Don’t think I don’t know.

Sometimes I see those memes posted on Facebook and otherwise about how insane Christians sound, and how believing in God is something only a gullible person would buy into. Well, call me gullible then. I’m not ashamed of my beliefs one bit. I do, however, want to talk about it all briefly, if thats cool, because I know we sound crazy about a few things, and I’m feeling a bit crazy about a few of those things this morning. Makes for a very early post.

I’d like to start talking about yesterday evening. Yesterday evening was awesome. Do you remember a while back, I was so stressed out about going into labor, and what would happen from there on out? I was very anxious knowing I had to decide between waiting out a late baby, or opting for an induction, or going into labor early. When I finally sat down and made a plan with my doctor, I felt a thousand times better. Bring it on, baby boy!! What a relief! Since then, my peace has dwindled as I have found other things to feel overwhelmed about. But yesterday evening, a couple of friends from totally different places jumped up out of nowhere and offered to help me in the worlds most perfect ways. Anxiety levels were low low low. You could ask Brady. I was thrilled, and felt light, and refreshed. Nothing could touch me.

There is definitely something to be said for finding comfort in tangible things and people.

Then, last night, I woke up a few times with the most painful braxton hicks contractions I’ve had thus far this pregnancy. And I got really, really scared. And then immediately discouraged. Because, as Christians, we are brought up with the idea of putting our trust in God as our number one thing to hold onto. And I fully agree with that! But I also know it sounds crazy. I guess I want to clarify here that being a Christian doesn’t make me less of a person. A human. I’m flawed, and imperfect, and believing that God exists and doing everything I can to live my life the way I believe He asks me too doesn’t mean I get this stuff right all the time! So I lay in bed, scared, while I had my contractions, and went back to sleep.

This morning, I am obviously already up, and have been since about 5:00am. I’m scared. I’m scared of going into labor when I’m not prepared. Everything is all lined up for when the day comes, but not if it comes today!!! I still have four weeks to go! It would be a pretty huge shock if baby came so early, and I really don’t think it’ll happen that way at all, but my mind is whirring and my body is without faith.

Because I’m already feeling weak, the enemy is beating down on me about every little thing he can think of. In the short time I’ve been up this morning, I’ve feared for my baby’s life, my own life, the general chaos of our life going up, not being approved to move again, and seemingly everything under the sun that I’ve been working SO hard to have faith about! God is in control. But it doesn’t always feel that way. Sometimes I just want something concrete to hold! Can’t God send me a letter so I have something in writing?? Or maybe God could just stop the braxton hicks contractions so I wouldn’t have to wonder what my body is doing, whether its “preparing” or actually dilating and getting set up to go! Can’t I have something secure??? Yet, saying this phrase over and over is supposed to bring me peace. While I do believe that God knows every hair atop my head, and every hair atop my baby boys head, and everyone elses, I honestly struggle to find peace in it. I just want an answer.

So to sum this all up, I am a Christian, and I believe that Jesus Christ cares for me, and my family, and everyone else, whether they care for Him or not. He loves me through my disbelief, and he takes care of me when I feel weak. I am His child, and as a parent, He knows I won’t get it right each and every time, or maybe even at all! I am an imperfect person, and while I don’t always feel the comfort in the idea of God having control of my life, I cannot imagine living my life thinking I had no help or support from above.

So feel free to think I’m crazy! I get it! It sounds crazy. But I have seen God’s good works, and I am confident I will see them again. That being said, for those of you who pray, please consider praying for me if I come to mind. I feel weak. I know, in my weakness, He is stronger, right? 😉 I should be finding some comfort in that one too. Working on it over here!

I confess that Brady and I haven’t been to church since Christmas Eve. Insane, right?? No judging, please! We’ve just felt swamped and exhausted, and the break has been nice, honestly. Not that we’ve been happy being away from all of the people in our church, but sleeping in is a luxury that we only get to enjoy once in a while. But it was really nice to be back today! We caught up with some of our good friends, heard a lot about whats going on in people’s lives, and got the kids acclimated again. I also rocked my new lips! For those who asked about the color, it looks like this:

We ended up leaving early, though. My dad is headed off on a work trip, and we all wanted to grab some lunch and have a quick visit before his plane took off, so we snuck out right around noon and hit up a nearby restaurant for food. The kids ate really well, but Laela was trashed and spent a lot of time staring down the elderly people at the table next to us. Luckily they were pretty smitten with her and didn’t seem to mind her lack of social cues.

