Tag Archives: rain

A Broken Umbrella + Our First Family Movie Experience

Guess we can’t have wonderful Texas weather all the time! Winter reared its ugly head in our direction on Sunday with a big temperature drop, high wind, and pouring rain. Perfect time for a family movie!

Sunday started off like usual with me making a big bowl of blueberries with a little oatmeal and NuttZo (order yours and save 15% with code liley15)mixed in for Kelley and Avery.

In return, Kelley makes the coffee which is perfectly fair to me. I go through coffee like it’s water. Besides the fact that it pretty much is water…..

After my lovely girls ate and I downed a couple cups of coffee along with a big scoop of NuttZo, I was determined to go for a walk. I have a “need” to get out at least a little every day, but the weather was not too inviting.

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I was cold just looking outside, and watching the rain come down harder as the wind blew the trees was all but motivating! But, my determination stupidity stubbornness held strong and I dressed appropriately for a stroll outside.

Shorts with my ProCompression marathon socks, a 20 pound weight vest held together with safety pins (not kidding, they stick me all the time), and gloves with a headband….because it’s cold. For some odd reason, Going Mom and Avery didn’t want to come along. I’m sure just because of the weather and not because of my attire.

Off I went with an umbrella and my cell phone playing a Ben Greenfield podcast in hopes it would help take my mind off the cold wind and rain in my face. It didn’t. The stupid wind only got worse and ended up breaking my umbrella which made for an even colder (and wetter) walk.

Broken umbrella

Glad the girls were smart and stayed warm and dry inside! After drying off and thawing out, we were ready to pick a movie to watch with Avery. This would be our first time trying to watch a full movie with her, and thanks to one of our neighbors for letting us borrow their giant case of animated hits, we had a great selection to choose from. We settled in our front playroom and got into position.

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The movie of choice of Puss in Boots since we didn’t want anything too great for the first attempt. This proved to be a smart choice; Avery was all over the place doing everything but watching the movie.

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Yeah, eating wooden cars is more entertaining, apparently. We tried sitting her in her personalized chair, better know as the “Pooping Chair” in hopes that would keep her still.

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It worked! For a minute. We turn away and look back to see her somewhere else; again, not watching the movie.

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We finished the movie, but I couldn’t tell you much about it. At least she wasn’t too crazy, and maybe next time she’ll be more into it. Maybe the fact that it was right before nap time helped not a bit too!

The DVD collection we’re borrowing has Frozen, and from what I hear, kids seem to like it just a little. 🙂 Think a 15 month old is ready to watch, or should we stick with something like Curious George for now?

The Dad Network

How did your first movie watching experience go with your kids?

What was the movie of choice?

Weekend Recap and My First Donut in Years

Right now, if you know me or have been reading my blog, you might be thinking “What?! Going Dad had a donut after talking so much about eating healthy?!”

Well, it’s not that kind of donut, so you can breathe again; or go on not caring in the first place. 🙂

After an already seemingly long day out with Avery on Saturday, I walked out of the Tom Thumb to find my precious Subaru with a flat tire. Good thing I didn’t have any frozen veggies or anything perishable. Oh wait, I DID! At least Avery thought it was funny….

Flat Tire_Avery Smiling

Luckily, I’ve put in my time working on several types of cars and had the spare (a.k.a. donut) on in no time.

Donut on Subie

So yeah, I’m not a hypocrite because I didn’t have one of those sugary fried dough confections. Of course they taste good, but I simply don’t derive satisfaction from something that’s non-nutritive and even harmful to my body.

Backtracking to Saturday morning, Going Mom and I were treated to a longer than usual sleeping baby which gave us an extra hour’s sleep! Mornings like these have become scarce, but they’re always well received.

When she finally woke, we went about our normal Saturday routine; Kelley fed and changed Avery as I made a batch of chocolate banana protein pancakes. Kelley brewed our black gold in the French Press which we both readily consumed…..maybe too fast. After a couple hours, it was time to grab the Fiskars Reel Mower and kick some grass.

