Re-entry

We're back from Massachusetts, and I think we're all recovering pretty well.  It was wonderful to see my family, most for Sarah's first time.  It was just exhausting for all of us.

Sarah did a lot better during the the visit than I'd expected.  In fact, she seems to be having a harder time readjusting to being at home than she had getting used to Grammy's.  I wonder if it's some sort of PTSD (not that I'm calling the trip traumatic). 

She seemed comfortable sleeping in the Pack n Play in my old bedroom with me and slept well at bedtime and naptime at first.  She had a progressively harder time, though, and was racking up a deficit, so I'm glad we didn't stay longer.

On Tuesday, we had lunch with my Uncle Bill and his partner Jane.  Sarah was a charmer as always.  She had her first drink of water from a straw, which she mastered quickly.  Unfortunately, she then pulled the straw from the plastic cover and proceeded to groom herself with the water that dribbled out.  I'm not kidding.  She would get water on her hands then run them through her hair and down her face.  It was like an Herbal Essences commercial...not exactly table-appropriate behavior.  She also had her first taste of lobster, from my yummy lobster roll.  She found it to her liking.

Sarah's cousins, Forrest, Sam, and Kelley, had a half-day of school on Wednesday, so we visited that afternoon.  She was a little overhelmed by all of the attention and activity but held up pretty well through guitar and saxophone solos and being deluged with hand-me-down toys.  She was one hungry, tired girl by dinnertime, though.

We were at Grammy's for Thanksgiving Day, and the meal was amazing, as always, with my mom's farm-raised turkey and homemade pies.  After dinner, Sarah started climbing the two stairs between the dining room and kitchen and quickly got into her "zone."  Up, down, up, down, over and over.  Her cousins got in on the action, and she kept everyone entertained for a good half-hour.

Sarah made Grammy's day by letting her hold her for a few seconds on Tuesday, the first person other than Don and me to hold her since we came home from China.  On Thursday, she let Grammy hold her for a few minutes, which really put a smile on Grammy's face.

Our trip home Friday was fairly uneventful.  We had a long layover in Minneapolis and just happened to choose gates with flights to Tokyo and Beijing to relax and let Sarah do some crawling on the carpet.  She loved seeing all of the Asian faces and even got to say "hello" to a little boy about her age.

As I mentioned earlier, Sarah seems to be having a rough time re-entering our quiet life on the farm.  On Friday and Saturday, she was whiny and clingy and just plain unhappy.  She seems to have returned to her contented self today, though.  Sleep-wise, she's been an angel.  The last two nights, she's pointed to her crib, then laid there quietly while going to sleep -- no jabbering, rolling, or sitting up -- and been out in less than 10 minutes.  She's been restless during the night but hasn't cried much.  She's been up at 5:20 both mornings, uncanny since that's the time she was waking before our trip.  She has a strong biological clock, that girl.