For some reason, the kids were done breakfast and washing up much earlier than usual. Not like early early, but before 8:00. I’m often left hounding them to finish around then, leaving so little time for organizing backpacks, getting dressed and brushed, etc. But not today! Today Dekker was completely packed and ready for school, and even made his own lunch, long before 8:00!
In true Dekker form, he headed to his bedroom and surfaced with a half-finished card from yesterday, and got to work on it. Its a very intricate design. He settled at the island with his paper and a bag of markers. As it often happens, he was almost immediately joined by his siblings.
He and Laela were sharing the markers, which isn’t always smooth, but today, was SO nice. Before Laela selected her marker, she asked him “Dekker, did you need purple next?” He admitted that it was the next color he wanted, but he said she could use it first. She surprised me by rushing back over to the coloring stuff in search of a second purple marker. Dekker had a moment of hesitation, and said he wanted his whole card to be make with smelly markers, and Laela said she’d use the one that didn’t smell. 😁 I was SO touched by this interaction, as small as it may seem. Its just, selflessness. In KIDS! Its hard to find, at least over here! But that one time that it happens in the midst of aaaaall the times that it doesn’t helps my heart so much. Its in there!! They KNOW the lesson! Its just hard sometimes. And I can really relate to that, also. Even as an adult, its not always easy to be selfless. Selfish is SO much easier!
I was excited to share this story on the blog, so I asked Dekker and Laela if I could take their picture.
I then backed up to include Rowan in the picture. They are SO familiar with being photographed, haha! Ro sat still for maybe half a second before he made his move on Dekker 😆
The others took their cue from Rowan, and the picture just got better and better.
I am SO proud of my kids. Its these moments that remind me that this is worth the work. That I’m not doing my children harm by having many of them. I am giving them lifelong friends, even when they argue and get tired of one another. I am SO fortunate to be able to pour into these beautiful little humans every day. I’m excited to see who they grow up to be!!!
***
I want to keep nurturing this little time that these three spend at the island, coloring, writing, etc. through summer. Do any of you know where to find some good activity books for young kids that don’t break the bank? Academic and/or playful 🙂 Preschool up to grade 2/3. Let me know!!
I’m sure you’ve heard it, but time moves quickly when you have children! Especially babies, whose development you watch so closely. They don’t tell you it speeds up with each consecutive child, but it does, so watch out! With that in mind, you can understand how each month is a big month for Waverly. But guys, this month felt HUGE!!! SO MUCH has changed!!!
Wavy has gained only about 6 oz, putting her at about 20 lbs 12 oz (according to our home scale.) She seems SO tanky, but she’s also stretching out before our very eyes! Her knees are my favorite. 😍
She finally popped another tooth (May 31st) to join that funny group of three on her bottom gums!
We’ve recently discovered her little body has eczema! So we’re working on those little spots and her poor little cheeks. Luckily, she’s not been scratching at anything so I don’t think she’s bothered by it 🙂
And if you can’t tell by these pictures already, Wavy’s hair keeps growing and growing! We almost always have it in a ponytail now, not only because its cute but because she needs to be able to see. The cute factor doesn’t hurt tho!
Waverly’s sleeping routine hasn’t been excellent this last month, honestly. She’s waking up more and more, pulling some newborn stuff that we could all do without. But we’re working with it! The last week or so has been better, with only one nightly wakeup. She only drinks bottles maaaybe four times a day, because she is SO over the baby thing. I, however, am not. 😩 How dare she be ready to grow up already! So besides sleeping, the rest of her routine is very much like ours. She eats at the table at every meal, and usually just naps the one time after lunch, when the boys nap. She fits in so well.
I saved Waverly’s development for last. She has hit so many exciting milestones this month! She began army crawling on May 10th, and has since figured out how to use her knees effectively.
She started by juuust dragging herself an inch or two to what she wanted, but now she’ll crawl all over the place in search of adventure. She is our earliest crawler! None of our kids have been eager to get moving, so this has been very exciting for us to watch 🙂 Didn’t make for the easiest photoshoot though! Haha!
