Hello

I'm back. I physically got back about 24 hours ago, but am only now feeling part of life again, as I've finally had a chance to curl up with my MacBookBaby (whose battery is mysteriously broken) and reenter the electronic life.

I've accepted my new facebook friends, updated my status, and churned through my Google Reader. I now know who's had their baby, who hasn't, who's kids have had birthdays, who has a broken heart because they should have been able to celebrate a child's birthday.

It feels good to be slightly back in touch with the lives of those I've missed.

There is oh-so-much-more to come. Pictures and stories, but here is a brief rundown of the major things that have happened in my life this month:

1. Nursing: finished. My Little Biter upped the ante and no amount of Lansinoh was going to pull us through.
   
2. My baby is one. One year of life lived (starting from conception) back and forth across the ocean. She is a beauty.
3. Taly, my beautiful baby, who's not so much a baby any more, took off walking.
4. No one who has been around me over the past 4 weeks will ever accuse me of being type-A or controlling, or a neat freak, or clean. They have watched me sit back as my child rolls on dirty floors, eats food off the ground, and have seen me take pictures of her smearing dirt into her mouth. I hope my deeply-felt conviction that it's good for her is right.
5. I'm afraid Simon has developed an aversion to Indian people. They (I don't mean to generalize, but I do think it was about 99% of people we passed on the street in India) kept grabbing his face and pinching his cheeks as hard as they could. If your skin color is a beautiful shade of brown, and Simon screams at you, that's why - he's afraid you're going to "get" him.
6. I have survived LOOOOONG plane flights and LOOOOONG layovers. I have not done it with an abundance of grace, but I've done it and we're home now.
7. My son, who looks at me like I'm speaking Mandarin when I try to get him to color in the lines, has started, on his own of course, to "color in the lines" and write letters that I've never taught him.
8. My son has started pooping on the potty. Wait, no. That one's true only in my imagination.
9. I'm thinking about becoming a flight attendant and making the focal point of my career catering to parents traveling with small children.
10. I have taken over 600 pictures, deleted half of them, and am now faced with the prospect of uploading the remaining 300 (100 of which are of Taly eating dirt) onto my computer.
11. My Indian diet plan (wherein I lose 10 pounds simply by disliking the food) backfired as I suddenly started liking Indian food, and I spent about 600 rupees on ice cream bars.
12. Our dossier made it to Rwanda, I believe, on time. A few more months baby, Mommy's coming.
    
13. Yesterday, I took a hot shower. Behind a shower curtain. Do you have any idea what a blessing shower curtains are? Do you have any idea how nice it is to be able to step out of the shower onto a dry floor? For another day or so, that will count as pure bliss in my book.
    

Like I said, more to come.