A while back, a friend of mine offered to take some maternity pictures of me. Jamie’s business can be found at ilwphotopraphy.com or facebook.com/ilwphotography, for those who would like to inquire about her services. It was a total hoot! We were both freezing and had a lot of fun. I’d recommend her far and wide! The pictures are edited and ready to be viewed, and I was actually quite taken aback by them. I feel very modelicious, and at a time when I am often feeling like a beached whale, she sure made me feel gorgeous. That all being said, this is a post for you to look at pictures of me, haha!

I have to say that I’m a bit bummed at wordpress. WordPress hosts my blog, and used to make my pictures big and beautiful quality, and now, since I upgraded, the pictures are only allowed up to 10MBs, so the quality will likely be ripped to shreds 🙁 But they are still so pretty and I wanted to share, even if you have to click on each and every one to enlarge them.

** Funny story! After I ranted about wordpress and their tiny pictures, I changed a setting, and BOOM! Bigger pictures! The quality is still not even close to how they really look, but its better than the teeny tiny pictures, in my opinion 🙂

Brady, Jerilee, and I worked our butts off around here today! There is so much to be done in this house, and I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed these days. So we worked this afternoon away.

After the great Finish dishwasher clean the other day, it would appear we’ve washed too much crud down the drain, and the water isn’t all draining out properly. Not at all. Clean the filter, I know. We don’t have one. Well, I’m sure he have one somewhere, but upon pulling the casing out of the bottom, the pump is right there. Whatever is blocking the pipes is way the heck down there. Because of this, the dishes aren’t coming out looking too great, so Jerilee handwashed our entire counter of dishes and put them away. While she did that, I got a started on the bathroom clean. I cleaned the basics, except the  tub, because that needs sooo much more help! If anyone has some great cleaning advice for hard water stains left WAY too long, I would jump at them! But after cleaning the counter and sink so beautifully, I decided to cut out the silicone around the vanity. Great order of operations, I know. There are now bits of silicone all over the counter, and while that can be wiped up for the most part, the ledges look awful. I did successful unclog the sink though! The water has been draining super slowly, and thanks to Pinterest, baking soda, and vinegar, it now runs out beautifully. One win for the day, anyway. Jerilee and I also took most of the tape down from the upstairs paint job. We’re shorties, so we left the top of the door frames for Brady.

Brady put the curtain rods up and I washed our curtains so we could finally rehang them. They look gorgeous against the grey walls! I can’t wait to show you guys pictures when we finally get the rooms put back together!! Brady ran around like a chicken with his head cut off today, and did so many jobs! He put our new microwave up finally, which included him rebuilding the shelf overtop of it and cutting all new holes where they needed to be. He tried to fix the dishwasher, removed the sink stopper in the bathroom for me, and washed the entire living room floor by hand to scratch off the little paint spots that had splattered that the mop wouldn’t pick up. All the light and outlet covers are back on, and just about all of the drape sheets are off and in a box. Even the one little tile that fell off of our table forever and a day ago is stuck back on. Really, we accomplished a ton.

But it doesn’t feel like it. I feel discouraged today. Like with any and every other house, its feeling very “one step forward, two steps back.” Tons of other little things keep popping up and adding themselves to our list. Actually, I’m specifically NOT keeping a list of jobs we need to do. It would be enormous and I know it would stress me out to just look at it. Instead, I know we will remember those jobs along the way. We KNOW we have lots to do still. Instead, I’ve began compiling a shopping list of things we need to buy in order to complete these projects. Its always more fun to view the work as a shopping trip, right? The list includes some cleaning supplies, a curtain rod for the kids room, a few lengths of trim, a new tub faucet, a few replacement light switches, and the list goes on. But it doesn’t seem too bad to look at it that way for me, so I’m going with it. One big Walmart/Superstore trip, and one Home Depot trip should do it, if we’re organized enough! Maybe that will come sometime next week. Its a very small way to look forward to getting work done anyway. Gotta start somewhere!