My dad left straight from the restaurant and the rest of us made a quick Costco stop with my mom on the way to taking her home. If anyone needs any super pretty wrapping paper that isn’t Christmasy, hit up Costco now!

The kids had a decently emotional drive home, but they had a nice 1.5 hour nap once they got into bed. They still woke up at a reasonable time so I’m confident it won’t mess with bedtime too much at all. We’re going to have a quick easy supper and then get some solid playtime in this evening, and then hopefully we’ll do a bit more patching/puttying after they’re down for the night. Gotta keep things moving over here! February is about to get a bit crazy!!!

I think we all know that having kids comes with sacrifices, but as I parent, its easy for me to see the benefits more so. But the one thing that I’ve struggled the most with “losing” is my spontaneity. Brady and I were big on going away for weekends without any notice, random midnight movie dates, etc. before having kids. And the truth is that I really do miss those days. However, I’ve discovered that we can be spontaneous with the kids! In a very different way, of course, and to less extremes, but spontaneous nonetheless. I’d rather be able to be a little bit spontaneous with the kids than totally spontaneous but not have my little ones!

We had a super funny morning, full of strange fashion choices, and cuddles.

This afternoon, while the kids napped, Brady started to put the first coat of putty on all of the dings on our walls in preparation for painting sometime this February, while I lay in bed. Super helpful I am, I know. He came to hang out with me soon there after, and he offered to paint my toe nails. Its kind of difficult for me to get there anymore, so he painted mine and I painted his 🙂 Not because he necessarily loves to have his nails painted, but Dekker has requested that they’re painted, as Brady is the only one in the house without nail polish. While we painted nails, I mentioned that I was feeling a bit twitchy, and like I wish I had a good excuse to get out of the house today. You know those days? I had one. Even though Brady is out of the house almost every day, he tries really hard to help me when I’m feeling like that. Plus, I think going out with his family feels different than when he goes to work every day. So we brainstormed a bit and decided we had a few things we could do in the city. Not lots and lots, but enough to justify the trip and maybe even get home at a reasonable time.

So we did! We had put the kids down earlier than usual, so they woke up earlier than usual. We got them dressed and were out the door in pretty good time. They weren’t super impressed to be back in their winter coats (We’ve been rocking spring coats for a while now) but they looked ridiculously cute!

We hit up Costco for gas first, and I ran in for milk, yogurt, and cheese. We love our dairy products, apparently. I really wanted to go scan through the clothing section and the baby products, but I resisted the urge. I have a big bad shopping itch these days. But I’m proud that I came out with everything I needed, and only that.

Our next stop was much more exciting for me. Again, Brady dropped me off and I ran into the mall. For Christmas, Laela bought me a pair of shoes, but she didn’t know which size would fit me, so she ordered me two sizes online. To help her out, I picked the right size and finally brought the other pair in to return today. It was the easiest return ever! For those of you who don’t know (because I didn’t!) you can order from Aldo, and return anything without any time limit whatsoever. I just brought in the box and the papers that came in the parcel and it was over. Its scary to know online shoe shopping is so user friendly. After Aldo, I ran to Mac and embarrassed myself totally by saying my retractable liner wouldn’t roll, only to have them tell me I had to sharpen it. So that was good. I resolved the situation by buckling and buying a new lipstick. Don’t judge me, but its a BEAUTIFUL color, and their formula there is sooo good! So “Lady Danger” now belongs to me!!

