Turns out that priming some of the house yesterday didn’t set especially well with my body, and I woke up in relatively rough shape this morning. I scheduled an appointment with my chiropractor right before my routine prenatal visit that I had booked for this afternoon to clean up all my broken/achy bones. I got to Dr. Mikes a bit early (I always give myself way too much time since we live so far away) but got in right away, as tends to happen. It turns out my body went back to where it belonged pretty easily, so I was told I’m in better shape than either of us thought originally. I’ll still be seeing him weekly, but considering I’m 37.5 weeks pregnant, that won’t be too terribly long. I can’t wait until this blasted Relaxin hormone stops producing and everything that is so freaking “relaxed” in my body can tighten back up. I’d love for my pelvis to stay in one piece again someday.

I had received a call a few days ago to inform me that Dr. Guselle would have some first year medical students with her on our appointment day. I had given my permission that they could definitely be part of my appointment, but today, they weren’t back from lunch yet, so it was just she and I. Everything was very routine. I’ve gained a bit more weight in these last few weeks than I’d like, but that tends to be how I grow my kids. Really big at the very end. Its just always a tough pill to swallow. But my BP was good, babys heart sounded good, I’m measuring right, all seems good. She asked if I was miserable enough to want/request a membrane strip, and I declined it. Am I uncomfortable enough to want one? Yup! Do I want to be in labor this moment? Nope. Our house is chaos, my childcare is organized for much closer to my actual due date, and I am scheduled to be induced by MY DOCTOR on HER DAY, so if I can make that work, I’m going to! Thanks for the offer, but no thanks 🙂 I’m still good.

When my appointment was over, I proceeded to stop in at way too many places. I grabbed lunch, and did a shop through Target. I was looking for something specific, and of course I couldn’t find it, but I found a number of other things. Some things were on the list, and some definitely weren’t. The dishwasher cleaner and toiletries were, but the kids clothes, purse, and earrings were not. After Target, I made my way to Superstore for some groceries, a prescription refill, and a couple of items of clothing for the kidlets. Clearance makes that ok, right? Then onto Home Depot for yet MORE painters tape, and some bitty rollers that we didn’t think we’d need. I love that Home Depot has a parking spot for new or upcoming parents 🙂 And better yet, the symbol painted on the ground is a pink stroller. LOVE that! Because I hadn’t shopped enough, I actually managed to hit our other Target location and find what we were originally looking for, and I only bought that. However, the day bedding is on a sale that is better than 10% off, someone tell me!!! I have my eye on some blankets that I really would love to have, but can’t justify them at full price. Merp. Seriously, I want to be spammed with notifications when Target bedding is cheaper! Hear me, people!! From Target, I hit Costco for a pretty decent sized shop. I only got one frivolous thing but Brady had told me I could buy them, so I snagged a four pack of those EOS lip things. I know, I’m paying for the weird container, but I really like it, haha! Its easier to find a lip gloss ball in my big purse rather than a little stick. They’re cute. I filled up with gas afterwards, grabbed some Tims for tonights bath, and drove home. I tried to condense the story, but it was a pretty solidly full day.

Brady had the majority of the house primed by the time I got home, which was lovely. He helped me carry stuff in and put it away, and then kept on working until we got the kids up for supper. It was right around then that I heard from the girl who was coming to pick something up from our place this evening. She and her crew were on their way over. Maybe fifteen minutes out. I was in a bit of a panic at first, thinking “I thought they were going to come around 7:00!” And then I discovered that it was about quarter to, and I was the crazy one. That is how supper became ham and cheese sandwiches with cucumber slices. We ate downstairs, which we NEVER do with the kids, because its a much bigger mess and just not something we like to do. We like the tidiness of eating at the table and frankly, so do our kids. Neither kid likes having a messy face or hands, and I’d rather they use a napkin than my carpet. But hey, sandwiches are easy, pretty clean, and the kids love them.

And then the crew came, and took our piano. I won’t lie. I’m pretty sad about it. But I knew it had to be done. There was no way we were going to be able to move it to our next home, much less wherever we squat for the months we are homeless if we get to build our home. Plus, its a bit of a project piano. BUT its a gorgeous antique piece, and I’m so sad to see it go. Sad, but relieved in a strange way. One more big thing taken care of, and onto the next thing! It helps that the family who took it was so happy to have it 🙂 They will play it and appreciate it more than I ever did.

