Tag Archives: BLW

7 Memories from my 7th Month Since “Going Dad”

Really? Another month already?!

Geez, who needs a time machine for the future when becoming a parent “apparently” yields the same effect? Avery is now over the half-year mark and is becoming more active (and vocal!) every day.

On my 6 Memories post, I anticipated that one of my 7 memories for her 7th month would include her crawling, but it hasn’t happened yet. Seriously, the 8 month post is sure to have a memory of her crawling!

I think I'll just stay in this position and do nothing else.
I think I’ll just stay in this position and do nothing else.

Scooting, military crawling, and forward thrusting while on her hands and knees are all there and fool us into thinking “this is it” every time. Soon, baby, soon.

With my 30th birthday and first Father’s Day behind us now, hopefully the rest of June will be a bit calmer and we can focus on our little girl crawling. Oh, and she’ll be helping me clean up our neighborhood too.

If you haven’t entered to win an awesome Outback baby carrier from Onya Baby, click here and do it now! I wear Avery in our Onya everyday and it allows us both to get quality father-daughter bonding time.

Okay, lets get started…

1. Most of our nights now have us in the living room before your bath time where we play on the floor. Depending on how the day went, you can be really fussy or a happy baby. When you’re happy, I will hold you in the air and let you jump on my stomach or just try to entertain you with toys.

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As it gets later, or you just had a rough day, getting on the floor with you does nothing for your temperament. This is when we break out the laser and get Lou (the fat black cat) involved to help us keep you calm. It works well, and “Fatty” gets some exercise.

Don't move, you might scare it off!
Don’t move, you might scare it off!

2. Just recently, you have started grabbing at my face while I’m trying to feed you a bottle. I start to make weird noises and act like I’m going to eat your hand and you laugh every time. It’s cute, and no matter how ridiculously annoyed I am that you won’t take the bottle, I forget all of my frustrations and just give you a kiss on the head.

As an aside, you also grab at anything and everything in your sight; other people’s faces included. You may or may not have grabbed a bottle of beer as mommy was trying to take a drink and spilled it on the both of you. But don’t worry, the beer was safe!

Daddy's face can be boring, I'll grab at Paul's.
Daddy’s face can be boring, I’ll grab at Paul’s.

3. We were in our first race together and won 1st place! Sure it was a small race with very unenthusiastic competition, but we rocked it, baby! Thanks to G-Ma, Paul, and Mommy, we had the best spectators out there, and they made the day even more special.

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Besides it being our first race, we’ll never forget this day because of how much we stood out from the rest of the cheerful attendees. 🙂

4. You got to experience your first trip to a brewery! The same day we won the 5k, we went with G-Ma, Paul, and Mommy to the Martin House Brewery in Fort Worth as part of my 30th birthday celebration. I had more than my fair share of good beer, and luckily mommy drove us home safely. I did help direct her out of our tight parking spot though!

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As you can see, you were thrilled to be there! Even with live music and clusters of people drinking and talking all around you, you managed to sleep quite well.

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Actually, when live music stopped is when you seemed to wake up; coincidence? We’ll never know!

5. You had been to Nana and Papa’s pool before, but this past month was your official first dip in the pool. Mommy, You, and I all walked down to our neighborhood pool where you happily splashed around in the baby pool just like it was your own giant bathtub.

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You must’ve really enjoyed yourself playing, because you were out before we made the walk back home.

Avery Asleep After Swimming

We brought you back again on my birthday and you still loved the water like before. I have a feeling we’ll be making many trips to the pool since you obviously enjoy each time we go; even if you’re “too cool for pool”.

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6. Avery, caffeine and you don’t make for good times……ever! Along with all of the other firsts the same day as our race and trip to the brewery, mommy had more than one cup of coffee for the first time since pregnancy and it became apparent that night. Caffeinated boobs are lethal!

You woke up crying more times than you had in a long time, and despite mommy’s many attempts, you wouldn’t stay asleep very long. This, in turn, resulted in starting my birthday earlier than any of us had planned (or wanted), but the day ended up being great. I even got to try out your crib with you in it for the first time.

Dad asleep with Avery in crib

Since then, mommy has been keeping her coffee consumption to one cup or less per day. Phew!

7. You ate your first solid food! We started to introduce you to solids through baby-led weaning, and at first we felt like you’d never eat what we gave you.

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But after several encouraging commenters on the blog, we kept at it and eventually you took your first bites. You also gagged a little, but that was expected, and you didn’t let that bother you a bit!

