Learning to Walk

Kailyn has taken her first steps! I am working on capturing it on video, but it has defintely happened and it's pretty cool.

I'm especially proud of her because I've been told first kids in a family tend to learn to walk a little later than others since they are usually carried alot by their parents and others and thus do not get as much practice.

So kudos to our little walker!

Gettin' Into the Holiday Spirit

From Santa Visit, Yu Zhen bday Nov 2011

Kailyn is a huge music fan. She will clap her hands and do a little dance whenever she hears a good beat. It's cute and funny. I like to say it's because I sang to her when she was in Helen's belly, but I think it's also that she is just a happy little baby and can't help but show it.

With two weeks left to go before Christmas, we've been listening to a radio station whose format has changed to all Christmas, all the time. While she enjoys the classics, one time in the car when Kailyn heard the song below, she went wild. Then again so did Helen and I, and we sang along while Kailyn happily moved to the music:

Happy 1st Birthday, Kailyn!

Dear Kailyn,

It's hard to believe a year ago today you were just a little 6 lb peanut:



You have made us so happy! We love you so much and can't wait to see you grow up - just don't do it too fast. Have a great day today and eat as much red velvet cake (or other sweets) as you like!



Love,
Mommy and Daddy

My Best Friend's Wedding

Good news! I recently heard my cousin Jason is getting married. He is like the brother I never had, was the best man at my wedding and besides Helen is my best friend. That we grew up together, share the same brain and have the sense of humor probably helps a bit (ask him about You know Joe Namath?/Joey the Horse/VCR to VCR dubbing/New bases, new bases' and any number of random things and he and I will both crack up simultaneously.)

After I told him about my awesomely romantic proposal story (I hid the ring in an Arby's beef 'n' cheddar sandwich and made Helen search through the cheese to get it,) he went ahead and did something even more memorable. In fact a local Boston TV station was so impressed they ran a VO of it on the morning news. Well done, Uncle Yeson!

Fast and Furious Learning

As Kailyn nears her one year birthday, it is simply amazing how quickly she is picking up on new things. Among her cool new tricks- the abiility to crawl up the stairs, pretend to be on the phone, hugging her stuffed animals (very sweet), feeding herself food, saying real words (like 'mama' and 'dada'), understanding what we're saying to her, talking into empty bottles to hear the echo it makes and laughing at funny things.

One of our friends told us that 6-12 months is the best age for little children because the babies usually get more hair, coordination and personality, and can communicate better. This has totally been the case with Kailyn. she is a total joy to be around (most of the time.)

Scream

The baby has now learned that screaming will get her what she wants, or at the very least get our attention. So she yells at the top of her lungs pretty much every chance she gets. Lots of our friends and family are surprised because Kailyn used to be such a quiet, little angel.

We try not to encourage her and allow her screaming to dictate what happens, but when it's in public and everyone's looking, it sort of forces our hand a little. At her old nanny's place, Kailyn used to scare the other babies because while they'd build up to their screaming, she would go from 0 to full blast immediately.

Also, when we're feeding her and are a bit too slow to get the next bite into her mouth, she'll produce an ear-piercing scream at the top of her lungs until more food is put in her pie-hole. Then she'll happily sing 'Nom, nom' like nothing ever happened. It's pretty cute, even if our ears are still ringing.

Great Cuts

Forever ago, when I was single and had a Match.com account they used to have a section asking what your best physical feature was. While I assume most people put down 'eyes' or 'smile,' I went with 'hair.' As a former TV news anchor, my hair was my thing, so much so I once told someone my biggest fear of doing crowd 'live shots' wasn't having someone attack me or swear on the air, but rather having someone mess my 'do up.

Anyway, I had to laugh because the other day we had Kailyn in pigtails. When we took them out, her hair defied gravity, stood straight up and was quite a sight.



She looked like Wolverine


Or Flock of Seagulls


Or like me when I wake up in the morning and haven't put any product in.


The good news is if she takes anything after me, Baby K's hair will be thick, strong and abundant. Even if it's a littl wild sometimes.

