Saturday afternoon

We made it home on Thursday night after a very long day and found out that Nacho's flight had a major delay leaving Madrid, so we actually beat him home. I had repeatedly told Elisa that we would see Papa all day long, so it was disappointing to put her down without a reunion, but it was 10 p.m. after all. She didn't seem to mind and drifted quickly off to sleep and stayed down until almost 8:30 a.m. the next morning. I'll say this, the kid knows how to deliver when she has to. So Friday was a bit low key with all of us back under one roof for the first time in weeks and it was great to get some chores done (groceries bought, A/C units installed) and then take a big nap--us included--and let the afternoon roll on.

Elisa has been almost consistently napping once a day for the past couple of weeks, but here and there, she seems too tired to stay up for more than 2-3 hours in the morning. Those are the days when I sometimes still try to put her back down in the late afternoon and just see what happens. Several times in North Carolina, she would fall back asleep and give me another hour (or two!) of napping in the evening. But inevitably, those were the nights that she would wake up or sleep a little less. It's not a perfect formula, but if I can keep her up a bit more in the morning, and she naps for over 2 hours, we're usually on track for a good one-nap day. Like today. We had swim class at the Y at 9:30 a.m. and then swung into Pete's Diner for some late breakfast and then a very brief trip to the local playground and farmer's market. We were home by noon and Elisa was down for a few hours. After that, we wanted to run into the city for a walk around the East Village, one of my favorite summertime haunts.

Elisa hitting the playground at Tomkins Square Park which was surprisingly empty--must be all the vagrants around?
Squirrel watching with Papa is a new favorite activity. "Hi squirrel!"
But pigeon chasing is still the real favorite...
Watching the kids swim in Washington Square Park was such fun until I thought about all the germs. Ah, to be young again.

Several times over the past few days, I've had to remind myself that the rhythm I have with Elisa is very different from the one she has with Nacho. Part of it is that moms and dads just don't do things the same way. From all of my conversations with new and old moms alike, I get that this is a universal rule of parenthood: moms are different from dads, so get over it. It's just that sometimes I think I can offer Nacho my shortcuts and my advice (it really is only that) which I've crafted over days and weeks and months of intensive labor and time alone with Elisa. Maybe I think because he is missing out on some of that time that I have the answer to plugging him back into our framework. But it really doesn't work that way. He isn't my clone and I'm glad about that. And I can't make up for the lost time which invariably comes with his work and travel. But what I can do is appreciate that our family dynamic includes three very distinct people who might not be together every night, but who love the days and long afternoons we do have together.