Lucas Camilo

Friday marked the final official day of my paternity leave.  It was bittersweet.  On one hand I feel so fortunate to have had a full eight weeks of paid leave (thanks to my employer, the Center for Community Change), while I am also looking forward to getting back to my work as an organizer.  Few dads in this country get as much leave as I did, which is a damn shame since the opportunity to be around with a new child is huge.  (We need to do something about parental leave in general to make it more like European countries, where both parents get extended leave to be with their newborn.)

It’s been amazing getting to spend so much time with our new baby Ida, as well as extra time with Lucas and Krista.  I posted some of my favorite pictures to Facebook a few days ago in honor of the occasion, and they are embedded below as a Flickr album for those (like our moms) who aren’t on Facebook.  There are even a handful that include me.

Paternity leave began with a hike and Krista hugging a tree (baby inside); and Friday it ended with a hike and Krista hugging a tree (Ida on the outside). Of course, I don’t want to overstate the importance of this moment since I’m not going to stop devoting myself to being a dad anytime soon!  But something is going to change starting next week… and, despite the daze from lack of sleep at times, I’ll certainly never forget these last 2 months.