The Daily Hailey

I felt so backed up after yesterdays post. Through comments on here, or on Facebook, or in private messages, I was supported and encouraged by many of you. I feel incredibly supported, and like I could really put it all out there. Thanks guys. Thedailyhailey lives on 😉

I woke up at 4:15 this morning and didn’t fall back to sleep until maybe 6:30. Not my best night, but when I did wake up, it was to the sounds of my kids. I checked the monitor, and found them playing peekaboo through Laela’s crib bars. They played happily together, squealing away, while I dragged myself out of bed, put on some clothes, and clipped my hair back. Upon entering their room, I was greeted by Dekker’s cheery “Hiiiii guuuuuys” which is apparently something I say a lot. I changed them and asked how they slept. Dekker said Laela slept good but that he had dreams. I asked what about and he looked at me coyly before saying “Detter dreamed flosted flates!” So we had frosted flakes for breakfast 🙂

Laela is getting close and closer to crawling everyday, and I cannot WAIT for it to come to that! People love to say how bad things get once a baby can move around on their own, but I’m on my second one, and I know the relief that came from it, so you don’t have to say that stuff to me. I’m really anticipating it, and I know she is too.

The kids were a bit grumpier than usual, so they napped long and were a bit whiny when they were awake. I think we all felt a bit off or overtired today. Hopefully tomorrow is better.

 

Ok, so completely unrelated to anything, remember Dekkers second birthday? It was sooo much fun, but super casual. Just a large group of people sweating outside, eating ice cream. But we really loved it. Now, Dekker will turn three in like six weeks ish and I haven’t even thought about what to do!! His birthday is on August 21, and Laelas is on September 30. I was thinking of combining but the weather is less predictable in September right? What if we did ice cream again. Would that be fun? Or just the easy way out? It was just a Sunday afternoon thing that people came to after lunch. Does anyone have any opinion in the matter? Combining or not so much, same thing or totally different angle, etc. What would yoooooouuu do?? (Seriously, go reread that birthday posts, even just for the pictures. What a fabulous day!)

I wanted to take todays post to explain what happened at the end of the day yesterday. I had typed out my whole post and was in the process of loading the pictures. I had fifteen I wanted to post. I know, waaay too many, but my kids are that cute. Four of them loaded and the other eleven glitched. They said something on them about an error and they couldn’t be completed. I was kind of annoyed, as I had wasted quite a bit of time waiting for them to finish up, but c’est la vie. I figured it was all just overloaded so I selected two to reload. They glitched. Over and over again. I went to the page to try once again, and saw in small, light grey writing, text explaining that I had 0% of my space left.

I knew I would eventually run out of space. My blog was a completely free page until I put some money into it to purchase the domain name “thedailyhailey.” I was just very surprised that I received no warning. Granted, that fine print has probably been updating since I started blogging two years ago, but I didn’t know about. I mean, if I get lots of views in a short period of time, like for instance, when I put out Laela’s birth story and lots of you guys read it immediately, wordpress notified me that I was getting a high traffic of viewers. While its nice to know, its not really information I can do anything with. This would have been much more useful: “Hi Hailey! Just FYI, you only have 500MBs of space left. Might want to consider upgrading!” Something like that, right? But nope. I had to dig for it.

So being me, not the most tech savvy person alive, I went into my media page and started deleting pictures. I figured I’d make room. However, I had to go one by one, and it took forever. I deleted about thirty before googling how to go about this much quicker. As I’m sure lots of you have predicted, I quickly learned that the pictures I deleted are now gone off of my public posts forever. I cried. I was very upset in the moment, and still am, to be honest. BUT I am also thankful that I only deleted as many as I did. And I think I deleted pictures off of posts that I had already saved. So WHEW! But aaawww at the same time.

