I'm in love....

I don't know where to start. After over a month away, I'm finally home. I left for San Diego back in December and spent a week there, enjoying the sunshine, getting myself back. I took Emer out and about, by myself, got more comfortable with her and my ability to take care of her. We had a great time and I know my parents enjoyed spending time with her. Before we left Seattle, she was sleeping in our bed and would absolutely not go to sleep in the pack and play beside us. By the time we left for Ireland, she was sleeping on her own in the pack and play. Not only that, but sleeping through the night. We are blessed.

Without making this a blog strictly about my little girl, well.. it's kind of hard, since that's all my life has been for the past two and a half months. The amazing thing is how much she's grown. How much she's changed. She's smiling at us now. It's truly a miracle. I can't say enough.

Ireland was great. The flight over on Aer Lingus was brilliant, the stewardesses were so sweet to us with the baby. We had a bassinet, which meant we had a place for Emer to sleep which was nice. We sat next to a nice couple with another baby a week older than Emer. It was the first time we spent any time with anyone with a baby and it was fun to talk about our youngsters without feeling like we had to stop! We arrived with no problems and spent the 3 weeks visiting Martin's friends and family. It was a lot of craziness but we even managed to get a couple nights out on our own - drinking pints of Guinness - YUM - and catching up with everyone. Martin's sister had had a baby in July, her second, and he is adorable and really mellow. Her older son David, at 4 1/2, was in love with "Baby Emer" and would give her the sweetest gentlest kisses on her head and hugs. Then he'd run around like the Tasmanian devil the rest of the time! But he was always gentle with her. He wanted us to leave her in Ireland!!

I managed to catch up with one of my best friends, Julie. She had spent the last 5 months in Ireland and had met a lovely guy. They had just moved to Edinburgh in Scotland, to try and make things work as she couldn't stay in Ireland any longer due to visa restrictions. She had flown home over Christmas to LA and her flight went back through Dublin. She had a 6 hour layover so we picked her up at the airport and went into town for a couple pints and a catch up. It was absolutely brilliant - it had been over a year since I've seen her - and she is so happy. It's great to see and I hope everything works out for her and her irishman!

We spent the last 3 days in San Diego again and enjoyed a few days of 80 degrees before heading back to Seattle. The night we arrived to six inches of snow! It was such a bad storm that my friend who was going to pick us up from the airport couldn't get there. The taxi rank was 2 hours long so we ended up renting a car and driving home at 25 miles an hour. We made it. It's been crazy cold and icy for the past two days! What a welcome home.

Anyhow, there is so much that went on.. too much to post about, almost. I'll write things as I think of them. And hopefully I'll be posting photos each time.... Maybe one of these days I'll be able to get to read your posts as well!! I hope you are all doing well.