Category Archives: Parenting

I Rocked My First Easter at Nana and Papa’s

We’re traveling back in time to Easter 2 years ago. Our daughter was 5 months old, but apparently quite fluent in speaking/writing. I enjoy looking back at our little chubby-cheeked sweetheart, so I thought I’d share her story of rocking her first Easter.

Today’s she’s rocking her third Easter and hopefully finding all of the eggs hidden in our backyard. Guess we’ll know if she missed one if our dog has worse than usual gas. Whomp-whomp.

Happy Easter!


Hey there all you bunny-loving babies! Did you just get through your first Easter like I did; crazy, huh? Bunnies, colored eggs, stuff called candy, a basket, and a search to put the colored eggs in a basket.

I wasn’t sure what to make of the whole occasion, but I owned the day like a baby boss and made sure I had everyone’s full attention! Here’s how I owned the day and plan on doing the same for the next time I am put in a crazy situation…

First things first, right when we arrived at Nana and Papa’s, several giant babies called my family immediately flocked to me. You might deal with the same thing if you are the only baby around; learn to embrace this and take advantage.

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Don’t act very enthused at first, that’s too easy, just kind of stare and look droopy. No hard feelings, Papa, just making sure you know who’s in control here.

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And Aunt Stef, I know you were excited to see me, but I was more interested in watching those little hairy things scurry around and bark.

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After a lot of banter over how much I’ve grown and blah blah, things were quiet for a while. Aunt Stef held me and I could see the other giant family babies with plates of food. I didn’t like the quiet, so I made my loud chicken sounds and screeches which made everyone acknowledge my presence again.

With eating out of the way, I was told it was time to hunt for Easter eggs. I found out, this is similar to when Daddy and I went on a scavenger hunt for Mommy’s breast pads, only it’s outside. Oh, and instead of a laundry basket, you put eggs in an Easter basket. My basket was the head of a rabbit with my name on it. It seems pretty cruel to make a basket out of bunny’s head, but he looked happy.

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There was no way I was going to just go hunt the eggs, so I demanded Mommy to carry me to my plastic prey.

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My first quarry; a shiny golden egg! I was pretty excited about reaching out and getting this one.

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But then I noticed the floppy ear on my bunny head basket and became distracted. What egg?

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So take note, there will be distractions, but don’t lose sight of the ultimate goal; get the eggs! I let my defenses down there, but luckily Daddy but it in that poor bunny’s head. I directed Mommy to my next destination where I was faced with two eggs! Ahhh, choices!!

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But I maintained my composure and made the obvious choice; the shiny blue egg!

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One of those barking things (my family calls them dogs) looked like a threat, so I snatch the egg and held tight!

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Once the barking threat was gone, I safely placed my glistening trophy in the bunny basket.

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Moving on, I directed Mommy to another popular egg hang out where I was once again faced with two non-shiny options. They were dull and I was not egg-cited about either one. Ha ha, get it? No? Was it a bad yolk?

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Mommy tried to pick one for me, but I just laughed at her simple mindedness.

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But Nana’s plants were intriguing…

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It was an arduous egg hunt, I even lost a shoe, but I let Mommy hold me a little longer and even smiled for pictures. Another note, everyone want to take pictures of everything you do; just use it to your advantage and watch as they make ridiculous sounds and faces.

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I told Mommy to let Daddy hold me for a while since she did a good job, but something didn’t seem right when he had me.

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Oh yeah, I wanted to be higher! I promptly demanded Daddy to hold me higher so I could see everything and have the giant babies look up to me just as they should! This made me happy.

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Daddy didn’t hold me higher for very long until he brought me down again. I did not like being lower and let everyone know with my “not cool” face.

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But this didn’t bode too well for me; I just started to get passed around. First it was my great grandma, Papa’s mom.

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Sweet lady, but I was still bored, or maybe it was that hat…hmmmm. Then my cousin, Garrett, took over. I didn’t even know what to do with this, so I tried to make it an awkward situation with my wide-eyed poker face.

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It worked and I finally got to do something fun; play with aunt Stef and my cousin Taylor!

