A Season of Transition...

Since my daughter joined us last spring, I've been with her every morning of her life. One year after her birth, we've arrived at a place where she wakes me in the morning with a simple, "Dada!" over the baby monitor.

It's been a revelation and a blessing, that time spent in the mornings together. While we're still figuring a lot of this out as we go, I have a lot more confidence in myself as a father. Lyla has made that pretty easy, with her independent temperament and affectionate spirit.

All this makes me a little nervous as she and I transition to different schedules beginning next week. While I'll still be her morning wake-up call, I'll need to be at the college by 7:30 a.m. a couple of days to start my office hours. That means she'll be in all-day daycare, which seems like a lot of time to us. We'll be picking her up between 3:00 and 4:00, but still...

I taught a full load in the fall of '09--seven classes, all at night. It was nice to have mornings with Lyla, but I missed my wife and our evenings together--the walks we take and the chance to break bread together. I missed helping out with putting our girl down to bed.

I'm off contract in the spring, so I had a lot of time with Lyla and a lot of time to tackle some of our goals. I did a little bit of writing, but not nearly as much as I had in previous years. Instead, we worked on installing a new back yard and getting the house ready to be painted (Behr, Nevada Sand was the choice). We'll paint this sucker this weekend.

I'll be away in the middle portion of next week, then we're hosting friends for The Players Championship next weekend. There is lots to do and accomplish.

And so we'll both have to adjust to a new set of routines. That's good in many ways. I enjoy the energy of Deerwood Center and I miss a lot of my colleagues and our daily interactions, and I'm excited for Lyla to have more social time with children her age.

But I have to admit, a part of me will feel a little bit sad when I have to drop her off in the mornings with the knowledge that that time used to be ours alone. It'll pass and we'll adjust, but the idea is tough to take as I sit here writing and she is sleeping in her crib in the next room over...

Between finals week and working on the house, my posting here will be sporadic. Still, when things settle in during that second week in May, I look forward to sharing some good news on a couple of stories that will be published soon.

Be safe and enjoy the spring. It's a good time to move forward with new challenges...