Daytime Dad looks over Little One #2, who is a little more beautiful than the day before.
It’s late, sometime after 2 a.m., and she isn’t exactly screaming but she isn’t exactly sleeping, either.
Daytime Dad is tired, but what (working) parent isn’t with two children under the age of 4 these days?
Little One #2, whose blue eyes are closed, lifts her outstretched arms from the bed and wiggles her legs. Her face twists and then turns beet-red, signaling that a diaper change is just minutes away.
Excellent.
Daytime Dad scoops up the bundle and Off-For-The-Summer Mom gently falls back asleep.
Little One #2 grunts, groans and squirms in his arms.
We walk down the hall to the nursery and settle into an old yet comfortable rocker.
We sit and rock, sit and rock, sit and rock.
Neither one of us says anything, but Little One #2 looks like she has something on her mind, if not in her diaper.
So, too, does Daytime Dad — on his mind, that is.
“You are the most beautiful baby girl I’ve ever seen,” Daytime Dad says to wide-eyed Little One #2.
In typical 5-week-old fashion, she says nothing. Regardless, Daytime Dad convinces himself that she understands.
Little One #2 then reaches up at Daytime Dad and wraps her minuscule fingers around his nose. They might as well have been wrapped around his heart.
Daytime Dad smiles, rocks a little more, then says, “You’re not going to date until you’re 30. Or 35.”
Little One #2 says nothing.
“The first guy who shows up here to pick you up is going to be in for a big surprise,” Daytime Dad continues.
Little One #2 says nothing.
“Good,” Daytime Dad adds, “it’s sinking in.”
Little One #2 shifts her weight and lets out what Daytime Dad calls “the trumpet of the elephant.”
She wiggles on Daytime Dad’s chest and opens her mouth. She quints her eyes and then lets out the feed-me-I’m-hungry cry.
Daytime Dad can’t help her there so he does the next best thing: A diaper change.
He lies her on the changing table, leans over for a kiss and tells her, “I’m glad we had this chat.”