Fun in Baltimore

This is a long overdue post about our fun trip to Baltimore.

For all of Natalie's recent pictures, click this link and look in the July and August folders. http://nataliehang.shutterfly.com/

I was SO nervous for Natalie's first plane ride - and we really dove right in to the deep end by making her first plane trip a cross country journey. I barely slept a wink the night before our flight - I kept thinking that I forgot to pack something and that Natalie would be an absolute terror on the airplane. Of course, people on the airplane looked petrified when they saw they would be sitting next to a baby, which only made me more nervous. Luckily, Natalie was perfect on the plane - she either slept or ate the whole time, and the pressure didn't seem to bother her ears. The flight attendants even gave her wings. The poor 5 year old kid near us probably would have appreciated the wings more than Natalie did! After the flight, everyone around us told Dan and me what a great job we did... but it's not like we did anything, we were just lucky!

On Saturday, Natalie enjoyed hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Hang. We're so happy they were able to join us in Baltimore and we can't wait to see them again in LA for Labor Day.

Saturday night we grilled out and both of my grandmothers and Aunt Nancy joined us for dinner.

Sunday was the big day - Natalie's baptism. In the morning, she had so much fun meeting her Uncle David, Aunt Ingrid and cousins Annelie and Magnus. (Natalie did not want to cooperate for the camera!)

I was so afraid that she was going to spit up all over her beautiful gown or have a tantrum when Monsignor Kenney poured water over her head, but again, she proved me wrong. (Do I sound like I'm already constantly worrying about my daughter??? I guess the grey hairs will arrive soon!) We had a wonderful day and a fabulous reception at the Hopkins Club.

Dan took the next week off from work, so we stayed in Baltimore. And my dad took the whole week off too, so we had a lot of fun spending time together as a family. Highlights include a quick trip to Gettysburg, visits with both of my grandmothers, a tour of the Naval Academy and grabbing a beer in Annapolis, walking on the NCR trail while Dan went for a run, visiting DC and the amazing Smithsonian Air Museum at Dulles, spending the night with Charlie and Marie (of course I forgot the Pack 'N Play, so Natalie had to sleep on the floor!), touring the West Wing of the White House with Marie, taking Natalie to her first Orioles game where, to her daddy's delight, the Red Sox were victorious.

We had such a great time in Baltimore... Thanks to my parents for a wonderful trip. Natalie misses her grandparents (I think they miss her too!)

Too big for her britches

From day 1, Natalie was big. We bought a bunch of "Newborn" diapers before she was born because we wanted to be ready. Unfortunately, she never wore them. The nurses put her in size 1 at the hospital.

This week, she hit a new milestone by graduating to size 2 diapers. We were so excited for her! She may have been excited too. Like a goldfish grows in proportion to the size of his bowl, Natalie's...production...seemed to increase as soon as we gave her more room to work with.

Just how much stuff are we talking about? Well, the image to the right shows the efforts of a week or so. Until we find a better way to use the waste, we'll be making serious contributions to landfills in the greater bay area.

June Activities

Hi everyone! It's me, Natalie. Daddy is at work and mommy is taking a nap, so I thought I'd write to tell everyone how much fun I had during June.

All of my pictures are saved on my website - http://www.nataliehang.shutterfly.com/ My June pictures are in the folder 2009-06.

Adventures
June was a busy month. Mommy and daddy finally decided I was old enough to have some fun outside. I mean, tummy time in the apartment can only entertain me for so long! We went on a hike in Marin on my one month birthday. It was pretty nice - daddy carried me in the baby bjorn the whole time. That was the life. Then on Father's Day, we went on another hike and then I took mommy and daddy to the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay so they could have a glass of wine and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Besides the weekend hikes, mommy and I go for long walks every day - she says she needs to "get out of the apartment." I hope she's not tired of me already!



We watched the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon a couple weekends ago. Daddy did the race last year, but I had other plans for him this year. One day I'll be watching daddy race again.

Grandma and Grandad Brown came to visit me this past weekend and we had a lot of fun. On Friday, mommy and I took them to Tiburon and they ate at Sam's Cafe. I was cozy in the shade, but the rest of them got sunburned! On Saturday, we walked down to the Farmers Market on Fillmore Street while daddy ran a trail race. That night, I hung out with grandma and grandad while mommy and daddy enjoyed their first dinner without me. Though I don't think they enjoyed being without me because they were back home in no time. On Sunday, we all went up to Sonoma. We tasted at St. Francis, Chateau St Jean and Blackstone. Then, we surprised Grandad by taking him to the Charles Schulz museum. I was so tired I slept all the way home.

