Tag Archives: crawling

Co-Sleeping in the Crib and Learning to Crawl with Lasers

06/12/2014 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Would you believe I’m still not done covering my birthday weekend? I guess I am more wordy than I realize. Sorry but not sorry, if you know what I mean. 🙂

After opening my tasty gifts from Going Mom and Avery, we hung around the kitchen to have breakfast and more coffee (for me, at least). It had been a few hours since Avery was awake, and surprise, she started showing signs of sleepiness!

Face rubbing, ear scratching, constantly squirming, and let us not forget, fussing, were all happening with Avery. So, Kelley gathered our little fuss box and brought her in the nursery to attempt getting her to sleep. Avery went fairly easily and slept without much resistance.

And then she kept sleeping. Finally, we were ready to bring her out to the pool, so after almost 3 hours, it was time for us to wake her! But first, I had to try something…

Co-sleeping in the crib! Sure, we did co-sleeping in our room when Avery was younger, but what about the crib? Besides the wood creaking in protest at a heavy adult climbing into it, Avery stayed asleep…..for 30 seconds.

I’ve seen other pictures of dads doing this, so I had to give it a shot. I’ll call it a success, and I think Avery didn’t mind, she was just a little confused.

Since she was finally awake, we gathered our pool gear (which is really nothing but swimsuits) and walked down to our neighborhood pool. Avery had been one time before this trip and enjoyed the water, so we expected the same again.

Our expectations were right on as she had a blast, and we even brought her in the big pool!

Kelley and Avery_Pool_B-day — Too cool for drool

She wears her shades with pride; just like her mommy!

After getting our fill of the water, we journeyed back home to spend the rest of my 30th relaxing. We’ve been laying a blanket out in our living room for Avery to roll and attempt to crawl around on, and we figured we would try and teach her to crawl. This meant laser pointer time!

Yep, fun for Lou (the fat cat) and Avery! Abby, our Golden, wasn’t too impressed. We would hold the red dot in front of Avery and marvel at her raising both arms in the air as she lunged forward into crawl position.

Each time, we’d hold our breath and think “This is it!”, but then she’d fall over or just sit back up.

Oh well, we’ll keep trying because she is very close to figuring this out, and lasers will help get us there! As night drew near, Kelley and I shared one of the awesome beers she got for me and had a cheers to a great weekend.

I was still feeling it from the day before at the brewery, so splitting this hefty beer was plenty.

Avery slept a little better that night and so did we. It’s never fun saying goodbye to the weekend, especially when it’s your birthday, but I had a wonderful time with my mom, Paul, Kelley, and Avery. Thank you all for the great 30th; love you!

How did/would you train your baby to crawl, or did they do it on their own?

Ever try sleeping in a crib?

Parenting, Pinterest Picks

Going Dad’s Top Ten Pinterest Picks (6): Baby Proof Your Home!

05/24/2014 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

You had to of known this one was coming, right? At this point, I’d expect to make these posts related to what we’re currently experiencing/learning with Avery.

Right now, she can sit up without even trying. Seriously, she’ll wake in the middle of the night and all of the sudden, she’s upright…..and crying.

She eventually tumbles over and will (usually) fall back asleep.

Now the next big milestone is crawling and/or walking, and we need to get our house prepared! Of course there’s always something we’ll miss and won’t find out until she finds it for us, but thankfully Pinterest is here to offer a helping hand.

By the way Avery is able to move around just by rolling and scooting, it’s only a matter of time before she’s getting into anything within reach. If you have a baby that’s about to be or already is becoming more mobile, I hope these top ten picks help get you prepared.

1. 10+ Tips for childproofing. Practical tips and advice we all should read up on!

2. Pict-o-graphs are fun and a great way to have important info all on one giant page. Great for printing! Now I just need a printer…..

3. DIY baby gate? Yes please, the store-bought ones are pricey!!

4. We don’t have stairs in our home, but I’m sure many of you do and would like to NOT put holes anywhere. So, here you go!

5. Pool noodles to the rescue! It may not be the prettiest way to baby proof, but you might as well get used to the fact that having a baby isn’t always pretty! We’re slowly catching on…..

6. I shouldn’t have to explain the reasoning here; babies in trash = no good. I didn’t even think of the trash until seeing this Pin!

7. Well looky here, the pool noodles make another safety appearance. Again, is it pretty? No. But will it save your kid from busting their lip or worse? I sure hope so!

8. Room by room tips on baby proofing. Just skip to the rooms you need and see if there’s any new ideas.

9. Okay, last pool noodle Pin. Only because I have one left before ten. you could really surround your home in pool noodles! Hmmm, wonder if Going Mom would approve?

10. Just in case we missed something from the above pins, hopefully this will complete your list of to-do’s!

So, are you ready to baby proof your home? Have you already proofed thinking you were all set and found something else?

Let me know where you are in the process and please, share any tips you might have to offer!

You might be interested in my other Top Ten Pinterest Picks for helpful ideas and even a good laugh:

Parenting

Baby Steps to Baby’s First Steps

04/23/2014 R.C. Liley 1 Comment

So she hasn’t even started to crawl yet, but it’s never too early to start working on “the walk”. Right? Right.

Avery is great at getting her legs up under her, but she’s still not sure what to do with her arms. So when she’s on her stomach, she’s usually like this….

But she’s figuring things out every day, so it’s only a matter of time. I’m not sure if we should be scared or excited. Both? I guess being a parent pretty much means you’re always scared and excited, huh?

It’s evident that Avery wants to be like Mommy and Daddy and stand on her own legs like us. Every time we stand her on her feet, she cracks a big smile and sometimes lets out a high-pitched bird sound. Not sure what it is, but it’s cute and usually means she’s happy.

On most nights now, our routine will include Avery doing what we call “the cat walk” on our kitchen island to keep her happy. Since naps are becoming scarce, Avery isn’t always the happiest of campers in the evening, but she really gets focused while on her feet.

Apparently, I do too! Depending how tired she is, Avery will either let her feet hang as I hold her…

….or she’ll put on a show and strike a pose as she “walks” back and forth across the island.

I know she has a while before she actually walks, but this fun for Going Mom and me to see our daughter enjoying herself and it’s great exercise! Sometimes exercise can be tiring though, so we’ll let Avery take a break and sit at the island.

I guess she’s not too thrilled about sitting on Mommy and Daddy’s head yet. At what age does that happen? Right now she seems unsure of what’s going on. Probably because she is unsure of what’s going on….hmmmm.

Confused on Dad: