So. Many. Needles.

** Friendly preface to keep big anti-vax opinions to yourselves 😘 No disrespect to you! Lets keep it respectful across the board. If you know you HATE vaccines, feel free to move along and catch the next blog tomorrow 😃 No love lost on my part! **

Whew! Ok guys. Yesterday was HUGE. Or it sure felt huge. I can’t believe we got it all done. Some important things have been put off long enough, so we decided to go in and see how much we could get done on a Friday. And somehow, we did it ALL! It was Brady and I, along with Rowan, Solomon, and Waverly.

We started at Lawson. I needed to get another blood draw to check my hormone levels. When the lab switched from Gamma Dyna-Care to Life Labs, it made online booking possible. Thats super handy, because wait times are often LONG. But naturally, when I’m needing to go in, the online check-in option went down all across Canada. So we just had to try. And the wait wasn’t bad. I did, however, have possibly the worlds least pleasant person draw my blood. This wasn’t my first go round with her, either. She just pretends you don’t even speak. Ignores me completely. Its bizarre. You don’t have to be a social, people person to be polite. I’m just saying. Don’t be like that. But we got that done. Boom.

From there, we headed to the hospital for my other blood work. I’ve had a requisition to get some blood work done since we lost our baby in October, and being that I don’t hang out at the hospital all too often, I haven’t prioritized getting that bloodwork done. But as the results have a month wait time tacked onto them, its been long enough. I also couldn’t make an appointment there, either, so I had to just go in. And guys I got SO LOST!!! I’m sure you’re thinking “But its just on the main level.” So I know that now, except when you look it up, it says fifth floor, above the old fetal assessment entrance. I double checked the requisition itself, and sure enough, it confirmed it was on the fifth floor. So I went there, figuring things had moved around maybe since the whole maternity ward moved over to the new children’s hospital. The fifth floor was pretty eerie, now that no recovering mothers were hanging out in there. There were all kinds of signs saying NO patient rooms, NO exits this way, etc. I finally asked someone and she pointed me towards some doors, saying I was in the right place. The “right” doors had a big stop sign, saying no entry, biohazard, etc. She reassured me I could go. So I did. And you better believe I was met with a man and a women in full blue hazmat type suits, telling me I couldn’t be there. Turns out I was at the actual test lab – where blood is taken to get tested, not where its taken from your arm. I was somewhat mortified and apologized profusely. I was reassured I was not the first person to make this mistake and likely wouldn’t be the last. Where, then, do I belong, I asked. They looked at me like I was a bit stupid and asked “Do you know where Starbucks is?” Yes, folks, I know RUH has a Starbucks, but at that moment, I had no idea how to get to it. But I figured it out eventually, once the elevators took me back to the main level and I looked for the little green mermaid. There she was, right next to a big sign with a big drop on it. Blood drop. I could’ve hugged the lady who took my requisition and confirmed I was in the right place. Whew! Finally! I waited maybe fifteen minutes and my name was called. I confirmed my name and birthdate, like you’re supposed to, and then the woman decided to take blood from the same spot my previous test had been done. And she knew it. I had to remove the tape and cotton so she could use it. Weird, right? She “didn’t want a challenge on a Friday” so she opted for the east spot, even though it was already poked. Anyway, I was just so happy I got it done finally. Now we wait a month.

That was a long, kind of frustrating stop, but I was relieved to have it over with. AND there was still time to hit the walk-in vaccine clinic at Westwinds!

So Waverly is 16 months old and we still haven’t gotten her her one year shots. And Rowan still doesn’t have his four year old booster, and he turned four in February!!! Yikes! Better late than never, right?? So we got to the clinic early and put our names in the queue. The kids sat really well, but didn’t have to wait for too terribly long before we were called in all together. The nurse who was paired with us was just amazing. SUPER sweet to the kids. She right away said something about Rowan being a girl, and when I corrected her, she was super graceful about it. She complimented Rowan’s beautiful hair and he giggled about it and wasn’t put off. It was one of the more seamless interactions in that way. We had decided that Rowan would have his vaccine first, and then if he got really upset about it, they could haul out and I could finish with Wavy. Our nurses brought up to us that the flu shots are available now, and asked if we wanted them. We hadn’t previously discussed it, but we both said yes, we’d like our kids to be vaccinated for the flu. (DON’T EAT ME!) I commented that I wish I had thought of it before, I’d have put Solomon on the list, and the nurse right away grabbed a form and gave us time to fit him in too ☺️ It was really nice of her to just roll with it.