Restaurants
I like to eat...a lot! I'm always hungry and I have mommy wrapped around my little fingers... Maybe that's why I weighed 12lbs 7oz at my 6 week doctor's appointment. It turns out, though, that mommy and daddy like to eat too. So, I've decided that I should behave at restaurants so they can go out to eat and daddy isn't always subjected to mommy's cooking. In my 6 short weeks, I've been to at least 8 restaurants - 4 times to eat sushi. Mommy said she was "making up for being pregnant" by eating sushi. She's acting like pregnancy wasn't that much fun!





Visitors
Lots of people came to visit me in June. I already wrote about Grandma and Grandad coming to visit. They just left this morning and I miss them already. I also met my mommy's brother Charlie and his wife Marie. They seemed like a lot of fun - I just wish they could have stayed longer. Some of mommy and daddy's friends visited too - Heather, Mick, Nelson, Gina and Erin all stopped by to play with me. I love all my adult friends, but I wonder when I'll have friends my own age.


June was so much fun that I really can't wait to see what July brings! I overheard that I'm going to be flying on an airplane!!


Love,
Natalie

Enough is enough

Seriously. Who starts a blog and then gives up on it? Well, actually, my guess is that a lot of people do. But we're not going to be those people. That's right. Even though we went radio-silent (errr... I mean blog-silent?) for a full 6 weeks after Natalie's birth. We're keeping this blog, just like we're keeping Natalie.

Why keep up the blog? To be honest, it's our reader base. The throngs of readers from around the globe who subscribe to our blog demand more of us. The emails, phone calls, letters, IMs, Tweets, and smoke signals we've received during the blogs' recent 6-week hiatus have made it clear that this blog has clearly taken on a life of its own. Who are we to kill it? Our job is to simply nurture it like you'd nurture a newborn baby.

Which brings me back to our newborn baby. Natalie is awesome. Sure, she poops and spits up on us, and she screams a lot, but she is also (no bias here) the most adorable littler girl ever. She runs our lives now. We bounce her, feed her, hug her, kiss her, talk in goofy voices to her, make silly faces at her, swaddle her, and do pretty much anytihng we can to make her happy. Until the past couple of weeks, the best outcome we could expect from our efforts was a calm, adorable baby. Now, though, we get smiles. And this makes it all worthwhile.

Perhaps the only thing better than Natalie smiling is seeing what we're all willing to do to make her smile. For example, this weekend, Grandma and Grandad were here, so Natalie had not two but four adults clowning around in hopes of making her grin. Grandma and Grandad coordinated a dance routine that left Natalie's parents dying with laughter. I can only hope that 1) Grandma and Grandad remember the routine and 2) we get a video of it the next time we see them. In the meantime, hopefully mommy and I can figure out other ways to make Natalie smile.

Let the games begin!

I would like to apologize to our legions of readers for the absence of new posts from this blog for the past 6 weeks. There frankly wasn't all that much to say though. As the birth of our daughter approached, Elizabeth and I grew more anxious by the day. We simply couldn't wait to meet her, and the days just seemed to drag on and on.

Fortunately, the waiting has ended. Elizabeth's doctor made the call to induce on May 13, and Natalie Cecil Hang was born on May 14. She had enjoyed life inside her mom so much that it took 20 hours of coaxing to convince her to come out. Her mom was the ultimate trooper throughout the process, and all I could do was provide words of encouragement and apple juice.

In the end, Natalie emerged at 7:50 pm on the 14th. She tipped the scales at 9 pounds, 1 ounce and measured 21.5 inches. We later learned both of these measurements placed her in the 95th percentile for girls. That's our girl! Above average in every way.

Old people in the making

This week, we got a special delivery -- a rocking chair! My parents gave us this gift several months ago, but it took a while to make it here, all the way from Vermont. Thanks Grandma and Grandad Hang!

We're excited for this new addition to our living room, even if we don't have all that much space for it. Anything to help our baby sleep like...well.....a baby.

All we need now is a porch and one more rocking chair and we'll be all set to be old people.

The Calm before the Storm

In the wise words of Boyz II Men, it's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. Well, this weekend was a bit of a farewell for us. It was one last get-away before our daughter comes to change our lives forever. And just as B2M said, it was hard to say good-bye...