Today was probably the most fun I’ve had in a really long time, and the timing couldn’t be better. Coming up on our baby being born, my mom and I had a date planned. No deadlines, and just some general girl time.

Before anything, I hit up my waxing place for my usual. I always lie to you guys, by the way. I always say I get my legs done, and I do, but I actually get my arms waxed as well. They are sooo hairy and I always feel like they look dirty, so if $10 can save them, I’ll happily pay! I haven’t been in since before Christmas, which I know sounds pretty gross, but having been doing my legs for around eight years, my leg hair doesn’t grow as fast as it used to, so its not as bad as it sounds. My waxing girl is fabulous and works at warp speed, so when I saw that we would finish up ahead of schedule, I hesitantly asked if she could fit in an eyebrow wax as well. I’ve only had my brows done once before and loved the result, so I figured that I could justify the treat. She was done in moments, and they looks flawless. I’m so pleased to have no more strays and no more unibrow!! I feel all nice and fresh. Waxing was a great place to start today.

My mom and I wanted to hit the nearby mall to peruse Target. Its closing, and we love a good bargain. Plus, the sales just jumped a bit in the last day or two, so we figured it was a good time. But upon arrival at the mall, we walked past a nail place and checked out some prices, resulting in us getting pedicures together. Moms treat 🙂 It was so much fun! I’ve never gone to get pedis with my mom, and she is sooo ticklish!! It was funny to watch her squirm while the aesthetician laughed at her. We shared a color, even, both getting beautiful dark purple nails. I moseyed over to have a shellac mani done afterwards. I loved having a shellac french mani when Laela was born. I’m a bad nail biter, and lots of you will be able to relate how your nails become brittle and yellow immediately after having a baby. That, exhaustion, and the general life changes that come with a new baby result in me chewing my nails down to nothing, so the shellac is a good protector. And its pretty. Thankfully, they placed mom right beside me with a little foot fan so we could visit while I had my fingers done. It was so nice to get in a bunch of visiting and girl talk about babies and life and excitement!! SO much fun! And wow, did I feel shiny and polished afterwards!

We made our way to Target afterwards, as we originally planned to do. We took our time and walked most of the aisles. It was so nice not having a deadline!! I’m pretty bummed that the bedding is still so expensive :/ But I bought a backpack, a Christmas ornament, a few cosmetics, and a humidifier for the kids room. I finally found one that I like!! A Safety 1st, filterless, cool mist one. PERFECT for the kids room! Everywhere I’ve looked, they’re $40 and sold out, and at Target, it was $35, in stock, and 20% off! Can’t argue with that! Big wins all around.

We grabbed lunch in the food court afterwards. We had planned to make our way across the city and do a bunch more things, and hit any restaurant we wanted, but we were both fading a bit, and neither of us were super hungry! I’m pretty sure there is just physically no room left in my body for food at this point. Seriously, how much room does my stomach have to expand? Not much. So we ordered a meal and shared it, and I grabbed a booster juice as well. We probably visited for a solid hour, and I think I can safely say we lost track of time and just enjoyed ourselves. Soon, it was 3:00, and continually snowing. The roads had already been a bit sketchy on the way in, and didn’t exactly promise to be improving, so we made our way out of the city, and mom drove me home.

How refreshing was today?! SO refreshing!! I am not at all dreading having another child in my life and home and family, but I did enjoy this kid-free day with my mom. It was nice to get pampered and fussed over a bit before all of everyones fussing is directed at the baby 🙂

He’s coming sooooooo soon!!!!!

How often do days play out exactly as expected? Not too terribly often, especially at this stage of the game in a pregnancy. I’m 38.5 weeks along and I woke up this morning around 3:30 with contractions. Not braxton hicks, but painful contractions, one on top of the other. I went to pee, in an effort to relieve any pressure off of my body, and tried to go back to sleep. I succeeded in dozing for the next two hours or so, but very restlessly. Contractions weren’t letting up. They got worse for the next two hours.