Brady forgave me for buying lipstick. It probably helped that our next stop was Home Depot. Home Depot makes my husband happy. And as it turns out, it makes me happy too! We thought it would be fun to go in and get the supplies for the next stage of getting our house set up! Primer, plastic floor covering, new rollers, paint tray liners, etc. etc. etc. I went right to the paint desk area to ask for some advice, and knew we had come at the perfect time. The worlds nicest, most helpful paint guy was chomping at the bit to help us, and did he ever!!! We had done some quick measurements of the house before we left and judged that we probably needed about five gallons of primer. Buying it by the gallon would make it around $150, but the employee showed us a promo that offered us six gallons of the exact same paint for $120. So that was awesome!!! We’ll be more than covered, and we paid less 🙂 Yay! He took the pails of primer over to the shaker thing and we went down the nearby aisle to pick out the rest of our stuff. Once he had one pail shaking, he came back over and asked if we needed any help. We kind of hesitated and glanced into our cart, unsure. I had been pretty honest that we don’t know much about painting, but a quick look into our cart told him what we were looking for, and he helped us so much along the way. For instance, we had a three pack of roller liners, and he said that there was a four pack of higher quality ones for the same price. Boom! He helped us know which edger brushes were the best for their price, and a bunch of other stuff. He really didn’t up-sell us anywhere along the way. He was super helpful, and saved us a lot of money! So we all walked out of there feeling really good and accomplished. Yay!!!

We did a quick stop for supper on the way home, but the kids were pretty finished. Their nap was only about an hour long, and it showed, so we ate quickly and got our butts out of there. The ride home was a bit touchy, but we made it, and everyone is in bed, hopefully to be sleeping soon. My broken parts will do well in the tub tonight, that is for sure, but it was a really good day. The spontaneous trip to the city was fun for the kids, and for Brady and I. No, its no movie date or Edmonton trip, but its something, and I’ll take it!! (Plus, if not for this trip, Brady and I wouldn’t have coffee and donuts for our bubble bath!)

Time to sign off! Tomorrow will be another really fun day, I think. Finally getting our butts back to church (pretty sure its been since Christmas!!) and then spending a bit of the afternoon with my parents 🙂 So many good things so close together! We are truly blessed.

I’ve kept a decently busy schedule this week, and I’ve been really happy about it. I like having stuff up most days, and while it kind of messes with the kids schedules, they really like being busier too. But today, as I mentioned yesterday, is laundry day, and thats basically it. While we’ve had some bumps in the road throughout the day, its been exactly how I wanted it to be!

The kids ate breakfast and lunch like champs, and Dekker even shared with Laela. Our lunch is always downstairs, and its just snack foods, so the kids can wander around and play and eat at their leisure. Laela often gets a bit into her tummy and then would rather play, and Dekker took initiative with her today, bringing her crackers and offering her bites of his precious apple slices to make sure she got the healthy stuff in. He offered me bites too, and sips of water, even though I had my own lunch. I was setting up to just heat up a can of broccoli soup, but it looked really questionable as I was pouring it out, so I added some shredded cheese, and it was actually super delicious. It probably would have been more than fine without the cheese as well, but broccoli cheese soup is delicious. Yum.

We were watching a show, and I told Dekker that it would be time for a nap once this episode was over. He agreed, as he always does, and continued playing. I remembered that I needed to do diaper changed before they went down though, so I summoned them over and did that really quick. And when that was done, Dekker headed for the stairs. The episode was still going but I went with it. If he’s going to go to bed willingly, I’ll take it! He immediately started teasing Laela, and coaxed her up the stairs all on his own. Then, to “make a fair race” he got down on his hands and knees and raced Laela to their room. All on his own!!! Once in their room, he gave her a big hug and kiss, and told her he hoped she slept well, before climbing up into his bed. Unbelievable!!!!!

It took a little bit for him to fall asleep but he was a total champ getting there!! And he did actually sleep! Still is! I couldn’t be happier.

Once they were down, I phone dated my mother in law, and put another load of laundry through. It was really nice to visit and catch up, as always. Hopefully we’ll see Bradys parents soon enough, once the baby is here.

* Total side note on that topic. I WISH I was the kind of person who would out his name to the world before he was born, because I have a little video of Dekker saying it, and it is just the sweetest thing!!! Bah!

