The Daily Hailey

Dekker visits the eye doctor 2-3 times a year, depending on the results. He is not in any “high risk” category or anything, but because he does have a prescription, and isn’t always 100% cooperative, they’ve usually asked to see him every 4-6 months or so. Last time he went to the eye doctor, they booked his next appointment several months ahead, for 8:15am. We are NOT morning people, and we are also procrastinators, so naturally, I forgot to call and rebook the thing, leaving us with a very early appointment.

Brady took him on his own. While we love to do as much as possible as a group, even if we did haul everyone out of bed, get them ready, and manage to make it to the hospital on time, there is no way we could bring the whole crew into the exam room. Its just too small, and WAY too distracting for Dekker. Not a great setting for a bunch of littles who want to explore. So Dekker had a special date with his dad this morning. Once the appointment was over, Brady called and filled me in.

Dekker. Did. Awesome. He was cooperative, and played all of the games. Usually, he tires of the games very quickly, because he’s uncomfortable, but also, as is the nature of the game, it gets harder and harder, until he can’t see the answer. Usually they lose him as soon as it gets a little bit difficult, and then when they push, he’d get upset. Its not a secret that Dekker doesn’t love feeling vulnerable, and the doctors/orthoptists there are always very understanding. They are specifically in the pediatric section. He is not the first kid who hasn’t loved being put in a dark room and put through a series of tests. But this time, he did beautifully. His ophthalmologist is always the same, but the orthoptist who does the first bout of tests always changes. He hasn’t liked that in the past, but he just handled it today, and complied with everything. Brady said he didn’t get bored or tired or argumentative at all. He just tried his very best, until he said “I can’t see them anymore” or something along those lines.

I guess it was pretty clear that he needs a boost in prescription, so they ended up having to do the eye drops, to get the most accurate reading possible. He cried through those pretty good, apparently, but bounced back quickly. He waited the half hour out in the waiting room, playing toys as well as ever. Just turned away from the window a little bit to avoid the light in his enormously dilated eyes.

He did just as well with Dr. Rubab, and because he had done so well during the first part of her appointment, she didn’t have much to double check. She usually redoes a number of tests, since he prefers her over the new orthoptist every time. But instead, she looked behind his eyes, and then just told Brady all of her findings.

So Dekker does need new glasses. I guess that counts as the small downside of the appointment? I don’t really think its a bad thing. Now that he’s in school, we need his vision to be in tip top shape, and I’m glad we’re getting it there 🙂 I’m SO SO PROUD of how well he did at his appointment, though. I know I wasn’t even there, but Brady couldn’t stop raving about how impressed he was. School has done amazing things to Dekker’s confidence, and in his coping skills for when he is uncomfortable. We are not big bribe people (though there is definitely a time and place for it! Lol!) but he got a chocolate donut for doing such an amazing job 🙂 because he EARNED it!!

The next step is glasses shopping, which I’m kind of super excited for, honestly. The glasses he has now are awesome, and were PERFECT when we got them! When literally no other pair fit, we found these, with a Lightening McQueen on the side and everything, and he loved them! I’m curious to see if we’ll have a few more options now, as he’s just that much older. He’s excited about glasses shopping too, which helps 🙂

SO proud of you, Dekker Thomas!! You’re so brave, and grown up, and cooperative with the doctor! I love you so very much!!!

I was going to post pictures of my new hair on yesterday’s post, but I figured that new ring deserved a post all to itself 🙂 Its super beautiful, hey? I kind of love it.

But here we are, on a new day, so I can show you guys my new do!!

It is easily my favorite color we’ve ever added to the mix!! I loved the pink pieces that we put in last time, and I suggested we go purple this time. My hair girl asked me “Pastel again, or should we got a bit punchier?” One doesn’t simply suggest a bold option to me and expect me not to take it, so I quickly agreed “Punchier,” and off we went! And the side shave is something I really anticipate each time as well. So many people who have long hair shave a piece off, and then the struggle to grow it back out is a pain. For me, it all started short, and now I’m kind of unintentionally growing the one side out? I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing, but I’m enjoying it! And somehow, the shaved side is keeping things interesting and I’m not getting too bored. Says the girl with the purple hair and the zebra stripes…

Seriously though, I’m having SO much hair fun! If anyone needs a hair girl, I have the BEST one.

Onto far more important information. Rowan!! I wanted to update you guys on how the last three weeks or so have been since we stole Rowan’s precious teetee/chew blanket from him. If you missed that post, it was in reference to Rowan’s huge mouth, and how I was noticing that Rowan’s mouth never really closed. His teeth were perpetually open in the front. He didn’t have so much an overbite as an open bite. I decided to take his cuddle blanket from him, since he slept with it stuffed in his mouth all night long. It was awful taking it from him. He screamed and cried and begged, and we let him, believing we needed to.

And guys, we were right.

WHEW!!

Before/After

Before/After

Look at that difference!! Can you guys see it?? I hope the pictures are clear enough, because it is SO CLEAR how his entire face shape has changed since we took his blanket away! And his mouth closes!!! He is even better at eating sandwiches, which sounds silly but is entirely true. The other day, eating a burger, only the lettuce pulled out with him not being able to bite through it. It used to be the whole thing, and sandwiches would just get destroyed. He still has something of an overbite, but so does just about everyone. And his head is tilted up in this second “after” picture, so his overbite isn’t even as big as it looks there. Seriously, its made a massive difference!!! That feels like a definite win!! He was gorgeous before, and he’s gorgeous now, but I feel so much more confident in my decision to be “mean” now that I can see the enormous results. And he hasn’t suffered being teetee-less either 😉 His fox, which he refers to as his “focky” (lol!) has been a lovely replacement that he never puts in his mouth. Woot!!

There you have it. A few positive updates for the day 🙂 One mattered a lot more than the other, but they both feel like things I’m thankful for. I hope you guys have a few high points from your weekend as well! Bring on the new week!!!

Do you guys remember my family ring? Brady designed a beautiful ring for me years ago, and we add a strand of gold to it with every child we have. We usually get on it pretty quickly after a baby is born, but after Solly, we just didn’t get there for a good long while. We finally brought it in at the beginning of December, which was a terrible move, considering it was the Christmas season. Because of that, I didn’t have it through all of December. I picked it up in the new year, all fresh, with a new bright white gold strand for Solly.

But then my finger reacted weirdly to it! I don’t know why, but it broke out a bit and I had an open red sore on my finger. It hurt too much, so I stopped wearing it. And then we lost our baby, and that opened up a whole new can of worms. While I don’t plan to confuse the rest of the world and tell them we have one more kid than those they can see, we do. Theo is a member of our family. But in a different way. We wanted to find a way to add him to the family ring, but were unsure how.

Well folks, its finally done 🙂 And I love it!

We added a teeny tiny little diamond along the side in representation of our baby up in heaven. Its exactly how I pictured it 🙂 I’m so so happy with the turnout. It does my heart good to have him on my ring with the rest of our children.

Its a good day. I’m happy to have my ring back. And I have new hair! But I’ll save that for tomorrow’s post 😉 Have a great Saturday!

We’ve been housebound for a really long time, and because of that, we haven’t had many playdates or outings with friends for about that length of time. I was excited earlier this week when a friend who lives really close by texted me and invited the kids and I over for this morning! I knew Dekker would be sad to miss out, since he had school today, so I didn’t tell him about it (ssshhh!) and instead, I got the kids dressed and ready after he left for the day.

I got everyone dressed, jacketed, and out the door around 9:45, and we walked the short walk over. The struggle of Laela and Rowan both wanting to hold my hand was real, since I had Solly in my other arm. But we managed, and the kids happily went into the house and began finding toys.

We visited and played with the kids while all kinds of delicious things baked away in the double oven on the wall. Fresh cookies and milk for all! There was no shortage of chatting, playing, running, serving pretend food, or exploring. It was a really really nice morning for us!! A change of scenery, but also a place where the kids could pull of their socks and play in the pantry, like they do at home. But to be fair, its a WAY nicer, bigger pantry than ours! Haha!

