The other day, J took C and the dogs for a walk, leaving N and myself home alone. Though there were good reasons for this separation of parental duties, N seemed to take it hard.

While his mom was getting everything ready, he went to the baby gate and cried his eyes out. You may recall that we have baby gates isolating a portion of our house? Those same gates prevent the kids from getting to the front door, which is where most of the pre-walk preparation takes place.

N could see everything happening, but couldn’t get to it.

This was too much. He clung to the baby gates, head thrown back, screaming his sorrow out to the universe. He didn’t want to have anything to do with me. He just wanted to go with his momma, and even she was barely able to console him. As soon as she put him down, he started up again.

I resolved myself to a long half hour of listening to him scream and waved goodbye to C.

As soon as the door closed, however, N stopped. He looked over me with a little smile and said "Play?"

I was a bit slow on the uptake. In fact, I think my exact response was "huh?"

Fortunately, he was patient with me. He repeated himself, this time pointing to the back door, "Play?"

So we went out the back door and played on the swingset. In fact, we had a really great time.

Sometimes, being a daddy is very confusing.