I'm too old for this

Its 11pm, and if I wasn't completely dedicated to this blog, I probably would just go to sleep. But instead, here I am, staring at Kaylani peacefully sleeping in her crib after a long day. Her day
ended at 8pm when she fell asleep, but mine just ended (or is about to).

While getting Kaylani ready for bed, Daddy and Kaylani were practicing sitting up on the changing table. I know I know, not a good idea, but I was right there. Well of course being right there wasn't good enough, and Kaylani fell forward into the wall. Oops. She cried a bit, but she was okay. Nothing more than a scratch (and maybe a little bump) on her, but it was much worse for me.

Not only did I have to live with the fact that I gave Kaylani a bruiser, but I also had to run off to coach an 8pm baseball game. I knew Kaylani was okay, but that didn't make coaching any easier. And to top it all off, we ended up losing a heartbreaker in extra innings after scoring 2 in the top half. We even had a 2 run lead and a full count with 2 outs with the bases loaded with my star closer on the field, but we got beat. My heart was pounding and I was going crazy, but in the end, the little kid who got the game winning hit against us needed it much more than we did. So hats off to him.

It was a long day, followed by a long night. To top it all off, Mommy told me I missed Kaylani's first words. But it wasn't "mama" or "papa" or "dada." Instead it was "Jon bang". Mommy's hilarious. And that's how I'm going to end my night. I'm way too old to handle all of this, but Happy Fatherhood Friday! I almost missed it, but don't forget to check out Dad-Blogs for all the other posts.

Just A Great Day

Today was a great day. That pretty much sums it up. Good night!

Just kidding. I would never leave a post that short. Even on a Saturday. But today really was a great day. Kaylani slept 9 hours last night which meant our (read: Mommy's) day started a little bit after 6am. After a nice family breakfast (cooked by yours truly), we took a ride around town to see if Kaylani would fall asleep before Daddy had to go to his baseball game (which of course she didn't).

Mommy and Kaylani watched my game today which is always a fun treat. What made it even better was that we won again! That makes 2 straight, which in the sports world, is what we call "a streak." We won the game convincingly 8-4, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a few panic attacks. But this time, the panic attacks were when foul balls went towards the area of Mommy and a sleeping Kaylani. I kept having visions of the ball crashing through her sun protector hood and hurting her, but luckily, no ball landed closer than 10 feet. Phew.

To celebrate the victory, we went on some errands to get ready for Daddy's big cooking adventure tomorrow, which is more commonly known as Mother's Day. Kaylani helped out by falling asleep while Daddy was wearing her in the Baby Bjorn, which made the whole day just seem like it was working to our plan. After a quick bath for Kaylani while Daddy fired up the BBQ, we were all ready for dinner.

So here we are getting Kaylani ready for bed and it's only 7:15pm. There was nothing really special about today, but it was just a great day. Hopefully Kaylani will sleep real well tonight because we've got a busy day tomorrow. After all, it'll be Mommy's first Mother's Day, and that's never going to come around again as a first so we're going to make it special. We're planning on having 2 great days in a row. And in the parenting world, that's what we call "perfect."

At the game

So I'm sitting here in the bleachers of Yankees stadium watching the Yankees-Red Sox game. Its the start of the second inning and already we're down 4-0. Not a good start, but it's alright because it's baseball.

The thing about being the game is that I'm not at home. Its about 7:30 right now which means that Mommy and Kaylani are getting ready for bed. No one will believe me, but I do wish I was there. I love watching Kaylani fall asleep, especially when she looks at me tiredly and gives me a big smile.

Seeing that sure beats the thousands of ugly, annoying, smug Sox fans here, but there's nothing I can do about that. So to get me through this game, I'll stare at the picture of Kaylani on my phone every inning. And then I'll go back to watching the game and cursing at the Sox.

