Tag Archives: parenting

Grow With Me Tee: A Fun Way to Photo Journal Your Baby’s Growth

06/27/2014 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

On average, a baby born at full-term will most likely double their birth weight at 4 months, and triple it by the time they reach 1 year old. Most babies have about 5 growth spurts within their first year which is when most of their growing will take place. If it seems like one day your baby fits perfectly in their onesie and the next day it can’t go over their head, that’s because most of their growth occurs in very short, intense bursts.

What does all of this mean? It means we need to savor every second, minute, hour, day, etc. that we have with our constantly growing babies before they grow right out of our arms! And don’t forget the only way to keep them from growing is by capturing them in pictures and on video. So while your baby may continue growing, you will always be able to relive their “tiny moments” whenever you want.

As new parents, Going Mom and I have no problem taking pictures and recording videos of Avery every day. 7 months into it and I’m pretty sure we have enough media of our daughter to fill a hard drive! Okay, not one of those monster drives, but we have A LOT!

We have been capturing Avery’s growth month-by-month by sitting her beside a stuffed teddy bear to take a picture, but she’s not always cooperative…

This was our 7 month session.... — This was our 7 month session….

Thankfully, the two moms behind Grow With Me Tee, sent us their “age ruler” tee to help our photo-journaling efforts.

They give you a fabric marker to color in the ruler with each birthday and half birthday to record how much they’ve grown each time.

As you can see, Avery still doesn’t make it easy, but I guess that’s just the age.

Eeeks! I'm getting old!! — Eeeks! I’m getting old!!

I love having this tee as we will be able to watch her grow into and out of it as time goes by. Like most things with your growing baby, it’s bittersweet to see how much they grow!

Grow With Me Tee also offers a onesie with an “age clock” for your baby’s first year, as well as a customizable collegiate-style tee to document your kid’s growth from pre-school all the way to high school. This will be the next shirt we get after Avery’s 5 year ruler is all colored in. Oh geez, that’s scary to think about; we’ll be half-way to 40 years old!!

These Grow With Me Tee’s are such a great idea and a perfect gift for anyone expecting or who recently had a baby. They are inexpensive but will provide priceless memories for years down the road.

As a bonus for being a Going Dad reader, the “Chief Moms” behind Grow With Me Tee, Nicole and Bethany, have agreed to give you 15% off of their products! Just use coupon code GOINGDAD15 after shopping for your favorite tee on their website and the discount will be applied. This code will be valid through the end of July 2014.

How sweet is that?! Get something that literally will last for years and can be enjoyed by you and your loved ones. What are you waiting for, get to shopping now!

Make sure to show Grow With Me Tee some love and check them out Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! When you snap a photo of your little one in their tee, they’d love to see and showcase the pic on their pages!

Do you enjoy photo-journaling your baby/toddler/adolescent to document their growth?

Which style of tee do you like most from Grow With Me Tee?

Life, Parenting

6 Ways Playing Halo Prepared Me to Be a Dad

06/21/2014 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Parenting means trading this sticky grenade for poop. Basically the same thing!!

Ahhh, the days of playing Halo on Xbox! Most of my college days were spent slaying and being slayed in multiplayer battles with people all over the world. And let’s not forget the epic Capture the Flag (CTF) sessions; loved those!

Well, first we used giant, 75ft Ethernet cables to connect multiple Xbox’s before Xbox Live became an option, but either way, it was a blast.

Long gone are the days of playing video games, I don’t even own a game system now, but there will always be a gamer inside of me. I’d be lying if I said I don’t have the urge to play every now and then, but I’d much rather be doing something active as a family so we can set a good example for Avery. I know we’ll allow her screen time and maybe we’ll even get another game system to play together one day, but we won’t let it become a habit.

