Todays post will include a house update as well as cute success stories about all of the kids, including new baby! I run out of titles for these posts. I’m pretty I have a handful of posts called “Updates on the kids” or something like that. One of these days, I’m just going to stop titling them, haha! My creativity is lacking.
Firstly, before I start talking family stuff, I’ll share that we have an official possession date!!! I haven’t talked to Brady yet about making it completely public, so I won’t post it on here just yet, but if you’d like to know, feel free to ask and I’ll let you know privately 🙂 I’m just unsure if there is now any wiggle room with it, and I want it to be concrete before I publicize it. You get it. But anyway, we got the date yesterday, and to celebrate, we went out as a family yesterday evening and ordered our countertops. We haven’t picked them up yet, and I discovered that they were no longer in stock in store. (For those who don’t know, we’re doing countertops ourselves, and are purchasing them from Lowes.) We packed up and drove to the store to ask a few questions, and left having paid for the entire order! Now we just eagerly wait for them to come!! It felt like a good celebratory event.
Brady is currently doing his stage one finishing in our house, and is really enjoying putting his skills to work on his own house! He’s currently installing and casing all of the doors. Aren’t they pretty??
I am SO thrilled that we got these doors that I was so hoping for. They have exceeded my expectations, easily. (This is the closet and door in what will be Dekker and Rowan’s room.) Tomorrow Brady will do the shelving in all of the closets. Bedrooms, pantry, linen, entrance, and storage. Selfishly, I am MOST excited for our walk in closet. But you can’t blame me. Just wait until you see it!!!
Time for news on all of the kids!
Starting with kid #1 (in order of age) we had some cool progress with Dekker today! Forgive me, those of you who don’t care to know bathroom details, lol! Skip this paragraph if you’d like. Dekker is very much potty trained, and is more than capable of doing everything on his own. However, after being SO sick at our last rental for SO long, he got pretty poop-spooked. We all know what sick poops are like, and because of that, we had to help him with quite a bit of the clean up over those six weeks. Since then, he is really anxious about trying to take care of business on his own. He insists on us helping clean him up. We did for a while, because we totally get where that anxiety comes from. Its yucky to be messy and poopy. But we’ve finally had to lay down the law and make him do it on his own. He’s struggled really hard with it, emotionally more than anything, but today was a HUGE milestone in getting back to where we were. We were out this morning for a doctors appointment, and upon arriving home, he insisted that he didn’t have to use the bathroom, and went to the loft to play. A few minutes later, he came to the stairs and said he had to poop. I will be the first to admit that I didn’t treat the situation as I wish I had. I wasn’t gentle. I kind of panicked. Dekker hasn’t pooped for two days, which is NOT like him, so I feared the worst. I said over and over again “Don’t poop your pants! Don’t poop your pants!” and I grabbed his sleeve to rush him down the stairs. He assured me he hadn’t, yet, which wasn’t super comforting. He had a truck he had built out of Duplo in his hand, and I went to take it from him. My motive was good, and he never brings toys to the bathroom, but I dropped it in my rushing, and the pieces scattered all over. Once again, I spouted off “I’ll get the pieces, I’ll take care of it, just hurry! Don’t poop your pants!” He handled my freak out calmly and rushed off to the bathroom. I gathered up the pieces and put them on the table, and then waited for the inevitable “I poooooped!” from the bathroom. It didn’t come. I gave him a couple of minutes, and it came eventually. I ducked my head in, expecting the worst. He simply said “I pooped! I cleaned it up, but can you check that I got it all?” This may seem gross or dumb to some people, but this is HUGE progress for us! I made a big fuss over how great he had done to try all by himself first, and that I was happy to check. The goal is always for him to just try, you know? Nothing has to be perfect every time, or ever, but its good to try. Anyway, he had done a PERFECT job, all was in order, and he took care of the rest – flushing, washing up, closing his pants, etc. He did great. When he came out, I apologized for my attitude and told him he had handled the whole situation really well. Then I apologized for dropping his truck, and he forgave me instantly. He assured me he could rebuild it, which he did. He even brought it to be to show me everything was ok. I am SO PROUD of this boy! He has rocked a fabulous attitude all day today! Go Dekker!!!