Brady is already on his way home, thanks to a shorter day of work 😀 While the little boys have been napping, I ate leftover pulled pork for lunch. But guys, I found the win! Rather than putting it on a bun (because bread and buns are bad for you right? 😉 ) I scoop it with Doritos. Healthier, right?? 😉 I know, I know, baaaaad. But OH so good!!! You should all try it. Also, I used the “chicken and rib” barbecue sauce when I made it, because it was all I had, and it was a game changer! SO good!

Hubs is home, and he brought coffee, so that’s me signing off! I hope you all have great Friday nights! I’m hoping that Brady and I might actually be a bit productive, maybe stay insulating the basement, and then tomorrow morning I’m getting my hair done! Woot!

Sleep deep!

While I even hesitate to be hesitantly optimistic, I’m thinking that this chapter of illness is over. As in this last bout. I have no idea if we’ll all get sick again tomorrow, but whatever this recent illness was has seemed to make itself scarce. Knock on wood. (knocks so hard on wood that it splinters) Its only been a handful of days without one of our morning “surprises,” but I’m thankful each morning for the lack of…..material? Without being too terribly gross, the last thing that was hanging onto my kids was some sick diapers. Really gross diapers. We haven’t had a sick one in a day or two, and the horrific diaper rash they’ve been leaving behind is starting to clear. Well, in Rowans case, that skin is just starting to peel off, but Laela is healing up and no one cries through diaper changes anymore. So. I’m hopeful. Hesitantly. Hesitantly hesitant.

With this chapter hopefully coming to a close, I keep looking back to our recent life, and how our plans have changed. How sad it is that our chapter on Theo has closed. I bought this beautiful little sleeper at Costco the other day for Solly. He is starting to fit into 18 month clothing, of all things, and I couldn’t fathom that my baby was already so big. Excitedly, I went to grab a 3 month one for our coming baby.

Except we don’t have a coming baby.

Ugh.

Yes, we will have another baby, or at least I hope and pray we will! But its going to be a while, and in that time, I’m sure there will be lots of cute sleepers that I shouldn’t buy but will anyway. So this particular grey and white striped soft one will just be in 18 month size for us. And thats ok. I’ve had a cry, and I’ll probably have another one. And thats ok too.

So many things have happened already this year, and I was SO anticipating an amazing kick off to 2017. Its definitely not begun how I had hoped, but I am so thankful for my life and family. There will still be blessing this year, I have no doubt. There have already been blessings! We are blessed every day that we wake up! God has been good. But my flesh sure fails sometimes.

Once again, Rowan’s birthday was overshadowed by illness. We decided to have a family party at Montanas as soon as he was well enough for it. Thankfully, he was healthy enough yesterday! So we kidnapped my mom to join us, and convinced Jerilee to come too. But not before getting Laela some makeup, lol! She insisted. And she let me put her hair in a bun, so I couldn’t say no!

I sat between Laela and Solly on the way to the restaurant, so Brady, my mom, and I could all be close. Some were happier for my presence there than others.

It was a little bit silly getting started, to be honest. Tuesday is “kids eat free” day, yet they don’t take reservations. It shocked me a bit, because no one wants to come in, loaded down with kids, and wait for an hour for supper. There was ONE location in the city that would make a reservation for us, but it was the furthest one. Instead, we drove to the closest one and hoped for the best. We waited about 10-15 minutes but they cleared a nice big space for us, which was worth the wait.

The kids broke out the crayons right away and colored and colored and colored. Our server came and took all of our orders, and then the wait began. It would have been too long, if not for the balloon guy that was there!! He came and chatted up the kids and made them balloon animals. And it was truly awesome!!!

Dekker told him his favorite color was orange, so he got a fish that he just loved to whap everyone in the face with. A true win.

When it was Laela’s turn, right away she announced “I like purple.” He asked her if she’d like a bunny, or maybe a dragon fly, and she jumped up and squealed “Dragonfly!!” Don’t ask me why, but she was so excited, and hers was by far everyone’s favorite.

