We all walked into the house on Sunday night and beamed – that includes Tess. As Dave said,

Traveling is amazing, but when you have a good home, going home feels great.

I’ve wondered how my insatiable wanderlust got so tamed, and thought maybe I outgrew it. I think Dave’s answer may have given me the explanation. Despite the interminable destruction/construction going on around here, we’re home. Snow is swirling outside, Stella and Tess are getting reacquainted, Natalie and Brittney are adjusting to giant-size Tess, and Dave and I (after a night of total collapse) are happily re-entering our crazy little universe.

Our plan was to go to work Monday, then come home and unpack and repack. We’re no longer terrified to get the call, but we do want to be prepared. Apparently, that priority took a backseat to putting out home fires. The suitcases lie in various states of undress (read: explosion) all over the house, and they’ll stay that way until tomorrow at the earliest.

When we took a few steps into the hall on Sunday, we recognized that we’d been invaded. Normally the crew clears a habitable path for us, but as we’d been gone for two and a half weeks, they’d converged on our space. A dresser was shoved up against Dave’s side of the bed, the hall was full of supplies, and a shop vac had moved into the stroller’s parking spot. Worst of all? Someone flipped a breaker on the freezer. We’ve been stockpiling meals and baby food for months, so life would be simpler when deuce comes home. Like a clearance sale, everything had to go. I’m trying to look at the bright side, but as I tossed the home-prepped hot peppers Dave’s parents brought across the country and the liver cubes for Tess that we’d cooked just before leaving to make our return less smelly, some serious grumbling erupted.

Bygones. Tess had therapy today and while she’s making good progress, we want to up the ante. She’ll be going once a week for a while to see if we can jump start her next progress spurt. She got more points (78 to 84 for those counting), but still hates all positions that require rotation. Even her rolls are a little clunky. I grilled poor Lisa on how significant this will be in the long run, and her answer comforted me:

Tess will be all caught up by age two and a half. Honestly, she’s not one of the ones I’m overly concerned about.

my other favorite line?

Tess has some skull malformation, but she’s so beautiful it’s clearly not affecting her face.

Um, thank you?!

Tess has mastered planar movement. It’s the 3D stuff that causes her grief: rotation, crossing her midline, etc. funnily enough, it’s all the stuff I wasn’t allowed to do when I messed up my back; so my naughty list is her to-do list! Lisa, the therapist, rocked her through the motions today. Therapy days leave Tess a hot mess – it’s a workout! It’s a workout for me too as I try to engrain all of these disparate yet vital exercises into my brain. I feel like Dave, the nannies and I should all be there every week for our lesson in baby boot camp! Sassy would be in her element with the OT training.

After therapy, we braved the block walk to the grocery store, where we loaded the stroller up with fresh food. After so much vacation eating, we’re looking for basics: grilled fish and salad. Tess wore her duck coat in the blizzard under her stroller parka, and watching her snuggle in made me think of a bird unhatching from a shell. Our freezer may be bare, but now our fridge is full of yum.

So we’re home, slightly more rested, not even slightly more pulled together, and hanging on for dear life. Think we’ll make it to the weekend?