09/08/1999
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| Time Capsule | Article | La Grange, Kentucky |
| Melbourne, Florida | Coarsegold, California  |
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| Bloomington, Minnesota | ||
As many of you are aware, Alyssa and I are putting together a time capsule for Kaylee. She will not be able to open this capsule until her eighteenth birthday, and hopefully will not even find out about it until she unwraps it. we want it to be a special gift for her and we need everyone's help to help for it to be very special. We are asking for letters from family and friends addressed to Kaylee so that we can put them into the capsule.
In the letter you can write about what ever you would like to. You can write the letter to Kaylee, or you can just write some words about Kaylee. You can even write about what is going on with everything in the world right now, or even how you wish we all lived closer. All we ask is if you could take an hour of your time and write a letter to be placed into the time capsule. Please, just remember to address it to Kaylee so that we do not open it. If you need our address, feel free to e-mail me for it at [email protected]. Thank You.
For those of you who may not remember or never knew, when we were picking up Brian's parents at the San Diego airport, and we were talking to some lady who was there with her husband. They complimented on Kaylee as everyone seems to do, then we all went on our merry way to wait for who we were all waiting for. The same lady approached Alyssa and gave her her business card a couple of minutes later. She said something like since daddy is holding the baby, she will give it to Alyssa, and then looked at Brian and told him that if he wrote in 1500 words or less what it is like to be a new father, she would see about getting it published. According to her business card she is a Literary Publicist out of Oceanside who was at the airport waiting for her daughter to fly in from college. She was on the same plane as Brian's parents. Well, after 2 months Brian has finally written that paper, it will be sending it to her this week. If you would like to read the story, it is below. It is written the way Brian wants it to be, and he does not intend to change it. If she likes it and publishes it, then great. If not, then Kaylee will know that daddy tried.
I’m A Daddy?!
I was 24 years old and had everything I could want, except I did not have a child to be a daddy to. That is when my wife and I decided to have a child together. In July of 1998, just a few weeks after we started trying, we found out that we were going to be parents. To me, I became a daddy at that instant. I was so excited that I had started the baby room just a couple weeks after that.
My wife would always ask me if I was nervous. I always gave her the answer of no. I did not feel nervous, I never had butterflies in my stomach or any other sign of being nervous, but I knew that I should have been I was under the impression that I was just ready to be a father. I think I was to excited about becoming a father to spend the time to realize that I just might have been a little nervous.
On March 3, 1999 I took my wife to the hospital to have some tests done. Since she was a week late, the doctors just wanted to do a precautionary check to make sure that nothing was wrong. While monitoring the heartbeat of our child, the doctors discovered that my wife was having very mild contractions. During these contractions, our babies heart rate would increase like it was supposed to, but after the contraction the babies heart beat would dip below normal. We were told that it was nothing to be alarmed about at that point in time, but that they wanted to induce the delivery of our child to make sure that this minor problem did not escalate into a larger problem.
After almost 24 hours in the hospital the midwife told my wife that she could start pushing. The actual delivery lasted about 50 minutes, and my mother-in-law was in the delivery room giving the run down of where the baby was at each push. I think it was about the time that I heard her say that she could see the head of our child when I looked at my wife and said, "babe, all those times I told you that I was not nervous, well I am nervous now." My hands were shaking as I said it and my wife just grabbed my hand and continued to push. Moments later, my wife gave birth to a beautiful little girl who we named Kaylee.
As I stood there next to my wife lying in bed, my eyes began to tear as one of my dreams have finally come true. Together we would stare at the new addition to our family that we had waited so long to see. Once Kaylee was cleaned up nice, the nurse brought her over and handed her to me. Kaylee sat quietly in my arms with her eyes closed, while I stared at her trying to figure out how I could have helped create something as beautiful as her. To this day my eyes still water when I think about how I had a helping hand in the creation of my daughter Kaylee.
