Some of our vlogger friends and followers might find it hard to believe. But we don’t miss our “free-spirited selves” before a baby. It’s true that as a childless couple, we had a blast waking up late, having no schedule, eating, traveling and vlogging to our hearts content. Did I mention having spending money to do it all? It’s not a bad lifestyle — and it was certainly one that took us years of hard work to be able to enjoy. It wasn’t until our late 30s that we truly started traveling frequently, eating at interesting restaurants and purchasing proper equipment to document it all. You can say we were making up for lost time.
But then, there was another reason. By the time we started considering babies, we also faced a difficult reality: a biological one. Not everybody can freeze their eggs in their 20s to secure a healthy pregnancy. Or has the financial wellbeing to pay what some fertility treatments cost. When multiple efforts successfully drained our hearts and our pockets, we decided to focus on the blessings that we did have with each other. Having kids just didn’t seem to be in the cards for us.
I was, in fact, thinking I would spend my 40th birthday walking El Camino de Santiago in Spain when our precious rainbow baby decided to give us the surprise of our lives and change our plans for good. And he has changed absolutely everything — in an amazing and fun way.
We had to adult fast. Bought a place. Got a bigger car. Moved to the burbs (because Chicago is too darn expensive). And pretty much drained most of our savings in the process. I’m sure a lot of other parents can relate. But maybe because we’re older parents, we never second guessed doing the things that needed to be done to prepare our home for what would be our number one priority. We welcomed Nico with an open heart and an open mind.
And Nico has certainly been the light in the middle of a lot of darkness, too. It’s been a tough couple of years with my mom slowly drifting away to dementia. And we’ve also dealt with illnesses, burnout, financial strain, lost jobs and now, the challenges of dealing with a fixer-upper home... not to mention, wishing we had family close to rely on. Again, challenges that many of you probably face as well.
So where does vlogging fit in all of this? Does it even have a place in our new life? It absolutely does.
Beyond sharing food and travel stories, we like to keep our brand and our content honest and personal. It’s also very much about what we’re experiencing in life as a bicultural couple (now a bicultural family) in the US. And while we have no plans of turning our channel into a mommy or daddy vlog — or even a family channel per se — we enjoy taking our followers along our personal journey as life changes.
It's who we are and what we love to do. We explore mom-and-pop restaurants and we edit videos because that's how we like to spend some of our free time. It’s also good for our mental health to continue doing the things we love. Sharing our passion with Nico is something that makes us very excited, too. And if he chooses to, he’s welcome to play a bigger role in the channel eventually.
We think if there’s something Nico will get out of this (hopefully) is that it's good to support local businesses and experience the food and culture of different ethnicities. We hope he learns from the people we meet through our videos and the collaborations we do.
Has it been easy vlogging with a baby? Well, if you ever meet Nico, you’ll have to agree that we hit the baby lottery. Nico is a super chill baby, and he truly makes our lives easy. However, before we do any sort of vlogging activity, we make sure all of his needs are met first. Play time, feeding time, and snuggling time take precedent over any editing and recording. Posting might not be as consistent as before, but it’ll be worth the wait every time.
Another thing is that Nico’s safety is the most important thing. With COVID, RSV, gun violence and everything else going on around the world, we are very cautious of where we take him and what we do. For example, travel will be local for now and we will be avoiding events like parades and big food festivals. But we still think there’s plenty of great content we can create even with those limitations.
Vlogging with Nico and enjoying this new phase of content creation honestly feels like a badge of honor. It does take a lot of energy, planning and effort to put a single video together but it’s somehow even more satisfying. Just the fact that we’ve been creating content for over 15 years, and are now able to bring our son along for the ride, is pretty darn cool.
To those businesses who have experienced our new recording process with a baby, we want to take a moment to thank you for your kindness. Right now, nothing makes us want to support a local restaurant more than their understanding towards parents and their children. Thank you for being awesome.
If you’re a vlogger and new parent or thinking about having kids, we’re here for you. Know that it’s going to be great. And vlogging doesn’t have to stop if you don’t want it to. It’s just about to get more interesting.
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