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Playtime was tiring and I was demanding we leave soon, but first I wanted a picture with “the girls.”

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Back home, all of the activities from the day caught up to me and I became very tired. I let Mommy and Daddy know just how tired I was by using my vocals until they put me to bed. It worked. My Mommy rocked me to sleep and I slept well!

What Counts as Exercise?

Many parents, at-home and working alike, succumb to the “I don’t have time” mantra when it comes to exercise, but it’s  an important part of life and is worth making time to do.

You might think exercise is something that requires special equipment or is only done at a gym, but you might already be “exercising” without even knowing it. Exercise falls under several definitions, and one way it is defined is that it’s a regular or repeated use of a faculty or bodily organ. Knowing this, I’m positive we all have a long list of things we do every day that count as “exercise” and we never thought of it as such.

Carrying your kid around the house or grabbing them before they grab the cat’s tail would definitely count. And teaching them to perform different exercises like push-ups or yoga (maybe a combination?) proves beneficial too.

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Chores and daily tasks like going for a walk, mowing the lawn, vacuuming, mopping, doing laundry, and engaging in playtime with your kids are all great ways to fit in exercise and accomplish your laundry list (pun intended) of things you need to get done.

In a nutshell, movement of any form is, in and of itself, exercise. An important thing to remember is to be consistent with your movement and make sure it’s something you enjoy. If your stomach churns just thinking of going for a run, don’t do it, you’ll never stick with it. Ride a bike, walk, swim, row, hike, or……clean house. The point I’m trying to make is, keeping active, however you so choose, helps to make a better you.

As parents, we need to be excellent role models and should let our children see us being active and living a healthy lifestyle so they will hopefully follow suit and WANT to be like mommy and daddy. Note I said “healthy lifestyle”; this means exercise and good nutrition! If you are trying to lose weight, you can workout all you want, but without good nutrition, your results will be minimal at best. Sleep is vital too!

Finishing a great workout session is NOT a pass to go pig out on packaged, processed junk or order takeout without thinking of what you’re actually putting in your mouth. Trust me, I’m guilty of this and know firsthand. Read the ingredients or, better yet, choose food that doesn’t even need a label.

No matter your fitness goal; lose weight, gain strength, maintain current level, etc., we will all benefit from moving more and practicing good nutrition for the quality of life it provides. If you are already a conscious eater and get a good dose of daily movement, good for you, keep it up and hopefully you are inspiring others!

I’m on my feet most of the day and rarely sit down until night (I stand at the counter to use my computer) and move around a lot with Avery. She’s usually really good at “working out” with mommy or daddy and has her own equipment to use too.

She is well aware of my upper/lower body split, but she ends up doing full body every day. Then we keep active by playing or doing anything outdoors, weather permitting. Lately, it’s all about her WOOM 1 Balance Bike. We named it Rocket, just like on Little Einsteins.

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Whatever you choose to do, try to do it with your family as much as possible. Kids mimic and idolize parents more than we realize, so being a great role model with ensure they grow up to make better decisions on their own.

 

Do you struggle with motivation or have no issue with exercising or nutrition?

If you have kids, do they join you when exercising?

How to Make a Ponytail with a Vacuum

I remember when I first saw a video of a dad putting his daughter’s hair in a ponytail. Avery was still a baby with no hair for me to try this awesome method out for myself.

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Keep. The. Vacuum. Away!

Fast forward to today and she has plenty of crazy hair to vacuum. Going Mom is much better at the everyday, normal way of putting her hair in a ponytail, but my clumsy hands simply will not allow this. Luckily, I have the power of the vacuum on my side!

Here’s my demo of how to use the vacuum to put hair up in a ponytail:

An added benefit from this method is that any bugs or dirt get sucked up from her hair too. Hopefully she has none of that, but you never know. I’m just glad she’s so accepting of having a vacuum sucking up her hair as daddy tugs and twists in an effort to “style” the crazy curls.

Have you tried an out-of-the-norm method for styling hair?

What do you think about this vacuum method?