Home!

It was 30 hours from door-to-door, with three flights and two long layovers. On the first flight Phoebe didn't have her own seat and screamed like mad the whole two hours. On the second flight, there was a symphony of babies crying around bedtime, but then things quieted out for the last nine hours or so. And on the last flight Phoebe slept the whole way.

We got into the airport at nearly midnight to find friends waiting at the airport with balloons, flowers, signs, and hugs. Lillian, the founder of the agency we used, was there, too. We said goodbye to the families who had journeyed with us. Phoebe took well to her car seat. My parents were at the house waiting to meet their granddaughter.

We tried to go to bed, but Phoebe-- the poor jetlagged soul-- tossed and turned all night long. Around 4:00 a.m. we decided to quit trying, since Mark and I were both feeling wide awake anyway. It was great fun to introduce Phoebe to the toys in our house, one by one showing her how they work. She's a great fan of blocks, and can put them in and take them out of a bucket with no trouble at all. Finally Miranda woke up! Oh my, she's changed in two weeks. Her hair is longer, her face is different, and her vocabulary has exploded. She was barely putting together two words at a time when we left, and now she repeats the last three words of any sentence we utter.

Miranda smiled at Phoebe and gave her a hug. Phoebe is interested in her, too, but is a bit overwhelmed with everything right now, and to some extent Miranda is just another one of those new things around her. Miranda has twice used the sentence, "I want bottle," but responses well to telling her how silly that is. It gets tricky when they both want to be on mama's lap, or they both want the same toy, or when Phoebe gets placed in the Ergo carrier that was always Miranda's. We've had a couple of battles of the wills already, and one Miranda meltdown. But they've played in the sandbox and the toy kitchen together, they both really like the double stroller. We tried a double bath last night, but had to quickly abort tub after a minor poop incident, so we'll have to try again tonight. And I got them both down for naps this afternoon on my own. In short, things are going very well, with the jet lag and adjustments that you'd expect.

My parents are here with us, and that is so helpful! Mark is out of commission today with some combination of jet lag and fever, and my to-do list is enormously long. Thank goodness for four adults in this house right now. I feel like we tripled the amount of "kid" in this household. Am I really going to be home with both of these little ones all day for five or six weeks?