A rather quiet week for us, recovering in general from the last few weeks and all the travelling. As suspected, Isobel has taken a long time to get back to her usual sleep routine - I think we're just about there now, and we've been back for over a week now! Last night was the first time she slept through on her own again, previously she's been waking about 40mins after I put her to bed and then screaming until I picked her up again - the jetlag seems to have made her very clingy, to the point where she'd cry if I even took a few steps away. It's been quite tiring for us both, and rather frustrating for Andy - many times Isobel just wouldn't calm down unless she was with me.

I was lucky enough to win a contest on Cara's blog - I started reading earlier in the year a little bit after I got stuck into knitting again. She takes lots of artsy photos of her knitting in progress, and has even done a bit of crochet recently ... I wish I had her sense of colour! Anyway, I've got a lovely little box of goodies on it's way to me - a couple of skeins of sock yarn, a box of gorgeous notecards from Cara's photos, and a cute little tape measure ... and you can never have too many of those!!

Meanwhile, the Mustang is still at the mechanics'. Not too bad this week, as the weather outside has been rather average and dreary. Still, I hope this doesn't drag on for too much longer!! I managed to get out to my crochet guild meeting on Monday night, Marcia did a workshop on a lacy spiderweb block which looks like lots of little motifs without all the sewing together. I had to pass on Latte at Denise's house on Tuesday though, which was probably a good thing in the end as Isobel and I are still getting over our colds ... not something I want to pass on to other kiddies this close to summer holidays.

Andy got up early on Saturday morning and took his kayak out to Lake Sammamish to christen it (oops, did I forget to mention he's got himself a kayak?!). Next time he's going to leave me a note to say where he's gone and when he's getting back ... I got a bit worried when I came downstairs with Isobel and the car was gone . In the afternoon we were invited to Ash & Denise's house for a BBQ - Isobel had a great time crawling around in the backyard, over the concrete patio, and even playing a bit of soccer with the guys. Playing soccer involved me holding her under her arms, and swinging her body like a pendulum to get her feet to kick the ball ... she thought it was absolutely hysterical!! Needless to say we got her a ball of her own to play with on Sunday . She also sat very quietly in her high chair at the table and munched on some little sweet potato bites, but started to wind down at about 7pm - very good considering she didn't have an afternoon nap!

Sunday was rainy again, so we caught up on some more shopping after cleaning out the cupboards of expired goods during the week. I also found a great shoe organiser that does just the thing for my yarn stash - Andy was kind enough to put it together for me, so now I have lots of compartments to organise all my yarn . Well, most of it anyway ... I'd better start finishing off a few of the various projects soon to help finish the job!

We've also bought a little walker to keep Isobel amused - she's still a little wary of it at the moment, but likes the little noise-makers here and there. She's had a bit of a go pushing it around on her knees, but I'm sure she'll be zooming around and crashing it into things before long...

We're finally home again. All three of us. In the same time zone . We've had so much fun visiting everyone in the last couple of weeks, but the travel and jetlag is beginning to catch up and the next few days will be very quiet and non-eventful.

Isobel had a ball in Tamworth - poor Buddy got a lot of exercise jogging away from a grinning, squealing little baby chasing him all over the house. He thought he'd be safe by leaping up onto the couch, until he realised Isobel could stand up and reach back that far! We tried to teach her the concept of 'gentle', and she looked like she was starting to get the hang of it ... but her hands still have a 'grip' reflex, and so a gentle pat was still a bit much to expect. She did seem to restrain herself from simply grabbing handfuls of fur by the end of the few days we were there ... much to Buddy's relief, I'm sure!

We drove back from Tamworth to Newcastle on Thursday, so Isobel and I could catch a flight back to Melbourne. We thought we'd left in plenty of time, but the freeway was still cut near Maitland with water over the road, so we ended up taking a detour through Cessnock and Hexham to try and avoid the problem. I'd completely forgotten to ring and authorise Isobel's car seat with Jetstar - my brain didn't register it as a separate airline, so for some reason I thought my calls to Qantas would all ripple through on the same computer system. Not. So. We got it all sorted out in the end - usual delays and confusion resulting from a non-Australian car seat - but I learned my lesson and Next Time I will not forget! Andy decided to press on to Sydney that night, and by the time we were home with Mum & Dad, he'd arrived in his hotel safely. He managed to catch up with his brother Sandy in Sydney on Friday, only briefly but a welcome opportunity all the same.

