Gamer mom/dad thread

dohdough said:
I can SOOOO see my girl doing this in a few months. I guess that means I should put a playmat by the crib???

We put a mattress by the couch for her to romp around on and climb like a jungle gym. After a couple days, she was able to climb up and down without any problems. She's going to be such a handful... :rofl:

Congrats on the girl! Lillian's a very nice name!
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If they're escaping their crib like that, it's time to start looking into taking the crib and changing it into a daybed/toddler bed, if it's convertible, or look into replacing it with a toddler bed.

 
I like Lucia personally.

We wanted something Japanese but simple and easy to pronounce. We named our girl Yuna. Lots of people ask if we named her after Yuna from FFX, but the name was actually my wife's choice (who doesn't play games) I also liked the name but informed her Yuna is a very popular character in Final Fantasy so people may assume we're big FF fans. We didn't want the impression that we were naming her after a fictional character but we kept coming back to it. The name stuck and I think it's perfect.

In Japanese the "Yu" stands for freedom and "Na" for summer (since she was born in July)

If we had a boy I was toying with the idea of Kayin.

 
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Rodimus said:
I like Lucia personally.
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Devil May Cry fan? :D

My girl has the same name as one of the characters, Eva, but it was more of a coincidence. Yuna's a beautiful name.

The next girl is going to be named Trish or if it's a boy, Vergil. I keed keed :lol:
 
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I'm enjoying all the kid names talk!

My 4.5 year old Is Olive Jane. Olive my wife picked from the movie Little Miss Sunshine. She just really liked that movie and that little girl and the name stuck with her. Jane is my mother's middle name and the name my mother goes by. We call our daughter Olive.

My 14 month old is Brightly Ruth. Brightly is from a Grateful Dead song. Terrapin Station. Lyric is "Inspiration move me brightly." I chose it and while we went through a variety of names this one stuck. Ruth was my wife's grandmother's (father's side) name. We call her Brightly.

Nicknames are a whole other thing. We don't really call our 4.5 year old much other than Olive but sometimes Olivine or veen-veen. But the little one we still have nicknames for. Donkey, donk, stinky donkey, goots, gootsee getter, and probably a bunch I can't even remember right now.

 
dohdough said:
Devil May Cry fan? :D

My girl has the same name as one of the characters, Eva, but it was more of a coincidence. Yuna's a beautiful name.

The next girl is going to be named Trish or if it's a boy, Vergil. I keed keed :lol:
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It just sounds pretty. But thanks for the complement. You should make a whole DMC family. What about Nero for your next boy?

#bordjon Olive is a cute name. I loved Little Miss Sunshine as well.

For nicknames I call my daughter "Sweet Pea". It's what Lee calls Clementine in the Walking Dead game. Since I loved their relationship I kinda picked it up.

 
It's too bad my wife does not share my love for DC/Marvel, star trek, star wars as much as I do or else we would have agreed on a name from one of those verses :(            For a boy's name she picked Maddox ..........ack...glad it wasn't a boy.

 
ITDEFX said:
It's too bad my wife does not share my love for DC/Marvel, star trek, star wars as much as I do or else we would have agreed on a name from one of those verses :( For a boy's name she picked Maddox ..........ack...glad it wasn't a boy.
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Maddox wouldn't be my choice, the boy was a lot harder to choose for us then it was for naming our daughter. My wife was set on the name Zoe, I gave her the middle name which is after my wife and her grandmother. We named our boy Gavin Carlyle, I got a lot shit over his middle name because one the twilight movies was out around that time.

 
as much as she watches the twilight movies when they are on tv (she forced me to take her to see the last 3...ack and I bought her the complete collection on blu to shut her up), I am glad Bella did not end up on that list lol.

 
Rodimus said:
It just sounds pretty. But thanks for the complement. You should make a whole DMC family. What about Nero for your next boy?
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I'm thinking that Vergil will fly more under the radar than Nero, but it's in the running too! :rofl:

Too bad The Boss is getting naming privileges on the next one. Speaking of "The Boss," I totally forgot that Eva was a character in MGS! Totally planning on dressing Eva up as Big Boss/Naked Snake from MGS3 when I find a costume small enough. It's going to be so cute and bad ass with the bandana and eye patch.

