I am, at least when Avery is sleeping. Not super paranoid where I’m putting a foil hat on Avery to block the microwaves beaming down from space, but just mildly paranoid where I still won’t flush when she’s sleeping.
Just yesterday, while I was walking in the neighborhood with Avery sleeping in the carrier, our neighbor asked how I was doing and I didn’t provide a response. I felt bad and tried to make a sleeping signal with my hand to my face, but not sure if I did it right. If you’re reading this, sorry, Charlie!
Asleep in carrier and scared to make noise. But I’ll take a selfie!
I mentioned how I take extra caution when Avery is sleeping to make as little noise as possible in a past post. Although, after that post, my mom told me she flushed the toilet anyway and Avery never woke up. Then Kelley told me she flushes too, so basically I’m the only one not flushing!
Have I since changed my ways? Nope! I still refuse to flush, but I’m a little less uptight about it. My mom (G-ma) spent the night last night since our home is closer to her work and because it’s always great to see her. When she asked if she could take a shower at 5am when getting ready, I was hesitant at first, but finally agreed. But, I said, “No flushing!!”
In my defense, her guest bathroom is right against Avery’s nursery wall and it seems like soundproofing is simply nonexistent. Or maybe that’s my paranoia….hmmmm.
Avery usually ends up in our room in the middle of the night to feed anyway, so I didn’t expect the shower to be a problem. Well, Avery slept all through the freakin’ night in her crib! G-ma took her shower and Avery slept right through the whole thing. Geez, maybe I am really paranoid!
So, sorry, mom, for restricting you from using our facilities, I will allow full use from now on. As for me, I think I’ll still be paranoid for a while. Once Avery is eating solid foods, my paranoia will increase substantially! Any time she goes somewhere else where food will be offered, I will try my best to not let the wrong things get in her mouth. To give you an idea of my retentiveness on food, I avoid eating out as much as possible because I can’t stand anyone else preparing my food. So I make all of my own meals when I can.
You said I can’t eat what?!
Now, excuse me while I pee on the white next to the water so as to not make a loud splashy noise.
Are you a paranoid parent? If so, what is it that you are paranoid about?
Since the main purpose of this blog is capture the journey of raising Avery, I want to lay out our current nightly routine. Avery is 3 1/2 months old now, and I’m sure this routine won’t last, so it will be fun to look back and read one day.
Kelley (Going Mom) usually gets home around 5-6pm with her bag of breast milk bottles she pumped and eager to see her daughter. Depending how the day went for Avery and me, she might still be asleep in her crib, asleep with me in a chair, asleep in the baby carrier (attached to me), screaming anywhere around the house, or just keeping calm and hanging out with dad. Most of the time, it’s one of the sleep options, but you never know.
There will be a fruit and veggie smoothie I made waiting for Kelley to have to hold her over until dinner. I usually unpack her lunch bag and pack the next day’s lunch that I prepared her ready to take in the morning. The main goal is to take most of the load off of Kelley so she can spend some quality time with Avery. Kelley will get into comfortable clothes and wash her face while I hide in a corner attempt to entertain Avery.
Entertaining Avery at this age means making click noises and weird facial expressions or showing her cards with animals. We also put her in her Baby Einstein jumper, but that only lasts ten minutes at the most. If we have the time, Kelley and I will talk about the day while playing with Avery. If short on time, Kelley will hold her while I cook Kelley’s dinner which right now is some form of a Grilled Goat Cheese Sandwich and salad or tomato soup.
Not impressed…..
I normally have a salad with a lot of steamed veggies and egg whites, salmon, or chicken that I’ve prepared earlier in the day and ready to eat later. Most of my daily food intake is at night and had been for years now. It works thus far and I love being able to sit down and enjoy my big meal at night. Of course, Avery might have other plans, but it’s not too frequent, yet…….
Kelley will then hand Avery over as I serve her dinner. It’s close to bath and bed time at this point, and we’re usually searching for anything to keep Avery from being fussy. Right now, the almighty vacuum saves the night! While Kelley eats, I will strap Avery in our carrier and proceed to vacuum the house. With our dog, Abby, always rolling in the grass and tracking it in and me making a mess in the kitchen, a daily vacuum never hurts. Once done, I will find things to put up or just have Avery stand on my stomach and lift her up and down. Doing this is good for at least one smile and is most certainly worth it!
Avery chewing on the front.
Once Kelley is finished, it’s time for the bath! Kelley gets the water ready and I get Avery ready. Every time I lay Avery on the changing table, she will eek out at least one more smile as she gets undressed; never fails. I carry over to the tub once ready and lay her in the baby bath chair. At this point, she usually pees and Kelley will have to drain and re-fill the bath. But we are happy to do so because Avery simply loves being in the bath and has yet to really cry when in the tub.
Just tonight, Kelley made the observation that we’ve been taking longer with each bath lately just because she’s happy. Every time we take Avery out of the tub, she’s a screaming mess the rest of the time! So really, we are more than happy to prolong the nightly bath however we can. We’ll typically just splash her with water for a few minutes after everything is done and she cares not one bit.
