Dahlia is almost two months old. People say time flies with a baby. My experience has been quite different. I have a hard time remembering what life was like before she joined us. . Did I ever do anything important? Was I ever this happy?
She rolled on her own for the first time two weeks ago. She squiggled from her front onto her back in a very deliberate way. I caught it on a short video! Unfortunately, I was so excited that only two seconds of the three second event made it onto youtube for our families to celebrate her achievement. Afterwards, I wasn’t sure how to feel. She’s only a few steps away from rolling from her back to her front which is only a few steps away from crawling. A mobile delicate Dahlia makes us very, very nervous. I’m sure I will feel this way about every step in her development.
My favorite time of day is watching her wake up from a nap. It’s a ritual that lasts several minutes with several awkward looking stretches and flickering eyes. Sometimes, she loses the fight and just ends up in another nap.
It feels like Megan and Dahlia can talk to each other. Dahlia is very articulate and her expressions range from boredom to pure joy! It’s fun to watch them interact and I’ve never been so proud of my partner. During my day, I usually get at least 2-3 photos of Dahlia in new outfits. It’s made my transition to the workforce much easier and my stress levels have never been lower!
My free time is also more valuable than it has ever been. Between 5-7 AM and 9-10PM, I have time to work on personal projects while getting ready for work or getting ready to go to bed. Surprisingly, I have been able to achieve more with this time than in the past. All my pursuits have been broken up into tiny 15 minute tasks. The habit of doing these short tasks has produced incredible results. I would not be surprised if Megan feels the same way. She may be limited to two hours of precious study time per day, but the constraints make these sessions very focused.
There is a feature called Live Photos on the new iPhones that is perfect for babies. It captures 1.5 seconds of video before and after you take a picture. Its been perfect to show how explosive and uncontrolled little Dahlia’s movements can seem. The photo is just one part of the experience; the video segments provide so much more context. I’m looking forward to sharing those on this site when support for them expands beyond Apple devices.
