The Daily Hailey

I’ve had a decent amount of productive days over the past couple of weeks, but the other day I had a fail day, where none of the tasks I started I completed. I stripped diapers, only to discover that I hadn’t stripped half of what needed to be done. And I sorted through a large pile of paperwork thinking it was the last of its kind, only to find a much larger second pile. I was sooo bummed at the end of that day that I didn’t try and finish the tasks up.

I saved them for today, apparently. It was a good day, really. The kids were in great spirits when they were up, and both slept beautifully for all of their naps. I can’t complain at all. In the morning, I stripped a ton more diapers. I still have ten more to strip another day, because I didn’t feel good making the laundry load so large. But I got most of that done anyway. It wasn’t so bad. And I finished up that large stack of paperwork! I discovered most of it was garbage and I threw it out. Yay!! I felt quite productive in the small way of having two tasks. I had a nice visit with my mother in law in the afternoon, and the whole fam went to visit my parents for a couple of hours in the evening.

Today felt refreshing and like I wish every day felt. Happy kids, got a couple of things done, but nothing labour intensive, I could rest for part of the time that the kids rested, and we didn’t have screaming over supper. Couldn’t have asked for more, really.

I hope everyone else had as good a day as I did! Any good stories?

I think I’ve talked about them before, but my friend, Willa, gave me some daylilies a few years back. They were beautiful and enormous and I was so happy for them. And then I doddled and doddled and they were dead by the time I planted them. I felt guilty and yucky. Low and behold, they bloom beautifully every year, and the ironic part is that Willa’s don’t. I’m sorry!! If mine have babies, you can definitely come steal from them! That’s kind of a scary thought. Stealing babies is frowned upon. Maybe we’ll call them the neighbours instead. That seems slightly more socially acceptable.

We spent the better part of the day at home, being lazy. The kids hung out in their diapers in our hot, hot house.

I put them down for their nap early, because we were going out mid-afternoon. They went down at 1:00 and Dekker was out immediately. Laela, however, rolled around happily for over an hour and a half!!! All of a sudden, she burst out crying, and moments later, she was asleep. Twenty minutes later, I woke them both, got them dressed, and we headed out the door.

Yay for getting your legs waxed! I hadn’t had a chance to welcome summer yet due to the grossness of my legs. The wind in my leg hair felt like spiders. I know thats a lot of information, but its true. It was this morning, when walking up our carpeted stairs and feeling the static electricity pull my hair towards them that I knew I was overdue. So that was a huge relief, and I feel considerably more comfortable now than I did then. Yay!

Brady dropped me off at the mall after that. I went to Bath and Body Works while he went to pick up some food. Dekker loves his fries, and since he’s been so misbehaved in the city lately, he keeps losing that privilege. That means we lose it to, which is a super bummer, haha! So this trip, he didn’t get to go out anywhere, so we all got fast food for supper. Yum! On my trip to the mall, I returned a bunch of product I wasn’t happy with, paid $3.50 and got eight candles!!! It was a great haul, and my bedroom will smell like earl grey tea for MONTHS! I love that smell.

We quickly hit up our banks drive-thru ATM to grab our weekly savings (is anyone else doing that?) and were on our way home. Not tons of errands, but we got out of the house, which was the most important part.

When we got home, the kids played in the living room, Brady played guitar with them, and I did a bit more work in our bathroom. Brady put up a shelf above our bathroom door to hold all of our extra things that kind of sort of go in a bathroom but have no real place, like extra hand soaps, candles, cleaning supplies, etc. I don’t have a picture of the shelf with the stuff on it, but here’s the shelf anyway.

I highly recommend that everyone gets one of these. It is incredible.

Kids are tucked away, and a not-too-hot bath is waiting for me. But first, Brady and I are going to wander around the garden for a few minutes. Its all weeded and tilled and doesn’t require much past watering right now, but I’m curious to see how much its grown since the huge job of getting it so cleaned up!

