Category Archives: Monthly List

Anatomy Talk At Two and A Half Years Old

Today marks Avery’s two and a half year mark since entering our lives. Up until she turned two, I wrote a monthly memory post consisting of a number of memories correlating to the number of months she turned.

two and a half years old, memories, kids, toddler, funny

Although our wild tot gives us more than enough memories on a daily basis, I’ve strayed from trying to write them all out on the blog. Many are shared on my social media pages, but we simply can’t keep up with all of her words and actions!

That said, one thing has us cracking up lately, so I figured I’d share it here. At two and a half, she’s a non-stop chatter box who is talking about excavators being busy working one second, goes right into something about a cat the next second, and then says Daddy is eating with a spork. Which is true, I use a spork for all of my meals. It just makes sense!

But that’s not what I’m talking about, I’m talking about her already becoming versed in human anatomy. We don’t try to make up some fluffy foo-foo names for private parts, we just tell her what they are to avoid some extended explanations later in life. So now, without warning or being prompted, Avery will say out loud…

Mommy and Avery have vaginas, and daddy as oooonnnneeee penis.

This is usually followed with her repeating “penis” two or three more times. It happens at dinner, playing outside, or, naturally, in the bathroom.

We simply smile and tell her she’s right. Then she into singing the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” or just waving and saying “Hi Mommy, hi Daddy.”

Oh how far she’s come! We love her so much, and she gives us the best laughs and lots of love each and every day.

two and a half years old, memories, kids, toddler, funny

Avery, I hope we read these memory posts together as a family years from now and share the laughs all over again. We love you!

Are your tots good with knowing human anatomy, or were they when they were younger?

Monthly Memories Recap: Her First 2 Years

Now that we’re past the 2 year mark, I will be changing my usual Monthly Memories posts going forward. Still not dead set on how I’ll go about it, but I figured it would be good to put all of the past memory posts together.

This weekend flew by (as usual) and our one plan to go out to take family photos got nixed from a bad cold / possibly turned sinus infection. Her eyes keep getting crusty and looked so swollen all of Sunday. I think this pic pretty much sums up how she feels…

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Poor girl, lucky she has an awesome Mommy who stuck by her side and gave her lots of love all day. She still gave it what she could and remained playful part of the day, and even enjoyed watching some “crazy football” as she is currently repeating a lot. That, and “blue plate tonight.”

Pretty low key weekend, as we prefer, minus the sick kid, so nothing else new to share. Hopefully I’ll be able to report our girl is fully recovered before Thanksgiving rolls around. Until then, on with the compilation of Monthly Memories.

Since there’s no memories post for the first 4 months, I’ll  just share pics to see her progression from the start. Then, from 5 months, my first Memories from my Xth Month Since Going Dad post, we’ll go all the way to 24 months.

Newborn

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1 Month

1 Month

2 Months

2 Months

3 Months

3 Months

4 Months

Avery and Mommy with our fat cat photo bombing
Avery and Mommy with our fat cat photo bombing

5 Months

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6 Months

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7 Months

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8 Months

Practicing how to taste test on the spoon.
Practicing how to taste test on the spoon.

9 Months

Flashy Four

10 Months

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11 Months

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12 Months

Our happy little girl.

13 Months

Squishy? Squish THIS!!!

14 Months

bath time, baby, funny, cute

15 Months

toddler, kids, parenting, funny, humor

16 Months

Avery Uneasy in Snow

17 Months

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18 Months

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19 Months

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20 Months

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21 Months

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22 Months

my sunday photo, #MySundayPhoto, toddlers, parenting

23 Months

What should I help with next, Dad?

24 Months

Avery at Play Kitchen

Wow, if you actually went through them all, thank you, for one, and I bet you’re a close friend/relative. Or just love seeing our precious girl, in which case I don’t blame you. 🙂

Now, if you’ll please excuse me, Thanksgiving is coming up fast, and I’ll be busy working on the few dishes we’re having at our tradition-in-the-making gathering. Hopefully with a healthy toddler tagging along as my official taste-tester.

Have a wonderful Monday!

24 Memories From My 24th Month Since Going Dad

Wow, we made it to the end! Of my Monthly Memories posts, that is. I’ll still think of some way to record our memories, but it won’t always be on or around the 15th of each month as I have been doing to commemorate Avery officially turning a month older.

Before we start, let me just put this right here……

Happy Birthday Lamb

Lamby picked the picture.

We’re taking advantage of her still being too young to fully grasp the concept of birthday parties by keeping it low key at home with a few friends and family. I expect we’ll have plenty of big birthday bash requests in the future, so no need to rush into those, right?

Avery, you have truly transformed in just this past month by talking so much, running all over the place, and being so playful. You’ve given Mommy and me way more than 24 memories for the month, but tradition’s sake, that’s the limit for this post. 🙂

1. Like I said, you’ve turned into a playful tot who frequently joins me in the kitchen where I am cooking meals and cleaning up my mess. But when you stand at my feet with your pretty blue eyes, I can’t help but to take a break and play a little.

