Homecoming

Home again, home again, lickety split.  It was only three days.  A little jaunt across the country.  Saige would get her grandparents to herself.  Quinn and Garrett would get a weekend with their Daddy.

Saige went to the ice show and hung out with me and picked all of her favorite shows without taking turns and stayed up late and had ice cream and grandma's pumpkin bars (to die for you will never eat pumpkin pie again).  Garrett and Quinn saw a hockey game with Daddy and "camped" in the basement overnight.  Daddy even set up the tent and the air mattress. (He is insane, you couldn't pay me to sleep in that basement.)

And for me?

I got to hear Garrett's sweet, high voice on the phone.  Hi Mommy, can I talk to Saige?  She already went to bed, sweetheart, what did you do today?  Aw. I want to talk to Saige. I want to tell her that everyone asked for her at school and I want to tell her that we went to Leo's birthday party and we had cake AND a cupcake.

Forget missing mom when there's lording cake over your sister to be done.  Unbeknownst to him, she had a similar report involving Grandma's all day cookie baking fest and ice cream.  Oneupmanship in the world of five-year-olds.


I got to see them in the back of the car on the way home from the airport, so excited, stumbling over each other in their eagerness to share all their news.  I got to watch Nate light up for Matt and then totter around on his unsteady legs after Hampton.  "Dogdog.  Dogdog.  Dogdog."

I got to hear Quinn say, jazz hands flapping in my face in his excitement, "mall mellows go in the hotchawclet. Big mellows go on the cwackers."  If you can decipher that in less than fifteen minutes, you're doing better than his mother.  (Hint, it involved basement camping and big, big sticky.)

I got to come home. Now I need to stop pretending I have months until the holidays, bake some challah, buy some presents, deck some halls and a room or two and deal with my holiday card bottleneck.  That's what I'll be doing feverishly for the next two weeks.  It might even involve Costco after dark with all of the littles.  Bring it on, mean Costco parking lot people.  I'm ready for you.