The CO (carbon monoxide) alarm went off earlier and while I was in a somewhat state of panic, I immediately thought it must be the battery or the whole thing must be faulty. But since I have a brand new baby in the house, I did not hesitate to call for maintenance to come and bring me a new one to see if there really is CO present in the house. While I was waiting, I opened the windows for fresh air to come in, turned on the TV, and a new movie on IFC was just starting… “The Bridge” – a documentary about people jumping off of the Golden Gate bridge to meet their end…  their release from all the pain.

The movie was very sad. And when I say sad, I mean very, very depressing – almost to the point where you would feel sorry for yourself that you weren’t able to do anything. Which is a bit silly since you really could not have done anything. Sad as it may seem though, I think about the guy behind the camera filming the hopeless suicidal jumpers, wondering if he could’ve done anything – call 911, or yell STOP! – or did he just let the camera roll. This movie really touched me. It was very real, yet it seemed surreal. I can’t imagine what these people might have been going through. Nor can I imagine the pain they have left behind. But the film was very intense! My eyes were simply glued. Please watch it if you can.

No CO present in the house. The maintenance guy came and installed a new one.

Rachel woke me up around 3 am yesterday because of heavy cramps (contractions) she’s getting. I asked her to time the contractions and see how far apart they were. When they were 10 minutes apart, I told her to take a shower and get ready… it could be time – it was now 4 am. We had to make arrangements for Jakob since the daycare center does not open until 5:45 am. We arrived at the hospital around 6 am, and half an hour later, the nurse told us that Rachel is now 6cm dilated. And so, we waited… got the epidural… popped the water… and pushed. And at 9:48, Niko was born.

Here he is, Caleb Nikolas Dangcil.

After Rachel’s baby shower last Saturday the Obcemea sisters and I decided to take a few photos. The lighting inside the church basement was good enough that I didn’t need to worry about using the flash. Some of the pictures turned out really well. I wanted to take the shots candidly but it was quite difficult since I was also telling them how to pose. So I took some burst shots with them making their own poses. Here are some of the pictures.

This has got to be the funniest video i’ve seen in awhile. I kid you not, i’ve seen this one about 30 times and I still crack up everytime! The subtitles are hilarious.