Dad's Update

Let me start by apologizing for my prolonged absence from the blog. My good buddy and expert dad, Brian, recently told me that once you have kids you realize how silly you sounded when you said you were busy before you had kids. I used to think I was busy. That was nothing. There are still only 24 hours in a day, but you need to find time to do all the things you used to do as well as caring for this new person living in your house. The #1 thing that goes...pointless television watching. No time to watch the seven different episodes of "Friends" that are on between 6:00 and 8:00 every night. Instead of watching "Sportscenter" four times per day, I only watch it once. Don't get me wrong. There is still plenty of television watching going on when you have a four-week-old, but now we just pick our spots.

Here are some of the highlights from the last few weeks:

• Myla had a doctor's appointment today and checked in at an even 9 lbs. We're not even going to get hung up on these silly comments about what percentile she is in. She's healthy, happy, and a good eater.
• In the last few days, Myla has started to smile while she was awake. She started off smiling while sleeping which was great. Now we feel like she is smiling at us which makes us feel like she finally appreciates what we've done for her.
• I would guess that very few babies can say they have had the varied ethnic experiences that Myla has had in her first three restaurants. She has now come with us to dinner three times - a Japanese, Italian, and Mexican restaurant. The waitress at the Mexican restaurant looked at us kind of funny when we put a handful of chips in Myla's carrier to make her be quiet.
• Speaking of eating, Myla has taken right to the bottle that I give her every night. It is fun for me and gives Kasey a bit of a break.
• Myla has come to watch two of our softball games. The bad news: It's hard to get her to focus on the game because she keeps asking her mom for money so she can go to the concession stand and buy $2.00 Coors Lights and Popsicles. The good news: Her dad got five hits in the first five at-bats that she was there for. Can you say good luck charm!!
• Kasey is awesome. She's an absolute natural with Myla and we've been a great team so far. At nights, I put Myla to bed, Kasey takes care of the middle of the night feeding at 3:00, and then I will help with the 6:00-7:00 feeding/changing before I go to work, hopefully getting Myla back to sleep so that Kasey can get a couple more hours in.
• Myla's colors are definitely more yellow and green than pink. It's not just me refusing to conform to society and dress my girl in pink. Kasey agrees.
• We aren't quite sure about this idea that babies fall asleep as soon as they get in a car. It seemed that way at first, but now Myla seems to be more interested in just sitting there quietly looking out the window. She's actually had some of her more serious outbursts while in the car. One in particular came when we were driving back from a walk on campus. The one-mile drive between the bookstore and our house never seemed so long.

That's all I've got time for now. I'm working on trying to upload some videos to the blog, but the DVD drive on my laptop is not cooperating. I hope to get that fixed soon. We'll also try to get some pictures of Myla lighting her first fireworks this weekend! She's been bothering me all week about getting some bottle rockets and roman candles.