I'm an ex-mutual fund accountant who left the cubicle world to be a stay-at-home dad to my beautiful little girl, Avery, who entered our life on 11/15/13. Also happily married to my wife, Kelley, for 7 years as of 8/17/14. Sorry ladies... :)
Fitness and nutrition is of the upmost importance in our family and we strive to reflect this in our daily life. I always prepare our meals at home and only go out if it's a special occasion, and even then I tend to not get much. Food should be fun and a joy to eat, not something quickly consumed from a fast food chain or scarf down before the next meeting.
I have come from strictly logging high miles to train for the next marathon to keeping exercise varied and focusing more on strength. I still enjoy going for a run when I can, but nothing crazy, and I prefer hill sprints while pushing my daughter, Avery in the stroller. She loves it and I get a great workout!
I want to show the world how to appreciate their body and feed it real, wholesome food while moving more throughout the day. In doing so, everyone would be healthier, happier, and we'd all live in a better place as a result.
I blog mainly about my life as a stay-at-home dad and frequently include reviews, participate in campaigns, and share my thoughts on fitness and nutrition.
If you ever have any questions or thoughts to share, please reach out as I'm always open to listening or helping others however possible. That is, when I have free time since Avery is and my wife are the number one priorities!
Every month we have been taking a picture of Avery in the same chair with the same bear; nothing different.
Please, not again!!
What is different, is the level of difficulty with each passing month as Avery’s mobility only gets better.
Last month, she was on the verge of crawling, and very hard to keep still as she constantly attacked her bear. This month was no different, but she was able to stabilize herself a little better. Yep, Going Mom still needed to stand by to prevent the gravity defying Avery from falling right off the chair.
Notice Mommy’s safety net arm ready to catch our baby as she lunges forward in her crazed state.
Another variable I never considered is the fact that she’ll eventually have more than just a gummy smile, she’ll have teeth! This is the first month where Avery is flashing us a snaggletoothed smile with only her front top right making an appearance.
Hard to see, but it’s there. She also has her two front bottom teeth cutting through, but they’re still hard to see.
Our 8 month photo session was short lived, but we successfully obtained a few good shots. The temperament of a teething baby is grab bag of emotions; you never know what you’ll get from one minute to the next. First, she’s happily hugging her bear-friend….
…..then it’s suddenly hands-to-face….
…..and more hands-to-face, really rubbing those eyes….
……oh, it’s back to happiness and bear hugs…
…..but wait, maybe the bear said something mean…
…..nope, it’s that damn tooth….
……okay, one more hug? for the bear with Mommy’s supervision…
……aaaaaannnndddd, she’s spent…..
…..now it’s all business, the bear is gone.
All of this happened in the span of approximately 4 minutes. I know, it’s a crazy life, huh?
As all parents already know, the randomness of our kids’ temperaments means us adults will also have a varied temperament. Guess that’s why we have our options of beer, wine, or liquor should the “need” arise!
I know, we never actually think we need alcohol to solve our problems, it’s just fun to reference………..and drink. đ
If you take frequent growth pictures of your kids or used to, what difficulties did you experience as they grew older?
Seriously, who needs teeth anyway? Can’t we all survive on pureed foods?
We are in full blown teething mode over here, and Avery is constantly reminding us every second…………not kidding.
Poor girl, life is hard.
This past weekend Nana and Papa came over to have dinner at our house. They hadn’t seen Avery since Mother’s Day when we brought her to their house for her 6 month photos.
I’d say she’s changed a little; crawling, “talking”, and sprouting a few teeth.
After everyone ate, Avery provided the entertainment for the evening. She could crawl anywhere (within reason) around the house, but chose to go under the table just to make it difficult to get her. No worries, though, Papa joined her to see what’s so great about her chosen location.
Not sure what is was, but the hung out down there for a while. Eventually, she climbed out and her and Papa had a little peek-a-boo time.
Where is Papa?
There he is!
She wasn’t buying it. Teething can really “take a bite” out of your sense of humor, huh?
Avery actually enjoyed most of the day, but for some reason she just wouldn’t show smiles for the camera. We really have to work for those smiles now!
After Papa had his Avery fix, Nana could hardly resist scooping Avery in her arms for kisses. I’m going to guess Avery isn’t quite ready to return kisses though…
Just a wild guess.
We moved outside to our backyard for a bit and Avery practiced standing in the grass as Kelley held her hands.
The air was stagnant and even with the sun starting to set, it was hot, so we migrated back inside. We played with Avery a little longer until Nana and Papa had to head home. It was great seeing them, and I know Avery enjoyed their company, despite her expressionless face in the pictures!
The next day, Sunday, in an effort to “cut” costs, I agreed to have Going Mom cut my hair. We bought a new hair cutting kit for just less than the price of one haircut, so after just one cut, we’d be in the green!
I normally try to wait a month before getting my hair cut, so it was getting pretty messy and growing over my ears.
Here it is from the side: before
I never fix my hair or do anything with it unless my wife asks me to, which isn’t often thankfully. When I had an office job, just the act of putting something in my hair stressed me out. Yeah, it’s a minor thing, but just what it represented pissed me off.
Anyway, after a few YouTube videos and reading the included instruction manual later, Kelley started her first time attempt to ever cut anyone’s hair. At first, I wasn’t too worried, but as she started laughing and saying “It will get better”, I had an immediate face palm reaction.
But, in the end, I’m pretty happy with the results. It’s a lot shorter than I usually have it, but definitely makes it easy to wash and there’s no way to style this now!
It’s taken some getting used to, for both of us, but I’d say it’s growing on me. Ha ha, get it?
Now I don’t have to wait a month or more before my next hair cut, and hopefully Kelley’s statement, “It will get better” holds true.
So, would you let your spouse/partner cut your hair if they never have before?
I’ve never heard of or used that saying before, but from what I see, mice can be pretty mobile. True?
Since she’s started crawling, we seem to see less of that demon of hers because now she will simply crawl to us if we walk out of sight. It’s almost been 6th months since I’ve actually left my job and become a full time stay-at-home dad, and I have been impatiently waiting for Avery to do more.
I’d say she’s definitely doing more, and it seems only a matter of time until she’s taking her first steps. Maybe in another month?
Has anyone seen my other sock?
Once she gets that down, we’ll be doing burpees together in no time!
Lets start, shall we?
1. As I already proclaimed, you’ve become an official crawler, and WOW, you can really get places now! If Mommy or Daddy set you down and there’s a cord, cat, or dog in sight, your face lights up and off you go.
Because of this, we are getting a great lower back workout from having to pick you up and set you back down elsewhere……or it’s just hurting more. We are extremely proud of how far you’ve come, Avery, and you continue to amaze us and steal our hearts every day.
2. Now that you’re mobile, I no longer have to set you in your booster seat while I’m in my office the kitchen. All we need is to setup a couple barriers so you don’t wonder too far, and you just hang out in the kitchen. At times, you’ll get fussy, but as long as you have a toy/wooden spoon, you’re content for a while.
Practicing how to taste test on the spoon.
One thing that scares me is that you gravitate toward our feet and I fear the day we accidentally step on your precious fingers.
I just happened to want to be in this spot, promise.
Hopefully that will never happen, but I apologize in advance if it does. This also makes me realize a major con to having leg hair since you like to practice climbing on anything! Yeah, I might have a few patches on my legs.
3. Mommy and I aren’t sure whether you like or have a personal vendetta out for your bear, but now that you can crawl, you’ve really been handing it to him. First, you “wrote” an instructional post on how to fight a bear, and then you had a rematch where your fight was caught on video.
I got him, don’t worry.
Maybe you’ve grown tired of seeing him next to you the same time each month as we take pictures of your new monthly age. We’ll never know for sure, but the smile on your face and excitement you show when you make eye contact with your bear is priceless. Mom and I love watching you roll around and play so well!
4. Now that you’re getting better at eating those colorful veggies we put in front of you, we are making it a point to sit down as a family for dinner. I still have my different eating schedule where I eat my main meal after you go to sleep, but I have raw veggies to munch on while sitting down.
You’re also really good at “finishing” everything we give you…..until we lift you from your seat to see you were sitting on everything! This makes the steamed broccoli a blast to clean, and we have a nice trail all the way to the bathtub every night as a result. Fine with us, we’re just happy to see you at least eating some of the healthy veggies so well!
5. I had seen baby activity/busy boards on Pinterest and knew I wanted one for you. One weekend, I brought you with me to the Home Depot to get supplies and a few days later, as you slept in a while, I put it together.
I wasn’t sure how you’d like it, but I guess having door stops made it an automatic win!
6. After seeing you begin to crawl, a light turned on in my head letting me know this meant it was time to build a fort! The Ninja Turtle blanket was a must, and I only hope we can enjoy the classic TMNT movies and cartoons one day soon.
As you grow, I expect we’ll build more intricate fort structures and insist Mommy joins us immediately upon arriving home from work. Obviously, you’re never too old to play in a fort…
7. Even though you had a tiresome day at G-Ma’s on the 4th of July, we were able to keep you up to experience your first Cliff Notes version of a fireworks show. The bright lights and sounds caught your attention, but a half smile was all you had left to give by the end of the day.
The sun seemed to take forever to go down that day, and after we were able to let you see a few of the big blasts, we brought you in to take a bath and get some much needed rest.
8. And finally, after we’ve been thinking you had teeth coming in since you were 4 months, your first tooth has made an appearance!
Your top front right tooth is the most prominent, but we can see your two bottom front teeth emerging as well. That is, when you aren’t hiding them with your tongue and looking like you already had your wisdom teeth removed.
It’s exciting, but you are also very cranky. I know it must hurt though, and we are hoping for the pain to go away fast. It looks like you are too…
I don’t know if one of my memories at 9 months will be of you walking, but you can rest assured we’ll work with you every “step” of the way.
Avery, we love you so much dear and we can’t say it enough. Therefore, we’ll just keep saying it over and over…..and over. We love you and are so proud of everything you do. Even if it’s poop 4 times in a day!
Do you have any favorite memories of your growing child? I’d love to hear other’s stories if want to share.
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
