For my first Father’s Day, Going Mom made a Dad and Avery photo book that means the world to me. It’s not just something anyone can buy, and she put some obvious love and quality time into making it.
This year, for my second Father’s Day, she slipped the book from it’s spot on our bookshelf (or tried, because I noticed it was missing) to add to it with more daddy-daughter photos. In my last post, Kelley was in the process of putting it together as I wrote (all hail nap time!), and after seeing the final product, my heart turned from mush to pure liquid. Kinda sounds bad, but trust me, it’s a good kind of mush-to-liquid.
I love it so much and every time I flip through the pages beginning from the first day Avery was born to just a few weeks ago, I am still amazed at how much she has already grown. I figured I’d share the entire book in a post for everyone to appreciate Kelley’s lovely crafting skills and pictures we will hold dear for eternity.
I’d like to note, the pictures of me wearing Avery in a Baby Bjorn are before we learned of the dangers of wearing babies in “crotch danglers” for impeding their hip development among other issues. Plus, having them face outward is also not the best. Not judging, I’ve obviously been there too, but I stopped right after learning of this and hope any babywearing parents will consider the same.
Okay, I’m done with the thought of the day. I can’t express my gratitude to Kelley enough for making this book of memories, and wish I was at least a quarter as crafty as her so I could do the same. Makes my photo coffee mug I got her pale in comparison.
I’ve said it already, but THANK YOU, Kelley, for being such an amazing wife/mother and for the best gift ever. Oh, and the beer of the month club is just stevia sweetened icing on our homemade chocolate cake! 🙂
Do you love sentimental gifts like these or prefer getting gifts from retail stores instead?
What would be your favorite personalized gift to receive? A photo book, jewelry, framed picture, kitchenware, etc.?
Last Father’s Day, the first one I celebrated, I had a tiny idea that my wife and mom teamed up to get me a giant tortoise as a gift. If the title confuses you, last year’s post was No Giant Tortoise for Father’s Day, so adding “Still” to my Father’s Day post this year seemed the only logical thing to do.
Unlike last year, I had no reason to believe I would get a giant tortoise for my 2nd Father’s Day celebration. Honestly, I have no clue what I would do with a giant tortoise in our back yard. I guess I’ll cancel my order for this sign though…*sigh*
Actually, if anything, I’d be happy to have less pets. For whatever reason, our Golden Retriever, Abby, and fat black cat, Lou, get on my nerves and are the main reason I vacuum at least twice a day. But Kelley loves them and as long as they make her happy (for the most part), they stay.
Enough about what I didn’t get for Father’s Day, as it was anything but disappointing. We started with Avery waking up earlier than usual (no surprise) and Going Mom making two big batches of French Press coffee. She could’ve stopped there and I would’ve been set for my gifts. #CoffeeAddict
Even on Father’s Day, I like to keep my kitchen duty, so I had a big bowl of blueberry NuttZo oatmeal made for my girls. As they filled their bellies with goodness, I prepped the slow-cooker with a healthy mix of tomatoes, kidney beans, zucchini from our garden, Â cubed potatoes, onions, and garlic with wild cod on top.
This lets me make one vegetarian meal with beans only, and then another one with the fish. Love the slow-cooker! As I finished prepping, Avery ran around the home and thought Mommy would like several of her sleep pants brought to her.
So thoughtful.
Afterward, we went to the garage where Kelley cut my hair. It was much needed and I think we both agree was the best job she’s done yet! I never complained about the others though, I’m just happy to have shorter hair. Just like my hair, our lawn needed a cut too, so I took care of that rather quickly thanks to our EGO.
Glad I have Avery to turn on the headlights for me!
Feeling extra itchy from my hair and the grass stuck on me, I ran to our neighborhood pool ahead of Kelley and Avery to swim a few laps until they got there. A “few” turned into 1000 meters until they arrived which was more than I’ve done swimming in a long time. Felt good though.
Then we hung out in the kiddie pool and watched Avery walk around all by herself! She loves having the freedom in the water, but we have to be careful since every now and then she’ll trip up and go under. Hunger set in for all of us, so we took the obligatory pictures of each other holding our kid in the pool and were on our way home.
“Just put me back in the water, Dad!”
“Yeah, Mommy knows how to hold me better!”
Kelley and Avery had their usual weekend lunch of steamed broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower with brown rice and wild salmon as I took forever to make the crazy veggie combo I had for the day. Apparently, waking up early caught up to Avery and she fell asleep right after her last bite of food!
We always give her lunch usually right before naptime, but it’s usually a fight to get her to sleep. Not this time. I was even vacuuming (go figure) and used the extension to tickle her feet and she hardly moved. This, of course, meant I had to post it on Instagram.
Kelley carried her off to bed where she never woke up, but a carrot did fall from her shirt. At least it wasn’t the salmon like she gets on her most times!
For my gifts this year, besides a loving wife, adorable daughter, the best haircut to date, and no giant tortoise, I got another 3 month subscription to the microbrew beer of the month club. I loved this gift last year for my 30th birthday, and am excited to see what I get this time around.
Going Mom also added to the Dad and Avery photo book she made for me last year which I will always hold dear to my heart. I’m not afraid to admit that I’m a sentimental guy, and these things mean so much to me.
A photo book of daddy and Avery from my loving wife!
She was trying to be secretive about adding to the book and was going to use another room, but I noticed that the book was missing from the bookshelf it usually sits on and told her I already knew what she was doing. So, as I write this, she is putting it together in the same room as me, I just agreed not to look. She seems really busy though, and if it’s anything like her previous work, it will be magnificent!
Overall it was another wonderful and successful Father’s Day. Number 2 is in the books (hey, no dirty minds here!) and can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year to celebrate my third Father’s Day. Maybe a giant tortoise?
Happy Father’s Day to all dads out there! Without us, there would be no kids to be father to. Then again, same could be said for all mothers. But we already celebrated them last month, so YAY us!
Fine, to avoid getting hit (too much), YAY all Moms too! I love and appreciate all my wife does, that’s for sure. 🙂
Speaking of Moms, I was so kind as to get Going Mom some new shoes even though it is Father’s Day. Yep, four of them to be exact, and they were not cheap! I’m not one for fashion, but when it comes to performance and reliability, I’m all about it. Which is why her new shoes are all identical and look like this….
Be honest, how many of you already knew I was talking about tires? Her car was overdue for a new set and as a car enthusiast and someone who used to work on them every day, I happily researched and settled on these beauties. Nothing extreme, but better than OEM. So thanks to Tire Rack for shipping to a local tire shop to have them installed.
I hated not being able to do it myself since I used to do it all the time, but that requires a special machine I obviously don’t have access to anymore. Plus, I was able to make good use of the 90+ minute wait time by heading to a place nearby with an outdoor fitness area. The only bad thing was that I had to walk across hell’s parking lot.
Luckily, I survived and made it to my destination. It wasn’t much, but had all I needed for what I planned on doing.
After a brief warm-up, I did slightly altered version of the Crossfit benchmark WOD “Cindy“. Instead of pull-ups, I opted for chin-ups and did as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
5 chin-ups
10 push-ups
15 body weight squats
I love this routine as you can do it almost anywhere, and as long as you go hard for that 20 minutes, you’ll feel it! I’m not great at chin-ups, so that always slows me down, but practice makes perfect slightly better than before. I usually have a pen and paper to mark each round I complete, but since I didn’t have that, the wood chips had to do.
Yeah, 16 rounds. Not my best, but I was going off of only black coffee at the time in my defense. Now that I’m another year older, I have a little thing I must do every day. Last year, for 30, I did 31 1-legged squats/leg + 31 push-ups almost every day. If I didn’t do that, I did 31 burpees + 31 push-ups. It’s always one more than my age.
This year, I’m sticking with 32 split squats/leg + 32 push-ups. The split squats really let you feel it the next day and I’m happy I chose them to do every day! You should try too. Find a move you could safely do every day and do reps of that move for how many years old you are. It’s great to say you did something, and might motivate you keep going.
For instance, after the WOD, and my 32 squats/push-ups, I went ahead and finished off my legs with 100 walking lunges/leg. Then walked around another 30 minutes until the tires were finally ready. Yep, I have no legs now….
No clue what’s in store for today, but if Kelley really knows me, it’s a whole lot of not much at all. And a Ferrari. 🙂
Hope everyone is having a happy Father’s Day or just an awesome day if you’re not celebrating!
Do you ever find ways to keep active instead of sitting in a waiting room?
If you said no, are you going to try next time your car is in the shop or something else?
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
