Tomorrow morning I head back to work, back to the proverbial grind, to a place where I sit for hours while staring at monospaced HTML tags and CSS declarations. Needless to say it’s a far cry from what I’ve been doing for the past three weeks, because no one at work needs their diaper changed every three minutes. Not literally, at least.

I am really fortunate to work for a place that gives me so much paid time off for paternity leave. Hell, I’ve never heard of any other employer offering paternity leave at all. This has been a priceless experience to stay home with my wife and newborn kid, something I wouldn’t trade for anything. And while I’m sure she won’t miss my continual whining about thank you notes, and he won’t miss me playing him old soul albums while he’s trying to sleep, I’ll miss them both terribly. Every coo, every tiny sneeze and all the old man facial expressions will leave my heart feeling as if it’s in the wrong place for ten hours a day. And that’s just what I’ll miss about her, don’t get me started on Liam…

I don’t care what goes on at work, nothing there will ever be tantamount to the joy and gravity of raising Liam. No star-hack or padding declaration ever changed the world, but my kid just might. Someday. I know he’s changed mine already.