Now, the kids are asleep, and Brady is finishing up the priming. I’ve finally picked the set for Sunday, as I’m up to lead worship and forgot about it pretty much until today. I know, I’m just dripping with preparation and responsibility. I try!! But today has felt huge, and I am really anticipating a soak in my tub with the double double I bought earlier. It makes sense to drink a coffee and take a sleep aid, right??

Tomorrow the real work begins. Let’s get some real color on these walls!! The white is making me feel a bit caraaaaazy!

I have a confession to make. I am not a painter. But we all have to stretch sometimes.

Today has been day one of priming our house. After breakfast, I took the kids downstairs so Brady could have the freedom to go crazy and get lots and lots done. He started in our room, which I really appreciated, since the smell is not my favorite. (**We bought very low scent paint and primer, and have fans going and windows open. We’re being safe 😉 ) Unfortunately, cutting in takes a lot of getting used to, and by the time it was lunch, he had finished cutting in our room and nothing else. I could tell he was pretty discouraged. So he came downstairs and took a break with us. Some food and cuddles with our kids can go a long way. The kids went down for their nap right around when Brady finished up his lunch, so I offered to help. I did the very easiest part of the entire job, and basically shuffled all around the house on my butt, painting along the baseboards, the inside corners, and as high up on the doors and windows as I could reach without standing on stools or challenging the tiny bit of balance I hesitantly say that I have left. It took a good couple of hours, but I finished going all around the upstairs and down the stairwell as best as I could. I left out a good chunk of the kitchen, because it was a bit more tedious, involved a bit more climbing, and not everything had been cleaned off of the counters yet. But I feel like I accomplished a decent amount and participated at least. I feel less useless, haha!

I’ll be gone for a chunk of tomorrow, to a prenatal appointment and hopefully a chiropractic appointment as well, so Brady will be on his own with the kids. Nothing is ever quite as productive with two toddlers at your feet. But hopefully we’ll get at least all of the cutting in done today, and maybe even a bit more rolling, and then the rest of the rolling can be fit into tomorrow because after that, PAINTING STARTS!!! Official color will be going up on our walls, and I cannot wait! Already, our house is so much brighter and lively. Granted, it could be a challenge to sleep in our stark white bedroom tonight, with our bed pulled away from the wall, surrounded by all of our other furniture, but I will take that for a few nights in exchange for a freshly painted house.

I tried to take some progress pictures today, but its almost impossible. There are large draped pieces of furniture everywhere, and they are in the way of most of the walls. They look like pictures of nothing. Not worth the tiny amount of space that they take up on my laptop and phone.

All of this being said, these are our plans for the next couple of days, and I’m so looking forward to the end result!! However, my right hand is already totally cramped up from painting, and typing is becoming more and more challenging. Like that last word, challenging. I typed it probably six times before getting it right.

The end. I’m pooped, and we still have a good few hours left in the day with two rambunctious kids! Hopefully just a few more crazy days like these and we’ll be ready to put everything back! Wish us luck!

I thoroughly enjoyed today! I feel like recently, my posts are just play by plays of random events of the day, rather than focusing on a specific topic, but I’m really enjoying my days and I want to share.

Brady set an alarm for me this morning at 8:00. We had agreed the night before to set a snooze alarm for 8:15. I, however, had woken up around 7:30 after a really disconcerting dream, and was just dozing when the alarms went off. Brady turned off the first alarm and took the phone under the covers so it wouldn’t be as loud when it went off the second time. Maybe he does this on regular work days (?) but either way, this time he did it in his sleep. So around 8:15, I heard a very soft song playing and I actually woke him up to tell him the alarm was going off. It was quirky. I like him.

I got up and turned on all the lights in our room so I could get ready. I’m so thankful that Brady is a morning person because he wasn’t phased. I got dressed, did my hair, and a full face of makeup. Today was belly pics day! I left the house at 9:00 to meet with my friend/photographer at 9:30.

