The Daily Hailey

I was blessed with incredibly friendly and level children today. They played hard, and barely fussed. Laela complained only when she was tired, and Dekker played well pretty much right up until nap time. He shared without too much hesitation, and surprised me over and over.

After his incident of hitting Laela yesterday, he seemed to be extra careful with her today. While I changed her diaper on the floor downstairs, he knelt beside us, watching. Once her diaper was all closed up and her tummy was still all exposed, he inquired “Ticky La?” I right away gave him the go ahead, and he tickled her and ran away and ran back and tickled her and ran away and ran back, over and over and over again. I love that he asked first. He’s never done that. Best big brother ever.

I believe it was in that exact same setting where I discovered…..Laela popped her fourth tooth!! Of course, its not the other top front tooth, but the one to the side of front one she recently popped. Still counts 🙂 She has this adorable crooked smile half the time anyway, so it makes sense for her teeth to come in out of order. She’s incredible beautiful, and I’m so proud of her! I cheered and clapped and made a big show of it, and she squealed excitedly while Dekker imitated the both of us. Yay Laela!!! Congrats on your new tooth! I am incredible grateful for the easy teethers I have.

My last hilarious anecdote of the day is about Dekker and his manners. As I said yesterday, I really focus on manners in our house, but you wouldn’t believe it if you saw how loudly Dekker can burp and fart. He’s always been so careful with his language, and doesn’t like to say words until he’s more confident, but he refuses to say “excuse me.” I haven’t pushed it too hard because I know how method, but its taking too long, and he’s not even trying. So today, being a particularly gassy day for him, I asked him a few times. He would cutely say “stop it,” but I would just keep it light, but insist he try. Even just “scuse me.” And then it happened.

Dekker: *fart* *giggle*
Hailey: Say “excuse me.”
Dekker: Stooooop it!
Hailey: Nope, please say “scuse me.”
Dekker: Snoopy.

It. Is. Pure. Awesome! I’m not even going to correct him. I’ve been wondering at what point I should start getting on his case about pronouncing things correctly, but I’m keeping “snoopy.” I don’t even care. Its sooo funny, and incredible cute!

My adorable son is tucked away in bed already. He was in at his normal bedtime, but its so weird putting him to bed when its so bright out still! I love it. Warmth is coming, guys! The adorable girly will be cuddled away soon too, and then I will eat lemon cupcakes in the bathtub. Anyone else have such delicious plans?

I know all parents have to make tough decisions about how we raise our kids. I don’t really like the metaphor “choose your battles” because I don’t like to think of my relationships including fighting. We’re always learning and figuring, and yes, I’m sure a lot of you have private opinions about things you would do differently than me. I fully respect that 😀 We can’t all do things the same. If all of our kids were the same, life would be boring. I digress…

We put a lot of significance around Dekker’s manners. Pleases and thankyous are necessities, and too much whining isn’t acceptable. It seems strict, but I think politeness is a great thing to strive towards. This evening, on our drive home from my parents house, Dekker asked for a snack. Kind of. Straight out of the driveway, he says loudly “Snack.” Huh. In a lot of cases, I just give him one. He often eats snacks in the van. But he had really just finished supper, and I figured he could wait until we got on the highway at the very least, and then see if he was actually hungry. So I said “Just wait a few minutes please.” He started fussing like crazy. I asked for his manners and he just shouted “snack” at me louder. Its so cute that he thinks that would work, haha 😉 So for probably the first time, I didn’t give him any more chances and I just said he couldn’t have a snack until we got home. He cried, but recovered within moments, and said “Toy.” Again, no manners. I asked what toy he wanted, and he was saying something I couldn’t quite understand. I asked him to repeat it and he flipped out again, shouting for a toy. So, bracing myself for a long drive home, I said “Ok, no toys either. You have whined too much, and you haven’t used your manners. So you can’t have any snacks or toys for the drive home.” Well, he cried and cried and cried. He didn’t scream and fight and kick, but he cried. He overcame it, and just watched out the window for a bit. Probably ten minutes later, I heard him quietly ask “Toy?” I really wanted to give him one, but he hadn’t used manners again, and I NEEDEd to stick to my guns. So I said “I’m sorry, honey, no toys for the drive, remember?” He replied with “ya” and we drove along silently.

By george, I think he’s got it! I don’t expect everything to be smooth now for the rest of our lives, haha, but it was nice to see him really grasp consequence.

