The elementary school held a “Family Reading Lunch” event, where families were invited to join their kid for lunch and reading. They do it a couple of times a year, and we usually work pretty hard to get there, even if its just one of us. Today, that was the case. Brady was home, and the other kids were lagging hard through their lunches, so I went on my own. Usually, we find a spot to sit in the hallway, but this time, we ventured outside.
(Yes, I know my hair looks fly.)
We sat together while he ate in the wind. At one point, I pulled a “Look over there” and took a bite of his sandwich that he held in his hand. He laughed so hard, he could not get it back together! It was so funny 🙂
Once he had eaten and we’d read a couple of the books he brought out with us, he took to the swings. I gave him an under-duck, which I have not done in YEARS! He was so stoked, and laughed and kicked his legs and celebrated. He was super happy.
He spent a nice little half hour in the sun together before I went home and he continued on with his day. You know I needed that sun…
He does he tan SO much nicer than I do?? He’s his fathers son, thats for sure.
But obviously, the higher priority was the one on one time, and I truly enjoyed that, too. I like that he’s still young enough that he kisses me on the lips before he bolts off to play. He told me all about his day and whats to come. We talked about track and field day, and what he’s excited about. It was good to touch base intentionally with him.
This day will always be reminiscent for me, and I feel like I’ve talked about it with friends a lot recently. And since you guys are my friends, also, I wanted to share some memories with you 🙂
On this day, June 4th, three years ago, we moved into this beautiful home!
Crazy how bang on it is, hey??
It was instantly home. This house in this town was home long before we actually moved here.
We got the keys on June 3rd. That day, we grabbed a box I had prepared and took it to the house. It had toilet paper, paper towel, hand towels, soaps, and everything we’d need accessible to the people who were coming to help with the move. It also had kids toothbrushes and stuff, in case nothing ended up getting unpacked. I felt pretty organized. Embarrassingly organized, in fact. I was so ready. Knowing we were going to move so soon after having a baby, I planned everything down to the detail. I had drawn a diagram of my kitchen, stating what I wanted where, so it didn’t take very much brain power on the day of. Yup. I was that girl.
In 2016, June 4th fell on a Saturday, and it was the parade Saturday of our towns celebration weekend. It wasn’t perfect planning, thats for sure, since we would clearly anticipate having less help from our local friends. But we had lots of other people offer to help. We had trucks and trailers and willing helpers, plus a heap of people who promised to drop by if they had time.
On the day, we woke up in our little cabin by Lawson and got the kids settled eating breakfast just in time for them to not be underfoot when our moving help showed up. Everyone started showing up at the times we had arranged, and the work began! Jerilee came with a long coffee order for everyone, and occupied the kids while I delegated work and held Solomon. Remember, he was four days old at that point. It was a surprisingly smooth operation. Once the move was in action, I drove home.
I didn’t beat anyone by much time. Just long enough to really do a lap and realize we were finally where we belonged. It. Was. Surreal. I snapped out of my daydream when the trucks all pulled up and so many willing hands began the task of getting stuff inside. Our poor friends, though. Everything was in and settled, and Brady reminded them we still had a storage unit to tackle! Whoops!
The move bustled along, and I was basically useless, but I didn’t feel a moment of guilt because there just wasn’t an opportunity! The moving never stopped, and our group was the exact right group. Everyone who was helping was motivated, efficient, and happy to be there. No one complained, they all reassured me I shouldn’t be helping, etc.
My plan had been to make pulled pork on a bun for our friends, but my mom instead offered to bring us pizza. Yet another weight lifted off my load.
As the afternoon wore on, I was more and more touched by the people of this town. These people had places to be, but SO MANY PEOPLE came through our place, even just for a little bit, and lent a hand getting our stuff settled. I remember sitting in my recliner, rocking Solly, and telling the people in my kitchen I was so embarrassed by my little drawing. They said over and over how perfect it actually was, because it wouldn’t be a scenario where I’d have to go back and rearrange everything after. And they were right.
People set up the kitchen. They arranged the food in the pantry. They put beds in the right rooms and put bedding on them. They put clothes in closets. They made my home feel like I could actually live there. Like I could get up in the morning and do what needed doing without having to dig into a bunch of boxes. When aaaaall the crazy of the day died down, Jerilee took stock of what was hanging around on our dining table and island, and moved a few things against a wall so those spaces were usable. That was literally the last piece of the puzzle leaving me feeling overwhelmed. What amazing people we have.
Our pastor and his family moved into town on the exact same day, yet they found their way over to our house somehow to see if we needed any more help! An aunt and uncle even showed up unexpectedly with big pans of cinnamon buns for us!
We were just showered with love upon our arrival, and it feels like its never really stopped.
Thanks, Cher, for this picture! We should relive it on the last day of school…
I’ve said it a lot but I’ll say it again. I go back and forth between total disbelief that we live here, and feeling like we always have. Its ours?? Its ours!!! Maybe not everyone would love to live here, but its so very perfect for us. Moving day is not a well documented day in terms of pictures, but it is such a vivid memory for me. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.
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.
