New and Improved... soon

Look for a new and improved, excitingly new, blog here coming after the first of the year!  Life is hectic but it's also important to write.  So write I shall. 

Just hang with me!  We'll get this figured out! 

Menu and grocery shopping

Let's talk food, shall we?

We are in a food rut.  We eat the same things for breakfast, lunch, and a rotation of the same foods for supper.  I hate this food rut.  It is driving me up a tree.

So my goal for the month of November is to find a few new recipes and try them!  Work through them, make myself do them, and cook new food.

I love cooking, but for some reason I cannot make myself take the time to actually do it without some force.  I really want to do shoe boxes like some of those subscription services but again I need to actually make myself do it!

So that's the goal for the rest of the month, figure out how to make that work dammit.

Goals outlined:
I will menu plan
I will grocery shop for every ingredient
I will put them together in the fridge so I can easily access them
I will make more meals than not

I think that is doable.

Bug bites, benadryl, and broken gates

One thing about children is they like to keep you on your toes.  They can never just be good little kids who are perfect and never cause any trouble or make you worried in any fashion.  Oh no, they have to remind you why you have every single grey hair on your head.

Baby girl had her first reaction to a bug bite this week.  It has made for a couple interesting days of watching a mosquito bite grow from a small circle all the way up to a bump big enough to swell to her eye almost shut.  Benadryl gel/cream wasn't working, so she got her very first dose of liquid benadryl today.  And she was hilarious on it.

I know, that probably makes me an awful person, that I laughed at my kid on meds, but she was hilarious.  And she knew she was and didn't care!

Needless to say, it is working well and her eye is back to normal.  I went on and did a second dose right before bed so hopefully she'll wake up tomorrow with a normal looking eye and a fun first experience with an antihistamine medication.

So not only did she give us quite the excitement over her bug bites, she also proved to us how strong she is!

We have several gates all around our main floor.  It is meant to protect her from things like the fireplace, the TV, and the dogs area.  And of course the stairs.  The problem is she loves to rattle the gates.  Which drives us bonkers, but I digress.

For the last few days she's been all over the gate at the bottom of the stairs.  No amount of "please do not rattle the gate" would dissuade her from enjoying the metal sound she could make.  Well today she took the cake.  As I moved over to get her off the gate, once again, she started shaking it harder.  And harder.  And broke it.  She tore the damn thing right out of the wall!

I am raising HercuBaby!

We've had quite the exciting week around here.  Now hopefully she'll stay asleep under the mask of a beautiful benadryl slumber.

Hopefully. 

Self curses

Dang it!  I had such great hopes for her sleeping, and now she's not.  And as a result I've not been writing regularly.  But I'm trying.  New blog means I have to figure out the perfect schedule for me!  And what works for my family. 

So, working on it! 

Beautiful sleep

I know, this whole blog has been about sleep so far... whatever. 

Another sleep post! 

She is sleeping.  Peacefully.  Many nights in a row.

I am ecstatic! 

Seriously jumping up and down.

Here's to hoping this continues well into the future. 

I have nothing else because I'm catching up on much missed sleep! 

Back to nature

In my quest to help baby sleep better I have decided it's in her best interest to spend time outside.  Lots of time outside.  Granted, this is a bonus for me too, as I love being outside.  But forcing her outside seems to be making her more tired than normal.  So perhaps I've stumbled on to something!

Or every other parent out there knew that already and just wanted to let us figure it out on our own...

Either way, baby is enjoying her time outside.  She gets to chat with the neighbors, who all think she is awesome, and she gets to play with flowers and rocks.  What more could a toddler want?! 

I mean, look at her.  She is digging right in to that flower garden.  How awesome for her!  And how awesome for me.  Because with her doing that, now I see the benefits.. as she has been in her own bed as of the typing of this for an hour!  An HOUR!  That is big time news!  

Anyway, out time outside has been amazing.  Today we went for a walk and she tried to make friends with some neighborhood kids.  They were very nice, but also very very afraid of her.  She chased them for a good 10 minutes before I decided it was probably enough of terrifying the children and picked her up to leave.

But at least she's trying to make friends!  That's one step ahead of me and all my friends.

She also tried to chase dogs that people were taking for walks.  Which was hilarious.  She seems to have a thing for chasing.  

