It's about sacrifice

Having a baby is about sacrifice. It changes your life, no doubt about it. And no matter how bad you wanted a baby, once you have one, you're going to have to sacrifice something. But it's not the bad type of sacrifice. It's a good sacrifice. Actually, it makes everything so worth it that it doesn't even seem like you're sacrificing anything.

Our lives actually haven't changed that much from before we had Kaylani. For the past few years we've slowly morphed away from the bars, the nightlife, and even going out for dinner on a regular basis. We were always willing to stay in and have a quiet night in front of the TV or cook a dinner just for the two of us and sit and talk at home. Heck, we might even go out more WITH Kaylani! But overall, not much sacrifice there.

Up until yesterday, TV was probably the biggest sacrifice. Kaylani LOVES to watch TV, but since she's not supposed to, Mommy hardly even turns it on during the day, and Mommy and Daddy try to wait until after Kaylani's asleep before we watch our shows. So as minor as that seems, it's one of a few sacrifices that we've been willing to make for her.

But yesterday, Daddy made a big sacrifice without even thinking twice about it. Yesterday, we converted Daddy's office into a playroom. It just made the most sense since it was on the main floor and near us. Our original plan was to finish the basement and turn that into a playroom (and bar area), but the basement wasn't nearly as convenient as Daddy's office. So Daddy sacrificed his office for his little girl. One of many more sacrifices to come I'm sure.

The office didn't disappear totally. It actually got moved into one of the upstairs guest rooms, but it's no longer a segregated space with an office feel to it. Now it's a bedroom with an office feel to it. But in actuality, the playroom downstairs looks great and I'm glad we have it. It also cleared up our family room a bit since we could move most of her toys into her new playroom. So all in all, it was a big sacrifice with an even bigger payout. Oh, and the other sacrifice was that Daddy spent Valentine's Day moving everything around, but that's just how it goes when you have a baby. "Free time" doesn't really exist anymore. Yet another sacrifice.

We attended Mia and Sofie's baptism today (and they did great!), which ties in pretty nicely to my sacrifice theme I've got going. After all, Christ sacrificed himself for all of us, and that was the ultimate sacrifice. Kinda makes giving up my office not seem like that big of a deal. And I guess it's not a big deal. Well, to me it's not a big deal. To Kaylani, I'm sure it's a huge deal, and that's all the reason I need.

Her First Production

It's over. Kaylani's been baptized, and it's over. It sounds terrible to say, but I'm just glad it's over. And the funny part is, the actual baptism part wasn't the hard or tiring part. She actually behaved real well during the entire Mass/ceremony. It was everything else that led up to that point that was the hard part.

It actually started out a few weeks ago when we scheduled her baptism. With most of our friends and family living out of town, there were certain logistical challenges with having Kaylani be baptized at our church in NJ. So after weeks of planning and scheduling, we got to a good place (thank you Mom and Dad for voluntarily staying at a hotel) and everyone was squared away. We had a Mass scheduled with our favorite Priest (Father Vince) and a place to host a brunch at (our favorite restaurant, Sotto Ristorante in Princeton). All we had to do was get to Church, and then get to brunch on the day of the baptism, and we even had a plan for that.

We were going to wake up at 7am, shower and get mostly dressed (not fully in case of spit up), then wake Kaylani up around 8:00, nurse her, and put her in her beautiful handmade dress from Puerto Rico (thank you Abuela)! And then, she would nurse again before getting into the car, which she would fall asleep in on the way to 9:30 Mass at Church, which we planned on getting to by 9am so we could make sure she stayed asleep and was okay. That was the plan.

We actually woke up at 7:25am, showered and started to get ready before Cousin Alisha and Rohan woke up and required some attention. Mommy was ready enough to wake Kaylani up around 8:30 and start to get her ready. By the time we were even remotely close to get out the door, it was more like 9:15, and we ended up being at Church by 9:25am. Father Vince gave us the 30 second version of the 10 minute prep course on what we had to say and when we had to say it, and we headed in to present Kaylani to our Church.

