Welcome back to No Manual, a momcast where we're
just talking about the reality of motherhood,
the fun parts, the hard parts. And this week,
Laura actually couldn't make it because of some
work commitments, and we weren't able to find
a time to record. So my wonderful husband, Stuart,
decided he would help us out, and we're going
to do a couple episodes, I guess. And we thought
it'd be fun to kind of just talk about some of
the family traditions we've made, where they
start, some of our favorites. So do you want
to start with your mom moment of the week? Yes.
So my mom moment of the week is... On Saturday,
we were picking Lloyd up from an overnight with
my parents, which we do once a month, and he
was swimming. So we went and saw him at the pool.
He was so stoked to see us. He was even happier
to keep swimming. So we let him run around for
a while, and when it was time to go, I grabbed
him, and I noticed that his swim diaper was completely
full and, like, going up his back. I was like,
okay, I guess I got to change him before we go.
So I asked my mom if there was another diaper
and she said, nope. So I took him to the family
locker room, but in order to open the door, I
had to adjust him onto my arm. And as I sat his
butt on my elbow, just gushed the wet diaper,
swim diaper poop all down my arm, down my pants
and my sock. And it was an absolute disaster.
So I rushed into a shower and just got him naked
and cleaned him off real good and did a little.
waffle stomp and threw the diaper away. But just
being covered in swim diaper poop was my mom
moment this week. That sounds about right. Yeah,
it was absolutely wonderful. Well, my mom moment
is from last night. I woke up in the middle of
the night throwing up for, I don't know, no reason.
But then because I was not within like six inches
of Zeta, she woke up and absolutely freaked out
because... That's what she does when she can't
touch me. And you tried to wake up or like you
were half awake and you like kept trying to calm
her down. But obviously you had the audacity
to not be me. So I mean her. Exactly. How dare
me? Yeah. So her being upset was pretty reasonable.
But so I I'm in the bathroom throwing up, clean
myself up, whatever. And within like less than
90 seconds of having thrown up, I am nursing
a baby. Yep. And. I think it was like midnight
or 1 a .m., something like that. Yep, for a little
bit I was like, she's going to hear Zeta scream
crying in my ear in the middle of the night and
know that I can't do anything. And then I heard
you throwing up. And I thought, oh, this is your
worst nightmare. And then, well, and then to
make things worse, so I was like, okay, I'm going
to call in sick to work. Yeah, Zeta, she's here
with us. And supposed to be sleeping. Yeah, so
I was like, okay, I'm going to call in sick to
work. Like, obviously today's not going to go
well. And then she... was up at like 6 .30 in
the morning on the day that Lloyd was still sleeping.
So I was like, we all could have slept in, Zeta.
And then finally, her and I get out of bed, and
she had a blowout in our bed on our sheets. And
so on my sick day, I also had to clean our sheets
and redo our bed because that's how today went.
At 6 .30 in the morning. Yep. Yeah. It was a
great time. Mm -hmm. Well, do you want to start
with your first? Family tradition that we do.
Yeah. Mine's kind of an obvious one for me is
my one of my favorites is dadder day breakfast
is every Saturday I make breakfast because you
make breakfast every other day of the week for
for Lloyd and you. So sometimes I get kind of
crazy with it and do like avocado toast or waffles
or biscuits and gravy. But a lot of times it's
just fried eggs. We made M &M pancakes one time.
Yep, mini M &M pancakes. Those were great. Those
were pretty good, and I think Lloyd was a bigger
fan. Yeah, he was a big fan of those for sure.
But just every Saturday, me making breakfast
while you actually get a chance to shower and
wash your hair, and I make sure both kids are
alive, so obviously cooking takes an hour and
a half instead of half an hour. But it seems
to work out every Saturday that everyone's alive
and at their breakfast table, usually before
10 a .m. Yeah. I mean, sometimes we sleep in
and then we have a later breakfast. Yeah, like
1030. So it's like a dadder day brunch. That's
one of my favorites. And for those of you who
don't know Stuart, he will make a pun out of
not everything, but most things having to do
with your name. Yep. And like that kind of genre.
Yeah. So like dad. I think I was born to be a
dad. Yeah. Because I've been making Stuart puns.
