Back on the Wagon

OK, so my resolution to write once a week on the blog lasted for about...two weeks. It wasn't entirely my fault: the end of the academic year gets really hectic, then we had a bunch of family visits and vacations, and then I lost the cable to my camera so couldn't upload photos, which made me significantly less inclines to write on the blog. But anyway, that leaves me with a lot to catch up on.

First, Sahana turned 1 in June. We had a party at our house, and my sister's family came frrom Texas, and my parents and local family and friends attended as well. As of her birthday, Sahana still had no teeth so we were starting to get concerned. When I took her for her one year checkup, I asked the pediatrician about it, expecting him just to tell me that it's impossible for a child never to get teeth. Instead, he said, "Well, it's very rare that a child doesn't get teeth at all." Which translates to a parent as, "It's entirely possible that your child may never get teeth." This freaked me out, so I grilled him on what might cause Sahana to never get teeth, and he had to back down and convince me that only rare and acute growth problems affect dental growth, and given that Sahana is on target in all other areas, it was almost impossible (he wouldn't give me absolutes) that she wouldn't get teeth.

Anyway, he was right, and she started to sprout her first tooth, on the bottom, about a week later. She started to get her top two teeth in July, and now she has a little pumpkin smile, with two gap-teeth on top with a lone little Chiclet tooth on the bottom. Here is a picture of Sahana right after her one year birthday (can't see her teeth, though):



After Sahana's birthday, Andy and I prepared for our trip to Mexico. We went to Playa del Carmen, in the Mayan Riveiera. We had a blast. We spent most of the time driving around Yucatan looking at Mayan ruins -- luckily we had watched the movie Apocalypto, so we (or at least I) was kind of interested in what the Mayan culture was like (impressive but very violent). We didn't get as much beach time as I would have liked, but Andy plans to get SCUBA certified so we can go back. Here's a shot of one of the Mayan ruins:



Since then, we've just been enjoying the summer. I wrote an article for Slate magazine about Russian spies, Andy got settled into the White Plains office (where he got to go out and arrest Russian spies), and Paras started summer camp at the YMCA. He has totally overcome his fear of water, and is able to swim on his own using a flotation device and put his head underwater. We went to visit my sister and her family in Dallas two weeks ago, and Paras was a little fish, spending several hours a day in the pool (read my post of our visit last summer to see why this is such a big deal). Sahana sported her yellow polka dot bikini and got to go into a swimming pool for the first time.

I can't believe it's already August, and that school will be starting again soon. Paras will be starting pre-K (!) this fall, and Sahana will be joining him at his school. I He is very excited to have his sister at school with him and can't wait to start. I start the travel routine again in September, and Andy will continue to do things he can't talk about.

Now that I have my camera cable, I have an incentive to take more pictures and post, which I will do soon.