Alone with Kate, Day 1

Emily's starting a temp job that may become permanent. Today was her first day.

8:30 a.m. We say goodbye to Emily at the door. Kate is smiling and happy, no idea her world is changing. Emily is the opposite.

8:35 a.m. I put Kate down in the living room. Par-Tay! She immediately crawls into the midst of Jack's toys. Nothing appears dangerous. When she crawls, she kind of breathes heavily and snuffles with the effort, a little like a bulldog. She goes to his store and starts pulling out vegetables and sampling all of them by putting them in her mouth for a second, then moving on to the next one. I sit nearby. We do this for the next 15-20 minutes.

9:00 a.m. At the coffee table, she pulls books off the underneath shelf. She can do this for an indefinite amount of time.

9:15 a.m. Plays with musical book that plays tunes like "Patty Cake, Patty Cake," and "the Big Bad Wolf." Insipid, but she likes it and is proud of herself for getting the music to play. She turns and smiles. Claps a little.

9:30 a.m. Starting to get a little cranky. She's been up for over two hours. Basically her getting cranky is making loud noises a little more frequently. Getting more easily frustrated with her toys and stuff. Picking something up and putting it down heavily.

9:45 a.m. I put her down for a nap. Doesn't take. Five minutes later I walk in, and she's sitting up, running her little plastic fish on the bars of the crib. Just like a prisoner with a tin can. Funny.

9:55 a.m. Take two. She goes to sleep within minutes. I clean up my desk. Gamble that she's tired enough that I can shower without waking her up. Win that bet. Clean up breakfast dishes. Empty trash.

11:30 a.m. Kate's awake! I prep a bottle and go up to get her. She's crying, then switches it off in an instant. Crawls across her crib to me. I change her diaper and we head downstairs.

11:45 a.m. Kate takes her bottle well, but she's basically doing calisthenics in my lap. She doesn't just lie there, she sits up, rolls over, twists around, continuing to drink. Every once in a while she stops and bats the tip of the bottle, hooks her finger on my lip. Talks: "Baa Baa Baa. Baa. Baaaaaaaaaa. Baa Baa Baa. BAA."

12 noon. I let her crawl around. She does.

12:30 p.m. I give her lunch: yogurt and some blueberries. I think she's doing well with the blueberries until after I get her out of the seat and find most of them in the seat and on the floor. She does eat a lot of yogurt and some small pieces of canteloupe, though.

1:00 p.m. I bring her over to Aunt Cathy's. I have a fantasy draft for a magazine coming up and can't trust her to be OK while I'm doing it.

3:00 p.m. Cathy brings her back. Kate did OK, but she looks a little red-eyed; apparently she slept for about 20 minutes -- not enough not to be tired, but enough so that she might not nap this afternoon. A concern.

3:15 p.m. Bottle for Kate. More calisthenics. I make the final pick in my draft while giving her her bottle. Bet I'm the only guy in the league multi-tasking that way. Then again, it's a fantasy draft in the middle of the afternoon on Tuesday. Maybe everyone has a baby on their laps.

3:30 p.m. Not napping.

3:45 p.m. Take two. Still not napping. Cries indignant now. It's like she's saying to me, It's not happening. Give up.

4:00 p.m. I give up.

4:30 p.m. Kate has spent the past half hour crawling around, mostly happy, also clearly tired. I decide to go get Jack a little early, under the idea that she might sleep in the car. (Yuh.) Instead she pretty much wails in the car, wails when I put her down in Jack's room at daycare to get his lunch box, wails when I carry her back to the car (as does Jack, I might add, because it's raining and I ask him to stay just inside the door while I put Kate in the car, but he evidently doesn't understand and thinks I'm ditching him). I go back to get him and talk him down, and we're off.

4:45 p.m. Kate's still wailing in the car. I ask Jack to sing to her. He does. "Baby Cake, Baby Cake. Baby Cake....." She stops wailing.

5:00 p.m. Jack plays with Kate. Very nicely. She smiles and looks at him, in awe. Then he does something goofy with one of his toys, and she laughs. He does it again and she laughs harder. He does it 5, 10, 15 times, and she's literally gasping for breath -- she's in hysterics. Probably the fact that she's only slept 20 minutes since the morning is part of it, like in college when you'd been up all night and things seem even funnier the next morning. Anyway, he keeps on making her laugh. And Daddy can relax.

5:15 p.m. Mommy gets home. Kids happy. Daddy relaxes even more.