The best single moment of my life.

She was into her tenth day. Her tenth day since her birthday.

Leslie and I had been married just over a year, we had only dated a few months before saying "I do."

We barely knew each other.

Now our couple was a triple. We had a baby.

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Leslie didn't come standard with the requisite set of mothering skills. She wasn't into dolls as a little girl. She had never baby sat when she was a teenager. She was a tomboy. She didn't automatically *know* what to do when she was handed her baby.

Good thing I had taken care of my niece and nephew when I was growing up. I knew how to change a diaper, and I could swaddle up a newborn tighter than tube sock on a cankle. The day we left the hospital, I had the baby bundled up ready for the Iditarod. To bad it was one of those sticky, humid, 82 degree, Georgia January days. But she was swaddled... My god was she swaddled. If you ever need tips on swaddling, I'm your guy.

Thankfully Les was a quick study in all things maternal. Within a couple of hours of getting the baby home, she had gotten out of that stunned, "oh shit. Now what do I do." stage and had stepped up to the plate and fed the baby and actually managed to give her a bath. Why she gave her a bath when she did, I still haven't figured out. It's not like the hospital didn't hose her off good just a few hours earlier. But "Momma" said baby needed a bath, so a bath baby got.

I had taken the first week off from work to be home with "MY" family. Leslie had taken a couple of months off. The first week was a breeze. The child was basically a lump of protein. Occasionally she'd squeak, but she slept almost around the clock. Whenever she woke up hungry, there wasn't much for me to do other than nudge Leslie and tell her it was "tittytime".

The second week, not so easy.

I had gone back to work. I was a delivery guy for UPS at the time and my hours were pretty long. Being a new dad I would stop and call home to check in on "the wimens" every chance I got.

"She's been crying all morning." was the first report I got.

"I think we've got a colicky baby." Les said on the next call.

The next call my mom answered. The baby was screaming like a banshee. My folks had come over to help out.

The last call I made before I left the UPS Center, Leslie answered. She was crying. The baby was still crying, hell even my parents had come unglued and started crying.

I clocked out and bolted.

When I got home everybody looked like they had been rode hard and put up wet. They were spent.

The baby was still crying.

I went and picked her up. Walked into another room, and slow danced with my daughter by the light of the stereo while the song "Advice for the Young at Heart" by Tears for Fears, played softly.

Her crying stopped. She fell fast asleep on my shoulder.

On her tenth day, I became a dad.