Unfortunently, Layla had to have emergency surgery done on Friday.  She’s been vomiting at almost every feeding, so that naturally was a major concern.  On Friday morning, Sheena took her to the doc and he did a quick ultrasound wherein which they found a small blockage below her tummy.  Apparently it’s not common, but it was a very simple surgery.  Luckily all went well and Layla’s back to her normal routine of eating, pooping and sleeping… and looking cute through the whole process! 

With Layla’s surgery being on Friday, she had to stay at least 24 hours in the hospital, which meant Sheena and I stayed at the hospital, which also meant we didn’t sleep at all on Friday night.  Luckily Mom and Dad stayed with us as well, so we all took shifts in comforting Layla when she would cry at night.  Needless to say, it was sad to see Layla have to go through that, but it was for the best and now she’s ready for action.  Her 1 month birthday was on Saturday and we were anticipating for her to only be discharged on Sunday, but by God’s grace, she was taking well to the surgery and eating properly again so they let her go on Saturday.  That was great because now Sheena would be able to come to the wedding reception while our parents watched Layla.

But let me come back to Saturday morning.  I left the hospital around 7am to head to the Northside to be a part of the wedding functions.  I was a little wary about leaving Layla, but since I saw that the surgery went well, and that she started eating again with no problems, I felt comfortable to leave.  Since I missed the rehearsal, I was not aware that we would be standing for 2 hours while the wedding ceremony was going on!  Through this, I learned that I am able to sleep while standing up with my eyes semi-opened!  I was exhausted!  But I got my second wind when the ceremony was finished.  While we were taking pictures at the church, Sheena gave me a call to let me know that Layla was coming home that day so that amped me up a bit more!

So the rest of the evening  was more celebratory for me because my baby was back home, my wife was going to join me at the wedding and my buddy got married!  It was a great time and awesome to be able to celebrate with all of my close friends!

image credit: Jully Joseph

Sunday was a full day of sleep, which was well deserved in my opinion.  I had to run a few errands like get my car from the Northside and drop off my tux, but outside of that, we all just slept.  A family from church came and visited Layla, but that was about it.  A generally lazy Sunday.

Cheers to Aaron and Nancy on getting married!  I’m very happy for y’all and hope y’all have fun in Jamaica!

I’m just thankful that Sheena and I both have parents that are so loving.  They are ready and willing to do anything for Layla (and us).  We are blessed!

Well, today is the big day… What every person usually dreads.  I’m 30.  But I feel like I’m 29 1/2 so take that father time!  Since Layla was born only a few weeks ago, my 30th isn’t really a big deal to me.  I almost forgot about it entirely.  I guess time flys when you’re having fun!  An old friend from highschool (John Lee) posted on my wall “a dad and 30… u r old”.  When you put it like that, I guess I am, but 30 is the new 20, right?

Thanks for all the Facebook/Twitter/Gchat/Text love I’ve been getting all day!  Cheers!

I don’t want to bore you with all the details of how things went down, but the quick story is Sheena basically went into early labor on Tuesday night.  She took the pain for 1 full day and then we decided to go into the hospital.  She wasn’t fully dilated, but they thankfully admitted her anyway.  It was about 36 hours of waiting.  Once that happened, there was about 1 to 2 hours filled with pushing, screaming and cussing, and then Layla was born!  I was able to assist for the delivery.  It was crazy!  I would advise everyone to be apart of it when the time comes.  You really gain a new appreciation for women and what they have to go through. 

After 2 more days in the hospital, we were able to come home.  We’re very blessed in that Sheena’s mom took 2 weeks off to stay with us and help.  I didn’t realize how much help we would need, so it is very much appreciated.  After Sheena’s mom’s vacation was up, my mom took 2 weeks off to stay with us and help out.  Then after mom’s vacation is over, Sheena’s cousin from Oklahoma is coming down to stay with us for a few days!  Like I said, we are very blessed to have people ready and willing to take their time and help us out like this!  In addition to that, the amount of friends and family that have come and visit are great.  We’re over joyed by all of the love that’s been showered on us!

It’s been a couple of weeks now that Layla’s been born, so we’re slowly getting the hang of things.  And everyday is something new.   It’s awesome to see her develop and grow.  I just feel blessed that God would deem us suitable to raise a child and to bless us with such a healthy little girl.  Another amazing thing is Layla was born exactly one year to the day of when Sheena’s father passed away.  So now instead of thinking of that day as a time of loss and mourning, we see it as a day of celebration and joy.  It’s beautiful how God orchestrates the details of our lives.  I just continue to pray that we be the parents that we are called to be and that we would raise her in a way that she would grow up to be blessed and a blessing to others.

Here’s some pics of our little one:

We’ve got some more pics to view on a Facebook album if you’d like to see more!

Being a cheap savvy Indian, I thought that I could build a table for way cheaper than $70, so I gave it a shot.  Worst case scenario, I would have wasted a few bucks on wood and some of my time, right?

I used this:

To turn this:

Into this:

Then a minor tweak to the bottom support and some stain made it into this:

There’s a little more staining I’d like to do, but this is the general idea.

All the materials set me back around $30 and I have enough left over to build two more side tables, which is great cause I’ll need one more for the baby’s room.  I do admit, it’s definitely not as pretty as the one’s found in the stores, but it’ll get the job done and it was fun to make!