So Rowan went first, and as you might imagine, he didn’t really sell it. 😬 I had tipped the nurses off that he was probably going to be pretty loud about it, and we said together that we’d just do one after the other, fast, and then be done. So it was a pretty dramatic 20 seconds but he lived through it, and got a sticker.

Solly was understandably concerned about his needle, and he was crying before it even started. Again, our nurse just blitzed it and was super loving the whole time. Solly was a sweaty mess, he was so worked up, but he recovered quickly thereafter. Brady took the boys out right afterwards to wait the fifteen minutes out in the waiting room. There was promise of timbits waiting.

Waverly was not happy with all the crying and was a little off her game, but that poor little girl needed FOUR shots! 😩 Poor dear! The nurse and I decided what would go where, and I got Wavy all snuggled up and we started. She was very upset, but she didn’t fight. She leaned back and cried, and we blitzed her needles. As soon as it was over, I sat her up and the nurse passed her a bell, and she was quiet and settled. I dressed her and she was tolerated me, but that was all. She was annoyed.

We saw ourselves out and went to sit out in an outer waiting area for fifteen minutes. Brady and the boys had waited theirs already and went to drive to get some timbits while Wavy and I waited. And it worked out! Those a fifteen minutes were a nice little grace period for Wavy to be back to her old self and want to wander and play.

She did great. They all did. No reactions, no lasting upset, nothing. I was SO proud of them!! Between all of us, we got NINE pokes today! Thats a LOT.

Aaaaand there’s more to come. More flu shots for the rest of us. Double up flu shots for Rowan and Solly. Wavy’s 18 month vaccines. Not to mention waiting for results from all the blood work. Its over, but not over at all. Ah well. Yesterday, at least, we basically crushed it. Win!

Alright, friends. If we didn’t see you trick or treating this year, here’s the skinny.

Dekker was going to be pizza. He had already decided. He was pizza in grade one, and it was hilarious, and loved it. So he wanted to be that again. But, in digging through our pile of dress up clothes, he came across a skeleton costume. He was SOLD. He made a mask to go with it, but that got broken at school :/ He was pretty discouraged, so before we went out, I scratched together some dark grey liquid lipstick, some liners, and some eye shadows, and helped him do up his face. It was a pretty juvenile special effects makeup job, haha, but he was thrilled! 💀

Laela was digging through our costumes and was trying to princess dress after princess dress. For whatever reason, they weren’t hitting the mark for her. She didn’t care for the animal costumes or anything along those lines, either. She tried on the muscle man costume and really rocked it! But she said it was for boys. I told her women can have muscles too, but she wasn’t feeling it. And then she dug out the fireman costume, and that was it. That’s what she wanted to be. She came home from school saying someone had made fun of her costume, and that it was for boys. I told her that was too bad, and that women could absolutely fight fires! I started to list off all the things that are stereotypical boy things that women were perfectly capable of doing, too. When I said “Women can be…” Laela interrupted me and said “Strong!” I LOVED that!!! Before we tricked or treated, I dusted some dark eye shadow on her face to look all sooty and she was good to go! 👩‍🚒

Rowan opted to be a big fuzzy tiger this year. Last year he had wanted nothing to do with a costume, and this year he was INTO it! He picked it almost immediately and it was simply decided. No ifs ands or buts about it. He would be a tiger. He even let me make his face up! It was pretty smeared by the end of it, but he got a little brown nose, big brows, some cheek dots, and whiskers. He was super happy with his costume, though he ditched the hood almost immediately. His hair was wild enough. It still worked. 🐯

Solomon went for the other soft animal onesie we had on hand. He chose to be a giraffe. And it was a good thing he dressed warm underneath because that thing was it’s own wedgie, hahaha! It was definitely too short in the body, but the snuggly layers underneath made him comfortable. He was not, however, comfortable with the hood. He wanted to wear it, but it made life getting in and out of the van pretty challenging. He couldn’t ever see where he was going. By the end of it, Brady was carrying him more than he was walking on his own. And not even because he was tired of walking, but always holding the big giraffe nose up and out of the way. But it was terribly cute. He was happy to be cozy and to be a giraffe. 🦒

Waverly has fewer costumes to choose from, but the ONE that fit her this year is my FAVORITE costume we own. She was SO excited as the kids dug through the tubs and bags of dress up clothes, but when I handed this one to her, she was SOLD. She screamed and shook it madly at us to put it on her. Thats how she became the sweetest little pineapple child for the day. I tried to put makeup on her face, and she tolerated it nicely, but then smeared it like crazy and I ended up wiping it off. She didn’t need any extra glitz. She was SO cute all on her own, and a very popular trick or treater, if I do say so myself. 🍍

A group picture was next to impossible, but you can’t say I didn’t try. Haha!

We left right around 5:00, after a quick, easy supper and stayed out until shortly after 7:00. The kids did SO well! A couple of different times, they’d slip in slush or step in a deep puddle, and everyone was able to rally and keep moving. No one melted down even once! Rowan got close once, which was really too bad. There’s a house near ours that had a really startling decoration last year, and it really really scared the kids. The kids started heading to that house, and they almost turned around because they hated it SO much the year before. But Dekker and Laela pressed forward and the spider didn’t jump at them. Rowan wanted SO badly to join them but he was so scared, and that upset him a lot. But, true story, I hated that thing too, and I told him we’d still hit a couple of houses, and he wasn’t missing the last one. That seemed to help a bit.

Our last area to hit is our own little house clump, so we picked up our neighbour and her son, and we did the house clump together!! It was fun! Same time next year, guys??

It was all terribly cute, and a lot of fun. And so so SO WET! The kids faired so well. I was really pleased with the creative treats so many people gave, including things that suited Waverly! There was a lot of full sized candy/chocolate out there, which is always fun! We have a big stack of fruit to go, and lots of chips and fruit snacks. A ton of chocolate and candy as well, of course, but we’ll help the kids with it 😉 We loved the trunk or treat event set up by the churches, and the people who always go out of their way for our little family, with treat bags, or extra things beyond candy. You all know who you are.

We love our people, and we love the fun that is Halloween in our little town.

It’s Halloween! We were not quick on the draw this year at all, and only just yesterday did we figure out what everyone would be for the day. Rather than the kids deciding ahead of time, they kind of already knew that they could choose from whatever we had in our dress up clothes. Last year, we were gifted an amazing amount of costumes, masks, and hats. Not too long ago, someone else offered us a garbage bag of dress up clothes their children had grown out of. We are officially stocked up with fun things to dress up in, and because we all knew that, none of us really thought too far past that.

Thankfully, everyone found something they liked. It was fun to see what they gravitated towards this year as opposed to last year. Last year was a similar scene, where they chose from what we had. Dekker flip flopped hard and got really angry for a bit there, but eventually settled on a lion, I think mostly because it was a cozy onesie. It helped that Solly picked the little version 😉

Laela had trouble picking between princess dresses and eventually settled on a bright white, bridal selection. She felt very fancy and girly.

Rowan was straight up ticked that he needed to dress up at all! I felt kind of bad, honestly, because, did he actually have to dress up?? I guess not. But that is the name of the game for trick or treating. So what do we do?? We ended up giving him a few options and he willingly chose between them. Later on, Brady and I kicked ourselves for not giving him the opportunity to actually dress up, like in dress clothes! He would have been ALL over that!! But, ah well. Missed opportunity, and we had a fireman instead. That turned out to be awesome, because the fire chief picked him up and put him on the firetruck for a photo opp! And he only got mistaken for a girl once! Lol!

Solly was still at an age where he did pretty much whatever we asked of him, and Wavy happily complied with the butterfly costume we put her in. She was less fond of holding still for the pink dots to be painted on her face, but she lived 😉 They were super duper cute.