I stood there holding my daughter who was 5 minutes old in my arms. I wanted to share her with my wife, but part of me just did not want to let go of her. I gently laid Kaylee down into my wife's arms and gave her the chance to hold Kaylee. We both just stared at her and admired her strawberry blonde hair, bright light blue eyes, long piano playing fingers, and the beautiful little baby girl that she was.
For the first couple of weeks I found it hard to do anything. I would sit there and tell myself what I had to do, but when it came down to it, I did not want to leave Kaylee. I could not help but to want to sit there and just stare at her while she sleeps. She did not know how to smile yet, but when she was asleep and dreaming her reflexes would take over. That is the best part about watching her sleep, when she is having a dream and gets that huge smile all across her face. You just have to sit there and wonder what she could be dreaming about. She is only a couple days old and has not really experienced that much to dream about.
I felt important to Kaylee since the day she was born, but I never felt as though she depended on me until the day that I fed her for the first time when she was around two weeks old. That day meant so much to me, and that had to of been the first time that Kaylee really stared at me. Now I feed her all the time, and Kaylee always fixes her eyes onto me while I feed her. It is as if she is looking up at me thinking about how she exists thanks to me. There really is no other way to describe that feeling other than that it makes me feel needed when I feed her and she stares into my eyes the whole time.
A friend of mine, who had a son six months before my wife gave birth, always told me to get a camcorder and record everything. That was his answer when ever I asked him what it was like to be a father now. I never understood what he was trying to say, but after doing what he said to, I now understand. What it comes down to, is that being a new father is the best thing to happen to me in the world. It is so great that describing it becomes difficult. I have described it though. I went out and bought a camcorder and started recording myself playing with Kaylee. When I watched the tape, I look in amazement at all the stupid things that I did, and still do. The way I was talking, the faces I would make, the sounds, and the things I would do, they all explained the feeling of being a new father. Part of you all of a sudden does not care what other people may think of you while you are with your child. They can think you are the stupidest person in the world for the way you are willing to act to make your child smile or laugh, and you just do not care.
When you become a father for the first time, your life changes. Everything that was so important to you before all of a sudden is not that important anymore. Your child, in my case Kaylee, has become my life. Everything that I do now will affect her in some way, and now I must think of her before myself. The stupid faces, sounds, things I would say, and things I would do, are all a part of the change I have made to put Kaylee before myself. If it makes my daughter happy, smile, and or laugh, then I do not have a problem doing it. In fact, if it makes my daughter happy, then I love to do it for her.
Over the fourth of July weekend, we made our first official vacation
to LaGrange, Kentucky, where Brian's parents live. They had a beautiful house on a large
lot with a swimming pool to enjoy. I say had, because I recently found out that it has
been sold so they can move into a smaller house to be able to take time off for vacations
to visit family and grandchildren. Back to the vacation though. While there, we mostly
relaxed and enjoyed the pool since the humidity was so high. Kaylee even went under water
for the first time in the pool! She cried a little, but did really good.
Aunt Jennifer was there already when we arrived very late at night and her boyfriend Al
showed up a couple days later. Aunt Christy and Uncle Don also showed up a couple days
later with there daughter Alyssa. Aunt Kim and Uncle Bryan were supposed to come with
their children, but were unable to make it due to chicken pox. It was unfortunate that we
did not get to see them, but are grateful they thought of the risk.
We did have a professional photographer come out and take some pictures of us all. We are
looking forward to seeing how those pictures turned out. We did not get to see the
fireworks for the holidays, partially because of the picture taking and partially because
there were no shows nearby. The house is in what you could call a close country type
living area. It is a really nice looking community with allot of houses nearby, but
everyone has good sized lots. The community has a small town just minutes away, but not
big enough to have a show. That town is where Brian's mom Dawn has her craft type store.
We could not believe the size of the store or the variety of things she sells there. We
were always led to believe that it was just a small store where she sold mainly the teddy
bears she made and a few other craft items. If anyone is interested in what she sells,
feel free to e-mail her at [email protected]. She
is slow at checking her e-mail most of the time, so please do not expect and immediate
response. She also has business newsletters if I remember correctly, so I am sure she
would be happy to put you on her mailing list if interested.
