All posts by R.C. Liley

I'm an ex-mutual fund accountant who left the cubicle world to be a stay-at-home dad to my beautiful little girl, Avery, who entered our life on 11/15/13. Also happily married to my wife, Kelley, for 7 years as of 8/17/14. Sorry ladies... :) Fitness and nutrition is of the upmost importance in our family and we strive to reflect this in our daily life. I always prepare our meals at home and only go out if it's a special occasion, and even then I tend to not get much. Food should be fun and a joy to eat, not something quickly consumed from a fast food chain or scarf down before the next meeting. I have come from strictly logging high miles to train for the next marathon to keeping exercise varied and focusing more on strength. I still enjoy going for a run when I can, but nothing crazy, and I prefer hill sprints while pushing my daughter, Avery in the stroller. She loves it and I get a great workout! I want to show the world how to appreciate their body and feed it real, wholesome food while moving more throughout the day. In doing so, everyone would be healthier, happier, and we'd all live in a better place as a result. I blog mainly about my life as a stay-at-home dad and frequently include reviews, participate in campaigns, and share my thoughts on fitness and nutrition. If you ever have any questions or thoughts to share, please reach out as I'm always open to listening or helping others however possible. That is, when I have free time since Avery is and my wife are the number one priorities!

Breast Milk Kefir and Ninja Turtles

Day two of our time without Going Mom is complete! I know I’m a stay-at-home parent, but geez, times can be a little rough! I don’t know how you parents with multiple kids do it, but my hat goes off to you.

I’ve been making our own kefir with kefir grains I bought back in July and haven’t become slightly good at making the cultured, probiotic-rich milk. So, I had the bright idea to make kefir with Kelley’s breast milk and give try it out on Avery.

The last kefir grains I will ever put in a breast milk bottle.
The last kefir grains I will ever put in a breast milk bottle.

I only made about 4 oz worth and tried giving Avery the bottle first thing this morning. Emphasis on “tried”, she wasn’t having it.

Mad at the sight of the bottle.
Mad at the sight of the bottle.

Not only that, but it took a while before she trusted to take any bottle from me! So, I had a pissed off and hungry,  untrusting baby to tend to for the better part of the morning. Not the fun morning I had envisioned, but eventually things returned to normal when we went to the garage for a workout.

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I felt bad, really bad. In retrospect, why would I give a 10.5 month old baby that’s used to sweet breast milk a full bottle of sour, albeit healthy, milk? #fail

Wasting my wife’s precious milk is something I refuse to do, so I boldly hesitantly (with a super scrunchy face) added a small amount of the kefir to a regular bottle in an attempt to mask the taste. The result was a success and I have been adding a little to each bottle now without protest, so I’m glad to have saved the breast milk kefir!

With that said, I do not plan on making breast milk kefir ever again! Really, breast milk is already the perfect source of nutrition for your baby, and, well, “If it ain’t broke…..” Basically, I now know to leave well-enough alone.

To the breastfeeding mothers out there (you’re awesome!), if you want your baby to have the probiotic goodness of kefir, just consume it yourself and pass on the benefits through your breast milk that way. In my opinion, culturing breast milk is unnecessary since it already has so many gut-nourishing goodness to offer, so don’t waste your time like I did.

After our kefir quarrel, Avery and I had a pretty good rest of the day and even ended it by watching a classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoon from 1987 on YouTube. I’m pretty sure I owned the cassette tape to the one we watched and plan on watching more very soon! Hopefully Going Mom will allow a little TMNT action!

Well, I’m tired, here are my pics to share from today. So excited to have my wife return home today!! Too bad it’s late at night and Avery will be asleep, but at least she can see me!

Never sure of things upon first waking up.
Never sure of things upon first waking up.
The view at my feet for most of the day.
The view at my feet for most of the day.
Excitement when I get down on the floor with her.
Excitement when I get down on the floor with her.
The result of trying to take a picture after getting down on the floor with her.
The result of trying to take a picture after getting down on the floor with her.

Have you ever tried (or even thought of) to make breast milk kefir?

Would you try if you could?

No One to Cheers With Except Baby

Going Mom and I try to make it a point to cheers each other at the end of every day. There may not always be some miraculous occasion to celebrate, but it’s a great way to focus on the “good” of the day. If nothing else, we just cheers to LOVE, we always have that!