Laundry is still going, and I’m obviously off the phone (I’m not rude enough to blog and talk on the phone at the same time) so its time to put my feet up and rest my aching self. I’ve so enjoyed my quiet home day 🙂 Funny how having fewer of them makes me appreciate them more. This day has been exactly what I wanted.

I slept much better last night than I had the night before, which was a relief. It helps when one isn’t up from 4:00am on. The kids were pretty cute, and played well. We ate yummy snacks and had a pretty relaxed day of learning the names of all of Laela’s princesses, and watching some Friends on Netflix.

The kids went down for their nap really well. I wasn’t sure they would, as Laela seemed really energetic still, and squealed at Dekker the whole time I was tucking her in. But they were both asleep in less than ten minutes. While they napped, I rested up as well, watched a bit of YouTube, played Free Cell, and texted a friend or two. Just relaxed. When my mom finally called to say she was on her way over, I decided I should get myself together and look like a human. I had a half hour.

And I accomplished nothing. I put on deodorant and brushed my teeth, and I put my pants back on, haha! But that was it! I found myself sort of running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Yet by the time she arrived, the whole place (and myself) still looked a mess. Luckily, not a drop of judgement dripped off of her. I haven’t had her over in over a month, so we ran around and I showed her everything she’s “missed,” like the paint colors swatched on our walls, my fun little makeup corner I’m putting together, and all the fun new shoes we bought yesterday. I decided to stop showing off our random crap when we started discussing our new sheets. C’mon Hailey, its sheets.

We had a ridiculously yummy supper of perogies and wings, with a cucumber salad on the side. Cucumber salad has turned into my latest cottage cheese concoction, but everyone approved it first, and I made a bit bowl. It was so yummy. We watched a bit of a show, played with the kids, and painted nails. It took a bit to get the kids down, but they eventually did, and we all visited a bit more before mom had to go home. I miss her.

But its time for a soak and a snack. I’m loving these brownies, and can’t wait to eat them again!!

Tomorrow, all I have written in my day planner is “make honey mustard dressing” and “laundry day.” Both are easy and decently enjoyable tasks. I’m looking forward to my cozy day at home 🙂

I was awakened at 4:00 this morning to Dekker sobbing. He never wakes up or cries in the night anymore, so if it spontaneously happens, we go to him immediately. I rushed into their room and found him sitting on his bed, shrucking. I climbed up the stairs and held him for a few minutes until he calmed down. When I asked him what was going on, he asked me for a different blanket. I’ll admit that I immediately lost some compassion for him. Instead of a stuffed toy or something of the sort, Dekker likes to hold one of his old receiving blankets when he sleeps. Doesn’t matter which one, just some flannel to hold beneath his quilt. These days, asking for a new blanket is a stall tactic. I responded with “No, no new blanket right now. Its bedtime, you can finish off the night with this blanket.” I went to grab it and for the life of me, I couldn’t find it. Oh. I guess that was the issue. I couldn’t find it anywhere and wasn’t about to turn on any lights, so I grabbed him a new one, got him a drink of water, and put him back down.

For the next two hours, he proceeded to talk, sit up, play, wake his sister, and general act up. It was infuriating. I was wide awake, desperately trying to shut him down. On a normal night, I would have likely given up and left him to his own devices, knowing Laela would possibly go back down once he woke her, and that life would go on, and thats just what happens when little kids share a bedroom. But we had plans to go into the city later in the day and I needed the kids to not be totally shot. They were eventually both back to sleep around 6:30. My poor body. It seems to kind of depend on those nighttime hours to make it possible for me to walk the next day without excruciating pelvic pain and the sort, and I lost many of those hours. I have no idea how you mothers of non-sleepers do it. I did get another hour in before we were all up for the day, but very literally all day, I felt as though I could (and likely would) burst out into tears at any moment. Suuuper unstable and emotional. Hormones! Yay!

