It’s fun to use various ways to mark the growth of our kids, right? This Throwback Thursday (#TBT, for short), I have two; Avery’s obsession with climbing in one of our kitchen cabinets, and a birthday kiss from Mommy and Daddy.
I can’t remember the exact time she started to get into this particular cabinet, but the first post I could find is from March of this year. It was in How to Hide in the Kitchen where I found this pic.
And just the other day, still utilizing her crawl space with a blank stare….
The hair really marks her growth here, but so much more has changed. Attitude, being one of them.
Yeah, sometimes for the better, and, in this case, for the worse. Which brings me to the other #TBT picture; birthday kisses from Mommy and Daddy in her highchair.
Here she is taking our kisses with that signature blank stare as a one year old.
Ummm, dad, your nose is in my eye and both of you are in the way of my cake!
Even my pointy nose didn’t upset her then. But for birthday numero dos, she showed her true feelings.
My nose wasn’t even touching that time, geez!
Before I go, here’s one more kitchen comparison of our crazy girl. In August of 2014, she looked sweet and innocent hanging on to drawer handles.
You need something?
But now, screw the handles, she romps and stomps her way around the entire house, and even does ballet if she damn well pleases.
Growth, it never seizes to amaze me.
Happy Thursday!
Any big plans for the weekend?
Have any meals you can make now to get ready for Thanksgiving?
To clarify, this is a recap of her birthday party, a day before her actual birthday, but close enough. Low key and no frills was the objective, and I’d say we mostly succeeded with our mission. A few friends and family came over to wish our growing girl happy 2nd birthday and we avoided any kind of major drama.
Just like the format of my Roller Coaster Recap of August, I am going to recap her birthday in High-Low fashion. And, just as before, the plan is to end on a high note!
High – Just the fact that we’re celebrating the 2nd birthday of our beautiful, smart, healthy, and happy (most of the time) little girl is awesome! It’s cliche, but true, they really do grow so fast!
High – Opening a gift from G-Ma in bag with polkadots. Gasp, and her shirt has polkadots!
Low – Avery was overwhelmed by so many people giving her so much attention all at once. So I helped matters by sticking a camera in her face to capture the moment.
Can I just eat with my turtle in peace?!
High – Going Mom kept decorations simple yet elegant, and the food was placed for easy access.
Low – We had a nice assortment of Beanitos Black Bean Chips, crudites, hummus, and cupcakes homemade by a neighbor laid out for our guests. Unfortunately, we completely forgot about the giant bowl of fresh strawberries in the fridge and Costco-sized peanuts we were going to set out too.
High – Avery loved her trampoline birthday gift and got to jumping right away! Hellloooo, nap time!
Low – Nap time never happened.
Why sleep when I can jump? It’s my party afterall!
High – I made chocolate protein pancakes with a banana, NuttZo and chia seed frosting for her birthday cake.
Low – My decoration skills fall somewhere between 0 and a negative number. That’s supposed to be a “2” on top.
Low – Damn teething took no pity on the birthday girl, or so that’s what we’re going with.
High – Singing “Happy Birthday” to our sweet girl. She kept clapping for herself after everyone had finished 30 seconds earlier. She really likes clapping.
Low – Oops, too much attention on her again!
High – Mommy makes everything better and even helps blow out the double bonfire on her cake.
High – Avery had no issue with my cake construction and tore right into her healthy confection.
High – She even saved a bite for me and flew it first class into my mouth on Air Fork One.
Low – Crazy demon parents (that’s us) put her back in the highchair to recreate a picture from her first birthday. Not a fan.
High – Holding two fingers to show her age in a fun family photo. She’s much happier when being held.
Other than the several meltdowns resulting from too much in-your-face attention and teething, the part went fairly smooth and it was nice to see everyone. We’ll be the first to admit that we’re not great entertainers, but it seemed as if everyone was pleased. Either way, we appreciate everyone who came by to wish our sweetheart a Happy 2nd Birthday.
It started about a month ago, Tuesday, October 13th, to be exact. The day I acquired my boo-boo while rescuing my daughter from the scariest of slides 50 stories high!
Just look at that thing, it’s treacherous! Poor girl could be scarred for life having to endure something so horrendous.
Okay, it’s just a small playground in our neighborhood with this slide that hardly lets you slide, more like slowly screech your way down the green plastic as it grasps on to your skin. But that wasn’t Avery’s issue, she just simply did not like being up there without Mommy or Daddy up there too. As referenced by the frowny face….
As I climbed up to join her so we could slide down together, my foot slipped on a step which resulted in a bloody right shin. I’ll spare you the pictures, but geez, that thing hurt for days! And what’s with shins taking so long to heal anyway?
Fast forward to this past week and weekend, and Avery has started to take a notice in all things boo-boo related, included the scab on my shin. I told her how it’s my boo-boo since she would watch me clean it every day, so, naturally, she picked up on saying it.
At almost two years old, she’s been picking up on a lot lately, and even forming sentences! Not only that, but she’s starting to understand things better. I explained the concept of kissing boo-boos which she didn’t exactly get at first, but now she’s really caught on.
Seeing her sweet self want to help make my boo-boo better (whether she really gets it or not), simply warms my from the inside out. As gushy as it sounds, it’s the truth. Parents, you know what I’m talking about.
Avery as even enlisted Lamby, her current favorite stuffed animal to help kiss my boo-boo multiple times throughout the day and right after reading at night, before Going Mom sings to her. As an aside, Lamby just recently took the lead as a favorite, giving her good friend bear the shaft. I’m not so sure about this Lamby though, she seems a little rebellious and I fear she could cause trouble when Avery is trying to sleep.
But I must say, between Avery and Lamby, my scab is gone and the shin is almost fully recovered. The constant kissing of my boo-boo gets slightly awkward at times, but only when she leans in really slow and all I can do is stand there, as if I’m expecting of a kiss on my shin. I can’t turn her away though, she’s downright insistent on offering her healing powers.
This weekend, I counted over 10 boo-boo kisses as I went about getting dinner ready and on the table one night. How I managed not to step on her as she leaned her face into my leg each time, I’m clueless, but it was sweet and my wife and I both love how much fun she is giving us.
While going about prepping food for the day and weekend ahead on Sunday, I opted to skip my usual podcast listening to enjoy hearing Kelley and Avery spending time together in the other room. Just from the joy in both of their voices while playing and reading books, I couldn’t stop myself from grinning from ear to ear. Until I cut myself for not paying attention when chopping veggies. Good thing we have our own little boo-boo kisser and Lamby side-kick to make it all better!
Do you have your own little boo-boo kisser?
If so, do they have a stuffed side-kick to help out?
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
