My Visit to New York

I had such a crazy weekend.  This weekend was both Passover and Easter and since my mommy is Jewish and my daddy is Catholic, we had a lot to celebrate this weekend.  On Friday morning we left our house in Pennsylvania to drive to Gammie and Grandpa’s house on Long Island.  Did I tell you guys how much I love the car?  It puts me right to sleep – until I wake up and let mommy know that I want milk.  Mommy said the trip usually takes 6 hours but on Friday it took 9 hours.  I was happy because it meant more time for me to sleep in the car.  I got the feeling that daddy wasn’t too happy about the extra travel time.   My big brother Mochi also came with us.  He got to sit in the front seat and mommy sat in the back with me, which I didn’t mind because I could have milk whenever I wanted it.

We got to Gammie and Grandpa’s house at 6pm and then all of a sudden all of these people showed up for Passover sedar.  Mommy was very tired that night and she forgot to take out the camera to take pictures (but don’t worry – the paparazzi found me on Saturday).  My Poppie heads the sedar and since everyone was tired on Friday night he made it very short – it was so short that we asked him to add things back in.  I missed most of the sedar because – you guessed it – I was drinking again.  That night I went to sleep in my big boy’s crib in mommy’s room and in the morning got into bed with gammie and grandpa to show them how awake I am in the morning.

On Saturday morning I got to meet my Grandma Irene (she’s actually my other great-grandma).  She bounced me on her lap until I stopped crying.  I really liked her and hope I get to see her again soon.

Saturday afternoon after I was good and drunk on my milk, my mommy and daddy took me to my Aunt Sue’s house in Quogue.  She had an Easter Egg Hunt and Passover Sedar.  I got to spend more time with my great aunts and uncles and my cousins.  Some of them even looked a lot like me…

Once again the paparazzi was there and took tons of pictures of me…

My family played a game called Corn Hole.  I’m not so sure why it was so much fun – all they did was throw a beanbag into a hole.  Gammie wasn’t very good at it so I think when I want to learn how to play catch I’ll ask my cousins to show me.

I also got to meet another furry 4-legged friend named Snoop.  Mommy tells me he’s a dog just like my big brother Mochi but he’s much bigger and much more energetic.

Finally on Sunday I got to visit my Uncle Adam and Aunt Lindsay in New York City.  That is a very busy place.  Mommy tells me that she lived there with Daddy for a couple of years and that we can visit whenever I want to.  

My Aunt Lindsay is pregnant with my cousin and he’s supposed to come any day now.  I tried to tell him to hurry up today and explain what he needs to do to come out and see his mommy and daddy.  I hope that he heard me.  Aunt Lindsay is a natural - look at how nicely she held me...

 I think that Uncle Adam thought that I was a ticking time bomb...

Mommy and Daddy let Uncle Adam change my diaper (only after I was drunk on milk).  I’d give him a C- if he was going to be graded on his performance.  Everyone wanted me to pee on him but I felt bad for him and figured I would just let him clean me up without making a bigger mess.  I hope he gets better at this when my cousin is born.

Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Adam also have 2 dogs – Chico and Beni.  They are very fluffy and very friendly and tried to play with my big brother Mochi.  Hopefully when I’m older they’ll want to play with me too.

I don’t know if I told you guys about my Pacifier strike – since mommy and daddy were feeding me my extra milk with their pinky fingers, I figured why take a pacifier when I can suck on mommy or daddy’s fingers?  Mommy kept trying and trying to give me a paci but I kept spitting it out.  Aunt Lindsay had this special blue paci that looked just like my daddy’s pinky and when they gave it to me I was in heaven (by the looks of it, so was mommy).

And before I left to go home to Pennsylvania we took a family picture.  I can’t wait to visit again, but I hope that they come to visit me again soon.

Eat Sleep Poop (better than Gym Tan Laundry)

I'm 3 weeks old today!  Can you believe it?  I know I can't (especially since my mommy keeps saying that she can't believe it)!  I got to play on my mat today and discovered something amazing - inside of this silver looking circle there is another baby that looks just like me!!