 *merp*

I was fading badly in the morning while the kids played, and knew I wouldn’t make it through the day with the way I was feeling, so I put the kids down for their nap about a half hour early, in hopes that they would actually fall asleep and sleep for a couple of hours before we left, so we could all be a little bit refreshed. Magically, it worked! Both kids were asleep within minutes. I gathered up a big bowl of cucumbers and tomatoes, threw some cottage cheese and sunflower seeds on top, and wolfed it down in hopes that it would bring energy. It was delicious, but I knew it wasn’t enough, so I indulged in a brownie. Then I lay in bed and dozed a bit while Friends played on Netflix. When it was about 2:30, I got myself ready at a nice relaxed pace. I got dressed and put my makeup on, and made a bit of noise to lull the kids. Right around 3:00, it was their turn to get up.

Dekker was ready and excited to get up. Laela, on the other hand…

…was trashed in the cutest little stretched out position that there ever was. I got Dekker ready and dressed first as Laela slowly woke up. Dekker woke her with his sweet little high-pitched call, and I got her all cute and ready as well. We hit the road right around 3:30, which had been the original goal. Yay for getting two kids out the door on time!

We met Brady in a parking lot near his work and left his work van there so we could run all of our errands together, which we all prefer. We started at Dr. Mikes office, where he assured me I was in better shape than the last time he’d seen me, and then proceeded to hurt me anyway. My poor pelvis. Just a few more weeks of the craziness! Brady entertained the kids in the van while I was in my appointment.

Then we hit the mall nearby, which was by far our most successful chunk of shopping day, in my opinion!

My mom had tipped us off that Dawgs was having a really good sale on everything in the store, including the cute little slip on shoes for kids. I loved the idea of getting Laela some cute sparkly slip ons and something new for Dekker as well, since he hates sandals and is in runners all summer. Brady could also use a pair of something to wear through the houses he works in once the flooring is installed. He currently rocks slippers, which works, but we figured some Dawgs would be nicer on his back. So all of that considered, we figured we’d duck in and see if we found anything. We got to the mall right as Jerilee got off of her shift at work, so she met us at the store and we all shoe shopped together. Best. Haul. Ever.

Besides the two pairs that Jerilee bought, our little family ended up with seven new pairs of shoes, and we paid $50. Unbelievable. Of all the shoes though, Dekker LOVED his blue ones! He ended up wearing them out, and he ran instead of walked for the rest of the evening. He was invincible, and he loved it. Seriously, a HUGE win! I’m just kicking myself a little bit that I didn’t inquire more about colors for Laela. I tried to get her another color or two, but out of what I asked for, this is all they had for her. But I should have asked about the more neutral ones. Oops. Oh well, pink is cute!

After Dawgs, we parted ways with Jerilee, and we hit up Superstore. I bought a few new products that I’m really anxious to try over the next little while, as well as some much-needed groceries. It wasn’t a big shop at all, but big enough to justify cookies for the kids. As per usual, they were very happy to get their treats. While we waited in line to pay for our stuff, I crouched down for some face time with my son, and he gave me a big kiss before sticking his cookie into my mouth. Now, my boy is a very sweet boy, but sharing a cookie is a pretty big deal. I made a really big show of it and gave him lots of hugs and kisses. What a generous soul.

Since they were already eating, Brady dropped me off at a different mall to take advantage of a great deal that Thyme Maternity had, and he drove to a nearby restaurant and grabbed some food for all of us. They came back and picked me up, and we ate in the van. I had bought three shirts at Thyme and paid $30. A VERY good deal!

Our last stop was Costco, and the kids were fading pretty hard. Also, I was really feeling my chiropractic treatment, and was having trouble walking without walking the wrong way, which does more damage in the end. No waddling for me. So I stayed in the van, but Dekker really wanted to do Costco, so he and Brady did it together while Laela and I hung out in the van and ate a few more french fries.

The kids slept the whole way home and cried through us putting them in jammies. Poor tired kids. But they are now down, and I am more than ready for a soak in the tub! My poor aching body, haha! I have a co-dependant relationship with my bathtub.

And as I previously mentioned, I have the same relationship with the brownies on my counter. Yum…

I can honestly say that today was probably my favorite Tuesday out of all of my recent Tuesdays. We went to bed early last night so I felt pretty rested this morning, and the kids were super cute and did great at breakfast. Laela had been a bit moody yesterday and it seemed like she and Dekker traded off, so Dekker was a bit twitchy after breakfast, but nothing that cuddling wouldn’t solve. They did well over lunch, and went down for their nap very well. Apparently, they were more than ready. Maybe they party all night and we just don’t know about it.

