Category Archives: Life

Are We Dumb Parents With Smart-Phones?

03/27/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

If you’re a parent reading this, chances are you’re just as guilty as I am for staring at our smartphone with our kids around.

A recent post from Time.com shared the results of a study recording the behavior of 55 adult-child groupings at a fast food restaurant and captured how often the adult used their smartphone.

Don’t Text While Parenting — It Will Make You Cranky

A new study from Boston Medical Center reveals that parents who get absorbed by email, games or other apps have more negative interactions with their children, making them feel like they’re competing for attention with their parents’ gadgets

First off, any adult is not that smart for subjecting their kids and themselves to fast food, but that’s just how I feel. Poor nutrition aside, the interactions captured between the parent-child groups showed how damaging smartphone use can be when with your kids.

Before this was published, my wife and I had already stopped all technology use at the dinner table, but we are far from innocent when it comes to using our phones as Avery runs around our feet wanting attention. And she deserves it, poor girl, nothing is more important than giving her our love!

Since reading the article, we have become more aware of our use when Avery is around, but I know we’re still not perfect. Just look at my Instagram or aother social media accounts and it’s easy to see I have my phone practically shoved in her face A LOT! Sorry, Avery, please forgive me.

Maybe it’s different if you’re using your smartphone with your kid, but I know simply setting the tech aside and just playing is always the better option. Does this mean I’m going to stop capturing pics and videos of her? Nope, but scrolling through Facebook or Instagram feeds will be limited when our sweet girl is begging attention from now on. I mean, just look at that sweet face!

Get off your phone swing kettlebells with me!

Are you guilty of using your phone or other device and not paying attention to your kids?

Do you have certain rules or guidelines on when/where you can use your tech devices?

Avery Talk, Baby Wearing, Life, Parenting, Throwback Thursday

10 Throwback Thursday Posts from March 2014

03/26/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Looking back at just a year ago is crazy! Our little girl was, well, littler, and I was still adjusting to the stay-at-home life. Now that it’s almost the end of March, I thought I’d dig through the archives and share 10 of my favorite posts from March of last year for a little Throwback Thursday action. Enjoy!

1. Ninja Turtle Pizzas At G-Ma’s – This was our second time bringing Avery to stay the night at G-Ma’s (or anywhere), and she let us all know her distaste for not sleeping in her crib.

Avery showing her Liley lip curl with G-ma

2. Our Nightly Routine and I’m Inventing a Water Swaddle – Always fun to look back at what our routine was like a year ago. She was crazy then and beyond crazy now! This also features me wearing Avery in the Baby Bjorn front facing; what I now know better NOT to do for many development reasons.

3. How to Tell Your Baby They Are Getting Shots – I made more “conversations” with Avery back then and need to work on more. It’s always fun writing these posts.

4. A Talk With My 4 Month Old About Teething – See? I did this a lot compared to now. Love reading them over and over, and man how she’s changed!

5. A Walking Revelation, Darth Vader Sweat, and Avery in a Zippy – This was the month where I received our first Onya Baby baby carrier and haven’t looked back since.

The force of sweat is strong with this one - Darth Vader — The force of sweat is strong with this one – Darth Vader

6. Hanging With My Daughter in the Dad Cave – Before baby gates and toys were needed, she just laid there. But I made the most of it!

7. Weekend Recap: Breaking Bad, She Rolled Over, 4 Month Shots Delayed, and Teething – The title says it all.

8. Sleeping on the Nursery Floor and Onya Outback Progress – We had our fair share of sleeping on the nursery floor, here’s one account.

Boppy's are good for more than just breast feeding! — Boppy’s are good for more than just breast feeding!

9. A Hissing Goose and An Ass Woke My Baby – Another self-explanatory title and picture. We still have the goose and ass hanging around too!

10. Explaining Exercise to a Baby – Seriously, I’m going to create a post to gather all of my conversations with Avery. This one should be no surprise to those that know me.

I started writing this thinking I’d only share 5, but there were too many I wanted to share in March. Maybe I’ll do 5 for April.

What do you think, do you like seeing a recap of posts from a year ago?

Do you ever have “conversations” with your baby….before they can actually speak?