Yeah. It's almost too easy. How long do we make
this silence last? I'll just leave that silence
in there. Okay, my first one, this was your idea.
And actually a little bit of the origin of this
podcast is Baby Podcast. So when I was pregnant
with Lloyd, you had this idea. And actually I
remember when you didn't tell me about it, we
had like a shared note for our phones of things
that we wanted to do before the baby got here.
So it was like, set up the crib and... clean
out this closet or whatever you know a lot of
nesting things and then a few just like logistical
things in our life or whatever and I remember
I think you were at work and you just added baby
podcasts and I got notification that just said
Stuart added baby podcasts to things to do before
the baby gets here and I had no idea what that
meant and I even asked Rebecca and Hooli because
I was working I was like what do you guys think
that he means by this but basically and we were
supposed to do it before Lloyd was born and that
didn't work out because he was early but I think
it worked out better where really we just sat
down the two of us with some questions and recorded
it and talked about like what we're excited about
for at that time it was like becoming parents
and then we did it again for Zeta it's like okay
what are we excited about to have a second baby
and what are we nervous about And just some of
that stuff. And it was super fun. And I'm really
excited to, I think we want to continue. I mean,
we'll definitely continue doing it for each kid.
Yep. And then I know we keep talking about like,
oh, we should do it like throughout the years
too. Like this is what we're proud of Lloyd for
this year or whatever. So almost like a baby
book in some senses. Yep. But I think it's way
more personal. And I know I think it would be
really fun to like hear my parents when I was.
young right just because you don't have memories
and I know Roman our brother -in -law he brought
up when we mentioned it that you just like you
don't have memories of how your parents interacted
as when you were a little kid and so I think
that's a fun thing to gift our kids like oh here's
a recording of like how we interacted when you
were first born and when you were two and yep
growing up yeah it's it was intended to give
to our kids when they turn like 16. Like this
is what we were like and what we were nervous
about. And look, we were still just kids figuring
it out when you were born. So that's how we came
to be where we are now. Yeah. And actually, I
don't know if I told you this. I ended up taking
a video of our apartment because in the baby
podcast with Lloyd, we mentioned our apartment
a bunch. I think it must have been when we realized
we were going to move. I was like, oh, I should
take a video of this because you don't take pictures
of your rental. It's not like our house where
it's like, oh, we've put a lot of work into different
areas and stuff like that. I was like, oh, I
want him to know what the house that we brought
him home to looks like. We moved out of it before
he turned a year old, so he's going to have zero
memories, but I do have a video of that for him.
My next one is bonus bath time. And you told
me that the first time I did this, you thought,
oh my God, if he plays that song every time,
then I'm going to lose it. But anytime we have
a bath on a night that isn't a normal bath night,
we call it a bonus bath time. And there's a song
called Barbra Streisand Mixed by Duck Sauce.
and the only words are barbra streisand but we
replace it with bonus bath time and i mean we're
not monetized so we can play it without the copyright
infringement but the second like within the first
three seconds of the song starting lloyd will
just look at one of us and smile huge and just
start squatting and dancing and bump into it
his little white boy dance yeah it's like a like
it's like a dance song like what you'd hear in
a club Yeah, for context. But I have that, too.
Because, yeah, the first time you did it, I was
like, oh, no. He's going to make this a tradition.
I know it. And I'm going to get so mad every
time that he plays this. But no, it's so fun.
And, like, it's so, so exciting. And it only
happens, like, once or twice a month. Yeah. Sometimes
we'll play it for normal bath time if it's, like,
a rough night. Because he does get so excited
and it gets him in a better mood. Yep, in the
bath time mood. Yep. Yeah, and he clearly knows
at this point that, like, it means bath time.
All right, my next one is morning pictures. So
one of the things I do when I get Lloyd up for
the day is I put Zeta in his crib for just, like,
a few minutes. And they both love it. They both
get so excited to see each other first thing
in the morning. And so I've started taking pictures
every day. I started that in, like, May, so Zeta
was almost three months old. I mean, there's
some days that we've skipped for whatever reason.
But for the most part, I have one for almost
every single day since the beginning of May.
