Kailyn: International Traveler

We are taking the long weekend to head up to Canada, which will technically turn Kailyn into an international traveler before the age of 6 months. Pretty cool.

I thought it'd be really funny to see her get a passport photo as a baby, then keep it for 10 years (Yes I know, little ones actually renew passport photos after five years.) But it turns out all we need is her birth certificate which while easier, is less funny in my mind when I think of future travel.

It would be hilarious if at age 8 we went to Italy or something, they asked to see her passport and she showed them a pic of when she was an infant.

Teething, Or Teasing (Us)?

We've had a rough few weeks since Kailyn started teething. Neither Helen nor I have gotten much sleep as Kailyn was waking up about once every hour, every night for a while.

We attended to her thinking she was in pain and also wanting to quiet her down so she (and us) would fall back asleep since we all sleep in the same room. But after a few days we realized that maybe she was just getting used to us putting a pacifier in her mouth and had forgotten how to sooth herself back to sleep like we trained her to do a few weeks before the teething started.

So last night, as we neared out wit's end we decided to sleep in the other room, let her cry it out and see what happened. Amazingly, she cried for a little bit, but then stopped and slept soundly for most of the night. We were overjoyed and celebrated...by sleeping.

As parents it's hard to tell if your baby is truly *in pain*, or just being *kind of a pain* by crying to get attention. We wanted to err on the side of safety at first, but now it seems clear that the baby is doing just fine, especially when we go to her crib and she gives us a smile that says, 'Gotcha, suckers!'

More Baby Pictures

From our Hawaii trip in March:

Leg Cramp!

We went to a fun wedding celebration yesterday for some friends of ours. It was held at a local community athletic center and in addition to a delicious buffet dinner, the pre-meal activity was DODGEBALL. Apparently the couple and their friends are big into sports and wanted to do something to reflect that.

I have not played dodgeball since my elementary school days, but figured I'd give it a go. I only played in one game but managed to get a cramp in my calf and pull a muscle in my side. The saving grace was I personally knocked out three of their players, our team won and I eliminated the last person on their team. So to my competitive side, it was kind of worth it.

All Kailyn, All the Time

I've learned that a general blogging rule of thumb is when one is unsure about what to write (or when one is feeling lazy), one can never go wrong with posting more gratuitous videos and photos of their baby. Here are a few I particularly enjoy. Happy Friday!

Sleep Training

Helen and I sleep trained Kailyn so now she goes to bed without us having to rock her to sleep. We can sense when she's tired because she'll just start moaning so we just plop her into the crib, sing a few songs to her and she's out - often times without even crying!

It was hard at first and we felt like terrible parents for letting our child suffer, but as I told Helen during the numerous times she (and I) wanted to break down and 'save' Kailyn whien she was screaming in the other room: the baby was warm, safe, well fed and sleepy, so there was no reason for us to rush in there and undo all our hard work (though we went in to check on her.)

It ended up taking us four days to successfully train Kailyn. The first couple of nights, she cried for an hour (each night), which was rough - both on our emotions and our eardrums. But by day four she was going down without a fight and very quickly falling asleep. After that we felt pretty good about ourselves and were sure those difficult days were better than the alternative: years of no sleep.

Of course, all bets are off now that she's teething, since she wakes up a couple of times a night...

Rock Star!

Helen texted me this picture when I was at work and I laughed out loud. Thanks for the cool sunglasses, Karen!

Drooly Baby

It's been going on for a few weeks now but since I've been a bit behind, it's new on this blog - Kailyn is drooling. A lot (I know, stop the presses! A baby is drooling.) Helen says Kailyn may have teeth coming in soon and maybe that's why. Whatever the reason, we've gone through lots of tissues and t-shirts recently as we try and keep her mouth dry.

One day Helen texted me and simply wrote, 'I see teeth.' I was both excited that the baby was progressing on schedule but also alarmed because, wow, that was really fast! I am getting kind of used to what our friend Owen calls the '90 year old grandma who won the lottery' smile on Kailyn, and am hoping her toothless grin will last just a little bit longer. Otherwise, it means our little baby is growing up too quickly.

Oh, You Want to See Baby Pictures?

