Month: January 2019

How We Spent the Afternoon

Today did NOT go as planned!! My goodness! Haha! Everything turned out, but it was a long afternoon!

Our plan was to run errands today. Brady’s home, so its a good time to get some of those “one person run in while we wait in the van” errands off our list. Plus we always need groceries. So once the big kids were off to school, we dressed and readied the others, and headed to the city!

We stopped to get another jug of water for our dispenser. Apparently our usual place has stopped the exchange system :/ So we refilled our old one and kept going.

We stopped at Telus to get our chipped/cracked screen protectors replaced, and that also was a flop because they don’t do it in store anymore, and we have to go through the manufacturer to get them replaced on warranty. However, the Telus guy recognized us (its been MONTHS) and was super friendly and helpful, so that was good. He even commented that we were short a couple of kids. True.

We drove to 8th St to hit Superstore. We found most everything we needed, and I don’t even think we bought anything unnecessary. Hmmm. Can’t promise that, but I think we did pretty great, actually! I got a bit of a workout in when we got to the checkout lane and realized neither of us had brought a wallet in. So a run across the store, down the ramp, to the van, and back up worked up a solid sweat! Go me!

Lunch stop at McDonalds before driving across to Westwinds to get Waverly her 6 month shots.

** NO VACCINE ARGUMENTS PLEASE! ***

We always get our kids vaccines a\t the Westwinds clinic during their Friday afternoon drop-in clinic, between 1:00 and 4:00. You expect to wait. Thats fine. But guys, it was a ZOO! I got there around 1:30 and I’ve never seen it so crazy! There were people with nowhere to sit in the entire waiting room, that is how full it was!

They were turning people away by 2:00. And the clinic was “open” until 4:00. THAT is how full it was!

Wavy was such a champ. She didn’t cry even once! She smiled at people and chewed her fingers and laughed and was generally content for at least the first hour.

We ran into/visited with a small handful of people we knew who were there for shots, also, which helped break the time up a little bit. I even got a little chat in with the girl who usually brings us to the back for our appointments with Dr. Guselle. It feels good to have people to chat with and touch base with so often in so many places. I feel like I know someone everywhere I go, haha!

The second hour was less glamorous. Brady took the little boys to Walmart to blow off some steam.

She was still exceptionally good, but she needed to be moved around constantly. You know that stage. Where they want to stand but can’t for too long, but sitting isn’t fun unless they’re bouncing, and even then, its short lived. They don’t want to be held on your shoulder for long, or to face in, or out. Its a seriously game of juggling, but with the cutest little assistant, it wasn’t so hard.

Around 2:45, Brady texted me in a panic that we had to go get Dekker and Laela from school! We hadn’t anticipated it would take so long, and hadn’t even realized how fast the time had gone. So he drove home, picked the kids up from school, and came back.

As ALWAYS happens, Waverly fell asleep mere moments before her name was called. Because why not.

With the amount of people coming in for shots, Wavy and I were led back to one of the doctor’s personal offices. We did everything in there this time around. I got all the info, consented to everything, looked at all the expiry dates, and it was time to get the job done.

I laid Wavy down on my lap to take her pants and boots off, and of course she woke up. She was a beautiful bundle of stares and smiles for our nurse.

She took her little oral vaccine like a champ, no fuss, no muss.

A shot in one leg, she didn’t even flinch. Didn’t even whine. Just sat.

A shot in the other leg, and she let out a cry. And then a second one. And then she was good to go.

I stood her up on my lap and she returned to her wide-eyed smiling at finger sucking. So that was pretty stinking awesome.

My heart is so relieved when things like this go smoothly. She is such a sweetheart, we all know that, but apparently she’s also super tough! And brave!

We love you, Waverly! Sorry your six month gift is so lame…

Morning Coffee with Mom

After sending Dekker and Laela off to school this morning, I sent my mom a text that she was welcome anytime. We had some casual morning plans for a visit, for her to arrive around 9:30. And that she did 🙂

The boys were being pretty cute ❤️ and incredibly distracting while we attempted to visit and catch up a little. Lol! A very good problem to have!

She left around lunch, and Brady made it home nice and early! Woot! He and I spent nap time watching YouTube, eating lunch, and snuggling Wavy. Poor dear is unsettled with teething. She doesn’t really want to drink milk or play or sit or sleep or really anything. She just wiggles and whines and sucks her fingers. But she’s SO stinking cute when she does it.

School is about to let out, and Dekker and Laela will begin their slow motion amble back home. Brady hopes to be working on his van outside with the little boys when they arrive, and I’ll be here inside, working unceasingly on saving last years blog posts! I’m on a role and am SO eager to get the next chunk of them ordered! Or at least set up and ready for order. Don’t want to lose momentum!

