Category Archives: Monthly List

Life, Monthly List, Parenting, Photo Journal

16 Month Photo Session: Mad to Glad in a Second

03/20/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

I completely lost track of Avery’s photo session posts with the last one being her 10 month photos. But, hopefully this will get me back on track to capture her growth month by month.

Let me play catch-up and post at least one photo for each month missed.

10 Months

11 Months

12 Months / 1 year

13 Months

14 Months

15 Months

Yeah, so we botched her birthday and never took a pic of her in the chair with the bear. Ha, I love unconscious rhyming!

She turned 16 months on March 15, but we were a couple days late at taking the photos. As usual, it was late and she was cranky for the shoot, as you can see at the beginning. Luckily, her bear knows how to instantly cheer her up! She went from mad….

…..to calm/kind of smirking with her bear….

…..to full on giggle-fest 2015!

And she even stopped and smiled for a good picture. This is very rare!

But, just like most monthly photo sessions, the bear got the shaft.

Annndddd off you go, bear!

“Oops, did I do that?”

We set the bear back on the chair several times, but Avery finds a way to make kick him off every time.

All in all, the session went better than I expected. One thing’s for sure, our girl is growing, fast, and we need to make the most of each day with her while we can. From what I hear, kids grow into unruly pre-adolescents that are embarrassed to hang out with their cool parents. What gives?!

Glad to play catch-up and get Avery’s monthly progression published for the world to see! It won’t be long until I’m posting her 17 month photos…..shhheeeesh!

Life, Monthly List, Parenting

16 Memories From My 16th Month Since ‘Going Dad’

03/15/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

We’re starting to rack up the memories here, and there’s still a looonnngggg time to go! But that’s a good thing, no need to rush through life, right?

I’m going to have to start cutting down on my word length so as to not draw everything out. Well, at least not more than I already do! See, I’m doing it now? Damn.

So, Avery, let’s cut to the chase and get on with the memories, shall we?

1. Your popular phrase this month has been “Say cheese!” Mommy kept telling you this while taking the thousands of pics we take of you, and eventually you just started repeating what Mommy said. You’ve slowed down recently, but still surprise us by saying it out of no where.

2. We’ve been “playing” peek-a-boo with you since you were just 2 weeks old, but now you’re finally playing back. Although, you tend to draw out the amount of time you have your hands over your face. Either way, cute as ever!

3. Having hit the weigth limit in your infant car seat, we needed to upgrade to a convertible seat. The extremely generous people at Britax WOW’d us by sending their Boulevard ClickTight seat. It was a breeze to install, and, you were obviously WOW’d too!

4. We watched our first movie, Puss in Boots, together as a family. You could hardly sit still enough to actually watch any of it, and you didn’t miss much since the movie did not impress! It was still a good bonding time and hopefully we’ll have another one soon!

5. Another family “experience” this past month was that we all got sick. I mentioned how both you and I got sick in my last “Memories” post, and Mommy had her face time with the toilet not long after. Whatever it was, I’m glad we’re all happy and healthy now!

6. You are finally holding and drinking from the bottle on your own! Holding it upside down is still an issue, but you’re getting better each day. This is great, because I had just wrote about our frustrations with how you should’ve been holding it already. But, since you are still breastfeeding, we attributed it to that at least a little bit.

7. The hypocrite in me came out this month when I gave you one of those applesauce-in-a-pouch things. I was going crazy trying to prepare several meals at once as you ran around my legs, so I busted out the GoGo Squeez pouch you received as a party favor from our neighborhood friend’s 1st birthday party. You were unsure of the puree being squeezed into your mouth at first, but quickly finished off the whole thing!

8. After years of talking and having what my late grandpa (your G-Ma’s Dad) called the “I Wanna Disease”, I finally bought an indoor rower. Thanks to Amazon Points and Mommy’s fitness reimbursement at work, I felt somewhat justified in the purchase. When it arrived, you were a huge help in getting it put together quickly!

9. While people in Boston were getting feet upon feet of snow, Texas had it’s own “extreme” weather hit with *gasp* a few inches of snow! It actually was pretty bad since the roads were iced over almost everywhere, but we still made the most of it and you got to walk around in your bear suit for your first ex-snow-perience.

10. Since you started playing peek-a-boo, saying “Say cheese”, and holding your own bottle, it only seemed fitting for you to bust out some high fives too. And that you did! Maybe too good at times, since you’d give my five when I had food in my hand and was offering it to you.

11. The creator (and wonderful father and husband) of the Dad Bloggers group I am a part of, Oren Miller, passed away after battling stage 4 lung cancer for almost a year. I never met him personally, but was a part of a group-wide initiative to raise funds for him and his family to go on one last vacation together. As a tribute, many of us dad bloggers lit up social media by having a #LoveWalkForOren and tagging #Dads4Oren. You and I shared in the heart-warming tribute with our own walk. Things like this make me realize how much I love you and Mommy more than ever!

