Category Archives: Parenting

1st and 2nd Place and Our Daughter Feeds Her Face

05/27/2014 R.C. Liley 12 Comments

Rhyming, it just comes naturally as a parent, don’t you think?

So, um, wow, the weekend is gone! Going Mom had four days off and now they’re all gone; what happened?! I guess that’s what happens when you’re having fun….

On that note, Kelley, G-Ma, Avery, and I had a fun and exciting Memorial Day. The day started not bright (because the sun wasn’t up) and early as we had to get ready to head to my last 10k race in my twenties. Kelley actually had to wake Avery up for a change, but she didn’t protest about it at all! I would’ve lost that bet.

It was a cloud-covered morning with a light rain at the race, and it didn’t let up until after everyone finished running. I, for one, happen to love running in the rain as long as it’s not cold, so the conditions were perfect to me. We arrived a little early, so I just hung out with my beautiful support crew for a while.

Luckily, my concern about using the bathroom before the start was never an issue and I was “relieved”! I don’t know, do you think I was just a little too excited about this?

Maybe I was, but it’s better than being really bummed, true?

The race started with both the 5k and 10k runners at the same time, and then we split about 2.5 miles out. I had a great pace to start with and was able maintain it through the finish. I really had not clue how I would do since I only had a few solo runs and the rest have been with Avery in the stroller and our dog, Abby.

I didn’t say it out loud, but my goal was to finish in under 40 minutes, and I just barely made it with a time of 39:59.7! Holy crap, it’s hard to get any closer than that! With an average pace of 6:26/mile, I surprised myself and am very happy with my time. My wonderful and supporting wife, mother, and daughter were at the finish to cheer me on which helped give me that extra push.

I was maxed out at that point! A big thanks to my wife for snapping this action shot! My time put me 1st in my age group, 25 to 29, and 2nd overall. It wasn’t a huge race, but I’m still proud and feel good about it being my last solo race before getting bumped to the 30 to 34 bracket.

Even though I was gassed, I knew I had to get my daily dose of 30 burpees in while I was still warmed up, so I found a spot on the sidewalk and went to work. Thanks again to Kelley for capturing the moment.

Then, probably against her will since I was still sweaty, I posed for a picture with my beautiful mom.

It took forever for all of the awards to be announce, but finally they got to the 10k runners and announced my name. I brought Avery with me and she was given the medal for placing.

She deserves it for being such and awesome baby the whole day! Love our little girl!

Speaking of awesome, our little girl is catching on to eating solids more and more each day. I just posted about her first actual consumption and how I had to “help” by holding the food to her mouth, but now she’s using her own hands!

This was on Sunday before G-Ma arrived to witness what I thought would take forever! But, without my assistance this time, she brought both broccoli and carrot to her mouth and actually ate a little of both!

And, as we all know, along with the consumption of solids, comes the ejection of poop! Avery blessed us twice with the confirmation of her new food groups and needless to say, I installed our diaper sprayer posthaste. Now I finally get to put our Spray Pal through its first test! I’ll let you know how it goes soon!

Since G-Ma missed out on Avery eating on Sunday, we decided to try another BLW moment after we arrived home from the race. I’d say she’s definitely getting the hang of it now; look at that firm grasp on the broccoli and her delicate bite into the floret. Attagirl!!

Good things happening around here! It’s sad when a great weekend has to end, but I know there will be many more great times ahead! Times like spraying a poopy diaper for the first time……or something like that. :/

Okay, I’ll leave it at that for today. Hope everyone enjoyed an extra day off and made sure to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Have a great day!

Any plans for a race of your own yet? Do you even care?

I’m still being stubborn and don’t want anything too sweet, but any suggestions on what to try feeding Avery next?

Parenting, Pinterest Picks

Going Dad’s Top Ten Pinterest Picks (6): Baby Proof Your Home!

05/24/2014 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

You had to of known this one was coming, right? At this point, I’d expect to make these posts related to what we’re currently experiencing/learning with Avery.

Right now, she can sit up without even trying. Seriously, she’ll wake in the middle of the night and all of the sudden, she’s upright…..and crying.

She eventually tumbles over and will (usually) fall back asleep.

Now the next big milestone is crawling and/or walking, and we need to get our house prepared! Of course there’s always something we’ll miss and won’t find out until she finds it for us, but thankfully Pinterest is here to offer a helping hand.

By the way Avery is able to move around just by rolling and scooting, it’s only a matter of time before she’s getting into anything within reach. If you have a baby that’s about to be or already is becoming more mobile, I hope these top ten picks help get you prepared.

1. 10+ Tips for childproofing. Practical tips and advice we all should read up on!

2. Pict-o-graphs are fun and a great way to have important info all on one giant page. Great for printing! Now I just need a printer…..

3. DIY baby gate? Yes please, the store-bought ones are pricey!!

4. We don’t have stairs in our home, but I’m sure many of you do and would like to NOT put holes anywhere. So, here you go!