Once I found this out, I ran outside to Brady, blubbering about my lost photos and how I couldn’t even finish the post I was working on and what would I do?!?! Mildly irrational behaviour at best. He hugged me and let me have my moment. Then we talked about what it would cost to upgrade my space. I could go from my allotted 3 GBs to 10 GBs for $20, which isn’t bad. But in all honesty, I struggled with the purchase of the domain name, and now with the upgrade, because this blog doesn’t serve a real purpose. No one reads it to learn anything, or to be inspired, or to discover anything new. Its only purpose is basically so I can have a journal that somehow works better for me than writing on paper. Why do I have to pay for it?! Ugh.

I know, I was overthinking it, and $20 per year for several years worth of space isn’t unreasonable. But I felt so ripped off to not get any time to think about it before having to make the decision. Instead, I had to decide on the spot, or not post. So I bought into it, gave them their $20, and finished my post. I almost immediately received an email from wordpress showing me my purchase, and giving me a receipt. It was ended with “Thank you for using wordpress, a better way to blog.”

My ass, wordpress. My ass.

Be prepared for a potentially annoyingly long photo post. Would people be happier if the photos were smaller and side by side so you could go through them quicker? Or maybe the posts are slow to load when there are so many. I don’t know. Any issues out there?

I was pretty happy with how today played out, for the most part. Our morning was low key, as per usual. We played downstairs and watched a movie. Laela napped, and we drank coffee. Really laid back. When the little miss did wake up, we got her up and fed, and headed outside. We spent the next two hours photographing our kids playing with bubbles, trucks, tractors, the wagon, and checking out the garden.

I obviously don’t have pictures of everything, as I was covered in bubbles myself. But it was wonderful to get out and play in the sun. We brought the kids in at 2:00 for a nap, and they were out right away. A little bit of fresh air sure does the body good! However, the littlest goober slept for one hour and that was it. She usually wakes up and plays and talks in her crib for a bit, but she rolled for only a minute or two before she burst into tears. I went to get her and she cuddled in bed with me and watched baking videos on YouTube for a bit.

We had perogies and wings for supper, which Dekker slept through. Once he woke up, Brady sat at the table with the kids and I baked cupcakes. Ok, no, it wasn’t a big accomplishment, as baking usually is for me. They were just from a cake mix. BUT!, I figured I could either make shortcut cupcakes, or no cupcakes, and I think my husband will agree that box cupcakes are considerably tastier than no cupcakes. So I ended up with 19 slightly overfilled white cupcakes.

 

However, lucky me, they baked up beautifully! I iced them just basic buttercream as well, and in all honesty, they were pretty ugly, haha! Here’s the one pretty one 🙂

Again, there could be worse things than ugly icing on a cupcake. No cupcake.

What did turn out to be worse than ugly cupcakes was bathing the kids afterwards. Laela doesn’t like baths much, but she’s a lot easier to maneuver. Brady has had the job of bathing Dekker for quite a while, and now I remember why. I am at such a loss. I’ll spare you the details, but when I finally dragged Dekker out of that bathroom, we were both soaked head to toe, furious with each other, and in tears or very, very close. I have no idea what the next bath will look like, but we had a very serious talk afterwards and some of it seemed to sit well anyway. One thing that was different this time, though, was that in between his shrieks, the few times I calmed him for those few seconds, he would say “Detter scared.” He has never so clearly verbalized that to me, so that was a great step! But I can’t get out of him what part he’s so scared of, or why. I suppose that will come out more as his communication skills improve.

After baths, we played in the living room and Brady played some guitar. It was relaxed and quiet and that was good. The kids are now tucked away, and Bradys outside trying to finish up mowing the yard. He’ll either finish, or run out of gas and leave a weird, ugly patch in the lawn. We’ll know soon!

 

*** Sigh. WordPress just threw me for a loop! $20 later, I can finally finish this post!

This morning, Laela woke up at 7:15 and bawled her little face off. For about two minutes or less. And she was back out. Dekker slept until 8:00 before waking up on his own. I watched him on the monitor for a few minutes, while he sat up, fell back over, did all the cute face rubbing that he does, and all that good stuff. Finally, when he was awake enough, he began talking and giggling and stood up to check on Laela. The second he saw she was asleep, he was quiet, and lay back down. Amazing, right?? It didn’t last too long at all before she woke up and they were both wiiide awake and ready for the day. To put it in Dekker’s words, they were “happy to be done sleeping.” That they were.

