Category Archives: Parenting

A Note to Avery’s Bottom Lip

02/15/2014 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Today marks Avery’s 3rd month in this world and our 3rd month as parents. I still have a long road ahead as Going Dad, but I’m more excited than ever before!

Lately, Avery has developed a keen use of her bottom lip which is usually a tell-tale sign that an outburst of tears is fast approaching. Sometimes we can act fast and just do something random which will prevent the floodgates from opening, but we’re usually not that lucky.

One thing’s for sure, that lip is trouble, so I’d like to write a little note…..

Dear Avery’s Bottom Lip,

I don’t know who you think you are, but you are making our irresistibly cute baby girl even MORE irresistibly cute. This might sound like a good thing we should thank you for, but on the contrary, I sense the problems you will cause in the future.

As Avery grows older and gets into trouble, I fear you will be there to bail her out.

Messy room? No problem, just flip the lip over and daddy will surely forgive her and pick up the mess himself. Talking back to teacher at school? Easy fix, roll out the lip and it’s obviously a mistake because she didn’t know calling someone stupid was a bad thing and hurtful.

Then in the later years as boys enter the picture and she gets caught sneaking out, you’ll come to the rescue convincing Kelley and me that she was simply trying to get some fresh air by opening her window and no one else was there.

You can see where I’m going, you’re going to cause us trouble for quite some time, aren’t you? How about we have a truce?

Since it’s just so cute to see Avery with you flipped down so much a bird could sit on you, you are welcome to stay. But, if, and only if, you stay up for the major offenses and don’t make it any harder for us to discipline when needed.

Deal? I’m counting on you to work with us here, so please, do as I ask.

Sincerely,

Avery’s Dad

Hopefully this note will help and Avery’s bottom lip won’t “turn” against us. But, I know some lips can be really cold and crack, so I’ll be on constant alert.

Avery, we love you and hope you never have to use that evil, but so freakin’ cute bottom lip of yours to get out of trouble! Hope you’ve had a great 3 months so far and enjoy the many years to come with us!

Do your kids have a certain quality that you fear will get them out of trouble or it already does?

Parenting

Tummy Time and When Can We Play?!

02/13/2014 R.C. Liley 5 Comments

We are just about 3 months into being parents and I’m already restless wanting to play with Avery. Am I being too impatient? Anyone else have these feelings?

I try and play peek-a-boo, nothing. I open a book to read and she looks everywhere but right in front of her at the book and then usually gets fussy; fail. I jump from around a corner and say boo; bad idea, she just starts to cry.

For some dumb reason, I thought it might be cool to pop those plastic air-filled packaging things for a “fun” and surprising pow sound. Nope. She made her bottom lip turn over just like you’d see a sad cartoon puppy do and started crying. It didn’t last long, but I felt bad. Kelley and I have started calling her sad face the “Hector Face” because it reminds us of the old guy named Hector on “Breaking Bad.”

Okay, her lip goes down more than this and she's a lot cuter, but the name is stuck. — **Okay, her lip goes down more than this and she’s a lot cuter, but the name is stuck**.

I know I must have patience, and everyone keeps reminding me of this, but I keep trying every day anyway. Since I am stay-at-home dadding, there’s only so much to do. If she’s sleeping, I can’t be too loud, I don’t even flush the toilet! I spend most time in the kitchen making lunch/dinner for Kelley and myself, as well as get in a workout in our cold garage. If Avery naps well, that is.

Then it’s just feed, burp, change diaper, walk/talk/move around, swaddle, try to feed again, try to get her to nap, fail at my attempt, offer the bottle, change diaper again, do chores with her in the Baby Bjorn, attempt to play, fail at playing, and so on and so forth. That’s not a run on sentence, is it?

I’ve been trying to get Avery to move or roll over with Tummy Time sessions, but she just cries the whole time and sucks on her hand. She did, however, get really close to rolling herself over, if that damn right arm would be in the way! Kelley and I got all excited about this and I can only imagine how thrilled we’ll be when she actually does something. #beingnewparentsiswonderful

Why the pound sign talk? No clue, I’m not very Twitter savvy, but this is me trying. Yeah, I know they call it a hash tag, but I refuse to say that because it’s a freakin pound sign! Do you ever hear the automated voice on the phone say “Enter your password and press hash tag.”…..NO!

Anyway, I’ll let Avery cry for a while as she lays on her tummy just hoping she’ll do something magnificent. Nothing yet, but the day will come, I know it! Then that will be the start of maybe more playing.

We want to get her a bouncer really soon since she is pretty good about holding her head up on her own now. Anyone have any good recommendations? Can’t decide if we should go brand new or find a good used one. Or is that frowned upon? Let me know, I’m up for suggestions!

Okay, Avery is getting squirmy, so that means the end of this post. Off to go see if I will get a happy face or Hector Face….

As a parent, did you ever get anxious to start playing?

How long do you let your baby cry (if he or she did) during Tummy Time?

Parenting

Bottle vs Boob

02/12/2014 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

If you’re reading this post to see which one reigns supreme, here’s a spoiler, it’s the boob! The boob will always win over the bottle, no contest. Hell, without the boob, there would just be an empty bottle.

Yes, of course there’s formula, but since the ideal food source would be boob, I am not taking formula into account. For anyone who does formula feed, I’m not attacking you at all, so please take no offense. We feel very lucky that Avery is able to and willingly accepts breast milk, and I understand that’s not the case for all babies.

An issue Kelley and I have had disagreements with (she is going to hate that I’m blogging about this; sorry Kelley, I love you!) is how I feed Avery. In the mornings when we first wake up and Kelley is getting ready for work, I will start the first bottle of the day. Some mornings Avery is more fussy than others, but it always seems she is stubborn about taking the bottle.

Admittedly, I do try to get her to take it for too long which just makes her more fussy, or my position is wrong. Kelley has lectured me on this, and I am more accepting when Avery won’t take the bottle, I just give it a break. If Avery continues to be fussy, Kelley will get on to me thinking I’m still trying to get her to take the bottle, but that’s not it, she’s just fussy then.

Kelley will then say that she’ll feed her directly from the source, but I know she really needs to get ready for work. Anyway, after we go back and forth, Kelley will head to work and then I’ll try the bottle again.

Guess what? Avery is way more accepting of the bottle without mom around. I’m pretty confident that when mom is home, Avery knows she could have better than some plastic bottle with a fake rubber nipple; she wants the real thing! So, as we already know, the boob wins against the bottle hands down, but the bottle is also very necessary for us guys.

As a SAHD, I’m useless if I’m not armed with bottles to feed Avery, and I depend on the boob to reload those bottles every day.

Here are a few pros and cons to further prove the boob’s #1 status:

Bottle

Convenient and portable
Allows others to feed and give mom a break
Gets the healthy fat stuck on the side
Have to be cleaned afterward
Costs money
Not a boob

Boob

Convenient and portable
Nothing to clean once done feeding
Free source of the best stuff
No fat stuck on the side
Dad (or anyone else) can’t use to feed baby
Babies eventually get teeth

Obviously the boob is the preferred choice, and yes Kelley, I bow down to you and the almighty boob. I don’t want to argue about anymore and I no longer try to make Avery take the bottle if she is being unruly. I just give her a break and try again later. But I swear, she will chug the thing in one sitting when we’re alone!

Any other couples have this issue? How do you both come to terms on feeding?

An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.