Things Are Looking Up: #MySundayPhoto

Can you believe I haven’t had a #MySundayPhoto post since October of 2015? Geez, my wife and I have only taken about several thousand pics of our daughter since then. I’m sure you are all dying to see every one of them, right?

If not, c’mon, just humor me. Any parent knows, their kid is the cutest, most adorable thing in the world.

Today’s pic reminds me a #MySundayPhoto post I shared last July.

#mysundayphoto

Her beautiful blue eyes (and hair and personality and craziness) have only grown deeper with an intensity that fills our hearts full of love.

#MySundayPhoto, blue eyes, cute, toddler, parenting, pictures

Am I right or am I right? Oh, I know, I’m right! #ProudParents

Okay, biases as a parent aside, I’m just happy to join back in on the #MySundayPhoto fun. Alway enjoy and appreciate Darren’s posts and fun linkup. Be sure to check out his blog full of beautiful pics and maybe share your own #MySundayPhoto!

Photalife

Easy DIY Car Maintenance With Kids

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #DotComDIY #CollectiveBias

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I’ve been against going to a shop for simple car services and all about performing easy DIY car maintenance for years. It saves time, money, and leaves you with a greater sense of satisfaction. Plus, it allows you to connect with your car. Yes, even if it’s a rusty ’88 Cutlass Supreme that rocks more than a boat in high winds, it’s yours, have some pride.

Before we had our daughter, diy car maintenance was easy. Just go buy everything I need, bring it back, and get to work on changing the oil and oil filter, replacing the air filter, checking tire pressure, replacing windshield wipers, etc. But now that she’s almost always by my side, it’s not as simple as just leaving to get what I need. Especially when there’s only so much time in the day to play! Now I know why places that offer simple car maintenance and inspections like the Sacramento smog inspection service are so popular. It’s literally a one-stop shop!

As someone who despises crowded stores and out-of-stock items, I’ve become an avid online shopper over the years and decided to search for my car maintenance necessities online. Knowing Walmart.com has a wide variety of items for all of our daily needs, I searched and quickly found everything needed for easy DIY car maintenance. Even better, they have many Pennzoil products on rollback for a limited time which had me quickly clicking “Add to Cart” to take advantage of the savings.

walmart.com, pennzoil, easy diy car maintenance

I added a few more items need for my car and checked out. No lines, no time spent lugging my poor girl around a crowded store, and plenty of money saved. When ordering online, you have the option of products being shipped directly to your home, picking up in-store or curbside assistance. Naturally, I chose shipping right to our home.

A few days later, my order arrived securely packaged. But the secure packaging was no match for my crazy kid little helper.

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She tore right through that orange tape to see what could possibly be inside. To our daughter, anything and everything is hers or she repeatedly claims that she wants something without knowing what it is. This is one of those times.

Walmart.com-Pennzoil-Kid-Box-Opened

“Oohhhh, it’s…..”

Walmart.com-Pennzoil-Windshield-Wiper-Blade

“……a long yellow…stick?”

She wasn’t sure what to make of the wiper blade, but I took the advantage of her interest in the new wiper blade to show her where it belonged on my car and explained its purpose.

The other box had more maintenance goodies including the other wiper blade,  oil filters, and of course the Pennzoil Full Synthetic Premium Motor Oil I order with rollback savings.

Walmart.com-Pennzoil-Motor-Oil-Close-Up

With PurePlus™ Technology which converts natural gas into a 99.5% pure base oil, Pennzoil full synthetic premium motor oil offers the best cleanliness and protection in its line-up. If you made the mistake of using lower quality oils in the past, never fear, Pennzoil helps clean out any sludge they left behind. With all of these benefits, it’s no wonder Pennzoil provides better protection from friction than other motor oils.

With the time saved by ordering from Walmart.com, I was able to spend it in the garage performing the easy diy car maintenance tasks with my kid close by lending a helping hand.

Walmart.com-Pennzoil-Tire-Pressure

Together, we changed the oil and oil filter (be sure to use standard safety precautions and refer to the owner’s manual for your car before changing the oil), check the tire pressure, and replaced the wiper blades. She even helped by reading the instructions.

Walmart.com-Pennzoil-Windshield-Wiper-Blade-Instructions

Not that I really needed them, I knew what I was doing the whole time. 🙂

There are many other DIY car maintenance jobs that anyone can do, but I wanted to keep it short and sweet for our toddler’s introduction to car maintenance. She may not be a baby, but baby steps are still required. Actually, that holds true all the way into adulthood!

