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Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Pregnancy, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Holly: What Our Family Did before We Left for the Hospital

Newborn.

Dear Holly,

When we woke up Sunday morning, Mommy and I both knew you were going to be born; based on Mommy’s contractions. So I made sure to document the order of events along with the way.

Since had I been making a weekly “baby bump” Instagram (@nickshellwrites) of Mommy each week, I decided to make a bonus shot: 40 and a half weeks.

Dear Holly: What Our Family Did before We Left for the Hospital

Then I helped your brother Jack burn off some anxious energy by walking around our neighborhood with him while we wore his “monster teeth” that he won as a prize at Chuck E. Cheese a few months back. The idea was to scare cars passing by.

Later that afternoon Mommy insisted that she put out new mulch in the backyard. So I unloaded the 3 huge bags of mulch from my car, which your brother Jack and I had picked up at Lowe’s the day before.

Obviously, I offered to help, but Mommy wanted to make herself physically useful during her final hours of pregnancy; so she insisted that just she and Jack did the landscaping job. So I let it happen.

Mommy had also sent me to Whole Foods to pick up some vegan hot dogs to prepare with the vegan chili she had in the pantry. So we had a hearty lunch, which soon after increased her contractions.

It wasn’t too long before she was doing yoga-like positions in the floor, in accordance with her contractions. Jack quickly joined her, wanting to genuinely support her. That was my cue to text Nonna and Papa to make sure they were on their way, since they would be taking care of you while I was with Mommy in the labor and delivery room.

I remember how anxious I was getting, pacing the living room floor; meanwhile Mommy was calmly dealing with her contractions on the couch.

Once Nonna and Papa arrived at our house, I left with Mommy and Grandma within 15 minutes, at 4:20 PM. We arrived at the Vanderbilt at 5:00. And just 3 hours and 8 minutes later, you were born.

I’ll tell you all about that in my next letter. I have so much more to say and so many more pictures to show you!

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: What Our Family Did before We Left for the Hospital

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Pregnancy, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: Your 1st Reaction to Meeting Your New Sister/Singing Her a Goodnight Song

5 years, 5 months.

Dear Jack: Your 1st Reaction to Meeting Your New Sister/Singing Her a Goodnight Son

Dear Jack,

A lot of people had been telling me they would be curious to learn your reaction to seeing your sister for the first time. Fortunately, I have it forever etched my memory- plus, I have pictures!

The look on your face was perfect; so completely and genuinely amazed.

Dear Jack: Your 1st Reaction to Meeting Your New Sister/Singing Her a Goodnight Son

You instantly asked to hold her. As you heard her let out a little cry, you responded with a laugh: “She sounds like a kitty cat!”

As Holly was passed around the room, you continued laughing- you seemed to be grasping the concept that, all along, Mommy and I weren’t kidding- that you truly were getting a real little sister.

Dear Jack: Your 1st Reaction to Meeting Your New Sister/Singing Her a Goodnight Son

You also got to open Holly’s gift to you: an awesome dinosaur book, a Berenstain Bear book, about a dozen plastic dinosaur toys, a new Big Brother 2016 shirt, and an Ankylosaurus stuffed animal.

Dear Jack: Your 1st Reaction to Meeting Your New Sister/Singing Her a Goodnight Son

Dear Jack: Your 1st Reaction to Meeting Your New Sister/Singing Her a Goodnight Son

Tuesday night made the first time that we were all back at the house and back into normal bedtime routine. Our tradition is that I always grab one of your many stuffed animals on the bed and make it sing you a song.

But this time, I happened to be holding Holly in my arms. As I began singing in a stuffed animal’s voice, you stopped me immediately:

“No, Daddy… I’m singing to Holly instead.”

And right away, you began singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. It made the first time I’ve ever heard you sincerely sing a song without trying to be funny.

It was one of the most sincere things I’ve ever seen you do.

Dear Jack: Your 1st Reaction to Meeting Your New Sister/Singing Her a Goodnight Son

Dear Jack: Your 1st Reaction to Meeting Your New Sister/Singing Her a Goodnight Son

I was never really that concerned that you would be jealous or intimidated by your new sister; instead, my main fear was that you would feel pressured to “play the part of big brother” based on everyone’s preconceived ideas you had overhead.

Fortunately, you have no interest in playing this thing up. Instead, you truly adore your baby sister; whether the cameras are on you or not.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: Your 1st Reaction to Meeting Your New Sister/Singing Her a Goodnight Son

Dear Jack: Your 1st Reaction to Meeting Your New Sister/Singing Her a Goodnight Son

3 Comments Posted on reviews, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Sponsored Post- XFINITY X1 DVR: Taking Entertainment on the Go for Road Trips

DISCLOSURE LANGUAGE

XFINITY partnered with bloggers such as me for this program. As part of this program, I received compensation for my time. They did not tell me what to purchase or what to say about any product mentioned in these posts. XFINITY believes that consumers and bloggers are free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. XFINITY’s policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.

XFINITY is Coming to Nashville Soon: Google to Go for Road Trips

We all know Google Fiber is coming to Nashville soon, so when XFINITY reached out to me to see what features they offer, I did some research to see what they offer versus their competitors!

XFINITY reached out to me, asking for my help in getting the word out on some of the features that they have to offer.

It’s no secret that here on Family Friendly Daddy Blog, we are a family who loves to travel. Every summer, we fly out to California where my wife is from, and spend time with her side of the family.

XFINITY is Coming to Nashville Soon: Google to Go for Road Trips

Plus here recently, we’ve made 4 day weekend trips to Atlanta in Georgia, Pensacola and Destin in Florida, as well as Asheville and Bryson City in North Carolina.

