I haven’t felt very overwhelmed with my kids in the way of busyness. We keep things pretty low key over ere, and we like it. It works well for us. I’ve had a busy week so far, and its going to be busy for the next few days as well, specifically in the evenings. And for the first time, that I can remember, I’m feeling like there are just not enough minutes in a day.

To be fair, I require many minutes in my day to be restful. I need rest once in a while. So I don’t like to go go go every day of the week. Its hard for me.

So. Its Wednesday. I haven’t done dishes probably since Monday. I put a load into the dishwasher today, and it wasn’t even half of what was waiting to be washed. So the kitchen is still a mess.

Laundry hasn’t been touched all week.

I won’t be able to be at Dekker’s pumpkin carving event at school tomorrow.

*remember to send pumpkin to school tomorrow*

*remember to send carving kid to school tomorrow*

*remember to put Dekker in costume tomorrow*

I really need to get to the city soon. Today, Brady is going to pick up some costumes that we’re borrowing from some family (THANK YOU!!) but there is more to be done. Formula is on sale, so we have to jump on that. I need a few things for Saturday, which I’ll talk to you guys about more on Sunday. I have to actually put a costume together for Laela, which will be super easy, but still needs to be done. Most of those things can be done in one shot, but I so badly want to be home today!! Rather than loading everybody up right now, skipping naps, putting on my big girl pants and getting stuff done, I’m waiting until Brady is off work and making him meet me so I can do some running into stores without all the kids.

Still this week, I have all evenings filled (except this evening – YAY!) and I want to carve pumpkins with the kids, put together Halloween costumes, and we’ve been talking about test driving a different vehicle. Also, Brady REALLY wants to put up our outdoor lights before more snow flies.

As I said, for the first time ever, I feel like there isn’t enough time in a day. Part of that is just because of how we do our life. We like to rock a relaxed pace, and we like to do things together. I want Brady there for pumpkin carving! I don’t want to just do it in the day without him, and I know he wants to be there too! But I’m gone all evening, so what else are we supposed to do??

I guess its good that the problem is that we want to spend more time together than we’ve been able to recently. It could definitely be worse.

I love my family. That is all.

This morning, I took Dekker to school. We walked hand in hand from the van to the school, and ran into one of his friends. We’ll call him Jeff Foxworthy, because this kid is funny, and so is Jeff Foxworthy.

Hey, Dekker!
Oh, haha, hi Jeff Foxworthy!
*opens his jacket* IIIIIIII got a bowtie!
Hahaha! That’s really funny, Jeff Foxworthy.

Interaction over. It was quick, and hilarious. Jeff Foxworthy did, in fact, have a bowtie, and was proud of it. More than I loved his hysterical fashion sense, I loved watching Dekker interact with friends. From a distance, I didn’t know which kid was greeting Dekker, but instead of Dekker’s previously normal “Uh…I’m shy,” he greeted him back. By name, too! I don’t know about you guys, but calling people by name always made me feel more vulnerable as a kid. Sometimes, even now. So I really loved seeing Dekker calling back to his friend, by name, because he was obviously comfortable. I also really love that he’s not self conscious about holding hands with me. Zero hangups with that so far, and I’ll hold that warm little hand as long as he’ll let me!

When I brought him to his classroom, he let go of my hand and took off inside. I ducked in to just make sure all was in order, and then called him back over to me. His first reaction was “I’m taking my backpack off, just a minute!” But then he ran over to me and we had a quick hug and kiss before he bolted back in to be with his friends. I love knowing that he’s happy to go to school. I told him this morning that his teacher was away for the day, so they’d have a different teacher, and he wasn’t phased in the slightest. Isn’t that great??? He has come SO FAR.

I think my favorite part of drop off is watching him run to be with the other kids, now that he does it on his own rather than cowering beside me.

My favorite part of pick up is easy. There is a group of us who wait in the hallway – parents, older siblings, etc – and the kids wait, totally bundled up, just inside the door. Usually a couple of kids try to open the door, but someone else always closes it up until the bell rings. Tidal wave!!! The hallway instantly fills with kids, kindergarteners included, who try to wade their way across the hallway. Dekker is never chomping at the bit to leave, so I hang back and wait for him to surface. He always does eventually, and breaks out into a nice big smile when he sees me. Then, he’ll do something goofy, like turn around and walk backwards to me, or something like that. When he finally gets to me – ready for the best part? – he reaches to give me a hug and just slumps on my shoulder. Arms tight around my neck, head down, all snuggled in, and he doesn’t move for a solid ten seconds. “Are you tired?” I asked him. “Ya…” is all I get back. When we do separate, he is smiling. I can always tell he had a great day, based on that hug. And that slump. I LOVE that part SO MUCH!

