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!

Life, Parenting

Co-Sleeping in the Crib and Learning to Crawl with Lasers

06/12/2014 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Would you believe I’m still not done covering my birthday weekend? I guess I am more wordy than I realize. Sorry but not sorry, if you know what I mean. 🙂

After opening my tasty gifts from Going Mom and Avery, we hung around the kitchen to have breakfast and more coffee (for me, at least). It had been a few hours since Avery was awake, and surprise, she started showing signs of sleepiness!

Face rubbing, ear scratching, constantly squirming, and let us not forget, fussing, were all happening with Avery. So, Kelley gathered our little fuss box and brought her in the nursery to attempt getting her to sleep. Avery went fairly easily and slept without much resistance.

And then she kept sleeping. Finally, we were ready to bring her out to the pool, so after almost 3 hours, it was time for us to wake her! But first, I had to try something…

Co-sleeping in the crib! Sure, we did co-sleeping in our room when Avery was younger, but what about the crib? Besides the wood creaking in protest at a heavy adult climbing into it, Avery stayed asleep…..for 30 seconds.

I’ve seen other pictures of dads doing this, so I had to give it a shot. I’ll call it a success, and I think Avery didn’t mind, she was just a little confused.

Since she was finally awake, we gathered our pool gear (which is really nothing but swimsuits) and walked down to our neighborhood pool. Avery had been one time before this trip and enjoyed the water, so we expected the same again.

Our expectations were right on as she had a blast, and we even brought her in the big pool!

Kelley and Avery_Pool_B-day — Too cool for drool

She wears her shades with pride; just like her mommy!

After getting our fill of the water, we journeyed back home to spend the rest of my 30th relaxing. We’ve been laying a blanket out in our living room for Avery to roll and attempt to crawl around on, and we figured we would try and teach her to crawl. This meant laser pointer time!

Yep, fun for Lou (the fat cat) and Avery! Abby, our Golden, wasn’t too impressed. We would hold the red dot in front of Avery and marvel at her raising both arms in the air as she lunged forward into crawl position.

Each time, we’d hold our breath and think “This is it!”, but then she’d fall over or just sit back up.

Oh well, we’ll keep trying because she is very close to figuring this out, and lasers will help get us there! As night drew near, Kelley and I shared one of the awesome beers she got for me and had a cheers to a great weekend.

I was still feeling it from the day before at the brewery, so splitting this hefty beer was plenty.

Avery slept a little better that night and so did we. It’s never fun saying goodbye to the weekend, especially when it’s your birthday, but I had a wonderful time with my mom, Paul, Kelley, and Avery. Thank you all for the great 30th; love you!

How did/would you train your baby to crawl, or did they do it on their own?

Ever try sleeping in a crib?

Parenting

Is Caffeine in Breast Milk Bad?

06/11/2014 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

It’s a question any coffee/tea loving nursing mother has probably asked, and for good reason; no one wants to hurt their baby because of what they consumed. Same goes for fathers for the same reason.

I never finished detailing my birthday weekend from yesterday’s post as I only covered Saturday, the day before my actual birthday. As I mentioned then, we stopped at the restaurant Brewed after the 5k race for coffee and brunch. I didn’t eat, but enjoyed their locally roasted coffee with many, many refills.

Going Mom also partook in the coffee consumption, and rightfully so, she was up early and boldly drove us around some of the “unpleasant” areas of Forth Worth to get us to the race. Kelley has only had one full cup of coffee a handful of times since having Avery, but that day, she had 4 cups. Yep, and we don’t add cream, sugar, and all of that crap, so the cups were purely coffee.

Avery had been up for a long time with minimal napage (it’s a word), and we fully expected to have her hit the crib hard and sleep through the night. WRONG! Kelley nursed her to sleep after bath time as usual, but just a few hours later Avery was wide awake crying.