The return journey was a bit more draining than I'd hoped - it was actually a shorter door-to-door trip than our US-AUS adventure, but both Isobel and I had managed to pick up Andy's cold the day before we left Melbourne. For me it meant a sore throat and a constantly running nose ... for Isobel it meant sore ears, which are not a good thing for flying long distances! Friday morning was very foggy, even for Melbourne, and the inevitable happened - the freeways to the airport backed up after a couple of accidents. Dad doesn't often get stressed, but he was pretty worried about missing our flight - we ended up taking some back roads to avoid the mess. Even the back roads were busy, but we arrived in time to check in and sort out the authorisations for Isobel's car seat. We didn't bother trying to find the Qantas lounge once we were through Immigration - we headed straight for the gate, and within a few minutes we were pre-boarded with all the other families-with-small-kiddies.

The takeoff and flight were pretty non-eventful, but Isobel's ears were starting to give her problems - she started crying as soon as we started the descent into Auckland. The hosties told me how to massage her ears, which seemed to help a lot - at this stage she was not interested in a sippy cup of water, or her cheerios, which were my usual strategies to get her to swallow and equalise the pressure in her ears. We all had to get off the plane in Auckland, which meant taking all our carryon luggage (thankfully I could leave the car seat strapped in), queue up for security screening, walk all the way around to the gate again and wait for the aircraft to reboard. This process itself took an hour, but the airport had a couple of strollers for use which came in handy.

We reboarded and took off for Los Angeles, and Isobel fussed and wriggled and cried for more than three hours straight before I could settle her and get her to sleep for a little while. The aircraft doesn't turn the interior lights out until then anyway, so it was a pretty futile move to begin with . She didn't want much of her special airline meal, kept spitting the cheerios out, and struggled whenever I tried to strap her into her seat - I figured by then she was just fed up with sitting in it!! I was feeling pretty claustrophobic myself, a wriggling baby takes up an awful lot of room - especially when you're trying to make things easier on the poor girl sitting next to you who was off to summer camp in NY as a counsellor.

We managed about four hours' sleep each before the lights came on again, and we started the descent into Los Angeles. The massaging-ears trick worked for Isobel again, and one of the hosties helped me with our bags and shepherded us towards the US line for immigration - the joys of travelling with a US citizen!! We found our bags, walked around the corner to drop them off again, then walked around to the Alaska terminal. After a couple of laps trying to find the way through to the gates, we found the escalator and queued up for security again.

I thought I had the knack of these security lines by now - shoes, car seat, laptop, nappy bag, my carryon bag, plastic baggies with liquids - each in a separate tub, so I took up most of the line! Unfortunately in my frazzled state I forgot to empty the water out of Isobel's sippy cup, which was still sitting in the nappy bag when it was scanned through. I got a stern talking to from the tall African-American woman on the other side of the scanner - she wanted me to pack all my gear up, walk back around to the start of the scanner again, empty out the sippy cup, and then have everything scanned through again. I must have looked suitably pitiful at this point, because in the middle of her tirade the supervisor walked over from her station at the scanner screen, took the sippy cup, emptied out the water and handed it back ... thank heavens there are some humans in the system still! The woman continued to stare daggers at me while I tried to pack all my gear back together - and two other TSA dudes not five metres away continued to chat away without bothering to see if I could use any help. Sheesh .

Once I had all our things back together again, I found the elevator and the Alaska lounge. Last time I passed through I had to pay for a day pass, this time I had my Qantas Club card and we were admitted - phew! I let Isobel loose in the kiddie area at the back of the lounge, and managed to unwind a little ... we had about five hours to wait for the last leg back to Seattle, so Isobel managed to get a nap in (when she wasn't trying to chew on the kiddie books in the little shelves!). The lady on the front desk popped around at one point, and was surprised to see Isobel playing happily in the corner - she hadn't heard any baby noises, and just assumed she had been asleep the whole time .

One final hiccup on the last flight - somehow Isobel's seat had been double-booked! A guy sat down in the third seat in our row, and said he was fine taking the aisle even though his ticket was for the window ... that's strange, my ticket is for the window too!! We flagged down a passing hostie and asked why two people on the flight had been booked on the same seat - we'd boarded early, so I thought their system at least would have flagged a second person trying to board with a ticket for the same seat. We were given the OK to stay in place, and the other chap was given a seat further back in the aircraft ... there's always something that can go wrong! It was about 10pm by the time we walked in the door - put Isobel straight to bed, and I wasn't far behind. We then popped back on Saturday to collect Andy, and spent a very quiet weekend catching up on laundry and trying to make the house look respectable again.

The change in Isobel has been pretty remarkable over the last couple of weeks. She was pretty shy to start with, as we've been home alone without a car for a long time - the Mustang has been away with the mechanic for several weeks now. After several flights, a party, moving house five times and meeting lots of her relatives, she adjusts far more readily to new situations and new people now. She was much happier to be handed around for cuddles, which meant I had a moment or two to myself every now and again . I think the stop in Auckland actually helped reduce my jetlag for this trip back, I don't feel quite as bad as I was expecting to. I suspect Isobel will take a little longer to sync back, so the next few nights are probably going to be rough!