While I’m anticipating pick up, there is still much to be done around here, so off I go! Have a great afternoon, all!

I know I just updated everyone on Solly’s stats a week or so ago, but he keeps changing!!

We very recently moved him into 9 months sleepers, and they are already too short on him! Eek! The fleecy 9 month ones are still long enough, since they tend to be a touch taller than the cotton ones, but I’m pretty positive we’ll have to crack our 12 month jammies any day now.

Another new development around here is that Solly always wants to stand. And since I can’t hold him in a standing position every moment of the day…

The jumperoo is out!!! And its FUN! Solly doesn’t last too terribly long in it, but thats mostly because his head is huge and his neck is strengthening. If he’s on his tummy on the floor, or on our lap, he always has the wiggle room to lay his head down for a rest. Thats not as easy in the jumperoo so thats a new aspect to the toy. But when he’s just freshly in there, he LOVES it!

The other kids are also pretty enthusiastic about it, which can be both nice and incredibly overwhelming for Solomon. But they’re all figuring each other out. It was the same when Ro moved into the jumperoo.

All things considered, this kid is getting big FAST. I don’t remember giving him permission to be a toddler yet…

The last week or two have been so busy with Bradys work, and with other things going on in our life, and the week ahead is the same story. I’m feeling some anxiety about it today, to be honest. Brady and I have talked frankly about it, and we’re basically just coming to terms with the fact that we might not see each other too much. While I love my husband, and he will always be my partner in life and the one I choose, I really really like him, also, and I like spending time with him. The idea that I’ll barely see him this week makes me sad. I don’t like feeling sad.

I’m hoping the crazy busy schedule will peter out after this week. Don’t get me wrong. I am THRILLED that Brady still has so much work. We certainly feel blessed and are SO grateful that the builder Brady works for is still moving full force. It is truly miraculous. But I miss my husband.

There are a few extra things up this week that are bigger than our usual stuff, and there is more pressure resting on them. Prayers are appreciated!

So this is our ONE restful day in these three weeks, and we’re spending it quietly, at home, putting up some Christmas lights I know, I know. “But its before Remembrance Day!!!” I know. But I need some “happy,” and this is how we’re getting it.

Chicken wraps for supper! Everything has been chopped and ready since noon. Yay!

Brady is working today. He doesn’t often work Saturdays, but when he does, it just feels like a super duper long week. I felt like we need to do something that was less weekdayish, so we ducked out for round two of shopping. We got most everything done yesterday, but there were a few things that we needed from Walmart, so I took the four kidlets out for a quick shop this morning.

For all of you beautiful, complimentary people who commented on my picture yesterday, be assured it was tough getting out the door this morning! I often love the process of getting everyone out the door, because I love dressing them in their cute little clothes, and watching them struggle (lol!) with their shoes and jackets. But today, Solly wailed through it. I can handle a crying baby, no sweat, but add to that Dekker and Rowan running laps around us (literally) and Laela “not waaaaaanting” the clothes I picked for her, I felt in very far over my head. But we did make it out, albeit choppier than usual. As soon as we started driving, everyone was happy.

We had a short list for Walmart but it included pumpkins. We’ve never does jack o lanterns before, but we’re going to this year!! Have you ever tried to pull those big pumpkins out of the bottom of the bin while wear a baby?! It is HARD. I highly suggest that, if you see someone in this position, offer to help them out! Hahaha! We got it done, but not without my shirt getting covered in pumpkin goo and making my baby cry. But we all recovered quickly and began the rest of our shop.

It was a pretty seamless shopping trip. We snagged a couple of the things we couldn’t find at Superstore yesterday, some pumpkin carving tools, work socks for Brady, etc etc etc. The kids got lots of looks and greetings, and Rowan specifically is SO charming when people talk to him. He puts his chin down a little, looks at them through his hair, and smiles HUGE. Its super duper adorable.

I’ll admit that I felt pretty wiped out after Walmart, even though it was just one place, so I drove further into the city to the single drive-thru Starbucks so I didn’t have to get out of my van, hahaha! I got my enormous drink, because “go big and go home.” Thats how the saying goes, right??

We made it home, and I put Rowan down for a nap right away. He was so ready. Then I fed Solly and put him down. The kids requested a popcorn picnic, out of nowhere, so its a “popcorn and granola bars for lunch” kind of afternoon. Mom win or fail? I’m going with win, lol!

