A Day in the Short Life So Far

Yesterday on the phone my sister admonished me (rightly) for the lack of verbiage in this here blog lately. We've gone the easy route -- putting cute baby photos up for your consumption but little in the way of text, explanation or experiences. So in honor of Elsa, this post will be entirely sans image. You can always scroll down to find the pretty pictures.

I present to you Friday, March 2.

6:30 - 7:15: Momily was up and out of bed first, as usual, hitting the shower while Mather and I hang out in the bed together. Mather, also as usual, is awake by this point, and not very interested in my continued rest. She badgered me for attention, her wide blue eyes sharp and alert. I stumbled up to change her diaper and keep her calm while Momily gets her clothes and breakfast together. I jump in the shower while Mather gets a good, quick breakfast straight from the tap and Momily is off to work.

All of this is routine, a daily pattern. From that point on, just about every day differs -- depending on Mather's mood, my mood, and what chores need to happen.

7:15 - 8:00: Mather hung out in her "buzz buzz" chair while I ate breakfast. As soon as I was done eating, we spent the next half hour playing on the floor, using her mat to bat at toys and play our new "grab the flower" game. If she got lost in her toys for a moment, I would glance at email. By eight, Mather was getting a little tired and cranky.

8:00 - 9:30: Mather's first nap of the day. I changed her diaper, slapped on the Baby Bjorn, and she went right to sleep. Of course, I can't really sit wearing the Baby Bjorn, so I was doomed to pace the house for the duration of her nap. I cleaned up the kitchen a little, but mainly paced, listening to NPR.

9:30 - 10:00: More playtime! Mather is at a point in her development where she wants interaction. If she's awake, she expects attention -- she can't entertain herself. Or at least she pretends she can't -- she'll summon you with a short, sharp scream, and then smile broadly when you look. At that point, you're hooked, and whatever chore or entertainment you had devised for yourself is out the window and you're back to focusing on her.

10:00 - 11:00: Time for a tasty snack. Mather gets a bottle of Emily, Vintage March 1. Momily is pumping breastmilk at work and bringing it home. So far, she produces exactly as much as I need to give Mather in an average day. Mather sucks the bottle down in about five minutes, but she's content afterwards to hang out in my lap while I check email and so on.

11:00 - 12:45: A surprisingly long morning walk! The sun has finally come out and actually brought some warmth to San Francisco. It is the most beautiful day we've had...in weeks, I think. It was warm enough to put little Miss Magoo in her stroller and take a long walk up and down the Panhandle, pausing to watch the toddlers playing in the playground and chat with friendly passers-by.

Mather loves being outside. If she's getting chippy inside, and you don't want to feed her, the best way to keep her calm is getting her to fresh air. Once she's outdoors, she's immediately calm and attentive, watching her surroundings and taking it all in. It is a near-magical effect. She was quiet for the entire walk, awake, aware, and content. Really a pleasure. And I meant it when I say it was a beautiful day -- the breeze was mild, only strong enough to invoke a gentle shimmer in the trees.

12:45 - 1:30: Back to the house for a quick feeding, change of clothes, and off to our pediatric appointment.

1:30 - 3:00: I got tons of great advice from our pediatrician on improving Mather's sleep cycle (more on that in a future post), resolving her little belly rash, and other tidbits of info. She also went for a weigh-in...

11 lbs, 10 oz.
23" tall

She is still a small baby (for instance, she's only a pound heavier now than my birth weight), but she's growing at the right scale for her own birth weight. After the checkup, it was time for immunizations. Mather took three shots bravely and even swallowed some nasty tasting goo. We've got to keep her healthy!

3:00 - 5:30: Mather promptly fell asleep as soon as I had loaded her in the car, so I didn't want to disturb her by going straight home. So we were off on a drive. We scooted out to the ocean and drove along the Great Highway south. The sun was dangling lower in the sky, painting the sea into a blurry gold and gilting the whitecaps. With my girl still dozing, I just kept driving, onto Skyline Boulevard out of San Francisco. I was no more than a hundred yards out of the city before I saw horses -- it doesn't take long to go from urban to rural around here. As the road climbed, I passed tall stands of Monterey Cypress and descended into valleys of that Australian interloper, Eucalyptus.

After a brief linkup with 280, Skyline climbed again to the spine of the Peninsular coast range. It is stunning how much open land is so close to one of America's densest cities; twenty minutes from the city limits I was driving through a redwood forest.

Few places feel as much like home to me than redwoods. It isn't just the trees themselves, it is what comes along with them; the rich, green moss that grows on the bark, the rocks, the ground; the umber carpet; the primordial ferns. Mather, of course, stayed asleep; no matter, she's seen redwoods -- both the Coastal Redwoods that grow in Golden Gate Park (she's even touched them) and their fatter cousins, the mighty Sequoia at the Mariposa Grove.

I drove back up to 92 and down into Half Moon Bay, and up the Pacific Coast Highway home. Along the way, I drove on the fabled Devil's Slide, recently reopened but soon to close -- the tunnel that will replace it is well underway. The view across the Ocean could not have been more breathtaking. No photos for you, though.

5:30 - 6:30: Once home, I kept the now-alert Mather happy with a bottle and bouncing on the bed until Momily came home from work.

All in all, it was a great day. While each element was pretty simple, we had plenty of fun: a long walk, a great drive, a good checkup. It's the sort of day I fantasized about when planning a paternity leave. Unfortunately, not all days are this good -- but it usually helps when we can get outdoors. Mather just gets tired of being cooped up at home, and she lets you know about it.

She's sleeping peacefully right now, in her crib. This is her first night in her crib...until now, she's slept in her basket or in our bed. But again, more on the new sleeping plan later!