And it's just super fun. One, because they're
almost always excited in every picture, but then
there are some where it's like, Lloyd's still
grumpy because he's half asleep or something
like that. But then also just to see the daily
growth and what they look like and be able to
just swipe through and see. How much they've
grown in the last three months. Yep. That's a
snap that I love getting every day because I
get to see what kind of mood they're in or it
even tells me like when they woke up. So I know
if I need to like hurry home before I like go
to Sonic or something because you woke up at
seven instead of eight. Right. No, I love getting
those pictures. And anytime I take one, I try
to make sure I share it with you so we can add
it to the album. My next tradition is kind of
something we don't do is we don't play kids'
music. Our kids just listen to normal rock and
punk and country and jazz and real music. Do
you like jazz? We have never shown our kids Wheels
on the Bus or I can't name all that many kids'
songs because we don't play them. I think I told
you this. We had a pest control guy come to our
door the other day, and I was wearing my Beach
Boys t -shirt, and he was like, Beach Boys, and
was asking me about it. I was like, oh, yeah,
well, my two -year -old son, he loves the Beach
Boys, so that's why I have this shirt. He was
like, your two -year -old son loves the Beach
Boys? Yeah. He was just so stoked. I was like,
yeah, Barbara Ann all the time. He'll request
it by saying, ba -ba -ba. Now he says, ba -ban.
Oh, I have not heard that one yet. Yeah, he started
that, like, this week, I think. Because, yeah,
he started saying, like, are you asking for Barbara
Ann? He's like, appa, appa. Mm -hmm. Okay. So
now instead of our kids calming down to Itsy
Bitsy Spider or something, it's We Will Rock
You. Or when they're having a crying fit, we'll
try Wildflowers by Tom Petty. And then when you're
not around, I play them Cannibal Corpse and Knocked
Loose, and they both love it just so much better
than our kids listening to nursery rhymes. Yeah.
And your listeners may or may not know that I'm
a musician, so it's very important to me. Yes,
yeah. So far, our kids like all the same music
we do, and Zeta's trying to knock down my mic,
and it is fun. I think it gives us more of an
insight of like who they're going to be to, to
see what they like naturally gravitate towards.
My next one, we don't do this as much this year,
but after dinner walks, we have like a nice path
right by our neighborhood. And it's like, it
gets beautiful in the evening, especially with
like sunsetting time and everything. And we just
like to go, like if we're trying to get some
energy out or find something to do. We'll just
go on a walk as a family. And now Lloyd is learning
his little like strider bike, balance bike. And
so it takes the same amount of time and we go
like a quarter of the distance that we used to
because Lloyd's on his bike. But it's just like
a fun, nice thing to get out of the house and
get fresh air and everyone gets exercise. And
Lloyd points out all the lights and all the dogs.
And all the dog poop. Yeah. It's very important
that we know where the... The dot -dot poppies
are. Yeah. He's really helpful that way. Yeah.
We don't have a dog, just to be clear. No. My
next one that I have down is the steak dinner
at six months. We do, is it baby -led weaning?
Mm -hmm. Where you start just handing them food
at six months and letting them figure it out,
but it's got to be big enough that they can't
actually... like chew it and swallow it or like
yeah choke on it yeah and you you know all the
details more than I do but a great way to start
that is just hand them a slab of steak what we
did for Lloyd it's what we did for Lloyd and
now Zeta's coming up on six months so we have
a whole steak dinner plan we're like oh it's
gonna be her six month birthday so we're gonna
have a steak dinner with mashed potatoes and
it's gonna be like a fancy occasion And I just
think that's so funny to... Did we all get dressed
up? Yeah, I do still have some suits. And Lloyd
still probably fits in his Easter outfits. So
yeah, we can get dressed up for a fancy steak
dinner for Zeta's first real food meal. What
do you think, Zeta? She thinks your headphones
are just awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited for
steak dinner and to continue that with other
kids. This is like kind of a cliche family tradition
that I think lots of people have. But matching
Christmas pajamas. We go to Old Navy, so like
half of America has the same pajamas we have,
I'm sure. Last year I couldn't even get the ones
that I wanted because they were sold out because
everyone in America bought the pajamas that I
wanted to get us for Christmas. So definitely
not a unique thing at all. It was a great plaid
print. Yeah, it was. So yeah, definitely not
unique, but it's fun. We always have a picture
of, well, it'll now be the four of us in our
matching pajamas. And neither, I mean, you don't
really wear pajama pants. So you just like keep
getting pajama pants that you wear for like two
days a year and then get put in a drawer somewhere.