After they went down for their nap, I did some stuff on the laptop before making myself look like a human. Brady and Jerilee both texted from roughly the same place around the same time to tell me they were on their way over, so I washed my hair and finished up my makeup. Brady beat Jerilee by less than five minutes and came bearing noodle bowls for supper. The kids got up and we all ate supper together. However, we couldn’t stay to play, and Jerilee and I left the moment supper was done.

We drove about 50 minutes north and hit up our former bible school. We have officially joined their concert choir!! They put on a performance twice a year, and any community members/alumni/students are welcome to participate. Sadly, this is the last year that the school will be open, and we thought it would be really special to be part of it, sort of as a last hurrah. We made it just a few minutes early and found spots with some people Jerilee knew. I was surprised to see such a small group, to be honest. I thought there would be many more people who wanted to be part of the last concert choir, but I’m still very happy we went. Every song we sang was beautiful, and I know they’ll all flow together beautifully when the time comes to actually perform. It was also really, really fun to sing in a group with strong four part harmony in a big room with good acoustics. Its been a while.

One of the best things about practice tonight was that it ended exactly on time! We were nice and out of the building and on the road by 8:20. We stopped and visited with my mom for a short time along the way, but ultimately, arrived at home around 10:00. Brady has busied himself beautifully! All of the furniture in our living room was moved into the middle, ready for puttying and painting to begin. AND he baked brownies. So the three of us gathered up some snacks and headed downstairs for our weekly viewing of the Bachelor. Yes, it got pretty late, especially for poor Jerilee who had to drive back to the city around midnight, but it was fun, and a really good ending to my day!

I feel refreshed, albeit tired and like my pelvis is going to come apart at the seams. It’ll be good to see Dr. Mike tomorrow and have him put me back in place! Tomorrow should be another good day, with plans later in the day, and the same story for Thursday! I’m loving the fact that I’ve been able to keep a slightly busier schedule these last couple of weeks. It makes me feel more accomplished, and I also appreciate my quiet, home days more than I used to. Friday will be so nice, as I have nothing currently planned. It will probably be a laundry day.

Ok, time for bed. Poor Brady gets up in five hours, sooo…

I was going to save blogging for the evening, since I have a fun outing that I’m really looking forward to, but after a texty date with my sister, Grace, I realized that what we were talking about is something I’d love to just briefly touch on today 🙂 I’ll leave the stories of eating chocolate and having my feet rubbed for tomorrow maybe.

Roles within the family. I won’t go too terribly in depth, because I don’t feel like they’re very specifically defined in our house. We all fit into lots of places. But Gracey and I were talking about birth order and things like that, and it made me think about how having a third child will be a whole new cup of tea! Even though I have had a couple of kids already, and yes, I know the ropes of a couple different courses, no two kids are the same, and their order is part of that! So, just for fun, here is a breakdown of my views of how and where our kids fit into our home 🙂

Dekker Thomas is our oldest, and it shows. He’s had the most one on one time, so he’s a bit more hesitant around groups of people, having been alone with me so much, but he’s learning. He doesn’t like having his stuff messed with. He likes order, and for things to remain where he last put them. He is mommys big helper. He pulls his weight around (literally) by carrying his dishes to the sink, putting them in the top of the dishwasher even, unloading the dryer, bringing diapers and wipes when I ask, and feeding Laela snacks. This morning, Dekker was playing with his tea set, and was “stirring soup” in one of the cups. He carried the spoon all the way across the basement to feed Laela a taste, and came back to share some with me too. He also took it upon himself to comb Laela’s hair and admire it afterwards, telling her she looked so pretty, complete with a hug and kiss. I am confident he will be protective of Laela as they grow up together, and be the classic big strong brother who teases her about boys until she cries. He is a doting older brother to his younger sister, and seems to be genuinely anticipating his little brothers arrival. He even asked me if I thought the baby would tickle his tummy. He is so ready to have another little one around to play with and care for. He is incredibly sensitive, and has a very gentle soul.