Over the years of my Halo playing, homework was pushed aside more often than not, and I’m sure I even missed a few classes as a result of staying up too late to play. But that’s not to say I have nothing to show for my countless hours of battling opponents across the globe and going back and forth with smack talk as we sat in the “waiting room” waiting on our game to load. Actually, in retrospect, Halo has taught me several things that have helped prepare me to become a parent.

Hesitation can get you killed. When battling an opponent in Halo, hesitating is a guaranteed way to get pistol-whipped in the back of the head or sniped from afar. This applies to parenting in that hesitation can result in lost opportunity. If your baby is starting to crawl, do you run and grab a camera, and if so, digital or video? You have to think fast, without hesitation, or you’ll miss capture the “first” moment to relive years down the road.
Teamwork is key. When in battle, sometimes you need to leave your ego at the door and help your teammates instead of getting all of the kill points yourself. Or during an intense CTF session, you work with your team to decide who defends your flag while others seek to capture the opponent’s. You never know when you’ll need help from a teammate, so keeping them on your good side is vital. Going Mom and I have our differences, as do all couples (right?), but I know that by having her back and working with instead of against her makes things much easier for the both of us. As a SAHD, I am the guardian of our flag (home and Avery), while Kelley works to capture the flag (earn income). So far, we’re both “winning”.
Experience yields success. The first time I played Halo, I could hardly figure out how to move in a straight line, much less actually shoot something! But over time, maybe too much time, I was on the leaderboard when facing many opponents online and amongst my friends. Practice makes perfect, right? Same goes for parenting; you learn as you go. As every month passes, Kelley and I are just a little more experienced than the last and feel more confident in our parenting skills. Now we are better able to tell if Avery’s cries are purely for attention or if she has a poopy diaper.
Anticipation is education. Educating yourself to know what your opponent will do before they do it is key to survival. If you know one of your enemies has a favorite hiding spot, you get there first and surprise attack him when he arrives. As a parent, it’s important to create a daily routine so your baby learns to anticipate most of the daily activities. Also, when playing with your baby, they learn anticipation when you do things like gently blow in their face/ear, tickle them, or just make a surprise sound with exaggerated facial features.
Winning and losing comes in streaks. There would be some sessions where I was on a role and get several “Killtaculars” (it’s a Halo thing if you didn’t know), and then other days I’d just get killed the moment I respawned. Its life, it happens. As a stay-at-home parent, I have awesome days where Avery is a happy baby, we enjoy time together, and she takes the bottle without fussing. But then other days it seems as if she has a personal vendetta on daddy and screams at the tiniest indication I might set her down, and there’s no way in hell she’s having a bottle. Understanding I’ll have these streaks allows me to move on and simply look forward to the next day without stressing over lost battles. Even though I sometimes still do
Don’t try to be Legendary. In Halo, you can play the campaign on an Easy, Normal, Heroic, or Legendary setting. As you would guess, Legendary is extremely hard and even the weakest alien opponent can do major damage. In parenting, this equates to biting off more than you can chew. Our babies aren’t asking us to be “Legendary”, just give them love and attention and they will love you for it. As cool as it might be to do everything and then some, focus on what matters, your baby and family; other things can wait.

I’m extremely guilty of trying to be Legendary, which results in me getting killed (a.k.a overstressed) as a result. As parents, we are never done learning, but thanks to those years of playing Halo, I’m a little ahead of the game.

Can you attribute anything out of the ordinary to helping you prepare to be a parent? I’d love to hear your input in the comments below.

Food, Parenting

The Healthiest Fast Food Restaurants for Kids

06/20/2014 R.C. Liley 11 Comments

After extensive research and numerous comparison tests, I have compiled the healthiest fast food restaurants for our children. To some, the results might be shocking, while it may come as no surprise to others.

With all of the claims made on billboards, tv, and magazines, it’s hard to know what truly is best when it comes to going to a fast food establishment. Hopefully this info will help you navigate the confusing hub bub and make the best decisions for your family.