This grumpy face is also my favorite!
Almost immediately upon learning to crawl, Wavy learned how to sit up from laying down. While I’ll miss her “french girl” pose, I like that she’s getting so much more stable.
We thought her sitting up when she was supposed to be sleeping was an obstacle, but thats nothing compared to pulling up! Ya, she does that now, too! Like it just happened, on May 26th. She pulled up in the tub, of all places. She bellowed and banged on the side of the tub in celebration! It was so awesome 🙂 She still gets stuck sometimes, but its getting better.
Beyond all the developmental milestones based around movement, she continues to change! She finally embraced the straw sippy cup so we’re getting more fluids into her, finally! She nods and shakes her head at appropriate times, waves often, and even blows kisses! She says mama, dada, done, hi, and even has said “ni ni” at nap time once or twice. None of these “tricks” are foolproof, of course. They’re all dependant on her mood. But she knows them all 🙂 We have also seen the very beginning of her mimicking us, and doing what we do. Its AWESOME.
Waverly is welcoming, warm, cooperative, playful, and smart. At the parade yesterday, people would throw candy and the kids would race to gather it, and Wavy would shriek and jump in excitement! Next year, I anticipate she’ll be in the thick of it, alongside her siblings, cousins, and friends.
Yesterday was Solly’s birthday, as many of you know. I’ve been asking him in the last few weeks what he wants to do for his birthday. All I could get out of the kid was “Tomatoes!” I’m not even kidding. By giving him some options, we settled on his birthday supper and dessert. Hotdogs, with cucumbers and grape tomatoes (obviously) and chips. I gave him the option of all kinds of desserts, and he settled easily on cookies.
With the easiest supper plans ever, the day was super relaxed. The big kids biked a bit, and Solly played on the deck.
Wavy slept. Or at least she was supposed to be sleeping…
Busted.
My sister is out for the weekend, so she and my mom came over and joined the fun. It was such a nice low key evening of laughter and celebrating and good food.
After supper, we all grabbed a few cookies and headed out for a walk around the pond, like we try to do most days now. I don’t have pictures to show for it, but it was pretty much the ideal way to wrap up a day of celebrating Solomon!
Except that the kids were wired and didn’t fall asleep for quite some time. And then it turned out I was actually wired, too, and finally took something to help me fall asleep around 1:00am. Whoops! Its all good, though. I woke up in enough time to make it to the parade today 🙂
My suuuuuper delightful kid #4 , Solomon Brady, turns three today. I can’t believe it. SO MUCH has changed!
These last twelve months with him have been really just SO pleasant. He has truly been the sweetest two year old ever, not putting us through any “terribly twos” business. Now, I KNOW some of you are itching to say something along the lines of “Just wait for the threes!” Trust me, I know about that. But let’s not talk like that. Thats just not how we roll over here 🙂 He was an exceptional two year old, and he will be an exceptional three year old, however that ends up looking. I can’t wait to see how he changes and progresses!
Some of Solly’s details are as follows. He weighs about 32.5 lbs, which is pretty much average, I believe. He has that cute little pot belly that little kids have, but if you tickle him, those abs turn to stone! He’s pretty slight, with a big ole head 🙂
His hair is beautiful and long, and he wears it in a ponytail most of the day.
He loves hammers and firetrucks and his blanket and Waverly. He speaks super clearly and is so intelligent. A switch flipped not too long ago that seemed to take him fully out of toddler mode. He’s a full on kid now, lol!
With that, he’s much more aware of his surroundings and wants in on everything the others are doing. Super clear. He learns a lot from his siblings.
Yet his face is still soft like a baby. Sometimes he’ll just stand there and let me stroke his cheeks and neck. Its so so nice.
No word of a lie, I just got up from typing this because Solly announced “I’m under the mistletoe! Come get me!” And he wasn’t kidding. Yes, our mistletoe stays up all year.
