Big Girl Bed: Day 1

For the past 3 weeks, Kaylani has been talking about sleeping in her big girl bed in her big girl room (which is the room next to her "baby" room). While we're not entirely ready for her to switch, and not exactly running out of time (still have 5 months until Baby #2 arrives), we figured we should give Kaylani what she wanted...as usual.

After a weekend of buying furniture, cleaning, taping, painting, assembling furniture, and decorating, it was time to see how Kaylani handled "the switch." To try and prepare her, Mommy spent the afternoon with her getting the room ready by moving books, and stuffed animals, and other comfort items from her other room. And when dinner, milk, and Dora were done, it was time. Time to try the switch into the big bed.

Pajama time was a little rough with Kaylani continuously crawling away into her big bed instead of laying on a changing table. Story time went okay with 2 books being read while sitting on her giant oso, which was also moved into her room. And saying good night went as normal with me leaving the room and Mommy singing some songs on her way out of the room shortly after. And then, we waited.

We sat in our room staring at the video monitor while listening to the audio monitor. For 5 minutes Kaylani stayed laying down on her bed but with her head up staring towards the door. For the next 5 minutes she looked around the room and fiddled with her Princess Ballerina. And then she started to talk softly. "I'm awake." But not just softly, but sadly soft. "Mama. Papa. I'm awake. I need help." Then silence and staring. Few more heartbreaking minutes went by with a few more quiet pleas for help. Finally, when she made a few whimpers and started to shift, we broke down. In I went.

As soon as I got in the room she sat up and said "I'm awake!" and started crying. "I'm not sleeping Papa. It's time to play. I don't want to sleep" and more crying. After a few failed attempts at asking her why she was crying she said "I need water!" Apparently a few sips of water was all she needed because she stopped crying and said "I'm all better!" But that didn't mean it was time to sleep.

After a few negotiations and distraction tactics to prevent her from getting down and reading another book, I convinced her to lay down and I'd tell her the story of "Sofie's Big Bed", which is a book Mary Ann got her for her birthday. A slight modification to the story to include Grover, Telly, Crocodile, Princess Ballerina, and Giraffe sleeping in the bed with "Sofie" and Kaylani worked like a charm. A quick song, a kiss, and some hugs later and down she went as I left the room.

Here we are, 2.5 hours later and she's still sleeping. She's a little diaganol right now, which is freaking Mommy out that she's going to fall out, but sleeping. We're very curious to see how she does throughout the night. The rails (and pillows) on either side should be enough to keep her in bed (although Mommy thinks otherwise), but will she stay in bed? Will she even stay in her room? Only time will tell, so until then, all the upstairs doors will stay closed, extra nightlights will be on in the hall, and our bedroom door will stay open just in case.

Now its time for bed...for me at least. Not sure if Mommy will be able to sleep since she'll be preoccupied with staring at the big video monitor on our dresser, or the small video monitor of the same screen on our nightstand, or listening to the audio monitor on our nightstand as well. Hopefully tonight goes well. And if it does, Kaylani will continue to amaze us with how well she adjusts to things we throw at her.

Walker, Toddler Baby

Remember last week when we got all excited that Kaylani walked 10 steps on her own? Well forget that! Now, she's walking 10 blocks on her own! Okay, maybe not 10 blocks yet, but she did take a nice stroll around the house last night. The pure excitement on her face when she walks is priceless. Sure it's a little nervewracking watching her walk near walls, corners, and bear traps, but it's still a pretty amazing thing to see her up on all 2's finally.

I've got to head to work now so it's up to Mommy to keep our new walking baby out of trouble today. For the rest of you, just sit back and relax and check out Kaylani's first walking video! And if you have a second, feel free to shoot Mommy your condolences as her life just got a bit more active with Kaylani!

SAHD Week: Day 5 - 300th Post!