Which bring me to the water swaddle. Yep, I want to invent one. Since letting a baby sleep in the tub is frowned upon, and we can’t just sit and splash Avery all night, there must be an alternative. All you need is to take something like this water blanket I found via Google search and transform it into a swaddle of some sort.
Maybe the Woobmie would be a good design template where water could flow throughout while the baby is snuggly zipped in the middle. It could be called the Water Woombie (patent pending*)! Hell, I’d kinda like that for myself, but with freedom to move my arms though…
I want a Water Woombie! Whaaaa!
Would it be safe? Nope. And that’s why I really won’t invent the Water Woombie, but it’s a fun thought. Seriously, our muscles tighten in fear every time I lift Avery out of the tub to be dried off.
Back to the routine. Kelley will rub coconut oil all over our screaming baby and put a new cloth diaper (yes, we do cloth diapering and love it!) on for the night. Once she’s dressed, I’ll swaddle Avery using a cloth strip to hold down her arms and then her Woombie. Keeping those arms from going to her face has been the key to a longer, better sleep; for all of us.
From there, Kelley will feed Avery one last time and rock her to sleep. Kelley usually falls asleep for a couple hours herself. With my freedom, I finally take a shower for the day and sit down with my salad and protein smoothie I made earlier. After that, I enjoy low fat cottage cheese and a lot of plain, non-fat Greek yogurt with frozen blueberries. Peanut butter is usually involved too. Great way to end the day.
I’m not sure how long we’ll keep this routine, but for now, it mostly works and we’ll keep at it as long as possible.
*Patent not really pending
Do you have a certain routine to get your kiddos to bed? Do your kids love or hate the bath?
Going to the mall as a kid is a lot more exciting than it is as an adult. At least for me it is. As a kid, you are overwhelmed with fun toys being demonstrated right in the middle of everything, and the food stands have such interesting food to lure offer you.
Poor parents, most are doomed the moment you step foot into a mall with your child unless they have horse blinders on or are really good at saying no. Sorry, mom..
One treat I remember begging to get every time we’d go to the mall were Dippin’ Dots. Those little pellets of frozen, tasty ice cream would melt in your mouth to a creamy consistency worlds beyond regular ice cream. And the flavors, oh man the flavors, how could you choose just one? But the price for these little gems was ridiculous, and therefore, I was only able to choose one……okay, two. Thanks, mom!!
As a child into my young adult years, I was a pretty hefty boy, and things like Dippin’ Dots didn’t help. Now that I’m such a food snob and scrutinize every product with an ingredient label, I’d never touch these things again. Sorry, Avery, no fun mall treats like these, if anything. If you care, here’s the nutritional information and ingredient list for Dippin’ Dots.
Despite the cold weather we’ve been having, I have been thinking of these lately and really started to crave some. If you don’t mind the dots being larger, give this simple recipe a try. You’ll appreciate the short ingredient list and guilt-free pleasure to enjoy a large portion.
This would be a fun, safe, and delicious recipe to make with your little ones, and I can’t wait to get Avery in the kitchen to help daddy make these delicious and healthy dots! I only have, ohhhhh, a few more years….*sigh* Oh well, until then I’ll make sure she watches as much as possible.
Peanut Butter Dippin’ Dots
Ingredients
3/4 cup Greek or regular plain, non-fat yogurt (or 2 6oz containers)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup peanut flour or 2 tablespoons natural, creamy PB (I use NuttZo); just briefly heat to make it easy to stir
Directions
In a bowl, mix together the yogurt, vanilla, and peanut flour or peanut butter until well combined. I actually had a large 32oz yogurt container with the right amount left, so I used this to mix everything.
Put the yogurt into a plastic sealable bag, and zip shut.
Cut a small corner off the bag and use it like a piping bag to squeeze out small dots over a cookie sheet. I used a silicone baking mat for ease of transfer once frozen.
Place in your freezer for a couple hours and wait, impatiently, if you’re like me.
Fold the mat to create a “V” shape and dump (if you didn’t use a mat, use a non-metallic spatula to scrape) into a container with a lid to freeze until ready to eat. Or just eat them right away! Warning: these melt somewhat quickly, so freezing your storage device before hand will help the dots keep their shape.
If you aren’t fond of peanut butter (you’re crazy), some other ingredients you could use are:
Honey or Agave to taste; start with about 2 tablespoons
Liquid or powder stevia; I love using Sweet Leaf’s Liquid Vanilla Stevia for this
Chocolate or Vanilla (or another favorite flavor) protein powder; measure the same as the peanut flour and you’ll have a very high protein treat
If you have a blender, try pureeing fruit to mix in; I’m thinking banana pureed and mixed into the peanut butter recipe would be happiness in dot form!
Pumpkin puree with pumpkin spices; yum!
The Texas weather may not make it seem like it, but Spring is coming up fast and this will be a perfect treat to start making and enjoying soon. Too bad Avery is stuck with milk for now. I guess I’ll have to make this for Kelley in hopes to pass it through to Avery in milk form. Who knows, it must do something!
I hope you are able to enjoy this easy to make, but hard to wait for recipe. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments!
Do you have any favorite recipes to make with kids?Please share if you do, I want to start thinking of things now for when the time does come!
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
