Dear Wife, I Caught You

03/06/2015 R.C. Liley 3 Comments

Dear Wife (aka Going Mom, Kelley, Best Friend, and Mommy), I caught you doing something basically every night. It’s nothing bad, but actually very sweet.

At night, after a lonnngggg day at work, after coming home only to be bombarded by the need to breastfeed Avery as I am asking you several questions before you have time to think, after you spend the little time left before bedtime playing with Avery, after you nurse her to sleep (or try your damnedest since she’s a crazy), after you finally lay down to relax, you do something that warms my heart.

You look up pictures and videos of Avery, as if just to make sure she’s really ours since it seems so surreal at times.

When you join me in the living room where I’m usually writing on this blog, I’ll glance over and see you watching an old video of Avery from your phone on on Instagram. Videos both from your account and from mine, like this…

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A post shared by RC Liley (@going_dad)

Most times you have your phone on silent, but I can hear Avery’s giggles just like I know you have in your head while watching this.

And the pictures, we have pictures from months ago as well as current day that you will make your way through. Again, from your phone, on Facebook, or on Instagram, you scroll through and look at the wonder that is our beautiful daughter.

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A post shared by RC Liley (@going_dad)

Even on those nights when you’re so tired you go straight to bed, I know you make sure to look through pictures and watch videos of our growing girl. Sometimes I hear the videos playing, but other times it’s just instinct.

I can see it in your eyes and from your actions, you absolutely adore Avery, and not even the world itself is good enough for her. There are times when you doubt yourself as a good mother, but I want you to know that doubt is complete nonsense! You’re the best mother and wife there is, and you make both Avery and me so very happy.

Please, never, ever, think of yourself as anything less than the best. There are times when we don’t hug as much as we should, and when we finally do, it feels wonderful and I don’t want to stop. Unless I have tea tree oil on my face and you have carrot seed on yours. 🙂

Basically, dear, I just want you to know that seeing you simply look at old pics of our daughter says a lot about how kind, loving, and caring of mother you are. Avery is the luckiest girl and Wes (Updated to include our 2nd child) is the luckiest boy to have you as a mom, and I, the same as my wife.

You’ll probably be paranoid every time you get on your phone at night, but don’t worry, I don’t sit and stare or anything, just happen to see our daughter on your phone. It’s precious, you’re precious, our family is precious, and I hope that never changes.

Kelley, I love you, thank you for everything you do!!

Life, Parenting

Friends and Strangers at the Bounce House

03/05/2015 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Have you ever been to a bounce house? Think of those giant inflatables that fill the backyards of homes for a kids’ birthday party, only it’s all indoors and filled with 10+ giant inflatables! In other words, a kids’ (and most adults’) wonderland!

As part of our Dallas Dads Group, I scheduled a Meetup at a local bounce house called Jump For Fun (fitting name I’d say) for us dads to gather and have fun with our kids. We had 4 dads attend, including me, and we each had one kid. It was hard to sit and talk with the other guys since I had to keep my eyes on Avery. She was all over the place!

Okay, so not first, but she started moving after warming up to her surroundings.

Until I put her inside one of the inflatables……

Yeah, that was her first and last time in that one. Not sure what made her so upset, but I blame her current teething issue as the main culprit. Once back out on the floor though, her mood changed back to happy status.

But we obviously didn’t go to a bounce house to run around the floor, so grabbed Avery and we went through several of the fun-filled obstacles together. She was confused at times, but I could tell she enjoyed it overall. But man, it was difficult trying to traverse some of the slippery inflatable steps with Avery in one arm! Regardless, we did it plenty of times, and even took on Batman!

He was all talk. One of our neighborhood dads and friends, Jason, was there with his daughter, Zoey, and we took turns taking our girls down a giant slide.

Avery, with her cutting teeth, had her hand in her mouth most of the time we were there. Nothing a little tickling can’t do to fix the hand-in-mouth issue.

Jason and Zoey were able to go up and down several times in the time it took us to go once.

Zoey is older and she was having a blast running all over the place. Notice, no hands in mouth for her since she has all her teeth!

While wondering around, Avery made a new, older, friend who seemed to like picking her up.

Seemed sweet and innocent enough, until she dropped her like a hot potato!

I guess they made up though, and the girl was more careful afterward.

