Lyla’s been with us for five months and a handful of days now. This weekend was a fun one for us and it got me thinking about the reality of how life has changed for Jina and myself.

Upon hearing that we’d be having a baby back last spring, Jina and I spent a lot of time talking about what kind of parents we wanted to be once she got here. I’m not talking about stuff way down the line, but more of how we were immediately once she was born.

We decided on three major “rules” for how we were going to be:

1. Lyla wasn’t going to be an excuse for us. Thanks to Tyler and Sara for this one…we were going to try very hard to never NOT do something “because of Lyla.” Obviously if she’s ever sick or really worn down, you can’t ignore it. But I think it’s easy to use your baby as a reason for not doing things, when in reality, you might just be too lazy or whatever.

2. We never wanted to be perpetually late because of having a child. This one is obvious. It KILLS us to be late to places because of Lyla, so we just don’t let it happen. (Unless we can’t help it *grin*)

3. We weren’t going to let Lyla become the reason we don’t do anything. We both wanted to make sure we kept on doing the same things we did before without a kid…and not let her turn us into full-fledged hermits.

So how has that gone and what has changed?

The simple answer to the above question is this:  Stuff has changed and everything has been awesome.

I mean it. The more she grows up, the more fun we’re both having. God has been good to us, there is no doubt about that.

But for me personally, some stuff has stayed the same and some has changed…for the better maybe?

Some little things have been different of course. We are both more tired I think, Jina obviously much more than me. We’re going to bed earlier because when Lyla goes to sleep at night, we know she’ll be getting up around 1-3am, so may as well get as much sleep as we can.

Now, Jina is the one that gets up with her since she’s still breastfeeding…so sleep is much more vital to her, but I for some reason am getting exhausted by 9pm and ready for sleepy-time.

Watching TV has changed. We still watch our shows, but no longer we do care WHEN we watch them. There are only a handful of shows, like Lost, Amazing Race and Idol that we have to watch the night they’re on. Otherwise, shows can sit on the DVR until we’re good and ready to watch them.

Rule #3 above has been something we’ve kept fairly well. The only thing we don’t do now that we did before was go to movies. We’re both so self-conscious about crying babies in theaters, we just don’t do it. That doesn’t stop us from renting movies though, and now with the Blu-Ray player, it may look even better at home than at the theater.

Have we ever used her as an excuse? I probably have a couple of times, but I think mostly we don’t. There have been a few days when she’s just really exhausted from something we did earlier that day, and we know she needs to get some sleep, so we skip what we had planned.

The thing about Lyla is that she’s a blast to hang around with. We had a chance to get a babysitter a few weeks ago and go watch a movie by ourselves, but we decided to instead get some dinner at Joe’s Farm Grill and hang out with Lyla instead.

I mean, she’s just such a good girl…we can eat dinner, talk about serious issues, discuss plans and really connect with each other, and Lyla just sits there smiling, playing and sleeping. Going out with her is never a problem.

Which brings me to perhaps the biggest change I’ve gone through since Lyla has been born.

Before we had a baby, I was much more of a homebody. I’m probably STILL a homebody, but not as bad as I was before. I can’t put my finger on the exact reason why, but the longer we’ve had this little girl, the more and more I like being out and about with my family.

The stuff we’ve done this year so far: Tempe Arts Festival, Chihuly at the Botanical Gardens and just yesterday, the Maricopa Salsa Festival.

Friday nights are now automatically an eat-out event, usually at Joe’s Farm Grill where it’s nice to sit outside and definitely kid-friendly.

Now, summer may change things a bit, as it will be unbearably hot outside, but I dunno. We’re just loving having this little girl to share our lives with and it makes every single thing we do much more fun.

We still love our Sundays to be kind of low-key and mostly staying around the house, but the rest of the weekend is a free-for-all fun-fest.

I’m sure there are other things that have changed, not to mention stuff Jina would bring up personally for herself, but that’s all I got right now.

Bottom-line is that this little girl has definitely changed our lives, but in so many more amazing ways than I ever could have thought.

And she’s only five months old. What might happen in the next five?