This evening, we’re going to my parents for supper to celebrate Bradys birthday. Its a little late, but we were in Winnipeg for his actual birthday, and we haven’t had a celebration here yet. Should be a really good evening to wrap up a nice day

 

** Unrelated to everything, you may or may not have seen on Facebook, but I’m on the hunt for your old, broken, throw away crayons! If you have a crayon graveyard you’d be willing to let me sift through and steal from, please get in touch!!

Solly finally found his way from his back to his tummy today! And he was SO impressed with himself! Probably because my mom and I were super enthusiastic about it…

He is SO CUTE! XD

He’s been working at it for a while now, but as anyone who has ever watched a baby try to roll over knows, he kept getting hung up on his arms. Well today he finally did it!

Solly is about 4.5 months, and while I know lots and lots of babies roll earlier, ours never do. They’re always 5+ months by the time they find their way onto their tummies. Especially in Sollys case, our kids always bring him toys, including the one that hangs over him, so he never has a real need to go anywhere. But this excites me Don’t bother with the “Now you’re in for it” comments, I’m more than familiar with what comes next. I personally LOVE the stage when they start moving! My single roadblock with that this time around is that our front stairs don’t really accommodate a baby gate, so we’ll have to figure something out in the next couple of months. But I’m not worried. I love milestones! Great work, Solly man!

 

*** As an aside, I really want to thank everyone that was excited with me about receiving the first round of books in the mail. I really wish you could actually hold them in your hands and feel the excitement too. They just feel so real, and so good! Eek!! Thanks for the support <3

I have been saving posts for quite some time now, and putting them into a book format on a site that is centred around printing books at a reasonable price for people who want to be authors and sell their works. I don’t specifically have that desire, but I do love an affordable option that I can make work for myself. I ordered the first four books back in September and have been waiting on pins and needles for their arrival.

And then they didn’t come! Customer service had reassured me halfway through when I learned my order couldn’t be tracked that they would arrived on or before October 13th. On October 18th, I finally emailed customer service. Within the hour, they had refunded our shipping costs, which was a lovely and welcomed surprise. The customer service representative wrote me an email and said to notify him if I haven’t received my books by November 1st. While I wasn’t thrilled about waiting another two weeks, I had read in the FAQs that, if the books just never showed up and got lost in the mail, they’d be reprinted free of charge. So I took a breath and decided I was fine to wait.

AND THEY CAME THE NEXT DAY!

I am TOTALLY smitten with these books! I don’t want to be super self involved or anything, but it feels incredible to have them in my hands I know I don’t have “I wrote a book, or four” status, but years of work and memories went into these books, and now, having them tangible and in front of me, its all worth it. The quality isn’t half bad either!

This has definitely added to my motivation to keep saving posts. Not that I had stopped! I have another book completed and ready, and I’m partway through another. I’ve just been taking my sweet time. While taking my time is completely within my rights, I pretty much blitzed through these ones that I now have, and I’m very eager for the rest!

So YAY!!!!! You guys should seriously come see these. They’re just incredible. And they’re HUGE. The box of four weighed over 11 lbs!! Thank goodness we didn’t have to pay shipping, hahaha! Win!

It has been SO nice to have such large laundry machines in our new house! Our past set was fine, but this is WAY better. Obviously, we can fit more into each load, and with six people in one house, we go through a LOT of laundry. Today, I will give you my laundry list (see what I did there?) of first world problems pertaining to having humungous laundry machines.

To offer some perspective, I’ll tell you about a specific load I did today. I washed all of the kids clothes today, and it was a good full load. It included 26 shirts, 10 sweaters/hoodies, 15 pairs of pants, 29 pairs of jammies, 22 pairs of socks (and two that don’t match) and 8 pairs of underwear. That all fit in one load! Pretty impressive, am I right?

The washer takes forever! I probably put two heaping hampers worth of clothing into the machine, so I can’t really blame it, but it washes for over an hour. The dryer takes EVEN LONGER! Like a SOLID hour and half, often more. I think the dryer bugs me more than the washer does. Firstly, the digital timer thing will tell me there are ten minutes left to dry, and when I go to check it ten minutes later, it say there are thirty minutes left. It can’t make up its mind! I think part of that is that, with so much clothing, the lint trap fills up halfway through the dryer cycle, and it doesn’t dry as efficiently. Another pet peeve is that, my two hampers of laundry are all fluffed to perfection, and I cannot come even remotely close to fitting them back into those two hampers. This is a VERY small problem, but it annoys me, nonetheless. You know when you overfill the dryer and even when something is dry and freshly removed from the dryer, its still wrinkled? Ya, thats all of my kids pants. For some reason, they’re back for that. Sigh.

I know, I know. “Hailey, do smaller loads.” I think I shall.