Oh, and don't forget to visit the Dad-Blogs to read my latest Sports Illustradad column on why you shouldn't buy the new "A-Rod" book. And for even more fun, check out the comment string fueled by one of the Sox fan dads. Gotta love the rivalry! Go Yanks!

Feeling Old

I'm a few months away from being 29, but I feel like I'm a few months away from being 39. Kaylani's a week away from being 6 months, but I feel like I've aged 10 years in her 6 months. That sounds bad, bit it actually has nothing to do with her. It all has to do with the perception that she brings about.

I work for an agency based out of Princeton, NJ, but we have a big office in NYC. Most of the partner agencies I work with are based out of NY too. What that means is that the fact that I'm 29 means absolutely nothing. But, the fact that I have a 6 month old daughter and a house in the suburbs makes me far older than a few months away from 29.

Besides the NYC social sterotype that adds a perceived 10 years to my life, there's something else that has added far more years to my life. More appropriately, it's likely taken away years of my life. Tonight, I particpated in my first Little League coaches softball game. You would think that playing with/against a bunch of 40-50 year olds would make me feel younger. You'd also be wrong because that's when I realized just how old my body was.

Forget the fact that I have a daughter and a house in the suburbs. The real definitive point to my elderliness (is that a word?) is that I have the body of a 40-50 year old. On the field we joked about 80% of the team needing to chug a bottle of Aleve instead of another Silver Bullet. Off the field, I actually chugged a bottle of Aleve.

When it comes down to it, I made my plays tonight like a 29 year old. I fielded my position, got my hits, and ran on and off the field. But tomorrow, it's likely that I'm going to default to Mommy a bit more to pick up and hold Kaylani because I'm just not sure I'll be able to. Typing this post luckily only involves my fingers. If it required any more physical exertion, it's likely that it wouldn't have happened at all.

So consider this one of my first major sacrifices for The Daddy Diaries. Holding Kaylani tomorrow won't be considered a sacrifice because I love every chance I get. It just may not happen as often as I'd like it to on a weekend day. Not unless that Aleve works it's magic 24 hours a day.

Coach or Dad?

As the little league season rolls on, I find myself wondering if I'm in the wrong line of work. I mean, I'm not wondering if I should quit my job as a consultant and be a full time professional little league coach (although I imagine it'd be pretty cool if I could keep the same salary), but I am wondering if I'm coaching the wrong sport.

Kaylani is a good 4-5 years away from playing organized softball (assuming that she wants to play softball at all). Softball and baseball are fairly similar when you look at them (pitch ball, hit ball, run aorund bases, stop other team from running around bases), but they're actually pretty different from each other. So should I be coaching softball now instead of baseball?

Despite my basic description of both games, I only really know how to coach baseball. I've worked with 15-18 year olds at Trevor, and now with 10-12 year olds in Lawrenceville, and both those groups sound pretty different from 5-6 year old girls, or even just girls in general. Then, add in the fact that I've watched somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 baseball games over the last 25 years, and you can quickly come to the same realization as I did that I know very little about softball (or girls because who has time for girls when you're watching upwards of 3000 baseball games).

That brings us back to the question around me coaching softball. I have plenty of time to switch sports and start to coach softball next year and on, but I'm not sure I want to. It really comes down to if I want to be a Dad or a Coach. Sure there are some Dad's (and Mom's) that do both, but I'm not sure I can do that. Well, not sure I can do that without favoritism. I played on a few little league teams when I was a kid that had coaches favoring their own kids and it was really annoying. Plus, I think I'd rather watch Kaylani play instead of coaching her (and the other 10 kids on her team).

As of right now, I think I'd rather just be a Dad and a spectator if/when Kaylani starts getting into sports. It'll be a lot easier that way and I can pay more guilt free attention to just her. At least that's my stance for now. Who knows if I'll be able to resist her when she asks if I'll be her coach. Yikes, that would mean she can talk for real. Okay, I think that's enough future talk for now. She's already getting so big. No need to speed the process along, even if it is only in my head.