5. Pool noodles to the rescue! It may not be the prettiest way to baby proof, but you might as well get used to the fact that having a baby isn’t always pretty! We’re slowly catching on…..

6. I shouldn’t have to explain the reasoning here; babies in trash = no good. I didn’t even think of the trash until seeing this Pin!

7. Well looky here, the pool noodles make another safety appearance. Again, is it pretty? No. But will it save your kid from busting their lip or worse? I sure hope so!

8. Room by room tips on baby proofing. Just skip to the rooms you need and see if there’s any new ideas.

9. Okay, last pool noodle Pin. Only because I have one left before ten. you could really surround your home in pool noodles! Hmmm, wonder if Going Mom would approve?

10. Just in case we missed something from the above pins, hopefully this will complete your list of to-do’s!

So, are you ready to baby proof your home? Have you already proofed thinking you were all set and found something else?

Let me know where you are in the process and please, share any tips you might have to offer!

You might be interested in my other Top Ten Pinterest Picks for helpful ideas and even a good laugh:

Life, Parenting

Do Babies Yo-Yo Diet? Or Maybe It’s the Highchair.

05/22/2014 R.C. Liley 7 Comments

I’m convinced Avery, and probably a lot of other babies are all aware of yo-yo dieting! Maybe babies were the ones that actually started the whole fad diet! Most likely (and realistically) not, but maybe…

As defined by Dictionary.com:

yo-yo dieting

noun

a repeated cycle of weight loss followed by weight gain.

How often do you and others around you make a comment about baby’s chubby legs, Michelin Man arms, or fat cheeks? I know Going Mom and I are guilty of saying something like this about Avery every day. To us, it’s cute, but to them, weeeelllllll maybe they are really concerned about their figure.

In being so concerned about their “chubby” figure, I think that’s why babies refuse the bottle, real food put in front of them, and sometimes even the boob. One day they will be eating like champs, but the next day you’re lucky just to get them to eat anything! Uh oh, did you mention something about their giant cheeks some time in between?

Okay, again, this sounds pretty farfetched, but doesn’t it feel that way sometimes?

Avery has days where she’ll happily and easily accept the bottle from me and we’re all good. Then, other days, she’ll start out fine for like a minute, and then push out with her tongue and turn her head side to side. I eventually get the message and reluctantly give up.

Oh sure, she's interested in THAT bottle! — Oh sure, she’s interested in THAT bottle!

Just the other week she was tearing through herbottles to where everything Going Mom left for us in the fridge was gone. I was feeling pretty proud of myself and I was even happy to get up early in the morning when she was crying for food.

Kelley is an awesome mom and gets up in the wee hours to feed Avery even though she has to go to work. On occasion, I will go to feed Avery a bottle instead so Kelley can get a little more rest, and it can be a hassle. Trying to feed a squirmy baby with a bottle in the dark is hard, but when they refuse the thing, it’s down right impossible!

So, that was last week and we had gotten used to thinking she’s going to be eating more from here on out. Rookie parents here, checking in! Avery is now back on her bottle boycott and we fight to the last ounce just like times before.

All of this fluctuation in eating is apparently a normal baby thing, but I’m holding out and saying there’s a .000328% chance that babies know about and practice yo-yo dieting.

Which brings me to my other speculation about babies and eating; introducing solids. We recently started to introduce Avery to solid foods through baby-led weaning with zero success so far. The first day we blamed it on her being too tired and fussy, but the second try she was awake and was happy. Then we put her in the highchair.

If you look close enough, I think you can see two horns starting to poke out of her forehead.

We’ve tried a few times since then all with no luck. Being the college-educated parents that we are, we knew it couldn’t be the food that’s making her mad, so it must be the highchair. Deductive reasoning at its finest!

With our revelation, we tried offering food with her in the best baby seat in the house hoping for better results. I even showed her how fun and exciting a green bean can be!

She wasn’t buying it. I mean, c’mon, doesn’t it look exciting? No? So maybe she just doesn’t like green; I’ll try a pretty carrot!

Crap, we’re running out of things to blame it on other than that she’s a baby and doing anything new takes time…….and A LOT of patience!

Although we really don’t like the highchair we have, I guess we’ll stop making up reasons why Avery isn’t immediately taking to new food. So we’ll have patience and keep on trying, and as some of you have commented, maybe I’ll give in and offer something sweeter. 🙂

But seriously, we are thinking about returning our Chicco Polly highchair to get something else. The tray is just annoying at how it slides off, and on and the crotch strap under the tray catches Avery’s feet when we try to slide it on.

What kind of highchair do/did you use? Please let us know what worked for you as maybe it will at least help Avery figure out this new way of eating!

This post is part of the Love All Dads Link-up where other awesome dads link their favorite posts from the week. Check out all of the fun other posts by clicking on the button below:

yo-yo dieting

An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.