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!