Double Dipping

We can only teach Kaylani so much at one time. She has learned a lot already, but she's got so much to go before she'll be fully accepted into society. While she may be pretty darn cute, it's all an act. Underneath it all, she's a heathen. She's unfit for public restaurants. She could even be considered...disgusting. And all of this is within the safety of our own home. Imagine what would happen if we went out in public?

What I'm talking about is Kaylani's new love of double dipping. I guess the typical definition of double dipping doesn't really apply here since she's not biting a piece off of anything and then dipping the bitten edge back into something, but it's her own form of double dipping. Frankly, it's even grosser than the typical way. Let's walk through it using tonight's dinner as an example.

Tonight, Kaylani started off having split pea and carrot soup. Nothing too eventful happened during the 15 minutes and 17 toys it took us to get through 1/2 a jar. But when we switched to pieces of actual chicken, that's when it started. It was going well at first. We'd put down a small piece of chicken. She'd pick it up and put it her mouth. She'd chew on it for a bit, then swallow, and we'd start over again. But after about 8 or 9 pieces of chicken, she got tired. Or bored. Or just wanted to be gross.

After a few chews of her chicken, she would make some noises, move around a lot, stick her whole hand in her mouth, and then give one spit and out would come the remainder of a piece of chicken. Thankfully it landed on her table. After staring at it, and then up at us with a smile on her face, she'd move the chicken around, and then put it right back in her mouth. Gross! In fact, Mommy, who has a terrible gag reflex when she sees Kaylani gagging or spitting things up, couldn't even bare to watch. I personally thought she was being quite the conservationist (is that a word?). Gross, but quite conservative.

I guess we shouldn't complain because she's eating. Some day down the road we'll teach her table manners (or we'll learn not to give her big pieces of chicken). One way or another, we'll get her fit for the public eye. And to show you fit she is, here are some pictures from the last couple of days. I promise, there are no pieces of half eaten, regurgitated chicken. There are some great pictures from Little Gym, Kaylani's first trip on a fire truck, and a playdate she just had with her friend Aadi! Oh, and if you have an extra second, check out my latest Sports IllustraDad post at Dad-Blogs about an adorable little girl who ruined her Dad's lifelong dream of catching a foul ball, or my new fear for Kaylani's toddler years.

The Looker

Kaylani's a looker. Not just because she's ridiculously cute (in my unbiased opinion), but because she likes to look around at absolutely anything and everything. Kaylani craning her neck around to look at people and things when we're out is something we've grown accustomed to, but it's still funny to me to see other people do the same.

We were at Whole Foods tonight picking up some things (like 3 delicious porterhouse steaks) for the upcoming weekend with Daddy's side of the family. And as we walked around the store, we ran across several people who all did the same thing. Each time we walked by, people would wait until we passed them, and then crane their necks around to take a good look at Kaylani.

Most of the time we walked by so quickly that I doubt they got anything more than a glimpse of my butt (hmm...maybe that's what they were actually looking at...). I guess the polite thing to do would have been to stop and let them take a good look at Kaylani (and not my butt), but that's just not the type of person I am. At least not when we're out running errands and there are important things to do at home, like get Kaylani ready for bed (or watch the Yankees-Red Sox game).

Speaking of which, it's time for Kaylani to go to sleep and Daddy to go watch the game. You can be sure I'll be staring straight at the TV though. I'm too old and inflexible to crane my neck at anything. And to make things easier for you, you can look straight at Kaylani's latest pictures right here. Enjoy, and go Yankees!

What a zoo!

The zoo is a zoo. I take that back. On a normal day, the zoo is a zoo. But on a nice day at the beginning of "zoo season", the zoo is a ZOO. On days like today, families go to the zoo, no matter how much of a zoo that zoo actually is. It might have been just another day at the zoo, but since this was our first trip to the zoo with Kaylani, it sure felt like a zoo.

After a quick 30 minute morning nap for Kaylani, we headed out to the Philadelphia Zoo. It's about 40 minutes from here, and the ride was fairly uneventful, or as uneventful as could be for having a minivan with 4 adults, a 4 year old, a 2.5 year old, and a 5 month old could be. It wasn't until we got to the exit for the zoo that we realized that we were definitely not going to be alone today.

Walking around with just Mommy and Kaylani would have been crazy enough, but add in the extra responsibility of Alisha and Rohan and the tens of thousands of other people that were at the zoo and you have yourself one heck of a day. I'm actually not complaining (much) because we had a great time and Kaylani behaved extremely well even though she only napped 1.5 hours throughout the day. The Philadelphia Zoo (the first in the US according to a sign I saw) had plenty of animals to keep us busy (and walking). We saw turtles, snakes, frogs, elephants, giraffes, zebras, monkeys, lions, tigers, and bears (oh my...sorry, had to) amongst other things. But I still can't get over how much of a zoo the zoo was.

I like to think that we're prepared for any public situation. We took Kaylani to the mall the week before Christmas, and she was only 6 weeks old at that point, so that had to be preparation for something. Both today and the mall at Christmas still meant Kaylani was near (or on) us at all times which makes things a little bit easier (and less hectic). But it's still too early for me to start thinking about Kaylani as a wandering toddler, or having more than 1 child (let alone 4 which is Mommy's new plan...to be written about at a later date).