I won’t mince words. It was freeeeezing outside! Luckily, Jamie was on it, and had brought little hot hands packs to keep us both warm while we took pictures in the snow. We had a lot of fun, if I can be so bold as to speak for both of us. As soon as I can get my hands (and permissions) on the pictures, I’ll show off a few 🙂 I can’t wait to see them!

After pictures, I dropped in on my mom and we had a nice little mid-morning visit, which doesn’t happen too terribly often. I did eventually leave though, and head back home. I was met by Brady who was taping off the upstairs, and happy kids watching Cars in the basement. I brought their lunch down and tried to entertain them for a little while before it was nap time. They were adorable and fun and full of cuddles.

When they did go down, Brady and I ate some lunch and watched a bit of Netflix. Then, because we couldn’t help ourselves, we installed the baby car seat in our van!!! We moved the two kids’ seats around as well. I like this new set up so much!

Originally, we had the kids up behind the front seats, which makes the most sense.

Now, we have baby boy behind the driver, and Dekker and Laela both moved to the back row. We figured it would be nice for them to go together, since there will be a big adjustment time of us not being able to hear them as well, or reach things for them. Thats not safe anyway, and we’ve been slowly implementing new rules about that anyway. This way, they’ll at least have each other! Plus, we folded down the bucket seat behind the passenger so it’ll be easier to get back there and buckle them in. It was pretty tight before. And if we ever have to take someone anywhere, we can just pull the bucket seat out of its handy stow and go storage, and we have a full seat! Its just a really nice set up 🙂

I felt nice and accomplished afterwards, having been part of the whole new installation, and also having gotten all put together and up earlier than usual in the morning. Brady was feeling pretty tired from continuing his work all morning getting the house ready for painting, since today was taping as well we moving our entire kitchen into the centre of the room. As in the fridge and stove are pulled away, and the microwave is off the wall now. Just more grunt work. But it has to get done, since PRIMING starts tomorrow!!!!!

When it was officially time, Jerilee arrived at our house and she and I drove to concert choir practice. I really like Tuesdays for concert choir. Its so nice to sing in a group! We were a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to sing our favorite song this week, but I’m sure we’ll get there next time around. We got home earlier than usual, got ourselves set up with freezies, and watched The Bachelor. For those who haven’t seen it, its a super satisfying episode! I think anyone who is actually watching this season will be thrilled. Next week, we have no concert choir because its the schools break, but its also the Bachelor’s two day week, so we’ll still get together for a double feature 🙂 Can’t wait!!

So yes, as per usual on Tuesdays, my post is late, but this is just always such a fun evening that runs late. So sue me. I have great friends and fun stuff going on in my life! Today, I celebrated my belly, my baby’s arrival, we got the house even more prepped for the idea of moving, I watched a movie with my kids, I saw one of my best friends, I sang, I ate yummy food, and now I get to snuggle up with my husband for the night.

*** Its now officially February 11th, so to add to the list, today I can say that it has been ONE YEAR since Dekker’s surgery, and while it was one of the biggest and scariest ordeals of my entire life thus far, I am incredibly pleased with the results and the lively little boy that has been growing in our home since then. He has become a chatty, comprehensive, ever-braver boy who is sure footed and confident. What a year its been!!!

Brady took today off from his normal life and spent it snowboarding instead. He more than deserves the break. He’s been working his butt off for days, while I’ve been gallivanting around from appointment to outing to event. I’ve had a blast, and now its his turn.

With him home a bit more these days, some of my regular chores that I keep up with have been slipping. So when I got the kids up this morning, I felt motivated to get some things back to normal. I cleaned up the few days worth of dishes cluttering our counters, which felt wonderful. Our counter is still a huge mess of papers and garbage, but that will need to be tidied separately. Hopefully still today, maybe, but we’ll see. While I tidied up the dishes, the kids ate an unreasonable amount of breakfast, which is always good. After breakfast, we all made our way downstairs and I made several trips up and down the stairs until all of our laundry was where it needed to be for the day. Ok, not every piece of laundry. I’m really wanting to get all the bedding done, as well as the towels, curtains, etc., but with the painting plan looming over the next weekish, there is no point in cleaning that stuff when it will need to be recleaned almost immediately. Does that make sense, or just make me sound filthy? Hmmm… Either way, I got all of the dirty clothes together and have been doing laundry all day. And its actually felt pretty amazing!! I’m finally back up and doing things, and it feels really good.

