Milestones Part 2

In case this isn't already completely obvious, I want my own baby quite desperately. It's just not time, though, and one cannot make a change like parenthood in a hurry! So I feel all the more privileged to spend so much time around other families. I'm learning a lot about motherhood and babies.

When I come home, though, my puppy--oh no! I should say "my dog"! He's a year old now, and not a puppy anymore! Well, my dog, Lewis, is my baby when I come home. The picture you see over on the right there shows me and my baby when he was just three months old. He gets all kinds of cuddle time and (healthy) treats and lots of long walks. My big sister's awesome dog adores the kids but seems to miss all the attention he got when he was the only baby. Lewis is getting all kinds of fun mommy & daddy time, including training, while my husband and I still have time and energy to give him our full attention. This is my gorgeous Lewis now (he's half Beagle and half Australian Cattle Dog, a breed we had to research--see the post "Before Adoption" for more of his story!):

Milestones

I have the privilege to care for an infant, heretofore known as G, who is not only completely adorable (you'll see a picture as soon as her mamma gives me permission to post one) but smiles all day long! Well, she did smile all day long until her very first tooth started poking its way up. It seems that every time I spend a day with her, something brand new happens! Pure joy! Recent milestones include:

• First tooth is suddenly visible! I can feel it too, if she decides to start chewing on my finger. I try to discourage this behavior, but she's very crafty.
• She pointed for the very first time EVER! And I got to see it! Sweetest part? She pointed at a picture of her big sister when I brought her up close and asked her to show me Sister (P). Then, she did so on command when P came home from preschool! I got to see her point, a huge developmental milestone, but I also got to see P's big smile at this proof that the baby knows her, loves her and misses her when she's not home.

The family is going away on vacation for a two whole weeks, and I'm going to miss my little G so much! When she comes back, she'll have even more super-cool skills to show off. I can't wait to see her grow some more.

New Adventures!

After much painful consideration and hours of thought, I left a PhD program in English. To do what, you ask? To do anything I could find that actually made me happy. You see, it occurred to several relatives (I was a bit slow to catch on), that I was compiling "incompletes" left and right because, perhaps, I did not actually WANT to do my work because it was not actually something that I enjoyed doing anymore. Officially, I took a "leave of absence." I think I took a leave of absense, but I remain unsure as to whether the paperwork has actually been completed, having had no response from various departments who need to sign said paperwork. Whatever their computers say, I no longer go to graduate school.

I did get the point when loving relatives staged a sort of intervention, begging me to find a way to, well, be less miserable, and, what's more, I immediately realized that I was less miserably, nay happy, even, when I was babysitting! Admittedly, I had a really, really hard time accepting this as a new career. I told myself that I was already babysitting part-time, I could do more of it and make money until I "figured it all out." Since then ("then" was early January, by the way) I have become... dare I say it... a happy person! Not only am I happy sometimes, but I am happy most of the time, because I am always doing something that I choose to do! It's miraculous, and I wish everyone in the world had the privilege of feeling this way.

It might be a bubble. It might be a honey-moon period. I might just be ecstatic not to be writing papers anymore or, for that matter, grading papers. Maybe playing with blocks and rocking babies to sleep will lose its luster, and I'll come crashing back to earth. But right now, the baby I am caring for is stirring from her nap, and I am just so happy to be going to pick her up and hold her in my arms!