Well, when it's cold out, I'll wear them around
the house. That is true. And then Lloyd outgrows
them in 30 seconds because that's where we're
at. But it is fun. Makes Christmas just like
a little bit more magical to be like, okay, you
get to open your pajamas on Christmas Eve and
then wear them tonight. And speaking of Christmas,
I just have Christmas, our Christmas traditions
in general is we always do our family Christmas
on Christmas Eve. And I think we've done that
since before we had kids. Yeah. And. Because
it just worked out with like. Our bigger family
situation. People might not know your parents
and my parents are best friends. So every holiday
is your parents and my parents and my brother
and your sister and the whole big family. So
we wanted to have like a moment for us to have
our Christmas. So we do Christmas on Christmas
Eve, which means open PJs the night before that
on Festivus. Yep. And then your sister and brother
-in -law come over and we have sushi and watch
one of the Diehards, either one or two. And then...
We also play Mario Party. Oh, we do? No. Yeah,
I can't forget Mole Time. Yeah. Shout out to
Roman. So, yeah, we play Mario Party. We wake
up, go to your parents and have monkey bread.
And that side of the family's Christmas. Everyone
takes a nap. We go to my family's house and have...
Our family Christmas, and then everyone gets
together, and it's a big thing. Usually for dinner,
everyone's together. Yeah. Usually you have three
times as much caffeine as you should and have
anxiety at some point during the day because
you've only had monkey bread and caffeine. Yes.
Until like 5 p .m. when we have dinner. Yes.
So that's another part of our family tradition.
That is a tradition. So I just, I love... Christmas
in general and I love that we kind of span it
out over three days yeah and we all get we get
to like section it out into different moments
with different people and make it a huge thing
yeah and then it's been fun to like see all of
that started pretty much just when we got married
I think so it's been fun to start including the
kids in that like this last year Lloyd got to
try sushi for the first time and He kind of didn't
really care about it. He watched Die Hard for
the first time. He watched Die Hard for the first
time. Did we watch one or two this year? I think
we watched two. I think it was at the Stapleton
Airport. And, I mean, right now he has zero interest
in video games. Well, he has interest in video
games. He doesn't understand them. But I know
that, like, in the future we'll find a way to,
like, include the kids in Mario Party. We'll
have to figure out which one of the four of us
is willing to sacrifice their spot, though. Yeah.
Or do we just have to buy a second Switch and
a second TV? Can you have more than four in a
Mario Party? I don't know. Okay. We'll call Nintendo
now. We have some time. Okay. My next one is
also Christmas related, which is our advent calendar.
We take a Polaroid every day and have come up
with prompts. I think this year we did better.
The first year we had some prompts that we were
like, why did I think that was a good idea? I
think you just found a list online. I think so,
yeah. We don't always get them all done every
day. Sometimes we do have like catch -up days.
But so it'll be like a picture of wrapping presents
and a picture of us looking at Christmas lights
and... The cats. The cats. Decorating the tree.
Eggnog. Lloyd had his first eggnog and his first
hot chocolate this year because that's what we
were doing for our advent calendar. And then
you found little albums online that are just
like... Somehow they have 25 pages, and then
they're the perfect size for little Polaroid
pictures, the mini ones. And I'm really glad
we just happened to start that the first year
Lloyd was born because now we're just going to
have this really fun series of photo albums of
seeing him get bigger and seeing our family grow.
And I think as the kids get older, it's going
to be more fun too because we're not forcing
them to. Like, no, we have to take this picture.
Yeah, they'll be excited to come up with prompts.
Yeah, they'll be excited to come up with prompts
or to like know what prompts we did and like
come up with a picture themselves or whatever.
