Tag Archives: swimming

Toddler Talk: Nipples and Swimming

Our daughter is at the age where her toddler talk has us cracking up. constantly. I’m upset I didn’t start writing some of our conversations down earlier. Well, I did mention how well-versed she is with human anatomy already, but now it’s time to document some good ones in a post.

toddler talk, cute, kids, parenting, funny, humor

She’s giving Going Mom and I enough material to make several posts per day, but for now, I’ll stick to just once a week of something good. Maybe I’ll include more than once conversation on some, but today it’s just one quick discussion I had with Avery. And yes, it has to do with both nipples and swimming.

For context, I was in a hurry trying to make good on my promise that we’d go to the pool if she behaved at the store. Well, she behaved, but it was getting close to lunch before nap time. After going potty (her, not me), the conversation went like this…

Me: Okay, good job, Avery, now lets wash our hands and get ready for a quick swim.

Avery: Ooooo, I both pee and poop!

Me: Wow, you did, good job dear! Do you want to flush?

Avery: Yes!!  <—- it’s like a reward for her to get to flush

Me: *toilet flushing* Okay, now we need to wash our hands.

Avery and Me: Singing Itsy Bitsy Spider as we wash.

Me: Now, since this will be a quick swim, I’m not going to put your swim shirt on, okay? You can just be shirtless like daddy! <—-the thing is kinda of tight and she cries every time I work it over her head, so just not worth the trouble for 10 minutes of swimming.

Avery: Yes. We can have nipples!

Me: *laughing* Yes, dear, we can have nipples.

Avery: Daddy has hairy nipples.

Me: True, they are kind of hairy….

I went on to explain how guys usually have hair on the chest and belly. She said something about standing on her froggy stool and then we went for a quick swim. The result?

Swimming by herself_smiles

Yeah, she’s loving it. No one else is going to our neighborhood pool since it’s been cloudy outside and fairly cold, so we get it to ourselves every visit so far. She’s already swimming by herself with her floaties and you can tell how proud she is for the feat.

Do you document the funny things your kid says?

Care to share any?

Crib to Bed to Floor & A Cold Pool

We made the transition from crib to bed a week ago with mixed feelings about how our two and half year old girl would take to the change. It wasn’t a huge change since we have a convertible crib, so it just took a little rearranging/removal of the existing crib parts.

crib to bed, cute, kids, toddler

Still the same organic mattress she’s had since birth, but we’ll be upgrading to a brand new full-size Naturepedic mattress in a few weeks. Stay tuned for a review of their top notch mattresses for kids. Safe sleeping material is more important than I ever knew before I read up on how vital it really is.

I made the switch right before naptime with high expectations that Avery would put on a good show through the baby monitor. Much to my surprise, she was excited to get in her big kid bed to read a story before nap time, and never even got off of her mattress after I left. I could see her thinking about it through the monitor, but in less time than she usually takes to finally fall asleep, she was out quick.

crib to bed, sleeping, kids, toddler, cute

Such a precious girl. When she’s out, she’s out! Hence the reason I was able to get such a close shot as she slept. Of course, I couldn’t stop there, this moment called for a daddy-daughter selfie, even if she didn’t know it was happening.

crib to bed, selfie, funny, cute, kids, toddler

The first night went quite well too. She took longer to actually fall asleep, but still kept on her bed the entire time. The next day she started to test the waters more and more and got on and off the bed before finally giving in. Every night since, she’ll wander around her room, put stuffed animals we said were too big back on her bed, and sing aloud restlessly before she sleeps.

Despite wandering all over her room, which I suspect is normal at this stage, she has taken to the freedom of her big kid bed really well. Going Mom, on the other hand is a little more reluctant for the change. Gone are the days of rocking our little baby to sleep as she sings to her, Avery now demands we read to her in her bed and refuses getting rocked. They grow so fast is a cliche saying we find ourselves repeating several times a day. As always, it’s bittersweet.

Apparently, sleeping on her mattress is bittersweet as well. A couple nights in a row, I peeked at the monitor in the middle of the night/early morning to find Avery nowhere in sight. Naturally, I go to check on our missing tot to find her on the floor. No blankets, just face down with legs curled or stretched out. The first night I quickly moved her back to her bed, but the second night, I had to capture the moment first.


Instagram was an obvious outlet to share with the world.

Hopefully she doesn’t start trying to make a break for it by opening her door. We have a door knob cover for her door, but those only last so long until those little hands figure them out. We can’t wait to get her sleeping on the bigger Naturepedic mattress, hopefully that will give her more wiggle room on the mattress and keep her from wandering all over. Hopefully….

