dipping

recap
I'm dipping my toes back in the blogging waters. Bullet points are the only way to resume blogging when so much as happened between posts.

• Our surprise visit to England for Dag's (D's dad) 70th BD party was a success! Dag was truly surprised and we had a great time. Avery and Olly were attached at the hip and couldn't wait to be around each other.
• D, Avery and I went to Barcelona, Spain for several days in the middle of our England trip. We had a good time. As always, I enjoyed seeing another country. More on that when I'm more able to concentrate on details. 
• Avery was a stellar traveler. She adjusted to the time change quite well and did very well behavior-wise until our last weekend in London. And I can't really blame her for that fit because she was running on a huge sleep deficit at that point. Something had to give. 
• Avery can carry all of her belongings through the airport: clothes, toys, everything. I guess this isn't that shocking, but I didn't picture getting back to easy travel so early. I figured I'd always be lugging a ton of stuff for her around. With her wheely bag and backpack, she's all set. (Sometimes she does ask for us to carry her pack back so she can run, but sometimes I ask D to carry stuff so I can do x,y, or z, so I figure that still counts as her being a self-sufficient traveler). 
• Avery will sing and dance in the middle of a crowded airport for hours it seems. We got stuck at several points in Heathrow on our way to Barcelona. Avery was just signing and dancing away. It could have been awful to be stuck in lines with a kid in tow, but Avery didn't make it any more difficult. 
• We've been back a week and things are starting to normalize for me. I did GREAT the first couple of days back. I worked out, I did all the laundry, got the house back in working order (food, tidy, laundry, etc), then I just hit a wall and crashed. Vacations, while wonderful, are hard on introverts. Spending so much time with people with little alone time is tough for me. I had a massive amount of alone time (relative for a parent) last week and I'm just now starting to feel like my head is above water. 
• We are heading to NYC in a couple of weeks. D has a business trip. Given I've only been to NYC once, I said let's extend the trip and make a long weekend of it. We've made reservations at some good restaurants and have tentative plans to see The Lion King (for Avery's sake, not mine).  I should buy tickets now ... done. Man, those shows are expensive! My dislike of the theater has saved us a bundle!
• Right now I'm doing my best to split out my single (massive) iPhoto library into years. I hate iPhoto for many reasons, but I've also gotten used to it, so I don't wish to switch. Especially since I have little interest in pictures except as keepsakes. Meaning, they're not a hobby. 

flu shot advice

Avery had her flu shot before Elise and Nolan got theirs. RHG sent this email to me a few days later:

I asked [Avery] to give advice for Elise and Nolan since they were getting flu shots tomorrow.  She asked what "advice" is, and I said tips or ideas to make it easier.  She said "yes aunt chele:
1 - sippy of milk
2 - have a stuffie
3 - hold mommy's hand and
4 - lots of hugs with mommy afterward"

She numbered them and held up her fingers in count as she rattled them off. Impressive.

puppy

It looks like the amount of time off I need from dogs is about 1.5 years. As a BD gift of sorts, I told D that we could get a GS puppy. I'm not sure if we'll get a pure bred one or just wait for one from the humane society. I saw a GS that I fell in love with when we were apple picking. I'm waiting for the woman who owned the dog to get back to me with the breeder information for it as it had a great temperament. 

I always said I would never get another GS and now it's all I want. Go figure.