Category Archives: Life

Our Toddler’s Presidents’ Day Photo Shoot

02/15/2016 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

This is a post from Presidents’ Day last year. I love looking back to see how much our little girl has changed, so I figured I’d share.

Happy Presidents’ Day! I’ve never done much for the holiday, but having a day off from school and work (for some) meant I never had a problem when it rolled around. So, happy birthday, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln!

As a stay-at-home dad, I obviously don’t have “off” in the work and school sense, but I do get to have Going Mom home with me for an extra day. Our beautiful Texas weather has subsided temporarily so going outdoors is not that appealing, but hopefully we’ll have a good time together with Avery.

Ever since she won the Metroplex Baby and Kids weekly photo contest, Avery seems a little more confident when we take her picture. And recently, she struck several poses in one photo shoot that I’m going to share with you now. You’re welcome.

I’m not so sure I’m ready to do this photo shoot.

Okay, starting to feel a little better in my ability to exude ultimate cuteness.

Hey, wanna see something cool?

It’s my tongue! Ahhhhhhh! Cool, huh?

Oh geez, I just froze up again! Where did my confidence go?!

Oh, oh, I know what I can try. Ready, annnnnndddddd……

IIIIIIIIIII ammmmmm theeeee youngggg-est opppperrrrrraaaa singerrrrrrr alive!

No? Not good? Yeah, I wasn’t feeling it either, forget that happened. I need a prop.

This will be perfect. Back to the couch for background. But first, how’s this “catching me off-guard” pose?

Ooooo, look, lights! Oh yeah, to the couch….

Hey look! I’m half baby, half ball! I can see this going somewhere. Like across the kitchen, that is.

Here goes nothing, lets get “rolling”. Ha ha, pun very intended. Proud, dad?

Whoo hooo, I’m having a “ball”! And I’m 2 for 2 with puns, must be the atmo-“shpere”. Boom, again!

Back to business, moving this ball across the floor for no apparent reason other than I can.

Accomplished! And now, for the final act that will have companies fighting for me to make an appearance. I’m going to pounce on the ball!

Wait, doesn’t count, my foot slipped! Redo!!

Happy Birthday to all presidents, dead or alive, thanks for all that you do…..kinda.

Life, Parenting

Have You Ever Seen A Baby Laugh At This?

01/31/2016 R.C. Liley 1 Comment

In what seems to be a long time ago, when we controlled where our baby (now rampant toddler) could and could not go, the most random thing happened, she busted out in the cutest spell of giggles we’ve ever heard.

cute baby laughing — I can’t go anywhere because I don’t know better yet!

Avery is a couple months over 2 years old now, but when she was 5 months old, I had her (safely) sitting on the counter with me as I was busy in the kitchen. I just finished making a batch of NuttZo Banana Bread and went to cut it as her eyes absorbed my every move. Then, right when I started slicing…..

Yeah, you’d think I was dressed in a clown suit honking my big red nose, not simply cutting bread I cooked a little too long. I tried many many many times after that to replicate the laugh for Going Mom with no luck. I’m just happy she did it when the camera was on, now she seems to freeze up when she sees the camera in front of her. Can’t blame her, I’d be annoyed at me too.

cute toddler — C’mon, dad, can you just put the camera down and PLAY?

It’s not on camera, but Avery has been giving giggles like the cutting bread episode almost every night as we play around the house or during dinner. It’s a sound that never gets old and always warms the heart.

Hope you’re having a great Sunday and enjoyed seeing a sweet baby laughing at such a random thing.

Do you have something your kid laughed at unexpectedly?

Does it happen every time or was it a one time occurrence?

Going Reviews, Life, Parenting

Self-hosted For A Year + A New Blogging Approach

01/07/2016 R.C. Liley 3 Comments

That’s right, around this time last year I made the switch from my free WordPress.com account to a self-hosted WordPress.net blog using figure out how to transfer everything. It took me forever to decide on what self-hosting service to use and figure out how to transfer everything, but I have been completely happy with Bluehost and plan to stick with them.

What I won’t be sticking to is how I’ve been blogging in the past. While I don’t have much to hide, I’ll be sharing less of our day-to-day personal life happenings and focusing more on sharing thoughts on food/products/services/etc. that was use. I know I mentioned most of this before, but wanted to reiterate it here.

From little things like healthy snacks for kids and adults to big items like mattresses (yes, really, stay tuned!), I want to share our thoughts here in hopes that you’ll find them useful. Some reviews will be by my own doing on items we paid for ourselves, and some will be provided to me at a discount or for free. No matter how we received the item, you can trust that I will give you our true thoughts.

Yes, I said our, Avery is picking up her communication skills fast and is improving her ability to actually explain her thoughts to us, so why not have her help with reviews? And since we’re a close, loving family, Going Mom will obviously have her opinion heard on here too. This, along with other health-related topics like quick exercise routines and recipes are all in the Going Dad future.

Don’t worry, if you came here just for the cute pics of Avery, I’ll still have some on the blog, and there’s always plenty on my Facebook and Instagram pages. Okay, here’s one just because. She looks very unsure of the camera here….

I might as well add that, if you’re in the market, whether a tech newbie or hosting pro, Bluehost has what you need and helps make things easy and affordable. So, if you want to check them out, I would appreciate you clicking the banner below. Whether you sign up or not, it helps me earn a few cents and maybe even dollars, and it’s no difference to you!

Posts will be shorter for small item reviews, but still contain useful information (I hope) to help you decide on if it’s worth it to you or not. I am looking forward to giving this new approach a try, and can’t wait to get started!

Hope you’re having a great start to the New Year! Let me know your thoughts on this new approach and what you’d like to see for reviews, workouts, or recipes and I’ll do my best to provide.

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