…but it just made better sense to convert it to the baby room

It’s still unfinished in that we need better lighting, add some shelving, and get a rocking chair but for the most part we’ve got the basics.

Sheena ended up having 3 different baby showers, so now the room is filled with toys, clothes and other fun baby stuff.  We feel so blessed already having all this love and support around us!  Now we just wait for the lil one to arrive!

The Manis:  Manju, Cyndi, Jamie, Blensy, Jessie
The Jacobs’:  Dudley, Aby, Boby
The Thomas’:  Sam, Tim, Jessica, Josh

Here’s a pic of the boys, minus Manju:

You might see this pic as blurry, but it’s actually the camera not being able to handle all of the awesomeness…

It’s always great to hang with these guys!  They’re a ton of fun.  When you can get ‘em all together, your mind will surely explode.  I’m happy to be good friends with this crew!  Dudley, I know you’re reading this.  Lets hang out at Starbucks before Lakewood service on Wednesday!

Sheena and I scooped up my parents and one of my uncles and headed up to Dallas.  We left Houston around 2pm on Friday, but we didn’t reach Dallas until 7pm.  The extra hour was due to traffic in Houston.  That wasn’t really such a huge deal, but we really wanted to make it to the rehearsal, which started at 5pm.  Prezeela asked me to be an MC for the reception, so I just wanted to get there a little early to talk things through and get a feel for the format.  Being that we were only passing up Madisonville at 5pm, we just counted it as a loss.  Then we got closer to Dallas and we were staying in the loop as to what was going on through our friend Joel .  He was saying that the rehearsal didn’t even start yet!  Mind you, it was 2 hours later!  But regardless, it worked out for us cause we made it “on time”, so I have no complaints!

The wedding itself was beautiful and surprisingly it all ended on time!  Although there were a number of programs, some how it all ended at noon.  Then we headed to the Hyatt in the DFW airport where the reception was held.  This place was decked out.  The couple clearly made the effort in making sure things looked great!  Throughout the wedding and the reception, I’ve realized that Prezeela is surrounded by very talented peeps!  The bridal party, which consisted of family and friends did songs, video skits and speeches throughout the wedding and reception.  It’s awesome to see people using the talents they have.  Jency and Jeff James (sis and bro) in particular did a duet at the reception with a ukalailee… I thought that was really unique and was impressed to hear them do their thing.  Jaisy also did a song at the ceremony that blew me away as well… Like I said before, very talented peeps.

After all of the wedding festivities were finished, we went back to Samkutty Uppapan’s  house (one of my Dad’s younger brothers) and kicked it for the rest of the night.  We had to head back to Houston at 5:30am so that the Pastor that came with us could preach at church on time.  I definitely want not looking forward to getting up that early, but we got to Houston close to 10am, so we still had to whole day to do whatever we needed to.  Sheena and I took Mom and Dad out to lunch for Father’s day and then did some baby shopping.  But after that, I passed out till 10pm, just to wake up and go to sleep an hour later!  I guess I was more tired than I thought.

Overall, it was a fun weekend.  Quick, but fun.  Growing up, we used to make trips to Dallas all the time to see our family.  As of late, it’s just harder to do those weekend trips because we get so caught up in our own lives.  I hope we make it happen more often.  I want my daughter to enjoy these road trips as I did when I was younger.

Here’s some more pics of the weekend:

Saturday we did some more walking around, but the highlight was doing the Sea Dog Architecture Tour on the river, starting from the Navy Pier.  Call me a dork, but it was awesome to cruise the river and have someone talk about all of the great buildings and the stories behind it all.  We enjoyed it a lot.  After that, we hit up the Lincoln Park Zoo.  Not only is it a great Zoo, but its free!  The Lincoln Park Zoo was designed in such a way that you’re so close to all of the animals… I thought that was pretty neat.   We then found this underground pizza joint called Bricks.  Literally, it’s underground.  There wasn’t any proper signage, but somehow we found the spot.  It had rave reviews when I looked it up, and after eating there, it was confirmed.  Really great pizza!    After all of that, we just roamed the city a bit more.  Later that night, Sheena and I were able to meet up with my good friends Pratik and Silky at Quartino’s.  We ate soo much throughout the day, but Tik and Silky convinced me to get the beingets with ice cream.  Lets just say, it was worth the extra calories….  I would highly recommend that spot!

Sunday, we went to Blesson and Jolly’s church, Chicago Tabernacle.  I walked in with no expectations, but they blew my socks off.  If you’re ever in Chicago, this is a church you gotta check out.  The choir rocked, the pastor’s message was on point and entertaining… even the building looked cool.  It was very family based and loving.  It’s not a huge church, but I kinda like that about it.  After church we hit up Devon Street, which is basically Little India.  It felt like we were transported to Bombay!  We had some good ole Indian food at Tiffin Restaurant and roamed the area a bit.   Then we headed back to Blesson and Jolly’s place which is in Hyde Park.  Their apartment is right outside of the University of Chicago and of course, we had to walk around and snap some shots.  Manju and Cindy were in town that same weekend as well, so they joined in on the fun

Overall, it was a really fun weekend.  It’s always great spending time with family and it was an added bonus to be able to do it in an awesome city like Chicago….