If I break from that today, it’ll be to plan tomorrow. So many errands to run! Don’t want to forget anything important!

She Took Me Back

Yesterday evening needs to be remembered and recorded. It doesn’t need a story with it, even. Just pictures.

I don’t remember the last time she slept so soundly on one of us, much less handled the transfer and slept on both of us. What a delicious memory for my heart to hold.

My favorite picture from last night…

Goodness, Waverly, how deeply I love you. You’re SO much bigger than when you were new, but I could’ve held you tirelessly for hours and hours last night. The whole night, even. Thank you for the warm snuggle. My heart is full, and I hope yours is, too.

One of Those “Breath of Fresh Air” Mornings

Dekker and Laela are at school today, meaning its just me, Wavy, and the little boys. Poor guys are often labelled as “the little boys” around here. But sometimes Rowan sneaks into “the big kids,” depending on the situation. But when its him and Solly, they’re the little boys.

Mornings with the little boys aren’t always smooth. Sometimes they are! They’re better than they used to be, when Laela would go to preschool, and they’d fight the entire time she was away. But now, they understand each other a bit better. Plus, that was a year ago. Its ever-changing. But this morning was SO good with them!

Wavy slept a good chunk of the morning, and the little boys played pretty well together! Smoother sharing than usual. It wasn’t perfect, but what is? While they played, I tried to do a few things. Dishes didn’t happen because stories needed reading. I tried to do some exercises but any time my legs were in the air, Solly would shriek “Tippy toes!” and starting pinching and tickling my feet. I did, however, get a chunk of work done on saving blog posts! I’ve saved ALL the pictures from 2018 into folders, which is HUGE! I’ll resize them all next. If I did them for each post individually, it would probably take twice as long. So that felt productive.

When Wavy woke up, she added SO much fun to the morning! Let’s be real. Sometimes, she’s just a lump, and sits and watches and doesn’t contribute too much, but today she was just extra special! She drank her WHOLE bottle, which she’s been fighting recently, and didn’t fight AT ALL this morning!!

She apparently wasn’t done, and opted to lick/chew my knee for a while.

We listened to music together for a bit before it was time to get lunch moving. Now that Wavy is in her high chair, Rowan ALWAYS wants to be next to her. So they played at the island together while we listened.

He would share his precious Duplo with her, and she’s chuck it, and he would first look a bit annoyed, and then totally recover and reassure her that he’d help her. It was pretty adorable.

The boys tidied up toys before lunch and ate lunch way better than usual! Rowan is probably the best luncher out of all of our kids, but Solly not so much. And he did AWESOME today! Wavy tried some banana too 🙂 Since I didn’t have to nag anyone to eat, I got the dishes done that I couldn’t do in the morning. Win!

Wavy started to lose her marbles about halfway through lunch, so she’s been sleeping for a little bit. Both boys went down seamlessly, which is just so great. I’m upstairs, doing this, and I anticipate I’ll work on those blog photos for the books next. My mom is popping by during nap time to look at a project I’ve started! Eek! Ok, its not really at “eek!” level of excitement, but it is for me 🙂 I’ll tell you about it soon enough.

Friend who said you were praying for me today, I appreciate it so much. It seems that was what I needed to get out of my “blah” mode. Thank you!

The Monday After Christmas Holidays

As many of you know, I’m sure, today is the day the kids go back to school! I’ve solidly enjoyed having everyone home, honestly! I used to judge moms who were sooooo frustrated with summer holidays as soon as they started. I don’t judge them anymore, because I do get it. However, these last two weeks have been really good with our kids ❤️ They weren’t without flaws, but they were busy and exciting and it felt like we went a mile a minute, based on our usual pace. Amongst all the busyness, though, it was clear that it was time to go back to school. That structure was just necessary.

So this morning, while he clarified that he’d rather be home, Dekker very happily got ready for school and headed out a little earlier than usual, even. He loves being at home, comfy and quiet, but I know he actually really loves school, too. So off he went. Laela said over and over again that she’d be walking with him tomorrow! She’s SO excited to go back.

Its a very windy day, but it looks beautiful! I hear driving conditions aren’t ideal, but I have nowhere to go and from my spot here in my recliner, its pretty gorgeous out the window!

Yes, I can see out my front windows again! Thats the ONLY downfall of our big beautiful Christmas tree. It blocks pretty much our entire front window, and makes our house a lot darker. We really loved having our tree up and decorated, but no one was sad when we took it down just the other day. It probably helps that we still have other decor up. White lights on the railings, trees and lights above the cabinets, and the mistletoe. I’m toying with keeping that sucker up all year, though 😉 We usually end up taking our tree down waaay later in January, but this felt like a natural wrap-up! For the tree only, haha!