Solly is much like Dekker in the way that he does NOT like messes. Its made meals tricky, but he’s finally drinking exclusively from a cup, and getting better at rallying after he spills little bits. He builds Duplo well, sings songs, can count and say his alphabet, and makes real jokes sometimes! A while back, he deemed himself the kiss machine, and whether he’s sad or someone else is sad or hurt, he usually says something along the lines of “I don’t want to hug, just a smooch.” A smooch solves everything.
This boy is a serious light in our home. A willing participant. A friendly tagalong. Someone who will giggle along with everyone, regardless of whether or not he understands the joke. A helper. A snuggler. An eye roller, and a quick recover-er. A tickle monster. A tongue-clicker. Mischievous. Sweet. Soft. Pure sunshine.
Solomon Wolomon, you are an AMAZING member of our family! We ALL agree! We love you SO SO MUCH! I’m happy you love your birthday so much already 🙂 I hope the rest of the day can feel super special, too!
***
I know its SUCH a busy weekend, but if you happen to run into this kid at the parade or the car show or wherever else, throw him a “happy birthday!” I bet he’d be thrilled to be celebrated again and again!
I know we’re supposed to hate watching our kids grow up but there are some beautiful stages along the way!! Yesterday, another book opened in our home and it made my heart soar.
It was coming up on supper time. Brady was barbecuing burgers and the kids were on the deck with him. They wanted to bike, but thanks to our recent scare, there was no way they were allowed to bike on the road without supervision. Sorry not sorry. They settled for the deck and the swings. They weren’t out there too long before our doorbell rang. I went to answer it and a couple of the kids from up the street were standing on the patio, helmets in hand.
“Can Dekker come and play?”
Brady happened to have his head in the back door at the time, and said he still had about 15-20 minutes at the grill. I asked the kids if more of our kids could join, and they nodded eagerly.
“Thats great! I’ll send them out!” The kids bolted to their bikes. Within seconds, my kids were ripping around our house, into the garage for their bikes.
It. Was. Awesome.
I think I’ve mentioned on here, but if you missed it, the street we ended up building on wasn’t our first choice. Or our second. Yet, as God would have it, we are SO HAPPY exactly where we ended up!! This is so clearly where we belong. We love it here!
As I think about who is living near us, I don’t anticipate this will be the last time our kids will rip up and down out street with their friends from up the street. There are more amazing kids on the street adjacent to us that I hope join in. There are lots of little babies, too, who will grow and join in as soon as they’re able, I’m sure.
I’m SO happy with our little neighbourhood, and the people in it. We are exactly where we belong.
Doesn’t hurt when people bring us cookies either! Our street doesn’t hold the only beautiful people in town ❤️
Thank you, sweet kids up the street, for including the sweet kids down the street. They had a total blast!
To everyone who has reached out privately and in comments over the weekend, thank you for your love and concern. Its been a bit of a wild ride, just inside my head, mostly. I was able to get a bit of a better sleep last night, so that counts for something. I feel a bit stronger today.
My kids were absolute joys this morning. They were all happy through breakfast, with no scrapping. Dekker had a field trip today so he was through the roof excited! He actually had his lunch and backpack packed yesterday already. Is anyone even surprised by that, though? I know I wasn’t. But he was just oozing happiness 🙂
Once he was off for the day, I woke Wavy up from a dead sleep. Poor little dear.
It had to be done :/
I got the kids assembled and into the van. I had a small errand to run, and my mom came along for the quick trip so I wouldn’t have to bring the whole brood in. She even read them stories while I was out.
I grabbed an iced coffee on the way home, because dollar drinks!! It was a nice morning.
She needed to go home fairly quickly afterwards, so we dropped her off and then went home to play a bit. The kids did pretty well, especially Wavy, who was so happy to be out of her car seat! She crawled madly through the living room, chasing down the toys she’s actually whack out of her reach, and then celebrate when she’d retrieve them. It was cute.
