The Daily Hailey

This is probably one of the most asked questions I’ve been getting since we brought Waverly home, and I really love that 🙂 Just some solid concrete evidence that people haven’t forgotten the rest of our sweeties in the shuffle of adding a new sweetie. Thanks, guys, for loving ALL of our kids!!

So, their reactions to her and their feelings about her, in no particular order. So far, anyway! Let’s keep in mind she’s 3.5 days old…

I should tell you guys about Laela first. People have been the most amped about her gaining a sister. While she was less concerned about gender than anyone else, she was totally thrilled about “getting” a baby! She was the first to hold Wavy upon bringing her home.

When we told her the baby’s name, and asked if she liked it, her response was “Kinda…” I saved it, though, in telling her Wavy’s middle name was Violet. THAT sold her. Though she still calls her Bambina often enough. Habits are hard to break 😉 Laela often says she “likes the look of her,” and when I confirm that she thinks Wavy is pretty, she nods and says “Yup. And her head! Smells so good!” She’s been listening, haha!

Dekker has been heavily anticipating her, knowing full well what was to come and understanding what it meant to add another kid to our family. He was a bit ripped that Laela got to hold her first, and snagged his turn shortly thereafter. This is the FIRST time EVER that Dekker has asked to hold the new baby. He’s always been fairly hands off when it comes to new family members, never being mean to them, but being at least uninterested or nervous. But he LOVES Wavy.

He is her protector. If she makes the slightest noise, he heads on over to her to check on the situation. He loves to kiss her fingers and touch her hair. But that shouldn’t really surprise anyone who knows him. He is SUCH a sensitive soul. When she first arrived home, he couldn’t pronounce her name very well. He skipped the R completely. Wavely. Like, Navel-y. I told him that daddy and I usually call her Wavy, and he jumped ALL over that! He’s figured out the pronunciation of her full name now, but we all opt for the short form most of the time anyway. So far, Dekker has held firm on his decision to give her a billion kisses. Its a great relationship.

Rowan is easily the most neutral on the subject of his new sister. He loves her name, and insists he’s always called her Wavy. Its all lies, for the record, haha! While he likes her and isn’t at all scared of her, he’s pretty uninterested thus far. I’m not especially surprised, because she’s obviously not doing much of anything at this point, but I’m thankful he’s not put off by her.

For instance, these pictures didn’t happen naturally. I asked him to go over to her and give her a kiss. He was happy to oblige, but he was soon off in the other direction, doing something else. No jealousy or anger to speak of. He’s just doing other things. When I asked him his favorite thing about her, he says he really likes her stuffie. Lol!

I thought Solly would be the most put off by her presence, to be honest, being that he’s been the youngest for quite a while now, and he tends to wear his opinions on his sleeve. But he LOVES Wavy!!!!

He often hangs out by her rocker, if she’s in it. He’s never come close to toppling it over or anything either. He’ll sit on the window sill sometimes and just watch over her. If I ever say “baby,” he thumps on over to her and announces “Beeebee Weewee!!” Like he LOVES her!!! When he met her for the very first time, he was SO excited! He kept trying to smack her, which we quickly talked him through, and he traded his smacks for gentle rubs. But then he’d rub her whole face, or poke his finger into her mouth. Basic toddler-meets-baby stuff. He took a little dolly hairbrush to her beautiful hair, and dug in pretty good for a second there, but she tolerated it and didn’t even fuss.

Come to think of it, I don’t think any of them have made her cry yet. But like I said earlier on, she’s only a few days in 😉

I have a list of things I want to write about and share with you guys, but they’ll all take a decent amount of planning and thought, and frankly, I feel like an easy one today 😉 I know you’ll all understand.

