A little break

I feel a little guilty that I want to get home so badly, but I miss our boys terribly. I miss cool weather, and I miss sleeping in my own bed.

We got a much needed break the past 2 days. Took a taxi to Nagarkot, hiked on trails and dirt roads (not much more than than a trail), got caught in a Monsoon downpour, and heard nothing but birds and the occasional cricket. Rising at dawn to see the sunrise over the himalayas was a bust, but it really didn’t matter. The cool mountain air and the peace and quiet are what we really went for.


It was a little hard at night for Shanti. She went to sleep just fine, but when she woke up in the middle of the night in entirely unfamiliar surroundings, she was consoled only by sleeping in my arms in a chair and even then only after a bottle and about 45 minutes of wailing. I’m sure getting on a plane and sleeping in new surroundings at our home with two brothers will be an adjustment for her. I really wish I had a week or two before I had to go back to work to help smooth her transition…..but we’ve will have been gone almost 4 weeks as it is, and bills have to be paid, and life must go on.

That being said, Miss Shanti has come out of her shell….way out. From my lap, she flirts with people across restaurants, smiling and giggling, then turning away….only to turn back to see if they are still looking….causing a whole new cycle of smiling and giggling. She’ll wander even 15 feet from me to explore her surroundings…unless someone says something to her which causes her to run back to the safety of my lap. She still clutches a washcloth when she’s in new surroundings (she rejected all baby blankets in favor of a Yak and Yeti white washcloth), and she still needs to be able to keep me in sight, but that’s pretty normal for a 16 month old. As I said, we expect a rough first week or so at home….she’ll have to adjust to very different smells, sights, and most of all sharing mommy with two brothers. But all in all, I think she’ll weather the transition just fine…..


Now just to make it through the next 42 hours traveling home.