Now one would think that, with our history of how Laela was born, I’d be racing out the door to the hospital. But I have never gone into labor on my own, and call it pride, or insanity, or what have you, but I really really dont want to have a false alarm on my third child. So I decided to wait it out. Brady delayed his work day and came to cuddle with me and watch a bit of tv in bed with me, while we waited to see what would happen. Eventually, things slowed down and pretty well quit. By that time, though, I had spoken to my mom and set up a bit of a plan. She came out so Brady could go to work, and I could potentially get a few things done, or the other way around. Once my mom had arrived, Jerilee texted shortly after, and came out to join us. Together, the three of us ladies kept the kids alive and fed, while blitzing a few jobs around the house. All bottles are washed and ready, and laundry got started. Plans were discussed and made as concrete as possible, which is incredibly loose for concrete.

Long story short, I had a prenatal today and am not in labor. Who knows what went on this morning, but I’m not super dilate for effaced yet, and nothing has really changed significantly. So no, baby is not here yet. While I still feel like things are far away, this feels oddly like the night before I delivered Laela, and was so confident that nothing was going to happen. How weird would that be?? However, I am not holding my breath one bit. I was induced with Laela when she was eight days overdue, and I am currently “due” on March 2nd, so while I know people say that you go faster with each kid, this would be quite a leap into early!

All of that aside, I’ve been awake since 3:30 this morning and am feeling completely wiped out. Now that this post is over, I am going to doze in front of an episode of Friends before I have to stand up and be an adult, and go finish the laundry. Sooo thankful for a husband who will feed the kids while I lay in bed.

Hoping for a long, restful night.

I really don’t feel like accomplishing anything today, to tell you all the truth. This last little while, I’ve been super motivated and just ready to get this place in order. Today, not so much. So instead of being too choked about it, I decided to roll with it and take the day. For the most part, anyway.

After being completely thrilled with how clean my dishwasher got yesterday, I got back in the groove of life and loaded it all back up with yesterdays dishes. The kids were so cute at breakfast! Laela insisted on wearing a hairband and Dekker pulled a chair as close to her high chair as he could at the small end of the table so they could be closer. He complimented her constantly, telling her over and over how beautiful she was and how pretty she looked.

I joined them at the table for the tail end of their breakfast, and we eventually all finished up and headed down for toys. Well, Dekker did. Laela wanted to doddle a bit upstairs so she hung out with me while I tidied up from breakfast and wiped everything down. I really do have a desire to keep everything in better shape than we have in the past, and that includes crumb-free counters. They are not always clean at all, but sometimes, it just feels better!

We did join Dekker downstairs right away after that, and kept it all pretty low key for the next couple of hours. The kids are learning to play together, which is sometimes smooth and sometimes not, so I feel like I’m up and down a lot, dealing with their little squabbles and the whole learning curve. So often, Dekker is short with Laela when she nears him, out of fear that she’ll take his toys. But then occasionally, Laela’s colors come through and she’ll rip of Dekker’s glasses and he’ll burst out crying and my goodness, it seems to never stop! So I mediate as much as I can, and otherwise, I just let them hash it out. We all had a bit of lunch downstairs before nap time.

The kids went down for their naps surprisingly well, and they have been quiet for two hours. I have taken their downtime as my own as well. I’ve watched a few episodes of Friends while I’ve had a bit of a snack and just rested my body. I think I’ll do a little bit of laundry this evening. Not much, but we’re accumulating enough that I’d rather do a load here and there instead of saving it all for a big laundry day and then going into labour and not being able to do it before I go. That was a really bad sentence. Hopefully it made sense, because I don’t care enough to change it. Either way, I don’t want to bring dirty clothes to the hospital with me, so laundry must happen. Maybe just a load or two tonight though. Also, the curtains aren’t up yet in our living and dining rooms yet, so I could wash those, but I’d rather wait until I know the curtain rods are going up the same day so nothing has to get folded and wrinkled. But I’m not sure today is curtain rod day. Today will hopefully be microwave day, though!! We got a new over the range microwave, but since we bought it second hand and didn’t think to check, the mounting plate is different than our current one :/ But Brady was able to pick one up yesterday, so that enormous microwave can finally be on the wall and off of our countertop! I’ll never appreciate counter space more than I will after this blasted appliance isn’t taking any more of it up! Woohoo!

