Happy Mother’s Day! Letters to my Wife & Mom

05/10/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you wonderful Moms out there!

If you’re not a wonderful Mom, this doesn’t apply to you, but hopefully that’s not the case. It’s well known I’m not giving flowers for Mother’s Day (or ever), but I’m good at creating handmade cards for special occassions, just like the one I made Kelley last year.

Well, I guess “good”, is giving myself too much credit, huh?

This year I opted to type my letter and nix the whole “thumbs up” cut-out. This not only saved me time since I was writing with toddler pulling on my shorts (not kidding) and needed someone to push her toy plane, Tilly, as mentioned in the letter to Going Mom.

At the time of this being published, my wife and I should be done with our runs and hanging out with my mom and Avery at Brewed where copious amounts of coffee will be consumed. I’m sure Kelley and I will be ~~the winners of the race~~ happy to be done so we can relax and enjoy spending time with each other on Mother’s Day.

Speaking of, I’m cutting this short and will leave you with the letters I wrote to my wife and to my mom. So much better than words from a mass produced card!

Kelley,

I’m standing here, at my “work station” with our crazy little girl at my feet demanding my attention as I write this. Oh, hold on….

Okay, had to make Tilly go takeoff, I’m back now.

Anyway, there are times when I feel like I could go absolutely insane from these things. You know the feeling since she does it to you too. But, despite the madness, when all is said and done, I unquestionably love it!

If it weren’t for you, none of this could be a reality, and I am forever grateful to you as a beautiful, magnificent, and loving mother and wife! You’re my best friend with whom I can share all my thoughts and feelings, and although I admit I don’t do it enough, I feel instant comfort when I’m in your arms.

You’ve rocked at being a mom and are still going strong with giving Avery the best stuff ever. I know it will come to an end eventually, and I support whatever choice you make, but the sacrifice you have made will live forever in our healthy little girl.

I could go on raving about your awesomeness, but Tilly needs to takeoff for the sixth time, and I have 3 half books piled up to read. Basically, I love, I love our life, and I appreciate you as a mother to our beautiful girl and as my stunning (sexy vixen?) wife.

Happy Mother’s Day, dear, I love you forever!

Mom,

I’m writing this at the same time as Kelley’s, with Avery dancing around me for my utmost attention. You know, just like I was. 🙂 Thank you, by the way, for always giving it to me!

You’ve always been there for me, even when on your own and going through so many stressful times. To have a mother like you is rare, and I love that you are now giving all of your love to Avery without hesitation. She has the best G-Ma ever and it makes me smile seeing you two together. Even when she’s tugging at your hair.

I found this picture from after high school graduation and since it’s not being used here, hopefully you will have a place for it at work or at home. It makes me think of how much we’ve all changed, but never made us distant from each other. Again, thank you for always being there for me and now for Avery. No one could ask for a better mother than you, especially one that puts up with my crap!

Sorry for the lack of gifts, you deserve so much, but instead I ask you watch our kid so I can run. Which, by the way, thank you for that!

I hope you have a very Happy Mother’s Day, and we spend it all together enjoying each other’s company.

Do you create a lot of handmade gifts or prefer to buy your gifts?

#MySundayPhoto, Parenting

Daddy’s Girl: #MySundayPhoto – 05.10.15

05/09/2015 R.C. Liley 20 Comments

Sorry for the bad timing of my Daddy’s Girl post when it’s really Mother’s Day. If it’s any consolation, I give full credit to my beautiful wife for this picture.

Avery was just having a blast rolling all over our bed, and Going Mom was there to capture some good shots of the wild-child in action.

Thank you, Kelley, for the picture and for being such a wonderful wife and Mother!

Can you remember bouncing on the bed?

Is bed jumping against the rules in your house or fully supported?

Life, NuttZo, Parenting

Our Toddler’s First Green Smoothie

05/09/2015 R.C. Liley 9 Comments

I’ve been blending fruits and veggies into a pre-dinner green smoothie for my wife and I for years. But, besides Going Mom giving Avery a tiny sip from her glass, I never made one exclusively for her. Well, that just changed.

Thursday morning had her swarming around me doing the sign for milk but fussing and running away from me when I pulled out a bottle. Toddler confusion!! It only gets worse, huh?

We had bananas, and I know she loves eating them sliced and topped with NuttZo……

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…but I wanted to get her hydration needs fulfilled plus add a little extra nutrition. What better way to do that than a green smoothie?

Diligently working my way around the toddler obstruction in the kitchen, I gathered organic kale, carrots, green banana (these are great for gut health from their resistant starch), NuttZo, unsweetened almond milk, and a couple packets of stevia for sweetness.

A few minutes later, and we had ourselves Avery’s first green smoothie! What took a few minutes, felt like forever with Ms. Impatient, and she was grabbing at her sippy cup before I could hand it over.

That’s a good sign, right? I love that she’s up for drinking whatever, even if it is dark green! To avoid spillage, I made the hand-off for her little hands to better grasp and she got right to it.

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Yeah, so we need to work on how to use straws, but the main point is that she was downing her first green smoothie! I had some too, and you could definitely taste the kale, but it was anything bad, I was quite pleased with the outcome. I’m thinking she was too.

Success! Another Avery first and another meal option opened up! I ended up replacing the straw lid with her regular sippy cup lid to avoid a mess, but a mess happened regardless. She’s use to walking around the house with water in the cup and we don’t think much of it when a little spills out….different story now.

I decided green smoothies may not appear in her sippy in the immediate future, but it’s great to know she’ll drink them. There was one problem though….I made a giant batch of the smoothie and had a lot left over. Even after drinking a glass myself, there was plenty more, and the thing about fresh food is, it doesn’t last that long.

So I did what anyone would do, I turned the green smoothie into green bread. I measured not a single ingredient, but with coconut flour, stevia, peanut flour, and baking powder, I created something similar to my Green Coconut Carrot Bread. In my microwave omelete cooker, of course.

Now we have a few batches of green smoothie bread which turned out a lot better than I thought. It’s sliced and ready for eager little fingers to snack on next time she’s demanding something…….which is always!

Unless she has a Catch-Me-Kitty to keep her occupied, that is.

It’s the day before running the longest I’ve ran in a very long time, 13.1 miles. Kelley is running the 5k and G-Ma will be with Avery watching and cheering us on. We have rain in the forecast, so I’m interested to see how that will turn out.

I’m planning on running in my Soft Star Dash RunAmoc Shoes, but mine are the ones with bullhide leather soles which equals zero traction on wet surfaces. Only time will tell, I’ll be sure to update you early next week.

Until then, I have two lovely women, one my mom, the other my wife, to celebrate Mother’s Day with after the race. We went to an awesome coffee shop called Brewed almost a year ago and will go back to treat the deserving ladies. Hope Avery doesn’t make us regret waking her up so early just so we could run!