Today is the 5th and final day of my SAHD week. Monday starts a new era in my professional career, and I'm just glad I got to spend a whole week at home with Mommy and Kaylani before doing so. Part of me thinks Mommy is glad that I'm going back to work...but we'll get into that in a little bit. First off, let me get some blog business out of the way.

Today marks the 300th post into The Daddy Diaries. I started this way back on 11/6/08, or 2 days before Kaylani was actually born. I wrote my first 100 posts in 102 days. I wrote my second 100 posts in 98 days (not sure how that happened). And here I am, writing my third 100 posts over the course of 121 days. Sensing a trend? Okay, it's not so much a trend, but this last 100 posts took significantly longer for me to write. Part of it was due to some writers block, but most of it was due to the amount of time I had to write. When given the opportunity to spend more time with Kaylani or write a post, I chose Kaylani. Thanks for all of you who have stuck around, who've been around since the beginning, or those who just pop in every now and then. Now, I bring you back to our regularly scheduled blog post.

We started our day around 7:15am today, or somewhere in the middle of early and normal. Kaylani actually woke up a little before 6. We had no idea why, but when Mommy went to change her this morning, we knew exactly why. Apparently Kaylani had a little bit of a Code Brown in her sleep. Nothing major by any means, but enough to send her pajamas straight to the wash. Breakfast went well (peach oatmeal banana and scrambled eggs and cheese with toast). Around 9:30, it was naptime. It didn't go quite as well as yesterday, but after 20 minutes, she was out for a solid hour (or enough time to watch Project Runway).

For class today, we had Little Gym, and Daddy went on a solo mission. Mommy took the opportunity to clean out her closet and then go get a massage. Little Gym was fun. For those who don't know, it's basically gymnastics for babies (and toddlers). We learned how to do back flips (there was some fancier name I don't remember), forward rolls, and to hang onto a baby bar. Then hanging part was the funniest since most babies do a "dead hang" straight down. Kaylani decided to do a "girl pull-up" (where she keeps her chin on top of the bar). Amazing upper body strength, but she cried through the whole thing. Silly baby.

After class, Kaylani, Sonia, Aadi, Sheena, Haley, and I all went to lunch nearby. It was a gorgeous day so we sat outside, had our lunch (pizza for me, pizza and peas and brown rice for Kaylani) and just chatted. This was a life I could get used to! The day was going great so far, but the part I dreaded most was coming up: afternoon nap without Mommy.

Around 1:50pm, it was time. I fixed up a 4oz bottle (you know, in case she decided she'd want some although she still only drinks an ounce or two) and we went upstairs. After about 15 minutes, 1.5 ounces of milk, and a whole lot of struggle, bottle time was over. I took Kaylani into our room, swung her around for a few minutes, and when she pushed off of me, that was it. Into the pack and play she went. I made my peace with her, kissed her a few times, laid her down from the standing position a few times, and then left. After 5 minutes, it was a miracle...she was sleeping! Couldn't believe it.

Kaylani ended up sleeping for 1.5 hours, or enough time for me to clean the garage and the shed. When Mommy called to check in, she said a few choice words (not clean enough to be mentioned here). I mean, of course she was happy that Kaylani napped and made it easy for Daddy. She wasn't happy when I said "this stay at home stuff is easy! What do you do all day?" I, of course, was joking.

The rest of the day went great. Yin Yin and Yea Yea are actually here and they're going to "watch" Kaylani while Mommy and Daddy sneak out for a "date" at a comedy club. I say "watch" because we're actually about to put Kaylani to sleep, and since she sleeps for 12 hours usually, the only thing they'll have to do is check out the video monitor every now and then...hopefully. Yin Yin asked what she should do if Kaylani cries. We weren't exactly sure how to answer because she hasn't done it!

Anyways, it's time for me to go say good night to Kaylani for the last time and hope she stays asleep. I sure hope it's a lot better than the last time we tried to go out on a date. Wish us luck! Other than Tommy and Gretchen's wedding, this will be the first time Mommy and I have been out without Kaylani. Oh man, I hope she stays asleep...for all of our sakes.

