I'm getting up earlier these days to make it down to Josie's house in order to start my baby-sitting duties at 8. I set the alarm for 6 because if there's one thing I dislike more than getting up early, it's rushing.
Early rising gives me time to fill the bird feeders, eat some breakfast, peruse my email, post my blog to Facebook, and skim through the online NY Times.
Being with Josie now is almost like a meditation -- paying attention to what I'm doing now. Sit on the porch and look at things, bottle, diaper, cuddle, silly faces and sounds, and repeat. All with a background of Yo Yo Ma and Bach's cello suites, When she sleeps, I read -- currently THE BRENDAN VOYAGE about the effort to replicate the fabled voyage of St. Brendan from Ireland to the New World in a curragh -- a traditional craft made of hides stretched over a flexible wooden framework -- or I write --(I'm working on a short story at the moment.) I know all this this will change and evolve -- there will be a lot less sleep time. But we'll learn together as she grows.