So in 2 days now we have had two walks.  I'm happy with those numbers.  100%.  I now need to find some outdoor toys for her though.  We had to bring out some of the indoor stuff and she was less than amused with the same toys in a new setting.  I think tomorrow I am going to pick up some bubbles, because what little kid doesn't like bubbles?

Getting back to nature also gives her a chance to be a kid outside like we all were.  I remember running all around the neighborhood as a child.  Not a care in the world until I was whistled for, and even sometimes after that.  But it also connects her to, well, nature.  She gets a chance to feel the dirt in her hands, put a rock in her mouth, try to check acorns as fast as she can while I try to get them out between her sharp teeth.  It's a chance to just enjoy living in the suburbs. 

Here's to hoping this outside time is the key to success of a sleepy baby. 

Bedtime routines

Have you ever noticed how quickly your children forget all their routines when you don't do them once.

We are trying to move our toddler from our room to her new room.  We have a mattress on the floor, it's decorated in a way she likes, she has toys on her shelf... and apparently sleeping in there is like we've put her in the 7th circle of hell!

So now we are instituting the "Look, daddy and papa love this bed!  You should love it too!"

It's not working.  But you seasoned parents knew that already, didn't you?

We have moved on to plan b, creating a complete bedtime routine that we actually stick to!  It should be fun and exciting and awesome.  It's not.  We aren't routine kind of people.

In case you are curious, this is our new routine to hopefully help her sleep in her new bed:

Change diaper and into jammies

Last bottle of milk (which we are also weaning off of, but come on, we need something to get her calmed down!)

Upstairs to brush teeth (all 6 of them!)

Read 3 books on the new bed, to show it's not made of lava

Start lullabyes, in hopes of the pretty music keeping her in bed

Lay next to her until she falls asleep... then again when she wakes while trying to move.

Welcome her into our bed 35 minutes after putting her down because hey, she lasted 35 minutes!  

As you can tell... we have some work to do.

What you will, and won't, see on this blog

So what is the purpose here of this blog?  What am I trying to accomplish?  What are the goals and shit that you can check off as you look around?

I don't know.

Sounds awesome and exciting, yes?  Sure it does.  You can live in that fantasy world with me.

Basically I wanted to start a blog of my life, because I am a writer and I enjoy writing.  A "daddy blog", as it is often called, seemed appropriate.  Why?  Because I love to talk about my husband and my kiddo.  I am THAT friend.  You know the one... the guy who posts too many pictures on facebook of his precious baby.  The guy who always asks "Is this a kid friendly event?" and doesn't show up if it isn't (mostly because he can't find a babysitter...).  The guy who is always quick to whip out his phone to show you pictures of his precious child.  Yes, I am that guy.

And it's okay, I've accepted my fate as that guy.

But in an attempt to not overwhelm my friends with silly stories that they couldn't care less about I decided to start a blog!  To annoy strangers with those stories.  Solid plan!

So on this blog you will see a lot of parenting stories.  A lot of funny, random shit my kiddo does (because she is awesome!) and a lot of blunders and funny stories about us as first times parents.  There will probably also be some sad stories, some uplifting stories, some not so great stories... because I want to paint a more complete picture of life as gay dads.

I also will warn you I type like I talk.  There are no special editing tricks.  Things will be random, and often time there will be a lot of parenthesis (because I like them!).  It's just me, nothing more, nothing less.

What you won't see, at least for now, is pictures that show faces.  I know, no blogger can stay anonymous forever.  And I don't really care to.  I just don't want pictures of my family plastered all over the internet, right now.  I have had some not so great experiences with pictures in the past and for now, they will stay off the blog.  Though you might see some headless pictures, because my kid does wear cute clothes, or a picture of perfectly done curls... I am super proud of my ability to do her hair now.  Anyway, that's just how it is gonna be, for now.

So hopefully you will enjoy this random blog.  And if not, it's okay, there's a little x in the corner you can click out from.  I promise I won't take offense.

Welcome

Yay a new blog! Welcome welcome welcome! This is a blog chronicling the parenting situation in our household. I am papa, married to daddy, raising baby. How exciting! This blog is to hopefully fill a void I've noticed in the blogging world of gay male family blogs. There are a lot of dynamics in our household that you won't find elsewhere, and I'm going to blog about most of them! YAY! So welcome to Living the Parenting Life!