Lunch came and went, and the littles are napping. Laela is up with me, busy with her reading, as always. I brought out some fun coloring/designing stuff that I think she’ll have a riot with next time I can tell she’s looking for something new to do 🙂 And I’m going to keep working on my crafty stuff that I’m sure I’ll tell you about one day! The whole reason for the secrecy is not to be a turd, but because I’m already thinking about Christmas! I know, I know. But I’m making beautiful gifts! I’ve been trying to think of some way to do an extra gift exchange with people I don’t usually see that often, but I’m not sure it’ll be possible to orchestrate. I’ll keep thinking on it. Blog gift exchange? Lol! Maybe just a draw for a prize, handmade my yours truly 😘 We’ll have to see!
But I’m going to do a bit of that to relax my mind, and I bet Laela will join me with some of it. Meanwhile, sanding is happening in my basement, and Brady’s work day is productive and he’s feeling good!
I hope and pray all of our days end smoothly and in a way that leaves us feeling like we somehow succeeded.
I’m hiding upstairs. I realized moments ago that I haven’t eaten today, and thats not helping anyone, so Brady brought me crackers. I’m now momentarily sustained, and I hear my kids laughing and playing happily downstairs. Its good.
Today was hard. It was good and bad. Very emotionally charged. Not eating didn’t help, and I haven’t slept much since the weekend. My body is mad.
Wavy and I collectively had three appointments in the city today. Appointment number one and two were easy enough, and some fear was taken out of a situation for the both of us. That post has been months in the making and will now have a pretty anticlimactic ending, but I’m comfortable with that. I’ll tell you all about it soon. Appointment number three was also good, but way more emotional. My body is struggling hard, for lots of reasons. More things I’ll share with everyone down the road. But I have some follow up to do in the near future. I cried like an idiot in that appointment, but as per usual, I have the best people in all the right places, and I felt safe and comfortable. Wavy was the best sidekick through the long, hard day.
Her little knees!! SO chunky!
I’m emotionally exhausted. I hope to spend some time this evening working on my crafty stuff. That helps relax my mind, usually.
Sorry for the vague post. My heart is tired, as is my body. Tomorrow is a new day.
This weekend was SO not how I wanted it to be. But so much is out of my control, so I try to roll with the punches. The lake trip was a HUGE flop, for obvious reasons. The evening after was incredibly difficult, as was the following morning. I’ve been struggling pretty hard. Last night, I lost a few hours of sleep. Its clear to me that its going to be a while before this just blows over and I feel like I can relax. So! Let’s focus on some other positives from the weekend 🙂
Friday evening closed off the school week. Our kids weren’t doing so hot, and Dekker was the only one who had been cooperative through supper and had time to play before bed. While the others sulked over their food, I took Dekker for a walk around the pond nearby our house. He wanted to bike, which sot of crushed the one-on-one time, or so I thought. He’d bike for a bit and then either bike back for me, or wait for me to catch up.
Our first lap around the pond, he had biked ahead of me and suddenly slammed on his brakes. He yelled to me to come. He got off his bike and stood beside it, seeming to jump out of his skin. I couldn’t get there fast enough, he just couldn’t keep it together. “BABIES!!!!” He pointed at the water.
Two big geese were on the water with two little fuzzy yellow babies. He was SO excited! I loved that. <3 We went for a second lap around the pond, and and about the halfway point, I challenged him to a race. I finished the lap by walking, and he biked to get aaaaall the way around again before I got to the end. We got there at the same time. He was wiped. It was awesome.
On Saturday, the drive to the lake was really lovely. We got the kids bagels at Tim Hortons for breakfast along the way. I mentioned it on Facebook, but in case you missed it, we tried to place our order through the app, but it only lets you order 6 bagels at once! We’ve officially outgrown Tim’s technology, haha!
So we had a good laugh, went through the drive-thru, and the kids demolished some bagels with strawberry cream cheese 🙂
Laela played peekaboo with Wavy on the drive 🙂
Saturday evening wasn’t our best. It was tense and struggly for everyone. But, mostly me. So I was showered with hugs and compassion, which felt pretty much amazing and reassuring. I slept HARD Saturday night, which Waverly hasn’t really allowed recently. I really appreciated that.