On another note, I watched an episode of Ni Hao Kai-Lan and I think I'm hooked. She had me at sun fuzzies. Maybe it'll help me remember all the Mandarin I forgot. :lol:
 
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I was considering Lincoln for my son, not only because its not very popular (though it is on the rise), but my wife and I wanted a one syllable name / nickname for our third, and I would love using Linc / Link.  I'm not even that big of a Zelda fan, I just like the way that would sound.

We ended up going for the entirely safe choice of Samuel (we call him Sam most all the time), but I still nerd-out and call him Samwise from time to time.

 
[quote name="Billytwoshoes" post="12530443" timestamp="1424881764"]

I was considering Lincoln for my son, not only because its not very popular (though it is on the rise), but my wife and I wanted a one syllable name / nickname for our third, and I would love using Linc / Link. I'm not even that big of a Zelda fan, I just like the way that would sound.

We ended up going for the entirely safe choice of Samuel (we call him Sam most all the time), but I still nerd-out and call him Samwise from time to time.[/quoted]
Funny you mention the name Lincoln. When we he our son 2 years, I wanted a name that had something to do with video games. So my wife and I settled on Lincoln. She liked it plus we can shorten it for Linc or Linkovich (Chomofsky)
 
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dohdough said:
I'm thinking that Vergil will fly more under the radar than Nero, but it's in the running too! :rofl:

Too bad The Boss is getting naming privileges on the next one. Speaking of "The Boss," I totally forgot that Eva was a character in MGS! Totally planning on dressing Eva up as Big Boss/Naked Snake from MGS3 when I find a costume small enough. It's going to be so cute and bad ass with the bandana and eye patch.

On another note, I watched an episode of Ni Hao Kai-Lan and I think I'm hooked. She had me at sun fuzzies. Maybe it'll help me remember all the Mandarin I forgot. :lol:
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Tickle Tickle Tickle!

 
Just got back from 3 days at Disney World. Not our first trip but many first rides for our daughter. Lots of fun was had. Splash Mt., 7 Dwarves Mine Cart, Thunder Mt.(twice), Pirates, Test Track, Soarin', Toy Story Ride, Star Tours, etc. I took full advantage of Fast Passes. Longest wait we had was 20 minutes.

We meet a few characters like Ariel & Mulan, plus a couple shows and the fireworks at Magic Kingdom are always amazing. At Epcot we did the World Showcase and got a little something to eat/drink at each country, (a couple beers for daddy). Lots of walking so we're super tired but it was a blast.

Probably going back in a few months since we have annual passes.

 
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Big Boss had a bit of a tumble last night.

To give an idea of the setup, we have her crib against our bed because she likes using the bars to pull herself up to stand. We pretty much use her crib as storage for some toys and books because she sleeps in bed with us. So last night, she was standing on our bed while trying to reach for a pillow in the crib. Somehow she got some leverage and flipped head first with her feet shooting in the air. I let out a "OH SHIT!" and saw her laying in the crib with a bewildered look on her face. The Boss asked if she was ok and then she started crying. We picked her up and she was smiling and laughing like 30 seconds later.

It was scary as hell that she flipped, but hilarious at the same time when her feet went in the air. It was like something out of a cartoon. :lol:

 
Kids can be such acrobats and live to tell the tale, though it freaks us parents out in the mean time.  Laughing at it is ok after the fact, I'm sure my parents did the same to me at that age.

 
Kids are made of rubber imo.  I remember my daughters first climbing fall.  I just kind of looked at her as she lay looking up at me waiting for a reaction.  She shook it off, rubbed her head, gave me a hug and was off to the races seconds later. 

 
Don't feel too bad dohdough, I think it hurts us more than them. My daughter fell straight back into the shopping cart when she stood up and lost her balance at Costco. Kind of glad it was there since those things are huge, luckily it was pretty empty too. She only cracked her head once on the table, she came out of toddler hood pretty unscaved. My boy keeps my on my toes though, pretty soon he's going to be punching me in the sack, I feel it coming real soon.