So I suppose chores aren’t entirely lame. Maybe they’re just lame when you’re on your own doing them. I don’t know. Anyway, its been a really low key day, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. Tomorrow is also pretty chill, except for a doctors appointment in the middle of it, and Friday will be fun and full and I’m SO looking forward to it! I’m hoping I’m on the ball enough to even make it into a photo post!!!

Last night, Brady put up the curtains in our room, and I am SO pleased with the end result! Since not everything in back in its place, it feels pretty monochromatic in here, but very crisp and beautiful and I love the little design on the curtains. It gives a little bit of something different to the walls, and I love it. It was nice to wake up with a bit less light this morning as well.

Once the kids were up and eating breakfast, I went into my decently functional kitchen and unloaded the dishwasher. The dishes are just not cleaning the way I’d like them to, and as I mentioned on Facebook a while ago, my dishwasher is turning brown inside, and its getting progressively worse. So instead of loading the dishwasher with the dirty dishes from last night and this mornings breakfast, I put a Finish cleaning pack in it instead and ran it on the uber-load setting, aka pots, as hot as possible. I had my doubts about this method, since the people who recommended it said they used it when their dishwasher started turning brown, and ours has been brown for a while, but guys, it looks BRAND NEW!!! Unbelievable! Easily the best five dollars I’ve ever intentionally washed down the drain.

Then I called and booked a leg waxing appointment for Friday. Best get that in before I have to have my feet in the air in front of too many people whilst having a baby!! One more thing checked off my list of things to do!

The kids ate breakfast for what felt like hours before they wanted to be done and go play. We played downstairs for a while before Dekker decided he wanted to go play upstairs on his own for a bit. He does this sometimes when he wants some space from Laela. I think its great, actually, that he’s come up with his own way of fleeing, and I trust him very much not to get into stuff. Humorously enough, I heard him talking quite loudly to himself at one point, until I realized that Jerilee had made it out and they were bantering upstairs, when I hadn’t even heard her come in!! Friend fail :/ Sorry my son beat me to you, Jerilee!

The kids went down for their nap decently well, and Jerilee and I visited all afternoon, which is something we haven’t done in a really long time. Brady picked up a delicious supper on his way home and we watched The Bachelor and ate with the whole family downstairs. It was pretty fun actually. We rarely eat downstairs with the kids, because we can’t contain them the same way, and they get their dirty fingers on more things. But neither of my kids prefer to be messy, so there is lots of hand and face wiping along the way. Once they went to bed, the three of us visited a little bit before we watched yet another episode of The Bachelor. It was a two episode week, you know!

Now, Jerilee is on her way home and we’re just cuddling in for the night. Tomorrow will be a quiet home day for me again, and I’m trying to decide what jobs I can and should do. I really need to get around to packing at least the beginnings of a hospital bag, and I think I could maybe do some laundry, but we’ll see how I feel tomorrow. With the dishwasher cleaner going through, we have a full days worth of dishes sitting in the sink, waiting to be done, so maybe I’ll do that in the morning. I can only accomplish so much with these popping hips and all these contractions! Wish me luck!

Believe it or not, yes! My husband does have a job, and after a really beautiful stretch of time off that he’s used to help me feel more prepared to have our third baby, he is re-entering the work force for the week! While many people enjoyed spending their stat holiday with their family, my husband went to work. Stat holidays don’t mean too much when you’re self employed. Not bitter at all, honestly. I love the flexibility! But it does mean that sometimes, he has to work on a day that the rest of the world (or province) has off. Such is life.

