Tag Archives: grandma

21 Memories From My 21st Month Since ‘Going Dad’

Yes, I know, this monthly memories post is 10 days past her 21st month since womb departure, but we’ve been a busy family! Mainly, our first family vacation to Colorado along with the obvious blog posts I had to write to share it with anyone that happens by my little space of the internet. I got that ideology/saying from a good blogger friend over at Skipah’s Realm. Thanks, Gary!

And things haven’t slowed down since we’ve returned. Avery is learning and doing more each day, which means we’re learning and doing more as well. Plus, Going Mom is away for work all week! This is the first time she’s been away from us for so long, and it’s truly a test for all of us.

Sure, I’m a stay-at-home parent, but I depend on my wife’s reinforcements and loving company. I told her I missed her before she even left, and it’s the truth. Hopefully she’s able to make the best of her time in a peaceful (I hope) hotel room without a demanding toddler demanding every second of her attention. But, the silver lining is this should definitely help us appreciate each other more.

I almost decided to just skip this month since I planned on stopping after the 2 year (24 month) mark, but my Type-A OCD personality wouldn’t allow it. So, here I am, satisfying my brain and knocking out 21 memories. Not that it’s hard to find them, but in order to get through them, I’m making each new thing she says a memory on its own. Not that you care probably, but I prefer to explain myself for….errr, myself, and Avery when she’s older and reading this ancient post on her Samsung Galaxy S20.

Avery, this past month you have experienced and transformed so much. You continue to amaze Mommy and me each day, and these 21 memories hardly begin to capture it all, but it’s a start.

  1. You’ve started saying “It’s okay.” which you learned from Mommy and Daddy as we say it after you fall or drop something on accident.
  2. Obviously, the big memory this month is that you flew on an airplane for the first time!First Flight Family Selfie
  3. And you also flew for the second time on our way back from vacation. You were far from well behaved, but now we know not to schedule a flight for your bedtime if we can avoid it.

  4. Another phrase you’ve picked up on is “It’s good”. You say it after I give you our daily green smoothie, unless I really sucked at making it that day, and when eating various food.
  5. For a while, we resorted to reading books to you during dinner or simply reciting the text from memory. It distracted you enough to get a few bites.
  6. Now we just give you a book to read, and besides having to switch books every so often, this works fairly well.
  7. Any parent to a toddler knows you always need a backup plan for eating though, and we keep roasted seaweed on hand when books just won’t cut it. I’m just glad you think of seaweed as a treat!
  8. Birds had built a nest in the entryway to our front door and had several baby birds. Every night, you and Mommy would turn on the light to tell the birds goodnight, before bath time. Sadly, one baby after another fell out of the nest which required us to move it to a safer place.

  9. Your climbing skills have gotten better, but sometimes you get a little too confident, resulting in us having to say “It’s okay”……..a lot. Most of the time the little fall is nothing, but there are times that set you off in a downward spiral to fussville. Yes, it’s a place, and it sucks!
  10. What started with you instinctively knowing to get Mommy’s workout shoes, carried over to getting my Soft Star Shoes I use to workout in too. Such a smart kid!

  11. Your affinity for my weightlifting belt started a long time ago, but now you’ve figured out how to loop it around yourself. Often times, you’ll walk around with the belt holding it around you for the entire workout session. Those days, I just make do without the belt since the one time I tried. you let me know that was a BAD choice!DSC_1773
  12. Uncle Paul, Aunt Tammy, and your Great Grandma (G-Ma’s Mom) came down to visit to celebrate G-Ma’s 60th birthday and we had a blast with them on several occasions. I mean, how many toddlers get to go to a brewery? Okay, maybe a lot, but still….DSC_1576
  13. You’ve added a few new foods to your repertoire of eats. One being raw onion. We figure you just love crunchy things.Avery eating watermelon onion salad
  14. Trips to the pool happen fairly often, and I had fun turning your flipping skills into a slo-mo video. Your giggles are still adorable a 2x slower than normal.

  15. I used to take you for a walk in the stroller right after naptime, but that would mean you had to sit still which is not an option anymore. As evidenced by your inclination to run wild around the house, and of course do butt busters.

