Rice, Rice Baby

Today was a story of more highs and lows. The lows were in my body, and to some degree my spirit, as being as weak as I am during the transition to the new antibiotic is difficult. While I’ve suffered with my illness on other days that I looked after baby, I’d always felt I could sell the whole “happy dad” thing to her. And, of course, the main reason I could sell it was that I believed it myself. Today, however, there were moments in the late afternoon when I was pretty much counting the seconds until my wife came home to relieve me. In some ways, the cards seemed stacked against baby and me. We had a smaller supply of milk than we really needed; baby was teething and hard to soothe and get down for naps; she was in the midst of her six-month growth spurt and was thus even hungrier than usual; and her mom and I had decided that I would continue trying to feed baby solid food today – which was a project. Bearing in mind that I started the day with perhaps a tenth my normal supply of energy, you can see why it might not have been the easiest day.

Happily, the last challenge on the list proved to be the day’s highlight, as well. Baby accepted her brown rice cereal, eating micro-bite after micro-bite of the thin gruel with real gusto. I shed a few tears of joy, but not so many that I couldn’t keep moving the rubber-tipped spoon from the tiny dish to my baby’s yearning mouth. She was excited, too.