Tag Archives: laser

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

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…

Dad asleep with Avery in crib

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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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

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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.

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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?

One Way James Bond Never Used a Laser

Earlier this month, we were playing with Avery in the living room as it was nearing her bedtime, and, like most babies, she was getting fussy. But, instead of getting her ready for bed, we chose a different route….play time with a laser!

Don't move, you might scare it off!
Don’t move, you might scare it off!

Since that day, we have been able to buy ourselves a little extra time before Avery turns into a sleep deprived night demon with the special power of shrill screaming. As a bonus, our slightly overweight cat gets a nice workout chasing the blasted red dot across the floor. This, in turn, amuses Avery more than the laser alone and even makes her laugh the craziest and cutest sounding laugh we’ve heard yet.

Being the textbook first time parents we are, there’s always a video camera nearby, so we quickly captured Avery’s amusement as she watched Lou (our cat) chase the red dot. And of course I posted it on YouTube since to us, it’s worth showing the world!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO6hA4nhfB0&w=420&h=315]

I know using a laser pointer as cheap entertainment is far from a new trend, but imagine seeing something like this for the first time when you’re a baby. There’s already so many crazy things you’ve never seen, fat black cat included, that I’m convinced her high-pitched laugh is partly a result of not knowing what else to do.

Now that she’s seen it a few times, she doesn’t laugh as much as in the video, but it still keeps her engaged and most importantly, not crying. And that, my friends, is definitely one way James Bond has  never used a laser!

Do you use laser pointers as entertainment for your kids? Pets?

Any other cheap entertainment tips/stories to share?