Santa 1, Kailyn 0

Kailyn's First Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving this year, Kailyn's first. She had a nice time at one of Helen's relatives' place and even tried a little turkey for the first time (she liked it.)

It's hard to believe that a year ago, the baby wasn't even here yet, and this year she weighed more than the turkey. Gobble Gobble!

Welcome to 1997

As the elder statesman of my department at work, my coworkers like to razz me every now and then (or everyday) about my oldness. A couple of examples:

I recently discovered the free online music source Pandora. If you've never used it, it's basically like a radio station on your computer where you can choose the genre(s) of music you want to listen to. It's nice to listen to songs while I'm at work (of course my choice of music, singing out loud and the resulting ridicule I receive for it, is a story for another blog.) I was excited to share that I'd caught onto this phenomenon, since I know Martha and Jordan are also fans. But when I went to tell the gang about my find, no one was very impressed. Sheppard even said to me, 'Welcome to 2007,' a not-so-subtle reference about how long others have been using Pandora.

My new obsession as of late has been eBay. I've known about it forever but never had any interest in participating either as a buyer or a seller. What I did instead was troll Craigslist for decent deals on clothing and other stuff (remind me to tell you the 'following a strange man into his garage' story sometime.) Anyway, it's likely a combination of my addictive personality, love of a bargain and gambling-like adrenaline rush that has gotten me hooked on eBay and buying things I don't really need. Once again, when I told my coworkers about it, they laughed at me and Sheppard this time said, 'Welcome to 1997.'

As I regress further and further back, I expect my next find will be something like 'cassingles' or pagers.

Song Du Jour

Here's another great version of one of my favorite songs. It has a lot of meaning for me because not only is it a beautiful rendition (I'm especially feeling this version b/c of the amazing harmony) but it's also a song I sing to our baby girl on a nightly basis as she drifts off into dreamland. (Music begins at :38 of clip)

Daylight Saving Time

We just moved our clocks back an hour but the way Kailyn has reacted, you would have thought we jumped seven time zones. She has not slept well at all since the switch, and as a result Helen and I have gotten up many times through the night to attend to her after she cries.

I've spoken to other parents and they all seem to be going through the same thing with their babies right now, so at least we're not alone in this transition. But I must say that I'm surprised at how challenging it's been for us all especially since Kailyn has actually traveled to places with different time zones and done just fine sleep-wise.

Hopefully this will only last a little while longer. In the meantime, if you see some bleary-eyed people at your office, be nice to them because they may have had a rough night with a crying baby.

Bumps -N- Bruises

We are now at the stage of Kailyn's life and development where we are witnesses to the new things she's learning seemingly every day. One day she'll be crawling like a pro, the next she'll go from a sitting position to a standing one by pulling herself up on something and yet another she'll lie down next to a stuffed animal and hug or kiss it. My favorite thing she's done recently is mimicking Helen or me by speaking into the little plastic Jack-o-lantern/candy pail to hear her own echo. It's hilarious.

What's less funny is the assorted bumps and bruises that Kailyn is now getting thanks to her increased mobility. As one might expect, a wobbly baby + endless energy and curiosity = lots of falls. Most of the time she'll land on her butt, but every now and again she'll face plant or land on her head. We've taken to adding a gate at the top of the stairs so she won't fall down and have had to take cords out of sockets for fear she'll go after them.

It's a pretty neat time to be a parent since we get to see all these fun new things through Baby K's eyes. We just hope she uses those eyes to watch where she's going.

Kailyn the Supermodel

We had a nice time this weekend striking a few poses for our friend and photog extraordinaire, Ava Van. She is the same artist who took these great pix of our little Babaghanoush when she was just two months old.

This time, we did an outdoor shoot, complete with gorgeous fall leaves, some bubbles and funky hats for the baby. Here's a good one of her smiling, which she always does whenever someone has a camera trained on her moneymaker:



So far we've only gotten a few sample pix from Ava and I can't wait to see the entire set. But judging from the ones I've seen so far, our baby knows how to work it:

Optimist Prime

Sorry for the misdirection, I'm not talking about the Transformer, as cool as he is. Rather...