So now, here I am, asking you guys what you have found to be most important when preparing your house for sale. We will be painting almost the whole upstairs, and doing a full deep clean. What else? We’ll do little repairs as needed, and be refreshing all of the window coverings and rugs. I know that a big thing is staging, and making it look all new and perfect, but the fact is, we’ll be listing a house that is lived in by a young family of five, and its not going to be easy! As for decor, we took down all the shelves off of the wall, as they weren’t straight anymore and had done a lot of damage to the drywall underneath. So now do I have to buy things to hang up? Is it worth punch new holes in the walls that we just patched and painted? Maybe it will look too empty without it? I don’t know! What do you guys think?? We’ve never had to sell a house before, and appreciate any and all information or tips that you have!

Until I get a good list going of things that we need to do in the house, I’ll continue puttering around trying to be useful. Only to an extent though. I had braxton hicks contractions all through the night and would love to keep those to a minimum if at all possible. Must rest!

My parents gave us the gift of a few hours off today! After church, we brought the littles over to their house and got them settled. My mom had made them some lunch, and as soon as everyone was seated and content, we left to go get our own lunch, somewhere else.

We hit up Chianti, which I’ve mentioned a few times as one of my favorite places to eat. Not super expensive, delicious pasta, and close to our end of the city. Did I mention its delicious? Love it. We didn’t even have to wait for a spot. They just wiped off a booth for us and we were good to go! We ordered our usuals, and had a nice visit while we waited. It was in that conversation that we remembered our last trip to that restaurant.

I’ve been to Chianti a few times in the recent past, but the last time Brady and I went together was the day i was induced to have Laela. Gives me the shivers. I was induced in the morning, and had been sent home after things didn’t seem to take off. We were discouraged, so we grabbed Starbucks, went for a long walk, and decided to take advantage of the day by going on a date. To Chianti.

Brady and I came to this memory while sitting at the table this afternoon, while I had contraction after contraction. Its ok, I found humor in it rather than terror. It was a bit ominous though.

It turns out that its not easy to eat at a relaxed pace anymore! Our food was gone in no time, and we moved on to the next stop. Target. I know, its kind of lame to run errands on our date, but its surprisingly relaxing to run errands sans kiddos! We could hold hands and peruse, taking our time instead of chasing down little ones. We bought some new curtains for our bedroom for after its painted, some for the kids room too, and a few other little things, like a candy thermometer, a mop, a phone charger, and a couple of little kitchen utensils. All things we actually need in the near future. I really enjoyed buying the curtains and a few little cleaning things for getting the house ready to sell 🙂 It makes me really excited at the idea of settling into a new place too, and putting it all together. Yay!

We left Target and grabbed some Starbucks on our way out. We had been too full at the restaurant for dessert, but decided to get something yummy to snack on with our coffee. Everything in the display was a bit weird sounding except the chocolate caramel dipped pretzels, so we ordered two of those to go with our white chocolate mochas. I know, super healthy. With that order came more deja vu.

On induction day, we ordered Starbucks. Pumpkin spice lattes, and those same dang pretzels. I have to say, we never order treats from Starbucks. The coffee is treat enough. There has been only one other time that I’ve ordered more than just a coffee, and it was when I took Dekker on an extra special cookie date. But this stinking pretzel brought me back. It just felt kind of nerve wracking, and similar. But Brady dutifully reminded me that the lack of cervidil present helped a lot in knowing that I was not, in fact, about to go into labor.

We arrived back at my parents to a nice quiet house. The kids were starting to talk, but everyone had clearly rested and the party could begin again. We had a nice chill supper of breakfast together, where we all caught up on everything we hadn’t caught up on yet. Plans about moving and mortgage, painting and cleaning, etc. It was so nice to all be together in each others space again.

