I’ve been back at work for a week and its been a bit of a shift to the paternity routine. Amanda’s graciously taken on the night shifts so I’m not tired (well, no more tired than you normally get when you wake up at 5.45 ahead of a 10 hour working day and 1 hour commute either way!), but it has been hard to tear myself away from my wife and daughter each morning. On the plus side, the excitement I have as I come home each evening is thick and creamy as butter; it is wonderful that just coming home is such a source of immense joy and excitement.

Emily is doing well, as far as we can tell. Her development isn’t leaping and bounding day-by-day – she won’t be doing calculus by the age of two months – but whether its my imagination or not each day she seems to be a bit more alert, a bit better at sleeping and have a fuller head of hair. Of course, every day we love her more as well, so its hard to tell how much of this is just parental goggles!

Emily’s dealt with the routine of taking Daddy to work pretty well. She fusses about like a princess about getting into her winter suit and the car seat but once we get moving she is generally pretty happy. Amanda has been learning all sorts of tricks about temporarily appeasing her – such as giving her a little snack feed and whilst she’s in a milk daze (babies are little milkoholics) getting her strapped in, secured and on the road… perfect for the 15 minute round trip to get me to the station.

I’ve missed my daily calls to my parents with her, and am very much looking forward to their visit. I can’t imagine how tough it is for them to be separated from their granddaughter by a gulf of 6,000 miles, but hopefully when they meet her they’ll understand the need to spend a bit more time over on this side of the world.

I continue to be in a state of impressed awe with Amanda. Neither of us walked into parenthood with any real idea of what we were doing but the way she’s taken to caring for and playing with Emily, it’s like she has a secret set of instructions. Of course she doesn’t, and we’re both muddling through, but I’m allowed to be (not-so-quietly) proud I think. I think I’m getting better at reading her fusses and calming her down as well, but its still tough to tell her “I’m still hungry” face from her “I’m full of gas” face.

Emily turns three weeks old on Sunday, which is around the point at which babies start smiling, apparently. I thought I caught a glimmer of something yesterday. Or was it gas? The perennial question.

In the meantime, I’ve got the weekend ahead of me. Those of you following on Facebook, you’ll have the full set of photos to delight upon and I’ll try to take some more with the SLR this weekend. Aunty Sarah and Aunty Emily are coming to visit today, and Uncle Arvind and Aunty Janine are coming tomorrw, which little Emily (one day) will find a great source of anticipated excitement!