We knew something was wrong when the crying didn’t subside after 5 minutes like usually would happen at this time. Kelley marched back in the nursery, loaded with fresh breast milk, and proceeded to calm and nurse Avery back to sleep. An hour later, she was back asleep in her crib, and we tried to go back to sleep as well.

Silly parents, Avery didn’t feel like sleeping that long; she was sitting up crying maybe an hour and a half later. Kelley did her thing once more, and finally made it back to bed again only to have Avery again! My poor, tired wife didn’t want me to have to go in there for my birthday, but I insisted on giving it a shot.

Keyword, “shot”, because I did nothing to help! She wouldn’t take a bottle and all she did was make it very awkward to hold her. At one point, she let out a blood curdling cry which had Kelley in the nursery faster than you can say “crazy baby”. At this point, this sun was rising and we decided to give up and stay awake.

I asked her if she wanted coffee and then we both laughed. We actually have a non-caffeine herbal coffee alternative that I make her, so I prepared a cup for both of us as we sat on the back porch with our ~~spawn from hell~~ sweet baby.

That’s Avery’s head and you can see my legs in the background. As long as she was being held, Avery was happy, and it was actually a pleasant way to start my 30th.

After sitting outside for a while, we went back inside where Kelley had my gifts sitting out on the island. Sneaking lady, that wife of mine!

Schneider Weisse Aventinus is my favorite beer, and I got three; one for each decade. I’m not a big drinker, and usually keep it to one glass on most days (unless I’m at a brewery!), but I expect high quality from my beverages and Aventinus is just that!

Kelley made the card herself as she knows I think buying cards is unnecessary most of the time and handmade is more thoughtful. She did a lot better than my handmade cards to her and I loved it! Inside the card I found this…

A Microbrew Beer of the Month Club for US Beers! Most of you probably think I’m lying, but I promise, I don’t drink a lot, just want good beer when I do. I’ll be getting 12 beers from different US microbreweries for the next four months to enjoy. Perfect timing since Avery is showing signs of teething!

With 12 beers each month, I bet we’ll have a nice stash by the end since we haven’t finished the 6 pack I bought over a month ago. I expect to share these with Kelley so we can enjoy together, because drinking alone is just sad.

The brown bag had fresh cremini and portobello mushrooms; one of my favorites! I could eat a huge bowl of mushrooms (the non-trippy kind) and go back for seconds; yum! For my 28th b-day, my co-workers knew how I avoid sugary, processed food, and that I love mushrooms, so they even gave me a Portobello mushroom cake!

They didn’t have the right candles, so a “0” had to do, and I loved it.

I’ve been enjoying several birthday mushrooms on top of my salad every night since and am glad Kelley bought them for me. Thanks, Kelley….and Avery too!

Despite our earlier than expected start to the day, we ended up have a great time together and even brought Avery for another trip to the pool. Thankfully, the caffeine must’ve finally wore off as she slept a little better that night. I need to extend my b-day weekend stories to another post as it’s late and my bed is beckoning.

Oh yeah, to answer the question; a little caffeine shouldn’t be of concern and is generally safe to have while breastfeeding. From what I read, only around 1 percent actually ends up in breast milk, and up to 300mg/day should be okay. Of course, everyone is different, so drink at your own risk!

Do or did you drink coffee or another caffeine source while breastfeeding?

Fathers, same question but for your wife/girlfriend/partner.

Have you ever had a non-traditional cake?

Life, Parenting

My Birthday Weekend and Baby’s First Brewery

06/10/2014 R.C. Liley 8 Comments

Well, it happened, I’m another decade. No more starting with a “2” to enter my age, now it’ll be a big “three-oh.”

I keep thinking I see gray hairs now, but Kelley just laughs telling me I’m crazy/paranoid. Secretly, I think she’s thinking, “Oh crap, those are gray!” Oh well, I’ve come to terms and am learning to embrace the thirties; and hey, at least it’s not the forties!

My birthday weekend was off to a “winning” start when Avery and I placed first overall in a small 5k run.

