Our new year celebration was a minimalistic one – having some of our relatives who used to celebrate at our place celebrated at their other side of the family. It was nonetheless meaningful, having our newborn asleep peacefully in the middle of the firecracker noises.

Finally, we visited Shiphrah with Bryce in tow (he’s been travelling with us since day one!). Too bad the midwives and a nurse who took care of us were off-duty – so we left our presents underneath their Christmas tree. It feels like it’s our second home – Jaycelle having had her round-the-clock labour in room number 1 and all – how can we detach ourselves from this home? It’s one of the longest days of our lives!

Bryce, nicknamed Buchokikok, turned one month on the ninth of January. It feels like forever – having no past and future, only present. We have lost count of diaper changes and have grown accustomed to the smell of pee and poop. We can flip him like a pancake if he wanted cradling and burping. We can sleep all three together in our bed without hurting one another. It’s still a long way to go but it sure is lovely to see him smile while sleeping and addictive to smell the baby scent.

Personally, I did a mini-reflection about my own personal life. It feels like my brain was reformatted and rewired by the whole nine months of preparing for our baby’s arrival. But little did we know that it was just the beginning of real sleepless nights or lack of sleeps. All of our energies were put into caring for a little human being. Thanks to my company, Voyager, we could work from home apart from my paternity leave. So my reflection turned out ok. I barfed all the dreams that I could remember I had the previous months – all into several sheets of paper. I prioritized the list that when given the chance to focus on two things only, I chose family and work. Duh! But there are other options really.

Twenty-sixteen can only be exciting – with our baby’s surprising developments and other professional challenges and opportunities, the best is yet to come.