Lily & Leo

Happy Father’s Day Khoa!!  Everyone knows that I (Jacqueline) write pretty much everything on this blog/website.  So I wanted to change things up for this post, and have Khoa write it, and reflect on his 1st year as a daddy! =)  That being said, I do want to say that I cannot be more lucky to have such a wonderful, amazing and loving husband, best friend, and father to Lily.  The rest of this post, is written by Khoa, enjoy! =)

The following is a letter to Lily with Khoa’s perspective around her 1^st birthday.

To my precious baby Lily,

I know that even before beginning to write this, it will be tough to express how I feel using words. From the moment that I found out you were on the way, to the emotion-filled second that you entered this world, I kept pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I was finally going to have a tiny baby version of myself! A lot of people were surprised to find out that I have and will always love babies. Hopefully with the way I have nurtured and cared for you, people will no longer find that surprising. I never knew I could be as nervous as I was when mommy and I were waiting for the size percentiles from your ultrasounds or when mommy wasn’t feeling too well, since I know that mommy’s health affects her and you. You couldn’t imagine the relief I felt when you came kicking and screaming into this world as a healthy, beautiful baby girl. There’s a video around here somewhere and if you ever watch it, listen for my voice. I said your name twice when you finally arrived and if you listen closely enough, you can hear my voice crack the 2^nd time because I was so overwhelmed with joy that you were finally here!

From that moment until now, you have brought mommy and me through a wild rollercoaster of memories. Everyone says babies get sick all the time and it really isn’t that big a deal unless the fever is extremely high. Of course hearing that and experiencing it is much, much different. I remembered trying to resist taking your temperature every 10 minutes to look for any signs of improvement and really trying hard to resist calling Dr. Wang since I knew the answer would be, “call back if the fever goes above XXXX or if the fever continues for 2-3 days.” Deep down inside, I think I knew you would eventually be fine but you will see what I mean one day when I say that doesn’t help how panicked I was at the time. I remember the night you couldn’t sleep because of your stuffy nose; I read online that if we laid your head up just a little bit, the nose would clear up enough for you to sleep comfortably. No matter how I tried to prop your head up with a pillow, you would just roll over and start crying since your nose would stuff right back up. So that night I just had you sleep next to me on the couch with your head propped up against my arm. I remembered watching you sleep peacefully after crying most of the night and thinking my staying up is such a small price compared to the prize of knowing I am helping you relax and get the rest that you as a baby desperately needed. I realized at that moment that my feelings of happiness, sadness, excitement, disappointment etc… were forever tied to and dependent upon you. The Mastercard commercials (I don’t know if they’re still airing them by the time you read this) are so cheesy but they are completely accurate. Most of the things in this world cost money, but the things that truly matter and the things that bring you the most joy are priceless. Your first smile, your first laugh, your first roll, your first steps and I’m sure your first everything are moments that I could never put any type of value on since they were and will always be priceless.

Love, Daddy Khoa

Lily’s Father’s Day Gift for her Daddy!

My first celebrated father’s day.

This was actually my 2^nd father’s day but Lily was only a week old last year so we didn’t get a chance to celebrate. Now that Lily is a whole year older, it is much easier for us to go out and enjoy ourselves with and without her. Jackie surprised me both mornings by waking up to feed Lily like a ninja; I didn’t even wake up until much much later. On Saturday morning, we took Lily to her music class (which is always really fun to watch) and then headed over to my aunt’s house to celebrate my grandfather’s father’s day. Jackie made an arrangement earlier on with my parents to watch Lily so we could go celebrate a bit without Lily. Jackie gave me a choice between shooting and watching a movie. This past year with Lily has taught me many things but one of the biggest lessons is how much I undervalued relaxing, so I opted with the less exhilarating but more relaxing movie-watching. We watched the Internship (I originally wanted Man of Steel but didn’t want to wait in line); it was a nice light-hearted comedy which was perfect. No need watching a movie that required my brain to do any thinking! After that we went back to my Aunt’s house where we just relaxed until evening. They have a very nice backyard made to look like a beach getaway complete with tiki torches, lounge chairs, and of course a pool. It really is the perfect place to just lay down and waste a whole afternoon doing nothing. When we got home, Jackie had the idea that I wasn’t completely happy with the movie choice so she let me choose another movie to watch at home. I chose Django Unchained. I know it came out a while ago but it’s really tough to watch a movie with a baby… people don’t like it when a screaming child ruins their movie going experience. Just kidding, we haven’t brought Lily to the theatres, yet….. Anyways, Django is a really good movie but I wouldn’t recommend it for the kids! The only thing is that the movie was 2 hrs 40 mins so we were pretty tired by the time it was over. We knocked out pretty fast and I didn’t wake up until Jackie’s parents were almost over for their weekly Sunday morning visit. We went out to eat at P.F. Changs for Jackie’s Father’s day (and mines too I guess since I got to choose the place). Afterwards Jackie’s parents hung out for a little bit and then left. We had some more time to kill before church and Lily was fast asleep so we watched another movie that my co-worker recommended: Pitch Perfect. It was another lighthearted comedy but it also included some pretty decent acapella music. The movie was pretty funny and even though I tend to hate these kinds of movies, I thought it wasn’t bad. This is where Jackie would chime in and say “Pshh, you’re such a movie snob.” Anyways, after church Jackie had a surprised dinner planned at “The Vintage Steakhouse” in San Juan Capistrano. She purchased a deal but unfortunately the deal isn’t good on holidays. I never thought Father’s Day was considered a holiday but oh well. We just decided to come back another time and went to eat at a Shabu Shabu place we really like in Fullerton. We both had work the next morning so by the time we got home we decided to call it a weekend and knocked out. We already planned out when we are going back to the Vintage so this Father’s Day is to be continued…

I have the feeling Jackie feels like we didn’t do enough for father’s day but I keep trying to convince her that for me, and I think for many guys, sometimes all I want to do is sit down, relax and not do anything. The fact that I got to “do nothing” with my wife and beautiful daughter is a super added bonus and it made my father’s day celebration more than I could have asked for. Thank you Jackie for planning out what I call the perfect father’s day weekend.