SAHD Week: Day 2

So here we are. Day 2 of SAHD week, which is anything but sad. It's not sad, but it sure is tiring. I think Mommy put it best today when she saw me looking completely drained around 3pm. "It's tiring when your brain doesn't work all day right?" It was a funny thing to say, and could even be seen as an insult to stay at home parents all over, but it's true. At least in our case.

You would think we had nothing to be tired about. Mommy passed out last night around 10:30pm, and I fell asleep shortly after (with the Yankees game on) around 11:30pm. We both slept the night until Kaylani woke us up around 7:30am. Do the math and it means we got 9 and 8 hours of sleep respectively, which for me, is more than I would get if I was working. The morning went by quickly with breakfast (blueberry pancakes) and then some play time before nap time (which thankfully was much easier today with Kaylani falling asleep after 20 minutes). During nap time, we met with a basement contractor to see about getting things finished (hoping to make a decision and get ourselves a basement before her 1 year birthday).

Conveniently, Kaylani slept the entire visit and right up until it was time to meet Sonia and Aadi for lunch before Gymboree class. Gymboree was a lot of fun, with Kaylani crawling and walking (with our help) up and down some padded mats/ramps/toys, and wasn't that tiring since she clung to us for awhile instead of running off by herself. After class, we made a quick trip to Whole Foods, and then it was home for a yogurt and a nap. Thankfully again, Kaylani went down like a log and nap time was on. That's when Mommy made the "tiring without the brain" comment to me.

Looking back on it, we really hadn't done that much. We stayed at home, Kaylani napped once, we drove to a few places to have lunch and errands, and then that was it. It was 3:30pm and I was exhausted. Normally at work, it'd have to be a really tough day for me to be wiped out by 3:30pm (or a really bad day). At work, I could be in meetings, on the phone, writing a presentation, or digging through data for hours on end, and I'd still truck on through until 5 or 6pm without a problem. Sure I'd be pretty tired when I got home, but today was a different type of tired.

I think it comes down to being the type of person that can handle being a stay at home parent, or stay at home anything for that matter. Maybe I'd get used to it over time, but so far, 2 days has not been enough to adjust to being a stay at home dad. Again, I love spending the time with Kaylani and Mommy, but I just don't think I'm cut out for it. Mommy didn't think she was cut out for it either, but she's much better at it (or much more used to it). What I'm trying to say is, kudos to all of you stay at home people out there. And to Mommy especially, thanks for doing what you do. Kaylani and I both appreciate it more than you'll ever know!

SAHD Week: Day 1

For the first time since Kaylani was born, I'll be playing the role of a SAHD, or a stay at home dad. I am in the middle of switching jobs (goodbye Rosetta agency/consulting life...hellooooo Johnson & Johnson brand marketing!) and we had decided that it'd be best if I took a week off in between for a few reasons. First of all, I've never really done it before. I've switched jobs 3 times now, and each time I've gone right into the next one. Second of all, I wanted to spend some more time with Kaylani and Mommy. Sure I spend most nights and every weekend with them, but I've never seen her daily/weekly routine at home. And lastly, we've got a ton of stuff to do around the house, and getting things done at night or on the weekend just doesn't happen.

Here's how day 1 shook out. Kaylani woke up around 6:45am (as usual), but hung out in her crib playing by herself until around 7:30am. At 7:30am, I played the role of hero and got my favorite morning hug. Next, she nursed, then sat in the bathroom as I showered. So far, nothing different than when I was working. After the shower, we played for a little bit until breakfast was ready (REAL Quaker Oats oatmeal instead of her baby oatmeal), and then ate, and played some more. Then came the first challenge of the day.

The hardest part of Mommy's days are nap time. Sometimes they'll go well and she'll fall asleep quickly and stay asleep for at least an hour. Other times, like today, she'll cry for 40 minutes and not actually fall asleep. To be completely honest, I wasn't around for the first 30 minutes because I had to drop off some stuff to wrap up my job, but when I came home, we called it quits. Instead of trying to get her to nap, we packed her up and headed for the mall to get some errands done. Thankfully, she slept for 30 minutes. Unfortunately, 30 minutes wasn't enough.

After a quick lunch at the food court (where Kaylani ripped pieces of bread up and threw 2 out of every 3 on the floor instead of eating them), we walked around and did some shopping. For 3 hours, we walked and for the most part, Kaylani was well behaved. She didn't nap like we had hoped, but she only freaked out towards the end. We couldn't really blame her since we were in the damn Verizon store for an hour waiting for them to set up our phones (we both got new Blackberry Tours because they were buy one, get one free). Then, she freaked out because she wanted to play with our phones, but we all know that Blackberries are not for babies.

After another trip to the food court so Kaylani could eat a snack and nurse, we headed home. Thankfully, Kaylani passed out again, and unfortunately, it was only for 30 minutes again. At home, we let her run free finally, but since she had only slept an hour on the day, she was more about crawling/climbing/clinging to us. Around 6pm, it was time for dinner, bathtime, and finally, bedtime.