When we got home, we all went into his room and get the kids in fresh diapers and jammies. At the point where both kids were only in diapers, Dekker went and lay on his tummy right near Laela and asked “Ticky La’s tummy?” Of course he could! He continued to ask about different places to ticky. Ears, hair, belly button, legs, even her bum 🙂 It was adorable. At one point he bent down to rub noses with her and she walloped him in the face. Like, she really connected. He came up giggling and went in for another. It was probably the first time she kind of roughed him up and he let her. She pulled his hair and scratched at his face, and he giggled and said things like “La smash eyes.” Don’t get me wrong, we would try to control her, but he wanted to be close to her sooo badly! Most of the fun ended when Laela, laying on the floor, was beating her own belly, and Dekker reached over the smacked her. The second he did it, he leaned back and looked at me. I knew he hadn’t meant to hurt her, but it needed to be said.

“Please don’t hit Laela, Dekker.”

That one sentence seemed to really crush him, and he cried. Luckily, Laela didn’t. If anything, it seemed to catch her by surprise, but she wasn’t upset or hurt. I took Dekker on my lap and told him we knew it was an accident, and he wasn’t in any trouble, but its important to say sorry when you hurt someone. He apologized after a bit of coaxing, and even said he loved her. He felt awful. 

Playtime was eventually over and I was taking Laela out of the room so Brady could put Dekker down for the night. Poor little D wanted Laela to stay. “La touch Detter’s hair again! Detter ticky La’s tummy! La! Bouncy!” Anything to keep her there. It warmed by heart to see him so enamoured with her.

I love these kids. I really couldn’t be happier with my family. I hope you all feel the same way about yours 🙂

Its been three months and two days since Dekker’s corrective eye surgery. If you remember, he had an appointment immediately the day after this surgery to make sure there was no sign of infection, and then four weeks later. Now, two months after that, we went in again, keeping a close watch on his peepers. I appreciate the attention to detail, and the diligence to want to catch any possible decline as soon as possible.

I got the kids ready and out the door on my own, and even arrived at the hospital early. It turned out to be convenient that way, since parking was a nightmare. I just drove around aimlessly until someone left the lot that I wanted to park in. When Dekker gets nervous, we often end up carrying him, and if I was going to have to carry him, our massive diaper bag, and Laela in her car seat, I wasn’t going to carry them any further than I absolutely had to!

We got up to the fourth floor and checked in without a single meltdown. Dekker loves the elevator, and he finally recognizes the hospital as a good place, so he was eager to find the toys.

Brady came just a few minutes behind us, and after a very short wait, we got into orthoptics for the preliminary tests.

Dekker floored us all today. This was probably the first appointment where he answered questions and participated knowingly in the tests. He said which animals he saw, he counted the rings on the stick, he made jokes, and he played a matching game! We have never done matching with him, and he picked up on it immediately. The woman running the tests would go stand at the far end of the room next to a tv displaying a row of shapes on its screen, and Dekker had a paper with the same shapes on it in front of him. She would point to a shape on the screen and he would point to the one that matched on his paper. He did awesome!!! He was completely adorable and smart and best of all, she said it seemed like he was doing great! She saw no turn in his eye, no flicker, no nothing. He used both eyes the same amount and had the same results with both. What a complete answer to prayer!

After orthoptics, we headed back to the waiting room. I gave him a snack I had packed secretly – grapes and apples – and he ate contentedly until it was our turn with Dr. Rubab.

She only really ran a few short tests, but she was very happy with how things were looking. Dekker was actually disappointed when it was time to get up out of the chair. But before we left, I asked her about something that has been weighing heavily on me. I don’t know a lot about astigmatisms, but at our last appointment, we had been told that meant Dekker had blurry vision and always would. However, at my last appointment, I learned that I have one, and its almost exactly the same as his! For those who understand how these prescriptions work, his astigmatism is 1.00 and mine is 0.75, so both incredibly slight, but my vision isn’t blurry. Never has been. I asked if he would ever have a chance of being out of glasses, or if his vision would be blurry forever. She seemed a bit surprised, but brought me over to her computer and explained everything to me. She said the shape of his eye will likely not change very much anymore, so he’ll always have the astigmatism, but its sooo small, it likely won’t affect him at all. She said the prescription itself is based more on the size of the eye, and that will change significantly over the next several years. She is very careful with the way she speaks, but she says he has a very good chance of being out of glasses one day! I was very excited and asked “So maybe as a teen?” and she said “No, more like 5, 6, 7, something like that.” Crazy, right?!?! I know I can’t hold my breath for it, nor do I expect it will happen immediately, but there is a solid chance 😀 I am so thrilled at that possibility! Even if his eyes don’t get completely better, his prescription is so much lower than I thought it was, and it should only get better and better.