 
Yeah between my two girls we've had lots of tumbles. They are both pretty good at popping right back up and going at it as if it never happened. What can get scary is when blood is involved. Especially if you can't find out where it's coming from! But even that is usually not too big of a deal. Kids can recover and heal so quickly.

Man I'm ready to get back to being a "gamer" dad. I haven't played anything beyond a few piddly little ipad/iphone games for weeks now. We've just closed on selling our house Wednesday and moved in to an apartment because we can't find a house we like in the tiny quarter square mile area we are looking. We've tried expanding our search but just keep coming back to the same area. Apartment is a mess and we just got internet today. Whenever I do get back to gaming I'll be doing it on a tiny 19" monitor too instead of my 100" projector! I'm ready to find a house and get back to a state of normalcy.

Oh and to top it all off my wife was rear ended pretty hard just sitting at a stop light Monday. She's fine but waiting to see if car will be totaled. She isn't too keen on the idea of saying goodbye to our house of 8 years and car of 11 year all in the same week!

 
Shit I have been so busy at work that I have NOT been working on my backlog at all.... when I do play it's mostly XB1 Titanfall/Ghost/AW MP.  June/July will be here sooner than I think.   I don't think I will be able to finish any of my backlogs before she arrives.

 
Beat Link to the Past and my daughter watched me play some of it. Of course I waited to beat it until she could watch me. It's been awhile but I remember every little thing about that game.

 
Huh...How have I not found this thread before?

So hi... Proud papa of twin boys -- Finn and Jude. They'll be turning three this weekend.

Just started back in on my somewhat esoteric backlog. Playing Telltale's Jurassic Park right now on PS3 (had a disc copy for 360 but after ~3 years of neglect, fired up my 360 last week only to see it red ring). But was able to get it for like 80 cents in that crazy PSN sale last week, so no harm no foul. Halfway through and enjoying it so far, quicktime events not withstanding. Even lesser Telltale games scratch the itch for me.

 
[quote name="Billytwoshoes" post="12591913" timestamp="1427268453"]Kids can be such acrobats and live to tell the tale, though it freaks us parents out in the mean time. Laughing at it is ok after the fact, I'm sure my parents did the same to me at that age.[/quote]
This is truth!

We have 3. 10, 8, and 2. I forgot just how insane they are when they're little! The 2 year old is like a ninja with bad coordination. You'll turn your back for 1 second, just to turn back around and see her newest trick fail in grand fashion, only to get back up and go again.

And their fast!!!
 
Little dude is 7 months, and starting to crawl around like a banshee.  He mainly does the army crawl, but I just realized I need to start plugging up my power outlets. :)

 
soulvengeance said:
Little dude is 7 months, and starting to crawl around like a banshee. He mainly does the army crawl, but I just realized I need to start plugging up my power outlets. :)
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Yep, I remember those days. Also if you have any sharp edges on furniture get some of those soft pads, not sure what they're called.

 
Father to an 8 year old son and a 10 year old daughter, both of whom love Minecraft. They used to be in to the Lego video games, but now it's MC, MC, MC.

I don't get nearly as much gaming time myself...either one's on the computer or the wife's on the tv, so I wait until everybody's in bed, but I get up early so maybe I get an hour or two once in awhile.

It's also funny how as you get older you have more money to buy games, but then have less time to play them. I know, first world problems, right?

 
With the weather getting warmer we've been going to the pool a lot. I've been getting some well needed exercise and a nice tan out of it. Plus my daughter loves swimming so win win. She's swimming like a fish now (age 4). She can finally dive underwater to reach the bottom so we've been playing pick up sticks in the pool and taking her farther into the deep end.

At what age did you guys start teaching your kids to swim? In Florida it's important to start them out young since there's water just about everywhere and almost everyday we hear stories about kids falling in pools.

We got her swimming by the age of 2. She had a hard time at first since she would cry anytime water was in her face. It's a challenge to get teach them to swim without hating the water but we did a good job. I love seeing how well she swims now. She can dive into the water eyes open without googles or a mask. Something I can't do to this day.

