Baby Meltdown

I came across this show on VH1, home to a such riveting series as Flava Flav's Flavor of Love, called Dad Camp. Basically the premise of the show is about dude-bros who have pregnant girlfriends and they are taught to respect them and love them and appreciate their future child. I think the producers might be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize with this concept. I don't understand how you even get picked for the show. Were these guys reading the classified ads and came across a WANTED ad for dead beat dads? Or did they have a friend who heard about the casting call and immediately beeped them about it? And what about the dude-bros who didn't make the cut? What do you tell those guys? "You're a deadbeat but this guy over here is an even bigger deadbeat! Look at his graphic tee and he has a tattoo on his knuckles!" I don't understand society. I really don't.

The Baby is fast approaching 16 weeks and she keeps on surprising us with something new each and every day. The Baby has this thing where every morning she will talk for a good 30 minutes then fall back asleep. And before bed, she will go on a little soliloquy just blabbering and gossiping until we put her to bed. The other night the Wifey went out with her girlfriends so it was just me and the Baby. She follows a pretty tight schedule where she can go about three hours before she needs to eat. Well, apparently I waited until about 3 hours and one minute before I started feeding her and this Baby flipped her wig. I couldn't console her, I stuck her up near her light and she was too busy crying to even notice. She got to the point where she was whimpering before she finally took the bottle. I've never had the Baby cry that loud for that long. Granted, she cried for about five minutes but it seemed like an eternity. I just need to make sure I have that bottle ready for her.

One of the other "new things" the Baby is doing, is laughing, like LOL laughing. And it's awesome. The Wifey and I spend a good amount of our day yelling at the dog to drop things or telling him no, so we figured it was something the Baby was used to hearing. Well, the other night, the Dog had something he wasn't supposed to have and I yelled at him to drop it and the Baby just started laughing. She found it to be the funniest thing ever. So we recorded it on video. The Wifey and I also had a fear that the Baby wouldn't get along with the Dog or be terrified of it. As we were sitting outside one day, for some odd reason, the Baby realized that there was a funny looking thing running around acting crazy. And she loved it. It's like she had never noticed this furry little hyper monster licking her face and sniffing up until that point. So below are the two videos of the Baby laughing, the videos also show me in my fashionable dragon boxers, but it was Sunday and laundry day, so don't mind my attire. Just make sure you have your volume up and you are ready to be overwhelmed with cuteness.




Pictures!

An Apology to France

This blog's sole intention was just for my friends and family to keep up with the life of the Baby and read humorous stories about myself dealing with my daughter and the Wifey. I feel that my experiences are no different from anyone else except that I am writing mine down. I hope the internet is still around when the Baby grows up and she reads what went on with our lives. Anyways, I wrote last week about our experience at Jacadi in NorthPark Center in Dallas, Texas. In case you missed it, it was the post on 6/24, "Stroller Races." Basically I wrote how the sales staff were insistent that the Baby would not fit into a 0-3Months clothing based on their size chart. That upset myself as a parent and I angrily typed out my feelings in the blog. I verbally attacked the sales staff and even threw France under the bus. So this afternoon I received an email from Jacadi's press relations manager, who I assume is based in France, according to her email address:

Dear Jackson,

We were so disappointed to read that you had a negative experience at
Jacadi in NorthPark Center as Jacadi prides itself on offering exceptional
customer service.

We've addressed the issue with the sales staff so that incidents like this
can be avoided in the future.
As a small token of our appreciation for shopping at Jacadi, we'd like to
send you a gift.
Would you be so kind as to provide your full contact information and
mailing address?

Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance and
again, please accept our sincerest apologies.

I was initially shocked that anyone outside of Garland, Texas was reading this blog, much less out of this country. I found it to be very professional and extremely indicative of the typical customer service that we are accustomed to receiving when we do window shop at Jacadi. I shouldn't have been so harsh to the store and to a country that is the home of Zinedine Zidane; thus I am extending an apology to Jacadi and to France. The personal boycott of Jacadi has been lifted and my thousands of dedicated readers and followers, you may now start shopping at Jacadi again.

