Tag Archives: birthday

Our Daughter’s Birthday Recap: She’s Freakin’ Two!

To clarify, this is a recap of her birthday party, a day before her actual birthday, but close enough. Low key and no frills was the objective, and I’d say we mostly succeeded with our mission. A few friends and family came over to wish our growing girl happy 2nd birthday and we avoided any kind of major drama.

Just like the format of my Roller Coaster Recap of August, I am going to recap her birthday in High-Low fashion. And, just as before, the plan is to end on a high note!

High – Just the fact that we’re celebrating the 2nd birthday of our beautiful, smart, healthy, and happy (most of the time) little girl is awesome! It’s cliche, but true, they really do grow so fast!

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High – Opening a gift from G-Ma in bag with polkadots. Gasp, and her shirt has polkadots!

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Low – Avery was overwhelmed by so many people giving her so much attention all at once. So I helped matters by sticking a camera in her face to capture the moment.

Can I just eat with my turtle in peace?!
Can I just eat with my turtle in peace?!

High – Going Mom kept decorations simple yet elegant, and the food was placed for easy access.

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Low – We had a nice assortment of Beanitos Black Bean Chips, crudites, hummus, and cupcakes homemade by a neighbor laid out for our guests. Unfortunately, we completely forgot about the giant bowl of fresh strawberries in the fridge and Costco-sized peanuts we were going to set out too.

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High – Avery loved her trampoline birthday gift and got to jumping right away! Hellloooo, nap time!

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Low – Nap time never happened.

Why sleep when I can jump? It's my party afterall!
Why sleep when I can jump? It’s my party afterall!

High – I made chocolate protein pancakes with a banana, NuttZo and chia seed frosting for her birthday cake.

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Low – My decoration skills fall somewhere between 0 and a negative number. That’s supposed to be a “2” on top.

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Low – Damn teething took no pity on the birthday girl, or so that’s what we’re going with.

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High – Singing “Happy Birthday” to our sweet girl. She kept clapping for herself after everyone had finished 30 seconds earlier. She really likes clapping.

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Low – Oops, too much attention on her again!

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High – Mommy makes everything better and even helps blow out the double bonfire on her cake.

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High – Avery had no issue with my cake construction and tore right into her healthy confection.

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High – She even saved a bite for me and flew it first class into my mouth on Air Fork One.

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HighAunt Lindsay taught her to say “I’m free!”

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High – Having fun with friends Zoey and Natalie.

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Low – Crazy demon parents (that’s us) put her back in the highchair to recreate a picture from her first birthday. Not a fan.

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High – Holding two fingers to show her age in a fun family photo. She’s much happier when being held.

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Other than the several meltdowns resulting from too much in-your-face attention and teething, the part went fairly smooth and it was nice to see everyone. We’ll be the first to admit that we’re not great entertainers, but it seemed as if everyone was pleased. Either way, we appreciate everyone who came by to wish our sweetheart a Happy 2nd Birthday.

Now the real fun begins, right?

 

24 Memories From My 24th Month Since Going Dad

Wow, we made it to the end! Of my Monthly Memories posts, that is. I’ll still think of some way to record our memories, but it won’t always be on or around the 15th of each month as I have been doing to commemorate Avery officially turning a month older.

Before we start, let me just put this right here……

Happy Birthday Lamb

Lamby picked the picture.

We’re taking advantage of her still being too young to fully grasp the concept of birthday parties by keeping it low key at home with a few friends and family. I expect we’ll have plenty of big birthday bash requests in the future, so no need to rush into those, right?

Avery, you have truly transformed in just this past month by talking so much, running all over the place, and being so playful. You’ve given Mommy and me way more than 24 memories for the month, but tradition’s sake, that’s the limit for this post. 🙂

1. Like I said, you’ve turned into a playful tot who frequently joins me in the kitchen where I am cooking meals and cleaning up my mess. But when you stand at my feet with your pretty blue eyes, I can’t help but to take a break and play a little.

