Episode 325 : Circle of life

I do not remember the last time I heard an infant wail at home.

It is only fitting that it seems a long time, because it was 18 years ago that an infant last wailed at home. This house has been quiet since then. The only whining and howling I remember instantly are from the dogs that were pups once upon a time...

I returned home 4 weeks after the little one was born, to be welcomed by my "child" at home and its new companion. At 10 years, Phoebus is on the last leg on her journey. But the arrival of her new companion, a 6-month old Boxer seems to have delayed it. From a lethargic old dog, she has transformed to a dog half her age. The good thing is that she has not forgotten to obey when I demand it- which becomes useful when the Boxer demands patience from me.

Patience. A quality that I managed to learn for other things, but forgot how it is done for obedience-training. Or for baby-sitting.

I suppose the graduation to uncle-dom comes with its share of worries and insecurities. Like how adults wonder if they can be good parents, I sometimes wonder if I can be a model uncle. I try to recall how it was for me and for Edwina with our maternal uncle. How we used to look up to him, how we used to wait impatiently for his arrival every Sunday so that we could play with him.

I wonder if I have it in me to be the kind of uncle my nephew would want me to be, like how I had wanted my uncle to be for me.