Monkey Business

One of the best parts of my morning is going to get Kaylani out of her crib. Most parents would probably say its the worst part since that usually happens around 5 or 6 am, but since Kaylani's a great sleeper, its usually around 7:15. Waking up and getting her actually isn't the best part. Seeing what she does is.

Some mornings, Kaylani will start talking around 6am, but that doesn't mean she's done sleeping. Most days, she'll fall back asleep for another hour before we know she's done. And how do we know she's done? We know when we look over at her monitor and see her standing there, staring at the door. That's when she's done (or when she screams at us while she's standing there).

But here comes the best part. After going downstairs to get her milk (she's been drinking whole milk for about a month now), I come back up and knock lightly on her door before going in (not because I want to respect her privacy, but so she doesn't freak out and fall over). After she says "papa" (or "mama" on certain days), I turn off her humidifier, turn on a light, and open her blinds. All this time she stands there and watches and listens to me do this. Then comes the best part.

When I walk towards her, she gets down, crawls over to her bedtime monkey, picks it up, stands up, and hands it to me. No idea why, but apparently she thinks its her get out of crib card. Its the best thing ever, and it happens every morning. In fact, it even happens after some of her naps in the pack and play, but instead of bedtime monkey, she hands over naptime doll.

On the days when we don't get her quick enough, we usually find monkey on the floor. Those are the bad days. So to sum up, Kaylani is highly correlated to monkey business, and that's something that is likely to hold for quite awhile I'm afraid.

Happy Birthday Kaylani!!

One year. In my life, one year is nothing. It's only 3% of my entire life, but for Kaylani, today it officially marks 100% of her life. She's one. I have a one year old. Just one year ago, I was writing about how I had a 1 hour old. And here I am now writing about how I have a one year old. Crazy.

What a trip it's been, and I mean that in the best way possible. We've had some hard times when Kaylani wasn't sleeping, or when she was sick, or when we were sick, but for the better part of this year, it's been absolutely great. Kaylani's grown up happy, healthy, and quickly, and so have Mommy and Daddy. Most people talk about how they survived the first year. We didn't just survive...we survived and had a blast doing it. And to celebrate Kaylani's first year, we had ourselves quite the weekend.

If you've been reading along, you already know that we've celebrated every one of Kaylani's monthly birthdays since the day she was born. So it really shouldn't surprise you that for her official one year birthday, we'd have not one, but two celebrations! Yesterday was the first, and I'd say it was pretty good. We invited over all of Kaylani's friends and were glad that most of them could make it. We even invited over our family, and they all did their best to make it too. Yin Yin, Yea Yea, Bat Bat, Auntie Shannon, Connor, and Zoe were here, and so were Titi Glendalys, Abuela, Alisha, and Rohan! Add to that 7 more of Kaylani's friends, their parents, and Padrino Tim and Meredith, and you have yourselves one rocking one year old party!

Not only did Kaylani get a ton of great presents, but she also got her own cake! We bought a 1/2 sheet cake for all the guests, and knew it was going to be way too much. Our actual thought was that Kaylani would dig her hands into the entire cake, and whatever was left, we would serve. Little did we know that Kayalni would (unwillingly) put her hand in the cake, then freak out. Who knew my little girl would be a neat freak?

To top off her birthday weekend, we went to the farm on an unseasonal 70 degree day (in November??) for some pizza, animals, and tractors, then came home to have dinner and more cake. This time, Kaylani got her very own cupcake which she made a bigger mess with. Maybe she was just shy with 20+ people staring at her messy hand because tonight, she had no problems ripping apart a cupcake and eating it too.

Anyways, now Kaylani is sound asleep, and hopefully will stay sound asleep even though she's had a ton of cake and cupcake in the last 24 hours. There was so much more than went on this weekend (like her teacher from Music Together coming to put on a show, and a pinata, and everything else), but I don't need to write about that. Instead, you can check out the 130 pictures I just posted. Only 100 of them are from her birthday. The other 30 are from the couple of days before her birthday, so check them out. And if you want to see a video of Kaylani and her cupcake tonight, check out YouTube (or just scroll down!)