When it came to Rowan, the balloon man asked what he might like. I sarcastically said “You can’t make a train, can you?” And then he did! Rowan drove it along the table until his food came.

And Solly would likely bite and ingest the balloon, so he just sat and watched and looked cute.

The food was SO good. The kids ate great, and were so sweet and thankful. I always love going to Montana’s on Tuesdays when kids eat free. Obviously, I love that the kids could eat free, since it makes it a bit nicer financially. But I like that we can go there, and the kids can play and be rowdy and louder, and they’re not the only ones, haha! Tuesdays at Montanas are not quiet, relaxing affairs, but they’re really well suited to our family. We did not make it an official Montanas birthday, with the bells and songs and the hat with the horns, because it would have terrified our children. We know this. But I’d still say it was a great birthday party for our sweet Rowan!!

We all slept hard last night. Some of us are still tuckered out.

❤️️

*** Mom, it makes me so sad that you took all of these pictures, and therefore, aren’t in any of them. We LOVED that you were there!! Love you so much!!

Dekker had time off of school last week. Winter break. Not everyone does it, but we do in our province. I always kind of pictured that as a time that our family would go away on a trip, or do something exciting, but that wasn’t the case. To be fair, as tends to be the theme of our life as of late, everyone was super sick all through the week. But even if they weren’t, Brady still had to work. Which we obviously appreciate very very much, and my saying this doesn’t mean I’m taking it for granted. I just hadn’t thought it all through, and of course we couldn’t all just disappear together for the week.

I didn’t much care for Dekker having a week off of school. Now, let me be clear. I love when he is home. This is NOT a post about wanting him to go back to school because we needed space from each other. I think its ok to feel that way sometimes, but I just want to clarify, for those who don’t read the whole post, that this is not what todays post is about.

The break solidly screwed up our routine. Everything about it. Dekker has been thrilled about being home, but Laela is used to the one on one time she gets when he’s at school and the little boys are napping. So there’s that. Also, tacking on the fact that Brady was working in the basement all day Saturday, the kids were devastated to learn that he was going back to work on Monday after only one day with the family. Normally, its understood that daddy goes to work, and thats fine, and they greet him beautifully when he gets home. But not this time. Rowan took the cake this morning. I snuck Dekker out of their room at 7:30. Usually Rowan rolls over and falls back to sleep, no problem. Today, he screamed bloody murder. And I mean SCREAMED. He lost it, kicking and screaming, throwing his blanket, on and on. I went in to calm him down, but it made it way worse. I know, I know. Hailey, let him get up then! This is the thing. We’re going out this evening for a belated birthday supper for him, and he needs to be nicely rested for it. I know my kid, and I know he cannot get up for the day at 7:30am. No dice. But it was awful. He wailed angrily in there for a really really long time. When I did finally go to get him, he had fallen back to sleep. This whole thing happened because he wasn’t used to Dekker leaving his room in the morning anymore, and figured he was missing the boat on something. No one likes to be left out, I get that, but again, I know what he needs. He needed sleep. And he ended up getting some more.

I’m sure I’ll love the break more as the kids get older. Once everyone is in school, it’ll be an entirely different vibe, and maybe Brady will book work off and we will end up doing fun things over it, to make it extra special. This time, unfortunately, its inconvenienced us more than anything. Now to rebuild our routine…

Sooooo…

Last night was pretty eventful around here.

Around 9:00pm, Brady and I had gotten out of the tub, and were just snuggling in to bed with a show and some food when our smoke detectors started alarming. Being that they’re all wired together, they were ALL going off, and it was VERY loud!! We both dove out of bed. Brady ran down to the main area, and then to the basement. No smoke. No smell. Nothing.

We fanned the detectors with pillows, which was obviously fruitless, but we were grasping here. We had done NOTHING to motivate them to trip this alarm! We finally figured out it was the detector downstairs that was motivating the screaming alarm, and pushed the button that could silence the alarm, according to the internet, for eight minutes. A mere four minutes later, though, they all started screaming again. We had opened all of the windows in the main area and in the basement, and couldn’t imagine what the issue was. We were angry at the idea of it being a faulty detector, and how dare it scream at us this long! We popped the battery out, finally, and pulled it off of the ceiling. When Brady brought it down and had a closer look at it, he seemed to get stuck for a second. The light that was flashing wasn’t the smoke detector, but the carbon monoxide detector. Perfect.