After the race, we headed to a unique restaurant called Brewed that offers local food, coffee, and beer, and an atmosphere that would fit perfectly in Colorado. To us, that’s a good thing, we love Colorado and it’s health-focused environment!

I’ve mentioned before how I am averse to eating out as I am keen on knowing exactly how my food is prepared and want to keep it healthy, so I didn’t expect to eat there. I did see a tasty egg white omelet option, but I have those every day and don’t need to pay $8 for someone else to make it. I know, I’m a fun guy to go out with, huh? You know who else is? This guy….

Sorry, I crack myself up every time with this one!

So, I just ordered an Americano after the waiter promised to give me free refills of their drip coffee. Kelley ordered the egg white entrée and since it included mushrooms, she just requested those be left on the side and kept raw for me to enjoy. Yes, I love mushrooms!

Since I was the non-eater of the group, I held Avery most of the time so everyone else could eat. She was a little squirmy, nothing new, but we made the most of it.

Since she’s so cute, I couldn’t keep her all to myself and she made her rounds at the table. While G-ma was holding her, Paul took a picture of Kelley and me since we thought the curtains made a great background. What do you think?

Isn’t she beautiful? That guy in the picture…he’s pretty damn lucky!

The ultimate plan for the day was to visit a small, local brewery called Martin House Brewery, but it didn’t open until later in the afternoon so we had time to burn. We were right next to downtown Forth Worth and decided we’d check out the new (to us) area. I think the “new” things have been around for some time now, but since we don’t get out much (by choice), we haven’t seen it before.

We mainly wanted to see the new splash pad in the center of downtown and headed there first. Our initial thought was that we could let Avery get in there a little bit, but we soon realized the shooting water would be too much right now. So we just stood in front of it for a picture.

Not sure what that look on my face is all about; I think I was talking. Meh, oh well. The sun was beaming down on us and with the buildings blocking any breeze, sweat was seeping through our pores like they were tiny faucets. Luckily, we found a nice shaded area to sit down and kill time until we were ready to head off to the brewery. Paul enjoyed a little Avery time as she grabbed at his face in curiosity.

Finally, it was time to head out, so we journeyed back to our parking spots and drove maybe 5 miles to the brewery. They had just opened when we arrived which made for a quick entrance and kept us from standing in the sun. It cost $10 to receive their beer glass and a bracelet allowing 3 drinks.

Kelley was the designated babywearer and driver, so she didn’t have to pay. G-ma, Paul, and I all got our glass and had our first round poured in no time; refreshing!

Of course, since I just ran that morning and only had several cups of coffee, three beers would’ve put me way under, so I shared with Kelley. Besides that, I’m not the drinker I was in college, which saves a lot of money and my health, so it doesn’t take much anyway.

Within a few sips I was already feeling nice and warm…..oh wait, that’s because it’s Texas and almost Summer! But I was feeling good, and I think it shows in this picture with Kelley and Avery.

G-ma let Kelley borrow her glass so she didn’t look out of place in the picture. Ummm, Kelley, I think you were the only one wearing a baby, so too late dear!

The beer was great and I’ll be buying several of their brews soon. As expected, it was loud inside the brewery with live music and groups of people trying to talk over one another, but that didn’t keep Avery from sleeping soundly.

How do they do that?

3 beers and several samples later, and I was feeling good, maybe too good. I was ready to leave as were the rest of us, so we said our goodbyes G-ma and Paul and headed back home.

I fully enjoyed my day with the ones I love and always wish it would last longer. We just need to remember to cherish the “now” and not worry so much about the past and future. I’m the worst about this and need to remind myself every day to calm down.

The day after, Sunday, was my actual birthday and it was spent with Kelley and Avery at home most of the day. I meant to share this day with you, but right now I have a baby calling my name (slash crying) and must tend to her needs. I’ll share the rest of my birthday weekend tomorrow….I think.

Do you celebrate birthdays for more than just one day?

Do you ever get caught up worrying too much about what’s to come or what happened in the past?