In other news, yesterday, the Wifey and I were shopping when she had to stop and feed the Baby. Now, I don't mind if she pulls out the milk gun in public to feed the Baby, I just prefer if she does it in the Nursing room. Basically so I can sit on the comfy couches they have in there. Anyways, we went to one nursing room and there was already someone in there. So we patiently waited. And as the couple emerged from the room, we noticed the kid had a milk bottle. Maybe times have changed with Obama in office and it is socially acceptable to breastfeed your child in public and "bottle feeders" must be banished to the nursing room. The nursing room is for mothers to feed their children with their breasts, not so the kid can drink out of a Playtex bottle.

A Moment

There are many tragic moments that I have endured in my life such as my mother passing or even Quincy Carter as the Dallas Cowboys' quarterback but I don't know how I would ever react if anything happened to the Baby. Like I have said earlier, the Wifey and I were truly blessed that the pregnancy had minimal problems. We originally opted not to have any of the screening tests done during pregnancy like Downs Syndrome. We are big believers in fate and if that is the path that our first child would have walk down, then it is something we would walk down together as a family. When we told our doctor of the decision, she professionally suggested to get tested anyways. Her belief was that although fate would have it's way, it would still be wise to be prepared. The test wasn't 100% positive but it would at least give a medically reinforced opinion based on the results.

I really didn't want to put a somber beginning for this 4th of July weekend but I came across this article that deeply affected me. This is highly emotional and I will suggest not to watch/read if you aren't comfortable.

The Dallas Morning News recently had one of their photojournalists, Sonya N. Herbert, win the 2010 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism on a piece she did about a couple who knew during pregnancy their child would live no longer than a week. The couple faced the dilemma of terminating the pregnancy early or give birth to their son knowing full well that he would die. The couple gave birth to their son and gave as much as love to him as his little heart could take. Ms. Herbert documented the birth and the following week to see the true emotion of unrelenting love. I watched it with the sound off because I couldn't bear to hear the emotion, I let Ms. Herbert's photographs narrate the ordeal. Here is the article : Choosing Thomas


It was very moving and heartbreaking article. I look at the Baby in amazement to see how far she has come and how much further she has to go. It only takes a moment to appreciate it.

The Light

Little bit of a personal rant but lately I have been noticing more and more of two things, 3D and Legos. It seems like every movie that is coming out this summer is in 3D. Step It Up, a dance movie, is in 3D. Don't get me wrong, I love watching movies in 3D but now it's getting silly. I really don't care to see someone do the worm in 3D. Actually on second thought, that would be kind of cool to watch. I hope they start converting old movies into 3D, I am pretty confident that Driving Miss Daisy in 3D would be mind blowing. It also seems that Legos is creating a video game of everything. There was Star Wars Legos which was pretty cool and entertaining but then came Indiana Jones Legos and now Harry Potter Legos. It will only be a matter of time until there is a Twilight Legos in 3D.

For anyone who has had the privilege to come check out the Baby at the house, we tend to show everyone the Baby's best friend... a ceiling light. Sounds somewhat odd but the Baby is absolutely enamored by the light that is in the transitional hallway between my office, the foyer, and the great room. We have to make sure she talks with her best friend at least once a day and she becomes a little giggle monster. She also loves to gossip and chat away. As soon as she sees the Light, her face lights up like she just struck oil. But a good oil strike, like Beverly Hillbillies oil, not like striking oil like BP in the Gulf. I know I've mentioned if before, but it's as if Justin Bieber's spirit lives in this ceiling light. The best way for me to describe it is through the wonderful magic of moving pictures.

Stroller Races

I am finally back from my writing hiatus. I was out of town for some work stuff last week and didn't get a chance to update.

I guess it's cliche to say but babies really do grow up before your very own eyes. When I left on Monday morning, the Baby was her typical small baby self but then when I returned on Thursday, it looked like she had doubled in size. And she was also doing some new things she hadn't done before. Now she is talking up a storm, blabbering about something and currently she is infatuated with her hands. I swear she sucks on her fingers like they are little bread sticks. She even gags herself because she shoves her fingers so far down her throat. I guess she really wants to stay in size 1 diapers.