Our detector, as well as the internet, said to call 911 immediately. And we were foolish, because we thought that was a gross overreaction. Instead, I reached out to a small handful of people that I know happen to be on our local volunteer fire department. No one was getting back to us instantly, and we were getting twitchy. So I very rudely called my dad out of a church business meeting. He and my mom chatted with me and they agreed with us that we couldn’t ignore the alarm. They said they’d come over right after the meeting.

In the meantime, we went around and checked on the kids. It was pretty scary at that point, because they had slept through the whole thing. It makes your mind and heart go to scary places. Thats about when I started getting more nervous. We were able to lull all four kids awake, though, which helped my heart a little. Thankfully, the church meeting ended pretty quickly after our call to my parents, and they headed over.

(I don’t know the exact time, but I’ll add in here that we aired out the basement really well, put the battery back int he detector, and reinstalled it, and it didn’t go off again.)

Conveniently, a couple of people at the church meeting are on the fire department, so I called over to the church, and one of them picked up! I asked her what to do, and she told me she would call the fire chief.

Sure enough, less than ten minutes later, a crew of 5-6 firemen were at our house! And I’ve got to say, that was an INCREDIBLE group of men!!! They were very attentive, polite, and understanding. We were nervous for the sake of the kids, specifically, and they took that into consideration. They apologized for their wet boots, and the great air test began!

There was CO on every level of the house, in every room. Not a super scary, we’re all going to die, amount of it, but enough that it needed to come down, obviously. I went into the kids rooms with them, in case they woke up and were afraid, but they all basically rolled over and went back to sleep.

Once it was determined that the CO wasn’t coming from the basement, someone suggested the garage. The second they opened the door, their air tester started screaming. Right away, they closed the man door to the house and opened the overhead garage door. It was then that we figured out what had happened. And we feel pretty silly about it, so no making fun of us! We were uneducated, and now we know.

We KNOW that its extremely dangerous to have a car running in the garage with the door closed. People die that way, its not a secret. We didn’t do that. We haven’t actually been parking our bus in the garage over the last couple of days, since our garage has a ton of stuff from the basement in it, and its a decently tight squeeze for our big vehicle. But yesterday, Brady backed his work van into the garage. He backed it in, turned it off, and closed the overhead door. Then, he opened the door to the house and left it open while he hauled his tools from our basement into his van. Now, since learning a LOT about all of this, we know that is all it takes :/ The cool air in the garage would have rushing into our house and straight down our stairs, CO and all. We also learned that CO is almost the same weight as air, just sliiightly lighter, so it took a few hours to float up to the detectors, hence the late night alarm.

Once we all figured out what had happened, and that we didn’t have some scary recurrent leak somewhere, the goal became very practical. Push the CO out of our house. We opened certain windows at certain times, and they brought in a high powered fan, blowing the air from the basement outside. While that was happening, the air quality of the kids rooms and our room were being tested constantly. They stayed until the levels were at zero. None of this “You should be ok now” business, but we were blessed to have complete reassurance that all traces of CO were good and gone! So we could all sleep better, they said.

I had texted a friend earlier whose husband is on the fire crew, but they weren’t available at that time. However, as soon as they were back in town, he ran over, and stayed until the call was over. It was so nice to have a familiar face around, among a few others who I recognized from one time or another. They were all so comforting, and didn’t make us feel silly, even though we did. They constantly told us “better safe than sorry,” and it seemed genuine. Solly even came out at the end to observe the situation, and he was welcomed, and greeted, and he was full of smiles for all the new people in his house. It was a weirdly nice setting, even though it had started with screaming alarms and fear.

Once levels were down, they all piled out just as quickly as they had arrived. Trucks lights went off, and our house was silent. It all ended around 11:30, but Brady and I were wired until 1:00am at least.