It’s been abnormally cooler than usual for mid-May in Texas, but we made several attempts to swim in our recently opened neighborhood pool. The first time we ventured to the pool, the sun was out, but still not that warm. She insisted on wearing her floaties, but only made it so far.

swimming, kids, cute

The timid look on her face says it all. I’m not going a foot further!

I plunged into the cold water in an attempt to get her to join, but no luck. We were in and out of the pool in 5 minutes.

The next trip was sunny, until we started walking down for a swim. As we walked, dark storm clouds rolled in right over us. WTF!? But being the stubborn guy that I am, we went for it anyway. Avery gave another shocked look upon first getting her feet in the still very cold water…

feet in cold pool, swimming, kids, water

But this time I held her to get all the way in and although she was super tense the entire time, we enjoyed a little splashing around together in the kid pool. Then we went over to the adult pool for a daddy-daughter swim with plenty of throwing her in the air. She had fun…..for a few minutes, but the increasing wind and dropping temps had her shivering, so we ended the swim and made our way back home hoping for warmer days ahead. Not sure if it was a sign, but we saw this poor dead snake on the walk back.

dead snake

And if it was a sign, who knows what to make of it. I sure don’t. As a reptile lover, I don’t think it’s a good one though. Poor guy…

The forecast is showing warmer temps are coming, as if there’s any doubt in Texas, so I’m sure our third attempt will yield a successful swim. Although, I don’t mind a nice cold plunge myself.

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Have you made the transition from crib to bed for your kiddo? How’s it going?

How do you feel about cold swims?

A Watered-Down Splash Pad Outing

Hot weather and a toddler too energetic to keep indoors gave me the bright idea of bringing Avery to a nearby splash pad yesterday. It was the same one my wife and I brought her to a few months ago, and I was hoping she’d be more into it this time.

That time, I ran and met my favorite ladies there to play together in the assortment of shooting water structures. We took turns swinging her in the air to go in and out of water streams, but ultimately, she seemed unimpressed with the whole ordeal.

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So, what exactly am I supposed to do?

This time, I thought I’d get my workout “fix” in and run the 2+ miles in my Soft Star Shoes again, but also pushing Avery in the stroller. Not surprisingly, the Texas sun and weight of a toddler in a stroller made the run a little more difficult.

By the time we arrived, I was more excited about getting in the water than any of the other kids around. Which, by the way, there were a lot of kids. I saw two daycare vans in the parking lot and would’ve turned right around to go home if I were driving. But, the need to cool down and my determination to see Avery run around having a blast kept me from leaving. I took her out and set her down prepared to watch her run amok.

This place again?
This place again?

This picture look familiar? Pretty much the same spot and stance from her first visit to the pad. My heart started slowly sinking…..or maybe it was just slowing down to normal after running. Either way, her non-action was not the reaction I was hoping for. At least she turned around and smiled for the camera when I asked…

Smiling a splash pad

I tried running through the water obstacles in hopes she would follow suit, but no luck. She did, however, take a few steps and watch the fountains spit shots of water out.

Staring at water

Meanwhile, kids are running all around her screaming and having fun. Except for one boy who ran around and threw water from a bottle on me and then hit another boy in the face with the empty bottle. Yeah, he went to time-out after that.

The first trip with Going Mom was more fun than this. At least I had a beautiful wife to keep me company and help toss Avery around to get her to do something. I lifted her over my head and ran circles and went through a few sprayers which got her to laugh. Then I set her down thinking that might’ve warmed her up and she would be ready to go, but….

And that pretty much sums up our lackluster outing to the splash pad. Guess we’ll stick to bounce houses for a bit longer.

I finally gave up with the splash pad and prepared to run back home. Not surprisingly, Avery never made a fuss about getting back in the stroller and she had a fun time shouting out “car” or “tree” at every car or tree we passed. There were a lot of both.

Feeling unsatisfied with our watered down water fun, I thought it best to stop by our neighborhood pool since we know how much she loves that! I guess no one wanted to come outside at that time, so we had the pool all to ourselves.

We “swam” in the big pool for a bit, and then migrated over to the kiddie pool so she could stand all by herself.

Avery standing in kiddie pool

Kelley and I will ask if she can do high knees in the water and she does it every time. Pretty cute to watch, obviously. I made the mistake of asking if she can do squats in the water, in which she promptly showed she could, but came close to going under. #ParentingFail

After playing around in the kid pool and snapping a selfie with Avery, we were ready to head home. Hey, she smiled!

Avery and Daddy Pool Selfie

Despite the uneventful splash pad experience, I still think we had a good time. Maybe I’m just trying to be optimistic, okay, I am being optimistic, but these make for good memories nonetheless. Plus, the pool was our savior for a fun day!

At what age would you expect kids to be into the splash pad?

What’s better, swimming at the pool or a splash pad? Or both?