Home at last!

Lil' Genghis made it home about 12 hours ago, and, wow, what an adventure it's been.

We're all still learning how to work together. mom, of course, being the nutritional provider, has one of the biggest roles. But it's not as if mom works in a vacuum; Isabella actually has the biggest role, and the most to learn. Nurses kept pointing this out at the hospital; she has no other way to communicate other than crying, and hasn't yet learned to differentiate the cries (food? dirty diaper? pacifier? vodka martini with a twist of lime? burping?). She also didn't come out of the womb knowing how to feed and get comfortable, either.

mom and Grandma Biziza together got about a 1/2 hour break in the night; mom earlier got maybe 90 minutes of naptime. It's just crazy.

This is the first time dad has touched a computer since 9 a.m. It's a bit after midnight, and he just finished the dinner he started at 9 p.m. In response to an earlier question, the only photo of dad and Isabella was taken late this morning, and we haven't downloaded it yet. The cable for that camera is somewhere else, and dad's laptop is in a pile of luggage.

The answering machine has eight messages on it, and a bunch of messages were not left at all. A few neighbors have already stopped by, including Aunt Cida, who brought over some food. (We've also begun defrosting the first of the meals from Aunt Donna.) Aunt Beth offered a nice resting place for Isabella, quickly growing comfy on the mom of twins.

So, everyone's doing fine, everyone's healthy, we're all just working to stay semi-sane and semi-alert as we go through the motions. It's tiring, but we've got a beautiful little girl to look after.

On another note: Bellinha is going to see her first snow tomorrow, and Grandma Biziza is going to want to laugh at the earlier photos of her in front of snowy lawns that were in the shade of houses. Tomorrow, we get real snow -- some 6 to 12 inches are expected here, or 25kg/m2.

All that said, we don't exactly plan to play in the snow a lot with the little lady -- something about hypothermia, child abuse, handcuffs and jail time. She's got another check-up with a pediatrician tomorrow afternoon; hopefully everything'll be just fine, but we're watching her weight (born 8 lb 14 oz, left hospital at 8 lb 2 oz, warning sign is hitting 8 lb even) and her bilirubin, which can be a bad thing despite its sounding like some cool topping you'd get on a sandwich from a New York deli. Just a couple things to watch, just as we've got a couple things to work on. All in all, everybody's doing just fine, and Grandma Biziza and dad are proud of mom, and all three of us in turn have fallen madly in love with the little lady.