So that's been really fun. And Lloyd, that's
like his one of his favorite books to pick up
and ask to look through with one of us is the
Advent album that's just sitting up on the credenza
right now. Yep. My last one is just bath time
in general. Both the kids just love bath time,
and I have found a pretty easy way to give them
both a bath at the same time. And it's such a
cool moment to just have both kids in front of
me in close proximity, having such a great time
in the bath, interacting with each other. Lloyd
loves pointing and laughing at Zeta, and Zeta
loves just smiling up at her brother. It's just
such a fun moment to have like two or three times
a week, just me and my kids while you go and
tidy or relax or whatever you do. I don't actually
know. And you said before that you think it's
like super dad that I can bathe the kids at the
same time, but it's so easy and I clean them
off so quick. And then it's just bath play time
until you get back. You take Zeta and then Lloyd
and I just hang out for like five more minutes.
Yeah, I mean, Thursdays when you're gone, at
one point in time we said Thursdays was going
to be bath night, but then you're gone frequently
on Thursdays. And the thought of bathing them
both by myself is so overwhelming that I just
don't. So I think that's a big part of it for
me is I'm like, this is a task that's super overwhelming.
Like I could do one bath time by myself, but
both of them is a lot. And you do it by yourself
all the time. Well, I also have you to bring
Zeta in to take her out. Yeah, or if baby poop
happens. Yeah, if there's duck poop. That is
one thing. She pooped in the tub like a week
ago, and now Lloyd just, every time we're in
his bathroom, he points the tub. Baby poop. Baby
poop. Yep. Yep, she pooped in the tub. My next
one is monthly pictures for the first year and
then yearly pictures after that. So I take one
on my phone and I usually do a burst to try to
get a good one. But I always take two. I take
one on my phone and then I take a Polaroid. And
partially, so the baby book I got for Lloyd and
then again for Zeta. Has like a spot for monthly
pictures for the first year and then yearly pictures
after that. And I knew that I would never get
them printed if I took them. I would say that
I would and then it just wouldn't happen. But
we have a Polaroid camera. So I was like, oh,
this is an easy solution. It prints it right
away. I have my Elmer's glue stick that I glue
it immediately. And that's just, again, I know
that's not like a unique thing to do. But it's
fun, and Lloyd just turned two, so we just took
his second birthday picture, and I try to keep
it in the same spot to kind of see height comparison,
and you can see the growth more if it's in the
same spot almost. And so it was really cool to
see this year his first birthday and his second
birthday, and he almost looks like a different
kid just with how much he's grown up. Yeah, I
swear after his second birthday, he just decided
to look like an adult with grown -up facial expressions.
It's crazy, yeah. I mean, his second birthday
picture, he looks like a frickin' model or something.
He's just so suave, and I don't know where he
got it. It's his summer mohawk. He does have
a summer mohawk. I guess I can add that to, I
don't know if this will be a tradition, but I
hope it's a tradition, his summer mohawks for
Lloyd. Maybe Zeta, if she decides to be punk
herself. I cut Lloyd's hair, so I kind of get
to decide what style it is. And I did ask, and
you said I could give him a mohawk. You were
a little bit nervous, but the first time I did
it, you were like, no, that's so freaking cute.
Go for it. And so I like buzzed it way down,
styled it just right. And anytime we go anywhere,
people are like, his hair. Yep. That's usually
the first thing people say to me. All right,
and then my last one is just our bedtime routine.
And, I mean, to be fair, there are some nights
where I'm just like, I'm so tired and I want
this to be over. But I know that there's going
to be a time when I'm like, oh, I miss sitting
in the chair in their room and having both kids
on my lap and you reading a book. And then part
of our bedtime routine that Lloyd has added is
he'll sit on my lap for a minute and drink his
milk while Stuart reads a book. And then usually
just like a couple minutes in. He hands me his
milk and he climbs down. And then full speed,
he runs from his room to our room down the hall.
Screaming. Screaming, laughing. And then you
chase him. If you don't chase him fast enough,
then he like slowly walks back and looks back
in his room like, are you coming? But then you
chase him and he just like giggles and laughs
and is screaming. He has so much fun. He does
change up his routine nightly. At the end of
the hallway, sometimes he'll go to dad -dad potty.
