THE STORY OF US: The Brink

I knew the day Neil turned to me during an episode of Boston Legal and said, "What do you think about me going to law school?" that the next several years of my life were about to change, bigtime. After a move to Houston, one dog, one baby, and several hours of successful procrastination, we are at the end of this journey. Yet at the same time, it also feels like we are just on the brink. We havent felt settled for the past 10 years, and in getting to know these adult versions of ourselves, we have both found that as much as we would love to be settled and constant, we both love and embrace new opportunities and the excitement that comes with change and growth. This might start to explain part of our addiction to school and that good feeling that comes with spending time and energy earning a new degree that will open new doors. Hopefully we have arrived at the point where we can embrace being lifelong learners without being lifelong students.

Neil is on the brink of graduation from law school and about to start his new journey into this new career. As we dream about the near future which will hopefully include a new home, we are filled with the excitement of creating pictures in our minds of filling our spaces with memories with family and friends. Sailee is on the brink of walking, and for whatever reason, also started crawling for the first time yesterday! Mostly, she is holding on (often with just one little hand) and moving around with a speed that is pretty unreal. Any day now I feel like I could take one more breath and she will be walking and running before my very eyes. And Chewie...well he is just on the brink of reacting to our every movement.

A couple of weekends ago, for Neil's birthday, we took a quick 24-hour trip to Austin, and Neil's parents graciously came down from Dallas and babysat for us. Last weekend we took our first entire weekend away from Sailee and Chewie. My parents cared for the kids for the whole weekend and when all was said and done, it was a success! I cant say enough about the ease and comfort that comes with having the people that love you the most take care of the ones that you love the most. The grandparents are truly incredible with Sailee, and she is ever so colorful and addictive in their presence.

Delightful Sailee is lately always looking to reel us in to whatever game she can come up with, and if we dont repeat it at least 147 times, it's just not enough. She loves the game where you repeat her favortite Marathi mini-nursery rhyme over and over while she claps. And if you stop she urges with an "Unnnnhhhh" which means 'more'. She loves to give us kisses on our knees, legs, arms...whatever she can reach, which mean planting her face, tongue protruding, onto our limbs. She loves to have a burp cloth placed on her head so she can pull it off, and you're supposed to make some sort of big noise about it. She loves to be thrown up on the ottoman on her belly so she can worm her way off of it. And she loves loves loves to walk. Recently, she taught herself how to gracefully sit down from a standing position (as opposed to plopping, but there's still some of that too), and can pick up all the things she throws on the floor by bending over. Until about a week ago, bending over produced unfavorable results. She also loves to bounce. Sailee can really throw that little bottom into motion and get it moving, up and down mostly, so we're going to have to work on the side-to-side. We're impressed with how active she is and really cant wait for her to start dancing in that diaper!

Her not-so-delightful moments, which there are plenty of too, are really growing more in intensity than frequency. What used to be a whimpery cranky feel-sorry-for-me cry in times of hunger and exhaustion has evolved into more of an outright you-better-hurry-or-watch-me-show-you-how-mad-I-can-get tantrum. Her woes and worries are anything but humorous to her. She is very serious. But I just love it and laugh. As difficult as it can be sometimes to manage these moments, I think it's wonderful that she is more than happy to tell us what her needs are. Because Neil and I were both shy-go-with-the-flow-dont-bother-anyone-with-my-needs kind of kids, we really want Sailee to be confident and courageous. We want her to be more demanding than we could ever dream of being, and to be honest we cant even imagine raising such a child.

For the love of all things wiggly, giggly, silly, and squealy, we are constantly finding new ways to amuse Sailee for the sweet reward of that little baby laugh. So far these things have worked: Sticking your tongue out and retracting it quicker than she can grab it; turning her upside down; sprinkling water at her when it's not bathtime; inflating your mouth and popping it with your finger and yelling Uh-Oh!; jumping out of nowhere and making a funny noise; letting her stand up on the sofa and plop backwards on a pillow and plunging your face into her belly; or just bringing Chewie to anywhere near her grabbing vicinity (poor dog). There's too much fun in this house and I hope we just never run out of it.

I know there was a time in my not so distant past that I vividly remember being bored. While I sometimes miss the luxury of those quiet moments to myself that I could really go about doing anything I pleased, there's no part of me that really yearns for that past. I am quite certain those young and free days are behind me but am humbled by the good fortune to be so busy and crazy with my favorite little beings, making memories and savoring each moment. We are certainly on the brink of something new and this uncertainty holds some big changes and exciting new possibilites. Cant hardly wait.