Missing Out

After my week off, I'm back to work. Back to early mornings. Back to commuting to work. Back to getting home late. And most importantly (or sadly), back to missing out on Kaylani time.

Yesterday, I got home around 6 (not late) and got to spend a little bit with Kaylani. As most working parents know, spending time after work is mainly around dinner, bath time, and bed time. If we're lucky, we can also squeeze in a little bit of play time in there (which we did yesterday...kinda unknowingly since we lost track of time). Today though, no such luck.

Today, Kaylani slept in until 7:45am, which was about 5 minutes after I had already left for work. To make matters worse, I'm on a 5:43pm train home from NYC, which means I won't get home until around 7pm, or likely after Kaylani is on her way to dreamland. Sure I'll get to see her to say good night, but there will definitely be no sneaking in play time today. And that's not even the worst part.

Word from Mommy is that Kaylani stood on her own for a solid 3 seconds today! That's a pretty big accomplishment if you consider the longest she's stood on her own used to be one second...if we counted real quick. It definitely sucks to miss out on things like this. I've felt this way before (like when I missed out on her rolling over for the first time), and I'm sure it won't be the last time I'm going to miss out. I'm just hoping it feels worse now because I got used to seeing her do things last week.

Last week, I got to see her learn to feed herself with a fork or a spoon. I saw her learn to touch her head when we asked where her head was. I saw her touch our stuffed bear's (Goofy) nose and eyes when we prompted her. Saw her row, row, row her boat when we sang for her. Even saw her learn to "Moooo" when we asked her what a cow said (or any animal). Now, I'll be lucky if I see her do anything for the first time. From now on, her firsts will have to be at night, on the weekends, or over vacation/holidays.

Maybe the timing will work out for a few things, but my guess is that they won't. I sound like I'm complaining, but I'm actually not. These are the things that come along with being a working parent. Its a dirty job, but someone's got to do it! And after being a SAHD last week, let's just say I'm glad its me...no matter how good Kaylani was for me. When it comes down to it, Mommy is way better at being a stay at home parent than I am. Let's put it this way: it may be hard to miss out, but its just as hard not to!