** I want to make this post about sleeping, but I have to say that I gave Laela Cheerios for the first time today and she can eat them without gagging!! She’s still clumsy and ends up losing pieces, but thats because she pushes the Cheerio up to the front where her eight sharp little teeth reside, and she actually chomps up and down over and over until she bites it in half! She gums up what stays in her mouth and eats it easily, but often the second half falls out. But either way, yay Laela!!!

Ok, back to the day and the kids naps. I considered keeping Laela up and making the kids nap somewhere between 11-12 together, but she was getting really, really vocal and high pitched, which is her telltale sign that she’s getting tired. So I put her down and she slept solid until noon. Thats when I woke her.

I know. I hate waking my kids. But if she goes later than noon, there is almost no chance they’ll go down together at their regular 2:00 time. So I woke her and fed her downstairs like always. What was awesome about today is that she is really enjoying her new ability to sit up from laying down, and she practiced it over and over and over. The whole time she was up and not eating, she was plunking down on her tummy, and then pushing herself back up. And it tired her out!! At 2:00, they were both ready, I thought.

Dekker fell asleep immediately, while Laela continued to practice her skill for the next half hour. I went up and lay her back down and she went to sleep right away. Laela slept until 4:00, and Dekker didn’t even stir when I went in to retrieve her. He didn’t lull until just before 5:00. It was a GREAT sleep day!

Now, its the evening, and the kids are pretty ready, I’d say. Deks is tucked in and Laela is just finishing her bottle. Soon enough, they’ll both be quiet. Brady is going to quickly rototill the garden, but then its snack and bath time. I love these few hours before bed.

We saw Dr Guselle for the first time in forever today, for Laela’s nine month check. It got bumped a while ago so my doctor could undergo some carpal tunnel surgery, but she is back at ’em and it was great to see her. She always takes as much time as we need, and I never feel like I didn’t get to ask all of my questions.

My mom offered to take Dekker for a few hours while we were in the city, which was actually completely wonderful. As I’ve mentioned before, sometimes he’s a bit of a handful when we’re out and he gets nervous or uncomfortable. So this way, we could all sit through Laela’s appointment peacefully, and Dekker could have a blast with grandma all to himself!

Laela had her six month shots a little late, around seven months, and she has gained a full two pounds since then, so thats great! On her growth chart, she started in the 85%, moved down to the 50%, and is comfortably back up in the 85%! I’m not too worried about the specific numbers, but its great to see that she’s really thriving. She asked about solid foods and we told her about how Laela would cry and cry and fight and wail and just hated it, so we left her alone for a couple of months, and now she wants it bad! Dr. Guselle said that sounded great, and to just keep following her cues. Its really nice to be on the second kid and to have my doctor say that she fully trusts our judgement.

The little Miss checked out perfectly everywhere. Heart and lungs, ears, throat, hips, tummy, everything is in good shape. She didn’t check Laela’s eyes because we went to Dr. Rubab so recently. I told her about Laela’s decent astigmatism and that if it doesn’t improve a lot by February, she’ll likely have glasses. She kind of made a “merp merp” face, and said “Well, that would be ok too. At least you’re familiar with it.” She’s right. It would be fine. A bit sad, but ok 🙂

Once the appointment was over, Brady and I hit up a drive thru (in our separate vehicles, since he had come from work, lol) and grabbed a bit of lunch to eat on our way to pick Dekker up.

That boy had sooo much fun, and told us all about everything he had done, but luckily, he was also tired, so going home didn’t devastate him too much. What a great day for everyone involved 🙂

Last minute question, guys, and maybe a dumb one. Does “merp merp” translate to everyone, or is it just in my head? I don’t know else to describe that feeling, haha! I have yet to find the appropriate emoticon either. Does it make sense??

