BillstronBlog

Today was another Molly and Poppa day while Krista worked her normal Tuesday.  This morning I decided that I would just take off the entire day, devoting it all to Molly, so that Krista could get some extra work done.  It was a great idea because I haven’t gotten to hang out all day with my little girl in quite some time.  I took Molly at about 9am and, except for feedings, didn’t give her up until after 5:30 when Krista stopped working.

We started out the morning with blanket time while I ate breakfast.  That involves Molly laying on a blanket on the floor next to her Poppa, who is also sitting on the floor.  She really likes to lay there looking around at the world.  I usually get out Mr. Pea Man (thanks Combses) and the wooden rattle (thanks Great Grandma) to play with.  Mr. Pea Man likes to dance for Molly, but Molly doesn’t really pay much attention at this young age.  Hopefully his dancing skills will be better appreciated in a few weeks.  Regardless we have a lot of fun.

Similarly to two weeks ago, the highlight of our day was our walk to the lake.  After lunch I put Molly into the Moby, saddled Daisy up, and headed out the door for a walk.  We started with our normal walk around the block, but we ended by Lake Merritt.  Today is a beautiful day, and we sat there for over an hour.  Molly slept, Daisy sniffed, and I just sat there.

I’ve been so busy the last few weeks that I haven’t really had much time to think.  I feel like I’m always rushing around — from home to campus to the lake for a quick run etc etc.  Having Molly on my chest relaxes me tremendously.  Add to that the beautiful weather and nice lake scenery, and I got some really good thinking in.  I didn’t figure out the cure for cancer or anything… maybe next Tuesday.

Another quick note:  A lot of people have been asking about more recent pictures of my little girl.  I just posted a couple dozen pictures of recent adventures.  They are in different sets now, so the best way to view them all would be to just look at the photostream directly from my main Flickr site (here’s the link).

We have know for a while that Krista would soon start going to a meeting every Tuesday.  Our plan has always been for me to take care of Molly while she is gone.  Today was her first meeting, and honestly I was a little nervous about taking care of Molly all by myself.  Before today, I haven’t been alone with her for more than a few minutes.  The longest that I had been the sole care giver is the time it takes to walk around the block.

My nervousness focused on feeding.  Obviously, Krista does most of the feeding because the only thing that my boobs do is grow hair.  We never give Molly a bottle because Krista’s boobs (and the rest of her) are always there.  I think we have only bottle fed her a couple of times, and that was to administer liquid vitamins.  Now, anyone that has seen it done before knows that bottle feeding isn’t rocket science (or controls engineering).  So, I wasn’t concerned about making the bottle or the process of eating.  I was concerned about the Poppa/Molly communications that needed to take place — knowing when to feed her and when she was done eating.

Our alone time started out a little awkwardly.  Just about as soon as Krista left, Molly stated crying.  I thought that she might be hungry, but we hadn’t taken the dog for a walk yet, and I wanted to get that done first.  So I put the Moby on, and off we went.  Molly quickly settled down once we were moving and was asleep before we were around the block. Maybe she didn’t need to eat?

Seeing how happy my baby was, I decided to walk down to the lake for a bit.  The three of us sat on a bench under a beautiful blue sky and watch the runners and walker pass.  We relaxed there for about 30 minutes or so before Molly began to stir.  From my last post you probably gathered that I’ve been pretty stressed recently, and this was the most relaxing time I’ve had in a couple of weeks.

Once she was awake, I thought that she might be hungry soon.  So we headed for home, and by the time we made it home, sure enough, she was ready to eat.  I quickly changed her diaper, and fixed the bottle.  She ate like a champ.

The end of the feeding was somewhat awkward.  She had eaten the entire quantity that Krista had pumped before leaving, and that forced me to have to warm up another bottle.  She pretty much refused this milk, which made me think she was done.  About 20 minutes later, she was hungry again.  No problem… I just fed her what she had previously refused, and she sucked it down in no time.  I thought she might still be hungry, but since Krista was going to be home in just a few minutes I held off on warming another bottle. Sure enough, Krista was home shortly and everything was fine.

All in all, my time as Mr. Mom went better than expected.  In fact, both Molly and Poppa had a great time!  I can’t wait till next Tuesday, and I hope Molly feels the same way.