Tag Archives: tips

How to Make a Christmas DAD-vent Activity Calendar

12/10/2014 R.C. Liley 3 Comments

Do you have an Advent calendar or some sort of Christmas countdown craft in your home?

As a kid, we never had one in our home, but I want to start a family tradition of having something to count the days down until Christmas starting with December 1st. Last year, I wrote 24 different activities for Going Mom and I to do each day until Christmas. They were folded up, placed in a big glass vase and we’d randomly pick one.

Problem was, though, the activities required time and more effort than we could give on any particular day. If there was one we couldn’t do, we’d just push it off and plan on doing several during the weekend. Nope, that never happened either!

While it was a fun though, I didn’t think it through enough; some things were just too complicated. So, this year, I thought ahead and made my own Advent/Christmas Countdown craft with things we could easily do each day.

Instead of randomly picking an activity, I assigned the tasks for each day. I didn’t get creative with the list, and actually just made things that we would most likely do that day anyway. It’s a win-win, right? Hey, this way we’re not pushing anything off!

To give you an idea of my activities, at least 10 of the days is just us working with Avery on walking and finding a reason to cheers each other. We normally split a beer or have some wine and will cheers each other every day; it’s tradition now!

The weekends are a little more involved, and include things like watching a Christmas movie or taking Avery to see Santa. We were left with just enough paper plates from Avery’s 1st birthday party and I figured they’d be great to use for making my own “dadvent” activity calendar.

With the help of Google and Pinterest, I collected enough paper plate craft ideas to put what we had to use.

Here’s what you need:

25 paper plates
A printer or just pen and paper
Almost empty glue stick (bonus points if it’s purple)
Some sort of twine or string (had some Kelley bought for the birthday party)
Mini clothespins (also from the birthday party) or another way to hang the plates

That’s it! Of course you could definitely use more, but I specialize in not-so-pretty DIY crafts, so this is how I do things! 🙂

As you might imagine, creating a dadvent calendar is fairly simple; all you do is print or write out 25 activities of your own to do with your family every day in December up to Christmas. The last days don’t matter since Christmas is over and we have new things to play with now.

Take your plates and either with printed numbers or a marker, number the back of each one from 1 to, yep, you guessed it, 25!

Cut your activities into strips and glue them on the opposite side of each plate. If you have activities you want for specific days, I suggest numbering each one so you don’t mix them up.

In numerical order, attach the plates to your string and you’re done! This is what we did on the 8th…

I planned on hanging them across the fireplace or make them in the shape of a Christmas tree somewhere on one of our walls, but that seemed too complicated and my wife does not allow holes in the wall. So I figured it was best not to hang and just let them lay on the floor.

Every day since, Kelley has gone into the room to pick the plate of the day for us to follow, and unlike last year, we’re doing great at keeping up!

Here are a couple of my inspirations….

And here’s my finished product!

Don’t be jealous.

Are you ready to make your own? I’d love to see pictures of what you have if you do anything similar.

FYI – I know we’re already into December and this is a late post, but that only adds to the awesomeness that is “DAD”!

Life, New Life, Parenting

Avoid Awkward Silence as an At-Home Parent: Six Ways to Develop Early Vocabulary Skills

11/22/2014 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Me: Hey Avery, are you hungry?

Avery: ……..

Me: Okaaayyyy, how about we try walking?

Avery: …….

Me: What’s wrong, did you poop?

Avery: ………

And so on and so forth. Thus is the typical conversation most parents have with their babies.

When you start life as an at-home parent your infant, silence is inevitable and expected. Sure, there’s crying and cooing, but unless you’re caring for other kids at the talking age, you have no one to actually converse with when at home.

We only have one kid, so it’s just Avery and me spending every day together, learning and growing along the way. I love it. It’s fulfilling, rewarding, better than sitting in an office (to me), way better than daycare (financially and physically), and it sometimes drives me INSANE!

Oops, did I say that? It’s not when she’s extremely fussy and screaming out loud, or when she’s pulling out my leg hair as I’m trying to cook meals for day; it’s the silence. Crying, I can take, but sometimes it gets quiet, a little too quiet.

