The first week: Day 5

Today's mission: Lay in the essentials for survival: baby formula for her, Diet Coke for me.

Mission accomplished? Yes! Babygirl and I are now officially People of Walmart. There's a location in the Windermere area, near where I live, that's so new it isn't listed on the website. It's huge, it's spacious, and it's virtually deserted. Perfect for a guy who wants to get in, get what I need, and get out before the kid realizes that daddy's forgotten to bring the soother.

Things learned:

• I've rediscovered the joy of breakfast. At work it was never more than a hastily devoured Starbuck's confection washed down with the day's first coffee. Now, with the baby fed and happily fascinated by the fact that she can control her hands, I have enough time for the "complete breakfast" they're always recommending in ads for crap you should never eat at breakfast.
• Co-ordinating the day's activities reminds me a lot of playing chess with a skilled opponent: if you just do stuff as you think of it, you'll get killed. For example, today's little excursion to Walmart required seeing two moves ahead—baby's next feeding time and baby's next nap time—and even then, I was outfoxed by my wily six-month-old opponent, who confounded my prediction by staying awake the whole time, then falling asleep the moment I pulled into the garage.
• She's got this toy, a set of seven nesting cups of different colours. Inside the smallest cup, the red one, is a plastic spinner that looks like a water wheel. Today she saw me flick the spinner a couple of times, then she reached out and made little flicking gestures with her fingers, moving the spinner. I was yelling things like "Yaaaay!" and "Good girl!" to encourage her, when it dawned on me that I wasn't just cheering for her sake; I was genuinely elated at this simplest of feats. I can't wait to teach her to juggle. Would tomorrow be too soon?