Yesterday was our first full day at home with FIVE children! It was surprisingly full, but I really loved it. We kicked off with breakfast and a visit from Healthy and Home. If you’re not from around here, Healthy and Home is a program where a nurse from public health drops by your house, does a little check over of you and your babe, and offers advice or help anywhere needed. Our nurse this time around was just amazing!!! She was instantly smitten with our kids, and included everyone in the visit. Since we were considered an early discharge from the hospital (Wavy was only about 14 hours old) there were a few things that needed doing. Wavy had her first blood draw to be sent away, which she didn’t much care for but tolerated nonetheless. She was also checked for jaundice, and passed easily!! Its so different having a baby thats considered “of average size” because they get poked and fussed with WAY less! Its refreshing for everyone. We also checked Wavy’s weight, which has dropped a little as is super normal. But guys, she’s 7 lbs 4 oz now 😮 I don’t even know what to think! She’s SO SMALL!! But she passed everything with flying colors, and the nurse had no concerns with anything. She made the comment that she loved it here, and said she wished she could stay all day. It was right around then that Solly and Rowan started to break down and fight, and Wavy decided she was, in fact, finished with her exam. So I think we cured our poor nurse of that feeling pretty quickly 🤣

My mom came over for a shorty visit shortly thereafter, to play with the kids, hold the baby, and be a familiar, fresh face in our home. It was LOVELY to see her! She offered to bring us supper that night, which we happily accepted!

Once the kids had eaten and were either down for naps or settled in for some Lego time, Brady and I put our feet up and enjoyed a restful lunch together as well. See, guys? I PROMISE I’m resting!

When the kids woke up, we actually braved the rest of the world and headed into the city. I know!!! We shouldn’t be out and about already! But here’s the thing. We realized the day before that Brady had accidentally left an entire change of clothes at the hospital. Included in that stack was a brand new pair of cozy sweat shorts, his favorite tshirt, and one of those wretchedly expensive pairs of underwear. We couldn’t just leave them there :/ So in we went! Brady did the legwork and picked his stuff up from the 5th floor (SO thankful they held onto it for him!!) and then we tried to head home, but accidentally detoured into Carters. Whoops. It was a short visit there, and then we went home. I had a great phone date with my sister as we drove, which was so refreshing. I miss her so much.

We got home shortly before my mom arrived with golden mushroom chicken, rice, and veggies for us. We destroyed that meal, lol! It was delicious!

We wound the kids down for bedtime by watching some music videos on YouTube, and bedtime turned out pretty smoothly. It all went as it usually does, even with Wavy added to the mix. She just makes it that much sweeter, giving all of us one more person to kiss and love. I love how low maintenance she is at this point and how little she asks for, yet I’m SO EXCITED to see what changes come with her joining our family!!!

We made it through day one! I hope we have many, many, many more days like this ahead!

Everyone loves the little details, right? Todays post will hopefully cover most of them for you guys 🙂 Some of you responded to my Facebook post with ideas, which I REALLY appreciate! Some of them will be answered today, and others will come in the posts to come. Today is JUST Wavy’s specific details.

Waverly Violet was born on July 2nd, 2018 at 10:46pm after 9.5 hours of labour.

She weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was only 20″ long. Our teeniest baby.

She has a FULL head of thick hair that almost looks silvery to me. It isn’t, but our other kids started out with dark brown fuzz and her hair is definitely different. Maybe golden brown is the right direction? I’ll know more when we wash it.

She has dark eyes, as is common in newborns. Her eyes are blue, and they will remain blue, as Brady and I both have blue eyes, as do all the other kids. Did you guys know blue eyes are a genetic mutation? She HAS to have blue eyes because we do. So no surprises there.

Continuing on with her physical details, she has little while “milk dots” across her nose and in her brows like all of our babies have. I LOVE those things. They last such a short time.

Of all the kids, the most common perception is that she looks the most like Rowan.

She is a finger sucker. She makes the BEST slurping sounds!

Wavy was born with a MASSIVE umbilical cord. Like THICK! It looks very slug-like. I won’t lie. I’m excited for that sucker to fall off. Thankfully, its already drying up a bit, so its less *dry heave* sticky.

