Momma Sing Sing Thatcha Gotta Jiboo. Papa Sing Gotta Jibboo!

We made it. We're in one piece (well 3 actually) and short of our washer/dryer deciding that today was the day to cease functioning all is well and settled. Thank goodness for corner laundromats with drop-off service. Ashton did incredibly well on the flights. I don't know if his new diet had anything to do with it or if he's really started to entertain the idea of attaching to us, but we saw smiles and giggles that we had never seen before and it was so much fun. He is quite a tease, however, so as often as he'd flash a smile he'd also flash a closed-mouth grin with some serious eye contact behind it saying, "watch out, I've got you wrapped around my little finger and I'm not afraid to use it!" He completely conked out once we got from JFK to our car, and slept the entire 2 hour ride home. I highly doubt he even knew he was in a car seat. No, this he didn't figure out until we went to the grocery store and then he decided that he indeed does not like car seats. We'll be working on that. Can't wait till we get to introduce him to Brooklyn and the NYC subway!

He LOVED his first meal in his highchair. The fact that he had access to a handful of Cherios that he didn't have to fish out of a snack-trap was just heaven to him. Don't get me wrong, he loves his snack-trap (and sharing his Cherios with daddy), but to have so many Cherios right in front of him with zero obstacles all for the taking? Baby sugar. His first bath at home was alright, although we're still searching for the fine line between "wow this is fun there are so many toys look at this one go splish splash" and "get me out of here I'm freezing cold what are you mad woman?!!". We'll be working on this also.

It's 95 degrees and hot, humid, and sticky in NY today and tomorrow so we have the fan blasting in Ash's room and the cats are sprawled out in the coolest part of the house looking as though they don't plan to move until someone serves them an umbrella drink. We're watching Ash's every move with our handy-dandy video baby monitor while contemplating the best way to post our top 10 lessons learned from the past 9 days. Not guaranteeing any real pearls of wisdom, but we did have a few "ah-ha" moments that might be useful to share. So, once we realize we're no longer in Oz with HOH nannies nearby to help or the staff at the Sheraton Addis around the corner to change crib sheets we'll pull it together enough to write them down and share with the lot of you getting ready to travel. Till then here are some cute new pics!

Ashton enjoying his first plane ride

Ashton meeting Bode and Bridger (Bode is in the background...safe)

Bath time and eating time (and a look at his drop-you-dead-in-your-tracks closed-mouth smile I spoke of earlier!)