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 and handsome little boy, Wes, who joined our family on 11/19/17. Also happily married to my wife, Kelley, as of 8/17/07. Sorry ladies... :) Fitness and nutrition is of the utmost 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!

How Do Kids Learn to Dance?

My dance skills can be likened to what you’d see if you filled a burlap sack full of angry cats. Like this one, times ten….
Do it, see what happens.
Do it, see what happens.

How Do Kids Learn to Dance?

It’s ugly.

Actually, I found an old college photo of me “dancing” with a friend.

Dancing with Jesse

Yes, I had a goatee. No, there is nothing sexual about this picture. Yes, drinking was involved (see beer in hand).

Anyway, I’m sure I made my point; I suck at dancing. Sorry, Kelley. I was getting worried that Avery would fall down the same rabbit hole and be stuck with Daddy’s lack of moves, but she’s already better than me. Even a few months ago when she got down with Jay-Z.

Don’t worry, I was dancing like in the previous photo.

That little stand in one spot and squat move is about all I’ve showed her for dancing, and really it was meant more for the actually squatting exercise. But hey, no matter if you’re good or not, dancing is a great form of exercise!

Lately, Avery has branched from just standing in one spot. I’m not sure if it’s just the “pecking” order of getting older, but both Kelley and I have never showed how to dance like a chicken.

Sadly, that’s better than what I could do. And she even adds a little twist to her dancing. Again, no clue where it came from, but always fun to watch.

Not kidding, she’ll press the buttons on that cat to make it play music over and over…….and over again all day just so she can dance. She takes it seriously too, there’s no messing around when it’s dance time! Unless it’s to bust a move, that is.

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All I know is that seeing her dance every day is a huge help to keep things light around here. I try not to talk about it too much, even though I have, but this whole staph infection thing is seriously limiting things I normally do. Just sitting down to read books to Avery is a pain in the ass…..not kidding.

I still exercise and go on several walks daily because, stubborn, but I know I’m not performing my best. That and I can tell it affects my mood if I’m not mindful enough. Do you ever get that way about something? Whether it’s physical or mental, you let it show through in your attitude?

We’re probably all guilty of it, but hopefully I can come to terms and better manage this since I still have a while for everything to heal. That said, I’ll end the post here today. Hoping for an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend with Going Mom and Avery. We don’t have a lot planned, just hopefully catching up on some Walking Dead episodes and then going over to Kelley’s parents to have her dad take pictures of Avery.

He has a nice studio setup and always enjoys having such a lovely subject to photograph. The subject, on the other hand, isn’t always the most cooperative…..

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Have a great weekend and Memorial Day!

Any plans for the long weekend?

Ever let your mood get the best of you at the expense of those around you?

Stuck With Staph And I Need A Laugh

Remember my staph butt issue from last week? Yeah, it’s getting better, butt (ha ha, never gets old!) it still hurts and has another 2 weeks of healing to go.

Or at least that’s how long I have to take antibiotics. What sucks, though, is that even after I’m done with the antibiotics, I still technically have staph. I guess it’s not all that uncommon, but I’m a registered carrier of the infectious bacteria. And, as confirmed by the doctor I saw last Tuesday, it’s Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Not a big surprise as I’ve had it before when on vacation in Colorado back in 2011. I tried my damnedest to make the most of the trip and went out with Kelley to be as active as possible, but what I thought was just a painful nose pimple blew up into a massive MRSA infection that brought us to the local ER. Apparently if I waited longer it could’ve got into my brain and blah blah….it was bad.

Basically, I will always have the nasty and stubborn-to-treat version of staph inside me. I guess my nose is where it’s usually hanging out, so I better watch my ass and lay off the picking!

Speaking of ass, I can almost sit comfortably again, but still find myself shifting every 5 minutes. Luckily, I stand all day, I even use the island as my computer work area, so it’s only an issue at night. I’m thinking I won’t be doing any half-marathons on my indoor rower any time soon.

Hopefully this doesn’t mean Avery is a potential carrier, but we’ll keep on the lookout just to be safe.