I’m not going to lie. I slept like a log last night. I was dozing off by 11:00 and I slept solidly until 9:00am. The monitor was on but apparently we had turned the sound off, so while I could still hear them moving around and playing, it was a quieter, slower start. The kids weren’t in the best moods first thing this morning, but seemed really content to be back at home, even amongst the chaos that our upstairs continues to be. They both ate an unreasonable amount of breakfast, Dekker specifically asking for each and every kind that we have available to him, which is usually three kinds. I know that seems like overkill, but besides myself, our family LOVES cereal. We go through it really fast. Laela also drank lots of milk. In the last few weeks, we decided to get Laela off of her bottle. No judging, I know its considered late for her to still have one, but its like her one small comfort thing, she only had two littles ones each day, and it didn’t bother us! But since we’ve taken it away, she’s drinking considerably less milk. I know its an adjustment period, so I’m not too worried, and she’s getting her dairy in just fine. But today, she drank for breakfast what she often takes in all day. Yay Laela!!!

They didn’t finish eating breakfast until after 11:00, and then they were more than ready to go play toys downstairs, where they weren’t constantly being told “Don’t touch that!” or “Don’t drive your toys on the walls.” Downstairs is much more fair game.

I was amazingly tired after my ten hour night, and felt super conflicted about how productive to be. Let’s be straight up. I’m a 26 year old woman who stays home all day. I have every ability to clean or tidy or do laundry or any number of things that need doing around my house. Emphasis on the “need” here. However, while I find my kids to be incredibly easy and user-friendly, I am at the very end of my pregnancy and things like bending down, or chasing, or walking back and forth across the room tire me out and bring on painful contractions. I’m just about at the end – of my pregnancy and my proverbial rope.

Ask Jerilee. I annoyingly texted her throughout the morning, whining about my fatigue, and about the desperate need to get my house back in order. What to do, what to do?! She was really good, and encouraged me to do some little bitty things if I wanted, but that it was more than fine if I didn’t. So thats what I did. I made a short little plan and accomplished some of it.

Dishes. We hardly had any. I loaded the dishwasher but didn’t hand wash the few things that can’t go in, like the travel mugs. Then I planned to do some laundry. Now, we have lots of laundry to do in the way of sheets and towels and such, but everything is still dusty and messy, and that part isn’t quite over yet, so I opted out of that laundry (even though its the laundry that is bugging me the most!) and instead, I washed all of the new baby blankets and burp cloths that my mom recently sewed for baby Jim! Its one small thing I can prepare anyway. My second and final load of laundry was going to be the bedding that fits into our baby cradle, where he’ll sleep for his first few months, but too many things were stacked on top of it and frankly, I just didn’t feel like making a bigger mess trying to get the cradle out of storage. So I didn’t. The one load was enough. At least it was something.

In the afternoon, the kids and I ate good lunches and they went down for their naps pretty smoothly. Even though my chores hadn’t been quite as successful in the morning as I had hoped, I had already decided that I would rest when the kids did. I kept dozing off while the kids were playing, so I knew my body needed some rest. However, funny story. Our curtains haven’t been put back up since painting, and it was glaringly bright in our bed. I was so looking forward to some cozy bed time and some YouTube. I tossed and turned and tried to find a good position to be able to watch, but it wasn’t working out. I started to reevaluate my cozy plan, and thought I should rather make lists about…shoot, I dozed off again. And again, and again, and again. So instead of doing anything, I fell asleep. I literally lay sprawled out on my bed, the sun pouring down on me, like a kitty. I slept like that for a solid hour. I actually really hate sleeping in the day, because then I have a pretty hard time falling asleep at a reasonable time at night, but there was no turning back. I like to sleep in the dark dark, so if I could nap for a full hour in the bright, hot sun, it was necessary.

