I recall talking to my close friend Rob about babies when Willow was a newborn. Rob has two of his own, including one who had her first birthday in September. During our conversation, Rob was cast in the support role; he was leveling with me about the reality of having a newborn as opposed to the romantic notions I had at the time. You see, Newborn Willow wasn't doing much other than sleeping, and I told Rob that, expecting him to say, "Oh, sleep today, play tomorrow!" Instead he said with a chuckle, "The Gerber baby doesn't arrive until she's 6 or 7 months old." And so I waited, and I continued to carry along my romantic notions of the Gerber baby. As time passed, I began to wonder if the visions were too dreamy. It's the same for all first-time parents, I suspect, harboring Hollywood dreaminess of what having a baby is going to be like. Take, for example, the eagerness first-timers have about taking baby home a day or two after birth then real...
A father's journey to finding the right words.