My wife was up by 3 am to get get ready and head to the airport for her business trip yesterday leaving Avery and me to fend for ourselves. It was basically the same as any other week day until the evening rolled around and it was still just a dad and his little girl missing the woman we both love most in life.

Despite missing Kelley, I kept busy and finally began the brewing process with the Belgian Saison beer kit I bought over a month ago.

Avery made sure to lend a hand in the process too. She was quite the helpful baby!

I started before she woke up in the morning at around 7 am, and didn’t finish getting it in the fermenting bucket until nap time at 3 pm. It took a little longer than I expected, but I’m sure it will all be worth it 3 weeks from now! I think Tom Petty says it best in his song “The Waiting”…..it truly is the hardest part.

On top of a successful start to beer brewing, I had my first article published on The Huffington Post! It’s a post I first published here on my blog with a little editing done and I’m thrilled to finally have it published! This has been a huge goal of mine and hopefully this is the first of many more to come!

Overall, it was a pretty good day, but when I sat down with Avery in her high chair for dinner, I had no wife to cheers to. Instead, I raised my glass to Avery who, in return, swiped several peas and a carrot on the floor and kicked up her leg.

Meh, good enough.

Hoping for a good day today and think I might even try to watch the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but always end up putting it off. Maybe this time it will happen….or maybe not, Avery will ultimately decide I guess.

As promised, I’ll share some of my favorite pictures of the day for Going Mom (and anyone else) to enjoy. Kelley, we miss you dear, can’t wait to see you late Wednesday night!

I think I'm awake......right?
I think I’m awake……right?
Just doing a walky-walk in my jammy-jams. No biggie.
Just doing a walky-walk in my jammy-jams. No biggie.
My name is Avery, but you can call me "bubbles"
My name is Avery, but you can call me “bubbles”
Daddy says I'm a good mini brewmaster!
Daddy says I’m a good mini brewmaster!
Where is Avery?
Where is Avery?
There she is!!
There she is!!
And she's out....
And she’s out….

 

Do you have a daily routine like making a cheers or something else?

If so, do you feel at a loss when you don’t do it for the day?

Putting My Stay-At-Home Dad Skills to the Test

Remember how I recently wrote about how my wife is leaving us? Well, she left hours before most people wake up to start their day and by the time you’re reading this, she should be in Boston.

Are you there, dear? Text me! 🙂 Oh, and pick up some Yuengling to bring back home please!!

For the next 3 days, Avery and I will be without Going Mom, but hopefully we’ll still have a great time. I’m excited and nervous about testing my true ability to go it alone, but I know many parents do wayyyy more than this on a daily basis. So what’s 3 days with just one baby?

Guess I’ll find out.

In the meantime, my 3-day plan is to focus on taking a lot of pictures and posting the good ones on here for my wife, Kelley, to enjoy. Of course, I hope that all viewers will enjoy the pics too.

If you’re a baby-loving person who enjoys pictures and not a lot of yapping, I’m positive you’ll like my next few posts. Since I plan on focusing more on my time with Avery, the posts will be less talk and more walk pictures.

Maybe just a few words about the pictures I am posting for the day, but nothing extreme. You’re welcome.

To kick things off, I’m posting several photos I’ve taken lately and simply love how they turned out. Kelley has already seen these, but they’re cute nonetheless, and don’t you try to say otherwise! Even that crazy baby selfie.

 

 

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She was determined (hence the tongue) to reach the ground, but just couldn’t quite make it.

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Everybody’s happier when their almost naked, right? Oh, and they have a blue ring and look like a boy when they’re really a girl. Oops, did I say that?
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Just in case she misses me already, here I am with my makeshift cape before she gave me a haircut the other week. Note to self: hair is attracted to the static from a plastic trash bag.
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When it’s been a rough day, there’s nothing like Mommy’s fluffy sock and an even fluffier bear to make things all better.

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Hopefully, both my wife and Avery and I are having a great start to the week and will be able to FaceTime tonight.

Check back tomorrow for pictures of our first day alone.

To those of you laughing at my measly 3 days when you do this every day, any tips/advice you care to share?

Any stories from when you used go it alone or did at least once?