We are a family who road trips together, that’s for sure. Our 5 and a half year-old son does amazingly well on these long drives; but of course, my wife always loads up the Kindle with kid-appropriate shows for him to watch.

That’s one of the ways that XFINITY comes in to play: With X1 DVR, we can watch our recorded shows from anywhere. That’s a feature that Google Fiber doesn’t offer.

XFINITY is Coming to Nashville Soon: Google to Go for Road Trips

Not to mention, this is our son’s first summer off from school; he’s always been in preschool. But with a baby sister due to be born next week (!), he’ll be home with Mommy and the new baby. I have a feeling XFINITY X1 DVR can come in handy on those rainy summer days.

It allows for 500 GB of storage, meaning there is access to plenty of shows and movies after you download them.

I was curious- I went ahead and checked out which of my son’s favorite shows I recognized in the Family & Kids section of XFINITY TV:

From Disney Junior, I spotted Chuggington, The Octonauts, and Special Agent Oso.

From Sprout, I saw Animal Mechanicals, Caillou, and The Berenstain Bears.

From Cartoon Network, I noticed Legends of Chima and Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu.

On Nick, there is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Henry Danger.

And on Nick Jr., there’s Blaze & The Monster Machines as well as Paw Patrol.

XFINITY is Coming to Nashville Soon: Google to Go for Road Trips

These shows I’ve named are only scratching the surface. The ones I’ve named here are simply the ones I recognize that my son likes and already watches. There are dozens more shows, not to mention movies- and even more channels I didn’t mention.

So there’s my overview of some the features that XFINITY offers in Nashville. I have more to say about XFINITY, but I’ll save it for another post in May. Stay tuned…

XFINITY is Coming to Nashville Soon: Google to Go for Road Trips

Leave a comment Posted on Health, Uncategorized, vegan

Our Family was Chosen as Part of The 1,000 Families Project; as The Vegan/Vegetarian Family

1000-families-nick-shell-1

This week our family was chosen to be featured as family #204 for The 1,000 Families Project; which is a celebration of the cultural diversity of literally one thousand different families.

Here’s the link again… 1,000 Families Project Vegetarian Family: Nick, Jill, and Jack

(Click the bold, red letters to see what I mean.)

Without surprise, we, the Shell family serve to represent the 2.5% of the American population who live the plant-based lifestyle: I am a vegan, and my wife, son, and daughter (who is due to be born next week) are vegetarians.

This is clearly not a phase in our lives; we have been this way for several years now. This peculiar yet unpopular lifestyle is undeniably a major part of our identity as a family.

I am very pleased with how the feature on The 1,000 Families Project turned out. One of my main objectives was making it clear that we live this way for health reasons; relating it back to how my health issues (eczema, dsyhidrosis, acne, pet allergies, sinus pressure and infections) all disappeared once I converted.

Looking back, I can remember how I had misguided, preconceived ideas about people who didn’t eat meat (and/or eggs or dairy). I remember assuming vegans and vegetarians must not be getting enough protein or that they must feel weak and low on energy all the time or that they are secretly hungry. For me, it was always a given that vegans and vegetarians must be underweight; being malnourished.

In reality, since becoming a vegan, it’s true I lost a couple dozen pounds, but I have also remained in the perfect weight range for my age and height. To actually live this way has shown me the truth about how this actually works.

It’s important to me that I serve as a rational spokesman for the vegan/vegetarian lifestyle. At the same time, I keep a Libertarian approach. Like I mentioned in my recent video, one of the rules of being a cool vegan is to not talk about being a vegan, unless someone asks first.

This blog post is an exception, of course.

Here’s that link, one last time in case you missed it: 1,000 Families Project Vegetarian Family: Nick, Jill, and Jack

Leave a comment Posted on marriage, reviews, Uncategorized

Bissell CleanView Vacuum with OnePass: A Dad’s Review (Including Unboxing Video and Demonstration)

Bissell CleanView Vacuum with OnePass: A Dad’s Review (Including Unboxing Video & Demonstration)

I feel like there was this cliché storyline in 1980s sitcoms where the husband buys his wife a new vacuum cleaner as a gift, only to learn that gesture upsets his wife.

The moral of the story in these sitcoms is this: Men like to receive useful tools as gifts, women do not.

For a husband to get his wife a new vacuum cleaner, it has to be completely unrelated to her birthday, anniversary, or any other expected time to give her a gift.

However, it is my observation that men actually like to receive useful tools during these gift-receiving opportunities.

Maybe it’s not the best example, but with my 35th birthday coming up in a couple of weeks, my wife helped me get a brand-new Canon Powershot G7 X camera. (I pitched in a couple hundred dollars, as the price was beyond the budget of a typical gift.)

As a blogger, I see a camera as a work tool; yet it’s the one thing I really wanted. Men like receiving tools as gifts.

At the same time, our nearly 8 year-old Bissell vacuum cleaner finally saw its final day. So my wife looked online at Target and discovered we could buy the updated model for only $75. So we did.

And boy do we both love it!

I’m referring to the Bissell CleanView Vaccuum with OnePass. I was so passionate about it, I made this unboxing and demonstration video:

I’m the one in our household who does the vacuuming every weekend. I noticed immediately how lightweight and agile it is. My wife has tried it out as well and agreed completely.

And it’s amazing to us that we purchased it for only $75 at Target!

By the way, Bissell is not endorsing me in any way to do this review. They were not even aware of me until I Tweeted them this story today.

That’s how much I like this vacuum!

Bissell CleanView Vacuum with OnePass: A Dad’s Review (Including Unboxing Video & Demonstration)

Flowchart below courtesy of ProFlowers.com.