When we got pregnant with Laela, I got heckled a lot about how much Dekker sleeps, and “just you wait, this one won’t sleep at all!” Jokes are fine, but it happened often. What I took from all the razzing, mostly, was that it would be great to get my kids to nap at the same time. That equalled sanity.

Of course, it didn’t happen right off the bat. It took time. But eventually, probably once Laela was six months or older, they started taking their afternoon nap together. They still do, but its not foolproof, and I’d love to hear from seasoned moms of two or more, or anyone with experience.:

The kids go to bed around 8:00pm, and wake up between 7:30 and 8:00am. Dekker on his own would likely still prefer to sleep til 10:00 but he likes Laela, and he gets so excited when she’s up. So they’re both up. And thats fine. Laela goes down for her first (and much needed) nap at 10:00, or shortly before, and often sleeps til noon. Then they got down together at 2:00. Laela lasts sometimes until 4:00 (if she falls asleep right away, which doesn’t happen anymore) whereas Dekker is good in there until after 5:00. Thats a bit late, and can make bedtime harder on him. Dekker’s ideal nap would likely begin at noon, and got until 3:00. And Laela’s ideal time for her second nap would be closer to 3:00. To recap our ideal situation…

Laela: 10:00 – 12:00
Dekker: 12:00 – 3:00
Laela: 3:00 – 5:00

Perfect!!! But do you see my dilemma? I feel like my kids would function beautifully with this schedule, yet I hear so often about how those few kid-free hours are a life saver. And I can vouch! I love that brief period of quiet time I get most days, to either accomplish things, or to put my feet up. Yet how do you arrange a tandem nap when they’re so different in age, and clearly on different schedules? Can someone propose a different timeline for me?

Just how important are those 2-3 hours of peace and quiet?

I was pretty excited when I put my last load of laundry in the dryer, and checked the time to see it was about 11:50am. While it wasn’t like ten loads or anything crazy like that, I still felt very accomplished. Know why? Because we have a laundry obstacle in our house. An obstacle that makes laundry take waaay longer than it should.

We have old machines, but they have great settings and I really like them. However, a long time ago already, the washer started squeaking. It has gradually become an unbelievably loud squeal. However, its only loud when it starts to spin dry. Not the whole time, just when it starts, almost like it warms up. So twice per cycle. Not a big deal. (Actually, its horrible, but I don’t want to fork over money for new machines…)

Our laundry room is in our basement, so its easy to wash clothes while the kids and I play downstairs in the day. But then the washer squeals. And Dekker runs over to close the door to the laundry room. Sooo helpful, right? But our washer doesn’t have a buzzer at the end or anything. So oftentimes, our clothes sit and sit and sit in there until I finally remember, and then I deal with them. So laundry can easily take twice as long as necessary. I’m very proud that I completed all of our wash in a logical amount of time today 🙂 Go me!!

I saw an ad on tv today that showed a bunch of people sitting in vehicles. The narrator said some stat about people spending over a year of their lives commuting. And then it said “Enjoy the commute – with tic tacs!” What do tic tacs have to do with commuting?!?! Ok so that was related to nothing but is it just me? Does this make sense to the rest of you guys?

Onto other things. I spent the morning in the city with the kids and my mom. Did a quick Costco shop, got a coffee, and finally found some awesome gladiator sandals! Best of all, they were only $20! But even better!!!, at the till they were $13!!! Success.

Laela slept on the way home, and Dekker did not. But it was actually perfect because she woke up at noon, which is a pretty normal wake up time for her morning nap. So I thought if I could keep Dekker awake, and Laela after her pretty short nap, they could go down together at 2:00 like usual. They were both rubbing their eyes by then, so it seemed perfect. They both went down very sweetly, without tears or fussing. Dekker was out like a light pretty much right away, while Laela always rolls around a little bit first. I’m still feeling nice and tired since our beach day, so instead of accomplishing stuff like I really should have done (unpacked, done laundry, swept up the sand from my kitchen, etc.) I lay in bed and watched old episodes of the Duggars on YouTube. It was awesome. Until I checked the monitor.

