I'm back from my trip, and alive. :)

Hi all! I survived my air travel, as you have surmised. And I did fine. :) Very well in fact. I didn't whine once.

*halo*

I think I've discovered what makes me so ill at ease about flying - I don't like the sensation of taking off. After that, I was totally fine, small spaces and everything. Taking off just feels so precarious and unnatural to me, although I know that that absolutely isn't true. But overall, this was the best I've ever done in terms of my anxiety when traveling by air. And I think I deserve a gold star. *beams*

(the drink coupons also certainly didn't hurt, but sssshhhhhhhhh! ;-))

On the flight down, I did LOTS of knitting, I was just really feeling the Trick or Treat yarn:

Self-striping yarn is just so exciting. :0 One of the flight attendants stopped to ask me what I was working on, she was so intrigued by my yarn. I also listened to podcasts. I left my beloved iPod, John Paul, at home, and just brought my phone, so I did my homework by finding an app for Android where I can download and store podcasts completely separate from my iTunes account. I don't imagine that I'll move to this model full time just yet, but it's nice to have an option for my podcasts when I don't have my iPod with me/cannot synch to my iTunes library. I'm so reliant upon my podcasts for weekly entertainment that I'm thrilled to have more ways to listen to them depending upon my situation in any given week. So I listened to those and knitted on the way down.

I was traveling with both Henry and my mom, and Henry was just so excited by EVERYTHING. Including the air travel:

"Mommy, who is that, is that the pilot? Why is he doing that? What's this switch for, Mommy? Who's that guy out there, what is he doing with those bags? What's this switch here? Can I press it? Why not? Will they give us any food on here? Why is it taking so long for everyone to get on the plane, Mommy? How come we're not moving yet?"

:0

Then we arrived and the frivolity began in earnest. I was so excited to see my precious nephews, and I got to squeeze them tons (well, they didn't love it, but I did it anyway, ha! "Andrew, COME HERE MUFFIN, Aunt Tiffy wants to hold and kiss you..." "DOWN, DOWN!" :0), but they don't get to see me that often, and so they were mighty suspicious of this new interloper. When we do video chat, they sometimes think I'm Shauna'h, because we look a bit alike, but in person, THE JIG IS UP, my friends. The looks on their faces just scream:

"YOU'RE NOT MOMMY! PUT ME DOWN!!"

But my mom, on the other hand? SO INTO NANA.

"MORE NANA! MORE NANA!"

They see my mom a lot more often, and know her very well, so they were just beside themselves with excitement to have her there. So I tortured them a bit with the repeated squeezing and kissing, but hey! I'm unapologetic about the whole thing. ;-) And they got more used to me as each day passed.

Saturday was their second birthday party, and Henry loved cavorting with his dog cousin, Roscoe:

He's *really* hoping that something falls off of that plate

Such mutual adoration there. I was very happy to squeeze toddlers where I possibly could, help out with party stuff, and sip wine. Boxed Chardonnay? I'm there.

Self portrait with wine glass

I also snuggled my cat nephew, Molson:

This is the life, to be sure

He's a lovey. And of course, the highlight of the day:

Aren't they precious?

Cake and little twin faces, does life get any better? There were 2 sets of twins present, including my nephews. :) On Sunday, we went to Mass and watched football.

#sublime

And then yesterday, of course, we traveled home. Wherein I once again did an admirable job of holding it together while traveling by air. The approach in and out of Portland, Maine has to be one of the prettiest in the entire country, I'm thinking. I was sad to leave, but SO happy to get home to Mike and Anne. Whereupon, my passing through security and towards a beaming Anne earned me:

"NANA!!!!"

*she rushes into my mom's arms*

Everybody loves Nana. :)  Although my greeting wasn't nearly as dramatic, Anne was in fact very happy to see me, and showed this by clinging to me for the rest of the evening in a very emotional fashion, and waking up at 3 am to demand that I hold her. Good times, I felt cherished.

:0

All right everyone, it was tough to eke this post out with the work schedule I had today, but I really wanted to make it happen, and I managed it, don't you feel loved? I will return to you tomorrow, to talk about God knows what, but I'm sure inspiration will strike in the morning. ;-) Until then! How was your weekend? I won't wake you up in the middle of the night to demand an answer, but I'd love it if you would leave a comment. :)