It is very hard to believe that we have been home from the hospital for a full week already?! It’s really quite amazing when you think about it:

1. He is still alive (which hasta mean something, right?)
2. Jess and I are still alive (which is saying something in and of itself)
3. I made pot roast tonight (only the 2nd time in my life, ever)
4. Desperate Housewives was new. Again.

Aside from the before-mentioned, hard-to-believe, points, looking back on the past week also brings to mind all of the wonderful times we have had as a new family. I have taken two weeks off of work, so we have all bonded on an entirely new level and I have already done things I would never have dreamed. Let’s call them the “other side of fatherhood” and here is a shortlist:

1. Talked (at length) to a woman at the pharmacy about the painful side effects of breastfeeding and how to soothe those symptoms.
2. I wondered around the bra section at Target for much longer than anyone should looking for nursing bras (finally gave up and went elsewhere)
3. Said things like “oh, that’s just poo on my hand” in a dead-pan voice
4. Made pot roast (did I mention that yet?)
5. Teared up while reading “The Little Engine That Could” (gets me every time, because doggoneit, he thought he could)

This week has also been a wonderful time for Jess and myself and I consider it as special a time as that spent on our honeymoon (freely insert cause/effect argument here) and I know I will miss her terribly when I return to work next week. We have become quite the team and are enjoying every minute together (well, maybe not every single minute, but darned close). Someone once told me that there is no beauty like that of a mother and I couldn’t agree more. She is graceful in an entirely new way and my face lights up when I hear her say “my son.”

And speaking of son, Will is doing fantastic. He has developed a “mad” cry in the last couple of days which leaves absolutely no doubt whether he is upset with something you have done (or not done). It is extremely cute right now, but ask me again in 10 months and you may get a different answer. We have also begun “tummy time” in the mornings, which is a time filler for his awake time (we found that he is pretty much awake -and gassy- during the mid-morning hours and mid-evening hours). We may just cuddle on the couch together (and fall asleep) or read together, but “tummy time” is more great bonding for all of us.

Now that the first week is behind us, I am looking forward to what this next week may bring. Will has already indicated a desire to scout the Au Sable and Manistee rivers for early rising trout and even expressed interest in learning to the play the guitar, but I may have to get all “fatherly” on him and make him wait until the spring thaw for the rivers and for his hands to develop coordination for the guitar. In the meantime, we’ll just settle for “tummy time.”