For now, we're going to continue to live day by day, so check out pictures from Kaylani's last couple of days (can't believe she's in her 160's already). And if you're so inclined, check out pictures from the Yankees 2009 home opener. Even though they don't have Kaylani in them, they're still pretty cool (and have an upclose shot of Harlan Chamberlain who we saw passing through the halls). Enjoy!

Public Sleeping 101

I think we're completely in denial. For some reason, we keep telling ourselves that if it's Kaylani's nap time then she'll fall asleep anywhere which means it's okay for us to go out with her. She'll be so tired that once we put her in the car, she'll fall right asleep even if it's only a 5 minute drive. I mean, it makes total sense in our heads and we keep planning with those thoughts in our head, so it must be true...right?

Wrong. Totally wrong each and every time. But I think I know why we're wrong, and it has nothing to do with us (of course it doesn't). It took me a while to actually come up with a solid reason why our plan doesn't work, but today at Church, I figured it out. It's not us...it's the public. That's right, Kaylani has a problem with public sleeping. It's not Kaylani's fault either though. It's the public.

Now, "the public" is a pretty broad term, but that's exactly how I mean it. After all, it could be anyone in "the public" that prevents Kaylani from sleeping. Or, if it's like today at Church, it could be everyone in the public. Kaylani was supposed to fall asleep in her carseat sometime within the drive to Church or the first 15 minutes. When she didn't, that meant that I had to take her out. Normally, rocking her in my arms would get the job done. But that doesn't work when you're up against "the public."

Today's public offenders were a woman in her mid-40's sitting in the row in front of us and off to the right, and a 40 year old man with 2 sons who was standing behind us. The woman wasn't that bad actually. She just stayed staring at Kaylani, which of course made Kaylani stare back and smile instead of sleep. It was the man behind us that caused Kaylani's public sleeping issues. He was making funny faces, staring, waving, everything at Kaylani which made her smile, squeal, and laugh. None of those things are synonomous with sleeping.

So Kaylani didn't take her morning nap until we left Church (at 12:15pm). She did get a good hour nap in during our car ride to IKEA and the beginning of our shopping trip. On the other hand, she didn't get an afternoon nap in because we were making a bit of noise putting together her playroom furniture (we're almost done with the furniture part...now just have to buy the decorations). And now it's 8pm which means we pushed Kaylani way too late for having a late morning nap and no afternoon nap. I've also got to get some work work done and eat dinner too, so unfortunately no pictures tonight. Tomorrow though...promise!

Dinner and a Poop

People with newborns don't get out to the movies very often. Actually, people with babies in general don't get out to the movies very often. So because of that, dinner and a movie becomes a thing of the past. Going out for dinner, however, is not something that new families avoid. So we decided tonight that we were going out for dinner as a family. Yin Yin and Yea Yea (Chinese for Grandma and Grandpa) are in town, so out we go!

Right after Mommy gave Kaylani her last sponge bath EVER (her umbilical cord fell off today!) and nursed her for not even close to the last time ever, we headed to a local restaurant (you may call it a Chinese restaurant). She fell asleep during the short car ride over, so we thought to ourselves that this may be a whole lot easier then we imagined. Full baby + sleeping baby = happy parents. I'm good at math, but only math that involves numbers apparently because full baby + sleeping baby does not equal happy parents. Here's how my little math problem plays out:

We sit down. We look over at Kaylani and she's sleeping. We order. We look over at Kaylani and she's awake! It's like a horror movie scene where one second you look over and the person's not moving, and the next, eyes wide open staring back at you. Well, it's like that, but not scary at all. So she's awake, but not crying, and barely moving. No problem!

We sit some more. We talk some more. And then it happened.

"Wah."
"...Wah."
"...Wah...WAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

So Mommy picks her up. She sways a little bit, and all is quiet again. Things seem like they'll be alright, but that's when she felt...it. It turned out to be a little moisture on Kaylani's back. "Maybe it's sweat" Mommy says. Makes sense to me. After all, she has been in a wool car seat sack for 20 minutes and cried for a little bit. But wait, newborns can't sweat. No problem...right? She did just take a bath so maybe we just didn't dry her well enough.

Well a wet baby could turn into a sick baby, so being the prepared parents we are, we whip out her change of clothes, and head for the bathroom. Hmmm, no changing table in the bathroom. Alright, well we whip out her change of clothes, break out the changing mat, and get to work right there in the booth (by the way, in this story, "we" actually means "Mommy").

First layer, pop pop pop go the buttons. Out come the feet. Freedom! And then...and then, it all went yellowish brown. This time, there was no soft serve ice cream machine stuck in the "on" position. We're way past that. This time, we've got the aftermath of a blow out on her hand (literally). And wouldn't you know it, here comes the food! First course, on the table. Kaylani's last course, everywhere.

Now luckily Kaylani's poops don't really smell yet, and luckily, there were only a few other tables in the restaurant and none could see exactly what we were dealing with (although it didn't take much imagination to figure it out). Mommy did her best with about 10 wipes, and Daddy took the unedible course to an outside garbage can. Few minutes later, Kaylani was glazed over and content with herself and Mommy and Daddy felt good about conquering their first public challenge. Perfect time to start dinner!

So there goes another day of firsts. And who needs dinner and a movie when you can get dinner and a poop anyways? Not me!