Speaking of staying baby size, I will recommend not shopping at Jacadi in NorthPark Center in Dallas, Texas. Jacadi is French for 'argumentative bitches'. I should have known. We were in the store looking at clearance clothing because I can't justify $40 for a baby's dress that costs the same as my jeans. My jeans are probably 100 times the amount of fabric in that little dress. So we found a cute dress that was reasonably priced but it was a 0-3 month size. The Baby is now starting to fit in that size range but she still wears a lot of her newborn clothes. Well the sales ladies or the Jacadis felt that 0-3Months was going to be much too small for the Baby. We politely said that 0-3Months was a perfect size. Well Jacadi #1 continued to argue with us that we were wrong. Jacadi #2 crawled out from the bowels of Hell from behind the register with a chart and a notebook. She snarled, "How much does your baby weigh?" We told her a little over 10lbs and she proceeded to matter of factly present this size chart and said "your baby should be wearing larger than 0-3Months." I am sorry but we dress our child every morning and sometimes every afternoon depending how bad her spit-up is. We know what size the Baby wears. I apologize that my child does not conform to your size charts and it makes your job not as easy, but please don't argue with a parent about the size their baby wears. In fact, this morning I put on a cute little outfit that fits perfectly and it is a newborn's size. Stupid French baby clothing stores. That's why your country isn't in the World Cup anymore.

The Wifey officially went back to work this week. Luckily the Wifey has a cool brother who is willing to watch the Baby (as the grandmother lurks over his shoulder) while we are at work. But every morning I will wake up the Baby from her golden slumber and get her ready and have our morning conversation before I take her over to the Grandmother's house. I think the Wifey is jealous because I get to spend more time with the Baby. I am going to be the cool dad that brings his daughter to all the stay at home mom (SAHM) functions like the stroller races before the mall opens and going to story time at the library. Maybe I can change it up and have baby play dates at Buffalo Wild Wings so I don't miss any World Cup action. But being the awesome husband that I am, I make sure I take a picture of the Baby every morning and send it to the Wifey so she gets to see the Baby wake up every morning. And I will throw in some other pictures from the BlackBerry as well. I would also like to point out that the Baby has a clogged tear duct so that is why her left eye looks so jacked up. Hopefully it can clear out, if not, the Baby is going under the knife. And as of yesterday, the Baby turned 3 months.


Thursday

Wednesday

Tuesday

Monday







This picture is funny because her shirt says "PRO HAZING" and she has a band-aid on her leg. The back of the shirt said "Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves". It's a thing my dorm did back at A&M. Just keeping tradition alive.

Wifey here, and in honor of Father's Day, I decided to take over the blog and give you a little glimpse into what an amazing father Boyfriend has become (for some reason, while I graduated to Wifey when we got married, he never did. I think it because I never want him to lose his boyish charm). Luckily, Boyfriend has the easiest password in the world to crack; I mean using your daughter's name on your daddy blog isn't exactly rocket science. I'm sure it will be changed after this, so it might be my one and only appearance so enjoy.

Boyfriend and I started dating when were just babies, 19 years old. I look back now and think of how young we were really were. In typical fashion of kids these days, he courted me over the internet, chatting on AIM. We were "talking" so often that my father tried to give me an intervention, telling me I was addicted to the internet. Little did he know that I was building the foundation of the rest of my life. Also in typical fashion, Boyfriend and I feel into that deep puppy love that only teenagers are capable of and decided within two weeks of our relationship that we were going to get married and have babies. At the time, it was a few babies and we would spend hours talking about how we couldn't wait until we were older and lying in bed on a Saturday morning and hear said babies running across the hardwood floors (because in my fantasy-I only have hardwoods) to our bedroom for a family cuddle and Saturday morning cartoons. Now that we are actually getting there, I'm not quite sure our fantasy is going to be realistic. First off, Shrek will make it to our bed long before the kids will make it and jump all over us and in turn losing the serenity I have always pictured, and second with the way things are now-I'm sure every Saturday morning is going to be filled with soccer (or judo) games, birthday parties or some other kid activity. With that being said, we have fulfilled the first part of our dreams, a sweet little baby girl.

When I told Boyfriend we were going to have a baby, I was so scared he wasn't going to be as excited as I was or somehow be mad. I know that we are adults, real adults too- we are married, own a house, financially stable. Children were definitely in the plan at some point, but for some reason I was still scared. I suppose it is the permanency of children that is frightening; everything else could have been walked away from up until this point. Feeling scared was such a silly feeling though, when I told Boyfriend his smile and almost tears (because men don't cry!) told me he was just as happy as I was.