2. This month you got your very own fork. And not just any for, AirFork One! DSC_0737 3. Mommy and Daddy took spent the weekend camping for our belated 8th Anniversary celebration (and Mommy turning 31!) while G-Ma stayed with you at our house. We enjoyed our time together, but had a dramatic return where you had us all believing your wrist or arm was severely injured. So conniving at such a young age….turns out you were just fine. 4. Mommy’s work had their annual Halloween event for families to bring their little ones trick-or-treating. We dressed you as a pumpkin (again) and you proudly walked around the place announcing “I’m a pumpkin!” Obviously, a very crazy pumpkin… Crazy Pumpkin Family 5. On Halloween, we carved our first pumpkin together as a family. You helped us take the guts (seeds) out a little, but you were more interested in eating them after I roasted the innards. DSC_0857 6. You walked our little loop on Halloween night to trick-or-treat where your first and only treat was an organic banana our friends kindly had set aside just for you. You wasted no time trying to eat it, and even bit into the peel before we could unwrap it for you. Banana Trick-or-Treating at Dunn's 7. Blue is the color of choice for you lately, and there’s no question about which plate you get for dinner. It’s the Blue Plate Special every night! You even repeat the phrase “Blue plate tonight.” well over 10 times throughout the day, just to make sure we’re clear. 8. Before your beloved blue plate dinner, you’ve also become keen on what time it is before our nightly walk and dinner; it’s smoothie time!


9. I try to make dinner interesting, but always ends up being the same thing one way or the other. One of these things is quinoa, which you surprised us by pronouncing amazingly well!

10. Another dinner time staple is goat cheese. We always have it in a certain container, and if you see it out, you’ll repeat the words goat cheese and more until we finally say you had enough. At this point, you’ve learned to say “See you tomorrow, goat cheese” in the cutest way possible. It puts a smile on Mommy and Daddy’s face each time.

11. The shin I hurt when climbing up to save you on the slide last month is taking forever to heal. Over the time I’ve had it, you learned about kissing boo boos and now you kiss everyone’s boo boo multiple times a day. I even caught you pulling your foot to your mouth to kiss your own boo boo on your toe!

Healing the booboo my leg with her magic #kiss. #toddler #parenting #daddysgirl #love

A video posted by RC Liley (@going_dad) on

12. Kissing your own feet takes some major flexibility. Must be from doing yoga with Mommy. Yep, she's good, Dad. 13. Your eagerness to help us out with everything you do is cute, but not always helpful. One thing, “helping” with wrapping up the vacuum cord, is one such thing. 14. You actually do help me when putting up your cloth diapers after they are dry. I will ask for a certain color and you grab it from the drying rack to hand to me. 15. On the topic of diapers, you play what seems like a rapid fire session when I first pull them out of the wash and hang them to dry. As I hang each one, I can see your face crinkling trying to quickly call out the color I have before moving to the next one. 16. The blue plate might be your preference for dinner, but for breakfast, you have taken a liking to your purple plate. Banana and pumpkin seeds are the staples on your plate, and once you’re done, you will bring your plate over to me to put in the sink. You learn so fast! DSC_0564 17. After Mommy gives you your nightly bath, I’ve been setting your new friend, Lamby, up on the couch waiting for you to come and get her for bedtime. I’ll be cleaning the dishes and see your naked, wide-grinned self run up to grab Lamby and run back to your room to get ready for bed. It’s cute to hear you giggle with joy as you see Lamby sitting there.

18. My injured shoulder finally bothered me enough to go to a chiropractor which resulted in having to make multiple weekly visits for therapy. Luckily, I found a great husband and wife practice with 4 kids of their own who know a thing or two. They have you setup to watch Dinosaur Train on the kindle as my shoulder gets worked on. You also enjoy the play kitchen area and take it seriously, just like Daddy. Avery at Play Kitchen 19. I thought I’d take advantage of the better-than-normal weather and run with you to a playground just 2 miles away. Of course the wind picked up, but we made it. And we found out you’re still not a fan of being above solid ground just like when on our friends’ trampoline. Crying on Playground Equipment 20. Besides not wanting to walk on platforms, you absolutely love the slide part. That’s why we were too excited to wait for your birthday to give you one of your gifts; an indoor slide! It’s nothing fancy, but you are loving it! DSC_1125 21. With your increased playfulness, you’ve begun to initiate foot fights with me randomly throughout the day. Sometimes I’m even holding a knife to chop food, but it doesn’t deter you.

Pre #breakfast foot fight. She started it the first time. #toddler #sahd #growingup A video posted by RC Liley (@going_dad) on

22. We love, well, everything about you, but how you pick up so quickly on new words and letters. I’ve been playing the show Super Why for you while we have lunch and we’ll try and guess the Super Words in each episode. Mommy and I would love to take all the credit for your increased word knowledge, but that show really has helped you learn.

23. What we can take credit for is your knowledge of good food. You say cottage cheese when you see my container in the fridge, goat cheese when, well, a lot, and even name the colored jar of NuttZo with amazingly great pronunciation for a 2 year old.

24. It’s probably apparent that Lamby is your current Bestie. She’s become part of our nightly reading and goodnight kisses routine to where you INSIST everyone kisses Lamby after reading the nighttime book, and she even has to kiss my boo boo some nights!