Off to get some sun before it goes down  ☼

Our day was like any other day, except that the kids woke up at 6:50am. They were happy in their room for a little while, but not long before I had to go in and get them up for the day. Thats a really early day around here. I knew I’d have tired kidlets on my hands. No big deal. It wouldn’t be the first time. Plus, the little miss popped her eighth tooth! All of the front ones are officially through!

Laela went down beautifully for her morning nap at 10:00, and I woke her shortly after noon, since the kids go down for a nap together around 2:00pm, and I wanted her to be able to sleep.

The cruel joke was that she didn’t. I’ve never had a problem with “quiet time” as opposed to actual napping, so she climbed around her crib and cooed for about an hour while Dekker slept through the whole thing. She started crying and I figured she’d be out right away. If she cries before bed, its never more than a minute or two. But she did not give up. Because she normally goes down so easy, I went to check on her and cuddle her a little, and tuck her back in. I did that on two separate occasions. She just wailed. Wasn’t having it. When I went in a third time, Dekker rolled over and looked at me through his squinty exhausted eyes and made a sad “I’m about to cry” sound, so I took Laela out. Poor kid. Deks slept like a log after that.

Laela, on the other hand, could be consoled for a moment here or there, but otherwise she basically cried for the next 2.5 hours. It was intense, and not in a good way. Once Dekker finally started to move around, I went to get him and put Laela in bed. She was wiped and dangit, she was going to sleep whether she wanted to or not!

She obviously wasn’t sleeping very deeply because she woke up when Brady came home. She didn’t lull awake. She woke up and bawled her eyes out until I finally went to get her. It was clear she wasn’t going back to sleep. So in total, she got about a half hour.

So this is a big long whiny post but guys, I’m exhausted and grumpy and I spent the last hour of the kids awake time running around the house getting things done just because I was so frustrated at the day.

*deep breath* I don’t need to be upset about today. I did all the laundry, and its all put away in its respective places. Can we all agree that he putting away is the worst part?? Yup, its all tidy. I fed the kids well and even ate lunch myself. I changed a lot of poopy diapers. I did dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. I moved around some shelves and got our dvd collection looking good. I did my hair!  And best of all, I was available to my crabby kids when they needed someones full attention.

I always love my kids, but somedays the job seems to get to me. Today was one of those days. Please don’t judge me. I assure everyone out there, I am doing the absolute very best I can!

Today was full and truly great 🙂 Brady had to work for a few hours this morning so the kids and I hung out for a bit on our own. They are just the cutest things.

My parents came over mid-morning to do some work on the garden. Laela was still napping, so as soon as Brady got home we all went outside, Dekker included, and weeded/played trucks. When Laela was quite awake, I brought her out in her carseat to sit in the shade and have some fun outside with us. She was totally happy with the setting, and we all took our turn ducking in and visiting her. The garden now looks beautiful, and I expect our plants to skyrocket from here on out!

We had grilled fish and broccoli salad for lunch, and then had a bit of a visit before my parents left. They just got back from a trip yesterday and needed their rest. Plus, we had plans!

The always-flawless Jerilee recently offered to take our kids for the evening so we could go catch the fireworks. I know lots of people are bored with the fireworks, and I don’t blame them! But we never get to do stuff like that and really wanted a date night, so we took her up on it. Poor dear, though. She came straight after work, arriving around 6:30 and we got home after midnight :/ But we had a wonderful time out and appreciated the help SO MUCH!!

Even just the drive was nice. We listened to music we liked at a “healthy” volume 🙂

For supper, we didn’t have tons of time to go sit down somewhere, and didn’t want to just hit up a Wendys or McDonalds like we normally would do when pressed for time, so we bit the bullet and went FULLY unhealthy! 7eleven provided us with a delicious once a year supper of corn dogs, potato wedges, and candy. We got some iced coffee and were on our way!

We parked pretty far from the grounds in an attempt to get out easier, rather than being right close to the park but taking hours to get out of it. Trust me, it was smart. We grabbed a blanket, hoodies, and our candy of choice – Live wires – and walked a solid twenty minutes to our spot on the hill. It was at our first that I realized that some people come to events like the fireworks specifically to scream, curse, and drink. I don’t mean to be rude, as people have the right! But it was just a lot and really, really loud really, really close. We moved our blanket once before we settled in.

