Parting is...

I think I'm feeling a little depressed tonight. Perhaps it's actually post partum depression, or some strange male non-birth variant of it. You see, Michelle volunteered us for doing a week of full-time child care for our good friends while they attended a wedding in New Zealand. Their children are 6yrs and 7mo. Now, I'm pretty used to child and baby care in general. I tried to be a pretty hands-on Dad, starting with infancy. I've never had a problem holding, soothing, and playing with infants and children of lots of ages. I've done the MOPS nursery for four years, which is as long as I worked at Cinnabon, BTW. For kids a little older, I was a Kid's Club leader. And now I'm teaching 2nd grade Sunday school, which still makes me do a mental double-take when I think about that.

So, for the past week I've had four young girls in the house, along with Amalija and Michelle. (For a little bonding, I do still have Toby, the 60lb black lab. He is a great friend, but only partially qualifies for maleness. Frankly, he's always even peed like a girl. Poor guy.) But all the feminity didn't bother me. That's not it.

I got to spend a good deal of time with the baby, and that is why I'm a little mopey right now. She started out not really wanting me near her last Monday, but that changed during the week. And this afternoon, I had to give her back in the middle of an hour-long nap, sleeping on my chest. For all the fussing and crying they do, it's all drowned out by the whispers of sleepy, shallow breathing, and the smell of a head that only a baby's head can smell like.

I'm going to miss having that little baby around full-time, but at least she's only right next door. I think I will get a little more sleep each night. And that's a good thing.