"Quickie"

All is well on the home front. My Dad flies in today. I am relaxing a little more as opposed to checking to see if he's breathing every 2 minutes at night and Elliot is getting a little padding on his tiny tummy, sometimes finishing both sides of his meal and becoming more alert. When we place him on his tummy and put our palm to his feet he pushes off and inch worms ahead. He tries sooooo hard and makes grunting, fussing noises because he's working so hard. And he does it over and over again, making me worry that he's going to exhaust himself. It's so cute. We need to make a video.

Daddy had a bit of a rough day today because in all of his responsibilities and tasks to take care of a new baby and a recovering wife, AND still doing work from home and writing a paper to be published, he left the Nissan at the stupid bookmobile parking spot and it was towed.

(Background and disclaimer: Tickets in SF are about $60 and towing runs about $400. It's completely ridiculous and you'd think that for so much money you can avoid tickets and towing, but it is by design that San Francisco makes a ton of money off of this. Parking is almost impossible. Figuring out the parking rules and street cleaning schedule requires IPhone applications that our friends have designed, but I think the city has think tanks on how to trick us and they have intercepted our apps. And of course, you have to realize that we haven't slept for more than 2 hours at a time for over a week now for reasons way more important than the stupid bookmobile spot for a library that is under construction and not even open.)

So Dad was very very frustrated with himself. I tried to reason with him and say that it's ok, we've had so much going on this week, what with a new baby, not sleeping and with all I'm asking him to do (buy a new heater, return the new heater, move furniture, move furniture back, plant this plant outside . . .)

but it didn't help. What did help, which is what always helps me, was to hand him Elliot and say, here, hold Elliot and you will feel better. And it worked. Soon enough they were both off into peaceful slumber.

Daddy's are definitely the unsung heroes in all of this. Babies, rightfully so, get most of the attention, with some attention left for the recovering Mom's especially if you have a sweet mother yourself and considerate husband, but Elliot's Daddy does just as much as his Mommy and is still working and has to deal with a "moderately high maintenance wife" as my Mom concurred. Daddy has to go back to work next Monday which makes me want to cry (everything makes me want to cry ;) because he's such a good Daddy and I'm having so much fun with him. I told him that I just married him because he was so cute and smart and I got REALLY lucky that he's such a good Dad. I love how he is with Elliot. I love watching them play. I love seeing how much he loves him. I love that he always wants to hold him. I love that he's so devoted. I love that he tries different things to sooth him than I do and that he makes up silly songs.
I thought our relationship might change a lot after having a baby and I'd say it has, but for the best, I feel closer and more strongly bonded to him than ever before.