Category Archives: Parenting

Exercise Reading: #MySundayPhoto – 05.31.15

05/31/2015 R.C. Liley 6 Comments

It’s not only exercise equipment in her ~~cage~~ play area in the garage, she has books too. I recently added books for Avery to read as I workout in the garage and now she goes from swinging her kettlebell to reaching for a book.

But in either case, she keeps her back safe by always wearing the weight belt. Unless Daddy needs it for some heavy lifting, then I give it right back!

I love seeing her into both fitness and reading! As long as my wife and I keep it fun, there’s no reason not to continue down the path to great mental and physical health.

If you had to choose one or the other right now, would it be a workout session or reading?

Life, Parenting

Coffee or Beer: What Would You Give Up?

05/30/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Does the thought of having to choose either coffee or beer and give up the other make you cringe? Or maybe it gives you the shakes…..or it’s sobering to think about!

It’s a question that enters my thoughts frequently, usually as I’m enjoying one or the other and wonder what others would choose.

For me, I will happily give up beer to keep that precious black liquid flowing, but beer would still be missed. I have been alcohol-free since before getting on antibiotics for my butt issue and haven’t found myself missing it that much. But coffee, oh man, coffee, would be dearly missed if I had to lay off.

Luckily, that’s not the case and I’m a happy camper drinking it daily. Knowing where I stand, I took to asking my fellow Dad Bloggers what they would choose. Now I see these guys posting their drinks of choice all the time and figured most of them would give up coffee in lieu of beer, but turns out, it’s about 50/50.

Well, from the 100+ that answered.

I gathered all of the comments, removed the names and time stamps, censored one, and left the rest as-is and figured I’d share them here. I meant to ask if they would give up alcohol in general, and I quickly realized my mistake. Without further adieu, here are the replies:

·        My first instinct was to keep beer, but sharing a cup of coffee with my wife in the quiet before the kids wake up is always something I look forward to.

·        I really enjoy beer but I enjoy coffee more. In saying that, I drink beer like once a month. Coffee is weekly.

·        I gave up coffee and haven’t had it in 15 years

·        I enjoy beer, but I really appreciate coffee. So, I’d give up beer.

·        I don’t drink aside from special occasions (christmas, etc) but I cannot function without coffee.

·        I’d keep coffee and give up beer because I don’t drink it. I must have coffee in my life.

·        I’m not a huge beer drinker. Now, if it were between whiskey and coffee, you’d have to pry them from my cold, dead hands.

·        I would keep coffee because I drink it more. But if we are going great for most beneficial, I probably should give up coffee because I drink it more. I have 1-2 beers every now and then, but I drink 4-6 cups of coffee a day.

·        See I enjoy fresh roasted properly brewed coffee so that happens for me once a week or once every two weeks when I get time. The only thing I take out of moderation is soda. I need to give up soda.

·        I still get Whiskey, right? Then beer. Beer for sure.

·        I don’t need beer to function…

·        I need to cut soda out again. Last time I did I lost 12lbs of water weight in 20 days.

·        I gave up soda for New Year’s and am glad I did. I’ve lost weight and feel better drinking water or the occasional glass of sweet tea.

·        I work nights and get up early with the kids, I need the coffee.

·        Since cutting out everything but coffee and water, I can’t hardly finish a beer anymore. Every time I want one I stop myself because I don’t want to waste half of it. haha

·        This was tough, but I suppose wine will always be there for me.

·        I couldn’t give up soda (primarily sugar-free Cola) I know its bad for me, but I have an addiction and its got me bad! Its the only substance that I’ve actually been properly addicted to

·        I’d give up beer before coffee. There are other ways to relax, but coffee gets me functional

·        I have mostly given up soda. I have a 1L Nalgene bottle with me everywhere

·        Beer makes me happy. Coffee keeps me sane. I’ll take sanity over happiness. And I will still drink bourbon.

·        Never had either. So, neither.

·        I’m a specialty coffee drinker and part of traveling is visiting specially coffee shops. So coffee is very intertwined into everyday life but also part of experiencing and understanding the different cities.