Laela was sitting right up in her crib, pulling at her bumper pads. I went into their room to lay her back down. As soon as I opened the door, she squealed with excitement to see me and was waving her hands at me. I walked over to her, trying not to laugh, and lay her back down. I gave her a blanket to hold and put another one overtop of her. Before I was even out the door, she was rolling around. But I can only control that so much, so I left. She was pretty quiet, and Dekker was cashed out. Probably fifteen minutes later, I checked again. Sitting up in the corning, trying to pull down the Christmas lights. (Yes, they have white twinkle lights in their room. We never use them :/ ) I moved the strand out of her reach and finally flopped her down on the ground and swaddled her. The ultimate look of betrayal. She was devastated. She cried and cried. She really hates the swaddle, so its not like I did it really tight or anything, as she used to just work herself up trying to get out of it, and then be all hot and bothered. But I just did it enough so she couldn’t roll as easily. And she was out within two minutes.

Those kids can sleep, wow! Over two hours later, Brady was home and the kids were still out! We ate supper before they got up. It was honestly one of our best days in the recent past. My sunburn hurts less, and I’m feeling refreshed. Hopefully I can be productive tomorrow and get some of our house back in order soon 🙂

We skipped church and spent the day at the lake with my parents 🙂 We were at their place just shortly after 8:30 this morning, loaded up the van, and headed out. We got to Waskesiu by 11:00 and headed for the beach. The water was too cold for swimming, but the sun was out and nothing was too populated right away.

Laela hung out in a diaper and her sun hat, while Dekker wouldn’t give in to swim shorts, much less take his shoes off. But he had a blast! We build sandcastles and took pictures blew bubbles. The wind started to really take the bubbles off in the directions of a few blankets of people, but they were awesome  and made a point of telling us they didn’t mind. Dekker ran out near their blankets to chase the bubbles and try to knock them out of the sky. It didn’t bother anyone. It was awesome.

And then all of a sudden, it was pouring!! So we rushed everyone in and got the stuff in the van. It was too early to go eat supper, and frankly, everyone who was outside would probably now be inside, and we don’t always do great in big groups. So we decided to go for a nice drive and see some of the scenery. And the kids napped 🙂 it was perfect. Short, but enough!

Once we got to the restaurant, it had cleared out quite a bit so everyone was comfortable. Dekker and Brady took selfies while the rest of us went to order food.

We played at the table while we waited and when the food came, Dekker didn’t even scream at the waitress! He ate his whole meal and was very happy about it. I had easily the best fish and chips I’ve had in I don’t even know how long. It was sooo good! I fed Laela most of her bottles and Brady finished it up before we decided onto the next thing!

Which was ice cream. Always a hit. I forgot to take pictures of the last bit, but we grabbed some ice cream and walked the kids in the stroller down to the water. The pier was completely flooded over so we pulled up on some sand and skipped stones. After a few minutes, Dekker climbed back into the strolled, leaned back, and said “Detter done.” So we left.

We drove home with the insane storm coming and going. But the kids are now safely tucked away, hopefully to sleep for a very, very long time. I am off to nurse my sunburn with vinegar (did you guys know that?? Just spray your burn with vinegar. Gone! Smells like salad, but worth it!) and sit in a lukewarm tub. An episode of The Mindy Project won’t hurt either.

Hope you all enjoyed the photo post! I did.

Nope. Not the ice cream.

It was a rough day, I’m not gonna lie. You know those days when your whole family feels out of sync? We had one of those. We got some tidying and organizing done, which is great, and we grilled burgers for supper, which was delicious. But those were pretty much the high points.

Tomorrow will be better. We’re headed to the lake with my parents for the day! I’m thinking it’ll probably not be swimming weather, but it will be town walking, bubble blowing, ice cream eating weather! Laela’s first time there, too. Wish us luck!

Sleep deep, all.