We stayed much later than normal, and the kids were shot, but we still ducked into a nearby town before heading home to pick up a new microwave. Our microwave is very much on the way out, and we’ll need to replace it before listing the place. However, over the range microwaves cost at least $300, which I hate shelling out right before we leave. But someone was selling a brand new, never touched, OTR microwave for $120. So we picked that up, grabbed some Tims, and drove home.

Both kids were awake the entire drive home, and Dekker fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. Laela, on the other hand, is viciously overtired and has yet to lay down. But she’ll get there. Brady and I are anticipating a soak in the tub, and I know Brady is anticipating finally going snowboarding tomorrow! He’s been working his butt off here at home the last little while, and I know getting out of the house and doing something fun will really hit the spot for him. Our week is sure filling up with work and appointments, so this free day for him will be great, and might be the one and only chill, at home day for the kids and I.

So much leading up to such an incredible time in our life <3 A crazy time, but an incredible time!

A few days ago, Brady and I attempted to have a little coffee date in bed before the kids woke up. Not only were we scared awake by the louder-the-life alarm and knocking everything over trying to turn it off, but the hospital called moments later, telling us to come in for induction. They were a month early and we were quite frazzled. It was a super startling morning, to say the least.

This morning, we decided to tempt fate and planned another coffee date. This time, though, we had no deadline, therefore no alarm, which helped. After a FULL ten hours of sleep, we woke up and Brady brought chocolates and coffee to bed. We watched some Greys Anatomy and had a nice relaxing date in celebration of our six year wedding anniversary. I don’t need to get all cheeseball about it, but it was really nice and comfy and fit the bill perfectly for where we are today. Definitely the best way we could celebrate on a Saturday morning.

Strangely enough, it would appear that I can do very little else today. Brady has been sanding and cleaning for most of the day in a desperate race to actually be able to prime and paint soon. Meanwhile, I’ve been downstairs with the kids, not letting them go upstairs, trying to entertain them. Its never hard to keep them down there unless they hear mysterious sounds coming from upstairs, which are pretty constant right now. So if we can paint a picture of what the day realistically looked like, it would involve me trying to comfort their upset little selves, rocking in a chair, having braxton hicks contractions one on top of the other on top of the other. My stomach was a boulder most of the day, no joke, making it kind of hard to breathe or have any stamina whatsoever. It seemed like I had a contraction with every shift of my body, and unfortunately, that has made today out to be not one of my favorite days ever. But such is life! I’m incredible grateful to be pregnant, and almost at the end, but the last few weeks are where I really expand, where my pelvis really gives up, and where the kids get so sensitive to the change thats about to happen that they need twice as much attention as usual. They’re good weeks, but long weeks.

So as life would have it, the kids are having breakfast for supper so Laela can more easily feed herself. That way, I can be in bed, and Brady is tending to them and periodically washing the floors that are covered in fine white dust from the amazing amount of sanding he’s done over the last few days. I am so pleased and thankful for my family who takes such wonderful care of me.

It hasn’t been the smoothest, most romantic day of the year, but I am still very happy with the decision I made to marry my husband six years ago, no matter how its celebrated. Happy anniversary to us!

I’ve so enjoyed these last few days of getting out of the house. Brady has happily watched the kids and worked on patching the walls up in preparation for painting, and I’ve been able to run around and have some fun, do some shopping, and get to my appointments. However, after now four days of it, I am home and so ready to be! My body is feeling these last few days, and I can’t seem to convince it that it was all worth it. Luckily, I know it was.

I was nervous about leaving today, since the snow has started up again and the highway forecasts weren’t looking good, but I braved them anyway, and they weren’t even slick. I watched very closely, of course, but was comfortable being on cruise. I don’t like winter driving at all, so you can understand that if I was on cruise, you would be too.

My first stop was meeting a mortgage broker and talking numbers for a bit. I wish Brady could have been there too, but it wouldn’t have worked too well with both kids in her teeny little office anyway. After our meeting, I got a bit stuck trying to get my van from its parking space, but eventually surfaced and headed to my next stop.