Sometimes he'll go to our closet. Sometimes he
just wants me to slam him on our bed. And sometimes
he wants me to jump over him as he runs back
through the hallway. So there's a variety of
options. Yep. Tonight was the absolute kicker,
though. I was reading caps for sale and I said,
and he looked up into the tree and what do you
think he saw? And Lloyd just bolts out the door
going, which means monkey. He had to answer.
That was the absolute best. I lost it. But yeah,
pretty much every night, even on nights that
I'm like kind of over the day and just want bedtime
to be over so I can like have a moment to myself.
which I still won't have because Zeta will be
sleeping on me. I'm just like, this is the dream.
I have my kids on my lap and we're just reading
a book together. And it's so sweet. And I know
that someday I'm going to be devastated because
they don't want to read books with us anymore.
But that'll never happen. No. Exactly. That's
my last one. Do you want to wrap up with your
mom win of the week? Yeah. So for Lloyd's birthday,
we told everyone, like, we don't need toys. We...
We have enough toys. Just books. Bring your favorite
kid's book. Book that you loved growing up. Book
that you'd want him to have. But a couple people
knew us well enough and knew me well enough that
they got Lloyd some musical instruments. And
so he got a kalimba, which has some metal reeds
that you pluck with your thumbs. And he got a
steel tongue drum, which is like a big thing
of metal that you hit with a mallet. It sounds
like the drum you'd hear in a spa. Yeah, like
a Jamaican steel drum. So I got each one out
as he was opening his presents, and he didn't
really know what they were, so I showed him how
to pluck each one, and he was just so gentle
with each one. He didn't grab it and throw it
on the ground. He didn't try to slam his hand
on them. He actually tried to use them properly
the first time he handled each one of those,
and it was just such a proud dad moment of, my
son knows musical instruments. Take. some skill
and some care and you don't just smack them and
slam them to get them to do what you want and
you don't use them as like a ball or you don't
use them as just a brick to throw across the
room and it was just such a proud moment for
me i don't think i've actually told you this
because they both came with like not like a bag
that's kind of a case um which is usually what
we keep them in and the steel tongue drum he's
like brought to me a couple times to get it out
He wants to play it. That's so great. Shockingly,
so this is the second drum he's gotten as a gift.
And the first one was for my parents. And I was
terrified it was going to be the worst thing
in the world. But it wasn't. And it, like, sounded
really nice. And this is the same thing of, like,
honestly, it's not that overstimulating when
he plays it. And it's not quiet for sure, but
it's nice. That's so great. So my win of the
week. I don't know if I've actually talked about
this much on the podcast, but Zeta refuses a
bottle. Actually, not entirely true. She'll take
a bottle from me, which doesn't really matter
because I'm just going to nurse her anyways.
But it's been like kind of a struggle just because
that means I can't be away from her for more
than like two or three hours at a time. Which
means like we can't go on dates. Or if we do,
we're like trying to beat the clock to get back.
And time the feed. When we drop her off and when
we pick her up. Yep. But she took three bottles
from my parents this week. None of them were
a full feed, but it was enough that, like, she
would take, like, two ounces and they would feed
her a little bit later and she would take another
two ounces. So she was able to be away from me
for, like, four or five hours, which, I mean,
I love my kids and I like to be around them,
but also it's just, like, a relief to know, like,
okay. She will take a bottle from someone else.
In dire straits, yeah. Yeah. Now I don't have
to, like, feel like Cinderella trying to get
back to her by a certain time. And hopefully
that continues to get better and she'll start
to take full feeds from other people. And I reminded
her that they still brought her back to me even
if she ate for them. Yeah. Yeah, so that's just,
like, a huge win to, one, I was honestly losing
hope that she would ever take a bottle. And I
would be doing that for the entire first year
of her life. But it looks like we might actually
have a couple date nights here. That would be
so cool. That would be crazy. That's a win for
me too. Yeah. Well, thank you all for listening.
I hope you liked our little family traditions
and we will post something on Instagram and you
can let us know what your family traditions are
and the things that you enjoy doing as a family
and with your kids and where that came from.
Thank you for listening and rate, review, subscribe,
and we'll see you next week. See you next week.