And they will be again!! Dekker was sold on his costume instantly. Laela flip flopped quite a bit and eventually settled somewhere I never would have expected! Rowan saw one costume and knew immediately that it was for him. Same with Solly. And Wavy just wanted to dress up. When I selected basically the only costume that would fit her, she shrieked and shrieked to wear it.

Aaaaand she’s been wearing it ever since. She wore it yesterday for the remainder of the evening. This morning, she bucked breakfast hard. We thought maybe she wasn’t feeling well, but as soon as we gave up and let her down from the table, she made a beeline for the couch filled with costumes and screamed for us to put her in her costume. Its only come off for naps, and she immediately wanted it back on.

Yes, I’m being a bit of a jerk and not telling you all what they’re going to be, because that will be tomorrows post, complete with pictures and details of the actual evening. Be assured they’re going to be some of the cutest little ones out there. We have a solid mix of genres. No cool matching costumes for our family this year! Maybe someday 🙂 But this year is already all set up! I’m looking forward to it!

Now if only Waverly had napped longer….. Wish us luck!

I went to begin some knitting this morning and realized I’m out of grey. OUT. Of GREY!!! I love grey! When did I use it all up?? Crazy, right?? Well its crazy for me. Everyone else like grey, too, right? Please reassure me that everyone likes grey…

On that note, I’m getting really excited, albeit a little overwhelmed, as I look at my list of gifts I have get to gather for Christmas. So many of them are homemade! And I LOVE that! I hope one day to have a fully homemade/thrifted Christmas in my home 🙂 But that’s down the road. Yes, if you know me at all, you know many of the gifts I make are knitted or crocheted, but that’s not all this year. I’m really excited to see how it all comes together. But, with that said, I’m out of a lot of important materials. Whoops! But my grey didn’t all go missing or anything. I’ve used it already, for good things! So its a win.

Brady has an afternoon of errands planned today, and he’s going to grab me some yarn while he’s at it. A handful of greys, plus some blue, coral, dark green, red, aaaaand a fun mixed up one that I’ve been eyeing for a while and finally have a use for! Eek!

More importantly, Brady is getting the winter tires put on the bus. That the was the true motivation behind the errands today. The yarn was an added bonus. As well as the picking up of a part for our broken vacuum and a piece of hardware to complete our laundry area. Woot!

Also a fun thing about his errands – Brady is taking Rowan on a little date. You may or may not know, but Rowan still naps. Yes, he’s 4.5 years old, and I can assure you he still needs it. Every day that we put him down at nap time, he sleeps. Solly is closer to not needing naps anymore than Rowan is. But we’ve been having some struggles with Ro in the recent months and I’m hoping some special one-on-one time, not napping, will help him feel grown up and responsible, and maybe be a positive thing. Even just for today. If nothing else, he’ll likely sleep well tonight not having had his nap. So there’s that. He was SO excited to go with Brady!

Today has been filled with sound. Dishwasher has gone twice, laundry is going, and there is constant music playing in the background. Wavy dances and dances, with her arms up in the air, spinning and spinning, and stopping for twerk breaks. Not even kidding. The laundry will likely run forever because I still cannot get the chlorine scent out of my laundry. Please, friends. HOW do I get antiseptic smell out of my clothes?!?! I have washed them with baking sod and vinegar, and its not even denting it. And this is my fussy laundry that I cannot afford to just pitch. Please help me!!

Wish me luck on these things, friends. That I manage to make everything I want to make. That my house isn’t in shambles every day for the rest of my life. Lol! All that good stuff! I hope you all have successful productive days, too!

Brady went outside to get some jobs done yesterday afternoon. Levelling some dirt on our front yard, emptying his van of some garbage and refilling it with tools, blowing out the hoses, etc. He invited the kids to come play outside while he worked, and I was SO surprised that they hesitated! Like, I don’t blame them, because its winter, and that’s the worst, but they LOVE being outside! It took very little convincing, though, and they very willingly joined him outside. And they were glad they did 😀 A bunch of happy kids!

I, however, was a less willing participant, and spent that hour or two in the house, listening to music and hanging with Waverly. 

