We're Home!

Amid much chaos, but hey, we are here! You are probably all wondering why I haven't posted yet. We have been quite busy the last couple days! No problems with the trip except that it was rather long, of course. But really, it wasn't too bad. The first flight flew by and Jeff and I managed to get a few hours of sleep in here and there. Ruby was a DREAM and slept 2-1/2 hours on the first flight, about 8 or 9 on the 12 hour flight from Tokyo to Chicago, and the whole way back from Chicago to Philly (another 2 hours). She is really something. I had the doorman tell her in Thai before we left that we would be traveling for a whole day on airplanes, but it would be okay cause then we would be home and happy. She must have gotten it somehow. Fussed a bit when she had to put her seat belt on, and also when waiting in lines and when we had to wait to get off the plane, but was otherwise, she was such a sweetie! There's nothing like being woken from your nap to have your diaper changed (I had to - we could SMELL it) at 30,000 feet in a tiny, bumpy airplane bathroom, yet she just yawned and smiled up at me! Such a good girl! Seriously, after planes, boats, trains, cabs, car rides, running around sweating our butts off in Bangkok, changing diapers standing up or having her wedged between 2 sinks, in and out of the busiest and high traffic environments, and traveling for a day and a half straight.... life is going to be so easy now! I think parenting on this side is gonna be a piece of cake! People have said to me, you are using cloth diapers? So much work! Ha! There is nothing that is going to be that much work compared to all we've accomplished as a family so far!  Ruby has handled it all SO well. She is SUCH a trooper. I think she was less cranky than I by the time we got home. Of course, she didn't know what I knew.

Talked to my brother, Jason when we got to Chicago. I just had a feeling I needed to check on the dog, cat, and house. THANK GOD FOR JASON!!!!! He went ABOVE and BEYOND the call of duty for us! Evidently, squirrels invaded our house last week and made a horrible mess! And when I say mess, I mean paw prints everywhere, soot drug from the wood burning stove and the play room and kitchen wrecked! I'm so glad I wasn't here because I would have had a meltdown to rival Ruby's best! After months of working so hard to clean and sanitize this house and make it ready for Ruby, everything was dirty. Her $50 wooden activity cube was chewed, filthy, and had to be thrown away. Two of the pillows in her playroom needed to be thrown out, the others I am trying to wash. The walls needed scrubbed down, eventually repainted, the couch cushions laundered, and the carpet deep cleaned. A thin layer of soot on a lot of stuff, despite my families best efforts. I broke down and cried on the way back from Chicago to Philly, while Ruby slept, but by the time we got home, I decided we would just handle whatever we were about to face. This was her homecoming and I had to deal with it.

My brother worked his butt off to clean up the worst of it. I honestly can't imagine how bad it must have been. Evidently, my nephew came over to clean the cat box a few days ago and my brother got this call: "Uh, Dad, I found out who was making the mess and it wasn't the cat! There are 3 angry squirrels looking at me and I don't know what to do!" Poor Anthony! So Jason, my neighbors and Anthony got all 6 of the nasty little buggers out of the wood burning stove (in my KITCHEN of all places!) and then Anthony's girlfriend and my Mom came to help them clean up. This all went down 36 hours before we got home. My bro knows what a clean freak I have been to get the house ready for Ruby and was in panic mode to get it all done before we got home! Poor guy! We are so lucky to have you, Jase!!! (Thank you Jason, Melissa, Anthony, Mom, and Britney!!! We love you!!) Jeff was also a saint and got to work right away. While I showed Ruby around (carrying her) and took her up to her room (which was unscathed, thank God, because the door was closed) Jeff vaccumed the kitchen and playroom and steam cleaned the kitchen floors. She seemed to like her room. Just looked around and smiled and got right on the rocking horse. Went right over to her dolls from Grandma Kitzmiller and picked the one out that Larae played with as a girl. She looked at it, smiled, hugged it, and gave it a big kiss. So darn sweet! Went back downstairs after it was cleaned up a little more and decided to celebrate. After all, this is Ruby's home coming! We were all wide awake and hungry so what the heck? I popped in the Ella's playhouse CD, danced around a bit with Ruby, put the incredible baked ziti my sister in law made for us in the oven, and we played with some of her toys. My brother told me he carefully wiped down all of her toys and table and chairs with sanitizing wipes, but I did it again just to be extra careful. I had shoved pillows in the bottom toy bins to keep the cat out so all the things on the bottom were totally protected and clean. All her dolls were in there safe and sound so I am really glad! It could have been a lot worse. We are so glad Jason and Anthony took care of the house for us! We had our first (yummy) family dinner at midnight in the dining room and Ruby was quite a fan of aunt Melissa's ziti! So were we! Went to bed at 2:30, up by 6 and got right back on schedule. 

We had the most incredible morning yesterday. She was so cute and happy. Okay, except for the fact that she is scared of the cat and dog! Hopefully that will get better with time. For now we are trying to keep them apart with the help of baby gates. Ruby has bonded with us so well that we broke our no vistors rule and let Jason come over with our nephew Ryan. They were so cute together! Ryan brought over books and a video to share and they were fast friends. Melissa came over an hour later and we had a nice visit with them before nap time. A good first day except for the animal thing. Ruby fell fast asleep by 7 pm and I was out like a light by 7:30! Got up at 3am today and the first thing on my mind was...ah! I can go clean!