So many firsts...

I love the fact that everything is so new to Kaylani that she can have a ton of new experiences each day. For the most part we've tried to space out her firsts so we don't overwhelm her. And more selfishly, we try and space out her firsts so Daddy doesn't have a conflict about what to write about when it happens. But today, there's no way to get around that conflict so let's just head straight into it.

Normally Saturday morning would mean it was Daddy-Daughter time for an hour or two. But today, Daddy had his very first Little League game to coach, and also his very first Little League opening day parade. Kaylani, being the good sport she is, woke up right before I had to leave so I could give her a quick hug and a diaper change before heading out. Little did I know that I'd get a great surprise while coaching the game. Mommy and Kaylani came out to watch which was a lot of fun for all of us (even though my Lawrenceville Fuel lost to Bossio's Deli 9-3). And that about sums up Kaylani's first experience at a baseball game.

Today was also the day that Titi Glendalys, Abuela, and Primitos Alisha and Rohan came to town to visit for a few days. And to keep all the kids entertained, we took our first family trip to the park (Village Park in Lawrenceville) which led to Kaylani's first time in a swing! We've got a ton of pictures (to be posted tomorrow) and for the most part, I think she enjoyed it (even if she tried to eat the swing). And after leaving the swing and the park, it was time for yet another first.

When we got home, the most exciting first of the day was Kaylani's first dinner with non-cereal food! The food of choice was carrots and early results say Kaylani liked it (again, tons of pictures to be posted tomorrow). Well, we're assuming she liked it since she ate the whole jar and it hasn't come out...yet. Tomorrow we'll do carrots again, and then after that, we'll tackle the rest of the "orange" foods (sweet potato and umm...I think that's it).

Lastly, since it was such a gorgeous day out finally, Daddy fired up the grill to cook up some chicken wings and churrasco that Abuela prepared, which meant it was Kaylani's first time being near the grill (Mommy freaked out when Daddy tried to cook with Kaylani in his arms, but that was definitely not a first).

So now it's time to call this day of firsts a day. It's been a long day for all of us, and Kaylani is practically passed out and only halfway through nursing. Hopefully she'll still sleep 11 hours because that's something Mommy and Daddy are desparately in need of. I mean, there's no way we'll get 11 hours of sleep, but it'd sure be nice. Anyways, come back tomorrow to check out a ton of pictures. And until then, enjoy the rest of the weekend. Hope it's as nice for you as it is for us!

It's only a day away

Luckily for me, Kaylani wakes up at 7am every morning so I can hold her for a few minutes before I head off to work. Even luckier for Mommy and me is that Kaylani wakes up at 7am after going to sleep at 8pm. This is especially good for us on days when I don't make it home until after 7pm, or after Kaylani's bedtime process starts, like today.

By 7:30am, I was out the door and on my way up to the new Yankee stadium for opening day. I'm not going to lie and say I was sorry to be leaving for the day because after all, I was going to see the Yankees first game ever at the new stadium! Maybe it was the slow pace of the game, or the fact that the Yankees got blown out in the late innings, but I found myself missing my little girl and hoping I could get home in time to see her before she went to bed. Unfortunately the baseball diehard in me didn't allow me to leave early to make things easier.

So because I'm such a baseball diehard, I had to "endure" 6 hours at the stadium before I could leave. It was tough being at the stadium 3 hours before the game started and waiting on line for my new authentic Teixiera jersey, or for the beer and hot dogs and sausages we waited for, but I survived. And believe it or not, the whole time I was thinking about Kaylani and Mommy. Well, some of the time at least.

I actually made it home by 7:30pm, which was minutes after Mommy put Kaylani to sleep. Since she was crying, I took the opportunity to head into her room and say goodnight to her which made my day. Seeing Kaylani and kissing her goodnight made a Yankees loss on opening day suddenly bearable. It was tough to be away from 7:30 to 7:30, but at least I got to say good morning and goodnight to my little girl. So win or lose for the Yankees, I'll always have Kaylani. And trust me, that's always a win.

