In the middle of the night...

I always knew that parenting included being up in the middle of the night to take care of my baby. I knew that it would be hard work, but that my body would adjust to the long days and nights eventually. What I didn't know is that my body would adjust...unnecessarily. For the 6th straight night, here I am. Awake in the middle of the night. All by myself. Where's Kaylani? Oh, she's sleeping in her crib. Did she cry and cause me to wake up? Nope, just me. Just me and my overactive brain. I used to think my overactive brain would help me be a better parent because I'd be up in the middle of the night anyways. So much for that thought.

I've actually learned a few things over the course of the last week. First off, it's REALLY quiet and dark between the hours of 1am and 6am. Okay, I guess I already knew that, but never quite realized HOW quiet and HOW dark it was. The second thing I learned is that Kaylani talks a lot in her sleep. I knew she moved a lot since she's always in a different position every time I look at the monitor, but I never realized how much she talks. If she talks this much in her sleep now, I'm afraid to think about how much she's going to talk in 13 years. Yikes. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Over the course of a few hours, Kaylani will make a few noises. Sometimes it's a little cry which makes me think she's going to wake up (but she doesn't). Other times it's a sigh. And the best times are when she just babbles a little bit (blah blah mamama papapapa) and then goes silent again. It's not long enough or loud enough for our monitor to pick it up (thankfully so it doesn't wake us Mommy up), but it's definitely loud enough for me to hear when I'm sitting in the guest room/office in the middle of the night.

Hopefully her sleeptalking doesn't mean she's not getting enough rest at night. I figure if she's only making a few noises over the course of a couple of hours, it's not that big of a deal. Plus, she's still sleeping (or playing/talking quietly in her crib for all we know) for 11-12 hours a night, so I bet she's okay. Whatever she does, I just hope she's not up for 4 hours in the middle of the night now or in the future. I wouldn't wish that upon anyone else...and especially not my little girl.

Go Fish!

After last weekends trip to the zoo, we decided to embark on another adventure to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden today. Actually, we had planned on going to the Yankees game, and then to Aidan's 1st birthday party, but the weather deterred us from the game, and Kaylani acting a bit sick deterred us from the birthday party (wouldn't want to be that kid who gets all the other kids sick). Apparently Kaylani acting a bit sick didn't deter us from going to the aquarium though, but chances are she had a better chance of getting sick there than getting anyone else sick, right? Anyways, it was Kaylani's first trip to the aquarium, and I think she liked it!

We knew from her fascination with the sea otters last week that she would love the aquarium so today really just confirmed our thoughts. It was a little bit harder for her to see all the fish since some of them were real small and the whole place was kinda dark, but when she did see them, she sure did love them! She banged on the glass in delight each time a giant shark or fish would swim by her. She'd shriek and say "ishhhh" whenever a bright colored fish would come near her. She said "ishhh" when the penguin followed her every movement ("ishhh" could mean "penguin" too right?). And she even stared at the hippo as it ate hay and wiggled its giant ears.

But she didn't like everything at the aquarium. Actually, the part she didn't like the most was the people. Well, she loved looking at the people and kids that were at the aquarium. It was the people IN the aquarium that she didn't like. When one of the staff all dressed up in his wetsuit swam over to her area of the glass and tapped on it, she immediately backed away. He tried to wave at her and smile through his mask, but she wanted nothing to do with him. Frankly, I don't blame her. Giant sharks, turtles, and fish? Cool. Old man in a wetsuit? Pretty scary.

We capped off our trip with a stop at the gift shop, but didn't end up buying anything. We tried to get Kaylani to pick between a purple hippo or a turtle, but she was more interested in the shelf full of frogs. And just when we thought we'd be going home with a new stuffed frog, she threw that on the ground too. Guess we saved ourselves $15...this time.

Anyways, I'm kinda picture crazy right now, so here are pictures from today's trip to the aquarium and her breakfast adventure with pancakes bananas. The picture quality at the aquarium is not the best since I haven't figured out how to take good pictures in the dark with or without a flash, but check em out anyways. Oh, and here's a video just for kicks too. Enjoy!

Sounds like...

Lately, Kaylani's been babbling sounds that sound more and more like words each day. The first time she says something, we kinda dismiss her and say "nah, there's no way she could have said (insert word here)" because after all, who can say "snuffleufagus" after the first time they hear it. The second time she says something, we say "wow, that sure did sound a lot like (insert word here)", even if it sounded more like "snooooooooflplbbbbt" instead of "snuffleufagus." But the third time she says something, it sure does sound like (insert word here). Note: she's never even come close to saying snuffleufagus and I'm not entirely convinced Mommy could even say it.