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As I write this, we are waiting on a hair chair mommy ordered since what we were using wasn’t working out, so hopefully we’ll have the new one soon and start feeding you healthy foods once more.

Okay, so I’ve exhausted my “7 things”, but I must add one more thing. You are becoming more vocal about EVERYTHING! Yes, if we so much as think about stepping on foot out of your sight, you’ll turn into hysterics and scream as loud as humanly possible. The sound resembles that of a cat screeching when you step on its tail mixed with a very frustrated baby bear trying to growl. Not a pretty sound.

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From what I gather, this isn’t ending soon, so I guess we’ll just deal with it as it comes.

We are hopeful to see some crawling action before the 8th month rolls around, so we’ll keep working with that laser!

At what age did your kid(s) start crawling?

What about when they found their loud voice?

1st and 2nd Place and Our Daughter Feeds Her Face

Rhyming, it just comes naturally as a parent, don’t you think?

So, um, wow, the weekend is gone! Going Mom had four days off and now they’re all gone; what happened?! I guess that’s what happens when you’re having fun….

On that note, Kelley, G-Ma, Avery, and I had a fun and exciting Memorial Day. The day started not bright (because the sun wasn’t up) and early as we had to get ready to head to my last 10k race in my twenties. Kelley actually had to wake Avery up for a change, but she didn’t protest about it at all! I would’ve lost that bet.

It was a cloud-covered morning with a light rain at the race, and it didn’t let up until after everyone finished running. I, for one, happen to love running in the rain as long as it’s not cold, so the conditions were perfect to me. We arrived a little early, so I just hung out with my beautiful support crew for a while.

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Luckily, my concern about using the bathroom before the start was never an issue and I was “relieved”! I don’t know, do you think I was just a little too excited about this?

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Maybe I was, but it’s better than being really bummed, true?

The race started with both the 5k and 10k runners at the same time, and then we split about 2.5 miles out. I had a great pace to start with and was able maintain it through the finish. I really had not clue how I would do since I only had a few solo runs and the rest have been with Avery in the stroller and our dog, Abby.

I didn’t say it out loud, but my goal was to finish in under 40 minutes, and I just barely made it with a time of 39:59.7! Holy crap, it’s hard to get any closer than that! With an average pace of 6:26/mile, I surprised myself and am very happy with my time. My wonderful and supporting wife, mother, and daughter were at the finish to cheer me on which helped give me that extra push.

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I was maxed out at that point! A big thanks to my wife for snapping this action shot! My time put me 1st in my age group, 25 to 29, and 2nd overall. It wasn’t a huge race, but I’m still proud and feel good about it being my last solo race before getting bumped to the 30 to 34 bracket.

Even though I was gassed, I knew I had to get my daily dose of 30 burpees in while I was still warmed up, so I found a spot on the sidewalk and went to work. Thanks again to Kelley for capturing the moment.

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Then, probably against her will since I was still sweaty, I posed for a picture with my beautiful mom.

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It took forever for all of the awards to be announce, but finally they got to the 10k runners and announced my name. I brought Avery with me and she was given the medal for placing.

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She deserves it for being such and awesome baby the whole day! Love our little girl!

Speaking of awesome, our little girl is catching on to eating solids more and more each day. I just posted about her first actual consumption and how I had to “help” by holding the food to her mouth, but now she’s using her own hands!

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This was on Sunday before G-Ma arrived to witness what I thought would take forever! But, without my assistance this time, she brought both broccoli and carrot to her mouth and actually ate a little of both!

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And, as we all know, along with the consumption of solids, comes the ejection of poop! Avery blessed us twice with the confirmation of her new food groups and needless to say, I installed our diaper sprayer posthaste. Now I finally get to put our Spray Pal through its first test! I’ll let you know how it goes soon!

Since G-Ma missed out on Avery eating on Sunday, we decided to try another BLW moment after we arrived home from the race. I’d say she’s definitely getting the hang of it now; look at that firm grasp on the broccoli and her delicate bite into the floret. Attagirl!!

Avery eating broccoli

Good things happening around here! It’s sad when a great weekend has to end, but I know there will be many more great times ahead! Times like spraying a poopy diaper for the first time……or something like that. :/

Okay, I’ll leave it at that for today. Hope everyone enjoyed an extra day off and made sure to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Have a great day!

Any plans for a race of your own yet? Do you even care?

I’m still being stubborn and don’t want anything too sweet, but any suggestions on what to try feeding Avery next?