But before I go, don't forget that it's Fatherhood Friday over at Dad-Blogs! Check out all the great posts over there from the dads and moms in that great community. You won't regret it! I know I never do!

What a mess!

Finding out she was pregnant? Scary. Realizing that we were going to be parents any day now? Frightening. Bringing Kaylani home for the first time? Nervewracking. Hearing her cry? Heartbreaking. Her first sickness or injury? Terrifying. Looking back, we were ready for all of that to happen. But none of that compares to what we're going through now. In fact, it's the stage of Kaylani's life that Mommy has been dreading for years. She's been through it with our nieces and nephews, and only barely survived those times. Now, it's time to just go for it. Time to just rip off the band-aid. It's time to...let Kaylani feed herself!

I'm not just talking about giving her Puffs or Cheerios (which she doesn't eat unless you feed it to her anyways). Those are easy to clean up when she throws them on the floor instead of her mouth. I'm talking about real food, laid out in front of her, waiting to be eaten. But instead of being eaten, it's being crushed, torn apart, squished, spread around, and then thrown onto the floor. Even worse, it's being used to coat Kaylani's little hands right before she rubs her face, pulls on her ear, or Mommy's absolute worst nightmere, play with her own hair.

The mess is just something that has to be dealt with. Unlike teething, or a cold, or a growth spurt, this mess is hear to stay for quite a long time. Optimistically, it'll be over a year from now, or when Kaylani turns 2 (or later) that she'll be able to feed herself cleanly. Until then, we'll have to keep Mommy's heart in check when Kaylani throws a pancake over her head, or dumps a bowl of eggs out onto her try (or the floor), or tosses a bowl of pureed something or other onto the floor.

Kaylani's doctor told us to not show any emotion (positive or negative) when Kaylani does anything with her food besides eat it because it will teach her that she can get a reaction out of us. While it's easy enough for Daddy to just keep smiling at Kaylani when she puts yogurt in her hair and on the floor, it's downright painful for Mommy. Every time it happens, Mommy mumbles something under her breath about the mess through her gritted teeth smile. For Daddy, it just adds to the excitement of Kaylani entering this new stage.

So we'll keep on giving Kaylani food to play with as part of Operation: Fat Baby, or what might be renamed as Operation: Mommy's Heart Attack. No matter what Mommy says, she loves it and it's all good. If you wanna see some of the mess, check out these pictures of Kaylani's feeding area. Be careful thought...it's not for the weak hearted!

Moving on up!

We've got forward motion! Finally! After months of anticipation, Kaylani is finally on the move. She's not getting anywhere fast yet, but she's definitely mobile, and it's not backwards for a change. The very first time was actually yesterday, but she only scooted about 1 and a half Kaylani's (that's a valid type of measurement right?) during Gymboree class. Mommy credited that movement with the smooth, slippery cushion mats that they have at Gymboree, but it turns out she was just giving a preview for what was to come today.

Around 1:45pm, I got the call that Kaylani was crawling (actually, I got a text to tell me that since I was in a meeting and couldn't answer the phone). Mommy and Kaylani were in the playroom and Kaylani was reaching out for a book. Instead of what she normally does (which is reach and stretch for it as far as she can before spinning around in endless circles and ending up further from it and crying), she scooted over to it. And when she scooted 4 more times towards it (since Mommy kept moving it further away), Mommy broke into tears. We had ourselves a little crawler!

I'm sure you can guess what I did as soon as I got home from work then. I immediately took Kaylani out of the exersaucer where she was watching Mommy cook, and we headed to the playroom. I was really hoping that she would put on a show for me, and luckily she did (unlike when she rolled over for the first and second and third times just for Mommy). Her crawl is pretty damn cute to watch. It's not a full, up on all fours, type of crawl. Instead, it's more like a one leg push and crawl with the other leg in a bent, still position. A few of her movements look fully coordinated between both legs, but most of the time it's like a three legged race, except she only has two.

