Home Again

We are finally back home. Traveling with a toddler is exhausting, especially when you're in the holding pen for the G gates at Dulles airport and there aren't enough seats and said toddler wants to lie on the floor sobbing "nononono," which at least drowns out the announcements that your flight still has no crew. I looked longingly over at the airport bar but instead had to content myself with a dry, overpriced sandwich.

I hadn't realized how much travel would disrupt Ben's routine. After all, he's outgoing, and he likes new people and new places. But as much as he enjoyed seeing everyone, traveling from State College to Lancaster to Philadelphia left him fairly cranky, with frequent meltdowns. It didn't help that he came down with a bad cold and we had to find a doctor in Lancaster on New Year's Eve day to check out his cough.

But we got to go back to Pennsylvania and see friends and family. That part was wonderful, though I'm still coming to terms with the fact that we had to come back home to Missouri. (Throughout the vacation, I found it odd to remember that we had a house a thousand miles away.) It also makes me sad that going back is so stressful (not to mention expensive), and probably will be until Ben gets older or we move closer.

Now we're back, though, and ready to get back into our routines. Ben goes to school tomorrow, and I'll be back with a review of King Kong.