The sounds that she makes that actually sound like the word she's trying to say are "good night", "horse", "apple", "hola", and "fish". I'll have to get a video of her saying them, but for now, here's the written transcript of Kaylani's attempt at words:

Actual word(s): Good Night
Kaylani: G' naaa

Actual word: Horse
Kaylani: Hawrssseee

Actual word: Apple
Kaylani: Ah-puh

Actual Word: Hola
Kaylani: Oh-wah

Actual Word: Fish
Kaylani: Ishhhhhh

Some of them are pretty close. My favorite is "G' naaa" because she says it to me after the last line of "I Love You, Good Night". Funny part is she'll say it again when I leave the room before she nurses, and then again when I see her in the morning. Then, when I say, "no, not good night...good MORNING" she just stares at me. Okay, not as funny as it is cute, but whatever. Anyways, I'm sure she'll get it right one of these, but in the meantime, check out these pictures from the last couple of days, including a belated posting of her 10 month birthday pictures. Oh, and don't forget to check out Dad-Blogs for the latest postings on Fatherhood Friday! Enjoy, and happy Friday!

Take advantage of the mornings

There are some nights that I miss seeing Kaylani go to bed, and last night was one of them. I was out at work event in the city and didn't get home until way after Kaylani was silently asleep. To make matters worse, yesterday was Kaylani's 10 month birthday and I missed it! Well, the night part of it at least. Luckily, I got to spend a few minutes with her in the morning.

It was about 7:15am and I was ready to leave for work. Thinking that Kaylani was going to sleep in until around 8am, I figured I was going to miss my shot to see her and give her a hug before I had to go so I stared at the video monitor for a little bit. To my surprise (and Mommy's dismay), Kaylani made some peeps and sat up crying. I gave her a few minutes to see if she was going to pass out again, and when she didn't, I was in! I picked up my little girl, gave her a nice big hug, said Happy Birthday, and got to changing her.

It's always great to start the day off like that, and even better when I don't get to end the day like that. Sometimes, you just have to take advantage of the morning. Other times, you should take advantage of the night. It's 3:40am right now so I guess you can consider this taking advantage of the night (or not taking advantage of sleeping at night). I'm headed back to bed, but I wanted to make sure I said Happy 10 Month Birthday Kaylani officially...even if it is a little late. Tomorrow I'm going to miss bedtime again, so Kaylani, if you can hear me typing and make out the words, wake up around 7:30am so I can see you before I leave. Thanks!

Animals don't get Labor Day off...

Animals don't get Labor Day off, but fortunately, I did! So since I was off and the animals weren't, we decided to pack up and head to the Philadelphia Zoo. The last time we were at the zoo, Kaylani was just a little over 5 months old and fit snuggly into the Baby Bjorn. And at 5 months, Kaylani wasn't interested in much of anything and probably couldn't see all too far, so it's safe to say that the zoo wasn't overly exciting. This time, on the eve of her 10 month birthday, everything was different.

We started off around 10am with Kaylani in her stroller. Once we rolled into the zoo we realized that the stroller just wasn't going to cut it. And once Kaylani was in Mommy's arms, it meant that she was able to follow Mommy's hand and finger all the way out to every animal we saw. First it was the camel that Kaylani waved at. Then it was the cheetah that Kaylani screamed hello too and bounced in excitement for. Next was the monkeys, and the ducks, and the rhino, and all the other animals.

The best part was seeing Kaylani's eyes light up every time she found the animal. First she'd just be staring off, maybe seeing something, or probably just staring at grass. Then, she'd slowly look around, and when she caught first sight of the animal, she would light up, smile, point, wave, bounce, and say hi in her cute little baby scream. Priceless.

If we had to guess which one was her favorite animal, we'd guess the sea otters since she pounded on the glass every time they swam by her. After seeing that, we knew that she loved to watch them, and also that we need to take a trip to the aquarium sometime soon. She also seemed to really like the cheetahs and the giraffes. Either way, we knew she had a great time and we're excited to go back. Luckily we're members and it's only 40 minutes away so we can go back whenever we want. Well, assuming we have a free weekend that is.

Anyways, my words probably don't do it justice, so check out these pictures we took today. I know I just posted pictures yesterday, but I gotta get these out there (and off my camera since I took 248 pictures). So sit back and enjoy Kaylani's 2nd trip to the zoo! There's even a great sequence of Daddy trying to get out of an egg (it'll make more sense when you see the pictures).

Recap!

So it's been a busy couple of days with our friends Jay, Ashley, and Cole in town. I'm even pretty sure Kaylani was the busiest since she just followed Cole around all weekend. Cole would run into another room, and there went Kaylani crawling after him. Cole would play a toy, and there was Kaylani trying to play with the same one. Cole would play with another toy, and there went Kaylani after it too. It's hard work trying to keep up with the older kids!