Anyways, I'm probably not doing it any justice, so check out this video which has a bunch of clips put together of her crawling! She's certainly not the most graceful crawler yet, but she's definitely the cutest in my book! Oh, and happy Fatherhood Friday! Don't forget to check out Dad-Blogs for some great posts!

Spanish in 4 months

In case you didn't notice from the picture, today is Kaylani's 8 month birthday! Even though Independence Day just passed, we figured we were close enough to get some extra use out of her All-American Swimsuit, and Mommy made a very patriotic sign to go along with it. With all this American activity going on around her, you'd think Kaylani would play along. Instead, she showed off her Spanish side.

Kaylani is half Puerto Rican, and 8 months old, which makes her 4 Spanish months old (Asian math for you). Apparently, 4 months is what it takes before you can pick up a little bit of Spanish (or 4 years if you're Daddy). But the little bit of Spanish that Kaylani picked up is arguably the most difficult. Today, she spouted off a clean, crisp, long trill of her tongue. As some of you might know, not everyone can do this. It's quite difficult and I'm pretty impressed with her early Spanish speaking skills. I mean, she hasn't even watched Dora or Diego yet!

Rolling her R's is impressive in my book because I'm not a native Spanish speaker (I'm not any type of Spanish speaker actually). It's probably harder to do than something like asking your girlfriend's mother (who only speaks Spanish) for her daughter's hand in marriage in Spanish. It's probably even harder than trying to think of something else to say in Spanish when you get back "only her hand???" as the reply. And since I'm already off topic and reliving my own nerve-racking experience of talking to my now Mother-in-law (who, by the way, I replied to with "no no, all of her body" in perfect, yet awkward, Spanish), I might as well just throw it out there that I expect Kaylani's future suitor to ask for my permission in perfect Spanish. AND, if he says something like "no no, all of her body," he better be a damn quick runner because I'm not going to laugh like Abuela did.

Anyways, we always have reason to celebrate something during Kaylani's monthly birthday. Sure we wish it was crawling, or standing, or something else, but we'll take it. Speaking Spanish is a great milestone, even if she doesn't mean it or know what she's doing. Maybe next month she'll spout out some full Spanish sentences. I hope not though, because if she's speaking Spanish before I do, then I'm sure going to get a lot of grief from my in-laws. I better get to work just in case. Feliz Cumpleanos Kaylani! Yo quiero Taco Bell (and other Spanish stuff)!

Oh, and don't forget to check out pictures from the last couple of days, including a few from Gymboree, and more birthday pictures! Enjoy!

Out-standing!

I've always said that I would stand up for my little girl through out all aspects of her life. Little did I know that she'd do the same for me so soon. As of yesterday, Kaylani is officially standing! Okay so it's not entirely on her own, but she is standing on her own two feet while holding onto something. Whether she grabs the couch, a table, or her Leapfrog Learning Table, she's standing all by herself...much to Mommy's dismay.

You remember when we were teaching Kaylani how to sit? Every time we'd put her on her butt, Mommy would hover over her and catch her at the slightest wobble. Not surprisingly, Mommy is the same way when it comes to teaching Kaylani how to stand, except maybe even a bit worse. Daddy's pretty confident that Kaylani can hold her balance for at least a solid 30 seconds to a minute without any assistance, but when we practice around Mommy, I'm not sure she can stand it for that long.

You see, Mommy has just a tiny bit of an anxiety problem when it comes to things like this. She feels like Kaylani could fall over and hurt herself. Now, she's right about that because it is a possibility, but that's why Daddy is never a more than a foot away from Kaylani while she's standing. Usually, he's even right next to her (or behind her) with his ninja-like reflexes at the ready to catch her should she come crashing down to the side or backwards. Apparently Daddy's ninja-like reflexes don't mean a thing to Mommy.