Dr. Rubab clarified with me briefly today, “You’re not using any drops, are you?” I said no. No drops, no patching, nothing. Her response was “Oh, of course no patching…” before she went back to Dekkers exam. I know it could always come back up, but its nice to know we’re nowhere near needing that right now. What a relief!

I am just blown away by today. I was pleasantly surprised that Dekker interacted with the doctor and the orthoptist. He knew so much and answered questions confidently. He didn’t have any breakdowns, and was very polite. I was also so thrilled to be given such encouraging answers and hope for things to keep moving and changing for the better. How great would it be if this whole debacle could just be a distant memory? That would feel. So. Good. It can happen!

I am SO incredibly proud of you, Dekker Thomas. You are such a little man. I can’t even believe you!

I feel sooo much better today! I slept like a log last night, and had a full eight hours, thanks to Laela. My body is still completely achy and tired, but I’m not sick to my stomach or headachey. Win!!!

I spent the day doing some dishes, including the massive amount of bottles we picked up on garage sale day, and playing with my surprisingly peachy kids. I don’t think Dekker had one time out! We played and watched a bit of tv, and the kids even took a nice long nap together 🙂 It was a lovely day.

Brady got home around 5:30 and finished up a few things while I fed Laela and Dekker finished out his nap. Before we knew it, Brady’s parents had arrived. Bradys great uncle passed away recently and the proceedings are taking place around where we live, so they’ve come by for the next day or two to spend time with family. Phil left to attend the viewing while Elvira hung around and played with the babies and took part in bedtime.

Phil arrived home shortly after the babes were down, and we all sat together in the living room with hot drinks and ridiculously yummy lemon cupcakes. We parted ways around 11:00, which is quite a bit later than any of us really make it these days, but it was nice to sit and visit, as always.

So all that being said, its time for bed. While my kids sleeping through the night is a HUGE gift to me, I have been spoiled for quite some time, and 8:00am still feels uncharacteristically early. I’ll get used to it one day, I hope.

Sleep well, all. Monday is behind you 🙂

Laela gave the whole family a beautiful nights sleep, and we woke up to our bodies simply being ready to be awake, instead of being jolted awake by her cries. It was refreshing, and likely the best gift I could have asked for today. Ok, Brady buying me the original Naked palette from Urban Decay was pretty good too 😉 We all got up in decent time, got everyone ready for church, and headed out the door.

And then I got sooo sick that I couldn’t sit through church. After singing, I took my parents car to their place and lay on their couch and half-watched a movie.

The plan for today was SUCH a good one! My mom and I had lunch reservations at Tony Tomas with big plans to do some shopping afterwards. But I was sick 🙁 We missed our lunch and ended up just eating hot dogs with the boys. Well, not me. I had crackers and grapes and water. I’m not sure what was wrong with my stomach but I was fairly determined not to lose our entire date day! I was feeling a bit better after eating so I was very thankful to be able to go out with my mom after all!

We did some shopping at a few box stores, and had a phone date with my sister. Wish she could have been there with us! We did a bit more shopping and then discussed whether or not I could handle a restaurant for supper. I voted yes, so we tried to think of where to eat. It was a bit tricky, since we had no supper reservation anywhere. We tried Red Lobster, but it was backed up about 45 minutes. So we attempted Tony Romas again, and luckily, everyone waiting wanted a bigger table! We got in after maybe five minutes 🙂

And we ate WELL! Even feeling sick, we shared the shrimp appetizer for the starter. Its called Kickin’ Shrimp, and if you’ve never had it, have it. I’m not crazy about shrimp, but it is incredibly flavorful and amazing. Then I got potato bacon soup with garlic bread, and my mom got riblings. We waddled out of there completely filled and satisfied. And I felt waaay better. Whatever had happened that morning was on its way out.