If you read through this far, I’m sure you know more about the staph in my nose and butt than you’d ever care to, so how about a few puns to lighten things up? I could use a good laugh myself.

If you’ve been a reader for a while or just know me, you know I’m a fan of puns. Corny or not, I love’em, so here’s a few to enjoy or loathe as you see fit.

  • A jumper cable walks into a bar. He gets a lot of dirty looks and says,”Calm down, I’m not looking to start anything.”
  • I recently got a job at the office for national statistics, but I’m only there to make up the numbers.
  • I met a guy who lost all of his toes and he instantly annoyed me. Guess I’m lack-toes intolerant.
  • Did you hear about the kidnapping?!?!?! …. He was really tired.
  • Everyone tells me I’m a skeptic, but I don’t believe a word they say.
  • My wife said she’s leaving me because of my poker addiction. I think she’s bluffing.
  • I thought I could trust my acupuncturist, but then he stabbed me in the back.

Enjoy your Friday! I promise my next post will be better with a big focus on Avery.

Are you a carrier of staph?

Do you know if being a carrier means your kids are too?

How did you like the puns?

One Year Since We Began Baby-Led Weaning #TBT

Can you believe it’s been a year since we first started baby-led weaning with Avery?!

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Oh boy was that stressful! Wait a sec, it’s still stressful, if not worse. She hardly touched the stuff at first, so it was only us doing the picking up part. I know, that’s NOT BLW then!

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Instead of not knowing what to do with it, she now picks up food, fully aware that it’s meant to be eaten, and throws it instead. In retrospect, I kinda miss the BLW days.

In true Throwback Thursday fashion, I am going back in time to when we first started down this road of having more than just breast milk for Avery’s food. We still have a long way to go, but she’s actually a really good eater compared to some of her peers.

Giving her an assortment of veggies from the get-go has paid off as she happily (usually) eats them all and never cries for some sugary packaged snacks. Because we don’t have those in the house and never will!

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Avery still eats plenty of steamed veggies, mostly broccoli, carrots (her current favorite), and cauliflower. For a real treat, it’s banana with NuttZo and she can really put it away! But we’re not talking about now, this is all about then….a year ago.

Maybe I’ll have a post a year from now and we’ll go over Avery’s ability to make a whole banana with lots of NuttZo disappear fast! For now, have a look back to May of 2014 with me and enjoy the posts detailing the start of our baby-led weaning journey.

To kick things off, I started looking into our options and shared my top ten Pinterest picks on Baby-Led Weaning. Avery then had to give her input about Beyond Breast Milk where she tries non-food items…..like my finger.

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Things were a bit rough for a while and I cursed how easy things seemed when looking all over Pinterest. Instead of happily picking up the food we put in front of her, Avery just sat there and looked at us. This led me to try putting a piece of food in her mouth to help show her what it’s for. Of course this is not BLW as I already mentioned, which is why I created How Not to Start Baby-Led Weaning With Your Baby.

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Time passed and we were seeing little progress. Naturally, I blogged about our BLW Fail but also shared Avery’s first experience with our then pet turtle.

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We were beginning to think Avery would never eat solids on her own, and I was convinced that babies are fully aware of yo-yo dieting. But then, it happened, someone made positive progress in the BLW department. Do you know who?

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Good job, Avery, it was you!

From there, we’ve been on a crazy roller-coaster ride (such is parenting, huh?) with her eating good some days and throwing it in our faces on other days. But after a 10k race I did on Memorial Day last year, Avery made great progress and even stuffed her face!

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She’s come a long way from a year ago, and now she’ll eat the same thing I make for my wife most of the time. Some days she’s picky and others she’ll gobble everything in sight. From the experienced parents, I hear it’s normal and accept it as such…….kinda.

It’s still nerve-racking to have things you spend time cooking just thrown on the floor or given to the dog. Hopefully I’m not alone here. I’m sure it’s easier if you just pick something up at a fast food chain, but that’s something she’ll never be given by us, so I’ll continue to put my care into the meals I make my family and know it’s world’s better than what you’d get at some restaurant.

How did you start your kids off eating solids?

Do you find it hard to watch food you make go by the wayside?