Life, Promo

Our First Mow With EGO

03/24/2015 R.C. Liley 3 Comments

The EGO Power Plus team recently sent me their Power+ 56V Lithium-Ion Cordless Lawn Mower to use and review on my blog, and I just used it for the first mow of the season!

This is not my review, just my initial thoughts after using it this past weekend. While I was excited for what was in the box, Avery was more excited about THE box.

And a mighty cool box at that! Just the quality packaging let you know EGO is a company that puts care into their products and wants them to arrive safely to their destination. Here are the specs as listed on their website:

4.0Ah 56 -Volt Lithium-Ion Battery: Industry’s most powerful battery
30-Minute Charger: Industry’s fastest charger
Up To A 45-Minute Cut Time: Battery run time meets or exceeds charge time
Fold Flat In Seconds: Convenient storing and cleaning
20” Cut Capacity: Reduces the number of passes required to cut your lawn
True 3-In-1 Function: Superior mulching, rear bagging and side discharge performance
LED Headlights: Allow for mowing anytime
600W, High-Torque, Magnetic Motor: Designed for high power output at 3300RPM’s
Convenient Push-Button Start: No more pull cord, easily starts at the press of a button

Out of the box and ready go in a matter of minutes, their cordless mower is perfect for those too impatient to read through assembly instructions.

The battery already had a good charge when it arrived, but I’m a charging nazi and feel like everything I own must always be charged or charging. So, I set the ultra-cool, futuristic battery on its charger to make sure I had a full charge before mowing the grass.

I was prepared to wait at least 30 minutes for the battery to charge, but it was ready to go in less than 10! I hardly had time to go pee and blow my nose, geez! No, it doesn’t really take me that long, so no wise cracks (not here either) about it. 🙂

It was dark to where I needed headlights, but honestly, why wouldn’t you use headlights on your push mower if you had them? Seriously, how cool is that? I think I’ll mow at night sometime soon just because I can!

For the first mow of the season, we use a very low setting to scalp the yard in order to foster new growth and bag the dead grass trimmings. The rest of the time we choose to mulch fresh-cut grass when it’s green and thriving as it has a lot to give back to the ground, but the dead stuff sitting around all winter doesn’t have much to offer.

Scalping would put EGO’s claim to have the most powerful rechargeable mower on the market that still delivers the performance of gas. Upon starting the electric beast (no pull string battle!), I set off to cut our grass.

Compared to gas mowers, the EGO is pretty quiet (thanks for catching my typo, Gary!). Of course, cutting grass will be noisy to some degree since debris and other things being hit by the blades make noise no matter what you have. But this battery-powered machine performed like a champ and it’s 20 inch deck had me finished in no time.

Or so I thought. Avery pointed out a few spots I missed and demanded that I hold her so she can show me where to go.

What a great helper, we’d have such a messy lawn without her low level eyes to spot my imperfections! Her not being scared of the mower is a testament to how non-threatening the noise level is, don’t you think? After finishing, I tried sweeping off the mower as it was driving me crazy that it was dirty.

I know, I know, it’s a freakin’ mower, that’s what it’s for! Go ahead, tell me again, Going Mom already laughed at me anyway.

While mowing, when I went over an area that rose up coming in contact with the blades more than normal, an orange light would flash letting me know of the issue and if it got worse, the mower to auto-shutoff. This was no problem since it easily started right back up, and I had the setting on the lowest level to scalp the yard, so during normal use I don’t expect this to happen.

I’m used to spending close to an hour mowing like I did last season with our reel mower, which I still think is cool for the exercise factor, just not the clean-cut grass part. With the EGO, I’m done in less than 30 minutes and our yard looks great!

Looking forward to using our EGO Power Plus Mower this season, and will post a full review after several sessions, including at least one at night! If anything does go wrong, it’s great to know Avery can help us fix whatever it is. Apparently she’s quite the expert in battery-powered lawn mowers. Or so it would seem….

Do you have or have you heard of the EGO line of battery powered yard tools?

Are you an electric user or gas junkie when it comes to power tools?

Gas is a big enough of a pain for our cars, so I absolutely love not having to worry about it when it comes to other power equipment. Plus, it’s much cleaner and safer for nosy kids who like to touch everything!