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!

Life, Promo

Our First Mow With EGO

03/24/2015 R.C. Liley 3 Comments

The EGO Power Plus team recently sent me their Power+ 56V Lithium-Ion Cordless Lawn Mower to use and review on my blog, and I just used it for the first mow of the season!

This is not my review, just my initial thoughts after using it this past weekend. While I was excited for what was in the box, Avery was more excited about THE box.

And a mighty cool box at that! Just the quality packaging let you know EGO is a company that puts care into their products and wants them to arrive safely to their destination. Here are the specs as listed on their website:

4.0Ah 56 -Volt Lithium-Ion Battery: Industry’s most powerful battery
30-Minute Charger: Industry’s fastest charger
Up To A 45-Minute Cut Time: Battery run time meets or exceeds charge time
Fold Flat In Seconds: Convenient storing and cleaning
20” Cut Capacity: Reduces the number of passes required to cut your lawn
True 3-In-1 Function: Superior mulching, rear bagging and side discharge performance
LED Headlights: Allow for mowing anytime
600W, High-Torque, Magnetic Motor: Designed for high power output at 3300RPM’s
Convenient Push-Button Start: No more pull cord, easily starts at the press of a button

Out of the box and ready go in a matter of minutes, their cordless mower is perfect for those too impatient to read through assembly instructions.

The battery already had a good charge when it arrived, but I’m a charging nazi and feel like everything I own must always be charged or charging. So, I set the ultra-cool, futuristic battery on its charger to make sure I had a full charge before mowing the grass.

I was prepared to wait at least 30 minutes for the battery to charge, but it was ready to go in less than 10! I hardly had time to go pee and blow my nose, geez! No, it doesn’t really take me that long, so no wise cracks (not here either) about it. 🙂

It was dark to where I needed headlights, but honestly, why wouldn’t you use headlights on your push mower if you had them? Seriously, how cool is that? I think I’ll mow at night sometime soon just because I can!

For the first mow of the season, we use a very low setting to scalp the yard in order to foster new growth and bag the dead grass trimmings. The rest of the time we choose to mulch fresh-cut grass when it’s green and thriving as it has a lot to give back to the ground, but the dead stuff sitting around all winter doesn’t have much to offer.

Scalping would put EGO’s claim to have the most powerful rechargeable mower on the market that still delivers the performance of gas. Upon starting the electric beast (no pull string battle!), I set off to cut our grass.

Compared to gas mowers, the EGO is pretty quiet (thanks for catching my typo, Gary!). Of course, cutting grass will be noisy to some degree since debris and other things being hit by the blades make noise no matter what you have. But this battery-powered machine performed like a champ and it’s 20 inch deck had me finished in no time.

Or so I thought. Avery pointed out a few spots I missed and demanded that I hold her so she can show me where to go.

What a great helper, we’d have such a messy lawn without her low level eyes to spot my imperfections! Her not being scared of the mower is a testament to how non-threatening the noise level is, don’t you think? After finishing, I tried sweeping off the mower as it was driving me crazy that it was dirty.

I know, I know, it’s a freakin’ mower, that’s what it’s for! Go ahead, tell me again, Going Mom already laughed at me anyway.

While mowing, when I went over an area that rose up coming in contact with the blades more than normal, an orange light would flash letting me know of the issue and if it got worse, the mower to auto-shutoff. This was no problem since it easily started right back up, and I had the setting on the lowest level to scalp the yard, so during normal use I don’t expect this to happen.

I’m used to spending close to an hour mowing like I did last season with our reel mower, which I still think is cool for the exercise factor, just not the clean-cut grass part. With the EGO, I’m done in less than 30 minutes and our yard looks great!

Looking forward to using our EGO Power Plus Mower this season, and will post a full review after several sessions, including at least one at night! If anything does go wrong, it’s great to know Avery can help us fix whatever it is. Apparently she’s quite the expert in battery-powered lawn mowers. Or so it would seem….

Do you have or have you heard of the EGO line of battery powered yard tools?

Are you an electric user or gas junkie when it comes to power tools?

Gas is a big enough of a pain for our cars, so I absolutely love not having to worry about it when it comes to other power equipment. Plus, it’s much cleaner and safer for nosy kids who like to touch everything!

Baby Wearing, Life, Parenting

Expo Adventures with Dallas Dads and Britax

03/23/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Last Saturday, our Dallas Dads Group had the honor of working with Britax to hold a car seat safety workshop at the DFW Family Expo. I’m not sure why, but I enjoy going to expos even though I’m not a big fan of crowds. Even more so when the crowds have crazy kids running all over the place. Oops, that was us!