Opening Day!

Today is one of Daddy's favorite days...Opening Day for the Yankees! It normally comes after a very long and cold winter where we're stuck inside, but this year, the offseason wasn't too bad. I mean, from a waiting from baseball perspective it was bad, but Kaylani was around to keep us busy for the last 5 months. And now that baseball is back, Daddy got to live out a lifelong dream of his.

Ever since I started thinking about being a Dad (which was sometime around the age of 17...I know, I'm odd), I couldn't wait to watch baseball with my own kid. So finally, 11 years later, my dream came true. When I got home from work, I quickly changed into my Yankees T-shirt so I could match Kaylani's cute little Yankees outfit that Mommy put her in appropriately this morning. Feeling like we were dressed for the occasion, it was baseball time!

Normally Kaylani isn't allowed to watch TV, or at least not much of it, but not surprisingly, Daddy made an exception for Yankees baseball. So with her sitting on the couch and me laying across her, we watched the game together. She actually behaved real well and watched quietly along with me. It's hard to say if she was interested in the game or was just relishing her time in front of the magic box. Either way, Daddy was okay with it.

Anyways, baseball season is here finally and I couldn't be more excited. You can bet Kaylani and Daddy will spend quite a bit of Daddy-Daughter time parked in front of a TV somewhere watching the game, and maybe even at the new Stadium later in the year since I renewed my season tickets. But for now, it's time for Daddy to turn off the radio so Kaylani can finish nursing and go to sleep.

Today's game didn't quite turn out the way we wanted to, but when you have a smiling baby as cute as Kaylani, it's hard to be upset even when the Yankees lose. Anyone who knows my passion for baseball will find it amazing that I can smile during a Yankees loss, but that's what Kaylani does to me. Check out these pictures of Kaylani and Daddy on Opening Day (and from our weekend in Boston in a separate album). I bet they'll make you smile too...no matter who you're rooting for. Go Yanks!

The Juggling Act

Work-life balance is an ideal state for any working parent. The life part of that equation typically means spending time with your family. In that sense, my work-life balance has been great because I'm able to spend the time I need at work and the time I need with my family. So leave it up to me to throw another variable into the plan.

I started coaching baseball a few weeks ago for the Lawrence Little League. My team, the Lawrenceville Fuel, is made up of about 11 kids between the ages of 10 and 12. I volunteered to help out as an assistant coach because I love watching baseball, I love playing baseball, and most of all because I love teaching baseball. I spent a few years helping out my brother's team at Trevor Day School, but I wanted to do more. And now that we've settled down in our new home, when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped on it.

It wasn't until recently that I've started to wonder if I've taken too much on. I haven't heard of anyone talk about work-life-baseball balance, so I may be entering uncharted territories. For most of the other coaches in the league, baseball and life go together since their sons and/or daughters are playing with them. Kaylani's still a bit young to be in the league, so for now, I'm on my own and baseball is something outside of life. And like baseball, it's how far outside that matters.

Luckily, Mommy is pretty supportive of me coaching since she knows how much I love the game. Just like when I went back to work, it's an adjustment for me to make sure that I'm spending quality time with Kaylani since I can't make up for it in quantity. Coaching takes up about 3-4 hours a week of my non-work time, which doesn't sound like much, but it is. It sure feels like a lot of times when I miss things like putting Kaylani to sleep like I did tonight.

There's no way I'm going to give up coaching because I've committed to it already, so I guess I'm complaining about nothing. But when the kids are goofing around instead of trying to learn baseball, it really makes me question if it's worth sacrificing an hour I could have spent with Kaylani. Maybe in 5 years I'll coach Kaylani and not have to sacrifice anything, but until then, I just hope that it is worth it. And the only way to make that happen is to win a championship. Go Fuel!