Well I'm sitting on the Eurostar, whizzing my way across, or rather, under the channel on my way to a conference in Brussels. My wife and baby, however, are still back in Blighty, back the other side, the garden of England side of the tunnel. I miss them both already.
I recently went away again, on business, this time to Monaco, land of the rich, or in my experience land of the nice-but-was-probably-much-nicer-in-the-seventies. That was for 3 days, and although I was staying in a wonderful hotel, with great people, and it was really good for business... I did miss first-time-mum and first-time-baby.
I have always missed first-time-mum when I have been away on business, but now, with a baby, there is an entirely new set of emotions you experience. Babies change very quickly. Babies are growing everyday, and babies learn new things everyday.
When away in Monaco,(first-time-baby was one month old) it was the first time I had been away from baby and wife, and I knew it was going to be difficult. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of these over-emotional, can't-cope-without kind of guys, but of course you are going to miss two of the most important people to you. What I wasn't prepared for was the changes in first-time-baby.
In just four days, first-time-baby's voice changed. She can't speak, obviously, but noone has told her that, and so it doesn't stop her trying. In one telephone call home from the foreign lands, I could hear her, my baby, in the background. "That sounded like she was saying words!" I said, "don't be so silly" my wife said, "although she is trying!". I don't know what age babies learn to speak, but first-time-baby is definitely trying to communicate.
I would love to know what is going on inside the head of first-time-baby, but then maybe that's what makes spending time with her so special. If you can't readily communicate with someone, you really put in extra effort into communicating. You accentuate your actions and your pronunciation, you don't waste words, you mean what you say far more than a 'normal' conversation. You end up feeling what the other person is thinking, you interpret facial expressions and you come away having been a far greater part of the conversation than you would with someone speaking the same language. Every mum and dad should spend time talking to their babies and encouraging the noises the babies make. Don't just stick baby in front of a dvd, or laying in the corner. Interact with the future adult, for whom you are responsible for their development.