We got back to my parents house where the men had been watching the kids all day, and were greeted with everyone awake, and strawberries dipped in greek yogurt. A delicious dessert to such a yummy day! Once I had eaten a few, I hit up the couch to be closer to the littles, and fell asleep. I dozed in and out for a while before Brady told me he was going to start getting the kids ready to go.

So now I am home. Sooo ready for my tub, and even readier for sleep. I’m hoping whatever my issue was today is gone tomorrow!

Lastly, I want to just say happy mothers day to every mommy. As I wrote on Facebook earlier, that includes those of us with kids here on earth, or in heaven, in our arms or our bellies, or in our future plans and ambitions. I’m so very proud to be a mother, and to have my mother so close by.

I love you, mama!

Today was Dalmeny’s annual garage sale day, and we were there first thing in the morning! We often go later in the morning and so many of the good deals seem to be snapped up already. So this morning, as soon as Laela was up, we got up and ready.

We were in Dalmeny by 9:30. We began our shopping from my parents house, and walked down a street or two with them. Dekker was struggling pretty hard going from place and seeing all the cool toys, but not being able to go home with each and every one. Plus, Laela was fading fast.

 

So my parents volunteered to entertain Dekker for a while while Laela napped and we finished the town.

Brady and I drove every single street in town, and I’m thrilled to say that we cleaned house. We did really, really well this year! I know not everyone was pleased with their findings, or lack there of, but we’ve had disappointing years in the past as well. This, however, was not one of them. And so begins the insane flow of photos of our purchases. One of these days I’ll just picstitch them all together so it goes quicker, but this is just whats happening today.

Free bike!! Definitely too old for Dekker, but a solid bike for a few years from now. Who can say no to a free bike anyway?!

Free school desk! Dekker is really embracing drawing and coloring right now. Our kitchen table is tiled, so the surface isn’t especially smooth. I try to put a book under his paper, but if I ever leave and come back, the book is at the other end of the table. I’m pretty sure he will LOVE this! I’m hoping to paint it 🙂

Last free thing – a transformer! I’m not going to lie. I know nothing about transformers. But it was in a free box and I dunno! We’ll see if he likes that kind of thing 🙂

This is the only legitimate toy we bought for Laela because someone *cough mom cough* bought every single cool one we came across!! $0.75

We were specifically searching for wagon, so this was a good find! However, Dekker wanted everything but the wagon, so he threw a pretty solid fit :/ Its ok. The rest of us were still excited about it. $20.

A life jacket for baby girl! We’re going to Fairmont in a few weeks so this will be great. $1.

Solidly good quality tools for Dekker. Many battery powered, and all working! $2.

I believe this box was labelled as $0.25 each. We got the whole box for $3! Lots of good quality old school metal Hot Wheels in here!

This is probably Bradys favorite thing of the day. This little ride on car is solid. Its metal, and heavy. The wheels turn exactly right with the steering wheel. Its in incredible shape. $40.

A second box of metal Hot Wheels cars for $3!!! At the same sale, we also purchased a wicked sweet track that Brady is currently trying to build. I’ll include a picture if he succeeds before I finish posting 🙂

$5. (Hahaha, nope! Didn’t get there. Missing some pieces 🙁 )

I know no one cares about this, but my measuring cups go up to 4 cups maximum, so this is something I’ve been wanting for a long time. And it was worth the wait! $1.

Bath seat!! I’m hoping that Laela will love being able to sit up in the tub, and the little thing that wraps around the side of the tub might entice Dekker to get in there and line toys up on the table top. Sounds lame, but its sooo Dekker. $10.

Ok, ready for my favorite sale?? I used self control. At first.

I have this funny obsession with little bowls. Who would ever need so many teeny tiny bowls?? I would. I love them. This little set cost me $2.

Also there, I found these shoes for Laela. They’re both Etnies. The pink ones ($1) will fit her now, and the blue ones ($5) will fit her next spring probably.

My FAAAAAVORITE part of the day! These Dr. Brown bottles are the best bottles available, and they are incredible for barfy/gassy babies. They cost between $8-$10 each, but I picked up 22 of them for $80!!! Plus extra unused nipples. You will NEVER find a deal like this ever, and I’m sooo excited! From right to left, there are six 4oz, twelve 8oz, and four 7oz. Laela doesn’t use the 4 oz so much anymore, and we’re working to get her drinking 6oz fewer times in a day, but there will one day be more babies, and then we will have some more little ones to work with. Yay!! I say again, $80 for a bundle that would cost $250-$300 new. Awesome.