Let's hope that Kaylani's 2nd year is just as good as her first. And if the first was any indication, then I think we're all gonna be just fine. Happy Birthday Kaylani!!! We love you!

Trick and Treat!

So today's the first day of November. It's also the day after Halloween. And it's also exactly one week before Kaylani's 1st birthday. Oh, and it's also the day after we had to set our clocks back an hour for daylight savings. That's a pretty busy day if you ask me, and we haven't even gotten into the details yet.

In the spirit of Halloween, I'm going to do a little version of trick or treat, but instead of the OR, I'm going to do trick AND treat. You see, the trick is that it looks like I'm going to write a real post for a change...but I'm not. The treat is that I've posted over 125 new pictures in 2 albums (updated the PR Week 50, and added weeks 51 and 52). It's definitely a treat because there are a ton of great pictures from Mommy and Kaylani's trip to Puerto Rico, our family trip to the farm, and also Halloween! If you haven't figured it out yet, Kaylani was Nemo (and yes, we know Nemo is a boy but who could pass up on a giant fluffy fish costume). We thought it'd be perfect for a cold October day, so who knew it'd be 70+ degrees and Kaylani would be sweating every time we put her in!

Anyways, check out her latest albums and enjoy the pictures. As an added treat, here's a video of Kaylani crawling in her Nemo costume. Priceless! Man, I love Halloween...for babies. Stay tuned for more posts to come (trust me, I've got a lot of stuff to write about...like shoes in the car, standing, kitchen safety, birthday preparations, and milk)! All that and more, coming soon to a blog right here.

No Time

Time is something most people can't get enough of. Whether its more time to work, play, or sleep, you could always use more time. Unfortunately, lately I haven't had enough time to do any of those 3, and that's a problem.



Ever since Mommy and Kaylani got back from PR, my time has been taken up. Unfortunately for all 3 of us, not nearly enough time was taken up by the 3 of us. Most of my time has been taken up by work. Whether its having to leave for work before Kaylani wakes up, or getting home after Kaylani goes to bed, it all means that my time with her has been limited. Add working after I get home to that, and that means my time with Mommy has also been limited.



To make matters worse, its Yankees playoffs time, which means any "free" second I have I'm also trying to watch the game on TV (or in person if its at home). There's clearly a priority issue there, but to me, that's a short term issue because baseball goes away in less than 2 weeks.



What it all comes down to is that there's just not enough time to go around right now, but I'm trying to make the best of it. Kaylani and Mommy have been great at sticking with me as I try to juggle all my hours, so I'm thankful that they're understanding (they'll be more thankful when baseball goes away). Its important to me to find time for them, so I vow to do that starting now. I also vow to start blogging more again because that's an important thing too.



What I'm trying to say is I'm going to find time for everything. Some way, some how, time will not be an excuse. But if anyone knows how to stop or extend time, I'm all ears!

Adjusting to Home

They're back! Finally, my girls are home! At around 7pm, I saw both my girls for the first time in over a week. You know that person who stands outside security impatiently waiting to catch the first glimpse of the person(s) they're waiting for and is pacing around and craning their neck over people? Yeah, that was me. Noone ever wants to be "that person", but whatever, it was worth it.

Unfortunately for me, my excitement didn't quite translate over to Kaylani. It took her a few minutes, but she eventually cracked a small smile. And when I took her out of her stroller, it took her another minute or so to stop trying to go to Mommy, and then another minute to stop trying to cry (never really a full cry, just looked like she was going to). It was kinda sad to not be "wanted" by my baby, but in her defense, she's sick right now.

Poor Kaylani got sick on her last day in Puerto Rico. She woke up this morning with a runny nose and a phlegmy cough. Maybe she caught it because she stayed up late to watch the Yankees win in 13 innings (oh wait, that was me). Either way, sick Kaylani, traveling Kaylani, and "new" place Kaylani don't all go together. After a 30 minute nap on the ride home and a yogurt for dinner, she finally seemed to really remember me during storytime/bedtime. I even got a kiss blown to me during good night, and a smile from her before she started to nurse.