Don't mind me, I'll just sit here and stare. — Don’t mind me, I’ll just sit here and stare.

As I first mentioned, it’s expected from an infant, but at a year old and close to making actual words with her babbling, it’s just awkward when she turns silent. I’ll be working in the kitchen as she’s happily pushing her boxes across the floor (yes, we’re classy) or we’ll be playing in the front room, but all too often, she turns silent and stares into space.

I know you’re thinking, “Must be poop!”, and I used to think the same, but that’s usually accompanied by grunting and a strawberry-red face. I’ll check anyway because you never know (right?), but 8.3 times out of 10, there’s no poop in sight……or smell.

Luckily, there are solutions to most problems in the world, and I’ve found six that help combat the awkward silence as an at-home parent. As she grows, many of these will act as a wonderful base to build upon and hopefully expand her vocab skills and mind.

1. Explain what you are doing. When I’m in the kitchen (it’s a lot!), I’ll catch Avery staring at me as I work. Instead of just carrying on in silence, I’ll explain to her exactly what I’m doing as if she’s a student anxious to jot down all of my notes. I do this for everything from the exercises I do when working out and even during diaper changes. This gives me the pseudo-conversation I sometimes miss and helps keep her engaged in daily activities.

2. Explain what they are doing. Since it would be narcissistic to only talk about yourself, describe the actions your kid is making too. This goes along with number 1 above, and will help them begin to understand their capabilities.

Yes dear, you are accurately portraying Chucky, the killer doll.

3. Make eye contact when speaking to your child. In doing so, your child may be more inclined to communicate. Of course, watch what you’re doing too; like changing dirty diapers!! I’ve tried looking into her eyes while explaining how I’m cleaning her bottom and next thing I knew, well, you know. #ParentingFail

4. Read to them often. Even when they can’t stand still and try to tear the pages from your hands as they scream, keep reading! Avery does this to Going Mom and I daily, but trust me, you’ll help build vocabulary skills and maybe even have them reading before others their age. Make sure to choose books with big, bright colors and fun pictures. Moby Dick is not the best book to start with. 🙂

5. Acknowledge their sounds and actions. When Avery started blowing raspberries, we made sure to return the action and let her know what she was doing. Now that’s she’s babbling a lot, we repeat (as good as we can) the string of “words” she spouts out and encourage words like “momma” and “da da”. Lately, Avery has become an expert at sticking out her tongue on queue and it makes my wife and I so proud!

6. Play music. You don’t have to have “The Wheels on the Bus” on repeat, play actual music, whatever you like, and it’ll be fine. This is a big one for keeping sane and having some kind of background noise at all times. Almost every day, I turn on Pandora with a mix of my favorite channels and frequently sing out loud with Avery staring at me in bewilderment. Despite the strange looks you might receive, have no doubt that your kid will pick up on words that help expand their vocabulary. For this reason, I tend to stay away from the Eminem station….

Although you can never fully escape the awkward silence when you’re an at-home parent with only one kid who’s not yet talking, these six solutions will help get you through this time and help build your child’s speech and learning skills as well.

Have you made use of any of these before?

Do you have other tips/advice to share?

Food, Friday Food Facts

Friday Foodie Fun Facts: Fennel and Fenugreek

10/31/2014 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

Happy Halloween, we’re celebrating Avery’s first by trick-or-treating and saying we don’t want anything but to say hi! Although today is Halloween and I should be posting something about how to avoid over-consumption of candy by your little ones as well as yourself, I wanted to share a post from my previous blog.

Ready to roll as a pumpkin! Original, I know.... — Ready to roll as a pumpkin! Original, I know….

Before I was a dad, I had another blog centered on healthy food called “Just Add Cayenne”. Obviously, you can tell I’m a fan of spicy food, but despite the name, I shared a lot of healthy dessert recipes/ideas too. You can check it out by clicking on the “Just Add Cayenne” page tab above and look around for a while.