So I’ve decided! I’m going to break up the kids laundry by rooms. A load for Rowan and Dekker, and a load for Laela and Solly. That should eliminate some annoyances. Don’t lump is all together just because I can.

What better way to celebrate getting home safe than getting up to date on vaccines??

Solomon had his four month shots this morning, and then a regular check up to follow. I was anticipating the appointments for a few reasons. I love knowing his stats. I love not being super far behind on vaccinations. (We are still catching Rowan up) And I love the reassurance that he’s doing great. I also wanted to talk to Dr. Guselle about the appointment I had a couple months back, where I came in for reflux medication and came out feeling foolish and minimized. I obviously was not looking forward to the pain that comes from needles, but the rest, I was chomping at the bit for.

Solly is still a big little boy! He weighs 18 lbs 2 oz, in the 85%. He is 2′ 2.5″ tall, right on the 97%, and I didn’t catch his actual head circumference, but it was off the charts. I’m not surprised by any of that, honestly. He is doing all of the things he’s supposed to be doing – smiling, babbling, reaching and batting, grabbing, etc. He doesn’t roll yet but he sure tries! Plus, I haven’t really been thinking about it, and he lays on the floor and plays with hanging toys a lot, so he has no need to roll! Now that I’ve figured that out, he’ll be rolling in no time, I’m sure. He took his shots well. Cried, and was comforted nice and quickly. Laela and Rowan were very well behaved the whole time, and each got to pick a new toothbrush.

There was a longer time between shots and his appointment with his doctor than we expected, so Brady took Laela and Rowan out to the van, and I waited with Solly. He was getting a bit loud, so I walked him around a bit and he cashed out. I lay him down in his seat and we waited quietly together.

We got called in eventually, and they opted to weigh and measure him again. Cue my eye roll. I had all of the numbers in my head, but she didn’t want to convert pounds to kilos, so I had to undress Solly, wake him up, and lay him on a hard scale, which he did NOT appreciate. It was too bad. But the nurse was quite smitten with him, and he was nice and smiley back to her, so he perked up. Once everything had been done, he just lay out on the bed in the exam room and kicked and played while we waited for Dr. Guselle.

It was refreshing to see her on her own today. Solly stood on my lap and flapped and drooled while we visited. She commented on how much he looks like Dekker, which I LOVED. I know she sees a lot of people, but when it already would have been nice to hear that he looks like the crew, she knows that he looks MUCH more like Dekker did at this age! Really, really nice.

She asked lots of questions, and checked him all out. He didn’t fuss or fight with any of it. He even smiled when she had to check his throat, which almost never ever happens, but is so much better than using a tongue depressor and having him end up gagging.

When his reflux came up in conversation, she seemed really disappointed to hear that the appointment had gone so badly. She looked up who I had spoken to and was really surprised. But when I told her all that had been said, she said “You must have felt belittled, and discounted,” which are both words I used to describe it all when it had happened! She clearly understood how I felt, and said she would speak to the resident about it, and just remind her that the way she speaks can really send the wrong message. All is smoothed over, and I’m glad I got to speak to her about it. No weird feelings. After all, Solly is on the medication I knew he needed, and he is more than thriving.

Now, we’re all home. Well, except Brady at work and Dekker at school. Solly and Rowan are napping, and Laela is taking some downtime watching tv. And I’m doing this. I ordered my first four blog books a really long time ago and they are still not here So I’m doing some research and trying to figure out some tracking info that is eluding me. Wish me luck!

I don’t know about you guys but we always end up getting home later than we originally planned. But today, somehow, we made it home in great time!! We got a really early start, for us anyway, and just clipped along. We stopped only for short spans of time, only as absolutely needed, and since our kids travel surprisingly well, the stops were few and far between!

I was nervous about the weather. It was beautiful in Winnipeg, and we had left a town filled with snow and ice and wind behind. We knew we were coming back to it. But surprise, surprise! Most of the snow seems to have melted off! The temperature was above zero, and the roads were clear. Praise the Lord for the weather clearing up in time for our arrival. I know winter is still upon us, but this was a nice, gentle “Welcome home, Born family!”

Thanks to our quick drive home, we were able to feed the kids some leftovers and keep the evening relaxed. And thanks to daylight savings, our children are an hour more tired, so we were able to put them down a little bit earlier! This is actually a life saver, because we have a bit of a fuller day tomorrow. Dekker heads to school nice and early, as usual, and then I need to head into the city with the other kids for some appointments for them. Everyone is going to be adequately exhausted, myself included, hahaha!

It is more than time for Brady and I to get a soak in the tub and go to bed early. Goodnight, everyone!