Sunday, May 29, 2011

Uncle Aaron's First Diaper Change

Tonight my brother Aaron and his girlfriend Becky were supposed to come over and watch Avery whild Josh and I attended a concert at Emerald Bay with some friends and coworkers.  They have only watched Avery for us once before, but the last time was late at night and Avery was asleep the entire time. So tonight was to be the first time that they would have to feed her, bathe her, and get her tucked into bed.
 
Becky is the oldest of four, and has plenty of experience with babies, feeding, changing, and all the other "motherly" parts of childcare.  Aaron works at a school with elementary and junior high kids, so he is good at providing fun and entertainment for Avery.  Unfortunately Becky was sick this weekend, so Aaron texted me this afternoon to tell me that he would be babysitting alone.  With this in mind, I tried to make it easier for him and prepared some instructions. I kept them simple and taped them up on the fridge, the wall of Avery's bedroom, and in the living room. When he got here, he told me that he hoped he did not have to change her diaper because he has never changed a diaper before.
 
I knew that she was due for a big bomb and I didn't want to scare him, so instead I gave him a crash course in diaper 101 and made him change her (clean) diaper before we left just so he would know what to do. With only 2 hours until bathtime, I just prayed that he wouldn't get any poopy diapers and that his evening would be all fun and games...
 
I checked my phone throughout the evening, and finally texted him around 7:15 (the time Avery should have been in bed), just to see how it all went.  He sent back a text about how she had pooped and he "almost made it to the wipes in time."  Both of my brothers are the kings of practical jokes, so Josh and I determined that he was probably just playing a trick on us and that everything was fine.  He then sent me another text shortly thereafter that said, "She just peed on the bathmat." And again, we laughed it off.
 
We had a wonderful evening, and arrived home to a peaceful and quiet house.  We asked him about the joke, to which he replied, "Yeah, I thought you guys might think it was a joke..."
 
When giving him instructions before we left the house, I had told him to play "I'm gonna get you!" before bathtime, because that is part of her routine.  I had told him to strip her down to her diaper, and chase her around before putting her into the bath.  He had misunderstood my instructions, and thought I had said to strip off her diaper.  Running naked, she had stopped mid-chase to poop in the middle of the living room, as he ran for paper towels and tried to catch the "presents" in his hand before they hit the floor.  He caught a few but missed one that was still hiding, and rushed her to the changing table, where he found the last one as it smeared onto the changing mat.  He used an admittedly large amount of baby wipes trying to conceal the evidence before carrying her to the bathroom.
 
He got her into the tub and cleaned her thoroughly, so things were starting to go smoothly.  Once clean, he scooped her out and dried her off, which was when he got my text. He stopped what he was doing to reply to the text, and next thing he knows, she is peeing on the bathmat.  So back into the tub she went for bath number two. 
 
(He finally managed to get her to bed, clean and fed, about 30 minutes past her bedtime. And despite the escapades, he said she was very good and gave her a glowing report). 
 
But this is definitely one for the books. 
 

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Sheila's Visit Part 2

Yesterday we took Avery on her first trip to the zoo!






The anteater had a baby last month, and we were so excited we got to see it!




Avery's favorite animals were the goats because she got to pet and feed them.





But her favorite part of the day was playing on the playground. She made a new friend named Kaylee and gave her kisses.
Then Kaylee took Avery's hand and helped her on the slide.


Thursday, May 26, 2011

Sheila's Visit Part 1

Grandma Sheila arrived on Monday evening... Unfortunately her plane was delayed so Avery was already asleep when she arrived.  But on Tuesday the two of them enjoyed a fun day at home together making peanut butter cookies.




On Wednesday night, Grandma Mel paid her usual visit and the two doting Grandmas gave Avery a bath together.


Today we trekked to Long Beach for Avery's first visit to the Aquarium.











Avery's favorite part was just splashing in the water.  She loved it so much that she was getting soaked and we had to take her shirt off.
A nice Aquarium employee brought a small shark up to the surface for her to touch, and she pet the shark and let out a happy shriek!


Stay tuned for more pictures tomorrow,
when we take Avery on her first trip to the zoo!


Friday, May 20, 2011

#100

This marks my 100th post!

Unfortunately I don't have anything too exciting to report, but here is a picture of Avery blowing her first bubble.


She was only successful in blowing 5 bubbles today,
but she did manage to eat and spill a lot of bubble soap.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Whale Tale

This morning we took Avery on her first whale watch. We departed at 9:00 am from the Harborside in Newport Beach, where Josh and I got married.




We did see a few whales, although boats are required to stay 100 yards away from the whales, so our vantage point wasn't too close. But we also saw hundreds and hundreds of dolphins and a few sea lions, which was very exciting.

(If you look where the guy is pointing in the photo below, you can see the whale's spout on the horizon).


The whale's fluke, and sadly the best whale photo I got today:


Just some of the many dolphins we saw:




And of course the sea lions hanging out on the buoy...


Avery did very well on the boat and did not get seasick like some of the other kids, but of course she was more interested in running around than observing sea creatures.



Back on solid ground, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at BJ's Pizza while she napped in her stroller. We enjoyed the break and then made our way to the shore once she woke up. Avery had never put her feet on the sand or in the ocean, so we thought she might enjoy it even though the water was cold.


We were wrong. She hated it and tried to retract her feet every time we touched them to the water.



She hated the sand too, although eventually she let us put her down away from the water where the sand was drier and warmer. She stumbled a couple times while trying to walk across the uneven surface, and looked horrified at the grains of sand stuck to her palms. So she worked VERY hard to keep her balance after that.



We concluded Avery's adventure with a long, peaceful swing ride at the playground next to the Balboa pier.  


After snapping a couple blurry photos, I muttered, "This frickin' camera won't focus..." The little boy on the swing next to us shouted, "THAT'S A BAD WORD!"
...Is it?  Sigh. I guess I'm busted.  Sorry kid, I don't quite have this whole parenting thing figured out yet. I'm working on it!