Avery running wild at the #dfwfamexpo2015 with @britaxus and @dallasdadsgroup! @britax #BritaxSafety #citydads

A video posted by RC Liley (@going_dad) on Mar 21, 2015 at 11:18am PDT

We went into the event with our crazy ~~animal~~ toddler safely contained in her Boba Baby Carrier nice a snug with Going Mom. Britax was setup in a prime location at the entrance for all to see and had their car seat safety workshop sign displayed for all to see. Britax is a major supporter of our nationwide City Dads Group, and it was exciting to be part of their event! First, we rendezvoused with all of the dads and the Britax team who graciously provided lunch for our group, it was time to explore. But, I think it was right after the picture with the abominable snow-dog that Avery could no longer be confined to staring up at and pushing Mommy’s chin. With that, Kelley set Avery free into the wild, errr….expo. Avery wasted no time! Even with the two of us, Kelley and I could hardly keep track of our little girl. How do those little legs get so far so fast?! Not that I ever want anything to do with Nesquick or the like, but we were thankful for their booth having these large dice. Until, that is, she tried to run away with them. We took the dice away and returned them which obviously meant toddler meltdown. Using our brains, we tossed Avery in a nearby bounce house in hopes of cheering her up Phew, I think it worked! Silly kid had a ball dancing, clapping and even playing with other kids. Or getting pushed down by them, but she had fun and that’s what matters most! The hard part was getting her back out, and then figuring out how to calm her down again. Thankfully, the force was with us when something strange caught her attention. Storm Troops and Darth Vader?! Score! Obviously, we had to pose with the Dark Side, and Darth Vader was there too. 😉

I wasn’t there, but some of the dads and their kids gathered for a (friendly?) group photo.

Pretty cool stuff, huh? Avery was getting very obnoxious and hungry, but she wasn’t nursing with Going Mom very well because so much was going on. I gave her some organic applesauce in a squeeze pouch, yes, like I once said I’d never do, which only helped for maybe 3.23 minutes.

Then it was off on another rampant tour of the expo grounds.

No fear, this child, no fear. It was almost time for the main event, Britax’s Car Seat Safety Workshop, so we made our way back to the front to join the rest of the crowd eager to learn about #BritaxSafety. The beautiful and kind Britax ladies, Kate and Sarah, put on an excellent workshop jam-packed with useful information.

Did you know heavy jackets and other winter clothing should be removed before putting your kid in their car seat and that the chest clip on car seats should be at armpit level? Or that you should keep your child rear facing at least to 2 years old and longer if the weight limit of your car seat allows? Also, it’s better to tighten the straps until you think it’s good enough, and then pull some more since 60% of the harnesses are not tight enough.

When it comes to our kids and safety, Britax has us covered. We have their Boulevard ClickTight Car Seat, and Avery loves it. Not to mention we love all of it’s safety features and easy installation.

Britax, car seat, safety — Happy in her Britax Car Seat!

Unfortunately, Avery kept on getting more and more irritable, and Kelley had to put her back in the Boba and try her best to keep her calm.

But it wasn’t long until all was lost and Going Mom gave “the look” letting me know we were already pushing our luck.

She frantically went to the car in hopes that Avery would nurse better there, and I stayed until the workshop was over. Right after it ended, I had to bail. I know we were already pushing our luck, but I wish we could’ve stayed just a little longer since we missed out on the great group photo taken just minutes after we left.

Great group of dads and their families right there! Sorry we missed it, but at least we were able to get our photo with Kate from Britax. Thank you, Kate, for taking time to pose with us!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by RC Liley (@going_dad)

All in all, it was a wonderful experience, and despite Avery’s craziness, I’m glad she got to experience something new. Plus, she slept very good that night!

Are you part of any parenting groups?

Do you still have a kid in car seats? Do they still sit rear-facing?

Life, Parenting

Our Toddler’s Dance Video & A Bottle Trick

03/21/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Avery has been dancing for a couple months now, and I shared a dance video of her getting down with Jay-Z trying to get that “Dirt Off Her Shoulder” in the past.

A video posted by RC Liley (@going_dad) on Feb 20, 2015 at 9:27am PST

I love watching that over and over, it never gets old, but I’ve been wanting to capture another version of her dancing for a while, and was finally successful. No matter what she’s doing in the house, when the intro music to a podcast I’m listening to comes on, she’ll stop and just bust a move wherever she is.

There have been many failed attempts at getting this on video, but here is my short, but successful video capture of Avery getting down.

I love it! Just another thing that will never get old and I’m happy to be able to share it. Go ahead, watch it again, I bet you’ll laugh harder than the first time. If not, go away, it’s cute and I don’t care what you say!

Today’s post is short and quick since we’re at the DFW Family Expo along with our Dallas Dads Group to be part of a Car Seat Safety Workshop put on by Britax. Going Mom and Avery will have plenty to do and see as I help with our group, but I hope to spend time with my girls too. I’ll fill you in on how it went.

Before I leave, Avery wanted me to show you her new picking up a bottle without hands trick.

First, you have to have it on a flat surface. Or the curved seat of daddy’s indoor rower sitting in the kitchen. Make sure to angle yourself just right before going in for the latch.

Then, with full concentration, latch on to the bottle and bite down hard so it doesn’t drop! Side note: do not do this when actually nursing from your Mommy!

That’s it! Once you’ve accomplished the trick (if you’re good like me), go ahead and reward yourself with a good drink of Mommy’s milk; the best stuff on earth for growing kids!