My much needed hair appointment has finally arrived! However, I was unreasonably early thanks to my morning meeting, so I perused Target. Canada got Target recently and it managed to tank in just under two years, so they’re selling out. The sales aren’t particularly awesome yet, but all cosmetics are 30% off, and I do love some new makeup, if you hadn’t figured it out, so I walked through and picked out a few new things to try. I managed to leave Target with a car seat toy for the baby, as well as a lip gloss, lipstick, an eyeshadow palette, mascara, a nail buffer, and a highlighting powder, and I paid around $50. It definitely could have been worse! I was a grown up and put stuff back even! Go me!

I had about a half hour left before my hair appointment so instead of continuing to shop for things I couldn’t justify buying, I went for lunch. I got a big scoop of broccoli pasta salad from the deli at Safeway and kept with the healthy theme by washing it down with a caramel frapp from Starbucks. I haven’t had a frapp in a really long time, and it was so delicious. I enjoyed my food and made it to my appointment with time to spare 🙂 I love a good hair appointment, and it had been a while, so I really enjoyed my two hours in the chair. I came out with exactly what I wanted, and even though I know lots of you aren’t fans of the style, I really really am, so I’m fully thrilled. I left feeling fresh and pretty.

I quickly stopped to buy some milk before heading home, but then was on my way. Once again, the internet boasted of horrible winter driving conditions, but the highways were clear. I came home to my happy, patching husband and the kids just lulling awake. We had some pizza together and a good bedtime. I’m so happy to be home with the fam, and I think the kids missed me a bit, too. Lots of really snuggly hugs <3 I can’t believe we’ll have another one to hug so soon!!

Until then, my uterus will hug him. Over and over and over again…

I was so thrilled to go on a date with my mom today. We’ve been pretty low key since Christmas and this was our first outing together. Brady even stayed home with the kids to get a bunch more puttying done, so mom and I could be hands-free and get our stuff done as well. The goal of the day was to purchase flannel.

My mom gives us this amazing gift with each baby that we have. We go on a date to the fabric stores, and choose material for about ten oversized receiving blankets. Not only are they convenient considering the size of our children, but they are personal to each kid, and what we like at that stage of life. They’re a great memory. Dekker has pretty demolished his at this point, since he went through a big bad stage of chewing on them, but Laela’s are still in decent, beautiful shape. So I really anticipate this tradition with each kid, and today was no different.

We tried out a fabric store in a nearby town first, with every intention to hit another one or two in the city afterwards. This was just for fun, to see what was available at a store that we had never visited. And we found everything. Everything. The fabric was beautiful quality, and not like any other designs we had found in the city before. Sharp, crisp patterns, and a large variety. I’m sooo excited to see the finished products, and to wrap my baby boy up in them.

We ran a few errands after that. A quick Costco shop, dropping off something for Bradys work, and a quick duck into Michaels as well. By that point, my pelvis was suffering a bit, and my iron supplement was ticking off my tummy, so we headed for lunch.

Good lunch. Red Lobster lunch. I could go there for cheese biscuits, clam chowder, and grilled shrimp caesar salad every day of the week. We had a great lunch, and our server was super sweet to us. Good service makes such a huge difference in almost any experience, I find.

We made one or two quick stops before taking the scenic route home. I came inside and we did sudoku together for a little bit before I had to go. Maybe that sounds silly, but its such a fun thing we like to play with together sometimes. I used to do tons of sudoku puzzles, and my mom is kind of just starting up, and we both really enjoy them. Maybe we’re nerds.

I came home to happy kids, and an incredibly productive husband. The whole house is draped off with sheets, and the putty from yesterday has been sanded. After supper, I played with the kids downstairs while he did some more puttying. There are certain areas that are really loud to work on while the kids are sleeping, so he saved them for the evening. How thoughtful!

When it was that dreaded toy tidying time of the evening, Dekker requested again that just he and I tidy toys. I told him that I was feeling a bit too sore, but I asked for a big hug and he went with it, and then tidied his toys with Brady and Laela. It gets a bit hairy at the end of toys as well, because that means bedtime. To really make him feel special, Brady said to him “It is bedtime, and I know that makes you sad, but I would love to carry you to your room!” And out of nowhere, Dekker came over to me instead, asked for a hug, and requested that we walk together and hold hands instead. Brady and I were both completely blown away! I’m pretty sure I’m safe to say there are no hard feelings about that, but it was a huge surprise. Dekker feels much safer with Brady in new situations, or crowds, or at the doctor, but I felt so honoured that he wanted to walk with me, even though I couldn’t cuddle him the same way. I don’t expect that scenario to ever play out that way again, but I will treasure this one for sure!