Here is my list of the healthiest fast food joints to take your kids:

1. NONE!

And that concludes my list.

Nope, I didn’t forget 2, 3, 4, etc.; number one is the only answer. There is no healthy fast food restaurant for anyone, and especially your children who depend on you to provide! Maybe there are healthier choices, but they are still devoid of the nutrition from something similar made at home.

I get that many parents are short on time, but I don’t see that as being a good reason to resort to fast food or frozen, packaged meals to feed your kids. True, I don’t know everyone’s life story or current situation, but our kids depend on us, their parents, to protect and properly provide for them.

If you claim to care about your child’s health, then why subject them to overly processed, chemical laden “food”? It’s unfair to children who don’t know the difference between healthy vs. unhealthy food, and can only accept what you get them or have nothing at all.

Most fast food options will have you waiting in line either at the drive-thru or inside which can take upwards of 15 to 30 minutes depending on time of day. Alternatively, you could prepare a healthy meal with whole foods at home and even get the entire family involved.

And the argument over the cost of healthy food being too high is absurd. The amount of money you spend on going out easily outweighs the cost of buying your own ingredients and cooking at home. Factor in the gas it takes to go wherever you’re going, price for drinks, added tip if at a sit-down restaurant, and the lesser quality food that impacts health, it’s just not worth it.

We show Avery how eating our homemade meals makes us feel great and gives us energy to get through the day. Plus, making your own food can be educational and fun for your kids. She watches me prepare meals in the kitchen and then takes part in eating (or attempting to eat) healthy foods like carrots, broccoli, and lately, cucumber.

It’s important to start your kid on the path to eating healthy from the start, but I realize many of you have grown children who may resist your attempts at offering healthy food. This is no reason to just give up and let them go about their way; that’s just a guarantee to lead your child down the path to obesity.

Here are 5 ways to get your kids interested in healthier food options and maybe even help you bond more as a result:

Teach by example. As parents, we are our children’s role models, so when you eat healthy, they will want to eat healthy too.
Take them grocery shopping. Sounds crazy, huh? Well, stay out of the middle isles with colorful boxes promising “fun” and “happiness” and peruse the perimeter with your kid. Let them pick out a new produce item to take home; they will be more interested in trying something they chose.
Let them help. If your kids are old enough, get them in the kitchen to “help” however they can. Just having the slightest bit of participation will make kids more prone to trying something they had a part in preparing.
Don’t give up. If at first you don’t succeed, try again! A child may need to see a food several times before actually trying it, so be persistent. We learned this with Avery; she wouldn’t look at the carrots we gave her, but now she’ll pick them up and bring them right to her mouth!
Make it easy. Kids (and most adults) tend to pick food based on what’s the easiest to grab. So when looking for a snack, most of us will grab that bag of chips instead of chopping fresh produce into bite-size pieces. Try cutting fruit and veggies and have them ready to grab right out of the fridge for your kids to snack on. You’ll be surprised at how they’ll go for them now that they are easy to eat! This will also help the adults in the house!

By now, you get my point, if you truly want to best for your kids and want them to grow up strong and healthy, focus on healthy food. Exercise is another important aspect, and I’ll get into that on another post I’m sure. For children, just getting outside and being active is the best exercise. Limit time in front of a screen and hey, try joining and playing outside with them!

Here’s a long, but extremely eye-opening info-graphic on the childhood obesity epidemic; it’s sad to read, and I hope to do what I can to change this!

Our kids look up to us and want to do what we do, so by living a healthy life, we are helping shape a healthy future for our little ones. If you don’t know how to start on a healthier path, MR. Google has plenty of information.

This post is part of the “I’m Proud of That” Link-up on the Daddy Space blog. Click the badge below to check out other awesome parent bloggers:

Here’s a search I performed for you to find Healthy, easy weekday meals.

Are you currently trying to change your unhealthy habits at home?

Do you already follow healthy living? If so, any tips for other parents?