The site of our get-away was the Fairmont Sonoma. In truth, if we were looking for an authentic way to say goodbye to our days as a twosome, we shouldn't have stayed in such a nice place. After all, our cross-country trip of 2006 was a tour of Super 8s. When we went to Big Sur shortly before we got engaged in 2007, we stayed at Econo Lodge. The Fairmont took us up several notches. There was a beautiful Spa, bowls of fruit for us everywhere, fluffy robes, etc.

On Saturday morning, Elizabeth got a massage. This was a pretty big deal since neither of us ever get massages. She'd been looking forward to it like a kid dreaming of Christmas - especially if the kid starts dreaming of Christmas 3 or 4 months early. Fortunately, she informed me later, the massage lived up to expectations. While she was getting a massage, I hit the road with my bike. I had found what looked to be good ride online, and took off from Sonoma, east toward Napa. I then proceeded north on Dry Creek Road, which winds through the countryside next to a very dry creek (sadly, no irony). A pleasant, easy ride turned nasty quickly. Over 1500 of the roughly 3000 feet of climbing came in a 2-3 mile stretch that was some of the steepest climbing I'd ever done. On the downward descent (12% grade), my hands got so tired from braking I could barely hang on.

We spent the afternoon kicking back by the pool and reading books about how to change diapers or what to do when your baby won't sleep. The reading material was quite a change from my normal nerdy business-type reading, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a nice change. I have recently realized that I'm only 7 weeks away from being a dad, and I should probably learn something about it!

On Sunday, we took a short drive through Sonoma, north past some vineyards (as per picture at left, tasting was sadly not an option). The weekend was a bit nostalgic for me, as I realized that the Californial wine country has been the site of several important events for Elizabeth and I. We first visited the area with several business school friends in 2006, on a trip organized by our good friends Billy and Zack. We've since visited the area with both sets of parents. When we got engaged in 2007, we took a hot air balloon ride in Napa. So, it seemed fitting that we'd close the chapter on our days as non-parents walking through Chateau St. Jean, the winery that produced the wine that was served at our wedding. There have been two of us for five wonderful years. I can't wait to see what the future holds for three of us!

The scene of the crime...

For any really big, high-stress event, it's a good idea to check out the location first. Today, we toured the hospital where our little girl with breathe her first breaths. Let's just say it was all a bit overwhelming.

Roaming the halls of the enormous hospital, I felt a bit like the Hickory Hoosiers touring the stadium prior to their state finals -- in over my head!

With his players overwhelmed by the size of the stadium, coach Dale has his players measure the distance to to the foul line. "15 feet." Strap puts Ollie on his shoulders to measure the distance to the rim. "10 feet." By confirming these measurements are the same as their gym at home, coach reassures his players that everything's going to be okay.

No measurements of the hospital were similar to our apartment (in fact, the bathroom in the lobby was actually about the size of our living room). However, I still got to thinking that maybe the birth of our daughter will be like the awesome finale of Hoosiers. After all, the triumph of Hickory over the South Bend Central Bears was a bit of a miracle. So's any baby being born. In Hoosiers, the whole town of Hickory, the fans in the stadium (not to mention Shooter, a crazed recovering alcoholic jumping on a hospital bed) all experience total elation at the victory of the Huskers. Similarly, our child will be welcomed and celebrated by ecstatic family and friends (though probably no recovering alcoholics jumping on hospital beds).

Well, one thing that is pretty cool is that we can bring in whatever music we want for the delivery room. So maybe we'll have to play the inspirational Hoosiers soundtrack.

What not to say to a pregnant woman

I'm no stranger to saying the wrong thing. As one who employs sarcasm almost as much as food or oxygen, I've gotten myself into my share of foot-in-mouth situations. Heck, I've even been slapped a time or two. That said, we've seen people make some ridiculous blunders when it comes to interacting with a pregnant woman. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

1. "Are you pregnant?" If you notice a woman isn't drinking, don't ask this. Seriously. When she wants you to know she's pregnant, she'll tell you.
2. "You must be due soon!" "Soon" is a relative term, but according to my wife, the fact that we have 3 months to go before parenthood does not qualify as "soon." "Forever" seems more applicable at this point.
3. "The baby's almost here!" Not so. The baby is already here. I know because I've felt her kicking. I also know because she's made Elizabeth throw up, made her back hurt, given her headaches, and kicked her organs. We want the baby to be here, but outside, not inside.
4. "You're going to have a big baby!" This could be true, but it's also not something the future mom wants to hear. Mom would rather have her child come out about the size of a plum but then grow like a weed.
5. "Wow! You're pregnant." Spotting a trend with the types of things that aren't helpful?