It could’ve been a lovely bonding time, except I think Wavy was a little jealous…

I laughed SO HARD when I saw this picture later on! She didn’t cry or fuss or anything, but she was glued to the window for a good bit there, and she was super happy when her siblings were back inside. Once we’re all acclimated to winter weather, we’ll have to get her out there to play. I bet she’d be the favourite prop to drag around the yard in a sled. Because, while she walks great, I can almost guarantee she’ll be useless once she has snowpants on, hahaha! 

I secretly can’t wait to see it though. In pictures, of course, where the snow isn’t actually touching me at all…

Maybe it’s the snow. Maybe it’s the headache, and the impending cold. Maybe its the day rough evening yesterday. Maybe its the cold. Maybe its the lack of coffee so far this morning. But for whatever reason, I feel down today.

It’s been three weeks since my D&C. I’m still bleeding. Did you know that? It’s just spotting, but I’m pretty over it. Especially considering I bled for about a week and a half before I had the D&C from the medication I took to avoid the D&C altogether. Whatever. It doesn’t matter, and its slowed way down, but I’m done with it. Its been a month. The only time I bleed this long is postpartum, and in those cases, I have a baby to overshadow the discomfort that comes along with it. Not this time.

I had my HCG checked a week after my D&C. It was nicely down from the previous 55,000 and was sitting at 1,700. Great progress, but not at the <5 I need it to be. So we continue to wait for my body to return to “normalcy.” Whatever that is.

I also need to get to RUH soon to get some bloodwork done. Genetic tests. The OBGYN I met at the hospital was really wonderful and straight forward with me. She encouraged me to get the bloodwork done for myself, more than anything, so I feel like I’ve done everything I can on my end. The genetic testing is a “normal” next step after three miscarriages. But the OB brought me to her perspective, where I have five children, and very likely have no genetic issues. Which is good news, but annoying to have no answers, yet again. Like always. Ugh.

So one day I’ll hopefully be organized enough to get in to the hospital lab to get that test done, and then wait a month or so for results. That being said, the last time I had bloodwork that was supposed to take a month for results, I got results in EIGHT DAYS! Let’s pray for that instead!

I’m sorry for the pity party. I don’t want to be a whiner. Seasons passing is odd. My children aging is odd. And no joke – passing up the formula sale at Costco is odd. I never pass that sale up. I’m always either bottle feeding a baby or pregnant with the next one. And I’m currently neither, and passing up the sale I eagerly wait for, as it only comes around twice a year.

I’m in a new boat. The “no babies here” boat. And that’s fine for many who are in that next chapter of their life. But I didn’t choose to be here. I know many others haven’t either. Many of you know my grief and understand why my heart hurts this way. I know the day I am done having babies will be a big change, and I am already praying it’ll be somewhat positive and I’ll be confident in it. But I’m currently not confident that it’s all over. Quite the contrary, in fact. Yet, I’m in the baby-free boat.

I hate this stupid boat. I LOVE the people in it, but I don’t belong here.

It’s been a really, really nice morning <3 I spent it chatting with my neighbour over coffee while we watched Waverly play. It was a first coffee date for us – the first of many, I hope – and we had a really time. Christmas music played as we chatted kids, family, plans, work, etc. Wavy didn’t last, unfortunately. She was a little on the fussier side, as she rubbed her ears and cried on and off. She went down for a super early nap in the late morning.

My mom came and joined us, and as lunch approached, my neighbour headed back home to her husband and son. My mom asked if she could help with any lunch set up and I realized I needed to come up with an actual lunch plan. It was already after noon! Whoops!

I settled on waffle grilled cheese. Have you guys had that? It goes like this.

Make a waffle in the waffle maker. Once its done, open the waffle maker and put cheese (sliced or shredded off the block) on half of the waffle. Fold the waffle in half to sandwich the cheese, and lean the waffle maker closed until the cheese melts. Boom. Waffle grilled cheese.

These things are ridiculously delicious. They’re like butter. My goodness.

We all ate lunch, except Wavy, and the nappers napped. As it tends to happen, once everyone was down, Wavy woke up. While Brady and I played cards with my mom, Wavy ate her waffle grilled cheese. And that aaaaall on its own could be a blog post.