By the time I woke up, the kids were lulling and the sun had moved a little bit, so I could see again. However, I had slept wrong and am currently still really suffering for it. Dang pelvis. I watched a few YouTube videos to help me wake up and be less zombie-like. Brady came home feeling surprisingly good after his first day back, which was a nice sight for my sore tired eyes. We had grilled cheese and soup for supper, which was unbelievably delicious, and exactly what I wanted. Then we played with the kids for a bit before putting them down for the night.

Now, my loving husband is putting up curtain rods in our room so I can wash and hang our new curtains. I know the rest of the house is still a mess but its on its way! And I mainly just want our room back. I think its important to have a sane spot to go to amongst the mess. At least it is for me. So curtain rods, and then potentially a bit of touching up paint and a bit of cleaning. And THEN a soak and a snack. I made cake batter fudge the other day, which has been a delicious little sweet treat.

Tomorrow, the kids and I will have a date with Jerilee, which is SO much fun! She doesn’t judge our crazy house, and she fits into our family very well 🙂 Plus I’m looking forward to having some company in the day. I love my friends and family so much, and its sad going from having them around so often to having no company at all. Thanks for saving me tomorrow, friendy friend!

We are officially home! After a busy weekend away, Brady and I have ourselves and our kids tucked away at home. Well, it definitely looks like a different home, but I’ll take it happily!

The new color on the walls is beautiful. The Behr paint served us well. It is smooth and rich and the eggshell finish was the perfect choice. *pats myself on the back* We opted for three greys to go throughout the house. The lightest in our room, the darkest in our kitchen and dining room, and the medium shade is everywhere else. The living room, the hallway to the kids room, the stairwell, the entrance, and a few other little alcoves and wherever else needed new paint. I love the colors. I would happily live in these colors for years to come.

If I can be a bit of a Debby downer, the fresh new walls make everything else look so bad 🙁 The mouldings and baseboards are discolored and the doors are filthy. Everything that should be white looks yellow. Ugh. So now begins the task of cleaning everything like crazy in hopes that there is legitimate white under there, and if not, so begins yet more painting to make the whole place look more crisp and clean. We knew there would be more to do after painting, of course. With painting comes touch ups and cleaning and reassembling rooms and dust and general messiness. And thats ok! It just seems like a lot. Perhaps it was our bad, starting to paint in my 37th week of pregnancy, but the whole thing seems to be catching up to us, and it feels a little bit overwhelming. But we will succeed 🙂 Brady and I have come to terms with the fact that we will NOT finish this entire house before the baby comes, and that is more than fine. It would be unreasonable to expect that of ourselves, and its not like we’ll be listing our house the day we come home from the hospital with the baby. Best of all, the baby truly doesn’t care if our baseboard are yellowed or theres a dust bunny in the corner of the room. All we need is some normalcy, and functionality.

So! This evening, hopefully we’ll get the kitchen appliances pushed back where they belong. I LOVE me a functioning kitchen! And then ideally, we’ll get our bedroom back to at least the right things being in the right places. We’ll need to clean as we go, and that can’t all happen this evening, as we’re both feeling pretty whooped, but a general tidy will help me feel better for the moment anyway.

The kids are wired and haven’t slept super well away from home, as is a pretty common thread, I think, so they’ll likely be having snack foods for supper (apples, crackers, meat, cheese, etc) and then going to bed early. These poor overtired kids. I think today is the first day I’ve ever wanted to call them brats. I love them, but my goodness, they are running me into the ground today! We are all tired.

All things said and done, I’m very happy with the colors we picked. They look beautiful on the walls, and I can’t wait to get the rooms back in some kind of order so I can post pictures up here for you guys. But right now, everything is still in the centre of the rooms, draped with old sheets, and draped further in dust. Once its even a little bit prettier, I WILL put up pictures. I’m so very happy with how it all looks with the lighter color. I loved the dark for a time, but its time for openness and brightness.