In any case, the house is back to just the 3 of us now. According to Mommy, Kaylani woke up from her nap and searched the entire house for Cole after we had left for the airport. Coming up empty, she gave Mommy a sad face. Hopefully, they'll come back soon so Kaylani can be happy again. Or Kaylani forgot about it already since we distracted her with toys and her first taste of pizza (which she loved so much that she shoved 8 pieces in her mouth all at once). Either way, she definitely had a great time.

So now that we're back in business, I posted a few backposts to make sure I kept things updated. Check out posts from the last couple of days on Kaylani's guest behavior, or our trip to NYC, or her latest encounters with grass! And when you've read all those, check out these pictures from the last bunch of days. I know they bring a smile to Kaylani's face when she sees Cole. I'm sure they'll do the same for you too. Enjoy!

Get your grass in gear

It was not too long ago that Kaylani was afraid of grass. She hated touching it in any way. Heck, she could barely even stand to look at it without breaking into tears. But today, she showed us that she's not a baby anymore. Well, not when it comes to grass at least.

After a busy day yesterday in the city, we took it easy today and went to Village Park to play on the swings for a little bit. After a few swings in the swing, we thought we'd see if Kaylani was still afraid of the grass. Turns out, she's not! She stood on it (with shoes), sat on it (with long pants), and then even crawled on it! She definitely seemed a little hesitant and would sit back up after putting her hands on it to crawl a few times, but after a few missteps, she was crawling around just fine. Okay, maybe she crawled 5 or 6 lengths quickly so Mommy would pick her up, but either way, she crawled on the grass without crying!

Just goes to show how quickly babies can change. 4 months ago, she hated it. Now, she's just fine. I can't even imagine what 4 months from now will bring along. Man oh man, she's growing up quickly.

The Big (Inconvenient) Apple

We finally did it. We ventured out of our safe little suburb and headed into the big city with Kaylani. Sure we've been up there before to Bat Bat and Auntie Shannon's house, or even to Chinatown for a party, but we've never been up there to be tourists. Long story short, it ain't easy being a tourist in NYC. Well, not with a baby at least.

You'd think that we would be pros at getting around the city since we lived there for a year before moving to NJ. You'd also think that Daddy would be even more of a pro since he has an office in NYC that he goes to a few times a month. But if you really think about it, living in the city and traveling to the city previously has nothing to do with the trip we took. Traveling in the city before today didn't involve Kaylani. Traveling in the city before was just the 2 of us driving downtown, or taking the subway, walking the streets, or taking a cab wherever we wanted to go. Traveling in the city before was easy. Traveling the city now, is anything but easy.

Instead of driving into the city like we normally would, we took NJ Transit from Hamilton into NY Penn Station. Kaylani fell asleep about 30 minutes before we got to the city (or an hour after we got on the train) which you would think is a good thing. The problem is that she fell asleep in her stroller. Normally Kaylani napping in her stroller is great. But in the city, strollers are a pain unless you're above ground. And since we were not even close to being above ground, we had to do some searching around for elevators, which is no easy task in NYC.

We found a few elevators to at least get us to the subway to head downtown (conveniently, the elevators already smelled like urine so we didn't have to worry about Kaylani's diaper offending anyone). After making our way downtown, we ran into our first situation: no elevator. Sleeping baby in a stroller + no elevator = ow, our back. We carefully lifted Kaylani up as evenly as we could and headed upstairs. Luckily for us there were only 20 of them this time.

The next part of our trip was wandering around Canal St and Little Italy until we found a restaurant to eat at. NYC is great for people watching because there are tons of people around. NYC is not great for strollers because there are tons of people around. So after pushing our way through hoards of people, we finally found a nice restaurant to park at for a little bit. Surprisingly it even had a changing table (although we assumed they wouldn't and changed her in her stroller the first time).

Next was a walk uptown to From Rice to Riches (Mommy's favorite rice pudding place) and Pinkberry for some dessert, before we took the subway way uptown to FAO Schwartz. Another subway meant more stairs (and no elevator). This time, it was about 30 steps down so we just took the kids out of their stroller. That meant that Kaylani was free on the subway. While she was greatly entertained by all the people staring at her (and equally entertaining to them I'm sure), it also meant she was free to touch things. People, subway railings, walls, and other germ infested things. After making our way out, we wiped her down and were on our way.