As an eternal optimist, I often think about how fortunate we all are to be happy and healthy (for those family members and friends who are.) This song pretty much sums up how I feel every time I look at Kailyn and Helen:

Happy Halloween!

We did some trick or treating a little early this year, deciding to all dress up as Star Wars characters (hey, we gotta get multiple use out of these costumes!) Everyone loved the group outfit, and I loved the realization that the candy Kailyn's cuteness scored us will go directly into my belly!



*Hey, look what I found online: a similar combo!

Fall Fun

Seeing the wonders of fall through the eyes of a baby is fun. We took Kailyn to her first pumpkin patch with some friends and their kids. A good time was had by all!

The Crying Game

Someone once accused me of only posting smiley pictures of Kailyn on this blog in an effort to brand her as 'The Happy Baby.' Though I am a pr guy, I can honestly tell you that she really is this happy most of the time and that she knows how to smile when the camera is on her. I don't have to do much to get a quality shot with her.

Of course, there are times she does cry, but it's pretty rare. We lucked out in that regard. However, for those who insist on seeing the baby when she's upset, here you go:

Funny Commercial

I had a nice weekend. But clearly, not as nice as this guy's:

Pigtails!

Teeth? Crawling? Pigtails? What's happening here, and where did our little baby go?

A Month of Monumental and Major Milestones

Quite a past few weeks in the constant development of Kailyn. Here's the breakdown-

1) Standing. I walked into the baby's room the other morning to find her standing in her crib, smiling and bouncing up and down while her hands were on the railing for support. It was funny. When we watch TV, she'll also crawl around looking for something to grab onto to use as leverage and prop herself up.

2) Teeth. Kiki now has a couple of bottom teeth popping through her gums. They're not quite fully there, but are growing by the day, ready for solid foods. I've made the mistake of putting my finger in her mouth, and she chomps on it like it's dinner.

3) Crawling. She's learned to crawl forward, backwards, and every which way in between. This is significant because for a while, she could only go in reverse but hadn't quite grasped the concept of shifting into 'drive.' Now she's got that down and is mobile, and our lives have changed forever.



Now, I know many non-parents may be saying "whoop-dee-damn-do" like former Syracuse Orange hoops legend Derrick Coleman once famously said (see #10 on this list for the reference) but for those who have gone through the excitement of seeing your kid make strides like these, you know these milestones are pretty cool. Especially since practice makes perfect!

Happy Friday!

Longer Hair

Kailyn's hair is growing longer, much to Helen's delight. There are lots of advantages to this: mommy can put clips in the baby's hair, Kailyn looks less like a little boy and perhaps now strangers will stop calling her 'buddy.'

The one downside to her hair growth is that, while she's still pretty cute, her 'do is currently in the 'in-between' stage of too long to be considered short, but too short to be 'long.' See?



I wrote about doppelgangers once before, and I'd say Kailyn's hair twin is probably one of these three people/characters:

Bruce Lee:


Justin Bieber:


The Gruesomes (from The Flintstones):


Of course, pretty soon Baby K's hair will grow out long and nicely like Rapunzel's and she'll look even more like the little princess she is. But for now I think she's a 'tween, at least when it comes to her hair.

More Baby Pictures

Daddy's Birthday

Today is my birthday and it was relatively low-key. I guess that's what happens when you get perilously close to turning 40 - you'd just assume forget how old you are.

That said, there have been some nice things about today: the great Hawaiian-themed birthday party my coworkers threw for me complete with Kahlua pork, macaroni salad, mango-chocolate cake and hula lessons on YouTube (Mahalo, Mai Ling!) Then, there were the more than 100 birthday messages on Facebook sent from my friends and relatives from across the country including a very sweet note from Helen. Finally, we had dinner with some friends and I got to eat like it was my last day on earth. Oh yeah, Helen's gift to me was pretty good, too.

Of course, there's no better present that having a perfect little daughter, and the best part of my day was dropping in on Kailyn's movement class during my lunch break and seeing her face light up when she saw me walk through the door. Happy Birthday to me.

