Tag Archives: beer

Life

What Happens When Two Stay-At-Home Dads Get Out?

08/09/2014 R.C. Liley 7 Comments

Nothing much, really, we just enjoyed a couple good beers and talked about dad life.

What? Were you expecting some crazy shenanigans with lots of booze and guys running wild chasing miniature horses or something?

I hope not, that’d be weird. And very random….why did I even say that?

Anyway, let us move past that comment and come back to reality. I had the opportunity to meet up with another local stay-at-home dad and fellow blogger on Thursday night to discuss setting up a dad’s group. Just like the last time I was allowed out of the house alone to meet my brother (Uncle Preston), we met in Fort Worth at The Flying Saucer.

Thanks to my wife, yet again, for staying home with Avery on a work night! Avery was obviously not impressed with Kelley’s attempt at taking a selfie. Or maybe it was her cold….

David Kepley is co-creator of Just a Dad 247 who blogs with his long time friend, Pat Jacobs; also a stay-at-home dad. They’ve been in the blogging game for a while and have some great stuff for dads and really anyone. Go check them out, but then come back since I’m not finished here! 🙂

Kepley and I met through the Facebook Dad Bloggers group we are both members of and I have mentioned before. We were both seeking a dads group in our surrounding area and were unable to find anything, so we decided we’d try to start one ourselves.

Lucky for us, we have connected with Lance Somerfeld and Matt Schneider who formed the City Dads Group which is a national organization devoted to supporting fathers everywhere. They’ve helped dads create groups in major cities across the U.S., and we’re hoping to add Dallas to their list.

Our discussion on how we’ll get things up and running went well, and we are hoping to have our first meeting next month in September. Obviously, I’ll share the details here as we get more info and have a solid date/plan. Either way, I’m excited to be a part of something so important and hope I’ll be able to bring Avery to many future meet-ups with other dads and their kids.

Asides from the dad group talk, we shared our thoughts and stories around a multitude of topics; I even gave insight to how I view food and make it a huge priority to maintain a healthy family. Fortunately, while he may not be as ~~crazy~~ strict as I am on what to eat, he agreed with my views for the most part and didn’t just get up and walk out.

Another bonus is that Kepley knows how to pick and choose a good beer. Like me, he won’t settle for the crappy, run-of-the-mill Bud Light, Coors Light, etc., he expects good stuff if he’s going to drink, just as we all should! Plus, we both know how to pose for a picture….

I think we’ll get along just fine and am looking forward to working with him and other local dads to create our own Dallas City Dads group.

Are you part of a parent (mom or dad) group where you live? Any tips or stories?

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?