My wife, who doesn't really like Daylight Saving Time because it inevitably falls on the day when she has to work at five in the morning, suffered a double whammy this week when the clock sprung ahead. Alex, who has no concept of time - which is ironic because of the amount of time he sucks out of our lives, is having a bit of difficulty adjusting to it.

Let me rephrase that.

We have had difficulty adjusting to him, adjusting to the Daylight Saving Time phenomenon. This morning, Mr. Boy woke up at 6:30 in the morning, and my poor wife who has been deprived of sleep had to get up and tend to his needs. So really, he did go to bed on time and got up at 5:30 in the morning. Argh. I just played dead so I didn't get up.

We're finding out when he gets older, he's starting to get more of his own will and independence already. He crawls to whatever he likes, and when you've got him pinned down to get dressed, he will protest and cry. We're guessing he's just teething, or going through a phase. Hopefully not a personality trait.

I think some days it feels great to be a parent. I'm proud of my son, I try to dress him up to look good, and I have a lot of fun with the little guy, and enjoy being a daddy. And some days, it feels like it's just another responsibility. A sequence of things to do that's very necessary, but otherwise a little dull. Parenthood is certainly a very different relationship than anything I've ever gone through. The rewards are different, and often it's what you derive from the experience that makes it rewarding. For me, it's usually when he smiles at me or when he plays with me. Tonight was one of those nights whereby I couldn't get him to look at me or laugh at me, so it felt a little more like a responsibility. He wasn't really enjoying me very much, just needing me. But like my wife said, think of everything as a phase.