Marching along

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

William Shakespeare

We watched the movie March of the Penguins tonight. If you haven't seen it yet, don't worry there isn't much of a plot that I am going to ruin for you. Basically, the penguins walk, they mate, the mom penguins leave, the dad penguins keep the eggs warm for the two months the moms are gone, the moms come back, the dads leave, then the dads come back, and finally the parents leave together. The chicks live on their own from that point forward.
This movie really shows some interesting things. The fathers watch the eggs, they keep them warm, if they drop the eggs they freeze within minutes...hence no more chick. If the moms don't make it back the chicks starve to death. If the dads don't make it back, the chicks starve to death. If an albatross flies by, a few chicks are going to end up in the albatross's stomach.
Most of the time working for the United States Government in the Federal Aviation Administration is annoying, frustrating and constricting. Sometimes, like this past Monday, it really sucks. Other days, like today, I couldn't imagine having another employer. My request for paternity leave was approved today. There really wasn't much of an approval process, the union contract states that my request has to be granted. Of course ,the FAA has a funny habit of not paying any attention to the contract so everything is always kind of a guessing game.
My last day of work is going to be June 10. I am not going back until March 10, 2007. If you're counting at home that is a total of 9 months. Nine months that I get to share in just about every moment in my daughter's life.
This is kind of like how the emperor penguins in Antarctica do it. My wife stayed with our chick, kept her warm and watched her grow while I was gone. Now I am coming back, and wife is going to go to work and I will be watching our little "chick". This is probably the way this routine will work until one of us retires. We are going to spend very few and very precious moments together as a total family unit. Parenting and working tasks are going to be shared and I wouldn't have it any other way.
The male penguins form an amazing bond with their babies. So do the females. Some where along the line humans strayed off of this course. We left the bonding process up to just the mom and the baby. For one time in my life I am look forward to being more like an emperor penguin than a human.