Our little girly gave me a fright when she first surfaced by not crying. She was wide awake, and gave annoyed grunts as our nurse wiped her off, but wouldn’t cry. Her personality continues to be that way. She is amazingly content and peaceful.

When Wavy is awake, she is WIDE awake. Totally alert. Yet again, she’ll lay wide awake, perfectly content, for longer periods of time than I expected.

Her lungs are 100% clear, which is a first for us. There is no rattle whatsoever in her breathing, leaving her mother in panic mode when she sleeps. Can’t she just gurgle a little even, so I can hear her breathe?!

Lastly, she is already SO familiar with her siblings. It must be very true that unborn babies can hear whats going on in the outside world from inside the womb, because she is so calm in all the chaos and noise that play out in the day. She just watches on from wherever she’s hanging out, totally at peace.

Did I get most of it? Do you feel like you know her a little bit better? She is truly remarkable in every way. Her personality is sweet and patient. She is low maintenance. She fits in so well here. And she is SO pretty!! I’m so thankful to have you all celebrating along with us!!

I truly had not put together how the birth of our fifth child would feel, not only to me, or my husband, but to you guys. I know we have the freedom to take all the time we need to settle in and soak in our new joy, but I almost feel selfish for not thinking of the group of you at home, waiting on pins and needles. So many of you have reached out to me yesterday and today to make sure things went ok. People wondering if I got bumped. Wondering if something had gone wrong. People literally losing sleep. I am truly sorry we didn’t share our news sooner. But as tends to happen, things didn’t go quite according to plan and I can honestly say we haven’t had a second to just sit and write out an announcement.

So, here you have it.

Waverly Violet.

Thank you for the pictures, Cher! Many more coming soon!

She is here. Finally. It feels completely surreal, as though we’ve never had a new baby before. My body clearly feels the same, putting me through the longest labour I’ve ever had, granting me the tiniest baby I’ve ever had. So many curveballs were thrown, yet they all played out so smoothly. So many delays and scary moments, yet my medical team was aces, and kept me well informed and calm. Many questions that Brady advocated for me through. So many people going out of their way to make our experience sweeter. SO many jokes and laughs that left the room wiping tears from our eyes!

We didn’t get our morning call to the hospital until we intentionally gave up the control and put it in God’s hands. Wavy wasn’t delivered until we gave up on all we expected and trusted God with the process, because it was so clearly out of our hands. Her birth day couldn’t have been what it was without the immense prayer support we were gifted from so many of you, and for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

We have her in our arms, and it feels goooood. Relief is coming, and peace is here. More to come soon on the matters of the littlest miss. Her birth story. How the kids reacted to her. The photos from her labour and delivery. Where my heart is. Guys, we have a lot to talk about. But I also have a new baby to squish, so I make no promises. Thank you all, so much, for your eagerness to share in our news! We are SO fortunate to have you along for the ride!!

This is the week, guys. THIS WEEK! We WILL meet our baby this week! We WILL hold her! We WILL smell her! We WILL share her! We WILL tell everyone her name! Hahaha! Its about flipping time, on ALL levels, do we agree? Yes, we do.

Size Comparison: Apparently she is the size of an american short haired cat. Sure, I can roll with that. I bet she smells better, though! Very soon, we’ll know her actual size!! Eek! Why is that such a fun part?!

Appointments: You may have seen, we went to my last prenatal appointment (for this pregnancy, anyway) as a family. The kids did pretty great, actually! Our doctors are so good to them, and include them in the conversation often. (PICTURE) I had my cervix checked, where I learned that I’m basically still completely out of labour, at only 1 cm dilated. No biggie. Baby’s heart rate was good, still in the 130-140 range. I somehow managed to lose 3-4 lbs *shrug* Couldn’t tell you how that happened! As a whole, I gained only 19 lbs this pregnancy! Don’t judge me, I never try to gain or not gain anything. I just roll with whatever happens. Keep in mind, I gained 45 lbs with Dekker and 22 lbs with Solly, and both boys were a SOLID 10.5 lbs. No one is hurting over here. 