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After kicking the grass, I then mowed it. Since Kelley was home and kept Avery, I didn’t wear her in the Onya, so I wore my 20lb vest instead. Just preparing for when Avery hits the 20lb mark; I’ll be ready!

Several areas in the house have been bothering Kelley, and I told her I’d take Avery out for some errands while she cleaned to her liking. I try to keep a clean house so she doesn’t have to worry about these things on the weekend, but in reality, I suck at most cleaning. Literally, I vacuum a lot.

I’ve been wanting to make an activity board for Avery for a while, so I went to Home Depot to find a few items that would be great for her to play with. I wasn’t exactly sure what all I would find, but door stops were an obvious choice. Every time we set her down in her nursery, Avery will head right toward the door stop and pull it and release.

Door stops should be located in the toy aisle.
I wonder what would happen if I put my face next to it when I let go….

One of our neighbors had given me some extra MDF to use for the board, and bought another piece from the scrap wood from Home Depot. Have you ever checked out the scrap section at a hardware store? You can get some great deals on quality wood!

After we left Home Depot, we went to Tom Thumb where I came back out to the flat tire. The culprit was a shiny screw from all of the new construction around our neighborhood….yay. I’m going to Costco today, so hopefully they can patch it to be good as new….or close to it!

Going Mom was still “going” with the cleaning when we arrived home, but she had a lot done and we just needed to finish a few things. We did our best to keep Avery entertained the rest of the night, which is getting more challenging than usual.

I'm sorry, did you say something?
I’m sorry, did you say something?

After an already long day, we pushed our luck and tried to see if Avery would improve her new crawling skills before bedtime. Nope, she was tired, fussy, hungry, and wanted nothing to do with us. So off to bed she went and with how tired she had to of been, we were sure we’d have another day of sleeping in.

Silly parents, when will we learn? Avery was up talking to herself and moving all over her crib nice and early. We laid in bed, listening to her noises until they turned into cries, at which point I brought her to Kelley to eat.

It was a perfect lazy Sunday morning with cloud covered skies and rain falling steadily. I cooked pumpkin teff and my wife, knowing the key to my heart, brewed coffee in the French Press. We sat outside to enjoy the coffee and watch the rain with Avery. She kept pretty active as Kelley held her squirmy body, but eventually she gave in to her tiredness and was out fast!

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Kelley was able to carry her inside and put her in the crib without waking her, so we did what any couple would do with a sleeping baby; Kelley cleaned and I went for a run in the rain.

6.5 miles plus 31 burpees, pushups, and squats later, I returned, drenched from non-stop rain, to find Avery awake and with Kelley in the kitchen. The nap was short-lived, but both girls seemed to be in a good mood. Phew!

Besides going on a long walk together after the rain cleared, we hung around the house the rest of the day and finished a few chores while having classic Donald Duck cartoons playing on YouTube through our TV. Donald Duck quarreling with Chip and Dale are the cartoons I remember growing up on, and hope to get Avery into watching them more often with us. So far, we’re off to a bad start as she doesn’t understand she needs to face the TV to watch it…

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But I’m not too concerned since we don’t want her having a lot of screen time anyway! Once again, we pushed our limits with our daughter and tried capturing her crawling in action. This time was better than Saturday night, and I went a little video crazy on Instagram. But hey, our little girl is getting the hang of this crawling thing!!

She wasn’t fussy, but it was late, so we called it a night and Kelley laid her down to sleep after feeding her. Now it’s back to Monday and Avery and I are already missing Mommy; hopefully she’ll be home on time!

Even as a stay-at-home parent, I still feel the dreadful effects of a weekend coming to an end just because I’ll be without my wife/partner in crime the next day. But we can’t sit and sulk, instead I’ll celebrate the fact that we had a pleasant weekend together and look forward to another great weekend ahead!

Are you an at-home parent who is still affected by a typical workweek?

Ever have to change a tire, or something worse, in the middle of a parking lot…..with kids?