Hey there! How’s it going? Hope your weekend is off to a great start!
We are hanging at G-Ma’s house for a second night, and enjoying each other’s company as Avery keeps everyone entertained. Now that she’s crawling, things are definitely more interesting, and it’s hard to keep up with this girl! What happens when they start walking?
Walker in training.
Maybe we should look into those leash and harness contraptions….
The other day, while I was in my home inside our home, the kitchen, Avery wanted to give a pictorial tour of our kitchen and dining area. I told her no at first, but then she turned on her super cuteness and I caved…
But don’t you love me, Daddy?
And so the tour ensued. Enjoy!
Oh, hi there, welcome to our kitchen! As you can see, behind me is the fridge and freezer. It’s nice and silvery; perfect to see my fingerprints on!
And right here is the oven, where Daddy does his baking and roasts a lot of vegetables.
It’s also silv…..oh hey, look, I can see myself!
Pretty cool, I can see other things too. So shiny….
Huh? Oh yeah, the tour. Sorry, I love seeing myself.
And this right here, is one of our two bar stools for the island. Mommy sometimes holds me as she tries to eat, but I play a game called “grab everything and shake it while making your body go straight”. So far, I’m winning.
I also like to practice pulling myself up on it like this…
But I’ll save that for later, let’s move on to the dining room.
Here is our dining room. This is where we sit down to eat at night and I…..oh, it’s Lou, our fat cat.
Let me just go try and grab some of his hair out really fast.
Nope, wait, stay right there, Lou.
There you go, hold that tail still and I’ll be right there.
Well crap, he didn’t listen.
If I can just make it over this electric cord to Lou…
Oh, and here we are back at the start. I guess Daddy didn’t want me giving any more of the tour.
Thanks for visiting, that makes me happy. Until next time, hope you have a great weekend!
Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans, and Happy Friday to all others! Both great things, and both reasons to celebrate!
We’re heading down to G-Ma’s to celebrate the 4th of July weekend with Uncle Preston (if he’s around) and G-Ma’s boyfriend, Paul. This will be the first time Avery gets to watch fireworks, and we’re not too sure how she’ll act. Any tips?
Growing up, I remember getting tremendously excited around New Year’s and the 4th of July because that meant fireworks!! When I was old enough, I would have my own yard sale trying to sell anything from some of my old books to jewelry I thought my mom would never miss.
For some reason, some boy sitting in the front yard with a few things laying on a blanket never got me very far. I earned some money, though, but mainly out of pity from the neighbors. I even tried my shot at a Kool-Aid stand which earned a bit too. Same reason…..pity.
With my earnings, I’d ride my bright neon Huffy bike to the firework stand nearby and spend it all on whatever I could afford. The stand owners were parents to one of my friends, so they’d always toss in a few extras.
I couldn’t afford the big fireworks, my sympathetic mom helped there, so I mainly came back with a lot of Black Cat firecrackers. Probably for the best since trying to ride bike while carrying several artillery shell fireworks would be ill-advised.
Not 30 minutes after arriving back home and I’d be out of my hard earned fire ant disrupters. Man, for such a small thing, those firecrackers are pretty potent!
One day, while Avery was screaming because I set her down for a second, I reflected upon my past obsession with firecrackers and came up with 4 things they have in common with babies. I figured 4 is a good number for the 4th; see how intuitive I am?
1. Both are small but loud. When compared to an adult, babies are small, cute and (usually) cuddly, right? Likewise, a firecracker pales in comparison to the enormous fireworks you’d see at a major firework display. Despite their small packaging, babies and firecrackers can and do create quite a racket.
The firecrackers are self-explanatory; you light them and they go “boom!” Babies do a great job at creating loud noise with just their vocals, or by grabbing anything nearby and banging it on anything else nearby.
Door stops make great noise!!
Although, unless you have one of those strands of 50,000 firecrackers set to explode one after the other in sequence, babies tend to make noise for longer periods. And, unfortunately, it’s not on cue by lighting a fuse, it’s all on their terms!
2. Both are good at exploding. While firecrackers themselves explode, babies tend to create explosions by other means. But, after either one “explodes” you have a mess to clean up.
The paper wrapping and any remnants from an unfortunate toy might be scattered across the ground, while babies leave their aftermath inside a diaper, on the floor, up their back, in the tub, in the car, in the…well, you get the idea.
3. Both have a short fuse. You ever try to light a single firecracker? Those things explode before you can turn the other way after lighting, and a lot of people, me included, just light and throw them quickly as they explode before touching the ground. Not safe or smart since you eventually have one go off in your hand which feels far from good.
I’m happy.
Babies, on the other hand, can be as happy as a clam at high tide for one moment, but if you so much as take your attention off of them to scratch your head, they can go irate! This happens to Going Mom and me frequently; we’ll have Avery laughing as we coo at her and make funny faces, but we stop to talk to each other and WHAM! she’s crying.
No I’m not!
4. Both need to be tightly swaddled/wrapped. We haven’t swaddled Avery in months, but when we did, it had to be a tight wrap. If it wasn’t tight enough, she’d get her arms free and thrash around like a short circuited robot. For a firecracker to work as intended, it needs to be very tightly wrapped around the powder inside.
If you’re celebrating today, I hope you have a fun and safe time wherever you are. Happy 4th of July!!
Can you think of any other semblances with babies and firecrackers?
Remember Avery’s tutorial on How to Fight a Bear last month? You know, instead of sitting still for us to take her 7 month photos, she decided Teddy needed to know who was boss?
It’s me, I’m the boss.
We thought she made her point clear, but apparently the bear didn’t learn his lesson. When word about the ninja turtle fort spread across the nursery, Teddy Bear challenged Avery to another duel on her new stomping grounds.
Being the fearless daughter of two courageous parents, Avery was quick to accept, and luckily I had the camera to catch it all on film. Is it really called film? Maybe just all on memory card? Bah, who knows?! Anyway, back to the action….
I’d say Avery made it rather clear she’s a force to be reckoned with. I love her victory dance at the end; it’s reminiscent of the “Halo Hump/Teabag” you would do on your fallen victims during online play.
As you might’ve noticed, we still have the TMNT fort standing like I first posted about on Tuesday. In that post, it seemed Avery was not enthused by the shelled superhero mutant turtles or my crafty fort, but now she’s taken a liking to both!
The very next day, first thing upon waking and feeding, I got her in there for some playtime and she had a blast!
The pictures speak for themselves, huh? Now I need to find some quality TMNT toys from my childhood, the originals.
Another dad blogger commented on Tuesday’s post and showed me part of his Ninja Turtle collection via instagram. Needless to say, I’m jealous.
Well, as you can see, I did say that! So, now I’m on the hunt to find some of the originals for myself Avery. I have no clue what I ever did with mine, and all I found in my mom’s attic were old TMNT puzzles.
We did have fun putting them together that night, but I want the toys!
If you know of a person or place I should look, please let me know. As long as they aren’t too pricey, I might consider getting them; after my loving breadwinner of a wife approves first! I love you, Kelley! : )
Speaking of my mom/G-Ma, we’ll be going there for the 4th of July weekend, so I better start getting my food packed. I typically bring several of my own eats which includes Brussels sprouts, tuna, egg whites, a nut and seed mix, and plain Greek yogurt.
Yep, all staples in my diet! It’s not that she doesn’t have a lot of good, healthy food, but I always hate to take other’s food (even my mom’s) I guess because I know how valuable it really is.
Do you have certain foods you like to have with you wherever you go, or can you just “wing it” with whatever’s available?
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