Watching how much you change every day is so bittersweet, Avery, but you make our little family of 3 complete and fill us with joy. So much so we just want to squeeze you all the time! Maybe too much…

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Happy Birthday, dear, thanks for giving us so much joy! We look forward to so many more birthdays and good times as a family!

Weekend Camping Trip Part 1: Getting There

Last weekend, my wife and I went on our first camping trip together. It was for our belated 8th anniversary celebration which was August 17 and we had my mom watch Avery at our house just like on our 7th anniversary.

It was also her 31st birthday on Monday, the 19th, so you can call it a little b-day celebration too. I even went all out and got her a Walking Dead Yahtzee Collector’s Edition game for us to play while camping.

Yeah, I’m a romantic, huh? Actually, we both love The Walking Dead, and I figured since we need more games for family fun, why not make it a little unique? Avery might be scared to play for a while though. Even I might be a little hesitant to shake the dice in that zombie head.

We were leaving for our campsite on Friday, but G-Ma had to work so we couldn’t head out until the afternoon. This was okay since we put off really packing until the day of anyway, and I needed to make sure we had the essentials. As a self-proclaimed camping newbie, I was confident I’d forget something, but wanted to make sure I at least had the food part ready.

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Slow-cooker black beans with quinoa, big batch of slow-cooker steel cut oats with NuttZo, steamed sweet and white potatoes, canned sardines, salmon and rice, homemade NuttZo Banana Bread, beer, vodka, and Zevia (for a healthy vodka mixer, duh).

Not pictured were Lily’s Stevia Sweetened Dark Chocolate Chips, Elyon Marshmallows, and Annie’s Bunny Grahams to toss in foil and melt in a big gooey skillet s’mores concoction. Besides the s’mores, everything else was to be had cold since my newbie self did not have anything to cook/heat food while camping. It’s on the list now.

I also made a big batch of lentils and quinoa and put together several snacks for G-Ma and Avery to have while we were gone to make sure everyone was eating well for the weekend. Once my mom made it to our house, we gave her the rundown on sleeping, eating, playing, and whatnot, then gave it once more to make sure we didn’t leave anything out. After Kelley got Avery down for a nap, we said our farewells and took off for our long awaited camping trip.

What Google Maps said would take an hour was more like 2 hours since it was rush hour on a Friday. Cue Loverboy because Everybody’s Working for the Weekend and we all had places to go. After lots of mild cursing and the requisite mini arguments all couples have when driving to unknown destinations, we finally made it to Lavonia Park to camp on Lake Lavon.

You can reserve campsites online, which I did, but I only had 2 options for our dates and the rest were shown as taken. Our reserved site was away from the lake with no electric and in an odd area, so we decided to drive around before setting up shop for our 2-night stay. Wouldn’t you know, we came across a site right on the lake with electricity and no occupants. The electric sites cost $15 more per night, but we figured we might as well give it a go and test our luck.

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“Besides, what’s the worst that could happen, they come and tell us to move?” so said my dear wife. Well, yes, yes it can and did happen. Only problem was, was it was pure dark by the time the elderly (and proud) Gate Attendant drove by to tell us we were at the wrong site and to move or pay more. Obviously we weren’t moving everything after unpacking, so we paid the extra and got over it.

Plus, we were already set on using the electricity to watch How I Met Your Mother on my laptop. It only took almost all our monthly data on Verizon to use our phones as mobile hot-spots, but it was so worth it to watch the shows without worrying about waking Avery. It’s the little things….

Go ahead, make fun of us for watching shows while camping, but damn, it was fun, and we really had no other plans anyway. By the time we unpacked that first night, we went for a dark walk around the park, used a fire starter log to make our foil skillet s’mores (there is a burn ban, so we could only use the grill…no ground fires like I pictured), and settle in for dinner and watching several shows.

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Tent to the left, car to the right, and the lake was behind the camera. Really beautiful park and cleaner than I expected. Some of the restrooms were a little run down, but that’s not a big surprise anywhere. The biggest annoyance were the swarms of tiny bugs invading our face no matter where we stood. Another list item, bug spray. Oh, and tent stakes which I forgot like a dufus would, and of course it was windy. Go me!

But who can complain when you look up to this?

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So that was our first night. I’ll share the next day, our full day alone sans kid in the next post. But, we couldn’t quite escape the kids; I’ll tell you why next time!

Have you ever been camping?

Ever go camping with your kids or do you want to? We want to take Avery, but think we’ll test it in the backyard first.