I don’t know if it was the trauma of being dropped, her cutting teeth, or just because she’s a sweetheart, but Avery went up to a lady sitting on a bench, took the magazine sitting next to her, and held it up as if asking her to read it. The kind mom of two boys, Katie, kindly held Avery in her lap and read a little. Avery seemed to enjoy.

Everyone had a great time and we’re hoping to make the place a regular meetup for our Dallas Dads Group soon. Maybe next time Avery won’t be in the middle of teething and actually smile for a picture.

Eh, it wasn’t crying, so I’ll consider it a win in my book. Whatever book that is, I don’t know. I’m happy with the group of dads that met up and hope to be able to talk with them more next time. Which, thanks to our awesome group, we’ll have the chance plenty of times in the near and distant future!

Avery had a very nice nap after we made it home. Think we need to do this a lot more!

If you have been to a bounce house or one of the backyard parties with an inflatable, how do you like them?

Do you join in on the jumping or just watch?

Food, WIAW

Changing Amazon Mom to Amazon Family + WIAW #2

03/04/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Have you heard of the program Amazon Mom? If you’re here in celebration of What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW), chances are you’re a foodie. Annnnnd, I suspect that many of you, foodies, parents, or anyone really, frequently order from Amazon. Am I right?

I realize there are a lot of moms out there that order from Amazon, maybe you’re one of them reading this right now, but there are also plenty of guys, dads, that do the same. I’m one of them.

The name Amazon Mom feels like having dirt kicked in my face as a father, and that I’m worthless. I’m not alone in these feelings. In fact, Oren Miller, the man who recently passed away from cancer and I wrote a tribute post about how he will live forever, put a call to action several years ago for this very thing.

Please, if you can, find the time to read his post about Why You Should Sign the Amazon Mom Petition. Just yesterday, our Dad Bloggers community along with many helping hands (yes, moms too) lit up the social media world requesting Amazon to change their program from Amazon Mom to Amazon Family.

We are pushing for the long overdue change in honor of Oren and for all parents who give a damn out there. As Oren mentions in his post, the same program in the UK already goes by the name Amazon Family, so why not here in the U.S.? Sense made = ZERO!

Simply follow the hashtags #Dads4Oren and #LoveWalkForOren and you’ll see how big of an impact he has had and still is having on our community. I never met him in person, but just seeing how caring and supportive he was as a friend, father, husband, and person, I want to help however I can.

Please, click the link below and help out by signing the petition. All parents should support this simple request which would give us all the dignity we deserve.

On behalf of our Dad Bloggers group as well as parents everywhere, we thank you in advance for any support!

Okay, so now it’s time for my second installment of WIAW. Big thanks to Jenn, recent mom to an adorable “chickpea” and fellow foodie who I hope supports the change on Amazon!

I don’t eat much in the morning as I prefer to workout first and then chow down, so I start my day a ~~cup~~ gallon of coffee. Lately, it’s been via my homemade cold brew French Press method which is so simple and very delicious!

But, I do have an adorable growing toddler to feed, and she’s quite demanding of my microwave breads. I use pureed fruits and veggies along with coconut flour, oats, peanut flour, kamut flour, etc to make sure she’s getting plenty of nutritious and delicious food. So far, she still begs for whatever I create that day, and it’s only better when I smear some NuttZo on top.

I don’t have to hold my hand out long before……

….she takes it and runs!

After my workout, lunch is a hodge podge of steamed veggies, homemade beer bread, and slow-cooker salsa chicken with black beans.

On the side I enjoy having steamed broccoli sprinkled with nutritional yeast. Could eat this all day!

Avery keeps it simple and just has the chicken and black bean mix.

For dinner, I load up with more veggies in a salad topped with goat cheese, raw beets, onions, red peppers, and a can of wild salmon.

Afterward I’ll have several slices of homemade peanut butter banana bread along with more NuttZo. Really love the stuff, and if you order on their website and use code liley15, you can get 15% off. If you ask me, that’s an awesome deal! 🙂

And that’s been a typical day for me this week. Hope you’re having a good one so far, and please, help support all parents and push to have Amazon change their program’s name!

How do you feel about so many businesses still using “Mom” or “Mommy” to describe spending time with kids and promote products?

As a father, this definitely gets to me more than it ever has, but I’m curious how mothers feel about it. Wouldn’t you want your husband/boyfriend/partner/baby’s daddy to be included too? At least most of you should, right?