 

We watched the family in front of us fill their babys bottle with chocolate milk, which we kind of did a double take on. We decided to stop judging when she was just an adorable little girl who made eyes at us and waved and, what the heck, why shouldn’t she have a treat?! Who am I to judge??? I was so thankful to not have to make any decisions like that tonight.

I tried to photograph the fireworks, but it didn’t really work out. So I tried to photograph us. Which also wasn’t super flattering…

The walk back to the van was actually pretty nice, since everyone was moving in relatively the same direction. Made us move a little slower and enjoy the walk more than book it back. We got out incredibly quickly, stopped at a Tim’s to pee, and headed home. It was lovely to arrive home to a quiet house, two sleeping babies who ate their food and listened to their babysitter, and Jerilee, who came willingly to love my kids while we were away. That is a HUGE part of getting out of the house – knowing your kids love the person who is coming to watch them, and knowing she will keep the house running the way we like it to run. Thank you from the bottom of my heart <3

Ok ok ok, its bedtime. I’m sooo old, and was yawning before 10:00pm. Its time. Sleep deep, and happy Canada Day!

Guys!!! There is still sooo much to get done around here and I’m starting to feel considerably less pumped about it. This is going to be a problem. I was going to list on tonight post what is still left, but in a crazy rant to Brady, I realized there is WAY too much to actually write down. I love lists, but as of about two weeks ago when the great house purge began, I decided to not list, since I knew that would overwhelm me. So no lists. But sooo much!

I had a rough night and the kids were pretty irritable this morning as well, so we didn’t do much. I put all the cloth diapers that Dekker wore last time he broke out in yeast into the wash to strip them. Yes, I used bleach. Don’t judge me! I did a bleach and rinse, detergent and rinse, and then three full wash cycles without soap, so basically six rinses. I think they’ll be ok now!

Dekker was pretty lazy today…

But thats my favorite kind of lazy 🙂 We watched a bit of tv and had lunch and Dekker finally ventured away from me to check out the new set up of our basement. Its much more open and he can really run around.

When the kids finally went down for a nap, I sorted through a ton of papers that were in a pile from when they were born. It was fun to go through it and see how different their lives have been already! Dekker’s hospital stuff was peppered with info on nursing, while Laela’s had basic info on formula feeding, since I had decided to bottle feed before she was even born. Dekker’s vision info had somehow slipped into the pile, while Laela’s contained more about jaundice and all the fun dangers that it carries. Of course, after I finished that huge stack of papers and got them separated and in order and put away, I found TONS more. Sigh. So that was a bummer.

I was so relieved when the diapers were done, only to be pushed down again by realizing that Dekker wore a couple of the diapers we had bought for Laela when we were in a pinch, and we don’t know which ones. Which means we have another day or two of stripping diapers ahead of us. Another sigh.

I don’t mean to be a downer, even thought I really, really sound like one. I’m just starting to lose my gusto, and it feels like everything I tried to accomplish today flopped. I even overcooked the ham for supper.

Luckily, surprisingly, Dekker was super excited for ham! He asked and asked until we’d give him more. And then something set him off and he got really angry, and just started screaming. We tried to relax him, but he was thrashing and furious. Sometimes, even if we know whats bothering him, he works himself into such a frenzy, he needs to cool off alone. So I walked with him to his room and said I’d get him when he calmed down.

Over twenty minutes later, we tucked him in for the night 🙁 I was so sad. He slept sooo much this afternoon, but he was clearly in no shape to be with us for the evening. It wasn’t much earlier than usual, but he pretty much got up, ate, screamed for a half hour, and went back to bed. It was awful. However, every once in a while, he seems relieved by a punishment. Its like he knows he can’t be around people sometimes. So once he accepted that it was bedtime, he was smiling through his tear stained face and making jokes, giving big kisses, saying he loved me, and that he was happy. And he went down fine.

