Hush little baby

Caleb's day care provider is sick today, so he's home with me until noontime, when I'll take him to pre-kindergarten class.

I was doing some interviews for work this morning and he was in the other room playing his electric piano and singing. "I hear some nice singing in the background," said the University of Maine professor I was on the phone with. After the call I asked Caleb what he was doing.

"I'm practicing some new lullabies so we can make a bedtime CD for the baby," he said. "Daddy, can we use your recorder?"

The recorder is a small digital voice recorder I use sometimes for complicated interviews or press conferences. I told him if he keeps practicing I'd help him make the CD, and I will. So far he has three songs, any of which would make a fantastic lullaby.

He's going to be such a great big brother. Nearly every day he suggests a name. His favorites so far are Autumn for a girl and Jason or Rusty for a boy. He has a pile of books he's grown out of set aside for the baby, as well as some toys. He's full of questions about the baby and has been to all of our ob/gyn appointments so far. After he hears the heartbeat, he talks about it all the way home.

I can't wait to see Caleb holding and feeding the baby, helping with baths and running away when it's diaper time. Part of me worries that he'll have a hard time adjusting to sharing our attention, but the other part of me thinks he'll be so busy tending to the baby that he won't notice.

We'll see, I guess.