Today was sooo loaded and we all felt completely exhausted by the end,

but in a good way.

My parents scored a ton of great baby toys, including a great quality jumparoo for Laela for only $15!! And we went home with a van full of toys and sad babies. They’re both fast asleep, and I’m ready for a soak in the tub.

What a great day 🙂 Anyone else have an awesome day? I keep hearing of birthday parties!!

 

Brady has had a pretty long stretch without consistent work. I know some of you have been asking what he even does that allows him to be home with me so often. For those who don’t know, Brady is a finishing carpenter. He works for Daytona Homes. When he is given a schedule, he’ll have a certain number of days to complete the homes. Its up to him whether to come in early or work late, or do what he needs to do to get them finished in a timely manner. Therefore, even when he has a full schedule, he can still find the time to come to eye doctor appointments, chiropractic appointments, etc. With all that being said, he’s kept decently busy with other private jobs. Its exciting to see his name being passed around a bit more these days 🙂 Feels all fancy and stuff,

Anyway, all that being said, Brady is finally back with Daytona. He is now officially booked or double booked every single weekday this month, plus a likely Saturday here or there. Its awesome, since I know he goes a little crazy just being home every day, but its going to be quite a change! Luckily, he came home refreshed and happy to have had a full day of familiar work.

We, however, didn’t have a very smooth day around here. Laela would not nap. Normally she naps around 2:00 in the afternoon. Today, her and Dekker were sort of in the same place around the same time, so it seemed like a good opportunity to try and nap them together. Its only happened a few times, and we’re trying to make it more of a regular thing around here.

I put Laela in her crib first, and she cried and cried. I tucked Dekker in right away afterwards and told him she’d stop soon. His response was a mild “bu-bye.” So I left.

No judging! She wailed for probably over a half hour before I finally went up. She rarely cries herself to sleep, because she’s content and just babbles while she falls asleep. When she does cry, its big and ugly and loud and short. So I let her go for a good while, but to no avail. When I went up to get her, Dekker was out cold. I have never seen that side of him! I was fully expecting him to be upset and grumpy, and I assumed he’d try to get up out of bed when he saw me. But no. He was out. I picked Laela up and burped her for a while, and she eventually calmed down. I put her back down and left.

Another half hour, I gave up and went to get her. She was sweaty and angry and sooo relieved. I brought her downstairs to feed her a bit more, and to let her cool off from being so worked up. Just short of an hour later, I had put her down in the spare bedroom. And she cried and cried and cried. Sooo weird! But it was a very overtired cry, and I knew she was where she needed to be. She eventually fell asleep, only to have Brady and I wake her up maybe an hour and a half later in order to make sure she’d sleep at night.

Which is what we’re working on now! Wish us luck!!

I know that tbt, or throwback Thursday is a thing, but I feel like I have seen more posts under this title than usual. Apparently I’m going to be the last one to post something relevant, but I was out in the morning, home with the littles in the afternoon, and out again in the evening. Only now am I finally home with two sleeping littles. So, prepare for a couple throwback photos, and a current today post.

This is very little Hailey. Circa 1990-ish. I got my first pair of glasses at one and a half years old. I had the same eye surgery as Dekker when I was only nine months old, with complete success. That is, until I turned eighteen months old and fevered hard enough for my eyes to cross again. C’est la vie. Therefore, I was given the smallest glasses my parents could find across two provinces.

This is a throwback for both Brady and I! We’ve certainly come a long way! These are the last pair of glasses I wore. This was taken in April 2007, when Brady and I were newly dating. It was in November of the same year that I took my glasses off when I went in to have my appendix removed, and just never put them back again.

Six and a half years later…

So, in all honesty, if I have to wear glasses again, these are the coolest ones. I love them. But I’m struggling a little bit getting past the fact that my break from glasses is over. Probably forever. Too bad! It was quite a shocker to put these on today. I didn’t feel safe on my feet. Everything bends and seems to be in the wrong place. However, my prescription is lower than it was when I stopped wearing glasses, so I’m happy about that, and confident that the numbers on these lenses are right. It’ll just take a few days to adjust. No headaches yet, so thats a bonus!

While I’m bummed that I’m back in glass, its ok. Its not an uncommon thing, and I can’t do anything to make it different! Now, we just keep praying that Laela’s eyes are in good health. I am weirdly anxious about that appointment, and its still over a month away.