Our vacation turned out to be really nice. We look forward to many more, hopefully. We are
scheduled for Florida in August to visit Alyssa's family at her cousins wedding,
Coarsegold, California over the Labor Day weekend to visit Brian's dad and step-mom and
Brian's sister will also be there, and then Minnesota in October for Brian's cousins
wedding. After that, no vacations are planned for awhile.
On August 20th we went on a short trip to Florida to attend the wedding of Alyssa's cousin Mellisa to Jeff. It was a really special weekend for a couple of reasons. Not only did we have the opportunity to share Melissa and Jeff's special day with them, but Kaylee was also given the chance to meet allot of her relatives for the very first time. Kaylee apparently loved everyone that was there because once back in San Diego she did practically nothing but sleep for the first 2 days. I would have to say that she had so much fun with her "new" relatives, that she actually exhausted herself while in Florida.
The night that we arrived in Florida was nothing but a big party for the two families. It was set-up great because everyone who was flying or driving into town from a distance all stayed at the same hotel, and everyone spent time in the hotel bar and pool area just talking and having a good time. That is about the time that Brian and Kaylee were introduced to everyone on Alyssa's side of the family and a few people from Jeff's (the groom) side of the family.
The following day was the wedding day, and as usual, Kaylee had to make her presence known. I think Kaylee loves weddings so much already because she loves to learn how to yell during them. Her yells are all happy yells as if she wants to congratulate the brides and grooms on their uniting. Some day Kaylee will learn that the congratulations are supposed to be after the wedding and not during. Once she started to talk and yell a little, daddy decided to take her out of the actual church section and stand in the hallway. From there Brian and Kaylee were able to watch the ceremony through a big glass window in the back looking almost straight down the aisle.
Later at the reception, everyone was having a good time as expected at a wedding reception. Kaylee did allot of dancing that night with Uncle TJ who was refusing to let her go. She did not seem to mind though because she was really having fun dancing with him. Unlike her father, I think Kaylee will grow up to be a great dancer.
On Sunday we had no choice but to make the drive back to Orlando to catch our flight home. So, we said our good-bye's and headed out to the airport. Turns out we could have stayed a little longer since we missed our first flight with no thanks to American Airlines. We did get a $250 voucher out of it though that we will use for one last flight to Brian's cousin Scott and Amy's wedding with American Airlines, and then we will find a different airlines to use for future flights.
We took a little trip to Coarsegold, California over Labor Day Weekend to visit Brian's dad and step-mother who live about 45 minutes from Yosemite National Park. Brian's sister Jennifer and her boyfriend Al were also up there visiting from Illinois, so it turned out to be a pretty good weekend. We drove the long drive on Friday night and arrived there about one in the morning. Saturday morning we spent a little time with everyone and then we went to Bass Lake with Jennifer and Al for a few hours. This was Al's and Kaylee's first trip to the Yosemite area. Kaylee was excited about standing bare foot in the cool water with a sand bottom. On Sunday, we spent the majority of the day in Yosemite where we were able to see what water there was flowing down the waterfalls, the river, and the great views from both high and low points in the park.
On the way home we pulled over to the side of the mountain winding roads to watch the sunset through the trees.
On Monday, we all drove into town to go to a flea market there where Alyssa and I purchased two beautiful paintings to hang in our house. Then it was time to make the long drive home.
In the beginning of October Alyssa, Kaylee, and I will be traveling once again, but this time to Minnesota for Brian's cousin Scott and Amy's wedding. Brian will be in the wedding party so we are planning to go for about 5 days rather than just the weekend. We are all looking forward to the trip and the marriage of Scott and Amy. As with our trip to Alyssa's cousin Melissa and Jeff's wedding, Kaylee will be able to meet relatives for the first time once again. Great Grandpa and Grandma Birkins will be at the wedding, and hopefully some of Brian's Uncle's and Aunt's who have not yet met Kaylee will also show up for Scott and Amy's special day.