After all the excitement of last week, this week has been relatively quiet – Isobel is being now being doted on by her grandparents and great-grandparents in Tamworth after spending a week in Melbourne. Mum managed to find several old toys from my childhood for Isobel to play with. They didn’t believe me when I said Isobel likes chewing on things, until she picked up one of my old teddy bears and proceeded to try and pull an arm off with her teeth! Teddy was quickly swapped out for a rusk, and everyone was a little happier.

I was able to call up a couple of friends to say hello, as we won’t be able to call in and visit this trip – Wendy’s birthday was on Monday, and I wish we’d been able to swing through Canberra to see her. Turns out she was off to Sydney for a work trip anyway, so I don’t think we’d have managed to cross paths. Troy’s wife Deb is also due with their third child any day now, and even though we’ll be passing through Newcastle on our way back from Andy’s folks I don’t know if we’ll have time to stop in. As much as I love our life in Seattle and our circle of friends there, it’s not the same as being near the close friends you’ve known for years and have shared so much with.

The travel goal for this week was to get to Sydney to visit my grandmother, as Isobel is her first great-grandchild. My uncle Bruce had originally planned to surprise her, but after the party on Saturday he thought it would be better to let her know in advance. Ellie has been printing photos from our blog for Granny’s ‘brag book’, so she’s been able to keep pace with Isobel’s growth and changing appearance. We called in to visit after Bruce collected us from the airport, and Isobel turned on the charm – she happily sat on Granny’s lap and played with the buttons on her shirt, and her necklace. We took a few photos for Granny’s album, and then Granny produced a couple of my old thankyou letters from over twenty years ago. Even more amazing was a page of my first crochet samplers from about the same time, posted off to show Granny my skills after Granny had taught me how to crochet during one of her visits to Melbourne. The tension in most of the pieces was uneven, but it was thread crochet and some of the circular ones were pretty damn good if I do say so myself – not bad for an eleven year old!!

Bruce then drove me home so Isobel could have a snooze, and went back to get Granny for dinner. Lea and Ellie arrive home soon after, and Alix wasn’t far behind. The rain continued to fall steadily as it had done most of the day, and the swimming pool in the backyard where I’d practiced for my air force swim test so many years ago was overflowing – almost like those flashy ‘infinity pools’ in the resort photos, but with less palm trees and sunshine. Isobel had great fun exploring another new house, and Alix brought down some huge plush toys for her to climb over – one toy bear was probably the same size as the Pooh Bear Andy bought for Isobel last year, which we really should drag out for an updated photo soon.

Isobel had pride of place at the top of the table for dinner – Chinese food from the favourite family takeaway. She managed a few prawn crackers, and the expressions on her face were hilarious – crunchy, then bubbly on her tongue! Gerber doesn’t make anything like that back at home. She posed happily for some more group photos and a couple of special ones for Granny’s brag book, before heading to bed.

Lea woke me a little earlier than expected, after hearing news about several traffic problems from all the rain – snow not far from Tamworth where we were headed, plus the Hunter was threatening to flood sometime during the day. I couldn’t contact Andy on his mobile before his flight from Adelaide, so we headed to the airport with a couple of alternative plans just in case. Andy called his Dad to see whether the reports were any different there, and everything seemed OK – we decided to push on, and made plans to stay in Newcastle if the roads became impassable.

The trip out of Sydney was fairly painless thanks to our navigator device, and beeped every couple of kays for speed cameras … rather useful little thing! The rain kept falling, and we saw lots of standing water on the sides of the roads as we drove past – the lawn bowling greens in Branxton looked like wading pools, and we had a small diversion in Singleton for about a foot of water over the road. By the time we reached Tamworth at around 5pm, the highway through Singleton had been cut – we were lucky we’d decided to leave when we did, or we’d have been stuck on the other side.

Isobel now has yet another house to explore, and has poor Buddy the Silky Terrier running scared – Isobel wasn’t sure what to think of him to start with, but soon discovered he was lots of fun to chase after! She now squeals with delight every time she sees him, and puts on a little dash of speed to try and catch him while crawling around on the carpet. But no, we’re not thinking of getting a puppy any time soon – it’s too difficult while we’re away.

We spend a few more days here in Tamworth (waiting for the floodwaters to recede?) and then head our separate ways on Thursday - I have to return to Melbourne with Isobel to catch our return flight on Friday, and Andy heads back to Sydney for his return flight on Saturday. It would have been wonderful to be able to get the same flight as Andy, but such is the fickleness of dirt-cheap air travel ... you often get a limited choice of options. Hopefully Isobel will travel as well on the way back.

Nine months old