I’m always interested in the health benefits of food and prefer to use it in place of traditional medicine whenever possible. For instance, I haven’t taken something like ibuprofen or aspirin for aches and pains in years; I use cayenne (hence the blog’s name) or ginger for their anti-inflammatory properties instead. I feel much better in doing so, and know I’m not sabotaging my gut lining or other insides as a result.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, Going Mom knows the importance of breastfeeding, and I’m extremely happy and proud that she’s giving Avery the best nutrition available. I mean, Nature’s pretty damn good at knowing what we need, and no formula or rice cereal will ever replace it! Unless you’re unable to for some reason, I see no good reason why you wouldn’t breastfeed your children.

Lately, Kelley has been concerned about her production and we’ve been looking for natural alternatives to give it a boost. She’s been drinking Traditional Medicinals Mother’s Milk herbal tea for a while now, but doesn’t always have time to brew a cup of tea with her busy work schedule on top of needing to pump. So, now I’m trying to boost things by adding fenugreek to her meals and soon we’ll have a fenugreek supplement to use too.

For the record, I think she’s doing fine and Avery doesn’t seem to complain (besides when she’s just a fussy baby), but either way, as you will see, there are plenty of other benefits to using fenugreek as well. Below is my original post from my old blog which also includes fennel since it’s another healthy addition to you meals. Plus, it made for a lot of “F’s” in my post title!

I have two awesome foods for you to add to your meals to create functional flavors that boost nutrition. One powder from the licorice flavored vegetable, fennel, and the other from an herb, fenugreek. Both of these have very distinguishable flavors that stand out in dishes. For that reason, you have to be careful because too much could ruin a dish.

These are both new functional flavors I’ve started to add to my diet and hope to feel a difference after using for a while. Fennel and fenugreek are known for alleviating annoying digestive issues (what? we all have them!) along with several other ailments.

Here’s a sample of fennel’s multiple health benefits, as listed on Organicfacts.net:

The health benefits of fennel include relief from anemia, indigestion, flatulence, constipation, colic, diarrhea, respiratory disorders, menstrual disorders, eye care, etc. Fennel, bearing the scientific name Foeniculum Vulgare Miller, or its essence, is widely used around the world in mouth fresheners, toothpastes, desserts, antacids and in culinary.

Fennel is a diuretic, i.e. increases amount and frequency of urination, thereby helping removal of toxic substances from the body and helping in rheumatism, swelling etc. It also increases production and secretion of milk in lactating mothers and since this milk contains some properties of fennel, it is anti flatulent for the baby too. It strengthens hair, prevents hair fall, relaxes body, sharpens memory and has a marvelous cooling effect in summer if the pale greenish-yellow water, in which it is soaked, is taken with a bit of sugar and black-salt.

And no, I am not using it for production of milk in my breasts. I’m neither lactating nor a woman; the indigestion and stomach relief is what I’m after. (Edit: And to boost Kelley’s milk supply too!) Read the full benefits of fennel here.

Fenugreek’s health benefits, also listed on Organicfacts.net, are:

The health benefits of fenugreek include relief from anemia, pregnancy pains, increasing lactation, digestion, loss of taste, fever, hair care, dandruff, stomach disorders, biliousness, respiratory disorders, mouth ulcers, sore throat, diabetes, inflammations, wounds and insomnia..

Most of these benefits of fenugreek are due to the presence of saponins and fiber in it. Fenugreek is also used for herbal healing. Its seeds contain a gumming substance called mucilage. Mixed with water, mucilage expands and becomes a gelatinous soother for irritated tissues.

Fenugreek is used to treat wounds, inflammation and gastrointestinal ailments. Fenugreek helps in antioxidation. So, it prevents and repairs damages caused by free radicals. According to ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, fenugreek can be used for inducing labour and aiding digestion. It is also good to improve metabolism and health. Irritated skin condition can be soothed by the external application of fenugreek. Fenugreek is also used for fevers and muscle aches.

Fenugreek is considered to be a safe herbal food. It is also used as a spice and tastes oddly of bitter celery and maple syrup.

Read more of fennel’s health benefits here.

Hopefully I will share a successful outcome with Going Mom’s production, but as you see, there are many other benefits to these foods and I recommend adding them whenever possible.

Have you ever used fennel or fenugreek?

Any moms out there that have tried boosting lactation naturally?

Do you have any new herbs or spices in your diet?