 
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I live in the Phoenix area, where just about every other house has a pool it seems (and plenty of pool parties in school), so we taught our oldest daughter to swim around four.

My second daughter is turning three soon, but she isn't past the fear stage yet to teach on our own.  Right now she knows to stay near the side and monkey crawl along the side of the pool, so that's a start.

 
I've been staying up way too late playing Witcher 3 recently. Only time I can play is when the little one goes to bed, since obviously this isn't a game for a 4 year old to see. It's so hard to put down once you're playing and before I knew it, it was 4am. It killed my entire day sleeping in till noon, just being groggy and unproductive. The wife didn't get mad, but she gave me the look.

The past couple weeks we've been playing Katamari Forever. She's really likes the music and just watching me play. It's been years since I played a Katamari game so I'm getting back into it. Plus she likes to see me collect all the cousins and dress them up. It's just really hard for her to play so she just lets me do it.

 
Rodimus said:
I've been staying up way too late playing Witcher 3 recently. Only time I can play is when the little one goes to bed, since obviously this isn't a game for a 4 year old to see. It's so hard to put down once you're playing and before I knew it, it was 4am. It killed my entire day sleeping in till noon, just being groggy and unproductive. The wife didn't get mad, but she gave me the look.

The past couple weeks we've been playing Katamari Forever. She's really likes the music and just watching me play. It's been years since I played a Katamari game so I'm getting back into it. Plus she likes to see me collect all the cousins and dress them up. It's just really hard for her to play so she just lets me do it.
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I know the feeling. I did the same, but with drinking. It was my buddy's bachelor party on Saturday and we were out till about 4 in the morning. Of course my kids decide Sunday is a great day to get up at 6 in the morning :wall:

 
And this is why the PS4 I got LAST AUGUST is still BNIB. :rofl:

Not for long though, I pre-ordered DMC4:SE this morning and I'm going to pre-load that biatch. Won't be able to play til July though...

Let's see how long it'll take for me to finish MGS5.:cry:

 
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encendido5 said:
I know the feeling. I did the same, but with drinking. It was my buddy's bachelor party on Saturday and we were out till about 4 in the morning. Of course my kids decide Sunday is a great day to get up at 6 in the morning :wall:
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I may or may not have had a glass of scotch that evening too. But my wife did let me sleep in till noon. I owe her.

 
We've been literally packed away for months - in between houses. We have just moved in to our new house (like Sunday and Monday - I'm taking a break from the endless unpacking).

My daughter - 4.5 - has asked me about Animal Crossing. I let her play the Wii version a while back and she is eager to get back to it. All she could do was walk around and fish and dig up stuff but she loves any sort of personified animal - toys, video games, etc. I don't know when I'll be able to get it all set up for her again (projector in the basement) but hopefully soon. I enjoyed it too. And now that you mention Katamari, Rodimus, I know she'd love that too so we'll have to give that a try.

 
If she has difficulties playing Katamari there are "Eternal" levels where she can play forever without worrying about time. Plus the music is fun and it's great in short spurts. Something you can play for 15 minutes then move on.

 
Does anyone have any advice? My daughter is almost a year and a half and still does not sleep through the night without waking. Some nights she wakes as few as once or twice, and other nights like last week she'll wake up like 7 times.

I'm not sure what else to try, we've done bath at nights, full tummy, walking with her to express her energy, etc. 

 
qbanita said:
Does anyone have any advice? My daughter is almost a year and a half and still does not sleep through the night without waking. Some nights she wakes as few as once or twice, and other nights like last week she'll wake up like 7 times.

I'm not sure what else to try, we've done bath at nights, full tummy, walking with her to express her energy, etc.
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Are you still nursing and/or co-sleeping? We are since she hates bottles and we'd prefer not to starve her into submission. I have no advice, but have the same issue. Just trying to find the common denominator.

A couple I know also mentioned acid reflux and it took about a year and a half to settle down. Ours did too, but it went away months ago.