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It was pretty much adorable, and while it doesn’t look so appetizing here, I think Waverly would vouch that her lunch was delicious.

My mom left after a couple of card games, and Wavy couldn’t fathom her leaving. She kept reaching up and grasping with her hands, wanting up. They had a really nice snuggle before mom hauled out.

The afternoon will be super chill and restful, or at least thats the plan. Maybe I’ll knit. Maybe we’ll finally pick out the kids Halloween costumes from our dress-up clothes. Maybe the music will keep playing all day long, now that we were gifted Spotify. Either way, its going to be a lovely end to the day and start to the week.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting carpet for a lot of reasons. One reason was more unconventional than the rest, but I admit, it was towards the top of my list. And last night, we got into it.

Yesterday, once the little kids were in bed, Brady, Cher, and I went downstairs with ALL of the Lego, ALL the old instruction books, and some treats. Dekker came along for the first half hour, as he has a later bedtime than the others, and he helped us get started. We dumped the Lego out onto a sheet and we began the work of breaking everything apart. Everything. We also made a pile of tires/wheels, and one of Lego guys. (Does anyone elses kids disassemble the guys?? Yellow. Hands. Everywhere.) Dekker helped as long as we let him, and was disappointed when bedtime came, but he’s such a good kid and understood. Once he was off to bed, clicked on the Office, episode one of season one, and got things moving.

I separated the books out and found which ones went together. Brady did another task before he joined us for the Lego. And Cher began the gruelling job of separating colors.

Brady and I each grabbed a set and got to work. Cher opted for separating rather than building, and once I had completed my set, I passed it to her with a ziploc bag, where she broke it up once again and bagged it. Boom. One set done.

I gave Brady the biggest set to work on so he didn’t compete his in the one sitting. Considering we’re sifting through maybe 10-ish sets, I won’t heckle him on it too much 😉

We probably worked (played) until 11:30, maybe midnight, when we hit and wall and no one could find pieces anymore. It was time to pack it in. Plus we were all completely exhausted, haha! It was so worth it, though. I had so much fun playing (organizing) Lego, watching The Office, and drinking vanilla Coke. (Anyone know where I can get cans of that stuff? Because I need more.) I’m also really excited to present my kids with these sets all separated back out. In the beginning of their Lego days, they’d build the set once, and then we’d just bust it up and play with the pieces. The kids are getting so much better at Lego and enjoy the sets so much more, I think they’ll love this! Its going to be so worth the work. Aaaaand if I’m wrong and its not, at least we had fun!

I had so much fun this afternoon. I worked on a gift for the homemade gift exchange, flopped it, chucked it, and worked on it some more. I was disappointed at first, but was able to make it work even better than my first run!

While I did that, Cher worked on a project, too. She overtook the island and carved…

Brock.

Brock is hilarious and happy and well loved by his family. He’s a little old, perhaps, based on the security of his teeth staying in his mouth, but we’ll do our best not to beat him up too hard. He seems happy to be here.

Was a fun productive day of projects that we both enjoyed doing and didn’t have to do. It was fun! A good way to spend a Friday. And there is so much more fun to be had! I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.

Not so long ago, Rowan didn’t care to color or draw or anything like that. No way. He’d sit at the island and watch the others, and at the most, he’d scribble or draw a couple of lines and call his masterpiece complete. Its changed recently into crude drawings of “vehicles” that are basically just squares. But just the other day, he discovered our book that shows step-by-step instructions of how to draw animals. And wouldn’t you know – he’s pretty great at it!! This was his first animal.

Pretty awesome, hey?? He was SO pleased, as was I. Its escalated from there, and sometimes I don’t actually know what he’s drawn, but he’s always super proud. And really, I can usually figure it out. Its mountains above where he started! But we al start somewhere, I suppose.

He’s getting braver to try new things, and its almost always geared towards the crafty side of things.

Maybe its a pro of him being left handed 😉 I hear those kids tend to be extra creative. Now that he’s started, he is such a natural!!

Great job, Rowan!! Keep practicing! Its paying off!