Tomorrow's another day and I'm sure we'll be back to normal. Sure wish I didn't have to work, but once I get back, it's Daddy-Daughter time. Hopefully she won't be sick anymore. But if she is, we'll make it work. Whatever she is, she's home, and that's all that matters to me.

20 Pictures = 20,000 Words

If one picture is worth 1,000 words, then 20 pictures is 20,000 words. So instead of trying to type up 20,000 words, I've decided to just post the 20 pictures that Mommy and Kaylani have been sending me every day from PR for the last week. Tomorrow, my girls come home and I can't wait. So until they get here and I can start taking pictures myself, here are pictures from Kaylani's week in PR. I bet you can feel the heat just from looking through them! And for all of you going through the start of winter right now...try not to be too jealous!

Phone Home

This week has been a particularly rough week for me without Kaylani and Mommy. Luckily, work has kept me so busy that I've barely had a chance to think about anything else (did I really just say luckily about that?). A better luckily usage would be for the phone.



To keep in touch with my family, we try to talk on the phone 2x a day (morning and night). Usually its just Mommy and me talking about our plans for the day (either future or past depending on the day). But a few times, I'll "talk" to Kaylani too. With Papa on speakerphone, I can say hi, good morning, I love you, or anything else to my little girl so she doesn't forget about me. According to Mommy, her expression is priceless.



For the first minute or so, Kaylani stares at the phone looking very confused. Sure she can hear my familiar voice and callings, but where the heck is he and why is it coming out of that glowing box is what she's thinking. The next few minutes are her saying Papa back to me, or squealing in delight that she can hear my voice. The last couple of minutes are squeals of frustration when Mommy doesn't let her hold the phone (or drool on it).



Luckily, we only have a few more days that we have to live through a phone distance relationship. Sunday, Mommy and Kaylani come home and we can be a family again. Then, Kaylani can stare right at me and wonder what I'm saying instead of at a phone. Can't wait!

It's that time of the year...

I don't cry much. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a tough guy in any sense of the word. And most people would probably even call me sensitive, but I don't cry much. On average, I probably cry once a year...twice tops if it's a big year. That's not to say I don't well up when I watch a sappy movie or when I got married, but it's still different then crying. Well yesterday, I guess it was just that time of the year because I cried.

We got to the airport around 8am, well before Mommy and Kaylani's 9:40am flight. The original plan was to check-in, and then grab breakfast before they headed through security. The problem with our plan was that at the Philly airport, or at least in our terminal, there was no place for breakfast outside of security. And since Kaylani was up at 6:30am (against her will) and needed to have breakfast, that meant it was time to say goodbye, about an hour before our original plan.

As I watched Mommy get things ready to go through security, including taking out plastic bags of liquids/food, DVD players, shoes for both her and Kaylani, I started to well up a little bit. I didn't think much of it at the time, but it was just a lot of emotion going through me. Only 5 minutes before that I gave Kaylani a big hug and a kiss, had her blow a kiss back at me and touch my nose, and then gave Mommy a hug and a kiss too. And as I was standing there watching them slowly go through the gate, I started to cry.

I couldn't believe I was crying because it wasn't an emotion that I've ever had to deal with before. It wasn't a situation I've ever had to deal with before. It was something completely different and I just wasn't prepared for it. As soon as they disappeared from site, I started to walk back towards my car and fought to hide my tears. Luckily I didn't walk by anyone because I probably looked a little ridiculous walking alone, holding Kaylani's jacket, and crying.

When I got to the car, I lost it. I sat there for 3 minutes in a complete breakdown. I finally regained my composure, wiped away my tears, and started the car. The rest of the day I spent trying to distract myself. I read the rest of my book that I picked up on the way to Boston earlier in the week. I went to a bar and watched the Red Sox lose, the Giants win, and eventually, the Yankees win too. I did everything I could to distract myself, but nothing helped me from feeling empty inside.

