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Holly
What’sfive-month-old Lily’s favorite game? Watchthis.
I placed Snuggle Bear on the cream-colored rug in Lily’s bedroom and covered the floppy bear with the pink baby blanket. “Where did Snuggle Bear go?” I asked Lily in a sing-song voice. Since she wasn’t quite able to sit on her own yet, a pile of cushions propped herup.
The little girl blew a raspberry—her favorite new sound, which she loved to practice whenever shecould.
Smiling at her, I whipped the blanket off the toy. “There sheis.”
Lily giggled. Didn’t she have the cutest giggleever?
The apartment door clicked open thenshut.
“Daddy’s home,” I said, loud enough so Josh would know where to find us. A moment later he entered the room, wearing shorts and a white T-shirt that clung deliciously to his sweaty body. “How was yourrun?”
From the look of him, he had pushed himself to hell and back, pausing only long enough to down his favorite sports drink. But could you blamehim?
Yesterday, he was officially a MontrealCanadien.
Today he was a free agent—with no idea where his future would take him for the next year orso.
When would he find out if a team offered him a contract? Anytime between nine a.m. today and the beginning of the NHL season—inOctober.
So anytime in the next three months—which made it really hard to planthings.
What was I doing home on a Friday morning when I had returned to work lastmonth?
I loved my job, but I also loved being with Lily—and I needed the flexibility so we could fly out and visit Josh whenever possible, depending on where he ended up. We had already decided I would stay in San Francisco no matter what, and Josh would live with us during the off-season until he eventually retired from hockey. It wasn’t the greatest solution, but we would make itwork.
But I did have a long talk with my boss and then his boss. In the end, they offered me the opportunity to job share with the woman who had been covering for me while I was on maternity leave. She wanted to get her Masters degree in International Business. Job-sharing allowed her to do both that andwork.
It was a win-win for usboth.
And the best part? The switch in hours didn’t jeopardize my work visa status. Not that it would matter once Josh and I weremarried.
Josh knelt on the hardwood floor—to avoid getting sweat on Lily’s rug. “The run was good.” He picked up the pink blanket and covered my head with it. “Where did Mommy go?” he askedLily.
She, of course, blew anotherraspberry.
The blanket was yanked off my head. “There sheis.”
Lily giggled—and Josh leaned in to give me a brief kiss. “Guess I should have a showernow.”
“That might be a good idea.” I gave his shoulder a little shove. Not enough to move him, but that didn’t matter. He pretended to fall overanyway.
Lily giggled once more. One of her other favorite toys was the kind that you pushed over and it wobbled upagain.
“Uh, oh,” I said, “Daddy felldown.”
Not overly concerned about this, she went back to practicing her airraspberries.
Joshed pushed himself back onto his knees, pulled Lily’s koala T-shirt up (one of a million gifts my parents had sent her), and blew a raspberry on herbelly.
What’s her second favorite thing to blowing raspberries? Daddy blowing them on her stomach. She giggled and reached up tohim.
She really was Daddy’s littlegirl.