Hopefully we’ll get a bit done still here this evening before we go to bed. I need to get this motivation back! Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Before I even talk about today, Laela popped a new tooth overnight!!! Tooth #7 is here, to the right of the two bottom ones. The left one is not far off.

We decided to hit up the city today, but the kids woke early and were tired early. We put Laela down for her first nap and hoped for the best, but Dekker was incredibly tired much sooner than usual, so as soon as she was up, Dekker had to go down. Therefore, we only ended up leaving around 3:00pm. I rocked my bed head, because why not, right?

It was actually perfect, though. Our only place that we had to get to by a reasonable time was Costco, and we made it easily. Brady and Dekker ran in and got a few things while Laela and I listened to Frozen and hung out in the car.

After that, we did Walmart for a couple more groceries and one of those rolly storage tubs that goes under a bed. We plan to fill it with extra wipes, diapers, etc. and put it under Laela’s crib. I’m actually pretty pumped about that thing. Wish we got two. Maybe we still will. We got some cereal on sale, and the stuff to make my delicious cherry cream cheese square dessert.Do you remember when I first made it and said it looked awful and was a total flop? Oh my gosh, it is sooo good! And gooey and horrendous looking, but really yummy. Its time to make it again.

Our only other planned stop was the Broadway Cafe for milkshakes, and it was closed today :/ So we went home. Sadly, no fries for Dekker, as he screamed at too many people. Boo for all of us. Brady and I were really disappointed too.

On the drive home, Brady punched himself in the nuts. Well, in the nut. The right one. I laughed.

Turns out that our evening was great anyway. We had delicious stroganoff for supper, While Dekker wailed his way through the first minute or two of the meal, I snuck a bite into his mouth. He liked it, and ate a decent amount more. Yay for force feeding your children!

After playing upstairs in the sun while Brady cleaned the Keurig and I took a bunch of pictures, both kids are not officially down for the night. Time for a soak, as well as some popcorn and BC cherries. Best. Snack. Ever.

We worked our butts off for another full day today, and again, accomplished a lot! I think we got more “done” last weekend, considering all the boxes we sorted through and the huge progress we made in our furnace room, but that left our house a complete mess of boxes and garbage bags, which drove me crazy. Today, we got on some of that.

We worked mostly in the basement again, which wasn’t my goal, but it worked out anyway. I was hoping for a bit more progress in the living room, but we might tackle some of that tomorrow. But back to the topic of today, we threw out a big wicker chest thing that held blankets that we hadn’t seen in years, so most of those got chucked too. We also ditched an oversized coffee table and, a dvd stand thing, an organ that didn’t work, and a few other pieces of furniture and bags of garbage.

Another whole van load!

We (Brady) rearranged the whole basement, which I would try to explain in detail but since most of you haven’t seen my house, it wouldn’t make any sense. Basically, one half of the basement now holds all the big toys and the other half is the seating and the tv. Everything used to all pour together, and likely it still will, but not to the same extent.

I also washed bedding. TONS of bedding. All kinds of spare sheets we found, and blanket covers on extra blankets that I can’t remember washing, so thats not a great sign. I washed TONS. I brought the Christmas decorations down from the front closet and put them in tubs before tucking them away in a spare bedroom closet. I folded and tubbed the last of the baby girls clothes that are in storage. This is sleepers only!

Insane, I know. But they’re sooo cute!

We also each bathed a baby, which was probably more work than the whole rest of the day. Well, the one Brady took, anyway. Mine was easy. I’m thinking that instead of trying to shield her from pouring the water over her head, and being super gentle and careful with it, I’m just going to dump it and maybe then it won’t be so devastating when she’s a bit older. It shook her up a bit but didn’t upset her to an unbelievable point. I dunno. Is that cruel?

After baths, Dekker was traumatized apparently, and wanted to sit downstairs on the big teddys lap and read a movie cover, while Laela had some nudist time in the sun.

I did dishes while Brady grilled some fish. We stole a recipe from my mother in law, nd my gosh, Elvira, it was delicious! We can’t wait to make it again. And again. And again.

