Usually, when I rush out to work at 7:33 (and a minute later, else I’ll be late), the Girl and her mother are asleep. The early morning feeding is done and they’re both still pooped (and the girl probably still pooping), so I kiss them as the sleep and head out.

Saturday mornings are different. I take L while K sleeps for a while. We walk around the apartment, chatting about current events and what we might do that day. “Chatting” is still my monologue with her bright eyes looking at me; the day’s activities are still confined to whether or not to go for a walk. But it’s the principle: Saturdays are father/daughter time.

After the stroll through the apartment, L might start indicating that she’d be keen to suck on something. About the only thing I can offer her is my nose and a pacifier. The latter is much more hygienic, not to mention convenient. So I put her down for a bit of pacifier while I take a bit of coffee — at some point in the distant, perhaps we’ll share a Saturday morning coffee when she’s home for a visit, but for now, we don’t have much in common in the way of oral gratification.

If she’s in the mood for lying down with the pacifier (which is the most convenient position for a pacifier, given her apparent interest in the sport of distance pacifier spitting — if it were an Olympic sport…), I put her in the bassinet beside me at the computer and I read the latest headlines to her while she sucks contentedly.

Last night, I was chatting with K with what Saturday morning with L might be like in a few months — perhaps early morning walks (and sooner than later, walks with L actually walking), playing together in the floor with whatever she’s interested in, reading to her. But for now, it’s good just to have a little father/daughter burping, pacifier, crying, gazing time.

Not to mention giving K a chance to rest some.

And what about Sundays? Pretty much the same..