Morning can be best time with baby > Father finds himself enjoying dawn hours with increasingly active child

Editor’s Note: In this month’s Home Front column, City Desk reporter Jeff Tuttle writes about becoming fluent in baby talk. Home Front is written by NEWS staffers.

Sunrise, it seems, is reserved for a select few: die-hard fishermen, insomniacs and new parents.

And since little Elliot’s October arrival, my wife and I have endeavored to share the responsibilities of parenthood from sunrise to sunset along with the occasional predawn welfare check of his room just down the hall.

But when that first faint babbling comes over the baby monitor – thus beginning the under-the-covers nudging and inevitable exchange of “It’s your turns” – the mornings are all mine.

From his bleary-eyed breakfast to the time I coax his flailing limbs into the mismatched outfit du jour, those three – sometimes four – hours have become the day’s most precious.

Now a 9-month-old kid with hair a little too long and only one tooth, Elliot has taken his – and my – mornings to a different level.

Once a more passive participant in our daybreak rituals, the increasingly mobile little guy now greets me on his knees with his eyes peering through the bars of his crib. He’s ready to roll, and I know full well that when I release him from his overnight captivity, I’ll be earning my money as a watchful father.

Since learning to crawl last week, the undaunted explorer has managed to wedge himself into almost every uncharted region of our home: the little nook near the washing machine, the space behind the open living room door, under the coffee table, you name it.

Gone are the days of merely plopping him down on the living room rug with his books and toys while dad leisurely makes coffee in the kitchen.

Now, to get that early morning cup, it’s either make it the night before (that’s happened once), keep him in his high chair (he prefers I not do that) or make the mad dash to and from the coffee maker before the adventurer Elliot gets out of earshot (which takes exactly two seconds).

Coffee Express coffee is better than mine anyway.

But the joe has become less necessary, as Elliot has recently discovered the luxury of sleeping in. In baby terms, that’s still pretty darn early, but I’m just grateful that I haven’t seen the ungodly 4-o’clock hour in several months.

It’s been almost as long since the little guy first began bending my ear at the breakfast table.

But what was once a newborn’s cooing has gradually become a babbling of great importance intermingled with the occasional “uh-oh,” should he drop his pacifier. He’s even been know to utter an excited “ki-ki” should our less-than-tolerant cat, in a vain attempt to keep her tail out of Elliot’s clutches, carefully make her way past the high chair –to her often empty food dish.

Indeed, it was after much debate that my wife and I finally decided that “uh-oh” was his momentous first word.

It’s a common first word, according to many of the 50,000 or so baby books we’ve read, and I begrudgingly agreed after it became apparent that something like “checkmate” or “Harvard” was probably out of the question – at least until his first birthday, I told myself.

But I’m willing to wait a long time for that October day, as I want to enjoy as many mornings as I can with my new breakfast buddy. And, believe me, I’m well aware things will get a little more hectic as time goes by.

Once he starts feeding himself, I’m sure the Cheerios will be flying. Once he starts walking, I’m sure reckless abandon will be close in tow. And once he’s able to catch the cat, I’m sure that we’ll have to break out the bandages on occasion.

But the only thing that will really disappoint me is when the mornings get shorter once Elliot hits kindergarten. By then, I’m sure the allure of the big, yellow school bus will beat an early morning ride to school with dad.

If that’s the case, I guess I’ll have to wake him up extra early for a change.

We’ll just see how he likes that.