·        Although I love beer it’s the coffee atmosphere that I prefer.

·        What kind of question is this? Nobody wants to live in your $@#@% up world RC.

·        “Does whiskey count as beer?”

·        Why you making us think so hard in the AM?

·        You can have the beer.. I like my Jameson and my coffee..

·        I drink so little beer, and don’t really even like it that much much of the time. So, I’d keep my daily flavored creamer with a dash of coffee.

·        I like beer, and will have 1 or two a week… But coffee is something I drink 2 cups of daily. I can give up beer and only drink scotch as long as you keep the coffee flowing! I mention other great uses for the “mug of the week” which I should be posting later today if I can figure out how to post an audio file.

·        I can replace coffee with other caffeine sources and I can drink a coffee stout if I get to missing the taste.

·        I feel like I could find a suitable replacement for beer, but not for coffee.

·        Keep the coffee (and cannoli), leave the beer.

·        Beer is a much less common feature in my life than coffee.

·        I don’t drink coffee. I do drink beer.

·        I love beer, but coffee is necessary to function.

·        Coffee… because there is always other forms of alcohol.

·        I don’t drink either. I’m sure that’s gonna get me kicked out of Portland eventually.

·        As much as I love Beer… I can not give up coffee.

·        I’ll gladly give up coffee. And bacon. And Star Wars.

·        I went from drinking over a gallon of soda every day to none over the course of the last two weeks. I’ve been soda-free for four days. I may still have it when we go to a movie, but other than that it’s been plain water or flavored water.

·        I don’t drink coffee at all, a rarity for someone who works th r overnight shift, but I never developed a taste for it, and really don’t even like the smell if it.

·        I drink gallons of coffee so I would choose to keep it.

·        I don’t drink coffee at all, so if I gave up beer I’d get dehydrated

·        I wouldn’t have to give up anything. Beer is my savior.

·        The choice was kind of made for me since I needed to go gluten free. I’ve rarely had a gluten free beer in 3 years. Wine, on the other hand…

·        I like both, naturally, but I’d sooner give up on beer than I would give up on coffee. I can always have wine, whiskey, etc. etc.

·        I would give up beer in a heart beat. Not coffee.

·        I drink a good amount of both. Would give up coffee before beer. Tastes better and costs just as much or more.

·        Having been on coffee bans twice in my life, both times for a month, and knowing how I came close to killing everyone around me, I would struggle to give up coffee for good. It’s my only vice.

·        Coffee. But then I never drink the stuff.

·        I would give up beer.

·        LOL easy enough to do, I havent had any alcohol in over 10 years.

·        If you really want to polarize the group, offer giving up cocaine or hookers.

·        I’d keep hookers. Oh, wrong question. I would keep coffee because there is no substitute for it. I LOVE beer, but I love JD even more, so that would drown my sorrows re: beer.

·        Need coffee or can’t even wake up in the morning. Without beer, well at least there’s whiskey and wine.

·        Beer would go. There’s always whiskey.

·        I’d keep beer. Not a big coffee fan nor a fan of hot drinks. Only coffee I drink is iced coffee if it has some kind of flavoring in it, so it wouldn’t be that big a loss. For beer i’m a quality guy not a quantity guy. Also, how the hell does Tom aka Mr Tom’s House of Beer choose to keep coffee over beer?

·        Tom I know, I know. There are a lot of fantastic beers. I guess I could get my caffeine from elsewhere. I do love my beer

·        RC Liley Soooo, nice to see where so many of you stand. I wrote this question and then had a full day of not being on FB until now!

·        I should’ve said alcohol in general as scotch/other liquor is an obvious loophole, so-to-speak. I’m with the coffee keepers though

·        RC Liley One last thing, thanks to all of you for sharing your thoughts! Love the coffee stout idea, that’s the way to go too!

·        If the question was rephrased to ask coffee or alcohol, then coffee is out. Gotta have my scotch!

·        RC Liley It would be a harder decision, but i’d stick with coffee still

·        Pierre Calzadilla Priority of food: Water -> Coffee -> All other things that enter mouth

I get that these are all dads/men, but figure the same holds true for the general population. Just a hunch.