Even Dekker loved it!

Brady did a touch more arranging in the basement before taking a load off and sitting down with the kids and I. We’re skipping church tomorrow, and we’re going to go make a trip to Saskatoon just to be together for some family time. On the list is Costco, Walmart, and Broadway Cafe for milkshakes! Yum!! Of course, we’re adding a few house organization things to our list, but for the most part, tomorrow will be schedule-free and low pressure. I can’t wait!!!

So the kids are tucked away, Laela actually waved at me when she left the room with Brady, I am full to the brim from the yummiest supper we’ve had in a long time, and so ready for a not-too-hot bath.

Feeling accomplished.

Happy birthday, The Daily Hailey!!! I cannot believe I’ve been at this for two whole years! How long have you guys been around? Anyone read every post that I ever wrote? I honestly kind of doubt it, haha! How does anyone keep up with something like this every single day?! I certainly don’t expect it! But I’ve enjoyed these two years and hope to keep at it 🙂

Laela woke us this morning at 4:30, just bawling her big blue eyes out. She’s working pretty hard on a couple new teeth that I fully expect to make their appearance any day now, and I figure that was the problem. I got her up and fed her, and she went back down nicely, which I didn’t expect. However, as I did expect, I didn’t get back down. I tried desperately, but dozed in and out for about a half hour. It was lame and I was exhausted. But its all good. The kids slept in a bit longer than usual so thats something anyway.

We took it pretty easy today, since we’re planning on doing lots more house stuff tomorrow. Brady will make a few runs to the dump and we’ll hopefully finish up a lot of the sorting and move into rearranging and organizing. I’m looking forward to that, since our whole house still looks a mess. There are tubs and boxes everywhere, and its time to get them to where they belong, now that we know whats inside of them.

One cute anecdote from the day and then I’m onto getting myself some supper!

We’re working with Dekker currently on learning to listen to us and obey the first time we ask, rather than the hundredth. Ok, an obvious exaggeration, but if we get what we’re asking for on the third to fifth attempt, its a GOOD day! We ask him to repeast the rule “listen to mommy and dad.” So today at bedtime, Brady grabbed Dekker’s blanket and asked him to come. Dekker immediately crouched down and started whining. I reminded him how important it is to do things the first time mommy or dad ask, and asked him to tell me the rule. He put on a bit of a blank face, and since its a relatively new “rule” I gave him a hint. “The rule about listening…” I said. He confidently recited “No listening.” I had to leave the room, I couldn’t help but laugh. Brady got him to bed without much issue at all after that. I just thought that was adorable 🙂 I love my kids.

The poor sore achy one spent the evening chewing on a wipe (go figure) and is now having her nighttime bottle. Hopefully she gets a fully nights sleep tonight!

 

Thanks again, guys, for being here and reading along with me. Cheers! *clink*

After struggling pretty hard over the last week or two, I’ve been very happy to have had a few really positive days recently 🙂 Hopefully you’re all less bored when I’m upbeat than when I just lament the whole time. Haha, clearly, this positivity is all for you!

The kids were adorable over breakfast and played well in the basement like always. I was a bit nervous about how our schedule would work out, though, because we had to make a city trip in the afternoon, right during nap time. I put Laela down for her first nap a bit early and she did great. Their joint nap was quite a bit more bumpy. As soon as I left the room, Dekker got up and started jumping on his bed. He doesn’t usually make that much for a ruckus unless he’s woken up and is ready to get up. Not right when he goes down ever. So I put him back down and he didn’t get up again. Laela, on the other hand, shimmied her way all around her crib for over an hour, so she had less than an hour of sleep before we had to get up and dressed and be out the door.

We successfully made it to Dr. Mike’s on time for my treatment. Brady met me there and sat with the kids in the van while I went in. I played in the waiting room with a little baby boy named George (one of the coolest kids I’ve ever met) before heading into an exam room. There was a super obvious dusty bum print on the chair so I didn’t sit there and immediately showed Dr. Mike so he wouldn’t think it was mine. I swear, guys, it wasn’t. I was nervous for the treatment for probably the first time ever, because of my neck hurting so badly. I told him I was scared so he was really careful to tell me what was happening and that I didn’t need to be, and he fixed it! I’m not like 100% just yet, but feeling considerably better. I could actually shoulder check on the drive home, so that counts for something. Yay for being able to turn my own head!