How am I feeling emotionally: Determined. I’m still scared, and I’m still excited, but I’m READY to have her. I’ve never been more ready.

How am I feeling physically: It doesn’t even matter. I guess I feel out of breath most of the time? But truly, who cares? My physical feelings are SO secondary to everything else. 

Wish Lish/Purchases: My wish list is just my baby, and nothing else. I need nothing else for her. Everything is ready. We have what we want. We NEED her.

Pictures: Last belly shot against this wall before the whole structure changes.

She’ll be on the outside of my body, and either snuggled against me or eventually propped up, but likely still in the same safe little space in my bedroom, against this plain old wall.

How are the kids feeling: Solly says “baby” and rubs my tummy now. If even the two year old is catching on, you know we’ve been talking about Bambina a LOT! 

Getting to know the baby: No more speculating. I will tell you ALL the real fun facts about her as soon as I know them!

The BEST part of being pregnant: Having the opportunity to be pregnant. My instinct is to write that the best part of being pregnant is NOT being pregnant anymore, because its how I feel today, but I know how fortunate I am to have this opportunity, much less so many times. The BEST thing about being pregnant is knowing I have been that way for long enough to deliver a full term baby, and I can be content in knowing I’ve done my best. 

Favourite thing: My favourite thing for todays post is my medical team. I have the BEST people in ALL the fields! I have the BEST doctor, which has never been in question. I have an AMAZING student doctor who loves Dr. Guselle just as much as I do, and is excited to learn from her! I have the BEST chiro and physio that have physically kept me standing throughout this pregnancy. I had the SWEETEST OB through my first trimester who always told me she liked seeing me and never made me feel like a bother. My husband – partner in crime, father of my children, birth partner, etc. – is an integral part of my medical team, as well. I could not still be here without any of these puzzle pieces. I am confident I will be surrounded by the BEST support system the hospital has to offer, because the nurses are all wonderful and amazing in their fields. I am SO well taken care of, and SO thankful for that!! 

I remember when I was pregnant with Dekker, everything was so surreal. So unbelievable. I had no idea what was coming or what to expect. No book could’ve prepared me. I was so naive, and that was fine. It was SUCH a joyful time, experiencing motherhood for the very first time. I feel just as young and silly and lost this time around. I hope my instincts come back, because these days, I feel like I will be completely green with a newborn. Lucky for me, infants tend to be pretty forgiving in most departments. Or at least I hope so! 

Hopefully hopefully hopefully…

GUEST POST!!

This is Brady, back again to bring you a breakdown of how I built our new coffee mug shelf which now hangs above our coffee bar. You may think, ‘Oh! So soon?!’ and the answer is ‘Yes.’

So Hailey has been dreaming of this type of shelf since we first moved into our new place two years ago and I have just never got around to it. Until now. Two weeks before our FIFTH CHILD!! I don’t know what I was thinking.

So two years ago Hailey sent me a Pintrest link to this blog. I used it as a rough outline for our project but mostly just as some starter dimensions. I didn’t follow their method of assembly very much at all and tweaked a lot of things as I went for ease of assembly and install down the road.

I started with some 6′ long spruce 1x6s that I picked up from Home Depot in a spur of the moment decision one day while we were waiting for Hailey to get out of a physio appointment a couple weeks ago. I brought them home and immediately went to work setting up my tools in our driveway while the kids rode their trikes and wiggle cars in the garage. Before making any cuts however, I went inside to talk to Hailey about what we wanted from this shelf. Height, width, and position were all discussed and we came up with this plan.