Another couple we met at a park mentioned daycare as a way to wear out the kid through constant stimulation. Don't think I like this idea.

Most of my friends and family pumped and cut formula with breastmilk along with setting a very strict schedule. That seemed to work well for them so far.

 
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Yeah we have a 17 month old that still breastfeeds (not exclusively anymore though since my wife works and had to stop pumping at work at 1 year) and co-sleeps. She wakes up a few times a night. It's generally to feed but has been for other reasons as well. She seems to be almost non-stop teething and I think that wakes her up sometimes.

My now 4.5 year old didn't sleep through the night until she was maybe 3+ years old. She co-slept until nearly 3.

It seems "sleeping through the night" is a big deal to a lot of folks. It seems like some people you'll talk with like to think of it as a mark of a successful parent if their child sleeps through the night. Like you've "won" some battle. IMO that's the wrong way to think about it. But I'm not gonna go down that cry it out/"sleep training" path here haha - that probably belongs in the politics forum! Just try not to let anybody who's asking if your kid sleeps through the night get to you. Don't let them make you feel guilty about it.

That being said - I know it can be such an energy drain to not get good sleep at night! Uninterrupted sleep seems like a thing of the past for me and my wife! I don't know whether you are co-sleeping or not but I can imagine if you are having to get up and go into another room several times a night that could be tiring. (Aren't kids a bother! Why can't they just let us get some sleep! Such an inconvenience... ;) see where I'm going with this?)

In the paraphrased words of my 80 year old mother - I know when you are in the moment it's a pain but when they are grown you'll wish they were still young kids waking you up every night.

This too shall pass - whether it be teething, reflux, growing pains, etc. - they come *and* they go.

I wish I had an easy answer for you though!

 
Yes, I've had numerous people ask me if she sleeps during the night which had me thinking I was doing something wrong.

Hearing this though makes me feel better.

I stopped breast feeding her when she was about 8 months since i had started going back to work. She's entirely on whole milk now. 

I don't mind her waking up except the nights she wakes up MULTIPLE times because alas, sleep, but I'm starting to realize that might not change. :lol:

 
My wife is officially on the cloth diaper bandwagon, we installed a sprayer to the toliet to splatter poop on the walls, it works great...

 
qbanita said:
Yes, I've had numerous people ask me if she sleeps during the night which had me thinking I was doing something wrong.

Hearing this though makes me feel better.

I stopped breast feeding her when she was about 8 months since i had started going back to work. She's entirely on whole milk now.

I don't mind her waking up except the nights she wakes up MULTIPLE times because alas, sleep, but I'm starting to realize that might not change. :lol:
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I second what bordjon(and his mom) said. I totally feel you on it being tough though. My daughter cries every morning for 10-15 minutes when mommy is in the bathroom because she likes to know that mommy is next to her when she's sleeping. Thankfully, it isn't at sunrise anymore and at the more reasonable time of 6:30am. Our neighbors must LOVE us. I just try to soothe her by rubbing her back and verbally reassuring her that mommy will be done soon as well as me being there for her. I try to hold and hug her, but she just arches her back and squirms away. I don't take it personally...LOLZ.

Just gotta take it day by day.

statewideservice said:
My wife is officially on the cloth diaper bandwagon, we installed a sprayer to the toliet to splatter poop on the walls, it works great...
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We tried the cloth route, but I'm overly paranoid about sharp objects being close to my daughter, so we stuck with pampers(other brands didn't fit as well). We only use wipes when we go out otherwise we use moistened facial tissues for clean up. She has pretty sensitive skin, but never had a problem with diaper rash with this combo. Now we're using some "organic" brand and they work reasonably well. If you really want to go oldschool, you can be like my in-laws and handwash the poo off the butt. Peri bottles work well too, so you definitely have some options if the sprayer isn't working out.

 
bordjon, that is a great post.  Every child is different and there is no magical age when they are supposed to be sleeping through the night.  My almost 4 year old still wakes up once a night every so often to use the bathroom.  He doesn't co-sleep anymore, but we got him a small fold up bed for him so he can sleep in our room with us.  His bedroom is down the stairs on the other side of the house so he would wake up every night at 3 in the morning and run up into our bed crying.

