Curve

There's a stay-at-home-father learning curve that I'm trying to keep up with. When to feed her, how much to feed her, when she needs a nap, how to know why she's fussing--it goes on. Plus, I need to do all these things and also release the inevitable tension that builds in me during the day, tension that in my previous life I could release with a collegial chat and a beer.

It's coming along, but it's sort of like being a first-year teacher. I try a bunch of stuff, a lot of it doesn't work, and I'm basically stuck with my varying degrees of incompetence until the wisdom of experience kicks in. Which I'm hoping it will. And I find myself thinking--and I can't be the only new parent who has thought this--would Lyla be better off in daycare? Certainly a more experienced caretaker would know the right tricks to speed her development. What an ugly thought.

It'll be fine; I'm a relatively quick study. The blissfully ignorant whirl of last week gave way to the visceral reality of this week, so I've got to believe that next week will be full of epiphanies.

Right?