Back East and back home again

We got home last week from a 2-week trip back East to visit with family and friends for the holidays. It was our first big trip with Evelyn anywhere aside from a couple of nights in Mendocino, and her first plane ride. While we prepared for the trip with much trepidation over how she would fly, eat, and sleep, we soon discovered that our fears were totally unfounded. She flew cheerfully (if not a little restlessly at times), ate like she knew it was the holidays, and slept like a dream.



I have lots to write about, and over 600 pictures and videos to go through (only a third of the way through!), so the next few postings will hopefully recap some of the highlights of our trip. In a nutshell though, I think this trip was really good for us. We were so nervous about traveling with Evelyn, but sometimes (usually, actually) it takes getting outside of your comfort zone and routines to learn about yourself. And we learned quite a lot about Evelyn and ourselves that turned out to be really liberating in many ways. For instance, it turns out Evelyn can sleep just about anywhere, and through quite a lot more noise than we thought possible! Now there's no excuse not to go on weekends away every once in a while.

Evelyn seemed to grow in leaps and bounds in just the 2 weeks we were away, developmentally and socially. Much more on that later, but to sum it up, she's replaced most of her swatting and slapping at other kids' heads with hugs and kisses (really!) and her language skills seem to have blossomed. I'm sure all of the extra stimulation, new surroundings, being constantly surrounded by many different and new people, and especially being around her Mama and Papa all the time really did wonders for her. It makes me so sad that now we're back in our normal routine of working full time and seeing Evelyn only in the mornings, evenings before her bedtime, and weekends. And it makes me even more sad that Evelyn doesn't get to experience that kind of social interaction more often.