Tricks

I was home alone with Lyla for a couple hours today. After she woke up from her nap, I changed her and fed her a bottle. Then we hung out on the couch for awhile. Clearly something was wrong in her world, but she wasn't in the mood to tell me what. I tried to burp her again, but that wasn't the problem.

I realized that my bag of tricks for calming a baby is ridiculously small. And so far Lyla has been pretty accommodating with me, as if she understands that all Daddy knows how to do is change her, rock her, feed her, burp her, and act dumb. But today none of those techniques worked. I wanted to say, "Daddy's a bit slow, honey. Could you just tell him what's pissing you off so?"

I can see how people go crazy when they have a colicky baby. I dealt with a cranky kid for a couple hours today, and it was exhausting. Yet all the while I knew that Julie and her infinitely larger bag of tricks would be home before long. I can't imagine being a single parent at all, let alone a single parent with a colicky baby.

It turned out that Lyla just wanted her mom, and that's a trick that will never make it into my bag. But I need to figure out other tricks. When it's early March and Julie goes back to work and I begin my time at home, I can't be driving downtown to interrupt Julie in a meeting every time Lyla won't settle down. Maybe I should buy a clown nose and a squirty flower.