Construction
There’s been a bunch of construction outside our house of late. Some sort of rainwater irrigation project by the city of Austin that is set to take two years to complete. The beeeeeps of machinery in R and thuds of jackhammers vs. rock have become the new background noise to life. By mid Jan the presence of the crew working the perimeter of our house began to feel like a drag. Especially because Sajan’s nursery is the room closest to the street where all the noise is, waking him up mid nap. The workers are here M-F, and even Saturdays as early as 7:30 AM.
Somewhere in the middle of January, Pranitha had the great idea of letting Sajan watch the construction from his room’s window. It was a hit, made better a few days later when we brought up the “throne” he received from Titi this Christmas. Suddenly this became a new core activity: construction watching.
Sajan is now endlessly fascinated by movement of cars and trucks outside his room’s window. He will spend a good 30 minutes simply rotating his head left and right following each individual vehicle. Sometimes a bird or a squirrel too. For me, it’s a nice reprieve from stimulating him through toys and books. A moment to sit together in stillness and quiet, observing the hum of the day. And a silver lining to the otherwise inconvenient presence of all the yellow vehicles out front.
Luka
On January 16th little Luka joined the family! Luka is Sajan’s cousin on Pranitha’s side, son of Jeevitha and Armir.
To say Sajan acknowledged Luka at the hospital would be a strong statement. He was selective with his eye contact, more interested in the room and his milk. It’s hard to know whether or not this was intentional, or what he really noticed was that his Titi was now preoccupied with another baby. His first pang of jealousy, perhaps?
In the weeks since we’ve all spent a lot of time together since we live only three minutes away. The two share changing stations and have started going on walks together. It’s all quite precious. Luka is still getting settled, but the vision of two little rugrats wreaking havoc seems just a minute away.
Snow day
Texas is known for its blistering summers, but of late we’ve gotten a few snow days each year. Veterans of the state remember 2022 when the winter storm meant no power for several days. The state was woefully underprepared and nobody has real confidence that the government did anything to improve.
Last year was just a flurry, we missed it traveling. But this year we were present, and got a lot more than just flurries. It was a fun snow day in a place known for the scorching summers.
End of an era
Pranitha finished breastfeeding Sajan in early February. To celebrate the hard, underappreciated work of pumping we had a small celebration at home right before Bad Bunny performed at the Superbowl. Jeeves, the family resident baker and barista, came through clutch with the homemade boob cake.
