Tag Archives: dad bloggers

8 Month Photo Session with Snaggletooth and Sleepy Face

07/17/2014 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Every month we have been taking a picture of Avery in the same chair with the same bear; nothing different.

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. 😉

If you take frequent growth pictures of your kids or used to, what difficulties did you experience as they grew older?

Life, Parenting

Nana and Papa’s Visit and Would You Let Your Wife Cut Your Hair?

07/16/2014 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

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?

Life, Parenting

Weekend at G-Ma’s Part 2: The Best Cat Toy for Dogs and Babies

07/09/2014 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

If you don’t remember or never read Weekend at G-Ma’s Part 1, we started our second day at G-Ma’s with this…

Sharing a room with your baby is rarely, if ever, an enjoyable experience, and Avery made sure to keep reminding us. We try to let her cry at night if we know her needs are met and it doesn’t go on for over 20 minutes, but things sure are different when you’re right there with the cries!

Avery slept surprisingly well through the booming fireworks, but still woke up for a feeding around 4 in the morning. Thankfully, Going Mom was there to save the day as usual. I have a feeling those boobs can be thought of as a blessing and a curse.

Once we were up, my mom/G-Ma made all of us coffee. Even though she has a Keurig brewer, Kelley and I have been working on reducing our use of plastics (k-cups can be hazardous to our health)so she ground coffee beans to make French Press for us. She also has one of those stainless steel reusable coffee pods and used that as well. Phew, I’m a coffee lover, but don’t want to contribute to growing waste from all of those pods!

As we enjoyed our coffee, we sat in the game room to let Avery play while we watched old home videos of me as a baby. My mom had her VHS cassettes transferred to DVD, and she had been waiting to watch them with us. Meanwhile, Avery must of had a rough night because she went for a little foam rolling session.

G-Ma made sure to get a lot of playtime in with Avery now that she moves more, and I think Avery enjoyed having all of the attention. What do you think?

With the home videos still playing, that’s actually all we watched all day, Avery tried to make a move for the open cabinets. She’s a quick and sneaky baby!

But, G-Ma to the rescue! She found Uncle Preston’s recorder from elementary school and attempted to entertain Avery with her beautiful tunes. By beautiful tunes, I mean random noise, but Avery didn’t mind.

Then it was Avery’s turn to make some noise.

But she decided to just eat it instead…

Once the recorder became a bore (see what I did there?), it was story time with G-Ma. The chose book was an old Barney and Friends book from Uncle Preston’s childhood.

One minute later, and I think Avery was happy to be done with it. Phew, I don’t want to get stuck watching that show over and over again. Is it even on anymore?

Our day mostly comprised home videos and G-Ma playing with Avery. I went for a run on Renfro Street, (literally) my old stomping ground, with nothing but coffee as fuel. After the run, I completed 31 burpees, push-ups, and squats like I’ve been doing every day since turning 30 and then ran to jump in Tim and Melissa’s pool. Ahhhh, refreshing!

When we all needed a break from baby, we found a battery operated cat toy to be the perfect solution. Turns out, this toy with a “mouse tail” that randomly revolved around was great entertainment for Avery and Abby as well as us watching.

Luckily, we capture it on video. Here’s my shortened version with the best parts that I uploaded on YouTube.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRcdkowW2N8&w=560&h=315]

Avery actually had a nap late in the day, and she fell asleep with Going Mom rather quickly at night. But, once again, she woke up several times crying. Kelley tried forever to console her with “the boob”, but even that didn’t work.

I fed her the one tiny bottle we brought along and that helped. I think she was finally exhausted enough to give in and sleep. But she still let out her random cries throughout the night. Ahhh, this two night stay has been exhausting for all of us!

We’re convinced it might have something to do with the fact that we weren’t feeding her solids while at G-Ma’s. At home, we’ve been sitting down and feeding her broccoli, carrots, squash, etc. right before bed, and those must work to keep her satisfied over night.

Shame on us, I think we’ll be more consistent with that now! The next day we enjoyed more coffee together and gathered our things to head home.

Ughhh, unpacking is definitely no fun, and we were at it non-stop most of the day upon returning. Such is the life as parents, huh?

Do you have a pet toy meant for a certain animal but another animal (or human) plays with it?

What’s worse, packing or unpacking? Please share!