Daddy's Home!

Rhett is home! We are so happy that he is safely back where he belongs - in the chaos of our family! We planned a cute arrival "Welcome Home" for Rhett but as we were waiting for his plane to land his flight disappeared off the arrivals board. I knew from checking the website before we left for the airport that his flight was about 20 minutes delayed. I could see his gate from where I sat waiting for him (gotta LOVE the Birmingham airport - it is wonderful- the perfect size!) and I hadn't see anyone disembark yet. I decided to wait another 15 minutes before I tried to track him down. About that time I saw a few people start to trickle from the gate so I told Claire to look for Daddy. In about 2 seconds she took off running as fast as her little legs can take her into the "DO NOT ENTER" zone. Before I knew what was going on I saw Rhett as Claire practically tackled him!! She was so happy! On the way home she said "Daddy you're not in the jungle anymore!!". Ford was excited too in his own special way. He just kind of stared at him for about a day. Daddy brought us lots of cool gifts from Iquitos - including my gift a beautiful hand carved bowl made from Boa wood. Much to my surprise Rhett actually took lots of pictures while he was gone. You should look forward to seeing those soon!
Rhett says he was expecting Ford to have changed a lot but he didn't expect Claire to change so much. Apparently she went through one of those language explosions while he was gone. She also has to do EVERYTHING by herself now. We're talking butter her toast, put on her pullup, zip her jacket, climb into the car, buckle her carseat, wash her hair - you name it she insists on doing it. Don't try to help you'll get a firm "NO! I do it myself!". I've actually learned that even though it takes 2-3 times longer she can do quite a few of those things herself which is awesome because that is less stuff that I have to do! She's really grown up a lot in the past few weeks. I feel like she is definitley no longer a baby and completely a 2 year old now. If only her hair would grow so she would look like the other two year old little girls. It has thickened up a lot so I'm hoping a hair growth spurt is coming next.
Speaking of growth spurts: Ford weighed in at a hefty 16 lbs 8 oz at his check up last week. That's the 80th percentile. I don't recall how long he was but it was the 95th percentile! He is enjoying his exersaucer and jumper too. He has his first little cold which is no fun. He is now intimately familiar with the bulb suction and saline. When my children get ill I treat them like they are in the hospital - agressive suctioning, CPT and humidity. It is my attempt at keeping the OUT of the hospital! Hopefully he will get over this little bug and thank his sister for strengthening is immune system!