Enough about that. Yay for throwback Thursday and hipster glasses?!

We’re here. And sooo tired. I don’t have a whole lot of energy to share on here, but I’ll tell you about last night, because it was ridiculous. Riiiiiiidiculous! (Said in a Judge Judy voice. Anyone? Anyone?!)

We put the kids down at the hotel with Dekker in a queen bed and Laela in her playpen. Since she’s so grabby, and the scratching on the side of the playpen is so loud, we swaddled her with her arms in. She wasn’t super impressed and did quite a bit of whining while falling asleep. Dekker was also fairly unimpressed with having to go to bed after a long trip, and then finally getting out to play and go swimming, which he loved. So we put them both to bed, grabbed the monitor, and hung out in Phil and Elvira’s room for a little while. They weren’t very settled, but they did ok. When we did go in, they were nice and quiet, so we got into bed and turned on Netflix. We took out our headphones and cuddled in to watch a show. We watched for a bit, and Dekker was moving around like crazy. He was sooo loud, we started to wonder if he was even in bed anymore. I asked Brady to just turn the laptop towards the bed and see where he was.

And horrifyingly enough, we were met with the shadow of Dekker, standing tall at the side of his bed closest to us, unmoving. I’m pretty sure both mine and Brady’s lives flashed before our eyes, as we prepared for Dekker’s eyes to start glowing, or his mouth to start foaming. I was the brave one who got up and walked over to him. I gave him a little hug and he eagerly asked to get off the bed and play. I told him it was nighttime, and he whipped himself down onto this belly and cried. It was then that I smelled his rank post-bedtime poop. So just minutes later, he was tucked back in with his clean bum, and Brady and I cuddled back in. It wasn’t long before we could tell the laptop was distracting Dekker too much, so we called it a night.

I night of loud beeping outside the window, a loud motor of some kind, and talkative kids.All night. Don’t get me wrong! The things Dekker says in the night are pretty random and funny! Out of nowhere, “Oh, trains.” Or “Detter boy, and La girl! Dad boy, and mummy…boy.” Sooo close! Laela didn’t have any big breakdowns, which was great, but we all slept super lightly, which made for a very sensitive group of littles in the morning. We did our best, but I know we weren’t tons of fun.

Its good to be home though. I’m hoping they’ll both sleep really well. Maybe even all night! C’mon, Laela bean! This is the part where you all root for her. We’ve had a number of good nights in a row. Yes, they end a little early, but I prefer the early morning to the 3am wake up.

Time for me to drag my grumpy bones into the tub for a soak. Maybe a snack. I feel a little bit like garbage, but I think I’m just tired. Trying reeeaaaly hard not to just hate on everything right now. Hahaha, sounds like an appropriate time to stop writing..

I feel like our spontaneous road trips often take us to Edmonton. This time, we are here sharing a short visit with Bradys parents, who are here on some personal business. We met up with them at our hotel in the early evening and visited while we fed Laela. Once the littlest Miss was content, we took a quick walk across the parking lot to Denny’s for supper. My fish and chips really hit the spot! Laela was less impressed with the setting but she actually did pretty well considering her nap-free day of travel.

After we ate, we rushed over to the nearby Canadian Tire for some water toys and then hit the pool. Luckily, there were very few other guests in the pool area, and the only others hung out in the hot tub, so we took over the cold pool and threw balls and splashed and tickled and played. Dekker loved watching Brady and Phil go down the waterslide, and it wasn’t long before he agreed to go down with Brady.

The slide was a tunnel all the way down, so we were all a little worried Dekker would lose it, but it was worth a try! Brady did everything in his power to slow them down and to keep Dekker feeling secure, but he lost control coming around the last corner and both boys went all the way under the water at the end of the slide. Dekker has never been in a similar circumstance, minus his nine month stay in my uterus, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t remember that stage of life, so this was very new. It had the potential to be a HUGE setback in his fear of water.

But it wasn’t 🙂 He had a short cry, and then recovered and resumed ball throwing. He bragged and talked animatedly about his trip down the slide. We asked if he wanted to go again, to which he replied “Ya! …no.” So I think he actually really really enjoyed it, even with the dunk in the end. We’re hoping to find time to go again tomorrow morning, so maybe we’ll give the slide another go.

I’m so proud of Dekker for being so brave and going down the tunnel waterslide!! Such an accomplishment for our shy little boy.