We also decided that we wanted the shelves to be 5″ deep and as we all know 😉 1x6s are actually only 5 1/2″ wide so I needed to rip about half an inch off each board. (A rip cut is used when cutting along the grain of a board in order to make it narrower, or to cut a wide board into several narrower boards.)

I  started by cutting all my vertical boards and the top and bottom boards to length. I then ripped all those boards down to 5 1/8″. Why not to 5″ exactly? By leaving the outer frame and all vertical boards slightly deeper, I was able to later smooth over the edges and have each individual shelf butt into its supporting board with no cracks to fill and paint later on. Next was ripping all the remaining scraps down to 5″ exactly and cutting them all to length at 5″ exactly.

I then sanded all the cut edges to a slightly rounded and nicely smoothed edge and started nailing the frame together. It was at this point that I discovered I had miscounted my vertical boards. I only had enough materials for seven vertical supports, not the eight that I required.

*facepalm*

So I brought everything into the garage, locked up both vans in the driveway and called it a day. It was almost supper time anyways.

Bright and early the next morning we made an errand run to the city and picked up the remaining required board as well as a small stack of other lumber that we needed to finish framing our basement. Arriving home midmorning gave me a chance to setup all my tools again and continue working. I made quick work of cutting, ripping, and sanding the eighth vertical board and glued and nailed it in place in line with all the others.

*SIDE NOTE* I chose to use Titebond III to glue this project together as it is the strongest glue in a squeeze bottle I’ve ever come across. It may be overkill for something like this but I had it on hand so ‘Why not?’ I also nailed it together with 2″ brad nails to hold it while the glue dried.

After lunch Hailey came out and helped me choose a layout for the shelf spacing. As detailed and accurate and my plans were, they didn’t quite line up as planned. We ended up with something kind of symmetrical but we both liked the layout and decided to go ahead with it. So after about an hour of gluing and nailing in those little 5″ shelves, we came out with this!

As I was nailing the shelves in I had to trim some shelves to match the cupping of each vertical board but I didn’t try too hard because I wanted it to be imperfect and “rustic”. It went against the grain for me as a finish carpenter but I intentionally left some gaps. 😮

It actually looked really good like this and I almost felt bad painting over it so quickly but the end result was completely worth it.

At this point I decided to add a small 2″ strip to the underside of the top board to use as a way to screw the whole thing to the wall. You’ll see that soon.

The next morning I fenced off a small portion on the garage to keep the kids at bay as I painted the whole thing. We decided to use the leftover paint from our front door and if you remember…

It was purple.

😍

Maybe other guys wouldn’t be man enough to admit it but I LOVE this purple. Hahaha. It’s so rich and vibrant. We may end up with a lot more things in our house being this purple. 😳

I chose to paint after assembly for the sake of not marring the paint on my saw and covering all my pencil marks. What has two thumbs and skipped the need for touchups? THIS GUY!! I also chose to use a brush for the whole thing to keep with the imperfect, “rustic” aesthetic.

So after about two and a half hours of painting *facepalm* we had this.

I didn’t bother painting the back edges as they would be flat against the wall. You can also see the 2″ strip I added to be able to screw it to the wall.

I let it dry for the rest of the day and over night and was scratching at the door the next morning to put it up. So as the kids were eating breakfast and Hailey was still in bed I used a level to mark its placement so it would be level with the bottom of the cabinet next to it and perfectly centred over the coffee bar. I also used my handy dandy stud finder to mark wall stud locations and measured for screw locations on the unit itself.

As soon as Hailey came down to keep an eye on the kids I ran outside and got my drill and some 3″ screws and within 5 minutes it was screwed to the wall and holding mugs.

TA-DA!!