We'll keep working on Kaylani standing until she's a pro. One of these days, she's going to be standing all by herself in the middle of the room, and we're just going to stand back and watch her. When that day comes, Mommy might be standing back and watching with a brown paper bag in her hands to help her breathe, but it's going to happen. Soon enough Kaylani will be pulling herself up from a sitting to a standing position, and that's when it all begins. She's pretty close to doing so already, but falls over immediately, so we still have a little time. Better get ready Mommy because our little girl is all growed up!

To prove it to you, check out these pictures from the last week or so. We've started to miss a few days of pictures, but here are some from Boston, Cape Cod, and even of Abuela who is in town for a week! The last ones have her standing all by herself! Not pictured: Mommy freaking out behind the camera.

Did somebody ask for a sitter?

I'm proud to announce that we have ourselves a little sitter (we also have ourselves a little something that sounds like sitter but has an "H" in it, but that's not the purpose of today's post). For the past 3 days, she's been sitting for minutes at a time, and quite often during the day (again, this could apply to that other thing with an "H", but I'm still talking about sitting). I was a little hesitant to outwardly proclaim my little girl a sitter, but I'm hesitant no more!

It's actually pretty amazing how well she sits, and how quickly things change in her life. I mean, just 9 days ago, the longest she could sit was for 17 seconds, and in reality, she sat for 2 seconds, and wobbled for 15. Now, she can sit in the middle of a room, a bed, or her pack and play all by herself for minutes at a time. In fact, she can sit for so long that I can't even tell you the maximum amount of time she's sat for (the more I write, the more I realize that all of this can be revised to be about the "H' thing...)

Sure she still falls over from time to time, but it's pretty rare. We're not 100% condnt in her sitting where we'll leave her in the middle of a bed unattended, or even in the middle of a room unattended, but I think she's a pro. What we're hoping for next is for her to go mobile and start crawling. For now, we'll be happy with her sitting and worry about her crawling some time in the future. Gotta think in baby steps...or baby sits as the case may be.

So while we wait for her to start crawling, check out pictures from the last couple of days. There are plenty more pictures of her sitting up. And after looking at these pictures, I sure wish I had a posture as straight as hers. Or if not that, I wish I was as flexible as she was too. Frankly, I just wish I was as young as her!

Sit, Baby, Sit...Good Girl!

Today is Kaylani's 6 month birthday (in case you didn't recognize the standard picture with sign). In previous months, she would show us something new on her birthday, like when she laughed on her 3 month and 4 month birthday. So this month, we were hoping it would be something real good. Maybe she would sit, or crawl, or learn how to ride a bike! But alas, none of that happened.

We've been waiting for her to sit all by herself for quite some time. Because she's sat by herself for more than 10 seconds at some point in her life, she got a "check" on her baby scorecard at the pediatrician's last week. But in order for her to get to the next level, she's going to have to sit for way longer than 10 seconds. Her next check-up isn't for 3 months, but we're training her to sit much earlier than that.

Tonight she lasted the longest that I've seen her...unassisted at least. She sat for 17 seconds all by herself (and pretty straight up) on the changing table. Some may say that the changing table probably isn't the best place to teach her how to sit, but don't worry, I was right there with my arms all around her. She actually spends quite a bit of time sitting, whether it's in her high chair, or her bumbo, or just propped up against some pillows. But just like a trapeze artist, she's going to have to learn how to operate without a net.

Mommy and Daddy have very different methods of training her to sit. One of us lets her sit up, and when she flops over, let's her flop slowly to the ground. The other one watches over her like a hawk and grabs her as soon as she wobbles. I won't mention which is which, but I'm sure you can figure it out on your own.

Bottom line is that we can't wait until she can sit up, no matter how she learns. In fact, for the very first time right now, she just pulled herself up to a sitting position while she was laying across Mommy's lap! We won't count it just yet, but I think she' swell on her way. And that means it's just one step closer to her being that much older. Sure her 6 month birthday is a milestone all by itself, but we'll keep measuring her by her physical milestones. So for now, she's rolling, drooling, talking, laughing, eating months old. And if you don't know how old that is, then maybe you can figure it out from these pictures from the last couple of days. Have a great weekend, and Happy Half Birthday Kaylani!

