Forgive my absence

We are home. The plane rides and sleeping in a strange bed went very well for the boy and I was very happy and more than just a little relieved. Perhaps we have turned a corner in that respect. I think we will still wait until he is in a "big kid bed" rather than a crib for a while before we try to stay in a hotel...

We had a nice visit with J's family and got to meet the boy's wee cousin for the first time. Wee Cousin is not yet four months old, but he is a delightful butterball who was full of sweet smiles. I really love babies. If I didn't think of the boy as a baby still - he is nearly two! - this visit might have given me the baby aches. Thankfully diapers make him still seem like a baby to me and the thought of two small children in my house - together, all the time - is enough to remind me that my health insurance doesn't cover psychiatric therapy or drugs and I can't afford both a new baby and the medication that it would require for me to have a new baby along with my current baby any time soon.

The low point of the vacation was that my father-in-law had to have an emergency appendectomy Monday. Thankfully he is doing well and while there is no good time to have emergency surgery, this week was the time to have it since J was able to be there in the hospital with him.

We came home Tuesday and I haven't written because on Wednesday I hurt my back - yes, again - and I'm thinking that my insistence that I could carry 150 pounds of luggage by myself just a short distance wasn't that good an idea. Since I would prefer to not go through this again, and certainly not in less than two and a half months, I think it is safe to say that I have learned my lesson.

On the up side of things, the boy is making great verbal strides. He has started stringing three words together more regularly than he had been and he learns new words daily. And I'm "mommy" and not "mama" now. I love it. I called my mother "mommy" and I always said I wanted to be a "mommy" when I grew up. I guess that means I'm grown up. Is that why I feel so old sometimes? :)