The Stavdals

Today is the last day of the paternity leave. The salaried six weeks off and an additional two weeks transferred from my wife's maternity leave, gave me the privelege of staying at home with Niklas. The time was worthwhile and the two months have been unquestionably fantastic! We have bonded and love has blossomed.

Looking back on the past two months, my statutory paternity leave has given me the unique chance of following Niklas closely. I've seen him advancing from helplessly kicking his arms and legs, to the stage where he started pulling himself forward with his arms, and to the point where he now crawls confidently, gets up, stands and eases his way back down. I've also seen how his communication skills have improved. It's amazing how well he uses sounds and bodylanguage.
A couple of days ago he displayed a sense of humour. He pretended repetedly to give the dummy to me, but just as I was about to sink my teeth into it, ha pulled it back and put it in his mouth smiling satisfactorily to a long and triumphant hmmmm-sound.
He expresses sounds of satisfaction when he eats as well. At every teaspoon of baby-porridge, provided it's got a fruit-flavour, he utters "mmmmmmm". Really charming.
We have definitely bonded, and it's touching what Niklas does when he finds himself in situations where he feels insecure. He has just become sceptical around strangers. Then he looks at me just to check if I'm still there or he might crawl towards me, grab my trousers pulling his way up with a pleading look to pick him up and hold him. I wish this time would have lasted longer.

Niklas at Chrismas 2006

Here he is two months later

Niklas and dad behind the steering wheel