Moms are special. Plain and simple.

I have a lot I could write about today. About my spontaneous trip to the city to have my body put back in place. My short but much needed phone call with my sister. The guy who offered me a chair at KFC while I waited for my food to be ready. Paint shopping. I had a good, full, successful day. But I would MUCH rather talk about my kids!

They’re growing up. In a BIG way. Laela has been uttering little beginnings of words recently, or babbling in different tones to suggest language. Its been fun to watch it start! We encourage words, and try to remember to tell her everything, which gets tiring but is how we worked with Dekker on his speech. As lots of you know, he was considered “speech delayed,” which I wrote off to be his shy demeanour, which I still think holds a lot of water. But there was also the issue of his vision, and I think its hard to get everything in working order when one sense isn’t quite operating as it should. I didn’t want Dekker to have to see a speech therapist because I knew it would come. I didn’t want to “put him through that.” For some reason, that carried a stigma for me. But in some research, I learned that a speech therapist would likely start out with more so teaching me how to speak to Dekker in a clearer, simpler way. Thats what we did, and of course one eye surgery and a new sister later, the kid is more than verbal. So that whole rant aside, this is how we’ve been speaking to Laela. Clearly, with simple words, and consistency.

Today, Laela handed me Dekker toy camera and waited for me to turn it on. Its something she always asks for. I said “Say please!” and she did her cute little nod and “ya.” I was about to turn it on, and decided to take a different route. “Say on” I said, and she said “nun.” I praised her up really good and clapped and kissed her and made a big deal of it. She loved that. She toddled off with her camera, until she forgot about it and it shut itself off. She brought it back to me, and waited. I said “Say on” and she said “un.” It was so awesome!!! After that, she would try for the word that I requested of her. No, she didn’t get any bang on, but mimicking is the first step, and I’m so thrilled to see it growing in her!

So far, words that I’ve heard come from her fairly confidently are ya, mom, dad, cup, wow, baby, and on. She tried really hard to say “paper” today, but it either turned into cake or pecker. But she tried! Hopefully we’ll establish things like milk, please, more, etc. soon. She is very accurate with nodding and shaking her head yes and no. She knows when she’s hungry, or wants a diaper change, or sleepy. She’s waaay too smart.

My tidbit about Dekkers development today is about when I got home from the city. I had been gone since they went down for their nap, and I arrived about 15 minutes before bed. He was full of hugs for me, and kept telling me “I just missed you, mommy.” Unfortunately, I came home at the worst time. Just in time for cleaning up toys and going to bed. But I’m their mom, and thats just part of the day! So I mentioned to him that it was time to tidy and, as per usual, if he asked nicely, Brady and I would be happy to help. He very politely asked for help, and then specified “just mommy.” Seriously, kid?! I have a contraction every time I bend down to the floor! But I realized that he was actually just wanting some one on one time with me, so I took him up on it.

Behold the longest and best toy tidy time in our home. We held hands pretty well the entire time, so we each had one hand to bring toys to their respective place. It took seemingly forever, but it was wonderful. As soon as toys were tidied, he put on a bit of a whiny voice and said he didn’t want to go to bed. I suggested we hold hands again and walk upstairs together, but he really wanted me to carry him. I’m sort of at the point where he’s really hard to carry, especially up the stairs, so I came down to his level and gave him a really nice long hug. When we separated, he took my hand and we walked up the stairs together without any complaint. He went to his room without any crying, had his sip of water, and said his bedtime prayer all on his own. He was sooo grown up!!! Blew me away. I could have cried, but Laela was doing enough of that for all of us. Deks kept it together and was totally cooperative.

I love my kids. LOVE my kids. I can’t wait to bring another unreasonably adorable little one into the world! God is sooo good!

