...and there goes November...

I am chasing months by the tail these days.  I've failed thus far to blog about all the things that happened in October, and now I really don't know where November disappeared to.  I swear I barely changed my calendar over, and December is two days away.

Oh, and possibly worth noting:  whatever accidental hiatus this blog has been on has been exaccerbated by the fact that we've apparently reached our photo limit on Google, and figuring out what to do next hasn't been a top priority. I foresee a day of massive posts once we figure that out...

Here are a few random things for now:
*  We've had a crazy week here, since Jason is at a leadership training event all week and Henry decided it might be a good week to get a cold.  It's 7 pm, and if I had already eaten dinner I would be crawling into bed right now.  Still, I am finding myself increasingly empowered by facing the challenges of parenthood and conquering them (finding a hotel in Denver at 2 am when your flight almost gets to Boise and then can't land because of the fog?  Check.).  And increasingly humbled by asking for help and receiving it.

*  This right here is one of the best things I've ever seen on the internet.  Ha.  Love it.

*  Among the many things I love about Henry right now is the fact that he can sit in a cart out of his car seat.  It is nice to be able to go to Costco and Trader Joe's and actually fit stuff in my cart again.

*  I'm on the verge of making these amazing cookies again (if I could just clean the baby snot off of everything for a few minutes).  We're doing a Christmas cookie exchange this weekend, and there is a wee part of me that wants to make crappier cookies for everyone else and keep these all to myself...

*  During Jason's absence I've been watching Clueless again for the first time in years.  It is like reliving my senior year.  Totally existential.  Why are movies from high school and college generally so much better than movies now?  (Although we did watch Sherlock Holmes last weekend.  Lurve.)

*  Here's the thing:  I am so tired of talking about spit-up and poop.  So why do I keep bringing it up?  

*  I confess that we did not love making Thanksgiving dinner this year.  Nothing turned out quite as good as last year (and the gravy turned out way worse), but it was still as much work.  And then we ate leftovers for literally six meals straight (including apple pie for breakfast).  Best. Thing. Ever.  Why don't we make turkey more often?!?


There you have it.  And now I am going to clean up the spit-up that is all over the kitchen floor (!!!), go make myself some waffles, crawl into bed, and read Harry Potter until my eyes are too heavy to open.

A Brief Pause

Jason made me waffles tonight, a real treat, and I ate them along with an entire chocolate bar he brought me from Belgium.  We arrive home tonight after two weeks away, and it was a pretty good meal, considering all we had in the fridge was an empty carton of milk and some overly ripe potatoes.  It's nice to be home, even though I never like leaving Idaho when Jason is already there and not waiting for me in Virginia.

My sisters and I resolved to start acting like adults with little kids when I come to visit, rather than girls who want to go shopping with their mom (since, even though we DO want to go shopping with our mom, it is just so not as fun with seven kids running circles around us).  But sometimes when I'm home it's easy to forget about being the wife/mother/grown-up and think instead about the girl who had a round trip ticket to DC and back and somehow never used the return flight.  It still feels familiar to hear the shower turn loudly on in the morning and the sound of the cuckoo clock chiming the late night hour.  And it's strange to think that the baby next door in Shaanti's room is mine.

Henry changes a lot when we are gone for so long.  For starters, now that he is serious about his solid foods, he has put on some real weight--which is a nice change after gaining an entire ounce in the course of the previous two months (oh the stress I've been under the past few weeks!).  He is giggly and happy and practically sitting up on his own, and with his two new vampire teeth he looks hilarious and cute.  He is a good traveler...though traveling with a six-month-old is trying at the best of times.  We came home with five bags (five!), full of hand-me-downs and Christmas presents and new clothes I don't need but which go perfectly with my fall boots (there was SOME shopping with Mom, after all).  The days of traveling without checked bags are really, really over.

We're tucking into bed now, even though it feels like 8:00 to me (especially since Mom and I stayed up too late watching Downton Abbey the past two nights).  After being sick for over a month, I finally got some antibiotics and feel like a new person.  Our bags are mostly unpacked, though there are a few leftover toiletries and unwashed travel baby food containers scattered throughout the house.  I head back to work tomorrow, so we have daycare bags and work bags packed and soup ready to go in the crockpot.  Our weekend is already packed, and I wonder what it would be like to be home and not have company and not have a million obligations, even though I like company and the obligations on the calendar.  Settling in will probably take a bit.  I'll get reacquainted with my friends and work through some loneliness for my sisters and my mom and dad.  But I'm reading Harry Potter again, and celebrating the holidays early has made me extra excited for Christmas, and it's nice to be back in our little home and in our own beds. 

There is much blogging to be done--not only from our recent trip/s, but from basically the whole month of October.  It will come.  But until then, just a brief pause to say we are home and good night.