The Mass itself went great, except for a few awkward moments. First, while Mommy, Daddy, Kaylani, Godfather Tim, and Madrina Maria were standing at the Altar in the front of the Church being introduced, Madrina Maria was mouthing "The Flash, The Flash" to Titi Glendalys to make sure she had the flash on while she was taking pictures. The funny part was that Titi didn't even have Maria's camera, but I'm sure anyone who saw Maria thought she looked pretty funny. Then, when Father Vince asked us "and to the parents, what do you ask of the Church?", Mommy and I looked at each other at a loss of words because we didn't remember what our line was (although we're pretty sure it was left out of the 30 second version at the onset). Luckily, Father Vince prompted us to say "Baptism" (duh!) and we moved past it. Kaylani even behaved when they poured water on her head, and basically slept through the entire Mass.

Brunch also went off without a hitch (although I think we overwhelmed the restaurant by seating 40 people at the same time and placing individual orders). At the end of the day, what I took away from all of this was that in 40 years when I let Kaylani get married (that's right, I said 40), this is what her wedding day will be like. We'll get up early, scramble to get everyone ready, and get off to the Church in time. And I'm guessing that we'll also be cutting time a bit close on that day too, but on that day, it'll be her day and her day alone, so time won't matter nearly as much.

Here are some pictures from the Mass, the brunch, and also of Kaylani dressed in a NY Giants outfit that she'll unfortunately never wear again. And before we move on, we must thank Godfather Tim for spending his birthday with us down in NJ and at the Baptism, so Happy Birthday Tim and thank you! As for the rest of us, it's on to the next big production, which will be her Moon Yuet next week in Boston (a traditional Chinese welcoming ceremony). So enjoy the pictures of today, and for all of you that shared it with us, thank you. And for those who did not, we hope this made you feel a part of the day as well. Until next time...

Full House

You ever watch Full House back in the day? You know what I'm talking about. The show with Bob Sagat (not as an inappropriate stand-up comedian) as the single dad of two girls, and he lives with his best friend and his brother-in-law? For all you guys, it's also the show where I began my obsession with Lori Loughlin (which is one of the reasons why I watch 90210 now). Anyways, that's kinda what I feel like today.

Since tomorrow is Kaylani's Christening, we've got our own little full house today. Mommy's sister, Titi Glendalys is in town with Kaylani's two cousins, and so is one of Mommy's best friend's, Maria Jimena (who will also be the Godmother/Madrina). One of Daddy's best friends is in town too, Tim, who will be Kaylani's Godfather. So, just to tie back to Full House, I've got my best friend and my sibling-in-law under my roof. Okay, that's the only tie in I have.

But, we really do have a full house. The good thing about having a full house is that we have people we can show Kaylani off to. As an added bonus, Godfather Tim has never held a baby before, so of course we had to break him in. Kaylani, our little pawn in the game we called life, played right along as well. It was within minutes, but Kaylani gave her Godfather a proper Tam greeting and pooped while he was holding her. Of course, since Tim has never held a baby before, that meant that he's also never changed one. And it was only fitting that his Goddaughter would be his first.

Before Kaylani, I would have never claimed to be an expert at changing diapers. As a matter of fact, before Kaylani, I had under 10 diaper changes to my credit, and 9 of them were for my nephew Connor within the first week he was born. But now that I've logged roughly 500 diaper changes in my lifetime, I consider myself some sort of an expert. And I was more than happy to sit back and watch Tim struggle through his first. Actually that's not true, I wouldn't have left Tim on his own...but only because it was my daughter that he was changing!

After 10 minutes, Tim had successfully changed his first diaper, and because he had such a great instructor (me in case that wasn't obvious), he also skipped straight over #1 and changed #2 on his first try. Based on what I saw tonight, from the holding, to the diaper changing, to everything else, I'd have to say Tim and Meredith seem ready to have a kid immediately. I'm sure they think otherwise, but hey, I'll always be the one lobbying for my friends to have kids around the same age as Kaylani.

Alright, well since tomorrow is an early and long day for several reasons (Kaylani's Christening, followed by a brunch, and then followed by the Giants in the playoffs), it's time to wind down and get ready for bed. And to clear room for the absurd amount of pictures we plan on taking tomorrow, here are pictures from the last 2 days. Pay special attention to the "form" that Godfather Tim has while holding Kaylani for the first time. It's the typical "I've never held a baby before but I've been told to hold them like a football but I'm still really uptight" position.