Tag Archives: learning

Going Reviews

WOOM 1 Balance Bike: Learning to Ride

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Have you heard of a balance bike? It’s a bike without pedals meant to allow 1.5 to 3 year olds get comfortable riding a bike. As they get older and ready to use pedals, they can learn to ride a pedal bike without training wheels.

I was not aware of this type of bike until I saw a couple neighborhood boys riding around on their balance bikes as Avery and I went for our daily walk. I could see Avery’s eyes locked in with awe (okay, mine were too), which made her trike pale in comparison. Although she didn’t exactly say it, her actions made it clear enough with her awkward stance….

balance bike, trike, bikes, kids

Yeah, I’m not a big fan of the pink trike either.

Luckily, after speaking with Mathias from WOOM Bikes, he graciously agreed to send me their WOOM 1 Balance Bike to use and review.  Just 2 days later, after going on our walk, Avery and I returned home to a glorious site waiting in our garage, the WOOM 1 all boxed up. Avery’s excitement was obvious…

Hugging WOOM 1 Balance Bike Box

We immediately opened the box to reveal a safely wrapped shiny red WOOM 1 Balance Bike. I think someone was ready to go right away as evidenced by those little grabby hands.

WOOM 1 Balance Bike

After working to fight my surprisingly strong toddler off as if she were a zombie after my exposed brains (Yes, I’m a guilty fan of The Walking Dead), I removed the foam and adjusted the bike for Avery to test. We were even sent cool blue hats that she had to wear and would not let me take it off!

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Poor pink trike in the background, it’s glory days are long gone. This girl looks born to ride with her pink Soft Star Shoes and blue WOOM Bikes hat. Once on the sidewalk, she slowly started out just trying to get a feel of having only 2 wheels.

Riding WOOM 1 Balance Bike

She took very tiny steps, made a little progress, then fell. After shaking off her boo boo, she tried again and stumbled over again. More crying and boo boo shaking/kissing ensued. We gave her a little confidence boosting pep talk and got her to sit back on her new bike. That’s about it, she was content with just hanging for the day.

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Hanging and looking cute as all getout! So, we were off to a rough start for the first day, but practice makes perfect, right?

Okay, maybe not perfect, but the next day she actually covered ground on her balance bike hog. We just need to work on her sitting on the seat and, well, we need to work on a lot. Either way, progress was made and she had fun in the process.

Patience is a mandatory prerequisite in parenting, and I had to keep reminding myself that being on a bike is something completely new to Avery. Just like rolling over, crawling, walking, etc, for the first time, it takes time, and we need to keep that in mind when our miniatures are learning.

We’ll be spending plenty of time practicing this weekend and I’m confident she’ll be riding circles around those neighborhood boys in no time!

I’ll post updates here, on Facebook, and Instagram to monitor her progress on the WOOM 1 Balance Bike. Now we just need to find a good nickname for her bike. Lately, she enjoys watching Little Einsteins and loves the character Rocket. Since Rocket is also red, I’m thinking Rocket is a perfect fit. Yay or nay?

Learn more about WOOM Bikes and find the perfect fit for any age on their website. They have bikes for little kids just starting to walk all the way up to teens.

Have you heard of WOOM Bikes or tried a balance bike before?

Any tips on getting started riding a balance bike?

Life, Parenting

When Did Our Toddler Get So Smart?

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We had just come to terms that our baby is toddler, but now she’s transforming into a smart/tricky toddler of sorts. Smart, because she’ll call out all letters of the alphabet, numerous colors, stack blocks (instead of just destroy) and speak in complete sentences sometimes.

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In Mary Katherine from SNL style – Superstar Smart!

Tricky, because, well, she’s figuring out how to delay things at night when it’s bedtime, and how to use her cuteness to get her way.

Smiling on kitchen floor
Stop what you’re doing and just play with me!

But make no mistake, Going Mom and I are not complaining. We couldn’t be me happy to see how our little girl is growing physically and intellectually. But also make no mistake, it drives us insane at times!

Mainly, the nighttime toddler delay tactics. She has this thing where she likes to do a “jump” into her pajamas after bathtime, so Mommy will let her jump once, but then she says “Again”, and she goes again. But two is not enough, and she’ll continue going until one of us makes her stop. Some nights, she’ll accept it, other nights, you’d think she’s auditioning for an opera.

Then, we normally only read one book, but now she turns on the bottom lip to try and delay the inevitable; sleep! Well, at least going into her crib. We had a nice few weeks of an easy transition from putting her in the crib and she’d go to sleep soon after, or at least not throw a fit. But now, WOW, this girl makes her demon days look like a cute and cuddly kitten!

