Good to get away...good to be home.

This is the view from our room. We also had a city view off to the left of this picture of Old San Juan, located about 1.5 miles away.

I'll put up a couple more of the best of the Puerto Rico photos in another post. G'parents Ohio took their photos and left--I'm sure they took a handful. G'parents Wisc. didn't take any pictures...the long way of saying, the picture taker is back in action and we once again have photos of Eddie--from today.

We celebrated Christmas with g'parents Wisc. tonight. Ed was up to his usual present opening antics, tearing off piece by piece and then when he found something to his liking, complete obsession.

The other photo is one of the last you'll see with Ed on my lap for a while, as I'm running out of lap space.

So we left on a 6:45 am flight on Sat. Jan. 13 and were supposed to get in late on Wed. the 17th. Our pre-child vacations tended to be intense, with days crammed full of hikes and activity from morning until night. We ate Chips Ahoy and Pringles for dinner. Post-child, it involves getting dinner by 6 or 7 and an early night--to be greeted by an earlier morning. Lots of breaks for naps and nutrious meals. This was a hybrid of the 2--taking it very easy, with lots of breaks and bottles of water, while occasionally overdoing it and having to lay down to rest. Sleeping in until the screaming toddler in the room next door woke us at 5am and continued to scream until 8am, almost constantly (only one morning) and then eating dinner at 8:30 and 9pm.

It was a great anniversary/babymoon trip and we are eternally greatful to the g'parents, all 4 of them, for making it possible. I knew we'd miss Eddie, but for once, I got to experience what Den goes through every time he goes away. Every child I saw, I thought about Eddie and wondered how old they were. Every playground, or child-related thing I saw, I thought of Ed. The first 2 days, I was quite homesick for him. Yet at the same time, I thought of what a treat it was to get to sleep in, not carry a stroller and diaper bag, and eat when we wanted, where we wanted, and what we wanted.

It helped that every day when we called to check in on the g'parents there was a whole lotta hootin and hollerin' going on. Ed could almost without fail be heard singing in the background and happily playing. G'parents seemed to be having a good time. I had spent the week before writing out detailed instructions on how to give him his medicene, his favorite foods, and in general what he is used to. We did a medical release and the whole bit--basically the g'parents could run the house with the instructions I left. We didn't expect them to follow any of it--except for the medicene part, but it made the control freak in me feel better to have them know what Ed was accustomed to.

I was thrilled when we returned that Ed greeted us so warmly--a sign that he wasn't angry for leaving us with first one set, and then the other set of g'parents. And apparently the transfer, with the 4 adults on hand that love Eddie almost as much as his parents went well, with no one tugging at Eddie's limbs.

As I mentioned, we were supposed to come home on Wednesday. While enjoying a relaxing lunch in an outdoor cafe on a side street (watching a man who appeared to be off of his meds pace up and down the street, limbs flying and with the occassional spastic utterance), Den got a call on his cell. While he was talking to Delta, he got several more calls from Delta, trying to reach him. Our flight that evening had been cancelled due to weather in Atlanta and we were to be rebooked on the 8am flight the next day. That's when the scurrying began. The next 24 hours were not overly relaxing, as we searched for a hotel, sat in rush hour traffic trying to get to the airport all in vain to see if Delta could get us a good deal on a hotel, handed in the car and in general tried to tie things up.

More later...