Our new home is amazing.  In fact, many of the things we liked about our Hyde Park place went into the design of our new home and the choice of location.  We’re still walking distance from a downtown; Montgomery’s Heritage District.  We really did our homework when selecting our builder  John Hueber Homes.  I can’t say enough positive things about the people there, the quality of work they do, and the professional way they handled our project.  We’ve heard some horror stories from friends building with other custom home builders, but we really hit the jackpot with JHH.

We’re still in the process of finishing the house because we started out just going for a simple LEED Certified rating of the home, but when we finished we were closer to Silver than Certified so we’re updating our landscaping plans with the help of Marvin’s Organic Gardens to get us more points in water efficiency and materials & resources.

Hopefully more to come now that things are settling down a bit more. I know I have many thoughts about the building process, my plans to get involved in Montgomery, and many ideas I got about my career when I spent some time away from work.

Maya and I got her an iPod Touch (so awesome, I think I might let her play with it soon) and a new pair of earrings.

In January I submitted the five photos below which will be turned into an on Demand video on the local channel 1111. Between February 14 and March 31, the baby with the most views will win a prize (you need at least 100 views to even be considered).

If you’re a TW digital subscriber in Cincinnati, please watch Maya’s video over and over and over!

Andy Zilch,

Thank you for submitting the pictures of your baby for our Local on Demand Cutest Baby Contest!

Viewing of these videos on Local on Demand channel 1111 will be between February 14 and March 31. Remember, you’ll receive one vote each time someone watches your baby’s video during that time. The baby video with the highest number of votes will be awarded. Prizes will also be awarded for second, third, fourth & fifth place vote totals.

Want to give your baby an edge? Talk to your friends, neighbors and relatives – especially relatives! Anyone who has Time Warner Cable digital cable! Beginning February 14, tell them to tune to Local on Demand Channel 1111 and look in the category: Cutest Baby. Vote early! Vote often!

And while you’re on Channel 1111, check out some of the other interesting videos available.

That sense of awe at the energy contained in the wind is similar to what I feel as the power of time. Just two days ago I experienced what has been my best day as a father. Maya and I spent a full 5 minutes (though it seemed like an eternity) staring into each other’s eyes where she seemed like a fully aware human being.

She was staring as intently at me as any other fully grown person would do when I was talking to them. She has these moments from time to time, but what made this special was that she started to smile at me. The smile started in her left, my right, corner of her mouth. She kind of half smiled, then with a tremendous effort the smile spread to the right side of her mouth. It was amazing. I was in awe. I’m sure my friend Chris and Sarita and my parents who were at the dinner table with me as I held her didn’t notice, but it was so powerful. She smiled and the world stopped. But to bring it back to my wind analogy, the power of time is quickly diminishing what that smile felt like. Today I came home between a long day in the office and a business dinner to kiss Maya and Sarita and I couldn’t remember the feeling of that smile. I could remember that it happened, but the feeling of peace and confidence was just a memory – no longer real but just some words I could recall to describe that experience.

I went to lunch with my friend Mike on Tuesday and he mentioned to me the power that time had and the ability of time to wipe away the real feelings. I’m hoping he’s wrong, but planning that he’s right. I’m therefore going to try to record, from the moment, what it feels like as Maya’s dad. She’s amazing. She’s life changing. I want to remember it all without having the process of recording it all to interfere with experiencing the moment. Is that too much to ask? Maybe I should tell it to the wind.

21-Jan: Maya Getting Fussy

26-Jan: Maya Sleeping Sounds

29-Jan: Maya Swinging

Click here to view the embedded video.

30-Jan: More Maya Sleeping

31-Jan: More Dancing

Click here to view the embedded video.

1-Feb: Trying to Crawl

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Amazing. Totally amazing. Though so totally exhausting. Even on good days a baby is alot of work; on bad days, when she’s fussy and grumpy, she’s alot of work plus it’s like having the most painful noise in the world playing through headphones that are sewn into your ears.

The best way I can describe it is to imagine the most precious thing you’ve ever had in your life (for me before family I would say that was like my car – which I equate to freedom – or my camera – which is kind of how I tell my stories). Now imagine that you can never let that thing leave your site. In fact, you can never take your hand off that thing. At first you don’t care cause it’s novel and you’re still figuring out how it works so there are constantly new challenges. But eventually you want to put it down and eat or shower or go to the movies.

Now imagine you start to figure out how to put that thing down, but only for 60 minutes at a time. That’s essentially what it’s been like the first few weeks. Though she’s only got a semblance of a pattern, it’s really like a 2-3 hour cycle. However, 30-40 minutes of that cycle you’re feeding her, then you change her (10 minutes); then you play with her (10 minutes – she has a short attention span and gets overstimulated quickly); then you relax her for sleep (20-30 min); then she sort of falls asleep, but needs attention every few minutes when her hand or a hiccup scares the crap out of her (20-30 min); then she falls asleep (30-60 min). Then the whole thing repeats.

So you find yourself planning during the feeding/changing/playing/calming exactly what you’ll do during the 30-60 minutes she’s asleep. Which doesn’t turn out to be much time since you still have to do all the stuff you normally do like eat, pay bills, read something, watch tv, call friends, etc. So getting anything done is almost impossible.

In the end though, she makes a few sighs that are the most sweet sound I’ve ever heard and I kiss her cheek which is the softest skin in the world and it’s all worth it. Click play below (assuming your browser shows a media player), or this link to hear what I mean.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Prior to our dance, Maya was listening to a lullaby CD and fussing like crazy.  I noticed when I popped my iPod onto our stereo (which was on some dance track) that she kind of came to attention… so then we started dancing and by the end of the first song it was like her eyelids were made of lead.  We’ll experiment with other songs an see what music works best.

Amber – This is Your Night – YES
Danni Minogue – Put the Needle On It – YES
BodyRockers – I Like the Way – YES
Gnarls Barkley – Crazy – NO

I personally had the chance to visit with Grandma C on several occasions, all of them after a stroke that had affected her memory but certainly not her strength.  During one visit Sarita and I told her we would be getting married.  Grandma C squeezed my hand tightly and in the same sentence both invited me into her family with a trip to her home in the Philippines and warned me about what would happen should I ever hurt her grand-daughter.

Sarita and I took solace in the fact that such a strong woman is now looking over us from her new phase of life.  Grandma C will be witness to Maya’s childhood and we will honor Grandma by passing on the strength she instilled in her sons and daughters and they in turn have passed on to their children.

On our most recent trip to California in October, we visited Grandma to show her that Sarita was carrying her fifth great-grandchild.  She guessed that Baby Z was a boy and suggested we name him “Rudy” – also the name of her oldest son.  We laughed and promised to put the name on the list.  Regardless of the gender, she advised us to love that baby with all our hearts.  We certainly do love Maya with all our heart, and we know Grandma will smile upon her for the rest of her life.

Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing