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, Parenting, Vlog

Working on Animal Sounds: Avery & Daddy Episode 4

07/06/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Here we are again with another episode of Avery and me vlogging it up in style! And by “style”, I mean a yogurt face toddler and her dad who’s doing good just to have a shirt on for the camera. You’re welcome.

You might’ve noticed I dropped the “Vlog” part of the title to shorten it a little. Obviously, it’s a Vlog, so no need for redundancy. Oh, and I have plenty to share about our Fourth of July weekend full of 5k fun and co-sleeping before fireworks were done, so be on the lookout for that story soon.

My wife and I praise Avery for always responding when we ask her to make a certain animal sound, but a lot them sound the same. I know in her head it’s different, and we’re proud of her efforts, so I just wanted to a record it here.

You’ll have to pardon my corny intro, it’s just part of being a Dad. Right? Right? Plus, I thought I played it off pretty well actually. Call me biased, but…..well, just call me biased.

Hope you were able to hear her animal sounds good enough. I blame the fact I’m using the built-in audio/video from my laptop, so can’t expect high quality anything. But hey, she’s a cutie! And I bet you didn’t know a pig and a mouse sounded so similar, huh?

There will be more animal sound videos in the future, so stay tuned. Until then, hope your Monday is off to a great start and everyone’s fully recovered from the Fourth of July….if you’re in the U.S. that is.

What animal sounds are your kids making or did they make as a toddler?

Be honest, did you like my “caught off guard” intro?

Going Strong, Life, Parenting

Why I’m Scared this Fourth of July

07/04/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Hello and Happy Fourth of July!!

You’re probably thinking I’m scared of the Fourth of July fireworks or crazy people who had too much to drink and are high on smoke bombs driving around, but that would be wrong. Well, the latter is a little worrisome, but not an issue I’ve dealt with before.

Nope, right now, as you read this, my wife and I probably just finished our 5k at a nearby brewery as G-Ma and Avery cheered us on and are sipping on a refreshing craft beer to celebrate. The scary part is what we’re doing for the day; going to G-Ma’s to *gasp* spend the night!

As you can tell, I’m writing this in advance, so I’ll have to fill you in on the details of our race and the rest of today in a future post. For now, I’m just sharing my fear with you. Avery has outgrown her pack ‘n play portable crib which we’ve always used at G-Ma’s and we have been avoiding another visit for far too long.

This time, we are going to make a comfortable bed on the ground since she has no awareness of boundaries and hope for the best. She is never just asleep when we put her to bed in her crib at night, and she usually rolls all over the place talking for a good 20 minutes. I assume this normal for most toddlers, but geez, she’s crazy!

So now, after waking up early for the 5k and being exposed to fireworks, she’ll either be extremely tired and will go to sleep easily, or so tired she’s wired. Parents, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. We brought her to G-Ma’s last year where she first saw fireworks, but was hardly aware of what exactly was happening.

Now that she is very aware of everything around her, who knows how she’ll take the loud booms and flashy pyrotechnics. Will it be overstimulating, scary, or a joy to watch for her? Guess we’re finding out today!

So, the plan of attack is counting on the accumulation of waking up early, playing at G-Ma’s and swimming at her neighbor’s house, possibly no nap, and staying up later to see fireworks working for instead of against us to get her to sleep good at night. Wow, that was a long sentence!

My nerves are a little frantic, if you can’t tell, but luckily Going Mom is cool and calm. Hope my frantic state is all for not.

Bye for now, and Happy Fourth of July to those of you here in the U.S.! Happy weekend to the rest of you!

Have you had to deal with a tricky sleep situation for your little one?

Ever find a solution or was it just a miserable night for everyone?

Any tips? Please?

Life, Parenting

What Happens When a Toddler Sees Her Shadow?

07/03/2015 R.C. Liley 6 Comments

We all know what happens when a groundhog sees its shadow, we get six more weeks of winter. But what about when a toddler sees their shadow? Well, I mean when they first acknowledge they are the ones making that silhouette on wall or any other light-colored surface.

Avery recently discovered her shadow and seems to get a kick out of her dark twin. I’ve been pointing it out to her when changing her diaper for a while, but just the other week she finally reacted to it and made her hand move across the wall. She’ll say something in toddler talk and smile, and I smile too because it keeps her occupied while changing her.

Now anytime we are somewhere that her shadow is visible, I can say look at your shadow and it will keep her busy at least for a minute. I love watching her learn something new and can only imagine what’s going on in her head as I explain how the light casting down on her creates that dark object called her shadow.

Just the other day, she was busy removing every item from her basket when I asked if she could find her shadow.

She seemed stumped and maybe a little hesitant at first.

But then she turned right around to come face to, ummmm, face? with her darker, less detailed self.

I asked her if she could find her shadow again and she immediately pointed to the dark figure. Still working on getting toys out of the basket, of course.

She closed in to investigate further with an almost accusatory point of her finger.

Squatting down, she was amazed at how her shadow followed suit.

Back up and a little hand movement just to test the boundaries and she finally accepted her shadow was there to stay.

That’s when she looked away and saw there were more toys to take out of her basket and drop behind me as I cooked in the kitchen.

That’s also when I ~~politely~~ asked her to stop everything! To which she replied with….

Yeah, heart = melted. Oh, and look, she has a heart! Then I offered her a green smoothie which she happily accepted.

It makes me so proud when she enjoys drinking the healthy green smoothies I make. What doesn’t make me proud is when she then proceeds to climb on the couch, throw the pillows off, and eat the rim. green mouth and all.