Boyfriend immediately became a father in every way. He was overly protective ("is it really safe for you to get the mail?!"), was great at lecturing ("Wifey, I don't think you should be drinking that much chocolate milk. Now Baby is going to be allergic"), and telling "back in the day stories" ("When my mom was pregnant with me, she stayed in bed all day resting. That is how it should be done"). While all of those traits I found particularly annoying, I found the following traits quite endearing and knew that he was going to make an excellent father. He was always so tender, touching my belly and talking to Baby. He would tell her funny stories about us and his dreams for her. He also very nurturing, I was extremely sick for the first four months and would do whatever I asked if it would make me feel better. He was also, like any good father should be, very proud. He would brag about how I could already feel the baby at 13 weeks, so of course that meant we had a super strong baby.

At the end of pregnancy, he drove me nuts though. We were on high alert for three weeks so we had that constant "is this it?!" on edge feeling for a very long time. Every quick movement, every "ouch", every time I would be too quiet he would say, "is it time?". When it finally was time, he was so excited-sitting in the delivery room his legs were tapping at a pace I promise he wouldn't be able to reproduce now. Boyfriend has already given the details of the labor in itself, but the one thing he didn't mention is how strong he really was. I have never been more scared or vulnerable as I was in those moments and his touch and reassurance (even if it was yelling at me to grow some balls) helped me make it through. When Baby was placed on my chest, I looked down at her and then up at him and saw he was a changed man. I have never seen him look at anything the way he looked at Baby. Not myself or even his beloved Cowboys when they pull a game winning touchdown. I knew instantly that Baby was going to be his number one girl, and I am 100% ok with that.

The first few weeks were really hard on me, just like any new mother. I have had issues with breastfeeding from the start and so for the first few weeks I was not able to be the loving, nurturing mother I so badly wanted to be. Instead of getting to enjoy my newborn, my life was breastfeeding and the pain it was causing. Boyfriend however was able to step in and become the most amazing, nurturing father I have ever seen. I like to think he is in love with me as he is his daughter, but I don't know. When Baby was upset, she wanted her Daddy. He would hold her and she would immediately become content just to lie in his arms and look at him. I am so thankful that she formed that bond with her father immediately since I was not able to do so. Of course, this has probably made her a Daddy's Girl for life, but I'm not sure we could have avoided that anyway.

Boyfriend has taken on parenting with such ease and grace; I hate to admit I'm surprised. If I ever ask anything of him, he does it. He has made so many sacrifices to make sure that Baby and I have a good life. My dedicated husband took 54 hours within 2 semesters in order to graduate before my maternity leave was up. He spent most nights up until 4 am, only to wake up at 8 am again (even if it was just to play Call of Duty). Not only did he graduate, but he did so with honors and to say I'm proud is a vast understatement. He has changed for the better. He is more patient, kinder. I have never felt more confident and secure in my choice to have him as my partner than now.

Because I am definitely charting into the tl;dr category I am going to stop here. I do have one more thing to say. Boyfriend will say that I am the backbone of our family and while I admit I am pretty awesome, by no means is that true. He has absolutely taken on ownership of being a father and is an equal partner on this journey. Our daughter is absolutely perfect and he is responsible for 50% of that. I am so thankful that our daughter is going to grow up with a father that loves her more than anything, thinks he is the smartest man alive, and will be able to make her laugh (even if it is with typical daddy fart jokes). Baby and I are so lucky to have him in our life, and we wouldn't trade him for the world.

I like to make the Baby cry. Actually, I like to see the Baby frown. Babies in general have such defined facial expressions, it makes them easy to read. Their bottom lip puffs out and their eyes become sad. It's awesome. But then again, I love it more to see the Baby smile. She is starting to develop a laugh which just makes my heart melt. Right now she is squealing when she is super excited and the only time she gets excited is when she sees her ceiling fan. One of these days I will post a video of how truly excited she gets. It's as if Justin Bieber was dressed as Santa Claus carrying the newest Twilight novel in a Jimmy Choo purse. It's that super exciting for her to see her true best friend.

In other news, the Wifey is finally heading back to work next week. I know it's going to be hard for her as the Baby and I are going to bond like no other. These past 12 weeks have been great and I thought the Wifey and I would kill each other since we were hanging out so much but it's been pleasant. We both worried if a kid would ruin the dynamics of our relationship but the Baby has really made it stronger. It also helps that the Baby sleeps for 10 hours at night and she is so damn cute.