Before the baby was born, there was really nothing to show on this blog, hence the funny photos and videos. But now that Kailyn is here, it is time to start posting more baby-related photos and vids (regardless of if you want to see them or not, lol.)

I struggled with whether this was something I wanted to do, partly because of internet privacy issues and partly because I don't want anyone to think we were 'those parents' who make everyone look at pix of their kid because we think she's so darned cute (see older blog post titled 'Reactions.')

But since this blog is ultimately a living history of Kailyn's life and she will likely want to see what she looked like when she was an infant, I will put more photos of her here. Twist my arm:

Three months


Two months


One month


One day


In the womb

Loved Ones Gone

A tough month or so, as we lost a family member and a good friend within weeks of one another. Both were too young to go, but we are happy that while they were on this earth they lived happy lives and were beloved by their friends and family. It is a good reminder to tell people you love them, and to never live with any regrets. We miss and love you, Uncle Reggie and Tricia, and I'm glad you got to meet Helen and Kailyn, respectively.

Uncle Reggie (with Allison and Po-Po), September 2010


Tricia meeting 3-day old Kailyn, December 2010

Little Jesse Jones Fan

Kailyn thinks reporter Jesse Jones from KING5 News is hilarious. He has a distinctive on-air sign-off and I've said it many times to Kailyn, who always smiles and laughs. Even Conan O'Brien has tried to learn it:



I've had the pleasure of meeting Jesse a few times, first when we were both news reporters and more recently when he did a story about acupressure where I work. Nice guy. And a source of entertainment for our little girl. I showed him the following video and he thought it was pretty funny:

Baby Comb-Over

Since I last blogged consistently, Kailyn's baby hair has mostly fallen out. I guess that's natural for babies, but it was a bit surprising for us to see that she suddenly had an early 1990's-style fade haircut (skin on the side, hair on top), a la Big Daddy Kane.



Much to our relief, Kailyn's hair has since grown back, but for a few weeks she looked like an old man with a comb-over because there were some leftover, longer hairs on the side of her scalp, made more noticeable by the lack of any other hair. She also started making this weird noise that can only be described as The Exorcist-meets-a whispering lion, so it sounded like 'RAWR...rawr...rawr' in a gravelly but soft chant. I took to calling her 'Gollum' and asking her if she wanted 'The Precious' but Helen got upset and made me stop.

Jack Sparrow

Off topic, but SO freaking funny I just had to share. From an SNL Digital Short with the Loney Island guys, featuring Michael Bolton. ("Now back to the good part!")

*Warning: graphic language

Five Months

Happy five months to Kailyn! Hard to believe she's already been here for nearly half a year. It seems like just yesterday she arrived. Then again, there are also times when it feels like she's been here forever (usually when she's screaming uncontrollably, which is thankfully pretty rare.)

In this time, I have to say I've really taken to being a dad. Sure, there are times when I miss having my 'me time,' but it's more than offset by the enjoyment I get when I come home from work and see her smiling face, or take a walk on Broadway and have people comment on how cute she is.

In honor of the five-month milestone, (and taking a cue from the webinar I listened to at work today which mentioned how popular lists are online) here are the Top Five Reasons I'm Glad Kailyn is Here:

1) She makes cool noises
2) Sunny disposition - she likes to smile and laugh, and is often in a good mood
3) She looks like a good mix of Helen and me
4) Photogenic - like her daddy, she knows where the camera is at all times
5) She is an easy baby - sleeps and eats when she is supposed to without much fuss

In fact, she's so easy that I'm in negotiations with Helen for another baby one of these days...

My New Favorite TV Commercial

Once again, time has absolutely flown by and some amazing things have happened which I will fill you in on, in subsequent posts. I feel terrible for not having updated this blog for so long and it got to the point where quite honestly, I nearly decided to stop writing completely. But then I realized the importance of keeping this up after seeing this ad:



While it's too late to think of something like this since Kailyn is now already five months old, in some ways I feel as if this blog is the next best thing or even better since I started it well before she came into this world. So Sweetie, when you're old enough to read this and understand it all, hope you'll laugh at some of the funny parts, realize how happy you have made us and know that this was our gift to you.

Love,
Daddy