FAO Schwartz was completely overwhelming and we didn't even end up buying anything (her 1 year birthday is too close). By the time we finished, it was after 5pm and Kaylani had fallen asleep in her stroller. We took another subway (down 40+ stairs this time), and an escalator (completely illegal with Kaylani sleeping in the stroller) before we got to Penn Station to catch a train 2 minutes before it was leaving (Kaylani was awake by this time). And since it was rush hour on a Friday night, the train was packed and we were split up. Kaylani and Mommy sat next to a guy who luckily didn't mind being poked and thrown Cheerios at by Kaylani, and Daddy sat nearby. About halfway through, we all got a row together and the rest of the ride went fairly well.

All in all, a day trip to the city turned out to be quite a long adventure (kinda like this post). We had a blast and I'm sure Kaylani loved it, but it was amazing to find out just how inconvenient the city is with a baby. No cabs, no elevators, no space, and no breaks. I guess that's the price you pay of living in the city. I'm not sure how people do it. I know plenty of people who love it (like Bat Bat and Auntie Shannon), but I'll take our SUV in our wide roads any day of the week. For us, the city is just fine as a day trip. Well, fine enough I guess!

Your guest behavior

Remember growing up as a kid and meeting your parent's friends or maybe other relatives? Or going out to a nice dinner with your family to a place that probably wasn't "kid friendly"? Were you always told you had to "be on your best behavior or else?" I definitely was told that, so I thought I'd try and tell Kaylani the same thing. We had guests coming for the weekend, and that meant Kaylani had to be on her "best behavior", or her "guest behavior" as I call it.

Jay, Ashley, and Cole came to stay with us from Thursday to Sunday. With Kaylani sleeping for 10-12 hours straight at night ever since we got back from Cape May 2 weeks ago, we thought we'd be all set at nighttime to put Kaylani (and Cole) to bed and then hang out with our friends. Instead, Kaylani had other plans. Kaylani's "guest behavior" means that she wakes up after 4 hours because she knows Mommy or Daddy will come get her so her cries don't disturb our guests. In fact, she knows us so well that she thought she'd start Wednesday night before they even got here just to make sure that we knew what was coming.

It was around 2am when Kaylani woke up for the first time on Thursday morning. After a trip from Daddy and then another trip from Mommy a few minutes later she was back to sleep. The seed had been planted and she had us right where she wanted us. We have no idea what woke her up. Maybe it was gas. Maybe it was teething. Or maybe she really does know that our guests are coming to stay today. I hope I'm wrong, but if history has taught us anything, it's that Kaylani will definitely be on her guest behavior this weekend. Doh!

Trick, no Treat!

It's been challenging, to say the least, to get Kaylani to eat something other than baby food. In fact, it's been challenging to get her to eat at all. Before, we used to just have to act like a clown or rotate through 4 or 5 toys to get her to eat her food. Now, we have to resort to much dirtier tactics, for a much dirtier job. The only way to get her to eat lately is to flat out trick her.

After Kaylani eats a jar of baby food, we usually only get 1 shot to give her something different without any trickery (unless you count slipping in something different while she still thinks it's the same baby food as trickery). If we give her a different baby food from a jar, she may keep going if we rotate through some toys. But if it's real food, then her mouth locks down tighter than a breastfeeding baby latched on to her mom. And the only way we've found to get her to open up is by pretending to give her something she wants to eat (like Cheerios), or by prying her mouth open with a carjack.

Tonight, Mommy made Kaylani a butternut squash and turkey mix, a butternut squash, turkey, and pastina mix, and a bowl of pastina. We hoped that she would eat one of the three, but turns out the pastina was too hard to chew. That meant we were left with blended butternut squash and turkey. After 1 bite, Kaylani decided she'd had enough. But when we took the Cheerios out, all I had to do was hold up a Cheerio in front of her face to get her to open up. Since she can't feed herself yet, she waited for me to put the Cheerio in her mouth. Instead of Cheerio, she got a spoonful of butternut squash and turkey. Trickery successful!

After about 3 spoonfuls, she got a little bit smarter and started to hold my hand with the spoon. But after I switched hands and fed her with my left hand, she ate about 4 more spoonfuls of food before she lashed out for the Cheerio. Then, after getting an actual Cheerio (which she touched and played with to make sure it was an actual Cheerio), she ate a few more spoonfuls of food instead of the Cheerios that she wanted so badly. 15 spoonfuls in, or roughly 2.5oz of food later, she was all done. She was done being tricked.

It's probably unadvised to trick her to eat actual food, but it's the only way we can get her to eat. Hopefully after a few days of this food, she'll eat it willingly since that's how long it's taken usually. But if tricking her is what gets her to eat, then you might as well just call everyday Halloween. Except in this version of Halloween, there are no treats. Not for Kaylani at least.