Now I think that I have a much more exciting life than those Jersey Shore People so let me tell you all about my day...

Eating - I eat milk all day and all night.  My mommy is breastfeeding me and I love my milk.  When I wake up from sleeping all I want is my milk.  And I will scream and cry until I get it.  I think that my original ration of milk when I was just a few days old wasn't enough for a growing boy and so I lost some weight.  Mommy tried and tried and tried to get me to eat more, but I was so drunk all day long that I kept falling asleep at the bar.  Mommy started to refer to herself as Elsie so that's what I call her now when I want milk (she doesn't know that I call her that because I disguise it in my baby talk - screams).  Who is Elsie anyways?  So this is what my weight did from birth...

Mommy went to see this really nice lady at The Breastfeeding Center of Pittsburgh to help feed me.  When I was 11 days old they clipped my tongue.  It didn't really hurt me but by the look on mommy's face you would have thought they cut out my tongue.  The lady said that I was "very disorganized" when I would suck on her finger.  Well what do you expect from someone who has only had 11 days to adjust to this crazy world?  And they only gave me 3 days to "organize myself" so on my 2 week old birthday when I still only weighed 7lbs 8oz they told my mommy that she was going to have to give me formula too.  She started to cry - I tried to tell her not to, that I loved her just the same and that she was doing the best that she could, but she didn't understand me.  So instead I just drank more milk.  I've been drinking lots of milk - and when I'm not attached to mommy, there is this funny machine attached to her that takes my milk away.  But she promises me that I"ll get it right back when I wake up hungry again, so I'm certain to wake up and let her know how hungry I am.  Mommy didn't want to give me a bottle - something about nipple confusion, so this is how she and Daddy feed me my extra milk...

 It's amazing - I suck on Daddy's finger and milk comes out.  I think it's magic!!

Look at my silly brother Mochi - he was trying to get milk from mommy too (he was waiting on the Boppy pillow) but mommy told him "No" and made him sit next to her.  Thank goodness because sharing is not one of my activities yet.

 Well, what do you know? 4 days after she started to add formula and more milk, I gained 9 ounces.  Mommy and Daddy were celebrating in the doctor's office.  I knew I would make them proud.

So my second daily activity is sleep.  Like I told you before, I do an excellent job sleeping (especially during the day).  Let me show you how good I am at it...

                                 (as you can see, I'm also trying out for the paddle ball team)

 (oh - and by the way - I don't know if you noticed my skin problem.  Yes I look like a teenage boy with all of my acne, but mommy and daddy tell me it's normal and that lots of babies have acne.  They promised me it would go away soon and that I was still cute)

 And finally, I poop every day. Actually, I poop at least 6 or 7 times every day.  For a while mommy was obsessed with how many times I pooped.  She would get so excited when it happened.  Now she doesn't seem so excited, but I enjoy doing it.  It usually brings a smile to my face right before it happens.  Here's a picture of my dirty diaper...

I'm working on getting it to come out the sides or up the front.  So far it's only happened once.
At the end of the week, on Sunday April 1st, I got to take my first real bath.  Mommy and Daddy kept on telling me that I had to wait until I had a real belly button, so once I did, I told them that I wanted to take a bath.  It was so much fun...

Jacob Tai

It's amazing to think about all of the people you love and things you love to do.  But it's not until you have a child of your own that you truly understand the meaning of love.  I knew that I loved Khoa well before we were engaged and am certain that I love him more and more every day that we are together.  However, on March 12th, 2012 at 340pm, our son, Jacob Tai entered into this world and my heart swelled.  It was love at first sight.

Since I have done such a poor job keeping this blog up to date, I am turning it over to Jacob so that he can keep all of you informed about his adventures growing up...