 
My 5 month old just started "sleeping through the night", and when I say that I mean sleeping for more than 5 hours in a row.  When you get older with kids even 6 hours of sleep is a good nights rest.

I guess I was lucky with my three kids, all of them by about this time were giving us a good 5-8 hour stretch without interruption, and by 1 year the two older ones were sleeping like champs with very occasional 3am wakings.  We co-slept with all of them as long as we could (the first didn't last more than a month before driving us crazy), and exclusively breasted for the first 6-8 months, with supplemental feedings up to about 18-20 months  (just giving data I guess).

We did have a tough love trial with our oldest though at about 9 months, starting getting into bad sleeping habits, though however controversial the cry it out method can be, after two nights of it she got the message and was back to her better routine again.

This is not for every parent (and certainly not for every child), but don't feel bad if you have to try it, and likewise don't ever feel pressured by anyone else who sings it's praises. It's all about what works for you and your family in the end.

Oh and on the subject of cloth diapering, I did that for the last half of my first, for the first half of my second, and now starting to do it again with my third.  I like saving the money and the environment and all that jazz, but getting your hands dirty and all the extra laundry is not how I like spending the little free time I have.

It's definitely doable and helps build up your tolerance so to speak, but at least use disposables at night, rashes were common with my second until I started doing that.

 
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Great posts on kids getting to sleep at night. I'd add more but you guys already covered my exact thoughts. Bordjon said it best. Every child is different.

As for diapers we did both. At home mostly stuck with cloth. It's work but if both parent chip in it's not too bad. When we were out and about (shopping, eating out) we did disposable.

I hated it when we changed her and not 10 minutes later another bomb exploded in her pants. I swear she was planning it.

 
Rodimus said:
I hated it when we changed her and not 10 minutes later another bomb exploded in her pants. I swear she was planning it.
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Although its nice not having to dunk clean it, I hate it when they go all day in cloths and not a single #2, and then right when I change into a disposable at night that's when they decide to drop one.

Not sure if anyone has done the classic pinned diaper approach with a cover, but man that was a frustrating trial. My wife and I seemed to like the BumGenius the best, but I also had good success (and still using them now) with Mabu Baby diapers, those imitate disposables pretty well.

 
Late Happy Fathers Day to all you CAG dads.

I got to sleep in Sunday, Then when I woke up they gave me a brand new pillow (I've been complaining about my old one forever) and then after lunch I took a long nap with my daughter and my new pillow. It was nice.

 
I had a busy but fun father's day weekend! We had my 1.5 year old's first birthday party. Sorta a one and a half party. Because she was born on Christmas day and we wanted to try a half birthday party and see how it went. It was hot then it rained but it was a lot of fun. We grilled out hotdogs and hamburgers and the kids just ran around playing while the adults visited. It was a nice time to see a lot of my family and my wife's family together. Also - we've only been in our new house for three weeks so folks got to see that as well.

My nephew and his fiance came in to town and stayed a couple nights so on Sunday we all went to the art museum and then to a couple of breweries/taprooms. It was a blast. Couldn't get over the amount of little kids out at the breweries on father's day!

I did get a surprise gift - a St. Germain liqueur gift set! So I can make me some summer elder-fashions, elder manhattans and my favorite elder juleps!

Hope all you other fathers had a nice day!

 
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Happy Belated Father's Day!

We're not big on holidays, so it was just a typical weekend for us. We went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch, took the kid to a playground, and I made dinner. The only difference was me making blueberry banana muffins for the first time and I overcooked them by 3 minutes. Who knew those 3 minutes would make such a difference! :rofl:

Luckily mommy and baby took a nap in the afternoon and gave me time to play Last of Us. I wish it was DMC4:SE instead, but I'll take what I can get! :lol:

 
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At work on mother's day everyone chipped in (including myself) to buy all the mom's at work lunch.

I was half expecting them to something similar for father's day. But they didn't. That's some bull shit.

 
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