I feel like its been forever since I last blogged, because I posted yesterdays as stupid o’clock in the morning and now this one is actually going up after midnight! I’m sorry if anyone is annoyed by the occasional late night post but it means that I have been busy with fun, wonderful things, and that is a good thing so that is the one and only time I’ll apologize. Today ended well, with Brady and Jerilee. The rest of the day was fairly eventful as well.

I was expecting to run into the city for a prenatal appointment, a minor grocery shop, and then home. It wasn’t going to be a big day, and Brady is home a bit in the upcoming weeks, so he agreed to stay home with the kids so I could go about my errands relaxedly. I got all dolled up and felt great on my way out. I listened to music really loudly and even dropped in on my mom for some lunch on my way to the city. After some delicious chicken pot pie, I was off to my doctors office.

The nurse weighed me and put me into a room, and Dr. Guselle was there within minutes. We touched base a bit about everything and she made some notes in my file before she commented that I was 36 weeks along. I confirmed that I was, and made the expected “Its really coming up fast” comment. The funny thing was that it had completely slipped my mind what happens at this appointment. If you have kids, do you guys remember week 36? There’s a pee test, a finger poke, and some less than comfortable swabbage that tests for certain infections. Without going into wild detail, or really any at all, its all fairly awkward and icky. Turns out it was good to leave hubs and the kids at home today.

So my doctor sent me back to the nurse to poke my finger and to tell me to pee in a cup. I’m just gonna say this one. Peeing in a cup already isn’t the easiest of tasks, but lets give the super pregnant women the worlds tiniest cup and see how she does. No good can come of that. And then for the finger poke. Literally, having my blood tested that way is among my top five leave favorite things. I hate that stupid little thing. No matter what, I can’t predict when its going to snap on me. Stupid faced little blood poker thing. I returned to my room for the rest of my appointment. BP is good, babys heart rate is good, as per usual. My uterus is measuring a bit small but, upon the rest of the exam, we learned that baby is definitely dropping, which would cause us to lose a few centimetres on the tape. Not that we are worried anyway. We sat and watched my stomach jump around a bit before she confirmed that he does, in fact, seem to be healthy and thriving. We also now know that my cervix is still nice and far away, so labor is not immediately around the corner. I know you’re all just itching to know about m cervix :/ Sorry. Hopefully you’re all women.

The one downfall of todays tests was that my hemoglobin came back low. It isn’t a huge deal, and nothing that an iron supplement can’t fix, but 6-8 weeks ago, my bloodwork showed a much higher number, and I would have had to get in a decent amount of trouble for my iron to drop quite so much so fast. So that was how I ended up with a lab requisition to go get some additional blood drawn. Not exactly something I had on my schedule, but I worked it out.

Everything else looked good, so I left my appointment and hit up Walmart quickly for a few things before heading to my usual blood-sucking clinic. It was completely quiet, and I was let right into the back, which has not happened the last few times I’ve been there! Five or six people came in right after me, so I was pretty thrilled to have beat the rush. The woman who came to take my blood remembered me from my glucose test and was so sweet to me. I never know if its good to be remembered so quickly by someone in that scenario but I decided it was nice instead of not. Why wish for bad, right?

Post-blood, I brought Subway home for the family, and ended up straight back on the road to go to concert choir. Jerilee and I met at my parents house so we could abandon a vehicle and drive together. Its such a fun weekly date we have now 🙂 Plus, always a pro to drop in on my mom again. We had a really fun practice, and got super excited about a few of the songs we’ll be singing. You guys should probably all come to the concerts in April. We drove back home and Brady made us all snacks so we could watch The Bachelor together with yummy treats. I LOVE these Tuesday nights so much, but I do feel bad, since Jerilee will be lucky to get home at 1:00am. I hear some people, her included, work at jobs that are outside of their homes, and they can’t even wear sweats! Lame. Sorry, Jerilee. One day I’ll trade you off locations.

All of this being said, its been a successful but full day. Its 1:00, and I still need to watch some Greys, otherwise the day feels empty, haha! Brady was going to go snowboarding tomorrow but its forecasted to be the coldest day of the next two weeks, so I think his trip will get bumped to the very near future. It’ll be nice to have him home, too 🙂