Laela Hazel is the second child, and she is completely different from Dekker! She is always on the move, and is very very brave. She is the one who can smack her head against the couch and not miss a beat. She is the daredevil that makes me almost poop my pants on a somewhat daily basis. Yet, being that she is our second child, and I am considerably less afraid of everything, she also takes more spills because I rush to catch her less. When Laela falls off of the couch, she turns it into a superman dive roll and makes it look intentional. She is a mimic, which I actually quite enjoy. Her “monkey see, monkey do” mentality is endearing to Brady and I, and luckily, Dekker still thinks its fun. He isn’t always happy when she follows him like a shadow, but when she imitates his movements and we applaud, he loves it then. Dekker has taught Laela peek-a-boo, clapping, and the “sooo big” motion. Laela loves to be tickled and played with, but plays beautifully by herself. That being said, when she is upset and lets fly, you know she means it. She also loves to help, because Dekker does. If he retrieves a diaper, you can be confident that she is not far behind with a diaper of her own. She will throw her dirty diapers away in the diaper genie, and put her laundry into the hamper. She is incredibly clear in her communication, which has been probably one of the best things (in my opinion) about having her around. She has nodded “yes” for probably a good couple of months already, and its usually accompanied by a “ya.” She now shakes her head “no” too, and waves, points, and is just starting to utter a few small words, like cup, boo- for book, and wow 🙂 My heart shivered just days ago when she crawled up the stairs and upon arriving at the top, screeching “mommy mommy!!” I melt.

Dekker and Laela have a very special thing going, and while I hope no one is excluded or ignored, they have been together for a while now! They talk to each other in the car, share toys back and forth, and tease and tease and tease. They have a fabulous thing going!

Baby boy is our third child, and while I don’t know too terribly much about him just yet, I’m going to try and let you in on the few things that I do know, or suspect. Being that he is down the list in the birth order, there are almost no belly shots of him. We feel a bit guilty, but I don’t think its uncommon for this to be the case. He still makes himself to be noticed, so I wouldn’t say he’s neglected. He is quite unpredictable, and hasn’t been exactly like one pregnancy or the other. He is definitely an original. We think he will want to be noticed amongst his siblings. Currently, his way of doing this is by sleeping very, very lightly. If I roll over in the night, so does he. Over and over again. He has big opinions about what I eat, but almost all are positive, so he will likely be a tank who loves to eat. No purees or baby food for this boy! As for him being third in line, he has a brother and a sister waiting for him, and he adores them both already. When they are both sitting on my lap, he manages to nudge them both practically the whole time. Dekker thinks its funny, while Laela hasn’t noticed too much yet. She prefers to contact him through my belly button. I’m very curious to learn more about him, and to be able to share his name and stats with everyone else who is anticipating him. The biggest stereotype that I want to fight against for him is that babies get less and less exciting the more you have. Guys, he will be making his appearance in FIVE WEEKS, and I couldn’t be more floored and thrilled out of my face to meet him! I hope you feel the same, to the sane and appropriate degree that people should care about someone elses baby, haha! But let’s not let him be the random forgotten third child.

I can’t wait to fill in these gaps a bit more and get to know our baby boy so soon. These kids are spectacular.

The kids woke up with a vengeance maybe around 8:00. They played loudly for a little bit before Dekker climbed back up onto his megabed and they both went back to sleep. No word of a lie. No one got sad first or anything. They just went back to bed until shortly before 11:00!!! It was pretty insane, actually. To celebrate, Brady made us a delicious brunch of pancakes and bacon, and the kids were thrilled.

Because of the ridiculously long night, we knew they wouldn’t nap well, if at all, and we had come to terms with that. But at or around their normal nap time, Laela was rubbing her eyes and Dekker was picking fights. So they both were tucked away for some quiet time. Laela slept, and Dekker rested quietly for about an hour before they were both up again. It was fine though. Better than we had expected.

We didn’t do much else today. I know we’re a couple of years late, but we finally finished up the dvd series of The Office. It was a really good ending, and we were both really happy at the end 🙂 Lame to be excited about a tv show maybe, but its been a long time coming. So that was a significant highlight from the day.

Also today, we dug through our tub of baby boy clothes to see what we could reuse from Dekker for the new baby. I know its still a little early, but since Dekker was born mid-August and Jim will be born in March, the seasons are pretty opposite, and I wanted to have an idea of what we have that we can use, and what gaps we sort of need to fill. We’ve already bought a few sleepers, since you can never have too many, and a couple of other tiny little things, but from the tub, we got five sleepers, one pair of dressy pants, a sweater, two hoodies, six long sleeved shirts, and two tshirts. It sounds like a lot as I type it out here, but it actually isn’t much, considering how much our children barf. I know every kid is different, but we have rocked two barfers so far and I won’t be surprised if we have a third. That being said, we threw away quite a bit of clothing that we had saved to reuse, that turned out to be incredibly stained. Like, yellow aaaaall down the front and aaaaall the way around the neck. Pretty nasty. But it was fun to dig back into it all and reminisce a little bit, while anticipating the future. Five more weeks until I have my third baby in my arms. Its finally starting to feel like its coming up soon, and not months away. Its pretty much just month away 😉

AND! This next month is really big for us! For us, February is our anniversary (7th), Valentines Day (14th), and this year, we add the one year anniversary of Dekker’s eye surgery!!! Hopefully, among all the celebrating, we’ll find time to paint our house, and potentially get things organized-ish in the way of listing/moving/building/who knows. Its both an exciting and chaotic time, and I’m looking forward to getting the ball rolling!

Remember yesterday, when I said we weren’t super productive? We were even less productive today. While I feel like we’ve been a bit sluggish maybe, I’ve also really enjoyed the last couple of days, so that is that. Happy me.

The kids were really happy this morning but were really edgy before lunch already. Usually food helps, but today, it did not. So they went down for their nap a half hour early and both fell asleep pretty quickly. While they napped, I watched a bit of YouTube, and Brady wrote up all the relevant numbers and sent them to our mortgage guy. Now we just wait for him to get back to us. We wait on pins and needles, probably with some sweating and over-eating. We wait to see what we qualify for, and to learn whether or not its enough to move us on to our next adventure.

Once the kids started to lull, Brady jumped in the shower and I headed over to my beautiful place to play in my makeup for a bit. I’ve sooo enjoyed my new products, and I feel like I have a new one to try out every day. I didn’t use one old product today! Fun stuff.

We got the kids up and dressed, which is always a big indicator that we’re going somewhere. They cooperated beautifully and were ready to get out and in the van. Thankfully, the freezing rain from the morning had subsided and the highway was nice and cleared. The same can’t be said for our driveway or sidewalk but we were all very careful and no one went down.

We got to my parents place around 4:30 I think. Ish, anyway. I’m not positive. The kids beelined for the toys and settled in immediately. We played hard and chatted and watched a few cute videos of the kids for a while, until supper time. We had sausage and rice, gravy, and green bean casserole for supper. I love this meal, and its mostly because I LOVE green bean casserole!! Dekker ate his body weight in sausage, as well as some of everything else, and Laela ate everything. She was refusing to eat any more until I offered her more green beans, which seemed to open up that hollow leg. It was a very successful supper.

Dekker reappeared at the table to claim his pumpkin cream cheese cupcake, and then was off for toys, after a very endearing thank you to grandma, assuring her that the cupcakes were his favorite cupcakes.

Brady and my dad did a bit of work on the computer, setting a couple of things up, while my mom and I puttered around “doing dishes” but mostly just playing with the kids and visiting. We stayed a bit longer than we expected to, but its so hard to leave when everyone is still happy.

We finally piled out just after 7:30, and thankfully, the kids stayed awake the whole drive home, so we had high hopes for a smooth transition to bedtime. It was actually probably the most fun we’ve had with them at bedtime in a long time, with TONS of tickling and munching and teasing and chasing and partying. It was awesome. Of course, they’re now solidly riled up and who knows when they’ll fall asleep but it was worth it. We truly have the best kids on the planet.