*UPDATE: This was also the best part of my day - seeing Baby K in a onesie that has 'I love Daddy' written in Chinese :)

Baby Pictures, Summer 2011

Dress-up Day

I hadn't worn a suit and tie in a while, but a few days ago was asked to emcee an event, giving me the chance to dress up a bit. I got this pic of myself with Kailyn taken right before I left the house. I dig it because I don't have very many photos of just Kiki Dee and me, and was stoked to find we both looked smashing. At least, the baby does. I'm a bit mad that my short haircut makes my face look puffy and fat.

As Helen would sarcastically say, 'Yeah, that's the reason why your face looks so fat...'

Songs That Sound Similar

In honor of Adele's new video that premiered today. Both songs so simple, yet so beautiful.

Someone Like You - Adele


Secrets - One Republic

Cable TV Rules!

One of the great things about our move to the 'burbs is that we closed out our old cable TV account, then opened up a new account at our new place (NOTE: this is apparently a smarter move than getting one's service transferred, because our local cable company treats new customers better than the ones they already have.) As a result we know have many more channels than we used to, for 1/2 the price.

For a Boston sports fan it's been great because with the new channels, I've gotten the chance to watch the Bill Belichick documentary on NFL Network, see replays of the Stanley Cup Finals in NHL Network and follow the Red Sox live on MLB Network during this tense and crazy end to the regular season.



The feeling I have with the new channels reminds me of when I was in high school and my dad said he'd get us cable if my sister and I both made the honor roll (back then, cable was a privilege, not a right for teenagers.) Caroline kept up her end of the bargain but I kept coming up short. After a few sub-par report cards and the sinking realization the honor roll wasn't in my immediate future my dad gave up and got us cable anyway.

All I remember from those days was being addicted to ESPN and MTV's 'Remote Control.' Needless to say, I didn't make the honor roll for a while after we got cable, either.



*Fun fact of the day: According to Wikipedia, Remote Control host Ken Ober (above) was from Brookline, MA.

Baby's First Fever

This weekend we had to take Kailyn to the ER in the middle of the night because she had a fever of 102. We figured it wasn't anything too serious, but we wanted to be safe just in case.

Once there, the doctor confirmed that it was indeed just a fever, so that made us feel better, but it still was a bit of a scare to have the baby wake up and cry in the middle of the night, especially since she's usually a pretty sound sleeper.

The good news was that even in the hospital at 3 a.m., Kailyn was still a happy baby, smiling and charming the staff. She didn't cry when we took off her onesie and placed her on the scale, when the nurse took her temperature 'the old fashioned way' or when the doctor put his cold stethoscope on her warm skin.

We have been relatively fortunate that this is her first real illness - we know some babies who seem to consistently be under the weather. Then again, Baby K drank breast milk since she was born which might have helped her immune system, and she isn't in day care so she's not as exposed to germs as some other kids might be.

While Kailyn being cold-free this long has been good news overall, I wonder if it will have any negative repercussions once she does start interacting with other kids more frequently in day care or preschool or wherever.

Of course, we don't wish for Kailyn to turn into a sick kid but if she is, I'm sure Helen wouldn't mind too much if the next attending physician we see at the hospital looks like this (miss you, Tricia!):



Parents, what are your thoughts on whether it's better to have a healthy kid vs. having one who gets sick, but builds up a tolerance to germs?

Nicknames

I rarely call people by their correct names; it's just a thing I do, for no good reason other than I find it amusing. For instance, Jordan is Yordan, Jason is Jack-o and Owen is Orben.

Here are a few of the nicknames I've given Kailyn since she's been born:

Norby - This was really given based on the assumption she'd be a boy, and I'll call him 'Norbit' since that's a funny name and I was pretty sure no one we knew was going to give their son that name.



Kiki Dee - Though this is the name of the singer below, I actually got it from an Adam Sandler movie...



K.K. Holiday - Not sure exactly who this is, or where the nickname came from. I think she's a chanteuse.



Boogie - Short for 'Booger,' as in 'Little Booger' but I didn't think a photo of a snot, or the guy from Revenge of the Nerds was appropriate here.



Kai Lan - Asian cartoon character, whose name is somewhat close to 'Kailyn.'



Missy Elliott - Helen once called Kailyn 'Little Missy,' which then got lengthened to Little Missy Elliot.