It felt like an adventure to me.

The kids have no memory of it. Slept through the whole thing.

THANK YOU to our amaaazing local fire department!!!! I am SO grateful to have you all here, in my town, at the ready, and happy to come and keep us safe!

Upon getting the kids this morning, we learned that, once again, Rowan had thrown up in his bed. Down himself, all over his bedding, and as an added bonus, he barfed on (and out of) the inside corner of his crib, spraying down the wall and onto the floor under his crib. But as has been our weird normal with this sickness, he seemed to be 100% post puke. So we decided to continue with our day. We had plans with my parents for a waffle lunch, but my dad got sick overnight, so our plans changed. We decided to bite the bullet, bring a bucket, and head into the city. These poor kids have been just so sick, but they have such bad cabin fever. So do their parents. So we packed them up after breakfast and drove to fun a few errands.

It wasn’t our smoothest errand day, but I think the general consensus was that it was a good idea. I think Brady and I were more tired at the end of it all than the kids were. We bought Rowan his birthday present, a couple of little get-well gifts for my dad, and a small handful of groceries.

Thanks to Rowans literal outburst this morning, I decided to buy a notebook specifically to track the kids sicknesses. We get into survival mode when we’re sick for an extended period of time, and I lose track of who has been sick for how long. When someone is sick one day, and another one is sick the next day, its hard to remember consecutive days. Details are fuzzy, and when I’m at the end of my rope and call my doctor, and she asks how long kid #X has been sick, I never know. It feels crappy. Also, I LOVE cute new notebooks, so I think it’ll be a system I’ll embrace really easily. I’m going to backtrack a little bit and record this sickness from the day Dekker threw up roughly a week and a half ago. Never too late, right?

Once we got home, we wrapped grandpas gifts and I took Dekker and Laela over for a very short visit, just to give the gift and then come back home. My mom snapped a BEAUTIFUL picture of them while we were there. The amount of time that they spend scrapping with each other results in very few pictures of them together, and I am SO happy with this one! Happy enough to possibly put it up on my wall.

We came home and made them a light snacky supper. I anticipate an early bedtime, since the little ones didn’t nap even close to as much as usual. Rowan slept for a short ten minutes, and Solly got maybe a little bit more. They both usually nap for three hours or so. Rest will come soon, little loves.

It feels like a successful day, and a very well-earned sleep, too. Reality begins again tomorrow!

Another good night and an explosion-free morning, Brady and his friends from work and pumping out a frost wall in our basement! Its so wonderful that our basement project is on the go, finally! The guys said they were happy to work for pizza, so pizza they got! I kidnapped my mom and took her to Pizza Hut with me to pick up lunch for everyone, which was a nice break in the midst of the day. While Laela and Rowan are LOVING watching the work downstairs, and Solly really couldn’t care less, Dekker is pretty freaked out by all of the noise. He was quite rattled all morning, and happily agreed to take a nap this afternoon. So once everyone was laid down for a rest, I got a little drive in with my mom 🙂

We all just finished up our pizza lunch now, and even just talking to the guys about the rest of the plans was exciting! It made me feel like we’ve hopefully got some of these projects in the bag for this year. Not to look too far ahead, but I had it in my head that we might come out of 2017 with a half finished basement and half finished yard, and I feel less that way now. It won’t all be done, by all means, but I think we’re going to have some really great progress soon. Woot! Nice to have so many good connections and loving friends.

With the work beginning again, the nailers and compressors are roaring away downstairs, therefore, everyone is waking up earlier than usual. But thats ok. I’m so happy to have a bite taken out of the work already, and SO happy to have the crew we have today. It is worth a LOT to have a group of workers who are efficient but positive! I hear them goofing around and chatting away consistently, but the work does not stop. Does. Not. Stop. I’m so so thankful! I couldn’t have asked for better help on our first day of the huge project that is our basement, and eventually the rest of the work we want to do around here. Brady casually threw out a ballpark number of what he figured we’d spend on our house/property this year, and one guy just laughed, and said we could do it for far less than that! WE 🙂 Love that! This is going to be GREAT.