2. This month you got your very own fork. And not just any for, AirFork One! DSC_0737 3. Mommy and Daddy took spent the weekend camping for our belated 8th Anniversary celebration (and Mommy turning 31!) while G-Ma stayed with you at our house. We enjoyed our time together, but had a dramatic return where you had us all believing your wrist or arm was severely injured. So conniving at such a young age….turns out you were just fine. 4. Mommy’s work had their annual Halloween event for families to bring their little ones trick-or-treating. We dressed you as a pumpkin (again) and you proudly walked around the place announcing “I’m a pumpkin!” Obviously, a very crazy pumpkin… Crazy Pumpkin Family 5. On Halloween, we carved our first pumpkin together as a family. You helped us take the guts (seeds) out a little, but you were more interested in eating them after I roasted the innards. DSC_0857 6. You walked our little loop on Halloween night to trick-or-treat where your first and only treat was an organic banana our friends kindly had set aside just for you. You wasted no time trying to eat it, and even bit into the peel before we could unwrap it for you. Banana Trick-or-Treating at Dunn's 7. Blue is the color of choice for you lately, and there’s no question about which plate you get for dinner. It’s the Blue Plate Special every night! You even repeat the phrase “Blue plate tonight.” well over 10 times throughout the day, just to make sure we’re clear. 8. Before your beloved blue plate dinner, you’ve also become keen on what time it is before our nightly walk and dinner; it’s smoothie time!


9. I try to make dinner interesting, but always ends up being the same thing one way or the other. One of these things is quinoa, which you surprised us by pronouncing amazingly well!

10. Another dinner time staple is goat cheese. We always have it in a certain container, and if you see it out, you’ll repeat the words goat cheese and more until we finally say you had enough. At this point, you’ve learned to say “See you tomorrow, goat cheese” in the cutest way possible. It puts a smile on Mommy and Daddy’s face each time.

11. The shin I hurt when climbing up to save you on the slide last month is taking forever to heal. Over the time I’ve had it, you learned about kissing boo boos and now you kiss everyone’s boo boo multiple times a day. I even caught you pulling your foot to your mouth to kiss your own boo boo on your toe!

Healing the booboo my leg with her magic #kiss. #toddler #parenting #daddysgirl #love

A video posted by RC Liley (@going_dad) on

12. Kissing your own feet takes some major flexibility. Must be from doing yoga with Mommy. Yep, she's good, Dad. 13. Your eagerness to help us out with everything you do is cute, but not always helpful. One thing, “helping” with wrapping up the vacuum cord, is one such thing. 14. You actually do help me when putting up your cloth diapers after they are dry. I will ask for a certain color and you grab it from the drying rack to hand to me. 15. On the topic of diapers, you play what seems like a rapid fire session when I first pull them out of the wash and hang them to dry. As I hang each one, I can see your face crinkling trying to quickly call out the color I have before moving to the next one. 16. The blue plate might be your preference for dinner, but for breakfast, you have taken a liking to your purple plate. Banana and pumpkin seeds are the staples on your plate, and once you’re done, you will bring your plate over to me to put in the sink. You learn so fast! DSC_0564 17. After Mommy gives you your nightly bath, I’ve been setting your new friend, Lamby, up on the couch waiting for you to come and get her for bedtime. I’ll be cleaning the dishes and see your naked, wide-grinned self run up to grab Lamby and run back to your room to get ready for bed. It’s cute to hear you giggle with joy as you see Lamby sitting there.

18. My injured shoulder finally bothered me enough to go to a chiropractor which resulted in having to make multiple weekly visits for therapy. Luckily, I found a great husband and wife practice with 4 kids of their own who know a thing or two. They have you setup to watch Dinosaur Train on the kindle as my shoulder gets worked on. You also enjoy the play kitchen area and take it seriously, just like Daddy. Avery at Play Kitchen 19. I thought I’d take advantage of the better-than-normal weather and run with you to a playground just 2 miles away. Of course the wind picked up, but we made it. And we found out you’re still not a fan of being above solid ground just like when on our friends’ trampoline. Crying on Playground Equipment 20. Besides not wanting to walk on platforms, you absolutely love the slide part. That’s why we were too excited to wait for your birthday to give you one of your gifts; an indoor slide! It’s nothing fancy, but you are loving it! DSC_1125 21. With your increased playfulness, you’ve begun to initiate foot fights with me randomly throughout the day. Sometimes I’m even holding a knife to chop food, but it doesn’t deter you.

Pre #breakfast foot fight. She started it the first time. #toddler #sahd #growingup A video posted by RC Liley (@going_dad) on

22. We love, well, everything about you, but how you pick up so quickly on new words and letters. I’ve been playing the show Super Why for you while we have lunch and we’ll try and guess the Super Words in each episode. Mommy and I would love to take all the credit for your increased word knowledge, but that show really has helped you learn.

23. What we can take credit for is your knowledge of good food. You say cottage cheese when you see my container in the fridge, goat cheese when, well, a lot, and even name the colored jar of NuttZo with amazingly great pronunciation for a 2 year old.

24. It’s probably apparent that Lamby is your current Bestie. She’s become part of our nightly reading and goodnight kisses routine to where you INSIST everyone kisses Lamby after reading the nighttime book, and she even has to kiss my boo boo some nights!

Watching how much you change every day is so bittersweet, Avery, but you make our little family of 3 complete and fill us with joy. So much so we just want to squeeze you all the time! Maybe too much…

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Happy Birthday, dear, thanks for giving us so much joy! We look forward to so many more birthdays and good times as a family!