What side of the fence are you on? Think about it as you’re most likely enjoying your weekend cup (or 3) of coffee today or as you’re gearing up for some good beer this evening.

I’ll leave you with this infographic depicting the effects of beer vs coffee to see if it helps you in your decision.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your coffee…..or beer…….or both!!

Parenting

More Teething and The Fort Returns

05/28/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Last July, I excitedly constructed a fort with the baby ~~jail~~ gate we setup in the living room for Avery. But not just any fort, it was a Ninja Turtle fort and I was quite proud of myself. It was a story worth sharing with the network of professionals from book blog tours to craft an exciting book about it!

I’m not fond of the Nickeldeon version, but this is the only blanket I had with my favorite teenage terrapins, so I made it work. I thought it was pretty cool, but Avery, on the hand, not so much.

She eventually warmed up to it, kinda, but we ended up taking it down after about a month.

Back to current day, we just took down the entire gate setup in our living room giving Avery a wider range of freedom throughout the house. The dog, Abby, is still stuck behind gates, but even she has a little more freedom than before.

I prefer Abby to keep in one main area since sheds so much and gets a little too crazy around Avery. She’s a sweet dog, but for some reason I get annoyed by her too easily. Sorry, Abby.

With our living room back to normal, I decided to make it not normal again by tearing out the cushions and taking a shot at building a couch fort. Of course the Ninja Turtle blanket had to come back out, but my plans were quickly thwarted by our apparently hungry toddler.

I don’t blame her, it was a pretty weak setup. I wouldn’t trust crawling inside either.

I think Avery tried to make me feel better by pretending to enjoy putting her face into the pillow next to the fort though.

Or maybe she was cursing and trying not to let me hear. After messing around with the arrangement a while, I brought part of the baby gates back in hopes of making a better fort. Once again, Avery was there to derail my hard work.

Guess she’s had enough of the gates after they’ve been between her and freedom for literally her whole life. So who can blame her? Instead, she took to doing her crazy spin dance with her toy kitty after taking down the fort.

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I wish I could say she gets it from her mom, but that would be a lie. Instead, I think I owe my mom, G-Ma, a huuuuggggeee apology. Sorry, mom.

The fort will make a comeback soon. Hopefully bigger and stronger than before and one she actually wants to play in. After expending so much energy in fort destruction, I was positive Avery would sleep well, but when my wife discovered an incoming tooth right before bedtime, that thought quickly went the way of my couch fort; crushed.

Sure enough, right before midnight, Avery woke up screaming. My way of dealing with this is to let it go most of the time unless she has a distinct “I pooped” scream. This sounded like that scream, but I wasn’t getting up yet. Instead, Going Mom came to the rescue to soothe our screaming child.

I came in a few minutes later when the screaming didn’t stop and found that her diaper leaked, but no poop. I changed the sheets and Kelley nursed Avery back to sleep.

The screaming returned at around 2 a.m. and this time I went to see what magic I could work. Turns out, no magic. I held her constantly squirming body and rocked in the chair as she re-enacted the Texas tornadoes we’ve had around us. Gone are the days of that little baby that fit so easily in our hands and calmly rested on our chest like this…

With the screams still going strong but I could feel her wearing out, I just laid on the nursery floor with her in hopes that she’d settle down. At first she stood up and cried some more, but finally she crawled on top of my chest and fell asleep in minutes.

It was sweet, and something I don’t want to forget, but my airways were also blocked making it hard to breathe. I passed the time by thinking of different book ideas I want to write some day before using my Turkish Get Up skills to stand and lay her in her crib.

Poor girl, she didn’t move an inch through the process and slept through the rest of the night. Hopefully this tooth pushes through and we don’t have another night like that, but only time will tell.

I want to write a series of kids’ books called “Avery Eats” where each book is centered on one food that Avery learns about while trying it out for herself. There’s more to it than that, but with the help of book blog tours and the vast network of publishers and authors, I could definitely bring it to life!

Are you good at building couch forts? Any pointers?

Have any aspirations to write a book of your own or have you already? Again, any pointers?