With three months to go, we have plenty of time to add to this list.

Too much furniture and too little space

You have to order cribs early. They take 8 to 12 weeks to arrive. You don't want to get caught having a premature baby, arrive home, and realize that either you or the newborn has to crash on the couch.

With this in mind, we purchased a crib last weekend - It arrived after 5 days. Either it had been sitting in inventory already, or the factory workers in Indonesia had suddenly gotten a lot faster at making cribs (and shipping them around the world). Either way, we were happy.

The crib caught us off-guard though, and required some major re-arranging. Given that we were already tight for space in our one bedroom apartment, we needed another large piece of furniture like we needed...well, you get the picture.

Fairly certain we could find better ways to spend $100 than on a crib delivery fee, we elected to pick up the crib ourselves. Of course, the crib wouldn't fit in our car, so we had to drive across town, borrow a pick-up truck from a friend, and then pick it up. When we got back, I picked up an allenwrench and attempted to decipher the poorly written instructions. The process took me back 2.5 years to when Elizabeth and I moved to San Francisco and bought a truckload (literally) of Ikea furniture. Uggh.

About 60 minutes and only a handful of obscenities later (trying to get that down to zero before the little one arrives), our crib was assembled. We had even used all the parts, which seemed to increase our daughter's likelihood of safety. See the crib photo above. If she were to arrive today, our daughter would gaze up at a poster of the 2005 ceremony in which the Red Sox were awarded their World Series rings (in front of the Yankees) after completing the best sporting performance in the history of the world. While I want her to grow up aspiring to that kind of greatness, I've already been informed that the child's safety will require us removing the heavy frame from above her crib. Happily, she'll still be able to wear the Red Sox outfit my better half was kind enough to purchase for her.

While the Red Sox poster will have to move, our daughter has some neighbors who will be staying in the vicinity of her crib, and are already looking forward to her arrival. Elizabeth's bunny "Sweet Pea" and bear "Truffles" look forward to hugs from a new owner after years of loyal service. New additions "Patches" and a soon to be named pink bear (both grandparent gifts) are also eager to meet the little girl.

Stop...Thief!

Potential parents beware: it's a jungle out there!

Yesterday, we went shopping for baby stuff. Having done a bit of research on strollers, we hit up the stroller store. We quickly found one we really liked. It was one of the top-rated brands, and the only one they had left of last year's model, making it $80 cheaper than any of the newer ones.

Not wanting to make a rash decision, we perused the rest of the store for a while. Later, we returned to our choice stroller only to find it in the hands of another couple. No! There was nothing we could do but stand by, staring at the couple, hoping they'd pick another.

They didn't pick another. They opened it up. They looked inside. They closed it and marveled at how well in packed down. They admired its fine construction. They smiled at its crisp green canopy. They asked a salesperson to check their inventory for the matching car seat. It was all over.

Our indecision had resulted in tragedy! As we sank into deeper and deeper levels of despair, we were approached by one of the salespeople - an older gentlemen with kind eyes. "Is there anything I can help you with?" he asked.

"Thanks, but we were just hoping that the couple over there will change their mind because we want that stroller!" Elizabeth said.

"That one?" he asked. As we nodded, he walked over to the couple, took the stroller from them, and gave it to us.

In a state of shock, we quickly completed the purchase of our stroller, trying not to look over at the couple we had robbed. Parenting is not for the faint of heart.

What have we gotten ourselves into?

This is a blog about our unborn daughter. Someday soon, it will be filled with stories about what makes our little girl special. Maybe she'll have really cool eyes, which come from both her mom and her dad. Maybe she'll be tall, gangly, and awkward like her dad. Or maybe she'll have beautiful blonde hair, like her mom.

But since she's unborn, for now, it's about the two of us. It's about the experiences we have leading up to her birth.

At some point in the future, we'll become experts on all things baby. But as we stood in the enormous labyrinth that is Babies R Us yesterday, I realized that day was a long way off.

There were dozens of strollers and dozens of cribs. Okay, that was expected. I know what those things are for and expected them to be there. But then there were also dozens of other things--things I didn't know existed. Bouncy things for the baby to sit in. Swinging things for the baby to swing in. Pads for the baby to lie down on. Pads for the baby to do something called "tummy time". Pads for the baby to look up and learn all kinds of things.

How much of this stuff do we really need? No idea. Maybe our girl will tell us what she needs.

My guess is that our experience in Baby's R Us was only a sign of things to come. We have pretty much no idea what we're doing. What have we gotten ourselves into? This is going to be an adventure!