My mom spent Sunday with us. We skipped church, because we so desperately needed the break. My mom brought Subway for lunch, which was SO wonderful, and SO yummy. Could anyone else eat Subway all day err day?? I know I could! So we did that and then I rushed Laela off to a birthday party. As soon as I got back, Brady left to take Dekker to yet another party. Dekker’s party was in Saskatoon so Brady stayed in the city. My mom and I spent the afternoon visiting while the little ones napped. We had a lot of ground to cover, so it was good to spend that time together, just the two of us. I love her so much.
I retrieved Laela from her party mid-afternoon and Brady and Dekker were a couple of hours behind. When we all came together for the evening, we had a yummy feed of scrambled eggs, breakfast sausage, and sautéed peppers. Are you guys pro-sautéed peppers? Throw some Montreal steak spice on them. You’ll thank me.
Supper went long, right up to the kids usual bedtime, but I was feeling the need to do something a bit extra. Plus, the party go-ers were still pretty sugared up. So the group of us (our little fam and my mom) headed out for a trek around the pond, to get some wiggles out. We even picked up our neighbour along the way! Our group of nine moseyed around the pond and talked about our weekends. Our kids played on the big rock and enjoyed the sun. It was refreshing.
The kids were so happy at bedtime.
There are four kids under this blanket, lol!
I think a lap around the pond might have to be a permanent fixture in our bedtime routine. If you happen to see our gang, pajama-clad, running around out there, you know its almost bedtime, haha!
So based on these things, we had a lovely weekend. The rest was hard, but we learned from it and got a serious reality check.
Praise the Lord for this weekend turning out as it did – with some happy memories and all of us, together, safe at home.
I was very rattled yesterday. In all honesty, I still am. My skin is still crawling. But Wavy let us sleep better than she has been recently, so that helped. Here are some slightly clearer thoughts about what went on at the beach.
I want to believe that the woman taking pictures and interacting with my kids meant no harm. I don’t want to write these people off as predators. I, too, have been in situations where my kids are interacting with strangers kids. But I look for the parents. If I can catch their eye, I make sure I smile or wave or somehow make contact. There’s just some safety there. When I approached the group on the beach, I was far from menacing. I believe I had a smile on my face, and I was just casually wandering over. I was anticipating a short conversation about how cute all of our kids are. But, nope. Their whole group instantly got up and left. Why?! Why, if not for guilt?? They looked and acted guilty.
I struggled through the evening really hard. I was just emotionally drained. I cried a lot, on and off. I was SO disappointed. I LOVE Waskesiu, and this lake day was already such a stretch, and I cannot believe it ended the way it did. Just SO discouraging.
The win from the day? I was talking to Laela about everything that had happened, and I told her that the most important thing was keeping her and the other kids safe. She corrected me and said that the most important thing is “not to run from God.” Her words, not mine. She knows what true safety feels like, and where it comes from. And that is AWESOME!
We went to the lake today. We don’t have too many more chances before summer actually starts. We battled whether or not to go today, but decided it would be good to break up the weekend, even if our group was truly exhausted and struggling. Its not been an easy go of it around here as of late. But we’re plodding on, and the lake was going to be a much needed pick me up.
We got to the beach at 11:30, and the kids attacked the playground.
There were just a couple of other people around, but not many. There was a woman (maybe two of them? I don’t remember for sure) running around with a little boy, and two big burly men sitting on a bench nearby. They looked a bit out of place, not at all dressed for the beach, but they had a baby with them, and seemed to be along with the woman and little boy.
At Waskesiu, there are two play areas on the beach. They’re very close to each other – think a five second run – but they’re separate. Brady and I watched the kids migrate from the bigger playground to the one more geared towards younger kids. So began their instant friendship with the little boy we had seen. He was stoked to have all these new friends, and our kids chased him up and down the ramps, played tag with him, and seemed to have a hoot. It was cute to watch.
Brady and I were keeping an eye out, always counting heads, but we were hanging out on a nearby bench, playing with Wavy and watching over out stroller full of rejected hoodies, shoes, and water bottles. I noticed that woman I assumed to be the little boys mom had gone over to join the fun. She seemed pretty smitten with the fact that her super cute kid had all these new friends!
