Category Archives: Life

Toddler Growth Progression: G-Ma for Scale

10/12/2015 R.C. Liley 1 Comment

We spent the night at my mom’s (G-Ma’s) house this past weekend since we were long overdue for a visit with our crazy toddler. She comes and stays the night at our house almost once a week, but during a weekday so we don’t get a lot of time together.

Avery was a handful, as usual, but she was also sweet and kept us all entertained. The drive isn’t that far to the home where I grew up, but the trip always seems to have us scrambling to get thing done when we get back home.

Then again, here I am writing a blog post, so I guess I’m being a tad contradictory….or I’m up too late. I’ll let you guess which one.

I considered not posting, but after going back to see our previous visits to G-Ma’s house, I felt like sharing pictures to capture Avery’s growth thus far using G-Ma for scale.

2 days after birth

Here they are when Avery was around 5 weeks old.

Here’s February 20th, 2014

The next month, March 2014, Avery shows off her lip curling action.

Avery showing her Liley lip curl with G-ma

And another chubby Avery with G-Ma in March 2014

Hanging with Avery while I run a Labor Day 10k

Cheering Daddy on at a Labor Day 10k! 05/26/14

Going Mom and G-Ma together with Avery on the Fourth of July in 2014

Same day on the Fourth, but me with my beautiful mother and her grand kid (g-kid?)

Holding Avery at Papa’s 60th birthday party this past January

At a Fourth of July 5k this year

This weekend, Avery gave G-Ma a thunderous bear hug where she roars and then hugs….obviously, and I happened to catch the act.

It’s bittersweet, seeing how much your kids grow in such a short amount of time, but so wonderful too. I could divulge about our quick trip to G-Ma’s, but seriously, it’s late and I should sleep.

I will say that my wonderful wife laid down to sleep with our wild child and never made it out that night. There was some screaming, but overall, Avery did better than past visits, and gives us hope for the next time we head down there.

Hope you had a great weekend. Anything fun to share?

Baby Wearing, Life, Parenting, Throwback Thursday

International Babywearing Week: Reap the Benefits

10/08/2015 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

This week is International Babywearing Week, and our City Dads Group has teamed with Baby Bjorn to celebrate all across the U.S. today.

Here in Texas, our Dallas Dads Group will meet at Klyde Warren Park to wear their babies as they proudly get active outdoors. Any longtime reader should know I’m a huge advocate of babywearing and have shared my feelings as to why I wear my baby and the numerous benefits.

Since it happens to be Thursday, I’ll take this Throwback opportunity to share an old pic of me wearing Avery and a few of my past posts.

Ha ha, okay, I’ll show one where you can actually see Avery and not my flying saucer covered head.

This is from my babywearing progression post I did last October. Yeah, she’s changed a little… Here she is just last month while helping me mow with our EGO.

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A post shared by RC Liley (@going_dad)

For a little babywearing motivation, check out these great sites.

Babywearing dads on Tumblr
Babywearing Dads Help Moms Out
10 Things Baby Wearing Dads Should Never Say in a Public Restroom (One of my personal fav’s!)

Don’t just take part for the 7 days, you can and should wear your kids year round to reap the numerous bonding and health benefits both you and the kiddos receive. Speaking of health, you can even turn babywearing into exercise. Here’s a video I put together with Avery a long time ago….

I even turned mowing the lawn into a babywearing sprinting workout with her! The possibilities are endless!

Again, celebrate International Babywearing Week this week and ALL YEAR….and the next to keep your kiddos literally and figuratively close to you.

Make sure to follow these hashtags and give a little retweet/like love if you can:

#IBW2015

#citydads

Do you plan on celebrating by wearing your baby?

Do you already wear your baby or are you interested in starting?

Life, NuttZo, Parenting, WIAW

Daily Toddler Fare + WIAW

10/07/2015 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Happy Hump Day, and therefore, another edition of What I Ate Wednesday! I’ve shared a day of what my toddler eats twice already (first time and second time), and now it’s time for round three.

Feeding Avery isn’t as easy as just a few weeks ago. Apparently, as the get older they get this growing sense of independence and being more self-aware which leads to toddler regression. Our patience levels are being tested on a daily basis, and from what I understand, it’s not going to get better any time soon. Yikes!

Guess now would be a good time to seriously look into meditation. I’ve been interested for a while, but haven’t made the commitment to fully immerse myself in the mindful practice. Any thoughts or advice?

Anyway, lets kick off another round of what my toddler eats in a day. Just as before, we don’t make a lot of substitutions for Avery, so what she eats, is essentially what we eat. Make sure to show some WIAW love and check out the host’s blog as well as everyone’s day of good eats.

Breakfast – Green smoothie leftover from the night before as a starter. Then she had a green banana with cinnamon and sprouted raw pumpkin seeds sprinkled on NuttZo.

Thought I’d give the seeds a shot since she tends to love anything with a crunch (she’ll gnaw on raw onion even!), and it was a huge success!

Snack – Coconut Carrot Zevia Vanilla Pudding that disappeared way too fast. No leftovers for daddy.

Lunch – Coconut curry quinoa and black beans with Wild Planet sardines on top. I’m still amazed that she’ll eat sardines, and even yell “Fishy!” when she sees them.

I didn’t take a picture, but she crunched on a few Go Raw Pizza Flax Snax Crackers after finishing her lunch. I may or may not of had ~~a few~~ the rest of the bag myself.

Since she had quite a bit for lunch, Avery wasn’t too hungry after her nap, so my wife and I spent the non-eating time in a more constructive manner. Selfies with our DSLR camera and a 50 mm lenses.