All in all, day 1 was pretty much as I expected it. It was rough at times, it was long, but it was still great to spend the entire day with Kaylani (and Mommy). Day 2 brings on Daddy's first Gymboree class! Hopefully naptime will go a bit better so she's rested up for class. If it doesn't, at least Mommy will be glad that I got to experience just a taste of her life. Either way, it's just a glimpse, and already I'm extremely appreciative of Mommy for everything she does for us. I never thought I could be more appreciative, but this week might just prove me wrong. We'll see!

It's contagious

Kids pick up all types of things in their daily lives. Sometimes, you're not even sure where they pick it up from. And the only thing you know is that it's probably contagious, so it's gonna get them and you. Well luckily for us, the only thing Kaylani's given us is her laughter. We have no idea what happened to her, but she broke into a laughing fit today that was extremely contagious.

We were winding down a long, fun weekend with Jes and Brian who came into town to visit. After Kaylani finished 2 jars of baby food, plus a ton of chicken and rice (she was a little piggy today), she just started laughing. No idea why, but just the cutest little laughter she could give. To top it all off, she had a piece of chicken stuck to the top of her gums which made it look like she had her 2 top teeth. After a few minutes, she was still laughing and Mommy and I couldn't help but join in.

For the next 10 minutes, we just sat at the dinner table and laughed. We tried to video tape her, but as usual, she got a little camera shy and calmed down just a little bit. All in all, it was a great end to this weekend. We couldn't have asked for a better time on Saturday and Sunday, and Kaylani made us look like the best parents in the world by behaving like the best baby in the world. Let's hope that behavior is contagious for awhile now. But if it's not, at least we'll always have her laughter.

While it's not the original laughter that got us all started, here's a video that we took when we stopped laughing long enough to grab the camera. I sure hope it brings a little bit of laughter into your life. If it doesn't, then you'll just have to come by for the live show!

Double Dipping

We can only teach Kaylani so much at one time. She has learned a lot already, but she's got so much to go before she'll be fully accepted into society. While she may be pretty darn cute, it's all an act. Underneath it all, she's a heathen. She's unfit for public restaurants. She could even be considered...disgusting. And all of this is within the safety of our own home. Imagine what would happen if we went out in public?

What I'm talking about is Kaylani's new love of double dipping. I guess the typical definition of double dipping doesn't really apply here since she's not biting a piece off of anything and then dipping the bitten edge back into something, but it's her own form of double dipping. Frankly, it's even grosser than the typical way. Let's walk through it using tonight's dinner as an example.

Tonight, Kaylani started off having split pea and carrot soup. Nothing too eventful happened during the 15 minutes and 17 toys it took us to get through 1/2 a jar. But when we switched to pieces of actual chicken, that's when it started. It was going well at first. We'd put down a small piece of chicken. She'd pick it up and put it her mouth. She'd chew on it for a bit, then swallow, and we'd start over again. But after about 8 or 9 pieces of chicken, she got tired. Or bored. Or just wanted to be gross.

After a few chews of her chicken, she would make some noises, move around a lot, stick her whole hand in her mouth, and then give one spit and out would come the remainder of a piece of chicken. Thankfully it landed on her table. After staring at it, and then up at us with a smile on her face, she'd move the chicken around, and then put it right back in her mouth. Gross! In fact, Mommy, who has a terrible gag reflex when she sees Kaylani gagging or spitting things up, couldn't even bare to watch. I personally thought she was being quite the conservationist (is that a word?). Gross, but quite conservative.

I guess we shouldn't complain because she's eating. Some day down the road we'll teach her table manners (or we'll learn not to give her big pieces of chicken). One way or another, we'll get her fit for the public eye. And to show you fit she is, here are some pictures from the last couple of days. I promise, there are no pieces of half eaten, regurgitated chicken. There are some great pictures from Little Gym, Kaylani's first trip on a fire truck, and a playdate she just had with her friend Aadi! Oh, and if you have an extra second, check out my latest Sports IllustraDad post at Dad-Blogs about an adorable little girl who ruined her Dad's lifelong dream of catching a foul ball, or my new fear for Kaylani's toddler years.

Baby Story

Not surprisingly, I have no problems talking about Kaylani. Some way or another, Kaylani works her way into pretty much every conversation I have. It's like I can't even have a conversation without bringing her up. Does my life even exist without her? I'm thinking no. Here are a few recent examples:

Example #1: Today at a client meeting (one of my last...sigh), my client was talking about her 2 American Bulldogs that she had to pick up from the vet. She came to the decision with her fiance that he would drop them off, but she would pick them up so that way she wasn't associated with the "procedure" that they were being left to. That's a perfectly normal story that had nothing to do with me. What did I do? I said I felt the same way when Mommy makes me hold Kaylani when she gets shots at the pediatrician (but on the losing end of course since I'm the one who actually has to hold her). Related? Sure. But was it really necessary to bring Kaylani up?