I love it! We’ve already begun buying more mugs to fill out the empty spaces. Thirty five spaces in total. And the whole thing only cost about $40.  🤑 Before the cost of all the mugs that is. *facepalm* $30 for the lumber and $5-10 for the paint. (Although we already owned that. lol)

The best part for me is that the few people who have seen pictures of it, first thought that it was a picture plucked off of Pintrest. Self brag!! Hahaha

Maybe this can be an inspiration for your own shelf, or maybe it’ll just inspire you to invite yourself over for coffee sometime just to be able to pick your favourite mug. 🤗

If you’ve been keeping track, we are CLOSE to baby day. Hopefully, all will go down at the beginning of this coming week! 🤞 Also, hopefully all goes well on the home front and baby girl is healthy and well and comes home very soon!! 🤞🤞🤞 Hopefully hopefully hopefully.

So, its Saturday afternoon. In theory, we potentially are only two days away from baby day. Not much time left to do things, but as I look now, there is not too much left to do!

This morning, I got the side of my hair re-shaved, and Brady painted my toenails on Thursday evening. I even showered. I’m refreshed and ready for anything! ✅

I have a list going of what I’m waiting to arrive in the mail, but none of it is baby stuff anymore. Actually, none of it is even for us! So that section of my superlist is done! ✅

The last thing I had to buy before she arrived was actually what I’m hoping to give out as a “favor” for the party. Being that this thing exists somewhere that I rarely go, I just didn’t get there, and thats ok. We’ll get there (or we won’t) after she comes. I’m not concerned. ✅

I have one thing left on the list of things to do, and I’m planning to do it this afternoon, so, done! ✅

During naptime this afternoon, Dekker came and hung out upstairs with Brady and I and helped us pack up our hospital bags. I’ve had the bulk of my stuff, as well as Bambina’s stuff, pulled out and set aside for a good while now, but Brady had yet to get his own stuff organized. Which is fine, except for the fact that I’ve had some weird, somewhat laboury nights. The other day, before leaving for my prenatal, I just chucked everything into a bag, with a few extras for him, just in case we ended up in the hospital. We didn’t, obviously, so we unpacked the mess I made, and repacked it nicely with Brady’s things added to the mix. All that’s left on our list of things to pack (because you know I have a list for that, too) is toothbrushes, pillows, our phone chargers, and the iPad that is currently charging. Boom. Done! ✅

Currently, as I look around my room, I have fresh sheets sitting on the chair beside my bed that we can quickly change out when Jerilee comes for the day/night that we’re at the hospital. Baby’s cradle is ready. Her jammies, blankets, and diapers are all where they need to be. I have all the pads for all the places in all the sizes.The tub is scrubbed. We. Are. Ready.

We found the perfect cold brew ratio! ✅

We stocked up on ALL the fresh fruit and veggies we’ll need for the next while! ✅

Milk, too. ✅

Brady has finished up his work (as in his “at work” work) that needs doing. ✅

The kids are in the know about whats going to happen and when. ✅

I can’t think of anything else that needs doing, and I’m not going to keep breaking my brain over it. We are as ready as we’ll ever be!

Tomorrow, we’ll have lunch with my parents and my brother’s family. One last hurrah before we add another little sweetie to the mix. And then we’ll sleep, and wait for it to be our turn.

Please come home soon, Bambina 💜 We love you SO much!

Yesterday was SUCH a lovely day! It wasn’t stressful or overwhelming, but rather totally enjoyable! I really liked it! I had company throughout the day, including morning coffee with a friend, a wonderful mini photo session with Cher, my mom came over and helped us with some baby party decor, and Brady painted my toe nails after I genuinely tried the other day and failed hard. It was a productive, super fun day! Brady and I proceeded to stay up too late, watching shows and having snacks. It had been such a wonderful day.

And then sleep did not come easy for me. I was in quite a bit of pain, but managed to fall asleep maybe around 11:30, maybe later, but I woke up at 12:30 that just seemed to be it. Do you all know what “lightning crotch” means? Its when the baby keep smacking against your cervix and it sends these wild painful zaps through your body. There is not gentle version, and there is no work up or warning. It comes out of nowhere and takes your breath away. Like it hurts. BAD. Baby girl is never awake for especially long stretches of time, but I lay in bed for hours waiting for her to let us, and she was not having it. I was awake and in solid pain until sometime between 3-4:00. It was a pretty horrendous night.