Our first week of school is a bit quiet in terms of schedule, which I’m happy about. I anticipate tired kids, readjustment, and overstimulation. But it won’t all be bad. I’m definitely not saying that. Just potentially needing some downtime.

Brady’s workday won’t be a late one, thankfully! We’ll all be back together soon 🙂

*****

I plan to spend this afternoon’s nap time saving more old blogs into their book format. Thank you to those who encouraged me about getting through the hard patch of blogs around Jamin’s passing. I did it! I saved them! I didn’t get a whole lot further past them, but I saved them along with all the Facebook comments I received around the original post where I shared that he had died. FIVE PAGES of comments. You guys are wonderful. Thank for all of your support through 2017 and 2018. People always say they’re available “if you need anything.” I have never felt more confident that I could call for help and someone would reach out and help! Thank you, Lord, for our AMAZING group of people!!!

Painting with Grandma

Brady got asked to help with music in church this morning in the form of drumming, but instead of all of us going, I opted to keep the kids at home. My throat has been itchy and tight for a couple of days now, so I thought a home day would be best. I would love to NOT get sick right away here.

We invited my mom to spend the day with us, as we usually do on Sundays. She too has been feeling less than 100%, and was staying home from church. I told her to feel free to come anytime, and she asked if she could bring a craft to do with the kids. Of course you can!

Brave Grandma chose painting!

It took a bit of setup. She had SO MANY paints and supplies, yet somehow kept it simple and doable and fun! When it was finally ready, things went surprisingly smoothly!

The kids had SO much fun! Eventually the young ones petered out and went to find something else to do, but Dekker and Laela painted to the bitter end.

Church went long, and Brady arrived around 12:30. We had a supper lunch of macaroni and a big chunky salad with cottage cheese and all kinds of yummy things. The afternoon has been filled with Lego, stories, and baths for the kids.

Breakfast sandwiches are in the works so I’ll keep this short! School starts again tomorrow!! Back to reality! I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed your holiday!!

Back to an Old Task

I’ve recently picked back up on saving blog posts into books. You probably all know this, but I save every six months of blogging into a book form. The goal has NEVER been to sell them, but just to have a hard copy for when, one day, I inevitably shut “The Daily Hailey” down. It takes a decent amount of work, but when I really buckle down, I can save maybe a month-ish worth of blog in an hour or two.

Life doesn’t provide us with a ton of spare time, but I’m currently a year and a half behind! Whoops! So this last week or two, I’ve been just dipping my toes back into saving posts, and all the nitpicky details that go into that.

I saved July 2017 and began August. Aaaaand now I remember why I put a pause on this project. We lost Jamin that summer.

Currently, the page sitting open, ready to be saved and formatted into the book is August 15th. We found out about Jamin’s passing on the 17th. I delivered him on the 18th, and shared it with you on the 19th. The weeks following that were SO sorrowful. Sure, time has passed, but I admit I’m nervous to go back through those posts. Part of me wants to just disconnect and save them without thinking. Just copy, paste, copy, paste, save, save, save. There won’t be many pictures to add, so they’ll be uncomplicated. Yet half the fun to saving posts is scanning back through them and remembering the times we had. I hate disconnecting on purpose, and shutting off my feelers, but I don’t want to relive those days and weeks. Like, ever. But they’re important times. I don’t know what to think.

The thing is, I saved the post about Theo passing away a while ago. I get many more comments on Facebook than I do on the blog, which is fine, but as a rule, I don’t save the Facebook comments. I made an exception for the post about Theo’s passing because of the amazing outpouring of love we received. Do I do that again? For sure for the post about Jamin’s initial passing, but there was SO much for SO long. But those comments were raw and sorrowful, and rightfully so. I’m not sure I’d ready to re-read them all.

I don’t know what to do. I wish I could just have someone else save these next weeks for me. But I’m pretty sure it has to be me. Here goes..

Dekker and Wavy

I mentioned on Wavy’s six month post that the kids are still pretty enamoured with her. This morning, as I carried her down from her LONG sleepy morning (longest stretch of sleep we’ve gotten out of her in a while!) Dekker instantly abandoned his game and asked to hold her.

They snuggled for a good long while, until she started to get squirmy. He giggled at her and tickled her neck and teased her. He told her she was his best friend. He did SO good.

When I could tell his interest was starting to wane, I asked if he’d hold her for just one more minute while I made her a bottle. I should’ve seen it coming.

“Can I feed her??”

Lol! Of course you can.

I swear, she took her bottle better for him than she does for me.

At first, I helped him get her situated, and he asked me to hold the bottle in her mouth while he readjusted his hand. It wasn’t long before hie confidence grew, though! He’d take her bottle and set it beside him while he wiped her little mouth, and then give it to her again, never once getting flustered in between.