After chiro, we drove to the mall and Brady dropped Laela and I off. She and I did a bit of shopping while Brady took Dekker to go get his new glasses. I’m pretty sure I explained it before, but he’s getting the same glasses exactly, just replaced under warranty, because we can. The little girl and I hit up Bath and Body Works for 3 wick candles, and then headed to Starbucks. They had a really good offer up for only a few hours, and to make a long story short, there was sort of a debacle getting there. I left the Target location empty handed and hit up the Co-op location instead, and ended up with a free drink! No, its not like I complained and she gave me free stuff to shut me up. We chatted and I was completely happily ordering a drink when she gave me a voucher for a free shaken tea! So I tried the blackberry green tea. Yummy. Light and refreshing.

We met the boys shortly after. When I opened up the van to put Laela in her spot, Brady asked Dekker to tell me what he had done at the glasses place. Head down. “Detter screamed.” The whole time. I’m so sorry for Brady that he had to do that, because its awful, but I am completely and utterly thankful that it didn’t have to be me this time. That aside, the glasses look fresh and new and seem to fit him way better. We ditched the arms that wrap around so severely, and went with the normal arms just bent a little, and they stay on great. On the drive home, Dekker told me numerous times “Glasses comfy!” He’s never really talked about them like that before. At most, he would say “ya” when asked if he liked his glasses. But today, for the first time that we know of, they were comfy. That made me feel warm and fuzzy.

We were going to eat in the city, but since Dekker screamed and acted up so much, he forfeited his (and our) right to french fries. So we came home and had eggs and toast, which was delicious and Dekker actually gobbled it up. The kids went down hard but they’re quiet now anyway. So ready for a bath and some Netflix. Even after a really good day, I can still use the comfort of a bubble bath. Anyone else?

Jerilee came over to spend the day with me and the kids. It was actually perfect, because my neck is funky and she has a squidgy eye infection (sorry, dear) so we were sickies together. It feels like its been months since we got together, so we had a lot of catching up to do! We talked ourselves silly before just sitting and watching the Duggars with Dekker. He loves them. He wants to show Josie all of his toys. Its adorable.

Poor Laela struggled pretty hard today. She didn’t sit on her own very much at all, which is a big change from her usually fairly independent way. Instead, she cried and wined and squealed. I worked with her all day, but she was really struggling. I finally sort of pinned her down and can see that she’s working on a couple more teeth. Two bottoms, around her little front ones. That paired with not having a good poop in two days (sorry sweetie, don’t hate me for sharing this when you’re older!) was enough to really upset her. Poor munchkin. Through all of the drama though, Brady came home and all of us has cucumber salad, perogies and wings for supper. I LOVE that meal sooo much! We watched Frozen while we ate, and once we got the kids down, we had ice cream cake for dessert. Thanks for your delicious contribution, Jerilee! Yum! I can still taste it, and not in the “oh, I burped” kind of way. It was such a good day for food.

Sadly, after all of the goodness today, my neck is still iffy, and I can’t look very far left without weird twinges and stabbing pains. So back to Dr. Mikes we go! I saw him just a week ago, but this is incredibly painful and needs to be fixed. Then Brady is going to drop me and Laela off at the mall so I can go get my fill of Bath and Body candles while the semi-annual sale is on (3 wick candles are sooo cheap) while he and Dekker go and pick up little Ds new glasses!! They’re the same, but new frames and lenses on warranty 🙂 I was originally turned down about it, but all has been fixed and they agreed to order him a new pair. So he’ll get those fitted tomorrow while I’m shopping, so thats awesome all around.

Today was good, and tomorrow will be good, and I’m feeling optimistic that my funk is over. For now, anyway. Ice cream cake tends to have that effect on me.