Looking back, I can understand why the emotion came out so strongly. Sure I've gone a few days without seeing Kaylani, but I've never had to say bye before doing so. Usually it's leaving for work before she wakes up, and getting home after she goes to sleep, but I know that it's only for a day or two. When I went to Boston, it was the same, where I left in the morning like normal, and came back 2 nights later as if she just slept through my night and morning. This time, I was saying bye. I was watching her (and Mommy) walk away from me, which is a much harder thing to do, and not something that I'd like to happen often.

Last night, I laid alone in my bed in the dark. There was no glow coming from Kaylani's video monitor. There was no sound coming from Kaylani's audio monitor. There was no one in the room except me. Needless to say, it was lonely. Tonight, it's more of the same. I stayed a little later at work. I had dinner by myself. And now I'm staring mindlessly at the TV at a game that I have little interest in. Mommy and Kaylani are having a great time in Puerto Rico and I did get to speak to her a little bit too, or at least hear her say "Papa" a few times which is enough to hold me over.

It's just the start of the week, but soon enough I'll get to see them again. You never know what you miss until it's gone. Luckily for me, what I miss is coming back in 5 days. 5 days that couldn't come soon enough if you ask me. In the meantime, anyone need a Dad? I'm available.

The week ahead...

Tonight is Kaylani's last night at home for a week. It's also Mommy's last night at home for a week. It is NOT Daddy's last night at home for a week. That's right, Mommy and Kaylani are headed to Puerto Rico for Mayra Lee's wedding, and unfortunately Daddy can't take time off since he just started a new job 2 weeks ago.

The fact that Daddy will be alone at home for a week is the obvious part. The fact that Mommy and Kaylani will be on their own (with Abuelita) in Puerto Rico is also obvious. What may not be obvious is that the most nervewracking part of all of this comes tomorrow at 9:20am. That's when Mommy and Kaylani take off from Philly...on their first flight alone. Kaylani's been on a plane two other times, with the last also being to Puerto Rico back in March, but things were different back then. Back then, Kaylani was only 5 months old. Back then, Kaylani couldn't sit up, could barely grab things, and was nursing for her primary source of food. Oh how times have changed.

Here we are, 6 months later, and everything is different. Kaylani wants to stand now. She wants to walk. She wants to eat anything she can get her hands on (and some things she can't). She doesn't want to sleep. She doesn't want to sit still. And she talks. A lot. All of that is what makes the flying part scary for Mommy. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Kaylani and Mommy will be in first class (courtesy of frequent flier miles). Normally, flying First Class would be great, luxurious, relaxing. Now, it's just another source of stress for Mommy who worries what the other people in first class will think if Kaylani acts up.

Mommy's already packed a host of distractions to hopefully keep Kaylani entertained for the 3.5 hour flight. She's got a DVD player with Curious George, a bottle, a sippy cup, Cheerios, food, 6 books, plenty of toys, a bottle of water, and if worst comes to worst, her Blackberry. I'm hoping she does great so that she and Mommy have a great trip to Puerto Rico, but only time will tell. If you're curious to see how it turns out, check back tomorrow or Monday. I'll be sure to get all the details from Mommy before then.

Scary Birthday!

Today marks Kaylani's 11 month birthday...and that's scary. It's scary that it's been 11 months since our little one was born. It's scary that we've been parents for 11 months. It's scary that she turns one year in one month! And most of all, it's scary because it's October...and you know, October means Halloween!

We're very glad that Kaylani was not born on Halloween. No offense to all of you Halloween babies out there, but we're just glad Kaylani's not one of them. The main reason is that Daddy is not a fan of Halloween...at all. I'm sure having Kaylani around and dressing her up will make it a lot better, but in the grand scheme of things, Daddy and scary things just don't go together.

Anyways, I'm pretty spent from a long couple of days, and since I just posted this morning (click here to read in case you haven't seen it yet), I'm going to leave it at that and just post some pictures. These pictures have been LONG overdue (and we've kinda been slacking in the picture department), but enjoy. There's a lot of great ones in there, including Kaylani drinking from a straw, Aadi's birthday party, and some "scary" ones (yes, that's a spider on her head). Enjoy!