12. I recently have been given the honor to help our Dallas Dads Group branch out to the Fort Worth area which is closer to where we live. The first meet-up I scheduled was for a bounce house called Jump For Fun in Southlake. We had a blast, and since it’s free for 2 and under, we’ll be going back soon for sure! 13. For G-Ma’s most recent visit, she couldn’t believe how much you had grown after only not seeing you for 2 weeks. G-Ma was excited to see what all you can do now, but didn’t expect your eyesight to be so good as to point out food in her teeth! 14. Mommy and I have been trying to teach you a few words in sign language for a while now, but we weren’t too consistent in the beginning. We picked it back up this month, and the sign for “more”, as in food, is your ultimate favorite. Now you’re signing more all day! You’re a bottomless pit, but thankfully it’s all healthy goodness with things like NuttZo! 15. With you doing so well at signing for more and holding your own bottle, I figured I’d start setting several bites of food for you to have as you roam around the house. But, you still don’t understand the concept of “one at a time”, so that was short-lived. You just stuff your face with everything in front of you at once! While signing for more, of course. 16. Annnddd, finally, the last one this month. Our Texas weather just started warming up (hopefully for good since it’s almost spring), and I’ve been bringing you to the playground to get some outside time. You can’t do much with the equipment yet, but it’s obvious you just enjoy being outdoors.

Happy 16 months, Avery, Mommy and Daddy (and a lot of other friends and family) love you so much! Keep on growing, not too fast, and lets work a little more on keeping your bottle upright. 😉

Thanks for reading through this post that gets longer and longer each month.

What were you finding about your kid around 16 months?

Monthly List, Parenting

15 Memories From My 15th Month Since Going Dad

02/15/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Another month and numerous memories has come and gone with our growing toddler. Here are 15 to celebrate the number of months she’s been making us smile.

Avery, you give us more than we could ever count, but here are 15 memories that stand out….

1. You finding out just how fun it is when you wave a string around a cat. Even fat ones like ours will chase a string around, and you were cracking up at ~~fatty~~ Lou.

2. For most of the month, during nap time and nighttime, you fought sleep with a burning passion. Instead of calming succumbing to your tired state, you’d kick your legs wildly and talk to yourself for up to 45 minutes before giving in. Or it was because you pooped, and then we of course came in to clean you. Remember that when we’re old!!

3. I entered you in a local baby photo contest put on by Metroplex Baby and Kids and you won! Thanks to all of our friends, family, and followers for supporting you and your infinite cuteness!

4. This past month I announced that am a proud Nuttzo Ambassador for 2015, and couldn’t of made it without you. As a result, there’s been plenty of NuttZo powered meals around here with many more to come. I think it’s safe to say you don’t mind one bit though.

5. I mentioned just last month that your jumper days were numbered. Shortly thereafter, we said goodbye to your jumper and I made a nice space for you to roam around in the garage. Now I can work out and so can you! And you still enjoy my weight belt just like when you were in your jumper.

6. Speaking of working out, we got you your own kettlebell and you’ve been a rockstar at doing swings, squats, and even dancing! You get the biggest smile on your face when you pick it up, and it makes me beam with happiness!

7. Apparently, your confidence level has sky-rocketed since you’ve been swinging your kettlebell because now you act as a personal trainer for Mommy and Me. We’ve worked out inside several times and you make sure to push us by climbing all over as we grind out HIIT-style workouts.

8. The February weather has been brutal to the North, but here in Texas, we’ve been graced with a lot of beautiful, sunny weather. We made full use of the outdoors and took you to the playground and right in our back yard many times. We’ve confirmed you love the outside, and we’ve also confirmed you HATE going inside.

9. Papa had his 60th birthday celebration at a nice restaurant and many friends and family were there. You wore everyone out just running around the entire restaurant and received a lot of praise on your cuteness. You have your Mommy to thank for that! I think you can also thank her for your crude hand gestures at the restaurant too!

10. Speaking of Mommy, you also take after her love of goat cheese. You can outright reject a plain carrot, but top it with goat cheese and you can’t eat it fast enough!

One night we even made mini goat cheese sandwiches with my homemade bread that you easily devoured.

11. On the topic of eating, you surprised me when I offered my raw fermented veggies and you loved them. So much so, you cried after I stopped giving more. Between Mommy with her goat cheese and Daddy with my fermented foods, you make your parents super proud!

12. You have become quite the chatterbox all day, and even when you should be sleeping! No full on real words yet, but every day now, you point up, usually at lights, and make a slushy noise with your mouth as if saying something. Mommy and me just nod and say yes, those are lights. Sorry if that’s not what you’re really saying, but at least we acknowledge you.

13. Mommy started asking “where is Avery” when you were rubbing your face one day, and now you do it to play hide and seek. Every time we say a key word like “boo”, “where are you”, “hide”, and others, you cover your eyes as if you’re tired to play along. Sometimes you keep them on there really long and it’s hard to tell if you actually are tired or still playing. Either way, you’re cute!

14. Yes, cute even when you do something like throw up. Your first real food puke happened in the middle of the night when G-Ma was staying over after watching you for Mommy and Daddy’s date night. You ate really good for G-Ma, a little too good, and it all came back up. We could hear the noise the first time you did it in your crib, and after cleaning everything up, I heard it the second time when you did it all over Mommy while nursing. Despite the sickness, you gave us plenty of cute, flashy smiles right after expelling your food. We could resist but to smile back at you.

15. And for the final memory this month, it’s another bodily function first. The night I became ill and was lying on the playroom floor, you decided to squeeze out a stinker as Mommy was giving you a bath. She said it scared you and definitely surprised her, but she handled it smoothly and cleaned things up quickly.

Avery, you’re growing up fast, too fast, and we enjoy watching your see and do so much every day. You’re constantly learning and hopefully that trend continues for a very long time! We love you, happy 15 months, dear!

I’d say, if there were a major theme for the month, resisting sleep and confusing Going Mom and I would be it. Seriously, the “terrible twos” really do start at 1! But of course, we wouldn’t change it for the world!

Do you have any favorite memories from your kids for the month? Please share as I’d love to hear!

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