The boys got up ridiculously early to be among the first customers at Home Depot to buy one last can of the main color that they had run out of the day before. Then they grabbed some breakfast and headed off to our house for another day of painting. Yes, Brady and my dad were each others valentines today. But they worked tirelessly yet again and actually managed to FINISH the walls!!! We were hoping to have them home for supper but they stayed until after 9:00pm so that they could finish and so I could have my house back in order sooner. We still have a few small chunks of ceiling to repaint and lots of little projects to do, but the big part is over, and I can start putting my life and home back in order before the baby comes. I can’t wait to see how it all looks!

My mom and I enjoyed our day at home with our little valentines as well. Dekker and Laela were quite adorable and played a bit more on their own, which was nice, because mom and I actually got in some visiting time face to face! Well, sometimes. The volume level was pretty high at times, but we tried! We practiced music for church, we played Yatzee, we ate good food, did dishes, and even made a little vday cake to serve to our boys upon their arrival home. I had previously bought a total cheater dessert for this day, and it actually was a lot of fun to put it together 🙂 I brought a heart shaped cake pan, and a boxed red velvet cake mix, which included a little pack of cream cheese frosting. Like I said, it was a total cheat for less than five dollars, but it sure hit the spot when the time came!

I have lots I could write about, but again, we’re getting to bed pretty late and I have to be up early tomorrow to make it to the sound check at church. I’ll tell you more about our beautiful house once I’ve actually seen it in person. After todays snowfall, my parents are going to follow us home in their truck so we can borrow their snowblower and actually get into our driveway. And so my mom can also see the color and the work thats been done. Bah! My house is FINALLY painted!!!! One more BIG step towards trying to sell 🙂

Brady and I drove our little family to my parents house this morning. We hauled a few bags inside, as well as our kids, and Brady and dad headed back to our place for a day of painting! I was going to post progress pictures but I think I’m rather going to wait for end result pictures instead 🙂 But I can vouch that our house looks much bigger and brighter and newer now! From what I’ve seen in pictures anyway.

We’re spending the night at my parents so the kids can sleep in and the boys can go back for day two tomorrow. This way also, the kids could go down at a normal time and the painting could continue. Its a good system, and lots is getting done. I wish one coat was enough for everything, but its not seeming like that will be the case, so its unlikely that the whole place will be complete by the end of tomorrow, but the vast majority will be, I think, and that helps.

So for the events of my day, we kept it nice and low key. The kids were very thrilled to be with grandma, and Dekker nabbed lots of story and cuddle time. They played well and ate a good lunch before they napped. I napped them in separate rooms so they both actually slept really well. I got to visit with my mom for about an hour before she had to head out to the city for a few hours, but I occupied myself with some very relaxing Netflix and dozing. No complaints there! The kids eventually woke up and played more toys before I zapped them some leftovers from the fridge. I took a phone call in the middle of their supper, and Dekker proceeded to feed Laela out of his bowl while I was otherwise occupied. He was so pleased with himself, and I made a big scene of celebrating his helpfulness. It was pretty much adorable.

My mom arrived home with only about fifteen minutes to spare before the kids bedtime. Everyone was freshly diapered and jammied, and Dekker had even begun tidying toys all on his own. We finished up the floor, and Dekker surprised me like never before by saying a boisterous “Bye!” and heading downstairs on his own! I took advantage of the moment and went after him without making any big deal of him saying a big, proper goodnight. Rather keep it smooth, right? Upon arriving in his room, he was less impressed with the idea of going to bed, but he climbed into bed anyway, had a drink, and stayed put.

Until I left, anyway. He and Laela partied hard in their room for a good long while. I didn’t even really try to shut it down. Its such a treat to spend the night at grandmas house, and not only that, but its a new place! They’re not going to fall asleep immediately, and they were having so much fun! Both still in their beds, but squealing and laughing out loud at the other. Eventually, they both just laughed themselves out and fell asleep. Best way to fall asleep.

Its been a great day, and while Brady and my dad are tired, they seem to feel like they were productive, and that they’re willing to give it another go tomorrow! Can’t wait to see how it all turns out!