Orange you glad we had carrots?

We've had 2 successful road trips in the last 2 days. First, we made it the 4.5 hour drive up to Boston with Kaylani sleeping the entire time on Wednesday night. Then, we made it 2 hours to Cape Cod on Thursday with Kaylani again sleeping the entire time. And to top it all off, she even slept 9 hours in a new place, in a ridiculously narrow metal crib, right next to us! So far, she's been everything we could have hoped for, and maybe even just a little bit more.

The odd part is that the "little bit more" she might be is orange. After spending some time in the morning with Titi Glenda yesterday, she asked if we were feeding Kaylani a lot of carrots and sweet potatoes. Besides the fact that my first reaction was "gee, I guess Titi Glenda doesn't read my blog," my second reaction was "umm...yeah. Why?" And that's when she said something that boggled my mind.

"She looks kinda orange. That usually happens when they eat a lot of orange foods like carrots."

Whaaaaaat? Really? I mean, she eats lots of green beans and peas too, but I wouldn't call her green. After doing a bit of research google search, apparently there's something called "carotenemia" which is "a medical term for a condition that causes the skin to turn orange-ish due to increased blood carotene levels." And wouldn't you know it, carrots, sweet potatoes, and winter squash (or 75% of her foods) are high in beta-carotene which cause her to turn orange.

So now that I was ready to accept the fact that Titi Glenda was right and not just spouting out some ridiculous old wives' tale, I had to accept the fact that I didn't notice. Now, my first excuse (for those who know me, I'm full of excuses) was that I see her everyday so I can't notice slight changes in skin tone, but when Mommy heard, she jumped onboard and said "you know, I was thinking the same thing the other week!" I, of course, called BS, but that's besides the point. My second excuse was that she's not orange, she's just got a suntan because we don't put suntan lotion on her. After I got dirty stares, I quickly backed out of that one with a "just kidding" and a smile (we really do put suntan lotion her).

The morale of the story is that I'm going to have to start paying even more attention to Kaylani. In all fairness, I've never been called a detail oriented person, at least not when it comes to people. I'm also the same guy who stared at Mommy for about 5 minutes before I realized that she chopped off 6" from her hair last year. In any case, it doesn't change the fact that I'm her Dad and I should know every little thing about her. I'd recommend that all of you do the same with your children so you don't feel as "uninformed" as I did. Orange you glad I wrote this post?

Now go check out Dad-Blogs for some great Fatherhood Friday posts! It wouldn't be Friday without it!

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!