Example #2: I have a coworker, Amanda, who likes to use words that only people who got an 800 Verbal score on the SATs wouuld know. She came in to my office saying she had just taught Danika a new word. What did I do? I told her she should teach Kaylani some new words because she only knows how to say "mamamama", "papapapa", and "ishhhhh" real well. Could I just have called her a nerd and moved on? Oh wait, I did call her a nerd. Couldn't I just have moved on?

Example #3: I was at the Yankees game the other day watching Derek Jeter tie the all time Yankees hit record held by Lou Gehrig. As soon as he did it (in the 7th inning), we all stood up and went wild cheering. Then I said to the guy next to me, "Holy cow Derek Jeter is the greatest Yankee of all time! Did you know my baby has 2 teeth and poops twice a day?"

Okay, so example #3 didn't actually happen (she only poops once a day so I would never lie and say twice), but the other 2 are examples that have actually happened in the last 2 days. I'm sure there were plenty more, but the point is, Kaylani has consumed my entire life. As another point, this blog has allowed me to express my adventures with Kaylani. If you add them together, that means that this blog is my entire life. So if you read this blog regularly and run into me sometime in the near future, just tell me you already know everything about Kaylani and I'll just sit there quietly instead of telling you stories that you already know. Without Kaylani, I might not be anything at all, but with her, I'm the happiest Dad alive. And that's the only story that matters.

Does this count as potty training?

Kaylani's only 10 months old. That's young. We're nowhere near official potty training, which is good since we have a brand new box of diapers sitting in her closet. But tonight, Kaylani gave us a glimpse into the life of potty training...kinda.

We were getting ready for bathtime which consisted of Kaylani getting undressed down to her diaper and then racing Mommy or Daddy back to the bathroom. Once there, Daddy took off her diaper to get her ready for the bath, but had a nice little poop surprise. After a poopy Kaylani up on his lap, he put Kaylani down so she could stand next to the tub as he adjusted the water. All of a sudden, something new happened. Something unexpected. Something...wet.

As Kaylani was standing next to the tub, she proceeded to pee. Now, I might not be a girl, but I'm pretty sure that girls aren't supposed to pee standing up. In fact, isn't it the one thing that girls complain about? The fact that they CAN'T pee standing up? If that's it, then let me tell you, it can be done! Okay, so she may have peed all down her leg and made a big mess on the bath mat, but she peed standing up!

Needless to say, Kaylani got to spend a little extra time in the tub today getting her bottom half scrubbed down...twice. Maybe this is the start of potty training. We can take off her diaper and hold her over the toilet to see if she'll go. Then again, maybe it was just a fluke accident and it won't happen again. We're hoping it's a fluke accident, because if standing naked makes her pee, then we'll have to replace our bathmats with disposable pee mats. Oh well, at least it's the guest bathroom!

The Guessing Game

Whenever I come home from work, one of the questions I ask Mommy is "what did Kaylani (and you) have for lunch?" The answer is usually either direct ("harvest turkey dinner"), non-descript ("one of those turkey things"), or not answered ("don't ask..it was a bad day"). Since Kaylani is also eating pretty much everything we're eating as well, any one of those answers (except maybe the last one) could include things like bread, chicken, peas, beef, etc. That's where "the guessing game" comes in.

It's not that I ask Kaylani had for lunch when I come home just because I want to know (especially on a "not answered" day). I ask because it usually will sway the dinnertime decision. More importantly though, I ask to avoid playing "the guessing game" later on that night. For those of you unfamiliar with "the guessing game", let me fill you in.

"The guessing game" is something we play after Kaylani poops, and there are 2 parts. The first part is "guess if Kaylani actually pooped or not." That's the easy part. Taking a peek in back, or through the leg, usually tells us if we were right or wrong. The 2nd part of the "game" is the harder part. That's when we try and guess what Kaylani ate to make her poop look like it does. For instance, last night, Kaylani's poop was red. Not red like there was blood in it, but just tinted red throughout. After racking our brains to try and guess what could have caused it, we ended on watermelon. While we're not sure that was the cause, it sure was a better guess than mashed potatoes, green beans, or turkey.

While this game may sound disgusting to some, it's just another part of parenthood that we've fully embraced. In fact, while changing Kaylani's poopy diaper tonight, Mommy came over to see if she had to guess again. Since the poop was just plain brown, there was no game tonight (ah the exciting lives of parenthood). It reminds me of a scene from Baby Mama which we just watched this weekend. A baby comes in with brown stuff on her arm. The mom asks if it's chocolate or poop, and without hesitation, licks it. With a smile on her face, she goes "it's chocolate"! The other sister, throughly disgusted, says a bunch of things in disbelief, but turns out, that's what parenthood is all about. That scene hit home pretty hard. We're parents now, and that's something we know for sure.

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!