A Lofty Idea

Life was a bit less stressful after Cynthia learned to walk and talk.

You think the terrible Two was difficult to deal with?
It was not so with my first born.

I thought baby's First Year was Mother's nightmare!
We went through these periods - 
In the beginning - not sleeping through the night.
(I have to say it was partly my fault. We had Cynthia sleeping in our room. Not a good idea. Because every time she made a noise, I would wake up. Then I would try to see if there was anything wrong with her. In turn, I would wake her up. Then she needed to be fed . . .  A vicious circle.) 
At six months - refusing to eat solid food.
At ten or eleven months - discovering the power of the word "No."
At one year - "I can get what I want by trying to cry."
At one and half -  the declaration of, "I can do it myself."

At near two - "I don't need a nap."

But Mother did!

Aside from the above, Cynthia was a near angel.
She loved to be read to. She would look at picture books for long periods of time. She could entertain herself well, playing with toys.
At two, she would allow me to sleep through the night.
She was potty trained. 

She met some neighborhood children and made friends with some.

I myself got to know some of S.C.'s friends' wives. We had occasional outings.
We met with his friends and their families on some weekends. However, we always took Cynthia with us where-ever we went.

One time, some friends offered to babysit Cynthia. They thought we needed to go out by ourselves some. So, we bought some tickets to a concert. 

Well, halfway through the concert, we looked at each other, got up, and left the concert. 

We were not exactly enjoying the night out. 
We were worried about Cynthia - Because that was the first time we ever left her with anybody. 
We were such nervous parents. 
We went back to our friends' place. Of course, Cynthia was sound asleep - she did not miss us at all.

We bought a sewing machine. I always loved to sew. Now I could design and make dresses for my baby. I was happy.

Like a new plant, I was starting to grow Roots.

But my husband had different plans.
He said that he wanted to go back to UT to work on his PH.D. Now, you cannot fault that, can you?
It was a lofty idea.
So, I said, "Okay."

He found a job with the Texas State Health Department in Austin, enrolled at UT, and started making plans for us to move to Austin.

And, I started packing.