California Day 10

Monday morning we met my dad for what has become a bit of a traditional farewell breakfast at Cindy's.

Then belong the somewhat sad trek home. Here we are at the airport with John trapped by a wall of suitcases while Chris was returning the rental car.

He was such a tired boy that he fell asleep sitting up (he refused to use the pillow because he "didn't need to nap.")

It was a fairly rough journey home. We planned to get lunch at the gate before our first plane took off, but we discovered we really weren't hungry yet since breakfast, so we decided to get lunch at our layover. Little did we realize that our layover would be about five minutes long, during which time we ran from one gate to another, not having time to eat lunch, use bathrooms, or change diapers! Besides John's half-hour nap above, he didn't sleep and Mary barely did either, so we had two fussy children on our hands. John was manic with fatigue, which I'm sure irritated our fellow travelers. Mary was fussy because she's been cutting her two top teeth all week. (It pains me to look at the two white Chiclets bulging through her gums.) We got home around 11:00 p.m. EST and all was well.

One funny thing about coming home is the difference in Mary. Just a week ago when we left, she couldn't crawl properly yet. I thought of her as a "lame turtle," the way she'd scooch and flop and get stuck easily. But upon coming home, my mothering style is going to have to change rapidly because she is adept at crawling. She's off like a shot! She mostly wants to be on the ground, zooming to and fro, and she has no compunctions about crawling on the wood or tile floors. I can't just set her down and walk away now because moments later she will have crawled somewhere like the top of the stairs. Also, her new mobility has led to new shrieks of frustration because she wants something and she wants it now. We're in a whole new phase!