a sucky week, and I’m have some anxiety about the week to come. I had some lovely plans to disappear and run a few errands on my own this morning, free of anyone who screamed, argued, or even talked. Just me, to get in a better headspace. But as plans tend to do, they changed. While a break would’ve been so useful and appreciated, I knew my family could use the outing just as much as I could. So we all went.

As per usual, it was a bit busy and chaotic getting out the door in the midst of Rowan melting down and Solly crying over his poor little teeth. He cracked a molar in the last few days, and cracked another a week or two ago that’s still only halfway out. Along with those, I can feel three more teeth that are pushing, and who knows how many are moving and hurting him that are still lower in his gums? Poor kid is working hard these days!! But we finally managed our way through all the pep talks, medication, and shoes, and everyone made it out to the bus.

We only had three places to hit, and they all had nice short lists. We did Superstore, and picked up a few things, but didn’t get cookies at the bakery. We then stopped at another place, that I’ll tell you more about in tomorrows post 😉 But our last stop was Costco, where the kids got their cookies, and we stocked up pretty much all of our staples. We were out of milk, yogurt, apples, bananas, coffee, and cheese. That basically boils down to the apocalypse around here, but we got all set up with our necessities as well as a handful of other things. At both grocery stores, we were able to walk right up to the till and get ourselves through and paid up in no time at all. The man who loaded our cart at Costco just chatted with the little boys as they sat in the cart, watching intently. Neither of them really responded to him at all, but he just rolled with it and kept “their” conversation going. I loved that 🙂

Upon arriving home, Brady took on the task of getting the kids lunch, and I unloaded the van quickly before disappearing upstairs to get ready for the afternoon. My mom and I made our way to a baby shower for one of my cousins, and spent a few hours reminiscing with family, talking about babies, and her future plans. It was exciting to just be around that again. Someone have a baby already!! Lol! Maybe I’ll be so classy as to throw myself a baby shower, haha! Its been a while, so that would make sense right?? 😉 I tease. They’re a lot of fun, though. It was nice to be able to chat about babies again and “Ooo” and “aah” over baby clothes. How is it that light grey makes babies even softer than they already are?? Eek! I want one!

I’m home for the day now, and the kids will be in bed in about an hour. All in all, I can safely say its been a nice day, and I have some hope for the week ahead. I want to try hard to keep a positive perspective, but please be gentle with me if I get a bit down. These have been hard hard days, and hard stages for the kids. I am feeling so drained, while anxiously waiting for that promised “second trimester energy” to strike me. Bring it on!! Trimester #2 started tomorrow and I am SO ready for it to make good on some of its promises!

Brady began his second deck build of 2017 as he and my dad took on the job of my parents deck. Its been in the works for a while, but the quote came in, the order was placed, and everything was dropped off a couple of days ago.

Praise the Lord the weather cooperated today and the boys didn’t get rained out. The weather was actually a bit foggy and cool in the morning, but the sun moved in for the afternoon.

I had a super weird, unsettling, broken sleep, but when I woke up, my mom had texted and offered to come by and do the morning with us. So she came and hung out with us, and helped with breakfast and helped us get out the door. We headed right over to her house, where the kids settled in really smoothly. Its been a while since we’ve just spent a day playing over there. Meanwhile, the boys had just about finished up all of the tedious work of placing the patio blocks, levelling the gravel underneath, and sloping some dirt away from the house. When that was finally done, the real building began.

The work hit a few snags and my dad had to make some quick trips to nearby hardware stores, but things kept moving and I’ve got to say, they made it pretty far for their first day!!

I mean, it helps when you had an audience as cute as this.

I like them a lot 🙂

Brady and I are quite wiped out after today. He is wiped out in the rewarding, successful way that you feel when you’ve gotten a lot done. That sore ache that’s kind of satisfying. I’m wiped out from the kids, lol! They’re just in a really tough stage right now, and there is so much screaming in a day. By the end of it, I’m just finish.

After supper, Brady and my dad went and loaded Brady’s tools back up in his van, and we were off. We plucked Rowan from his 20 ish minute temper tantrum and hauled him out to the van (left it running with a/c, of course) and then followed right after with the other kids.

Ro went right to bed upon arriving home, and while Brady tucked him in and I changed Solly’s diaper, the big kids got on tidying up the few toys they’d spread out in the morning before we left. It was an efficient system, and bedtime went fairly seamlessly, for which I am thankful.

Now, I’m in bed. I don’t plan to leave, haha! Well, I’ll leave for a bath. But that’s it. Now I snack and sleep.

Happy weekend, all!!