When her screams aren’t radiating throughout the house, she’ll pace around her crib and talk to herself. We consider this much better than the alternative, and even nice to see how her brain has developed. Just listen to her talk amongst herself to decide if she wants the blue plate or pink plate tonight.

Saying “Blue plate tonight” has become the majority of our daily conversations. I ask her if she wants water, it’s “Blue plate tonight”.

Me: Did you go poop?

Avery: Blue plate tonight.

Me: Do you want to go for a walk to see the moon tonight?

Avery: Blue plate tonight.

Me: *Silence*

Avery: Blue plate tonight, blue plate tonight, bluuuuueee plate toniiiiiight!

You get the drift.

Don’t get me wrong, she says more than Blue plate tonight, but those three words are repeated all day long. Other popular phrases are:

  • Crazy football
  • See you tomorrow, goat cheese. (Now she says “See you tomorrow, blue plate”)
  • More goat cheese. Please, goat cheese.
  • The moon’s a coming.
  • Biceps and triceps.
  • Clean the boo-boo on the butt.
  • The light’s on!
  • I’m a crazy Avery.

I could go on with a few more, but these are the ones that stand out right now. Needless to say, this girl truly is crazy, and we’re loving how much fun (usually) she is.

With the increased fun/craziness, means decreased blog posts, or at least shorter in length. Naps are becoming scarce and I’m keeping busy with other things. But don’t worry, I’ll be around to post updates when possible and even share product reviews, workout ideas, and maybe even recipes.

Hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season so far with more good times ahead! Oh, and here, Avery wanted to say bye-bye with Lamby.

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Life, Parenting

I’m Leaving Home to be At-Home

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Yep, the 20th Annual At-Home Dad Convention in Raleigh, NC put on by the National At-Home Dad Network. So the title is not my best work, but I seriously spend too long thinking of titles sometimes, and I think it works. Any other bloggers or writers in general do that?

I wanted to go to the one last year in Denver, CO, but it was too hard financially and just not easy to figure out. But, no worries, I heard plenty of exciting stories from last year that has me fired up about participating in this year’s event!

There will be parenting experts as well as dads just like me there to talk and listen to for us all to share tips, ideas, and crazy poop stories. I mean, c’mon, what parent doesn’t have a crazy poop story? I’m still waiting to walk into Avery’s room to find that she “repainted” the walls with a paint scheme you can’t have mixed at The Home Depot.

The convention begins on Saturday, September 26th, but I’m flying in to North Carolina tomorrow, that’s Thursday the 24th, to join other early arrivals for a nice beverage while we introduce ourselves. I’ve been talking to a lot of these guys through social media for at least a year, some closer to two years, and it’ll be great meeting them in person.

Remember how I mentioned that I’m following the Squat Every Day program and would make sure I would find a way to squat while traveling? At first I was seeking local gyms that I could go to and use their squat rack, but after stressing too much about something that shouldn’t be top priority during the convention, I came to my senses and stopped looking.

The hotel gym has dumbbells and several machines including a leg press, so I’ll just do some form of squatting with the dumbbells in order to say that I did squat every day. Once I get back home, I’ll just pick back up where I left off and I’d like to bet the world will still go on. Maybe I should spend less time inside and more time enjoying a different atmosphere too…

Raleigh Forecast

….or maybe the hotel gym isn’t that bad. Note to self: pack a jacket.

Not only will this be my first time travelling alone in years, but it will be Going Mom’s first time to stay home with Avery all alone for a few days. I already have some food prep done since I’m a good stay-at-home dad/husband, but she’ll have reign over the kitchen too.

In our home, this is weird as I’m used to taking control when it comes to kitchen duties (actually, I’m already feeling a little anxiety set in), but I know there’s nothing to worry about. Although, she might make her awesome spaghetti sauce; hopefully she’ll save a little for me! Please, wife, if you’re reading, save some sauce!

Better wrap it up now since I still need to pack so I’m ready to go for my mid-morning flight tomorrow. I’ll be sure to share the adventures when I get back, but until then, no more posts for a few days. In the meantime, head over to Gary’s blog, Skipah’s Realm, to see what crazy antics he’s up to. The guy gets himself an awesome girlfriend who treated him right on his birthday (it was last Sunday, the 20th) and suddenly he’s yelling about walking whales getting in the way.

Have a great rest of the week, and if you’re in Raleigh, maybe I’ll see you there!