At one point, she was getting just too wiggly and flappy, and I offered him a break. He laughed and said “Ya, I think I might be done,” and relinquished the bottle and the baby to me. He got over half of it into her, though! Way to go, Dekker!

I love when I have a different blog plan and then something like this happens instead 😍

Our ONE Day

I hope you didn’t miss yesterday’s post! It was Waverly’s six month update, and those pictures are easily among my favorites of anything we have of her so far! She’s just so stinking sweet!

It was a bit of a later post, but I was out on a date with Jerilee and my mom!! We were also expecting Jerilee’s mom, but some unexpected plans came up and she wasn’t able to join our mother-daughter date after all :/ Sad story, for sure! But still, we went and had a total blast! Movie snacks galore! A super comfy theatre, too! We saw Mary Poppins returns, and I have to say it did not disappoint. I’m not the biggest fan of Emily Blunt, but this may have won me over for her. It was a very cute movie. The songs were catchy and fun.

I slept like a rock. Today is our ONE day we had this Christmas when nothing was booked, and we used it for a full errand day in the city. I was a little bit bummed, to be honest. I would’ve loved to spend Brady’s last day at home just being together, relaxing with coffee, disassembling Christmas, listening to music with the kids. But errands were necessary. We hit Walmart, Costco, a key shop and a couple of parts stores, Dollarama, and two Canadian Tires. Was a bit of a big one, but everyone did well 🙂 (Super speed update! Our bus runs again. Gas lines were frozen. Thats a whole other story.) The parts stops were just for some small fixes that Brady wanted to do on his work van. Everything went pretty smoothly, and Brady is currently reassembling his dashboard outside while the kids play outside.

Tomorrow, Brady heads back to work. We’ll miss him, but I’m so thankful that he got as much of Christmas off as he did, and also that he has work to go back to. We’re so fortunate.

Six Months of Waverly

What better way to celebrate the beginning of a new year than celebrating a half year with our littlest family member, miss Waverly Violet! 

She brought such richness to our last year, I can’t even explain it. On one hand, we’ve all long since become familiar with her. She’s not “new” anymore. Yet she is still SO exciting! The kids still squeal when she gets up in the morning, and they celebrate when she hits a new milestone. She is SO well loved, and fits in beautifully. As if thats ever been in question! We love our brood so so much.

This little peach tip the scales at 18 lbz 13 oz, which is up 2.2 lbs since last month. She’s SO chubby now, and extra soft. I could pinch that arm pudge aaaaall day! She’s SO sweet and snuggly! Her hair is getting SO long, and there’s so much new growth coming in, too! 

Her two teeth from last month are all the way out now, and as always happens, they’ve completely changed her look! Wavy is exceptionally friendly to new people, and rarely makes strange.

Right after Wavy’s five month post, she found her voice! She squawks like I imagine a pterodactyl might squawk. She’s lucky she’s so cute, because her cooing in the night has become far less endearing. And with her teething like crazy again, she’s up a lot more than she used to be. We love you, Wavy, but we’re sooooo tired!

Another change with Wavy is that she almost never needs to be burped anymore. She’ll either burp right as we sit her up after, or she’ll just burp on her own later. We used to burp her until she burped. Now we pat her back a couple of times, and if nothing comes of it, we leave it. She burps eventually. She’s SO user friendly! 

If you haven’t noticed in the pictures, Waverly sits now! This feels like a big one! She often hangs out on her back in a half-sit up position, trying to sit up. Its funny and cute 🙂 But when we sit her up, she’s surprisingly stable! She still topples over after a while, but slowly and in control of herself. She self corrects, too, if she starts to lean too far one way. None of our children have had this much balance and stability at this point! Her hand eye coordination is improving, too! She’s considerably more grabby these days. 

Oh, and she eats! Just little bits here and there, but she’s tasted yogurt and apple sauce so far, and she’s both skeptical and super interested. It depends on the day. She always loves sitting up in her high chair. 

Wavy still doesn’t have much of a schedule. We’ve never really forced the schedule thing, but our babies always kind of made their own. I wonder if its just because she’s so relaxed that she goes with our flow. Its hard to know. She’ll sleep at other people’s houses, or in her car seat or the carrier. Usually, on a home day, she sleeps in, and has some wakeful time before lunch, or during lunch, and then she naps shortly thereafter. Sometimes her nap goes until supper, and she’s up until bedtime. Other times, she wakes up in the early afternoon and has another shorty nap before bedtime. Bedtime around here is 7:00, and once the others are down, we feed her a bottle in the quiet and she goes down easy as pie! Never an issue getting this one to sleep! 

Praise the Lord for six months with Waverly!