Hi - my name is Jacob Tai Nguyen.  I was born on March 12, 2012 at 340pm at Westmoreland Regional Hospital in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.  I weighed 8 pounds even and was 20 inches long.  I started to stir up trouble around midnight, Sunday night and my mommy went to the hospital at 330am because I gave her a bad tummy ache.   It must have been a really bad tummy ache because she was yelling words that I'm sure I'm not allowed to repeat.  At 7am she got something called an epidural and I never heard another bad word - in fact I think she even fell asleep for part of the day.  At 322pm she was ready to start pushing and only 4 contractions later I was completely evicted from my comfy womb and placed on mommy's chest.  She was so excited to see me that she started to cry and daddy got to cut my umbilical cord.

After I laid on Mommy's chest for an hour and a half and warmed up, a whole bunch of crazy people came running into my room...

This is me and Gammie

This is me and my Grandpa Jay

This is me and Grandma (she's really my great-grandma)

This is me and my Poppie.

And this is me and my Aunt Morgan.

 My Uncle Adam and Aunt Lindsay had to stay in New York because my Aunt Lindsay is still baking my cousin in her womb.  But I can't wait to meet all of them.  And then there's my Daddy's entire family.  I am so excited to meet them too.  Once the Paparazzi calmed down I got to lay on this nice tanning bed for a while as Nurse Jessica cleaned me up and got me dressed.

 Check out my first hair-do.  I was ready for a fight if anyone tried to make fun of me.

I spent the rest of my birthday sleeping and trying to figure out what I was supposed to eat now that I didn't have a continuous food supply.  When I was 1 day old this nice lady came by and took pictures of me.  This one is my mommy's favorite...

The paparazzi took hundreds of pictures of me while I was in the hospital.  
                                   
When I was 36 hours old I took my first test and passed it - my hearing test.  They also weighed me and I was 7lbs 9oz.  When I was 2 days old I got to go home to my mommy and daddy's house.  But before I could leave the hospital, mommy dressed me in a special outfit that Grandma knitted 31 years ago.  I guess my mommy, Uncle Adam and Aunt Morgan all wore this outfit home so Gammie thought it would be special if I wore it home too.  Little did I know they were trying to dress me up as an Amish child...

 Thank goodness Grandma decided to knit me a blanket instead.

Once Mommy said her goodbyes to all of the nice people at the hospital, Daddy drove us home where the Paparazzi were waiting for us.

And for the next 4 days I got to spend time with my mommy and daddy, Aunt Morgan, Gammie, Grandpa, Grandma and Poppie.  I talked to my Uncle Adam and Aunt Lindsay, and all of my family in California on the computer.  I can't wait for them to come and visit me.  I also got to meet my older brother Mochi.  He wasn't too sure what to make of me.  I guess I make a lot of noise at night and he doesn't really like it.  But I'm sure he'll get used to it (otherwise he'll just have to bury his head deeper under his blanket).  In the meantime I think we're warming up to each other and one day we'll be best friends.

I don't have too many hobbies yet, so for right now my favorite thing to do is sleep.  I think I do a pretty good job at it.  I've definitely mastered the technique during the daytime.

 Nighttime however is a different story, but daddy is trying to show me what I'm supposed to do.

 But I know that no matter what I decide to do at night my daddy will love me.

 Now I've already celebrated 2 birthdays - this was my 1 week old birthday.  Looks like I had a bit too much to drink.

Oh yeah - I forgot to tell you about my addiction...I'm addicted to milk.  I spend countless hours at the milk bar, and usually by the time I'm done drinking, I'm completely milk drunk.  Mommy loves to take pictures of me when I'm passed out after a good drinking binge.

On my 2 week old birthday this nice lady, Heidi, came over and took lots of pictures of me.  She came by a few days earlier and took some pictures of me then too (I didn't feel like sleeping much that day so she had to come back).  Here are a few of my poses...

 Well, I've been rambling for a while now.  I have so much more to tell you but it's late and mommy and daddy are tired.  We're going to go to bed very soon but don't worry - I'll be back to write more.

(don't worry - I sleep in my cradle next to Mommy and Daddy's bed - well most of the time I do...)