Hahaha! I just have to say, that could be its own post. I’ve already written almost 1000 words! Whoops!
Laela has been one of the sweetest little things today as well. We’ve had SO many good conversations, and she is SUCH a joker! While I was changing her diaper today, the jokes just kept flowing. She flopped herself down onto Dekker’s bed to be changed, and then rolled up her shirt a little, pointed to her tummy, and quietly suggested “Taste?” So of course, I went hog wild and munched her belly while she squealed and giggled and asked for more. It was SO sweet. Then I pulled her pants off and chucked them on her head. I’m nice like that. We always joke “Pants hat!” when I do that, and today she worked hard to actually put her pants on her head like a hat. When it was time to put them back on, she handed them to me and said “Hat pants!” She figures she’s just the funniest thing on earth, and she’s probably pretty close to right. Finally, when all was said and done, I asked her if she’d like to sit on the potty if I gave her a candy. “No sanks,” she replied. I suggested a cookie, which she also rejected. I finally asked what we had to do to get her on the potty, and she shook her head, heaved a sigh, and as become a common answer around here, she said “Call Paw Patrol.” Sigh. Going to have to get creative with that one. Another sweet thing Laela did today was help me tidy up the entrance. She lined up all of the shoes without being asked, and just told me “Lala nice at helpin’.” She is correct. She is VERY nice at helping.
Rowan has been a good trooper today. I got the kids up and out the door in such a rush, and he choked down his bowl of oatmeal at likely an uncomfortable speed, but he rocked it without complaint. He was completely quiet during our doctors appointment, and handled all of the morning festivities very very well. As I snuggled him before putting him down for his nap, I felt like I got to really just sit and take a minute with him, differently than usual. I could smell him and stroke his hair and rock him a bit. He instantly put him head on my shoulder and cuddled in. It was just SUCH a soft moment. I can tell the kids aren’t as comfortable when I pick them up anymore, just because my belly interferes with the closeness aspect of things, and they end up hanging off of me at a weird angle. But Ro just formed around me SO nicely, and we had a really lovely pause in time together. As I laid him down in the crib, I couldn’t quite decide whether or not he looked so little still or so grown up, but I’m happy to have him either way, or both ways. No rush to grow up, my boy. Against popular belief, having another baby doesn’t bump him out of his role. We’ll just have another. Its going to be SO perfect. I can’t wait to see their dynamic, and how they’ll be together. I suspect Rowan will be a fabulous big brother, as he is a little brother. He loves somewhat aggressively, but his siblings KNOW how much he loves them. He is shaping up beautifully, and fits in amazingly.
As for baby #4 (Ack! I wish I could just call him by name finally!!) he is still cooking up well, as far as we can tell! He’s growing right, as much as they can tell from my measurements and weight gain. His heart rate is steady, almost always in the 140s, though he is NOT a fan of the doppler at all. Now I know all kids are different, of course, but I’m VERY curious about his little self and what he’ll be like. He is the first baby who we haven’t seen via 3D ultrasound, so while we knew Dekker would look like Bradys moms side of the family, that Laela would look more like my moms side, and that Rowan would look like Laela, we have no idea about this little guy! Also, he is the most “patterned.” He has his specific wakeful times and specific sleeping times, which I never noted with the other kids really. I am so ready to meet him, and see how everyone responds this time around. I am 1000% confident that he will fit in perfectly. That is one thing I have felt very positive about since he became a real thing. I know he will fit in just smashingly. I can’t wait! Eek!
Ok, I think that is about enough for one day, hahaha! Lots of information, but there were just too many good things to share today, I couldn’t resist a long post 🙂