4am Wake-up Call

Baby K has been waking up consistently at 4am (or thereabouts) for the past few weeks. I'm not sure if she's teething or waking up from a nightmare (can infants even have bad dreams?), but it's been tiring me out to the nth degree. Two nights ago, she also woke up at 1am. I was able to get her to go back to sleep pretty quickly, but when she arose again at 4am, she wasn't as accommodating. She's fine as long as I am there, but once I walk away, five minutes later she'd start screaming for dear life when she figures out that she's been left alone again. A couple of times I was too exhausted to stay up, so I brought her back to bed with me. That's something I try not to make a habit out of, so most of the times I force myself to stand by her crib while she goes back to sleep. I would even change her diaper in the dark (I avoid turning on the light at all costs) so she'd be more comfortable, but that doesn't seem to help. It's usually an hour later by the time I am able to stumble back to bed in peace.

Baby K's nightly awakenings are almost becoming an unfortunate routine. It comes expected; the one night she doesn't wake up screaming will be a welcomed pleasant surprise. Part of me thinks that because we've been so spoiled with her good behavior from birth, we're now making up for it at the 8-month mark. It's tiring, but life is all about the baby these days... and so we chug along, doing what we can for this little bundle of joy.

Rain, Hail, and Flash Floods

M and I were commenting yesterday afternoon on how lucky we were that the rain held out all day. I think maybe we jinxed ourselves by saying that. We left Manhattan at around 5:30, but not before I had him stop by Starbucks to pick up a frappacino. It started raining once I got back into the car, and got worse fairly quickly as we approached the Holland Tunnel, but good thing there wasn't a lot of traffic from the Hudson Street approach, so we made it through without any problems. Once we got to the New Jersey side, everything was all dry -- not a drop of water in sight. I even said to M how surprised I was that there was such a big difference in weather just across the river. Again, I may have jinxed us by saying that.

As we went onto the Pulaski Skyway, the clouds above us darkened and rain started coming down with increasing speed. We got onto Rt. 1, and by then, the loud plickering and plackering of the rain on our car was so loud we couldn't hear the radio anymore. I kept looking towards the back seat to see if baby K was okay, but fortunately, she was sound asleep, oblivious to the storm we were entering into. M slowed down and put on his hazards, and for good reason, since we had pretty much no visibility to anything in front of us. We saw cars pulling over to the shoulder of the road, so we did the same. By then, hail had started coming down. We stayed put for a few minutes, amazed and frightened at how other drivers could zoom by without their lights or hazards on. When the hail stopped, we made our way through the torrential downpour and got onto Rt. 22, where we discovered some flash floods. Pearl went through a river of water that was probably close to the height of her tires at one point. At a few other spots, the flash floods were so bad that we had to find a detour to get around them.

We eventually made it home in one piece, but I have never been in a moving vehicle with such horrific weather. Even the days of heavy snowstorms in Binghamton did not compare to this. In retrospect, I should have whipped out the camera and taken some shots of our commute home, but of course, it's always easy to think of these things after the fact.

My Little Yankees Fan

In honor of the Yankees' winning streak since the All-Star game, here's our little cutie pie sporting her Yankee gear. The pictures were taken on Saturday, in anticipation of their sweeps against Detroit and (hopefully, today) Baltimore. Now if only we can beat the Boston Red Sux, that'll be a real cause for celebration! In any event, the Yankees are now leading the division... let's hope they keep it up!

Domestic Travel

This will be the first year in a decade that I do not travel outside the US. Granted, the year is not over yet; I still have five months to plan an international getaway, even if it's to the neighboring country of Canada. But given that I need to get a passport for baby K and renew my own, I have a feeling any travel we do this year will be US-bound.

I do miss leaving the states, breathing out that sigh of relief when the plane lands safely at its destination, exploring a new land I've never been to before, trying different foods, seeing the street signs in a foreign language, getting lost, and most importantly of all, having my passport stamped (no surprise to those who know me well). But the arrival of baby K has opened up a new chapter in my life. Our travel plans now require a lot more cost, packing, planning, and mental preparation. Just thinking about all the things we'll have to bring with us (the stroller, car seat, pack 'n play, diapers, formula, bottles, baby food, toys, extras of everything!) is getting me stressed already!

With that said, we are ready to take baby K on our first family vacation this fall. My initial thought was to go to Los Angeles so my grandparents can meet their great granddaughter (first in the family!), but the six hour flight and three hour time difference is a bit too intimidating as a first trip with our little one, so that's been put on the back-burner. We've also considered a shorter flight to Florida, but it'll be smack in the middle of hurricane season. Anyone have any other suggestions on a nice vacation spot for a family of three (one infant) within the continental US?

It's July Already!

Where did the time go? Hard to believe it's the middle of summer already! My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew stayed over the last weekend of June. Here's a picture of baby K with her cousin, little A. They are so adorable! And yes, baby K will be a Yankee fan just like daddy and mommy (by default) are.

Little A (I guess I can't call him a baby anymore) was so cute. They came over Saturday night after a full day of fun at Sesame Place, so the whole family was tired. My brother was trying to get A to go to sleep, so he told him that if he went to bed, I would give him some books in the morning. The next day, I was in the kitchen at 7:30am preparing baby K's bottle, and everyone else was still sleeping (or so I thought). Little A comes downstairs, looks at me, and points out the window. I didn't know what he was pointing at, so I asked him what's outside. He says to me "it's morning." I started laughing, realizing he wanted the books my brother had promised him the night before. I told M to finish preparing baby K's breakfast as I took little A upstairs to pick out some books. It was nice spending time with them. We don't get to see them nearly as much as I'd like.

This past weekend was the July 4th holiday. We went away to Pennsylvania on a retreat with our church. This was our first time away from home since baby K was born, and packing was a lot more stressful than I expected it to be. We had left it to the last minute, not out of laziness or choice, but M and I had been busy at work, so by the time we got home, we were both exhausted, not to mention we still needed to take care of baby K. Fortunately, we remembered to pack everything for the most part. We did have to make two runs to Walmart over the weekend, one to pick up extra formula (I thought we would run out, but we ended up not needing it), and another to get butt paste for baby K, as she developed a bad case of diaper rash during the trip.

Baby K refused to take her afternoon naps over the weekend. There was too much going on -- the new environment, the many faces, the loud music during worship time, the constant attention she was getting... she was just taking it all in and didn't want to lose out on anything. I don't think she's gotten back to her normal napping pattern yet, but at least she's still sleeping fine at night. Now that we've experienced being away from home for three nights, it's time to plan our family vacation for the fall!

We didn't take too many pictures at the retreat, but here's the two of us playing with baby K: