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I'm sitting here, and my whole family is asleep. Pamela is zonked out in Isaac's bed with Isaac and Zinsser, and Bella is murmuring in her sleep from her room. And it's just after 9pm. YES - Googy is home, and she's just plain exhausted. We went out to the airport to pick her up - the plane was early, but late getting to the gate thanks to a "no room at the inn" situation... which gave Isaac and Bella time to slurp down some hot cocoa from Starbucks. And still they sleep.

On the ride home, we blasted "I got a feeling" by Black Eyed Peas, which Bella sang along with, and Isaac did the hollering parts. He loves to shout "tonight's going to be a GOOD GOOD NIGHT!!!" Yes, it's a simple song and over played, but we have fun with it. Unlike Boom Boom Pow, which the kids also love, but is filled with the "S" word, which just bugs me. And there's not a "clean" version available. Dang it. Both songs are prominently featured in the Secret Agent Guinea Pig movie G-Force, which both kids love.

When we walked through the door, the kids ran up and let Zinsser out, and he beelined right down the stairs, around the corner, and up into Pamela's lap, where he just parked himself, unbelievably happy that his mistress had at long last returned.

Thursday will be back in the swing of things: I've done my best to stay on top of things at work this week, but there have been big windows of "doing things with Isaac" time in there where I have been quite off the clock. And I wasn't willing to just park Isaac in front of some shows to get work done - it doesn't seem fair, and frankly it seemed a waste of the opportunity to cuddle and wrestle with him.

In some ways, Isaac and Zinsser are very close in age: Today I spent 45 min in the basement playing catch with Isaac and fetch with Zinsser at the same time. and Isaac was doing "two ball catch" which meant we both had to throw/roll our balls at the same time, and try not to have the balls hit midway. It was pretty advanced, and Isaac was focusing on aiming his ball just to the right, so it would pass the other ball coming at him. Later, upstairs, Zinsser insisted on a round of Fetch/Chase, where fetch is just the start, then a raucous run around the coffee table a dozen times before he lets you have the ball back. Isaac wanted to be the fetcher too, so we did "every other" round - Isaac would fetch/chase, then it was Zinsser's turn.

Zinsser understood that they were taking turns, and when it was Isaac's turn, he'd run a little slower to let Isaac "win". Really. That is a smart dog.

Anyway, back to the house - Pamela apparently had a wonderful trip, and I've heard bits and pieces over the phone these past days... and was looking forward to a little debrief. But Pamela flat out passed out when putting Isaac to bed, and resisted several wakeups. So I'll just let that ride.

In the end, it was 7 days, 6 nights without my googy. That was a long time, and it helps me keep in perspective how things are when I'm on the road. it sure felt like the kids and I fell into an ok routine and we worked together to keep things going. As I hear her snoring in the next room, I'm just happy to have her home.