home again, home again, jiggidy jig

Greetings from San Diego!

Well, we are happy to be home after quite a journey. The trip yesterday went quite smoothly without any serious complications. We stopped by to visit C yesterday morning so that she could see Kyla one more time and so we could give her our leftover food (got a very nice email from her today thanking us for that closure). Then we strapped Kyla in for her longest car ride ever (1.5 hours!) during which she slept the whole time. Our friends Brad and Kathy were kind enough to loan us a Pack'nPlay and then Brad even offered to meet us by the airport to pick it up! Unbelievably cool. We found out later that Kyla slipped him a C-note for the effort.

Here's Brad taking video of Kyla while we dined at the fine Chicago establishment "Applebees" (sorry Kirk, don't worry -- she slept the whole time and didn't notice that we chose to dine in a soul-crushing corporate conglomerate; not to mention that they don't serve Enfamil there ... and, by the way, that is not her coke on the table):
The flight itself was actually quite smooth. The 3 and 4 year olds in the seat behind us we in training for the international soccer leagues and were practicing the field kick on the back of our seats, but luckily Kyla slept through it. Who doesn't reprimand their kids for doing that after the person in front looks back in disgust 84 times? Their mom even apologized after glance #52 by me, but still no reprimands were heard. We were secretly wishing Kyla would have some small issue so that her best scream made its way into their undisciplined ears, but alas she was an 'unfortunately' unproblematic for the duration of the flight...even the landing was nothing for this one.

Here she is casting spells on the surrounding passengers:



Now we are getting into the rhythm of sleep deprivation and tag-team diaper changes. We are like the pit crew at the Indy 500. Rach has acquired sponsorship from Marlboro and has a nice logo on her PJs. However, even the most tested pit crew can be phased by a 3-car pileup. Substitute the noun of your choice for "car". :)

Grandma from LA met us at the airport and her first comment was "she's so cute!".... well, of course. It was nice to have her here overnight to help with the late night baby meltdown! Kyla is generally very content except for a period of time in the middle of the night!

Here's Kyla with grandma:


Lastly, Kyla had her first doctors check-up today and she has gained 2 ounces in only 9 days. That's 1.6% of of her birth weight. Chow down, baby! She is quite healthy and we were able to get very little advice from her doctor...and that's fine with us. Here she is on the examination table, simply pondering the mysteries of what actually does happen once you arrive at the event horizon. No answers yet, but she did arrive at one clean rear.

KG signing off...