We’re off the school schedule, but my body disagrees, so I woke up with a start around 6:45am and panicked that I had missed an alarm or something. When I realized that we didn’t have to be up so early and that the kids were still quiet, I was so relieved and decided to try for a bit more sleep. Except miss Bambina was already awake and violently head butting my cervix!! Gah!!! I lay in bed for a while, hoping for her to relax a little while I watched some YouTube and gathered myself. Meanwhile, I was having braxton hicks contractions one on top of the other without any let up. Call it what you will, but for me, thats what labour feels like. I don’t feel the pain of the contractions until much later, so often, braxton hicks feel about right. I lay still in hopes that they’d quit, but they didn’t, and eventually it was time to go get the kids. So I pushed through it, knowing I had a prenatal that morning. They’d be able to tell me what was going on.

We brought the whole crew today for the final appointment. We all piled into the exam room and the kids actually tried really hard to be on their best behaviour, it seemed. Thank you, sweeties! I spoke to my student doctor about the night before and educated him on the technical term “lightning crotch,” which he put in his notes, lol! It was funny 🙂 He spoke to Dr. Guselle and I agreed to a cervical check. Not a sweep, just a check, to make sure I’m not in my weird secretive level of active labour.

Full disclosure. There is nothing comforting about the doctor stepping out for a minute because the medium and large gloves in the room are too small for him. Sigh. So that was a thing, but I lived through it, and thankfully, my cervix is sitting at 1 cm, and I am not secretly in labour at all. Woot! I want her sweet little self to be born in the hospital, therefore meaning I’d prefer her to hang out on the inside for another few days.

Once the messy stuff was over, Dr. Guselle invited Brady and the kids to head on out for some stickers so I could get dressed on my own. She’s such a mom, haha! She totally gets the relief in getting dressed without an audience. So I did that, exited the room, and was greeted by my four happy kids, all with stickers in hand, waiting patiently. Dekker also had my wallet, phone, and new sheet of prenatal info. I have such a wonderful family!

Now, we wait and see what induction falls! If it comes on our preferred date, GREAT! If she comes earlier, fine, and if we get bumped, I guess thats fine, too. I’m just so eager to have her in my arms, healthy and well. Somehow this still feels like a serious test of my faith…

We are all fine!! ❤

I am SO THANKFUL that our first accident in the bus wasn’t our fault!!

For Dekker’s last day of school, we decided to give him the freedom to choose supper. Within reason, we told him he could pick just about anything he wanted. We listed off a number of meals we know he loves, some meals that are a tad more complicated and less common, and we even offered to go pick up some food, if we didn’t have what he wanted. And the kid picked hot dogs. Of all things. We have hot dogs ALL the time. We gave him some time to think twice, but he was convinced. Hot dogs it is! Brady and I were hoping he’d pick something a bit more special, so instead we offered to drive for donuts! He happily accepted, so we headed off to a nearby town to find some treats.

Dekker and I headed into the Co-op together and he picked out a package of donuts. The donuts from Co-op are SO good, guys! We came back out to the van, closed ourselves inside, and were talking about what we picked when there was a loud sound and a big bump.

I looked in the big truck mirror and sure enough, someone was trying to drive into the spot besides ours and suuuper misjudged how close they were, and basically drove into the back corner of our van. Brady went out right away, and the woman in the car threw her hand sup , as if annoyed that he was there at all.

So here’s what happened.

We all know we drive a bus. The back doors occasionally get caught in the wind and whip further open than expected, and they slam into the side of the bus if we don’t catch them in time. If we want them open ALL the way like that, there is a magnet on the very back side of the van that will hold the doors to the sides. The magnet also doubles as a bumper for if the doors do whip open like that. That was a pretty jumbled explanation :/ It kind of looks like a door stopped on the back/side of the van. This person had driven square into the one bumper, and the magnet was halfway out.

