Going home...

Well, we're home! We had a wonderful trip, and I think Seth met all the home folks. He also took his first plane ride and did great. I got compliments from the other passengers. =) I got a great deal on a flight from Reagan (5 minutes from here) to PTI (10 minutes from home,) so it was a no brainer to skip the 6 hour car ride. Oh, how I love familiar faces and places. I think my favorite spot at the house where I grew up is the back porch. It overlooks our back yard where David and I got married, and there is a large field behind that. It's sooo green. Living in the city, I miss grass and trees the most. They're so calming. I realize that I miss the quiet of the country when I go home. They hadn't cut on our air conditioning here before we left, so we'd had all the windows wide open for several days and nights before I left, and we heard everything. I got tired of the sirens and hearing other people's conversations in our building and the parking lot. All I heard were birds at home. =) There was even a sparrow who'd built a nest on top of the drain pipe next to my parent's porch. I fed my baby in the swing, and she looked over her little blue eggs.

Seth got to meet his Uncle Albert the Dog. Albert will lick anything, and he got in a few good ones on Seth's face. He didn't seem to mind. Mom and Dad were great to me this week. It was nice to have some extra hands during the day. I got so much help that I....drum roll please....FINISHED MY THANK YOU NOTES!!! I came up with this idea to send the last ones with my birth announcements, so I divided a word document into several sections and just typed them up and signed them by hand. It worked like a charm. I even printed out addresses on labels so I could just peel and stick on the envelopes. It was such a feeling of relief to get that done. It's been hanging over my head for so long. I also even managed to paint my toenails! =) Little things like that just don't get done with Seth, who is currently crying in his cradle because he woke up from his nap grumpy and refused to get happy, leading Mommy to decide he needed to go back to bed. Sigh. I miss the extra hands already.

This is Seth with Mama Eliza. Mama Eliza is 97 years old, and I never thought she'd get to meet my baby, so it was so sweet that she got to hold him. She worked for my Great-Uncle Richard for most of her life, helping my Aunt Marty with housework and raising the children. She considers all of us in the family to be her children and great-grandchildren, and we're happy to have the title. We lived at Aunt Marty and Uncle Richard's house right after we were married for the summer, and she taught me how to make fried corncakes and her famouse iced tea. This woman knows how to cook real Southern food, and when she passes, all that knowledge will pass with her. She's a wonderful Christian lady.

Here we have Seth with his Great-Aunt Mary. Aunt Mary is such a card. I hope I'm as full of energy and infectious laughter when I'm 81. I asked Aunt Mary if she'd make something homemade for Seth, just something simple like a sock monkey doll. Well, she decided that wasn't good enough. He's getting a homemade Raggedy Andy doll with "I love Seth" stitched in a little heart on his chest. She was "tickled" over the idea that she can still do things like that at her age. She didn't even mention all the canning and chow chow making and running Uncle Brady around that she does.

This trip, Seth decided to honor me by truly giving me the title of Mommy. I left him with Mom and Dad on Sunday afternoon so I could go to Walmart, and I came home and walked in the door to find him crying hard. Dad and Mom had been trying to console him for the last 1/2 hour with no success. I was sure he was starving or something. They handed him to me, and instantly, he got quiet. He lay on my shoulder and shuddered, and he stayed that way for the next 1/2 hour! He needed me! Me! Mommy, and nobody else but Mommy! I didn't know that this could happen at three months, but Seth has a clear preference for me now. Mom and Dad would try to get near him and touch him right after that incident, and he would start crying again until I backed away from them. Now, this is something that we're going to have to work on. This child is going to have to have babysitters, and he didn't do so badly with them again during the visit. But it was nice to feel like he appreciates me for all the cuddling and love I give him and not just for the open milk bar.

I also learned that it's a little tough to go away for several days without David. It's harder than I thought it would be to be the only one in charge of Seth. When I'm with David, I have a co-manager. I can relax, knowing that I'm off duty when he has the baby. It isn't that way with Mom and Dad. They are great helpers, but I'm the manager, and they're the employees. I'm still ultimately in charge, and that can be a little wearing. I don't know how single mothers do it all. I'm so thankful for a husband who takes his responsibility as a dad seriously so that I don't feel like I'm always in charge of our little guy. I missed David in new ways while we were gone. I only love you more every day, handsome. Especially when I'm tired of walking Seth at fussy time all by myself. =)