  16. As I mentioned, your climbing skills are getting better every day which means you can climb up most things at the bounce house by yourself now. You might’ve been motivated to climb on your own since I seemed to do a poor job at helping you….2015-07-21 20.42.41
  17. We all know you’re a big fan of NuttZo and banana, and now you’re even able to use a fork to feed it to yourself. Only a few times ended with the food on the floor before making it to your mouth.2015-07-21 09.59.56
  18. While in Colorado on vacation, you got to hang out a lot with Nana, Papa, and Cousin Ashlee as they agreed to play with you so Mommy and I could get away enjoy time together. Lots of reading and playground time for all!
  19. When reading or playground time wasn’t happening, you’d make full use of the stairs at Nana and Papa’s. So much up and down was enough work for anyone trying to keep watch over you, I’m sure this helped you sleep at night, as well as Ashlee.DSC_1955
  20. This was the month of diaper blowouts for us! You graced us with back to back to back poosplosions that had us begging for mercy. Or maybe just hoping they’d stop. *Crossing fingers* So far, we’ve been safe again.
  21. But, as you’ve shown us before, you are always full of evil surprises. Kinda like when you flipped the bird in this daddy-daughter selfie on Mommy’s phone.Avery Flipping Off Camera with Daddy

There you have it, 21 memories in the book blog and more being created daily. I’m off to spend another day of fun with my daughter, but don’t worry, 22 months is already fast approaching. Ugh….

A Mani-Pedi Treat & Bounce House Feat

I know, the moment she reads the title to this post, by wife will shake her head at the fact I just said “mani-pedi”. Honestly, I feel slightly weird every time I say, but I still do. It’s just easier than saying the full words, “manicure and pedicure”. Plus, it is in this online dictionary.

Mani-Pedi’s aside, my aunt Tammy, uncle Paul, and Grandma from Pennsylvania came down to visit my mom and have an early 60th birthday celebration with her. Kelley, Avery, and I didn’t see them every day they were down, but we met up on three on separate occasions. I’ve found that I’m spending too much time blogging and not enough family time which creates way too much stress, so I’m breaking up each outing into three parts; this post is 1 of 3.

Uncle Paul is the only brother out of the four kids my grandparents had on my mom’s (G-Ma’s) side, so he knows a thing or two about what ladies love. That’s why he treated all of the ladies, my mom, Tammy, Kelley, and Grandma, to a lavish mani-pedi treatment while he, Avery, and I went to the same bounce house Avery has been to a few times. Credit to my awesome wife for setting up the hand and foot treatment for everyone!

Before we did anything, we all met at a new restaurant called Mod Market for lunch.

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This was our first time to see them since they arrived, so there were plenty of pictures. Of course I had to get one with Grandma! She was here when Avery first entered the world!

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Then over to Paul and Tammy for more picture-taking love.

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It’s crazy to think back to when I was just a little boy and they would pick me up from the airport when I flew up to PA during most summers. #TimeFlies

After lunch, the ladies were off to have their hands and feet given the deluxe treatment while Paul, Avery, and I went to see Avery accomplish a feat at the bounce house. In the past visits, I’ve had to mostly just carry her up and around everything and she could hardly bounce. This time, she was able to crawl up and into most of the inflatables and took off on a bouncing frenzy!

I still had to carry her up climbing obstacles and go down the slides with her, but I’m not complaining, I love these things!

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There were more complicated houses that I took her through as well, and once again, I’m pretty sure I had more fun than she did. Probably didn’t help with the way we exited…

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Just a little push here and you can do the rest, right, Avery? Aannnnddd….

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Oops, wrong. I made a quick recovery and busted out in dance urging her to join in.

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Despite the picture, she actually rocked a few dance moves and had Paul quite impressed. But then I had to go and ask her to do high knees which she always does when we say the word, and she busted hard flat on her face. Crying, no, screaming, soon followed and that marked the end of the bounce house. She had a busted lip with a little blood dripping down from her tears (or was that snot?) so I made a quick clean-up at the bathroom before taking us home.

The crying continued the whole ride home, but Paul and I were able to carry on a conversation without having to raise our voices…….too much. The girls were still enjoying their treatment so Paul and I just spent more time sharing stories while simultaneously trying to calm Avery who was, yes, still crying. Then, lo and behold, would you believe something got her to settle down? She wanted nothing to do with Daddy, but Great Uncle Paul worked his magic!

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Yep, as long as he held her, Avery remained a happy camper. She even showed him the trees in our backyard. Or was it the dog? I can’t remember. He tried to set her back down a few times but she wasn’t having it, he must hold her all the time!

Luckily, with three grown boys of his own and a long-time high school math teacher, I’d say he has just a little bit of patience, so he kept her happy until the ladies arrived. It didn’t help that we had passed the normal nap time, or at least I’m using that reason to explain her aversion to Daddy.

After a short chat with everyone, they left to go explore more of the surrounding area and we attempted to get Avery to take some kind of nap. The nap never happened. Maybe if Paul stayed to take a short siesta with her we would’ve had more luck.

Our first outing with the family was quick, but it was great to see them as usual. For our next place, and what you’ll see on my next post, we visited a somewhat nearby craft brewery, Revolver Brewing. It was an hour away, I was a grump (sorry everyone), and I’ll fill you in on the details soon.

Do you have family out of state that you are close to?

Do you get to see them on a regular basis?

Is saying “mani-pedi” acceptable for a guy? For anyone?