Making mistakes.

Darshan Ross Marcotte Sarai, after a 10 week stay in the NICU, came home April 8, 2012. His sister would spend the next two days at the NICU until her graduation date.

We were now, for the first time, full-time hands-on parents. How long did it take to catch ourselves making our first parenting mistakes? 

It happened the first day. We decided to proceed with a family Easter Sunday dinner that had been previously scheduled before knowing Darshan would be coming home. The house was filled with a myriad of new sounds and new smells, and poor little Darshan, accustomed to a very different environment in the NICU, was completely overwhelmed. 

Parenting lesson learned: Kids can handle change, but they prefer consistency.