One Week Home

It’s hard to believe we’ve been home one week already. I admit I still feel unsettled, since we left in the middle of winter and are back in the middle of summer (really the middle of summer – everyone who has been telling me how mild the summer has been here now blames us for bringing the real heat back with us; it looks like we’ll have our first 100-degree day this week). I’m weeding out the girls’ clothes and shoes that no longer fit, and unearthing summer clothes that do fit, so it is a bit of a muddle.

The girls have started sleeping through the night (finally!) after a few rough days. One day they fell asleep about 3 p.m. for a nap, it took me FOREVER to wake them up for dinner, they went back to sleep at 8 p.m., and woke up at 2 a.m. and WOULD NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP! The biggest problem is that I hadn’t yet been to sleep when they woke up! They spent the next night with Mimi & Grandpa so I could catch up on sleep, and I ended up sleeping from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

We’re trying to stay busy during the day so the girls won’t be tempted to go to sleep. Right before dinner is the hardest time – they seem to want to go to sleep around 6 p.m. and I have to pull out all the stops to keep them up. At least it’s been pretty easy to stay busy since school will be starting up soon. We’ve had shopping to do (new lunchboxes, new uniform shoes for Zoe), and doctor’s appointments for Zoe and for me (Zoe is healthy as the proverbial horse and I have calcification of the Achilles tendon, which sends me to a specialist later this week), and playdates with friends, and visiting Maya’s school to start re-familiarizing her with it before she begins week after next.

Zoe has been worried that her school friends won’t remember her, so it was a good thing that we saw one of her friends at church on Sunday; of course Kennedy recognized her immediately. So that worry has ended. And Zoe’s ego doesn’t seem too impaired by the worry. We were meeting some friends at the children’s museum after church, a playdate not arranged with us in mind, but to see other friends visiting from out of town. But Zoe asks me during church, “Do you think my friends are going to church or do you think they’re making cards for me?!” I had to tell her that the playdate wasn’t really about her, so no one would have cards for her!

They still haven’t found our suitcase, and have turned us over to the Claims Department, so it doesn’t seem too hopeful now. I took my mom to the airport this morning – she’s going to Vermont to visit my sister – and then hit all the baggage claim places at the three terminals American Airlines flies into at DFW. No luck. So the next step is to fill out the claim form, which includes a detailed list of all contents of the suitcase. I’m not looking forward to that – it will be one heck of a long list!

We once saw a TV show in China with an odd magician/clown who did tricks like blowing his face off, and then making it reappear. He’d then shout, “BACK to normal!” The girls loved it, and took up “Back to normal” as their catch-phrase for a while. Well, we’re not quite there yet, but I think soon we’ll be able to say quite truthfully, “BACK to normal!”