To learn more about Pennzoil, follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Afterward, head on over to Walmart.com for rollback savings on Pennzoil products along with a host of other items you need every day, shipped right to your door.

Crib to Bed to Floor & A Cold Pool

We made the transition from crib to bed a week ago with mixed feelings about how our two and half year old girl would take to the change. It wasn’t a huge change since we have a convertible crib, so it just took a little rearranging/removal of the existing crib parts.

crib to bed, cute, kids, toddler

Still the same organic mattress she’s had since birth, but we’ll be upgrading to a brand new full-size Naturepedic mattress in a few weeks. Stay tuned for a review of their top notch mattresses for kids. Safe sleeping material is more important than I ever knew before I read up on how vital it really is.

I made the switch right before naptime with high expectations that Avery would put on a good show through the baby monitor. Much to my surprise, she was excited to get in her big kid bed to read a story before nap time, and never even got off of her mattress after I left. I could see her thinking about it through the monitor, but in less time than she usually takes to finally fall asleep, she was out quick.

crib to bed, sleeping, kids, toddler, cute

Such a precious girl. When she’s out, she’s out! Hence the reason I was able to get such a close shot as she slept. Of course, I couldn’t stop there, this moment called for a daddy-daughter selfie, even if she didn’t know it was happening.

crib to bed, selfie, funny, cute, kids, toddler

The first night went quite well too. She took longer to actually fall asleep, but still kept on her bed the entire time. The next day she started to test the waters more and more and got on and off the bed before finally giving in. Every night since, she’ll wander around her room, put stuffed animals we said were too big back on her bed, and sing aloud restlessly before she sleeps.

Despite wandering all over her room, which I suspect is normal at this stage, she has taken to the freedom of her big kid bed really well. Going Mom, on the other hand is a little more reluctant for the change. Gone are the days of rocking our little baby to sleep as she sings to her, Avery now demands we read to her in her bed and refuses getting rocked. They grow so fast is a cliche saying we find ourselves repeating several times a day. As always, it’s bittersweet.

Apparently, sleeping on her mattress is bittersweet as well. A couple nights in a row, I peeked at the monitor in the middle of the night/early morning to find Avery nowhere in sight. Naturally, I go to check on our missing tot to find her on the floor. No blankets, just face down with legs curled or stretched out. The first night I quickly moved her back to her bed, but the second night, I had to capture the moment first.


Instagram was an obvious outlet to share with the world.

Hopefully she doesn’t start trying to make a break for it by opening her door. We have a door knob cover for her door, but those only last so long until those little hands figure them out. We can’t wait to get her sleeping on the bigger Naturepedic mattress, hopefully that will give her more wiggle room on the mattress and keep her from wandering all over. Hopefully….

It’s been abnormally cooler than usual for mid-May in Texas, but we made several attempts to swim in our recently opened neighborhood pool. The first time we ventured to the pool, the sun was out, but still not that warm. She insisted on wearing her floaties, but only made it so far.

swimming, kids, cute

The timid look on her face says it all. I’m not going a foot further!

I plunged into the cold water in an attempt to get her to join, but no luck. We were in and out of the pool in 5 minutes.

The next trip was sunny, until we started walking down for a swim. As we walked, dark storm clouds rolled in right over us. WTF!? But being the stubborn guy that I am, we went for it anyway. Avery gave another shocked look upon first getting her feet in the still very cold water…

feet in cold pool, swimming, kids, water

But this time I held her to get all the way in and although she was super tense the entire time, we enjoyed a little splashing around together in the kid pool. Then we went over to the adult pool for a daddy-daughter swim with plenty of throwing her in the air. She had fun…..for a few minutes, but the increasing wind and dropping temps had her shivering, so we ended the swim and made our way back home hoping for warmer days ahead. Not sure if it was a sign, but we saw this poor dead snake on the walk back.

dead snake

And if it was a sign, who knows what to make of it. I sure don’t. As a reptile lover, I don’t think it’s a good one though. Poor guy…

The forecast is showing warmer temps are coming, as if there’s any doubt in Texas, so I’m sure our third attempt will yield a successful swim. Although, I don’t mind a nice cold plunge myself.

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Have you made the transition from crib to bed for your kiddo? How’s it going?

How do you feel about cold swims?