Seriously...roll over

Remember a few nights ago when Kaylani rolled over from her back to belly in the middle of the night, then rolled back over onto her back all by herself, which led to 11.5 hours of sleep for her? Yeah, that was awesome. And then you remember when Kaylani rolled over onto her belly and got stuck there and had to be rolled back over onto her back by Mommy and Daddy? Yeah, that wasn't so awesome. And in addition to being not awesome, it also happened way too frequently last night.

For a long time now we hoped Kaylani would roll over from her back to belly. That meant that she achieved yet another developmental milestone, and we'd be happy. What we should have been hoping for was that Kaylani would roll over from back to belly during the day while she was playing. That way she wouldn't freak herself out and wake herself (and us) up in the middle of the night each time she did it. Little did we know that Kaylani is only a push over at night.

We've tried to let Kaylani figure out how to roll over from belly to back by herself at night. I mean, we know she can do it (we even have proof from several months back caught on video tape). But whatever the reason is, she won't do it regularly at night. Some of it probably has to do with the fact that she's tired and was in the middle of a nice dream before she woke up with her face flat on the bed, and the other part of it might be how her arm gets trapped underneath her. But whatever the reason she can't or won't roll over is, it does mean that Mommy or Daddy have to help out.

The first time it happened last night, Mommy went in and rolled her over. After a few minutes of crying, Kaylani fell back asleep. Less than 30 minutes later Kaylani was back on her belly. This time, it was Daddy's turn so in he went and pushed, I mean rolled, Kaylani back over. Back to bed, and back to sleep. This happened about 3 more times during the night, and all 3 times were handled by Mommy because Daddy is a deep sleeper.

I feel bad that I don't hear the monitor. I feel even worse when I ask Mommy if Kaylani woke up at all during the night (that's when I get the morning death stare for not hearing the monitor). But the way I look at it, Mommy is better at rolling Kaylani over. I mean, she's had years of practice pushing me back over to my side of the bed (I'm a close sleeper). And when I went through my snoring phase, she was constantly rolling me over onto my side so I'd shut up. So in a way, this isn't much different. But I'll still try and do my part. It's hard not to when Mommy rolls me out of bed anyways.

Stop Hitting Yourself!

When Kaylani could hold a toy by herself, it marked another milestone that she reached. And when she could then move her hand and toy to her mouth, it didn't exactly mark a milestone, but it was definitely something she was extremely pleased with. Lately, she's been able to move quicker, and even taking things to the next level by holding not just one toy, but two at the same time. With both those things came some new challenges for Kaylani that she was less then pleased with.

There were certain challenges associated with moving her hand to her mouth, and she mastered that quite well. It started off slowly, but she got the hang of it without any issues. And as she got better at it, and starting moving quicker, she started hitting herself with her toys. Could it be that she's just moving too quick for herself? Or maybe it's that she's overexcited to get it into her mouth? Or maybe, she's just not that coordinated? My guess is that it's some combination of the three, and either way, it's pretty entertaining to watch.

With one toy, she'll move to shove it in her mouth, and one of two things will happen. The first, and more likely, is that she'll get it into her mouth too fast and end up choking herself just a little bit. The second, is that she'll miss her mouth completely and just bonk herself on the cheek, or the nose, or the chin. It's this second part that's funny/sad to watch. Watching someone hit themselves is always funny, but watching her excited smile turn into a sad frown is sad. Oh well, she'll learn.

It gets even more difficult for her when she has a toy in each hand. Inevitably, one will make it into her mouth, and the other will just bonk her somewhere on the face. On some occassions, she'll even try and get both into her mouth, which just doesn't work, and ends up pushing the first toy further in (which causes crying). I'm sure she'll figure it out someday, but for now, we're just glad that she's holding things. Whether it's one or two, it's a step in the right direction, and that's the only direction we want to head.