And then she started taking pictures of them. As in, posing them together on a bench, motioning to make sure all of our kids were in it.
Huh.
I said to Brady “Is she taking pictures of them?” and he almost sighed, and confirmed that she was. “Well, thats not ok.”
I don’t have to tell you guys that a red flag went up. Truthfully, it was already up. Those men sitting on that bench hadn’t budged, and they weren’t interacting with the woman we thought they were with. So we were already on alert. And then this. I do NOT like to assume the worst in people, but it felt like an appropriate time to go join the group. It was lunch time anyway.
AS SOON AS I WALKED OVER TO THE KIDS, SHE LEFT. QUICKLY.
SO DID THE MEN ON THE BENCH.
We got the hell out of there.
We were there for less than 40 minutes.
I admit, I was completely shaken. We loaded the kids up into the van, and they cried and complained as we buckled them in. We had promised them a long time of play on the beach, and then a picnic. And we were not making good on that promise. We drove to find a spot to park that wasn’t at the beach, and started serving out the makings of our picnic in the van.
I flip flopped hard on what to say to the kids. I didn’t know how to talk to them about what happened without scaring the pants off of them. But if I’m being honest, losing a child is easily my biggest fear. When I see those terrifying stories of people having their children abducted, I have to look away or I’ll never sleep again. But I couldn’t be ignorant today.
So I got everyone’s attention and we discussed what had happened at the playground. How they were having so much fun, and that maybe that little boys mom was just so happy he had friends. BUT, she should not be taking their picture without asking for a parents permission. And she, as an adult, knows that. We talked about how probably she meant no harm and probably everything was totally safe. BUT, we need to be so careful, and always abide by safety rules. We talked about NEVER going anywhere with a stranger, even a really, really friendly one. We were able to reiterate a big one that we talk about a lot around here. Screaming. In our house, screaming is for emergencies only. So we said, if a stranger ever took their hand and tried to lead them away, SCREAM! As LOUD as you can, SCREAM! That is the right time!
Our kids listened intently and responded to what I was saying all along the way. They had questions, and I answered truthfully. It got into very raw territory, talking about how there are people out there who take kids, and hurt kids, and how this lady probably wasn’t one of those, BUT there are rules we have to follow. We don’t need to be afraid of everybody, but we need to be careful.
They understood, and I died on the inside. HOW is the world like this?!?! HOW do I even have to have this conversation with them??
After some thought and prayer, we hit the RCMP station, but the officer on duty was out patrolling. So we called 911 and they helped us get connected to the officer we needed. Thank you, Brady, for making that awful call.
He stepped out of the van to give the officer a breakdown of what had happened. We had seen them loading into their vehicle and Brady was with it enough to grab the plate number and make and model of the vehicle. The officer was attentive and recounted the story back to Brady to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. He said he’d do some laps around town, and go ask at a few business near where their vehicle was parked, but beyond that, a file was opened.
While Brady was on the phone with the RCMP officer, the kids told me that the lady on the beach had initiated all the pictures, and was asking their ages.
There wasn’t much more that could be done. But that was all we needed. Reassurance that they were recorded, in case anyone else reports the same thing of the same people. He’ll call if anything comes of it.
Our kids, while very understanding of the situation, were very disappointed to leave so soon. I was too. I LOVE Waskesiu, but today, I was more than happy to see it go. I was SO shaken. Still am.
We promised our sad little troop some ice cream, so we did that on our way home.
A yummy supper is in the oven already, and we have high hopes of some outside play and music videos before bed. We all wanted a fun, relaxing day and rather, we’re all kind of emotionally exhausted and rattled.
So. All that said. What is a person to do in a situation, like at a big playground, when you can headcount to your hearts content but it is physically impossible to keep an eye on every child every second? Help me, friends. I’ve thought about a buddy system, but does that put too much responsibility one the older “buddy?”
My heart is shaky. I’m rattled. I don’t know what I’d do. The “what ifs” are useless and also rampant.