Now, really, its a small-ish problem, but unfortunately, our vehicle isn’t even close to a junker, and we NEED it to last. The bumper magnet will definitely need replacing, so rather than doing it out of pocket down the line when it inevitably pops all the way out, we agreed we’d need to file a claim. This was an obvious choice for us, but a bummer for her, as she mentioned it was actually her ex’s car. So that’s awkward.

She and Brady exchanged information, and she was very apologetic the entire time. All was fine, no one was hurt or too upset, and we both had minimal damage. She barely had a scratch, and she legit just hit the back corner bumper. I don’t even think the body took a hit. JUST the magnet thing. So for a first ding on the bus, it was fairly painless.

Thats what we get for eating donuts, I suppose… 🍩 Worth it.

Dropping Dekker off this morning was an eye-opener.

I anticipated that Dekker would walk to school most of this year. I figured I’d find some other family who let their kids walk and ask if Dekker could join, and just kind of take that “job” off my plate. Losing Jamin right before the school year began, I just didn’t have it in me to figure it out. The longer it took, the more I just decided that I’d drive him for the year, and that next year, he and Laela will walk together. So yes, I have driven Dekker to and from school every single day this year. He has been more than capable of walking, but it just hasn’t happened.

Earlier in the year, I’d park us nice and close, walk him across the street and to the school. I’d wait outside the boot room for him to drop his backpack off, then give him a hug and kiss before he’d run off to the playground. It was an adorable system, but I slowly made strides to give him a bit more space and independence, which was extra hard because he was HAPPY to have me come with him! I knew it would’ve last forever that he’d request I walk with him.

As the weather warmed up, I started to offer him to just walk from the van by himself. There are crossing guards, he’d be safe, etc. He was reluctant at first, but became comfortable very quickly. Even on days that we get there before the crossing guards are out, I’ve watched how he looks both ways, waits for vehicles to stop, etc. He knows what to do.

We have this special hug spot. He stands on what I guess is the running board of the van, and I stand on the ground, and it is the perfect height for us to hug. We refer to that spot as “the best hugging spot ever.” And he never rushes to be done, until recently, where he’s delicately said once or twice “I’m ready now, mommy.” Deep breaths for me!

This morning, I drove him to school, and met him at the best hugging spot ever for our goodbye hug. A few kids from his grade walked by, but he wasn’t concerned. We were having a really good hug. Finally, I said “Should I let you go, honey?” And he giggled and said no, he’d like to just stay. We had a bit more of a hug before I grabbed our hug just that much tighter and lifted him onto the sidewalk. He waved like crazy and off he went. I got back into the van and put it into drive to head home, and when I reached the four way stop, he was standing on the corner, checking if the coast was clear. No crossing guards yet. I stopped and waved at him. He chuckled and waved, and then motioned for me to go first. Ugh. My heart…..

We picked Dekker up as a family this afternoon. We caught him in a big group hug, which he seemed to love, as did we. Everyone was very excited to have him back! We made our way out of the school towards the van and chatted briefly with the principal of the school. She is such a lovely, warm person, and I couldn’t be happier with her as the overseer of the school. She encouraged me, saying that Dekker had blossomed so much this year, and was so much more confident! He had really come into his own, we both agreed. As we parted ways, she wished us luck “with little Bambina” and I could’ve cried. I LOVE that Dekker talked to her about the baby, and I love that she remembered that little detail <3

Dekker, we are SO PROUD OF YOU!!! You have grown a ton this year, leaving me all puffy and proud, but ALL the glory goes to God!! He has carried our boy through all kinds of new things, and he has come out on top, having learned and stretched. He is such a little man, but I feel like I said the same thing last year!

I can’t wait to see what grade two holds for my biggest little, and thankfully, neither can he!!